Hulu's recent announcement that it would buy out investor Providence Equity for $200 million coincided with an announcement this past week that it would require viewers to prove that they have a Pay TV subscription to get Hulu content. This would block cord-cutters (people who have cancelled their cable TV subscriptions and instead get their TV and movie content through a combination of web-based delivery channels such as Netflix/YouTube/Amazon/iTunes and free over the air network TV received with a digital antenna) from getting Hulu content.

While not directly acknowledged by Hulu and Providence in any of these discussions, what's most interesting about these announcements is that they show not only how concerned Hulu's owners (major networks and cable companies) are about the possible negative effects that cord-cutting will have on their revenue streams going forward, but how disconnected these owners are from savvy investors such as Providence Equity who clearly see tremendous upside in pure-play web delivery of content.

To put this more clearly in perspective, Providence invested $100 million in Hulu in 2007 (almost exactly 5 years ago). So doubling their money to $200 million in 5 years is certainly not a bad thing (it actually works out to a roughly 15% internal rate of return on their investment), but it's nowhere near the type of return a private equity or venture firm would like to see on this type of investment. A 40% internal rate of return would be more like it from a private equity perspective (and a venture investor would have gone for a "10 bagger" and wanted back 10x their money after 5 years, or a 60% internal rate of return).

Providence clearly saw that Hulu was willing to potentially kill its own growth potential in order to protect traditional cable subscriptions and opted to get out as soon as possible to protect its investment gain. If Hulu does opt to restrict its viewing in this manner, it will only be good news for Netflix and Amazon and the millions who have cut the cord already will migrate to these services away from Hulu.

What this means for BIM's local broadcast clients is that free, over the air TV is a vital complement to online video delivery in the world of cord-cutting and it should be supported and promoted as such. Stations would do well to promote www.antennaweb.org and their local channel guides as prominently as possible on their sites and over the air to ensure consumers are aware of this choice.

With the literal explosion in all facets of mobile video — the number of device types to take into account, the number of video delivery platforms for publishers to choose from, and the emergence of new monetization models — it's never been easier for a publisher to become unintentionally locked into a system that leads to a missed revenue opportunity.

Today's video publishers need an open system capable of delivering video and integrating with virtually any 3rd party platform, as well as a video CMS that comes immediately integrated with a monetization platform. Unfortunately, the complexity involved in integrating video ad networks has left many publishers stuck on video platforms that lag behind the technology curve.

Tablets, smartphones, Flash vs HTML5, iOS, Android, MRAID vs VPAID, OTT devices like Roku and Boxee -- after the incredible pace of change over the past 12 months, who knows which factor or platform will be most important 12 months from now? Having the ability to publish HQ video to any existing device and the flexibility to integrate with emerging platforms is a critical factor for success and survival in today's market.

These are exactly the types of publisher needs we focus on addressing with our BIMvid solution. Any client launching on BIMvid is guaranteed to generate revenue from their very first video stream delivered, no matter the platform or format. The BIMLocal network (ranked in the top 2 in ComScore News & Information) serves just that function for the BIMvid platform and keeps our developers on the ball when it comes to new monetization requirements. This includes requirements for mobile, online, in-exchange, in-app, and live streaming applications.

I was recently impressed as I read about current BIMvid client, Fisher Communications, and how they are utilizing their existing system videos in a new platform for connected TV apps. (You can read the full release here: http://tinyurl.com/bl5um2v.) This perfectly illustrates the extreme levels of agility and adaptability publishers require if they expect to continually be able to adjust with the shifting technology terrain.

Though unlocking the full value to video content may seem like a guessing game to some, with an ad sales team to act as an internal customer driving our product innovation, BIMvid remains in a position to help our clients evolve with this industry, which is something not all video cms providers can say.

While it's obvious that technological evolution continues to accelerate in virtually every area of local interactive, it's also obvious that mobile is likely the single strongest area of revenue growth and product evolution for the next several years. Mobile devices (smart phones, tablets, even some forms of OTT devices) are exploding in terms of usage. This is good news for Broadcast Interactive Media (BIM) and for our clients as mobile (in all of its various facets and aspects) is native to and a key part of every product line and product roadmap decision that we make here at BIM.

As you review BIM's product lines as a prospective partner or customer, it's important to note that mobile is prominently featured or core to the product in every case.

• BIM CMS (mobile web): our content management system features BIM's sMobile templates as a native part of the feature set offered to our publishing clients. Since we can auto-detect what type of device a user is viewing your site from (desktop browser, smart phone, tablet device, etc…), BIM can serve up the correct version of your site to the appropriate user. This includes all forms of text, images, video, and mobile ads for revenue generation. See notes below for more specifics on video and ads.

• BIMVid (video CMS for mobile video): our video content management system automatically includes the ability to serve up video to various mobile devices based on our ability to transcode to any video format. So you're covered for video delivery to iPhone, Android, Blackberry, iPad, and other mobile/tablet devices. And because BIM has been the first local-media focused network to pioneer delivery of high quality video in 1080p, you can even deliver your content to OTT devices with no problems.

• MediaStar Suite (scheduling and data for mobile DTV channels): BIM's MediaStar Suite of program management tools are designed to handle schedule updates for both traditional broadcast lineups and mobile DTV channels. The mobile DTV channel information is then seamlessly published and transmitted within the ESG spectrum, allowing for convenient, streamlined schedule administration. Schedule updates can also be simultaneously published to a station’s TitanTV Mobile Guide, available on their mobile-optimized site or on most local news application platforms. (see next bullet below).

• TitanTV Mobile Guide (mobile EPG): our web-based, electronic program guides (EPG) include a mobile format so users can see what's airing on your live channels, no matter which type of device they are checking from. As our partnership with ThinkOptics/Remotec and the iWavit TVAid app shows, BIM can deliver extremely accurate TV listings in any format, including a configuration capable of powering iPhone or Android apps.

• BIMLocal Digital Network (mobile revenue and ad campaigns): currently ranked #3 on comScore News and Information with steady growth in mobile users and impressions, BIMLocal can help monetize mobile impressions for all of our publisher clients. We can also deliver targeted and effective campaigns for agency partners seeking to reach mobile users for client campaigns.

Chances are, whatever you're looking to do on the mobile front is already baked-in to an existing BIM product. Connect with a BIM sales manager or your existing point of contact at BIM and let us know what you need. We’ll be happy to set you up with demos, examples, testimonials or success stories.

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About Timur Yarnall, CEO Broadcast Interactive Media

The Telemundo Station Group, a division of NBC Universal, recently announced they’d be joining the BIM client family, migrating all 11 of their TV station sites to our video, mobile, and web publishing platforms.

While that's obviously great news for BIM, the real story here is how quickly a local media group such as Telemundo Station Group can go from being entirely dependent on an outside vendor (e.g. their previous platform) to quickly taking control of design, layout and feature sets for both web and mobile.

While not all BIM partners need do this (our team in Madison provides full support for many of our clients), Telemundo Station Group took cues from NBC Owned TV Stations “sister sites” as an example of what is possible given a willingness and desire to take on an increased level of responsibility.

After attending several days of training at BIM headquarters, followed by supplemental sessions via Skype, Telemundo Station Group designers and project managers showed real aptitude for the BIM CMS and, more importantly, a willingness to push the envelope a bit on site design and layout.

Telemundo Station Group quickly realized that the benefit of having more control of their websites is the ability to produce innovative elements that will ultimately drive more traffic and user engagement. Several of these, such as the new Slide Deck (for photo galleries) and News Carousel (for key stories), are ones the team has wanted to do for some time. With the BIM platform, they now have the control to do virtually whatever they want, whenever they want.


SLIDE DECK


NEWS CAROUSEL

And while launching websites is only the first step to generating higher engagement and revenue, Telemundo Station Group clearly has shown a commitment to continued growth and internal capabilities. This type of dedication is critical if local media is to thrive in the ever-changing digital landscape.

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About Timur Yarnall, CEO Broadcast Interactive Media

In the mid-90s, as a student in Stanford’s engineering department (both as a graduate and undergraduate student), I was told countless stories of "Bill and Dave" – the founders of Hewlett-Packard. Stories of the humble garage where they started the company and how their ideas ultimately gave birth to Silicon Valley. Pointed references to Stanford’s Terman Engineering Building which was named for one of Bill and Dave’s EE professors, Frederick Terman, who mentored the duo and even helped them raise their "seed capital" of about $500.

Along with the stories of Bill and Dave in the Engineering department was a constant emphasis on entrepreneurship -- doing quality work, building great companies, and focusing on excellence for the sake of excellence. It seemed that examples of this were all around us, with SUN Microsystems (SUN being short for "Stanford University Network"), Cisco, HP, Yahoo!, and Google all being launched from the Stanford campus or the area just around Stanford.

It is with dismay, then, that I see the current situation at Yahoo, the troubles that HP has gone through recently, and what I would call a short term focus on the "3 to 5 year exit" at venture firms in general. The philosophy of building a great company seems to have taken a back seat (perhaps long ago) to focusing on short term wins and then getting out. Entrepreneurs and CEO-candidates are courted as star-athletes, signed to short term contracts, and then blown out if a company's stock price doesn't improve within 18 to 24 months. Perhaps this is inevitable in a post-dotcom-boom world, where getting rich has never been easier or more tempting. But it's also leading to a short term focus that is destructive to innovation.

Many company founders today might find it laughable that Dave Packard actually won the coin toss that gave him the right to name the company Packard-Hewlett, but declined to do so because he thought HP sounded better. Or that his gravestone read humbly "Rancher, etc.." rather than "Founder of Silicon Valley and Billionaire". Or that it actually took HP an extremely long time to go public (10 years from its date of founding). But knowing this bit of Silicon Valley history is a good example for all who are tech entrepreneurs and their investors to follow. At BIM, as we grow our ad network and data services businesses, we aim to take a longer term view geared toward development and innovation. And while I haven’t contemplated my own epitaph quite yet, one legacy I strive for is to continue to grow BIM; debt-free and as smartly as possible.

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About Timur Yarnall, CEO Broadcast Interactive Media