We’re excited to announce the first annual European Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award, for which nominations will be accepted beginning today. Modeled after the successful U.S. program, the European Readers’ Choice Awards will be the only awards program that honors the top efforts in the online video industry as decided by the people who actually use the products and services and watch the content.

The awards process begins with the collection of nominations in 12 categories:

• Transcoding Solution—Hardware, software, or cloud-based solution for encoding and transcoding content

• Online Video Platform—SaaS platforms that enable customizable publication, syndication, distribution, and monetisation of video on the web

• UGC Platform—User-generated content sites and services

• TV over IP Solution—Set-top box, over-the-top, and “catch-up” solutions for delivering television content online

• Reporting, Analytics—Services that offer metrics that, among other things, help content publishers better understand who’s watching, when they’re watching, where they’re watching, and for how long

• Streaming Services Provider—Provider of end-to-end streaming services, from capture and encoding to delivery and distribution

• Video Advert Platform—Technologies and services that allow for targeted ad insertion into online video content

• Webcast Platform—Hardware, software, and SaaS solutions for delivering live web events

• Delivery Network—Edge or peer-to-peer content delivery providers

• Music & Audio Delivery Solution—Music download services, internet radio, and music sharing

• Best Live Webcast of 2009—Most impressive and successful live web event

• Best Streaming Innovation of 2009—The “catch-all” category, for simply the coolest, most innovative streaming product, service, or event of the year.

Nominations may be submitted here beginning today through 29 June. The staff of Streaming Media will evaluate the nominations for appropriateness to category and then publish a list of nominees in each category on 6 July.

At that point, our readers will be able to vote for one nominee in each category, with the voting open until 21 August. We’ll publish the finalists—the top 3 vote-getters in each category—on 7 September, and then announce the winner in each category at Streaming Media Europe on 15 October, as well as on the website and in the Winter European edition of Streaming Media magazine.

So make your nominations soon, and look out for the list of nominees on 6 July!

Hard to believe, but it’s time to start planning for this year’s Streaming Media Europe conference, to be held on 15 & 16 October (with pre-conference workshops on 14 October), again at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith. A testament to the continued vitality of online video in the face of tough economic times, last year’s show bucked the trade show trend and saw an increase of more than 50% in attendees over the 2007 show: 768 visitors from 23 countries, and more than 70 speakers.

We’re now soliciting speaker proposals for the 2009 show. While we welcome all potential speakers, we’re especially interested in end users who can speak to the challenges, trends, and opportunities they are dealing with as they deploy online video and music strategies in both consumer-facing and internal communications. Submissions can be made directly here,  but be sure to read our guidelines first.

Once again, we’ll be having two tracks, one focusing on Technology & Content and one on Business & Strategy. We’ll likely have a total of about 20 sessions, as well as four keynotes. Stay tuned for more information about those keynotes, and we look forward to your speaker submissions.

In anticipation of its CONNECTIONS Europe Summit on March 31, research firm Parks Associates announced findings that 28% of households in Western Europe watch TV shows online at least once a month, and many of them watch considerably more often. But even if we take that once-a-month figure, that’s a pretty impressive number — nearly a third of all households are getting at least some television content online rather than or in addition to broadcast and satellite delivery. With internet-connected televisions on the horizon and broadband penetration still growing, that number is only likely to grow by the time Streaming Media Europe rolls around in October. And, with the global economy still in trouble, online delivery of video is looking more and more attractive to content owners; in fact, I’ll go so far as to predict that the economic crisis will actually be good, in the long run, for online video. 

We’ll be announcing our call for speakers for this year’s conference next month, so now’s the time to start thinking about what you’d like to see for topics at Streaming Media Europe 2009.

The UK Competitions Commission effectively blocked the Kangaroo VOD service from launching with its final report, released today, in which chairman Peter Freeman said the service “would be too much of a threat to competition in this developing market and has to be stopped.” It’s a blow to BBC Worldwide, ITV, and Channel 4, and unsurprisingly, the partners are calling it a “missed opportunity in the development of British broadcasting.” As much as I’m in favor of unfettered competition, I have to say I think the commission blew this one. PaidContent:UK has some great analysis of the decision here.

The UEFA Cup Round of 32 is just about to begin, and Streaming Media magazine needs you to help us kick off our own contest, the inaugural Streaming Media Dream Team. We’re looking for you to nominate the top players in the online video game, whether they’re setting new standards for media and entertainment, innovating in the corporate or government sector, or offering new technologies and products that help end users play at the top of their game.

The first step in the process is for readers to submit their nominations. From the list of nominees, the Streaming Media magazine editors will narrow it down to the final Dream Team, which we’ll announce in the April/May 2009 issue of the magazine. If you want to nominate someone, please fill out the form here. Nominations must be submitted no later than February 17. Contact editor Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen at erics@streamingmedia.com with any questions.

StreamingMedia.com is conducting primary research in the area of online video trends. This survey contains 20 questions and should take only a few minutes to complete. All respondents will be entered into a drawing for a Sony PlayStation 3. The winner will be announced on February 20, 2009.  Providing your contact info is for the purpose of the prize drawing qualification, only. Streaming Media will not disclose your contact info to any vendor, sell or use your information in any way, beyond the Survey’s Prize Draw.

Click here for the survey.

Jake Ward has written a dynamite retrospective looking at the key developments across Europe in the last year; you can find it on the StreamingMediaGlobal.com site. In addition to talking about how the fortunes of the iPlayer in the U.K. offer a microcosm of the trends and challenges facing catch-up and IPTV across Europe, he also looks at the mobile landscape, particularly the troubles facing DVB-H.

The article also appears in the 2009 Streaming Media Industry Sourcebook, due out in February. For your free copy and a subscription to Streaming Media magazine, click here.

We got such a positive response to the inaugural issue of the European Edition of Streaming Media magazine that we’re going quarterly in 2009, beginning with the 2009 Streaming Media Industry Sourcebook, which will publish in February. It’s our biggest issue of the year, and it includes comprehensive year-in-review articles looking at the most notable developments in 2008, as well as a look forward at what’s likely to come in 2009. It also includes case studies and a slew of how-to and buyer’s guide features, including the following:

• Choosing a Camcorder
• Selecting the Right Nonlinear Video Editor
• Picking a Content Delivery Provider
• The 2009 Video Encoder Shoot-Out
• How to Add Closed Captions to Online Video
• How to Generate Automatic Speech Transcripts in Flash Video
• Making Sense of the H.264 Licensing Labyrinth
• The Live Mobile Video Landscape

Also featured are a roster of case studies from each of the major verticals: entertainment, education, enterprise, government, and advertising. You can subscribe to the magazine here, and if you’re interested in advertising, contact Sjoerd Vogt at sjoerd.vogt (at) in4m.com.

Here’s a video that gives an even better sense of what the Sourcebook is all about.

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.