MSN Video morphs into Bing

"Microsoft has splashed its Bing brand name over its MSN video site.

The software giant, which confirmed the switcheroo yesterday, said Bing Video would cough up viral vids to full-length TV shows and video via the service.

It grabs content from sites such as MySpace, Google’s YouTube, Hulu and CBS. The new site also comes with a nifty "lights out" feature for users to more easily view the video content online..."

from The Register

Project canvas: an interview with Richard Halton

from the BBC Internet blog

MSN Video Is Now Bing Videos

TechCrunch.com
Tuesday, November 10, 2009; 1:28 PM
Capitalizing on the Bing brand, Microsoft is consolidating MSN Video into Bing Videos. If you go to video.msn.com it redirects to Bing Video. The new video search destination lets you both search for videos on the Web and watch them within the Bing player.

The main video page is set up to help you browse and discover videos, with featured videos in a large player across the top and tabbed categories below that including editorial picks, viral clips, "Last Night on TV", and the "Best of Bing." A lot of this looks like a direct port from MSN Video. there is still even a tab called "Most Watched On MSN Video." They might want to change that now.

Bing Video brings in videos from YouTube, Hulu, ABC and more, and directly hosts 900 TV shows. When you search for a show like True Blood, you get Bing's familiar guided navigation on the left, which lets you narrow down your search by season, episodes, trailers, length, and format.

The Bing video player also has a lights-out mode. You kind of get the feeling that Bing doesn't want you to leave. Of course, neither does Yahoo Video, Google Video, Blinkx, or most other video search engines these days. But Bing Videos is such a better brand. What MSN property will be subsumed into Bing next?

from The Washington Post

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Comment: Blinkx powers video search for MSN UK, so presumably that will be rolled into Bing as well?

Not that the company will tell us, the shareholders, of course. Yet more mushroom management...

I don't know why MS don't go the whole hog and just buy Blinkx. They (MS) have a history of buying companies whose technology they start off by licensing. And it would serve Blinkx mgmt right for letting the share price drift so shamefully - they don't seem to get it that one of the best defences to being taken over is a high market cap. Mind you, nobody seems to want to take Blinkx over at any price - I wonder why?...

Facts about Google's acquisition of AdMob

http://www.google.com/press/admob/

The Wisdom Of AdMob’s Founder Omar Hamoui

"Google Inc.’s (GOOG) announcement that it will buy AdMob Inc. for $750 million brought a media spotlight on Accel Partners, an investor in both AdMob and Playfish Inc., which said today it will sell to Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) for at least $275 million. Several blogs, including this one, hailed Accel Partners for its impressive and quick investment returns at a time when deals like these are hard to come by.

But AdMob’s founder and CEO, Omar Hamoui, really deserves the attention for building a company that in three years became the largest player of mobile Web ads and ultimately, a coveted jewel for the largest Internet company."

from All Things Digital

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Comment: And yet Blinkx shareholders see no evidence whatsoever that the company is even remotely interested in mobile (evidence? No iPhone app. No mobile apps or deals of any kind so far as we are aware).

Still, as long as there's deals like BobVila.com out there waiting to be done, why worry, eh?

BBC iPlayer Beta to come to Freesat this month, new ad campaign to lead fightback against rivals

"Freesat marketing and communications director Will Abbott, says: ‘Freesat is going from strength to strength and the new campaign reinforces our position as the UK’s premium free TV service. With new Freesat+ HD recorders launching in time for Christmas, and high definition from the BBC and ITV already available nationwide, subscription-free, we’re looking forward to a strong finish to the year..."

from Home Cinema Choice

Holdings in company

RNS Number : 1585C

Blinkx Plc

06 November 2009



TR-1: notification of major interests in shares

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer of existing shares to which voting rights are attached:	Blinkx plc
2. Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes)
An acquisition or disposal of voting rights		X
An acquisition or disposal of financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached
An event changing the breakdown of voting rights
Other (please specify):___________________________________________
3. Full name of person(s) subject to the notification obligation:	Autonomy Corporation plc
4. Full name of shareholder(s) (if different from 3.):
5. Date of the transaction (and date on which the threshold is crossed or reached if different):	6 November 2009
6. Date on which issuer notified:	6 November 2009
7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:	13%
8. Notified details:

A: Voting rights attached to shares
Class/type of shares if possible using the ISIN CODE	Situation previous to the Triggering transaction		Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
	Number of Shares	Number of Voting Rights	Number of shares	Number of voting rights		% of voting rights
			Direct	Direct	Indirect	Direct	Indirect
Ordinary 1p	27,510,046	27,510,046	42,497,166	42,497,166		13.8%

B: Financial Instruments
Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
Type of financial instrument	Expiration date	Exercise/ Conversion Period/ Date	Number of voting rights that may be acquired if the instrument is exercised/ converted.	% of voting rights
-

Total (A+B)
Number of voting rights	% of voting rights
42,497,166	13.8%

9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and/or the financial instruments are effectively held, if applicable:

Proxy Voting:
10. Name of the proxy holder:
11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will cease to hold:
12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to hold voting rights:

13. Additional information:
14. Contact name:	Frances Smith
15. Contact telephone number:	01223 488500

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END