Investment to Speed Delivery of Streaming Media

Microsoft has invested US$30 million in Intervu, a company that offers technology, infrastructure, and services to speed and smooth the delivery of streaming audio and video over the Internet. Last fall, Microsoft made smaller investments in Akamai and iBeam, companies with similar offerings. Slow, jerky content is a key factor holding up wider use of streaming technology for more than short audio or video samples.

A publicly traded company based in San Diego, CA, Intervu (www.intervu.com) offers streaming media services for clients that include Bertlesmann, CNet, CNN, and NBC. It helps customers set up Web sites containing audio/video content, manage the production and encoding of live broadcasts, and deliver fast, smooth audio and video feeds through a patented distribution network of hundreds of servers strategically located in major Internet hosting centers. This last is probably the most interesting technology for Microsoft.

Intervu was one of the original members of Microsoft’s Windows Media Broadband Jumpstart Initiative, a coalition announced last October. The Jumpstart Initiative promotes audio and video delivery over broadband networks, bolstering Microsoft’s own Windows Media Technology (WMT) software and streaming media formats in particular. However, Intervu’s relationship with Microsoft is not exclusive. The company currently enables customers to encode and distribute content in both Real and WMT formats, and it is listed on RealNetworks’ site as a “highly recommended” member of the “RealPartner” program.