At NAB 2008, Beet.TV interviewed Microsoft’s Steve Sklepowich about the Move-Microsoft strategic partnership, and Sklepowich expressed why Microsoft is so excited to be integrating Move’s exceptional technology with Silverlight. He said, “Move has raised the bar for streaming today on the Web. They have just a really gorgeous adaptive streaming technology with some very interesting ad insertion models as well as a very interesting HD experience. [. . .] Silverlight brings a next-level of interactivity—DVD interactivity—together with [Move's] high-quality adaptive streaming experience. ”

More details about the Move-Microsoft partnership coming soon.

Yesterday Move announced our Series C funding of $46 million, and the announcement has generated a lot of press (check out our News section). Move’s funding is now comparable to that of Brightcove and Joost—two other successful Internet video startups. What makes Move different is that we are changing the landscape of Internet video by completely changing the quality of viewers’ experiences. Multichannel News yesterday quoted Ian Blaine—Senior Vice President of Content Publishing at Comcast and CEO of thePlatform: “The consumer experience is a central component to the future growth of broadband video. Consumers expect online video to mirror their television or DVD experience today. Companies such as Move Networks will play a key role going forward.”

Investors, media publishers, and media consumers: We hope you’ll stay tuned in coming months to Move’s progress transforming the landscape of Internet television.

There’s a lot of talk about improving advertising models to keep up with the rapidly growing popularity of online video. With so many viewers of all ages watching video, there are plenty of opportunities for advertisers, and certainly more than one model can be successful for generating revenue. Christine Beardsell of ClickZ hit on an element that is a must in any model: quality. She explained that ad quality has to be as good as TV programming for audiences to respond, but that audiences will “respond to that quality in any setting.” Chris Young of MediaPost’s Video Insider offered his take on what creates quality ads: advertisements must be “professionally produced material that bring the viewer additional entertainment with additional information resulting in an additional experience.”

Fox.com streams video through Move Networks, and recently on their site I was delivered an ad for Old Spice that was tied into a preview for Semi Pro, the new Will Ferrell comedy in theaters. In the ad, Ferrell was in character, with the costume, hair, and humor of Jackie Moon. I found the ad entertaining; it achieved what Young described as allowing “the brand and the user to take the journey together, with the tacit understanding being that more entertainment, not just advertising, lies right around the corner. It’s . . . taking the world of the original feature film, edgy television show or much ballyhooed novel and going even further with characters, situations, humor, drama, you name it.”

I have more to say about improving ad models, but for now I’m interested to hear your thoughts about ads as entertainment and what else creates quality advertising.

The past 2 Monday evenings, Move Networks has streamed Oprah’s live Web event to viewers all over the world—in Denmark, Egypt, Zanzibar, Hawaii, and many more locations. The event has been monumental in its breadth and reach, and Move Networks has been thrilled to work with Oprah, Harpo Productions, and Limelight Networks to pioneer the power of video streaming with a live event of this magnitude, as well as to provide the subsequent on-demand streaming of the event.

In Oprah’s live Web classroom, viewers from all parts of the world call in, send video messages, or email questions for Oprah or Eckhart Tolle about Tolle’s book, A New Earth. Questions from viewers guide the Webcast’s discussion and heighten the event’s interactivity, enhancing the learning environment for each viewer. The only way to achieve this level of worldwide interactivity is through the Internet and Move Networks’ streaming to hundreds of thousands of people. A viewer named Cathy in Beijing, China, called in and said, “This is huge that we can have this one conversation around the world. I’m a girl from Deluth, Minnesota, living in Beijing, China, and I’m talking to Oprah in Chicago and Eckhart.” Oprah responded exuberantly, “Fun!”

If you haven’t watched Oprah’s event yet, it’s not too late to catch up. Watch the past two weeks’ Webcasts on demand, and tune in on Monday to participate in the discussion of Chapter 3. Let us know how it goes for you!

Today Move Networks announced plans to integrate the Move media player with Microsoft’s Silverlight technology.  Because of this integration, developers (and viewers) will enjoy greater flexibility and quality in their streaming video.

Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser, multiplatform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web, will now integrate Move Networks’ video streaming technology that allows videos to start faster, play smoothly with no buffering, and deliver high quality video resolution.

As online video usage continues to grow exponentially, Move Networks’ technology combined with Microsoft Silverlight’s open, flexible development platform will give media companies and developers the ability to quickly develop and deploy unique online television offerings. Within one environment, developers will be able to seamlessly integrate unique branding and navigational elements within, around and on top of the highest quality online video on the net.

We are excited to push the boundaries of online video streaming!  The announcement was made today at MIX and on Microsoft’s site. 

Move is happy to be streaming another Super Tuesday event live for ABC News.  ABC News will be covering all the action in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont.  

The use of the internet in political campaigning has reached all-time highs and has shown another sign of the cultural transition to web-based media.  As the BBC’s Rajini Vaidyanathan said in a Streaming Media report,  “…social networking—and streaming media—play a big role in the ‘get out the vote’ process.”

Check out the ABC News site Tuesday night!