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VOLOMEDIA'S PODCASTING PATENT - FOLLOW-UP

July 30, 2009 12:29 PM

By Murgesh Navar

After reading many of the reactions to our patent announcement yesterday, I want to clarify our plans and implications as it relates to the patent.

First, it is important to note that companies routinely apply for and receive technology patents. As it takes many years to obtain a patent, it is also quite typical for the methods described by the patent to have become relatively commonplace by the time the patent issues. VoloMedia's situation is no exception.

Second, it is well known that, sometimes, patents end up in the hands of entities that have neither products nor technologies, but just obtain and hold patents to pursue infringing behavior through litigation. VoloMedia is not one of these. We are a real business, a founding member of the ADM, and an engaged participant in the episodic media download ecosystem with marquee publisher customers such as ABC News, MSNBC, Fox News, Washington Post and PRI, to name a few.

We also have a great deal of appreciation for the efforts of podcasters in setting the early trend towards RSS-based episodic downloads. However, from our vantage point, downloaded and portable media are currently not on par with web browser-delivered media. Portable media is still too cumbersome for the consumer, and really difficult for publishers to measure and monetize when compared to web browser-delivered media. As many of you may be aware, VoloMedia has been working hard to address these challenges, using, for example, its unique iTunes plug-in to provide anonymous statistical sampling of the consumption of RSS-based media in iTunes media player, iPods and iPhones via Google Analytics. Podcasters can freely use this technology without becoming VoloMedia customers, and build their own Nielsen like panel audiences. This is completely free to podcasters and no commercial relationship, or even a registration, with VoloMedia is required.

Now, coming more specifically to VoloMedia's motivation: The episodic media download "technology" ecosystem needs to become more seamless, more standardized, and more interconnected before it can become a mass medium. There are a few ways such seamlessness can be achieved: (1) A standards body is created with all the constituent technology providers (e.g., directories, media players, devices, analytics, advertising, etc.) participating and agreeing to common standards, (2) a large company with a lot of market influence and momentum creates a de facto standard, and everyone else follows or (3) a company uses its intellectual property to help drive a standard, using its IP to help define and improve the ecosystem for the benefit of all participants. VoloMedia's motivations are primarily driven by the desire and need to make the episodic download ecosystem work, so consumers have a real choice in how they consume any media that is available on the Internet - whether in a web browser at an aggregation site like Hulu, or on a downloaded and portable basis using Apple's iTunes and iPhone or Microsoft's Zune. We will use our products, technologies, and patents towards this goal.

We are intent on helping accelerate the growth and viability of downloadable, episodic media - much of its potential lies in the future.

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VoloMedia's podcasting patent

July 29, 2009 6:00 AM

by Murgesh Navar

Our company, VoloMedia, was awarded U.S. Patent 7,568,213 titled "Method for Providing Episodic Media" yesterday. The relative breadth of the issued claims under this patent has given rise to many questions. I'd like to take this opportunity to provide some context to our announcement: "VoloMedia Awarded U.S. Patent for Podcasting". Over the years, I have heard arguments, pro and con, to the utility and necessity of an intellectual property (IP) system. One one hand, there are arguments that say exclusive rights to ideas awarded on a patent excludes others from doing what they want to do and, therefore, IP systems close down access to knowledge. On the other hand, patents and intellectual property rights do drive innovation, as well as investments in new ideas. I do not wish to debate the merits of the U.S. patent system, but just acknowledge there are two sides to the issue of patent awards. VoloMedia has filed a dozen U.S. patent applications since 2003. Patent no. 7,568,213 is the first in the pipeline to issue. We expect the others to follow suit.

With specific reference to our newly issued 7,568,213 patent, it was filed in November 2003, almost a year before the start of podcasting. This helps underscore the point, that for nearly six years, VoloMedia has been focused on helping publishers monetize portable media.... and has continued these efforts with the addition of a wide array of smartphone-based applications. The patent that issued yesterday helps to tie together and reinforce the value of the various technologies and services that VoloMedia has developed to help accomplish this objective. VoloMedia's intent is to continue to work collaboratively with key participants in the industry, leveraging its unique range of products to further grow and accelerate the market. Today, podcasting is 100% RSS-based. However, the patent is not RSS-dependent. Rather, it covers all episodic media downloads. It just so happens that, today, the majority of episodic media downloads are RSS-based podcasts, which is why we titled our announcement the way we did.

The episodic media download industry is still in its infancy. There will come a day when all the content on Hulu is available as an episodic download. Consumers will then have legitimate choices in how they consume their media: on a downloaded and portable basis, or by visiting a content aggregation website. As the medium matures, one would expect to see new entrants into the episodic download arena. The impact of a strong growing IP portfolio is such that we would expect new entrants into the podcasting arena to have a collaborative relationship with VoloMedia, just as do many of the current players. For reference, below are the claims issued under U.S. patent 7,568,213:

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1. A method for providing episodic media, the method comprising: providing a user with access to a channel dedicated to episodic media, wherein the episodic media provided over the channel is pre-defined into one or more episodes by a remote publisher of the episodic media; receiving a subscription request to the channel dedicated to the episodic media from the user; automatically downloading updated episodic media associated with the channel dedicated to the episodic media to a computing device associated with the user in accordance with the subscription request upon availability of the updated episodic media, the automatic download occurring without further user interaction; and providing the user with: an indication of a maximum available channel depth, the channel depth indicating a size of episodic media yet to be downloaded from the channel and size of episodic media already downloaded from the channel, the channel depth being specified in playtime or storage resources, and the ability to modify the channel depth by deleting selected episodic media content, thereby overriding the previously configured channel depth.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically providing the user with an indication of the availability of updated episodic media via the channel dedicated to the episodic media in accordance with the subscription request.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising synchronizing the updated episodic media automatically downloaded to the computing device associated with the user with a portable computing device communicatively coupled to the computing device associated with the user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein synchronization of the updated episodic media automatically occurs in response to a predetermined user setting.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein synchronization of the updated episodic media occurs in response to a request received from the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the updated episodic media is made available to users not associated with the computing device over a local area network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatic download is further based on a priority assigned to the channel.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the channel dedicated to the episodic media is reduced in size during synchronization in order to fit available cache storage within the portable device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the channel dedicated to the episodic media is modified in size by removing one or more episodes of episodic media.

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VOLOMEDIA ANNOUNCES PORTABLE MEDIA INTEGRATIONS: TRACKING FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS AND IN-STREAM VIDEO AD TRAFFICKING - FROM iTUNES TO PORTABLE DEVICES - THROUGH DOUBLECLICK DART

June 9, 2009 11:19 AM

VoloMedia is very pleased to announce two important product developments:

1. Bridge-to-Google Analytics - Publishers can now get podcast download and play data sent directly to their Google Analytics accounts - free, immediately, and with no contractual requirements.

2. Bridge-to-DART - For the first time, DoubleClick's DART ad serving platform has been extended to traffic in-stream video ads into portable content consumed on media players like iTunes, smartphones, and TV set-top devices.

Bridge-to-Google Analytics
Apple's iTunes desktop media player is one of the most popular ways for consumers to discover, download and consume great content. Music, movies, and TV and radio shows from major media companies are increasingly available for free within the iTunes store. In fact, more than 140,000 such free shows are registered within Apple's iTunes store. These free shows are delivered as podcasts, downloaded directly from publisher-hosted servers to the consumer. Consumers can watch this content on their PCs, iPods, iPhones, or other portable devices.

Until now, there has been one major issue with iTunes for publishers: a lack of metrics providing insight into how their content is being used. VoloMedia's Bridge-to-Google Analytics solves this with a plug-in to iTunes that helps consumers to share and discover great video content while allowing publishers to gather anonymous usage statistics regarding the consumption of their content and to analyze them using Google Analytics: a free and robust industry-standard platform. With a simple modification of the associated RSS feed, a publisher can start having aggregated download and play data sent automatically to its Google Analytics account.

More info

Bridge-to-DART
In another first, DoubleClick's industry-leading dynamic advertising insertion, targeting, measurement, reporting, and campaign management has been extended to RSS-based portable video and audio, thus enabling the seamless trafficking of video ad campaigns - on a device-specific basis - into portable content consumed on media players, smartphones, and TV set-top devices. VoloMedia's Bridge-to-DART for Publishers helps media companies maximize the efficiency of their ad operations and increase monetization of existing content libraries by reaching portable media users. The VoloMedia's Bridge to DART for Advertisers enables advertisers to reach high-value consumers and track advertisements displayed within portable media: online or offline.

More info

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VoloMedia Plug-in for iTunes Now Available for Mac

June 2, 2009 12:18 PM

VM-Mac-Plugin When we announced the new Plug-in back in October, the majority of feedback we got from podcast enthusiasts was something along the lines of, "What about my Mac?!"
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And we heard you. In fact, we were already hard at work creating a version of our lightweight application that would bring social functionality and other interactivity to iTunes on your Mac. Well, as VoloMedia's resident Apple fanboy, I'm very excited to announce that the VoloMedia Plug-in for iTunes is finally available for Mac!

The Apple version offers the same in-player functionality as the Windows version - email a podcast to a friend, post to a social network or bookmarking site, and access more content - and introduces support for audio podcasts.

Viewers of web video have come to expect such capabilities in-browser and we are proud to offer the only application that brings such functionality to iTunes. We've seen tremendous adoption of the Windows version and look forward to a similarly enthusiastic reception amongst Mac users.

Click here to download the plug-in for either Mac or Windows.

-Reed

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'Shows on the Go' with Jeff Karnes and Susan Bratton

May 20, 2009 7:48 PM

Our VP of Products and Marketing, Jeff Karnes, has been a busy guy. In addition to his appearance earlier this month at the NY Video 2.0 Meetup, Jeff was also invited to speak at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.

Jeff spoke with Personal Life Media's Susan Bratton about the ins-and-outs of podcast advertising and metrics. Although you missed out on the free beer if you weren't able to make it to the conference, you don't have to miss out on the wisdom shared, as we have it all right here on the blog and, of course, as a podcast.

-Reed