Hi Everyone,

After nearly a year, 1CAST has successfully emerged from beta, bringing with it a completely re-designed user interface, new content and distribution partnerships, a bit of relief from our extremely talented development team, and heightened sense of purpose towards driving the most engaging video news experience across the three screen environment to our viewers.

Since our launch yesterday we’ve seen all of our metrics – from visits to unique viewers to streams per visit increase; but most important of all is the time spent viewing content, which continues to grow.  Already 1CAST has one of the most engaged audiences across the web and mobile spaces.  This trend continues and demonstrates the value of our micro-casting environment as a means for viewers to control what, how, when and where they get their video news.

Rest assured we are by no means finished.  Our team is already working on the next platform update, integrating our next set of content partners and a host of other initiatives that are sure to bring more value to our viewers and business partners alike.

So stay tuned!

On behalf of the 1CAST team, I want to extend a big THANK YOU to our content partners, distribution partners, advertisers, investors and most importantly our viewers.  Each of you has contributed to 1CAST’s ongoing success for which we are very grateful.

Now time to get back to work.

Anthony

Two weeks ago, 1Cast announced the launch of its private beta, bringing to consumers the world’s first personalized broadcast delivery news service.  The launch was met with much acclaim and the usage numbers for our service, including downloads of our iPhone application are already well on target with our expectations even at this early stage.

An inevitable part of any beta test is being confused with or compared to other companies in or around your target space.  1Cast has experienced much of this over the past two weeks and I thought it would be a good idea to clarify a few points about what 1Cast aspires to be.

Simply put, 1Cast is a service offering that allows everyday news consumers to build personalized news playlists (micro-casts) and have them delivered in near real-time to their desktop or smartphone device.  We believe that consumers do not want to hunt and peck for individual video clips of relevant content, but prefer that it be delivered in an easily consumable, lean-back format. 

1Cast also allows for a more of a lean-forward experience, allowing users to navigate within a micro-cast and watch individual clips, share their micro-casts or clips with friends, or even embed them in their blog or favorite social networking site through the use of our widget.  Ease of use, and timeliness of information delivered wherever and whenever you are is the focus of 1Cast.

We believe that targeting the broader market with a true service offering, rather than offering a toolset to specific niche markets, is the best possible strategy for web video consumption.  It allows us greater flexibility in the distribution channels we select, offers users an intuitive manner in which to view video news content from multiple sources, and provides our content and advertising partners a compelling distribution channel.  So far, our user feedback has affirmed this belief.

I would like to give a big THANK YOU to the 1Cast team for all their hard work and dedication these past few years.  Small teams with big dreams have led the web video explosion and we’re thankful to be a part of this evolving industry.

I would also like to thank all of our users, the blogging community, as well as our content and other strategic partners for their feedback and support during the launch of our beta.  We’re truly grateful and look forward to providing continued enhancements to our product to meet the needs of our growing user base.

In the meantime…. Enjoy!

Anthony Bontrager