Streaming Video
August 29, 2008 12:51 PM | General
The Internet is a wonderful place to get access to information. I use it everyday to research and develop story ideas. Sometimes, however, the information you get is not accurate - and sometimes that inaccurate information grows legs.
Such is the case with some of the recent posts on the message boards concerning our video streaming service. As part of our new redesign we have chosen to incorporate all of our streaming video under one umbrella: Mountaineer TV. The goal is to have a seamless experience where you can get everything – live video, live audio, coaches’ shows, on-demand video, etc., in one place.
The on-demand video (player interviews, special web-only features, etc.) located on the right side of the web page under the Mountaineer TV logo remains free to watch with the exception of Mountaineer Magazine and Mountaineer Jammin’. The only change now is a simple one-time registration requiring a user name and a pass word to use the video player. There are videos (primarily live events, classic games and television specials) that fall under the subscription service and more videos will be added to that area in the future, including another year of pay-per-view basketball games.
The video player itself is also undergoing changes. CBS College Sports is close to launching its new Silverlight Player that will accommodate all browser types. A simple one-minute download will be all that is required. The new Silverlight Player is a dramatic improvement in look and user friendliness, and an announcement on its launch is coming soon.
Video streaming and the storage space required to house large video files requires and investment, and some consideration has to be made to the companies we choose to partner with to provide these services. At the same time, we also weigh heavily the decision to charge fans a fee for a portion of these services. Those decisions will always be weighed carefully.
