Velocix announces the availability of its revolutionary new FREE Velocix Accelerator digital delivery service. The new service is aimed at the growing and vibrant community of entrepreneurs and new start-up ventures, as well as larger organizations looking to distribute rich media such as video, music, games and software on-line. To be successful, these ventures need help from a global digital delivery partner to ensure that their website visitors receive a high quality consumer experience when downloading content, viewing videos or simply browsing web pages from anywhere in the world.

The new offering includes a 500GB per month delivery allowance for file download, video progressive streaming and website acceleration services all provided at no charge.

The CNN Digital Network posted yet another record-breaking month in March as it ranked No. 1 in total minutes among all News and Information properties for the 11th month in a row, ranking ahead of Internet stalwarts Wikipedia, Yahoo! News, MSNBC Digital Network and Weather Channel. CNN.com last month also set new records for the network in regards to online video streams served and mobile news usage.

According to Nielsen Online, CNN Digital Network generated 1.4 billion gross usage minutes in March, a 46 percent increase over last year, and maintained the network’s highest monthly audience in its 13-year history with 37.2 million unique visitors.

During the month, CNN.com served more than 116 million video streams, including nearly 4 million live streams served from CNN.com Live, the network’s live, multi-stream video service. The total monthly video streams served is a new record for for CNN.com, besting the 110 million served the previous month.

Orange France launched its Web TV portal, giving all ISPs customers access to channels on their computers. Their line-up of channels are: VOD barker channel, France 2, France 3, Orange Sport, France 5, BBC World, Poker Channel, Direct8, France 24, Demain, Liberty TV, Fashion TV, LCP- PS, France 4, BFM TV, I Télé, Trace TV, TV 8 Mont Blanc, Art Channel and France O.

The service can be accessed through the "guide tv" of Orange.fr and is only available to customers of Orange's broadband internet with speeds of 512kbps or greater.

TidalTV has partnered with NBC News and TV Guide Network to feature each provider’s programming on the TidalTV website, which will offer consumers free and instant access to professionally produced online video programming via a streaming, browser-based platform.

"Now more than ever, NBC News is so much more than a television news operation – we are a news and information content provider," said NBC News President Steve Capus. "With partnerships like this one, we are reaching more people in more ways. It’s an incredibly exciting time in our business, and we are thrilled to be working with TidalTV."

Tommy Hilfiger continues to bring music and fashion together with the global launch of TommyTV, an online evolution of the Hilfiger Sessions music series, staged in creative collaboration with Sony BMG Europe, that brings the excitement of live music to audiences around the globe.

TommyTV, which goes live today, builds on the existing success of The Hilfiger Sessions, a series of established and successful music events. The Hilfiger Sessions feature high profile artists playing with new and upcoming talent in intimate gigs in cities around the world, with recent Sessions taking place in Madrid, Berlin and Amsterdam hosted by artists such as Wyclef Jean and Kelly Rowland.

The live recordings of The Hilfiger Sessions form the centrepiece of TommyTV, allowing music fans to enjoy exclusive content and experience the thrill of live musical performances via unprecented online video presentation. TommyTV features:

• Exclusive content from the global Hilfiger Sessions concerts.
• Exclusive artist interviews and backstage footage.
• The chance to discover new music talent or for new artists to be discovered through the Hilfiger Auditions.

comScore released its February 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that U.S. Internet users viewed more than 10 billion online videos during the month, representing a 3-percent gain versus January (despite February being two days shorter) and a 66-percent gain versus February 2007.

Google Sites Extends Lead in Online Video Market Share

In February, Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with nearly 3.6 billion videos viewed (35.4 percent share of all videos), gaining 1.1 share points versus the previous month. YouTube.com accounted for 96 percent of all videos viewed at Google Sites. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 586 million videos (5.8 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 293 million (2.9 percent) and Microsoft Sites with 293 million (2.9 percent).

Adobe announces the immediate availability of Adobe Media Player 1.0 software. An Adobe AIR application, this customizable, cross-platform media player provides exciting new ways for viewers to discover and interact with their favorite content, while offering revenue and brand-building opportunities for content publishers. Major television broadcasters and leading content publishers, including CBS, MTV Networks, Universal Music Group, PBS, CondéNet, and Scripps Networks have worked with Adobe to provide a broad range of television programming and entertaining video content to viewers. Additionally, Adobe announced Adobe TV, a network in Adobe Media Player with a series of shows that provides expert instruction and original series programming about Adobe products to the worldwide creative community. Adobe Media Player is available for immediate download at http://www.adobe.com/go/mp.

The NewsMarket announces the launch of its Beijing 2008 Channel. The new channel will provide journalists and bloggers with video content they can use for stories about the 2008 Games in Beijing, the participating athletes, venues and infrastructure projects as well as events involving sponsors. All video will be free for editorial use and available to order in broadcast-quality, streaming and embed in both English and Chinese.

ESPN and AOL announced that ESPN.com will make its short-form online video content accessible directly through AOL Video, and AOL Sports, marking the first time ESPN has syndicated its video content through an Internet portal. ESPN will offer highlights from games and major sporting events as well as video clips from ESPN original programming via an embedded ESPN video player. The ESPN channel page launched yesterday on AOL Video.

Content available through ESPN’s embedded video player on AOL includes SportsCenter Right Now, a twice-daily capsule of top sports stories, highlights and breaking news; clips from ESPN programs such as Mike and Mike in the Morning, Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn; and breaking news and game clips from major professional and college teams and sporting events. The multi-sport video player will also offer links to ESPN.com content related to the video topics

Msnbc.com's video numbers skyrocketed in March, setting an all-time site record of 125.7 million on-demand video streams. Msnbc.com's innovative video player, launched in December, has redefined the online video experience. Consumers can not only watch and discover the day's video news, but also can share the latest with msnbc.com's embeddable player, the only one of its kind. In fact, msnbc.com is the first major network news site to offer embeddable video to consumers to post on their blogs and websites.

The record video streams in March followed a previous month of record-setting numbers on the site. In February, Nielsen's Video Census report shows msnbc.com outperforming the competition:

• Msnbc.com was ranked #1 in total video streams for February 2008, 14 percent ahead of CNN.com
• Msnbc.com was ranked #1 in time spent viewing videos, with consumers watching 36.8 minutes/per month, 14 percent ahead of CNN.com
• Msnbc.com had over 7 million video unique users, 31 percent ahead of CNN.com

blinkx partners with Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcast service. Deutsche Welle’s online video content is now more easily accessible than ever before at www.blinkx.com. Under the terms of the agreement, blinkx will leverage its AdHoc platform to place contextually relevant advertising against the footage, and will share resulting advertising revenue with Deutsche Welle.

An innovative media enterprise that offers comprehensive coverage of international affairs, business, culture and more, Deutsche Welle applies the latest digital technology for production and broadcasting, drawing on the expertise of a multinational team from more than 60 countries. Offering daily news coverage in eight core languages, Deutsche Welle will be serving up new programs on a weekly basis in addition to those already made available at blin

The Rolling Stones will be the first ever YouTube Living Legends, debuting YouTube's new program which invites global luminaries from politics, news, film, music, literature, humanitarianism and sports to talk freely with the YouTube community. People will be able to upload questions for Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who will then answer a selection of these directly. To kick off the launch, The Rolling Stones will take over the YouTube homepage, showcasing exclusive behind-the-scenes clips from their new Scorsese-directed movie "Shine A Light," plus classic music videos, and never-before-seen interviews.

This program will be available on the U.S. site and on 15 localized YouTube sites including Canada, U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Poland, Mexico, Brazil and Japan.

Velocix announces the addition of a complete family of Live Video Streaming solutions to its current product portfolio. The Velocix Live Streaming product family includes: Velocix Live Video Streaming for Adobe Flash & Microsoft Windows Media, together with Velocix Live Audio Streaming.

Velocix Live Streaming also includes a revolutionary new hybrid-P2P live streaming option, which provides scalability to the largest global audiences for online video and audio events and broadcasts, with compelling delivery costs and economics. With these new services, Velocix further extends its lead in the provision of digital delivery services for large digital assets, such as video, software and games, offering the widest variety of online delivery options available on the market today.

Veodia announces that businesses, organizations and individuals can for the first time start viewing their own h.264 content in native format via an embeddable channel player widget using Adobe Flash Player 9.

Veodia is a browser-based video service leveraging the new capabilities of Adobe Flash Player 9, allowing its users to create and stream their own crystal clear videos to millions of Adobe Flash players. With just a video camera, Internet connection and a Veodia account, users can easily broadcast live and record MPEG-4 / h.264 video from their browser. Veodia eliminates the need for expensive investments in encoding, streaming and distribution technology. All content created with or imported to the Veodia broadcasting service can be played back in native h.264 format with the latest version of Adobe Flash Player 9.

EyeWonder launches its LiveWonder feature, designed to deliver live streaming video via any of its online advertising formats. Stinson Partners was the first agency to leverage this innovative, interactive feature to promote and deliver GE’s retail investor presentation last week.

With the LiveWonder feature, advertisers and agencies will have yet another innovative way to increase brand awareness and communicate with their audiences through online video campaigns and, at the same time, provide the best possible return on investment when it comes to promoting live events or major product launches. GE worked with Stinson Partners to develop its campaign, which ran live on several top sites including MSN, Yahoo! Finance and CNN Money.