More from Streaming Media Europe Conference Development Director Katherine Allen on the FutureMedia 2008 conference held in London last week:

Social networking features, such as friends’ recommendations, will play a major part in the development of the BBC’s iPlayer, according to Anthony Rose, Controller of the BBC’s Vision and Online Media Group as he kicked off day 2 of the FutureMedia conference in London. “Last year the BBC chose what you watch; this year you decide what you watch; and next year your friends will choose what you watch” commented Rose, speaking just hours after iPlayer started simulcasting all the BBC’s channels and launched iPlayer Labs. As ever, though, iPlayer controversy wasn’t far away, as Telegraph TV’s Guy Ruddle argued forcefully that the publically-funded BBC should open up the iPlayer platform to content from other providers.

Patrick Walker, Google/You Tube’s director of video partnerships revealed that YouTube’s “click-to-buy” feature, which enables quick access to digital downloads or DVD purchase and launched in the US in October, will be rolled out in the UK in the “next few months”. The recently launched Monty Python channel has been one of the first beneficiaries, according to Walker, launching its click to buy link just last week and seeing Python DVD sales reach Amazon’s top 5.

A panel discussion on the impact of the credit crunch on digital media brought delegates back to earth, although there were seeds of hope even here. The consensus was that marketing spend would continue to migrate online. “If you’ve got to choose a media sector to be in, this is the best one, unequivocably” noted Simon Nicholls, MD of Ingenious Corporate Finance.

FutureMedia 2008 is going on in London this week (last day is Friday), and they’ve got a terrific roster of speakers from the broadcast industry who are addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by online video distribution. Streaming Media Europe Conference Development Director Katherine Allen is attending the conference, and she shares these reflections:

Broadcast entertainment is facing a “perfect storm” created by the convergence of the global economic crisis and a dramatic change in audience behaviour as consumers move online, according to  Jon Gisby, Channel 4’s Director of New Media and Technology, speaking today at the FutureMedia conference in London. In Gisby’s view, to keep pace with this change, the broadcast commissioning model must evolve to embrace true multi-platform ‘360 degree’ content. Channel 4 are putting their money where their mouth is with their digital fund 4iP, which aims to develop a new generation of talent through multi-platform projects – rather than from the starting point of TV content. Gisby declined to comment in detail on Project Kangaroo while the Competition Commission enquiry is ongoing, but did state there would be no connection between Kangaroo and the recently announced Channel 4 cutbacks.

Matt Locke, Channel 4’s Commissioning Editor expanded on the theme of multi-platform programming in an all-digital, all-the-time world. “I get very annoyed when people talk about platforms”, he commented. “I’m  commissioning editor for attention.” According to Red Bee’s Jonathan Wilson, “we have to move away from the TV versus online debate”. Instead, he argued, content owners need to evolve “from sheepdogs to sherpas”, taking on the role of trusted guide leading content consumers from one platform to another.  

With the global economic crisis still on the top of everyone’s minds, it’s a good time to take a look at one of the best-attended panels from last month’s Streaming Media Europe. James Enck moderated a discussion among a panel of financiers—Alain-Gabriel Courtines from Intel Capital, Taavet Hinrikus from Ambient Sound Investments, and Frederic Court from Advent Venture Partners—about what 2009 holds in store for venture capital and merger & acquisition activity in the online video space.

Sorry for the radio silence; been out for a couple weeks after having carpal tunnel surgery. Dan Rayburn noted some interesting news today over on his Business of Video blog: 

This morning, Sky News and Times Online announced they are teaming up to develop video content to be shared between the Times online and Skynews.com websites. Starting today, Times Online articles will include daily co-produced and co-branded videos. Sky News says the new co-produced videos will focus on two areas: business and home and foreign news. With Sky’s expertise in video production and the Times editorial staff, it is a smart use of both company’s resources.

For the new video service, I have confirmed that they will be using the Brightcove 3 platform. This is another big customer win by Brightcove who last month also won a large deal with AOL. For Brightove, they continue to lock up the UK market for online news sites with the Guardian and Telegraph already using their system and now the Times online, which does 20 million monthly unique viewers.

With so many new customer wins being announced by Brightcove, the company should see some very good revenue growth next year. And while some want to predict that Brightove will not be profitable by mid 2009, like CEO Jeremy Allaire said they would be, I’m willing to bet that Brightcove can be profitable in the next 6-8 months

Videos from all of the breakout sessions at this year’s Streaming Media Europe are now available here. Unfortunately, we’re not able to present videos of the keynote sessions, but if you take a look at the player, you’ll see that all 18 sessions are now online for viewing; you can also embed links to individual session videos on your own sites if you wish. I’ll be highlighting and discussing individual session videos in future posts.

Also, speaker presentations from the sessions and several of the pre-conference workshops are now available on the Streaming Media Europe programme page. If a particular presentation you’re looking for isn’t there, please let me know, and I’ll do my best to track it down.