Veoh Networks PR Release |

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February 13, 2007
Voeh: http://www.veoh.com./ |

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-veoh13feb13,1,7375618.story?coll=la-headlines-business

Veoh to target YouTube viewers

The online site, which launches today,
aims to stand out with longer and better-quality videos.

Michael Eisner is an investor.

By Dawn C. Chmielewski Times Staff Writer

February 13, 2007

An Internet television service backed by one of Hollywood's best-known deal makers launches today.

After a year and a half of public testing, Veoh formally opens for business stocked with more than 100,000 videos by amateurs and professionals. San Diego-based Veoh Networks Inc. is one of an emerging group of video websites seeking to move beyond pratfalls and karaoke.

To that end, the company has found an investor with a distinguished Hollywood pedigree: former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner, who serves on Veoh's board of directors. "You may have cut your teeth on YouTube," Veoh Chief Executive Dmitry Shapiro said. "But if you really want to broadcast, if you want to be a producer of video, Veoh is the place you need. It's for YouTube graduates."

Veoh is vying for viewers and advertisers in a crowded field, including Google Inc.'s YouTube and

Joost,

the Internet television venture started by the creators of Kazaa, the file-swapping service that was sued for enabling widespread piracy of songs, movies and TV shows.

Veoh seeks to differentiate itself with

longer videos,
high-quality pictures and
sophisticated online publishing tools.

Eisner has been influential in brokering deals between Veoh and content partners.

United Talent Agency plans a Veoh channel
dedicated to showcasing new talent and content.

Celebrity magazine Us Weekly
is also creating an entertainment channel.

Like Break.com, Revver Inc. and certain other video sites, Veoh plans to pay publishers based on the audience their videos attract.

"The challenge for Veoh in the short term is more about attracting those talented content creators," said Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Laszlo.

Veoh allows producers to automatically distribute videos of any length or picture resolution to multiple sites, including
YouTube,
Google Video,
MySpace and
Facebook.

The company touts DVD-quality video that can be viewed on a full computer screen, not just in a small window.

Shapiro hopes to make money by collecting transaction fees for videos offered for rental or purchase and by selling ads around free videos. "There are few advertisers who will want to advertise on short, grainy video clips," Shapiro said. YouTube's short videos still have strong appeal — 30 million U.S. Web surfers visited the site in January, according to research firm ComScore Media Metrix.

Veoh had 657,000 visitors — a smaller online viewership than

Break.com
Metacafe.com
vMix.com

YouTube is engaged in tough negotiations with many television companies over the right to distribute shows.

Digital Music Group Inc.
said Monday it had reached a deal with YouTube to make available some television shows to which it controlled the digital rights, including

"I Spy" and "My Favorite Martian."

Veoh is "trying to play a slightly different game than YouTube," Laszlo said. "I think there's room for success here. There's definitely room for failure."

dawn.chmielewski@latimes .com

Veoh Networks
has launched its Internet-based video syndication service, promising DVD-like quality delivered with the efficiency of peer-to-peer networking. advertising

Veoh Networks has officially launched its online video syndication service, aiming to offer a convenient video library for online video watchers and a new platform for digital video publishers who want to push their content to blogs, RSS feeds, and sites like YouTube and MySpace.

"Veoh's mission is to bring the next generation of television to people wherever they are — office, living room, or on the go," said Veoh CEO Dmitry Shapiro. "Technology will allow us to dramatically improve the experience, and we believe our formal release today is an important step towards realizing our goal."

For online video fans, Veoh essentially wants

to be a virtual cable company,

with its Veoh Player positioned as a universal repository for all online video.

In addition to claiming to provide access to widest range of DVD-quality online video options (including streaming or downloading content from veoh.com), users can subscribe to episodic programs and download video content from Internet sites like MySpace and YouTube.

Users simply identify video they want to save at any site they visit by using the Veoh browser plug-in, and the content is saved automatically saved for viewing in their Veoh player. Viewers can organize and watch content, and manage media for iPods and Windows Media devices (although video content purchased from the iTunes store is probably not viewable via the Veoh Player).

Veoh says it currently offers roughly 100,000 videos across hundreds of channels and 15 categories, including 25 branded channels from the likes of TNT, Paramount Pictures, New Line Cinema, and a TV Guide Channel coming this week.

Community features enable viewers to find new videos via recommendations, keyword searching, and straight-ahead categorical browsing, as well as offering recommendations based on users' viewing habits and preferences.

The Veoh Player
is available for both Macs (Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer)
and Windows (2000, XP, or Vista).

Veoh also offers services for content publishers, letting digital videographers upload video to Voeh (for free) and have their content automatically synced with major video sites like YouTube, MySpace, and FaceBook. Veoh can also hook into publishers' blogs and RSS feeds. Veoh also claims to be able to monitor videos' audiences across sites from their Veoh account.

Veoh's distribution technology is built using a peer-to-peer model, and in terms of content seems to be aiming somewhere between the full Hollywood fare of mainstream digital download services and the teenager-with-a-cellphone culture on YouTube. Veoh does not want to be offering the same rehashed television material which might be available via other services, instead

hoping to find a niche of offering unique digital video content.

The real question for Veoh is how large a niche that might be, and whether a company can prosper in that space.

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