Going back to the hints we included in the Advance Programme for the conference, we’re very pleased to confirm that the multinational music and entertainment powerhouse we were referring to is none other than MTV Networks, and we have the pleasure of Alec Hendry delivering another of our keynotes.

Alec is director of digital media operations and development for MTV Networks UK and Ireland, which means he looks across all of the different platforms that consumers interact with MTV on, including online/websites, mobile services, interactive TV and also broadcast TV where MTV employs SMS and interactive TV technologies. Accordingly, it’s Alec who engaged with Garland Partners Limited — a supplier he met in the Streaming Media Europe 2007 Exhibition Hall no less! — to live stream the award-winning 2007 MTV Europe Music Awards. The event and live stream delivered 3.2 million video streams online which reflected 10% of the TV broadcast audience, obviously an enormous success, as validated by its receipt of the “Best Streaming Event of 2007″ by the IWA (International Webcasting Association).

We certainly look forward to learning more about this case study during Alec’s keynote as well as other remarks he’ll make regarding mobile streaming/video services, monetisation, user engagement and other elements which continue to motivate MTV Networks’ investments into streaming.

And as always, let us know if you have questions you want to queue up for Alec in the meantime!

Have a look at these big numbers… US market research and consultancy firm, MultiMedia Intelligence, released a report yesterday estimating that global mobile video revenue will exceed $3.5 billion this year and $15 billion by 2012 (which includes direct pay and advertising streams). The Mobile TV and Video: Premium Content and Advertising Elevate the Phone Away From Just Voice report also highlights that:

• Mobile TV ARPUs are much higher in North America and Europe than Asia due to the lack of free-to-air alternatives
• Total Mobile TV and Video advertising revenue, including “Call to Action” advertising, will exceed $1 billion by 2012
• With the combination of a large wireless subscriber base and free-to-air alternatives, Asia has the vast majority of mobile TV subscribers. By 2012, Asia will have two thirds of all mobile TV subscribers

Pretty amazing, isn’t it? While we leave the predictions and actual figures to the experts, here at Streaming Media Europe we have no doubt that mobile is a massive platform for streaming media, which is why we’re especially pleased to announce that our third keynote speaker is Mr Volker Glaeser, Director Internet Services & Global Head of Online at Vodafone.

Based in Munich, Volker is responsible for building Vodafone’s eCommerce platform, distributing the company’s products via the Internet, and creating transaction-based online partnerships. He oversees the “Vodafone live!” content business including music, advertising and digital innovation initiatives like MobileTV and IPTV. In January 2007, he was appointed Global Online Program Head to lead the development of eCommerce, globally. In July, Volker was appointed to the Global Online Board. In March 2008, he became a member of the Global R&D Board.

Prior to this executive role at Vodafone, Volker has held several leadership and management positions at pre-eminent technology companies, including Yahoo! Europe, Germany’s pay station Premiere, MSN, and Infoseek. Additionally, Volker is owner of Constream Ltd., a private equity company specializing in Internet and health businesses.

And since I’ve had the pleasure to work with Volker in the past, I’d like to also add that he’s an infectiously energetic and strategically operational (really!) individual. It’s such a pleasure to work with him again and I hope you’re as excited as I am that he’ll be sharing his thoughts with all of us at the show. As always, if you have any questions for Volker in advance, just let us know and we’ll pass them along!

Since I couldn’t resist doing so and already let the cat out of the bag, it seems like a good time to formally announce our second confirmed keynote speaker for the upcoming event.  As hinted in the Advance Programme, we felt that this Streaming Media Europe conference just would not be complete without hearing from an executives of…

Europe’s biggest threat to YouTube to date

And as hinted (noted!) in my post from earlier in the week regarding the comScore UK report, we are extremely pleased to announce that Kate Burns, MD of Dailymotion, will be our second keynote speaker.

As all of us surely already know, Dailymotion is the phenomenon which came out of France but is now live in 12 different countries around the world — France, the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, the US, Poland, Holland, Greece, Sweden, Denmark and India, and is one of the 60 most visited sites in the world (source: comScore World Metrix).  In the month of April 2008 alone, the sites received more than 51.9 million unique visitors and registered 1.5 billion page views (source: Xiti).  The company has received financing from premier investors Partech International, Atlas Ventures, Advent Venture Partners, and AGF Private Equity (a division of Allianz AG), and has content relationships with MTV Networks, Turner Broadcasting (CNN), Warner Music, CANAL+, SFR, whilst also promoting and harvesting user generated and independent film maker content abound.  In February 2008, the site also started offering all of this content (where available) in high definition, raising the bar for online video globally.

We’re so fortunate to secure Kate’s commitment to speak because she has overall responsibility for all operations in the UK and reports directly to CEO Mark Zaleski.  She’s played a leading role in developing the UK’s digital media industry for over a decade with experience in launching and leading several businesses to success including Google — where she was the company’s first employee outside of the US — and DoubleClick.  She’s also held senior positions at AltaVista, Ziff-Davis and News International, and her experience and vision for the future of this sector will be invaluable.

As was the case when we announced our first keynote speaker, Claude London, let us know in comments if you have any questions for Kate, and we’ll definitely pass them along.

If you took a look at our Advance Programme, you probably noticed our teaser about who the keynote speakers might be for the conference. So were there any guesses based on our early clues?

To be honest, we figured the first one was a bit of an easy one — Didn’t want to be too tough on you! — but just as a reminder, we mentioned that this executive was from…

the commercial arm of the world’s largest broadcasting corporation, which is now participating in a joint venture with other commercial broadcasters in the UK…

And that wasn’t any exaggeration — the “world’s largest broadcasting corporation”.

Well if the BBC was immediately obvious to you then hopefully we’ll give you a greater challenge with some of the others, but in the meantime we’re very pleased to announce that one of our confirmed keynote speakers will be Mr Claude London, Digital Director BBC Worldwide | Kangaroo JV.

We feel very fortunate to secure Claude for the event, because in addition to his extensive responsibilities for the BBC Worldwide and also for the Kangaroo JV, he’s also an established startup advisor very involved in leading edge companies and innovations, in addition to having an established track record as former VP Digital Operations, Warner Music International, and at Bain & Company.

If you’ve got any questions in advance for Claude, note them in the comments here and we’ll be sure to pass them along!