Category Archives: Digital Video

IBM announces four new clients for video business unit

Curved video wallIBM has revealed four new client wins for its video business, IBM Cloud Video, a couple of hours ahead of its quarterly earnings announcement.

Speaking at NAB Show, the company announced Comic-Con HQ, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, AOL and Broadway Video will now all be utilizing the IBM video platform. The company expects the market to exceed $100 billion in the next three years, as well as digital video to account for 80% of all internet traffic by 2019.

“IBM is at the forefront of the industry at a time when video is the driving influence in how organizations communicate, share information, and entertain,” said Braxton Jarratt, General Manager of the IBM Cloud Video business unit. “Today’s announcements will be viewed as a significant milestone in the company’s cloud video strategy, as IBM makes the sharing, distribution, and management of video increasingly simple across any device.”

IBM announced the acquisition of Ustream in January though financials of the agreement were not disclosed. Ustream created a cloud model to support live and on-demand video streams and claimed to have 80 million viewers per month from customers including NASA, Samsung, Facebook, Nike and The Discovery Channel. The IBM Cloud Video business unit was formed by the combination of IBM’s R&D dollars alongside acquisitions of Clearleap, Ustream, Aspera and Cleversafe.

The deal with Comic-Con HQ will offer numerous services including subscriber and content management, billing, and video compatibility on multiple devices. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will be using IBM’s tech to support its next-generation, ad-supported streaming video service. AOL will be using transfer and automation software from Aspera (an IBM company) to power its media management platform.

The news comes ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings, in which analysts expect IBM to announce further revenue declines. The company has reported revenue declines for 15 straight quarters, though these trends have been witnessed by several tech giants who have been primarily associated with now-legacy IT, not only IBM. The move into cloud computing is seemingly one of a number of strategies set in place for IBM to counter negative growth, and carve a new niche in the digital ecosystem.