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.

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!

Last week R. Scott Raynovich’s Contentinople blog posted “Online HD: Coming Faster Than You Think”, in which he shares his surprise at how quickly HD is coming online—and how great it looks. Raynovich is right: HD is coming fast, and in many cases, it’s already here.

For instance, ESPN 360 is streaming tonight’s Lakers vs. Suns game live and in HD to those with ESPN 360 access. This is not the first time HD has been streamed live. Fox and ABC have both streamed live content with Move in the past (Fox streamed the Sarah Conner Chronicles live to rave reviews, the Oscars were streamed live, ABC carried the presidential primaries live, etc.); however, this is the first regular season NBA game to go live with HD.

If your ISP is AT&T, Verizon Communications, RCN, Frontier, Cavalier Telephone & TV, Charter Communications, Mediacom Communications, Conway, Grande Communications or some of the other smaller carriers, you should have access to ESPN 360. (If not, you should ask your cable provider to become part of the family!)

Go to ESPN 360 and check it out! If you can’t watch now, take a look at the other HD events at ABC and FOX. When it comes to high-def online viewing, the future is now.