Call it what you want – content delivery, video aggregation, audience segmentation, brand networks, blah, blah, blah.  Tons of people have given it a go, but ask any of them about what they do and if it’s working, and only a handful are able to give you a clearly defined answer.

I came across an interview of Andrew Robertson, CEO at global branding agency BBDO, where he consistently refers to what they do as “The Work” and I think it’s a fantastic concept.  By defining your efforts simply and clearly stating your focus, you will help your audience understand who you are, what you do and the value you bring.

At 1CAST our “Work” is all about making digital more personal.  We define this as a user-driven, professionally delivered video news service, built around discovery – where the content follows the user rather than waiting to be found.  We call it micro-casting.

We believe that moving from search to discoverability is a natural process and one that is more closely aligned with our needs in this increasingly time constrained world.  Yet this begs the obvious question, “is there value or worth in what we do?”  And I would argue an astounding YES!

Time is a precious commodity and it can be argued that it has a higher intrinsic value than money.  For 1CAST, one of the best measures of the “worth” of our “work” is looking at how users are willing to pay with their time to access their own personalized news through our platform.

Not surprisingly, our user engagement numbers at 1CAST are off the charts for our desktop experience, our recent iTV initiatives on Boxee and especially on our mobile applications for iPhone and Android.  We believe this points to something very special about what we’ve accomplished with our micro-casting concept.  Some have called it a paradigm shift; others have called it cracking the code.

We just call it doing our “Work”.

Anthony Bontrager

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

“To everything (turn, turn, turn),
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)”
– The Byrds

Allow me to go old school for a minute with The Byrds reference. Back in the 60’s, “mobile” was a VW van that actually worked, and “video” meant lazy afternoons watching Gilligan’s Island, The Avengers and the original Star Trek on a state-of-the art 13″ Zenith (with no remote control, of course).

Flash-forward 40+ years to the summer of 2009 and in many ways things haven’t changed. We’re still in love-maybe more in love- with the images, storylines and personalities that we watch everyday.  What’s radically different today isn’t what we watch, but how we watch. The way consumers are getting their video is changing, and that change will impact not only viewers, but content programmers and advertisers as well.

If the Roger McGuinn from 1965 stepped into a time machine to 2009, he’d still see kids on summer vacation watching their favorite shows.  Except in 2009, they are watching video through different kinds of screens-in their living rooms, on their desks, and in their hands.  We still connect with on-screen personalities much like the 60’s when Walter Cronkite, Chet Hutley or David Brinkley shaped our view of the world.  Except now we have greater control over when we want to bring Bill O’Reilly, Katie Couric and Anderson Cooper, and a myriad of niche influencers onto our screens.

Technology has empowered consumers to become programmers who dictate what they watch, where they watch, and when they watch.  Our ability to obtain compelling information, on multiple topics and across multiple platforms continues to grow at a dizzying rate.  Just look at the iPhone’s penetration into the American mainstream.  A few weeks ago Apple announced it sold 1 million iPhone 3GS’s… in just 3 days.  Earlier in April the iPhone App Store surpassed 1 billion downloads in just 9 months, thanks to the tens of millions of iPhones in the hands of consumers around the world.

It’s not a stretch to assume the iPhone played a big part in the 52.2% growth in the U.S. mobile video audience that Nielsen reported earlier this year.  Nielsen also discovered that in the first quarter of 2009, mobile video users watched videos on their handheld devices on average longer than on their computer screens. That’s evolution at work.

So what does this mean to content owners and advertisers?

For content owners it could mean a unique opportunity to experiment with different offerings – new programming themes, short-form vs. long-tail, etc.  Content producers should create, distribute, test and refine the programming to suit consumers.  Audiences today demand quality and relevancy to their interests.

Advertisers should continue to experiment with new approaches to deliver targeted messages to more specific audiences.  Understand where your target audience is going to find video content.  If approached correctly, the right messaging at the right time could increase both your brand affinity and the ROI of your ad buy.

Hmm.  With all of this opportunity in front of us, who has time to relax this summer?

Anthony Bontrager

Sorry, gotta love Elvis Costello, but today’s blog title is actually apropos.

Here at 1cast, we’re very committed to bringing the best of television news from around the world to your desktop, mobile or any other device. And yesterday we delivered a breakthrough that goes far beyond technology.

Many of you have already started to see clips from Al Jazeera in your search results and micro-casts. We are pleased to be the first company in the U.S. to bring this content to viewers from coast-to-coast. In times like these, we believe our viewers will appreciate the perspective our newest partner – Al Jazeera – brings to issues in the Middle East. More importantly, we all benefit from the access and insight that only the world’s largest Arab news channel can bring to events that have impact far beyond the borders of countries at the center of conflict, challenge and hopefully change for peace.

The addition of Al Jazeera brings to 1cast one of the most impressive line-ups ever assembled of world news leaders. If you’re interested in global affairs there’s probably no better place online or off than 1cast for keeping track of the day’s world headlines in near real time. 1cast viewers can simply enter terms they are most interested in and immediately see the best of the day’s television news coverage from BBC Worldwide, Agence France Presse, Reuters, CBC and now Al Jazeera.

Viewers simply won’t find this kind of world news coverage in a single place anywhere on the web or mobile devices. So let’s all become a little more enlightened about the world we live in. We’re just getting started in bringing our viewers worldwide news sources that expand our horizons as well as our understanding.

Anthony Bontrager

Welcome to the 1Cast company blog! Today marks the official unveiling of our corporate website and the announcement of our first round of financing. In the coming weeks, 1Cast will launch the world’s first on-demand personalized broadcast delivery news service!

For well over a year, we have been building an online experience focused on making traditional television news programming readily available online and just minutes after the original broadcast. We believe that 1Cast offers an exceptional value proposition to advertisers, who can reach connected consumers in contextual settings, and to broadcasters, who can add new distribution avenues in a way that preserves their brand integrity and adds additional revenue streams.

What does this mean for you?

The 1Cast web and mobile-based video delivery service will enable you to build your own personalized video news feed or “micro-cast” from broadcast and cable news sources around the world. For the first time ever, you will have the ability to search online for the broadcast news that is relevant to you and watch the latest coverage on that topic. Are you interested in a recap of the day’s Olympic coverage? Simply enter ‘Olympics’ as a search term and you will have the ability view your personalized micro-cast comprised of multiple Olympic news video clips in succession and from various news sources.

We look forward to transforming the consumption of quality broadcast and cable news programming from a lean back, time focused experience to a push out, receive and consume experience. We’ll update you each step of the way here at the official 1Cast blog.

You can sign up now at www.1cast.com for the beta trial!

Anthony Bontrager