The FCC said that IBM will pay $2.25 million to settle allegations it violated the FCC's E-rate program rules.

The E-rate subsidizes advance communications to schools and libraries. The FCC alleged that IBM had not satisfied competitive bidding rules in providing communications services to New York City and El Paso, Texas, schools using E-rate money.

The alleged violations date from 2005 to 2008 for New York and 2001 for El Paso, where IBM allegedly provided ineligible equipment and services because it had not satisfied those competitive bidding requirements, which are meant to insure that the FCC, and the federal government, get the most bang for their subsidy buck.

“As stewards of the federal fiscal, we must protect the Universal Service Fund from waste, fraud, and abuse and ensure that funding is distributed in the most cost-effective manner,” FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement, adding: "I would especially like to thank our General Counsel, Tom Johnson, whose hands-on efforts in negotiating the settlement led the way to this successful conclusion.”

In addition to paying the money, IBM agreed to train its employees on the rules prior to submitting any future bids for E-rate money.

A Berkeley, California-based startup says it has a new way to distribute streaming video that eliminates the need for traditional video encoding and content delivery networks (CDNs).

Eluvio was founded by Michelle Munson, a Cambridge-trained software engineer and IBM veteran. The company’s patent-pending “Content Fabric” architecture is a global software overlay network that enables just-in-time video distribution—stream or download file—directly from the source.

The system, Eluvio says, eliminates the need to create additional copies of files used in distribution networks or storage facilities using a novel representation of media and data protocol implemented in a blockchain network to create a direct-to-consumer media distribution network.

MGM is using the Eluvio Content Fabric for global streaming to web, mobile and TV Everywhere audiences of certain properties, including transcoding, multi-format encryption and DRM, access control and audience reporting.

“The economics of today’s video ecosystem is defined and hampered by yesterday’s technologies, and we aim to change that,” said Munson, who serves as CEO and co-founder of Eluvio. “The Eluvio Content Fabric enables content owners to manage and distribute video and large form content in ways never before possible, opening publishers to more direct monetization opportunities, and reducing costs by minimizing core bandwidth and storage, and radically streamlining the traditional media distribution workflow.”

Munson is introducing Eluvio alongside her co-founder, Serban Simu, at IBC in Amsterdam. In 2003, Munson and Simu also founded Aspera, which invented the FASP fast file transport protocol. Aspera was acquired by IBM in 2014. 

Here’s the first of a series of news briefs emerging from this week’s NAB show in Las Vegas.

-A coalition of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), America's Public Television Stations (APTS) and the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) have filed a joint petition with the FCC requesting local TV stations and TV receiver manufactures are allowed to adopt ATSC 3.0, a new, IP-based over-the-air broadcast transmission standard, on a voluntary, market-driven basis. The petition requests the FCC approve the core transmission technology for the new standard as an option for local broadcasters and receiver manufacturers, they said, noting that elements of the next-gen TV standard will be displayed at the show.

As envisioned, ATSC 3.0 will support Ultra HD, advanced emergency alert information, increased programming streams and channels, mobile broadcast TV, immersive audio, interactivity features and datacasting, they explained.

-Ericsson has introduced MediaFirst Video Processing, a platform that comes almost six months after Ericsson acquired Envivio. Ericsson said the new platform combines video processing and video compression, and complements its cloud-focused MediaFirst TV platform for OTT and MVPD partners. Ericsson has also introduced its global content discovery portfolio for TV and VOD, a platform that comes together following its acquisition of TV metadata and entertainment image content provider, FYI Television.

-SeaChange International said it’s showing the streaming of live channels and VOD/time-shifted services running on its Adrenalin and Rave OTT platform on Android TV-powered devices, such as the Google Nexus Player and Nvidia Shield.

-NBC Olympics, a unit of NBC Sports Group, said it has picked Cisco Systems to provide IP video contribution and distribution solutions, along with networking and security solutions for its production of the Summer Olympic Games in Brazil, set for August 5 to 21, 2016. Cisco noted it will help with on-site production by streamlining the management and publishing of video content to consumer devices using solutions from the Cisco Media Blueprint, the company’s new applications and converged IP infrastructure approach for producing, storing, distributing and securing broadcast media content.

-OTT and TV Everywhere specialist Anvato has added functions to its Media Content Platform that enable content owners, service providers and media companies to deploy over-the-top services more rapidly. Enhancements include enhanced business insights (real-time metrics), “instant live-to-VOD,” and support for dynamic ad insertion across devices. Anvato also said MCP now supports Roku TV and Amazon Fire platforms with “frame-accurate server-side DAI stitched stream capabilities.”

-Net Insight has entered a partnership with Verimatrix for a secure, live OTT platform, called Sye, that utilizes Verimatrix’s Video Content Authority System. Net Insight said the deal will give the companies the ability to jointly deliver a digital rights management (DRM) solution for live, premium OTT services. Separately, Net Insight has teamed with Accedo to deliver live OTT via mobile apps. That arrangement will match Net Insight’s Sye platform with Accedo’s software development kit for video apps.

-Swisscom has tapped Nokia’s 5910 Video  Services Appliance for its “2.0” TV offering, including coming support for 4K/UHD video. The 5910 VSA includes Fast Channel Change (less than one second) and Retransmission, which prevents video and audio distortion, Nokia said. Swisscom's more than 1.3 million IPTV subscribers use Fast Channel Change today, and will do the same for Swisscom’s coming launch of live UHD streams

-IBM said Comic-Con HQ, Canadian Broadcasting Corp, AOL and Broadway Video are tapping the company’s new Cloud Video unit to launch new channels for and to and improve video management of their respective services. Among that group, Comic-Con HQ, a partnership between Comic-Con International and Lionsgate,  has selected IBM Cloud Video’s Clearleap platform to power its new subscription video-on-demand service, which will debut May 7.  IBM acquired Clearleap late last year.

-IC Real Tech has introduced the ALLie Camera, a 360-degree camera that allows for 24/7 viewing, recording and live streaming, as well as still-capturing and the ability to share content on social networks. IC Real Tech also said it has hired photography and video industry veteran Mark Sherengo as VP of sales and marketing.

RELATED:IBM Wraps Weather Company Deal

Online video is rapidly becoming big business for Big Blue.

IBM, a company that conjures up images of the early days of computing, is pushing hard into the world of multiscreen video with a growing, evolving cloud-powered platform. Rather than baking it all from scratch, IBM’s recipe has called for a sprinkling of M&A moves that have further consolidated the video-streaming market.

Late last year, IBM snapped up Clearleap, the Duluth, Ga.-based cloud-video back office and infrastructure firm. It followed up that move with its more recent acquisition of Ustream, a live video-streaming specialist.

Both deals came in the wake of IBM’s 2014 purchase of Aspera, a vendor that enables large data transfers over broadband networks, and its acquisition of Cleversafe, a maker of object-based storage software and appliances.

Clearleap and Ustream have been folded into a newly formed unit called IBM Cloud Video Services. The division, led by former Clearleap CEO Braxton Jarratt, positions IBM to take on the sector’s other giants, including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, as well as Comcast, which is becoming a force in the cloud-powered content delivery and video-streaming market.

IBM’s buying spree also ties it more closely to the world of video entertainment distribution. Clearleap’s partners include HBO, A+E Networks, BBC America, Sony Movie Channel, Verizon Communications and Time Warner Cable. Ustream’s client stable counts HBO, the National Football League, Discovery Channel and Facebook, which has made video a key component of its social-media platform.

By adding Ustream to the mix, IBM can tie into a key trend in streaming — preparation and delivery of live events. On-demand video is part of Ustream’s repertoire, but “live has been our core competency from the very beginning,” CEO Brad Hunstable said.

Ustream has its own global content delivery network, but has also built an abstraction layer that enables it to plug into Akamai and other content delivery netwoks (CDNs) around the world, taking advantage of their transit and peering relationships.

That “software-defined content delivery network” lets Ustream optimize video quality at the individual viewer level, said Hunstable, who will continue with IBM. “As [video] traverses the open Internet, optimizing for the best path and the highest quality is very critical.”

Ustream will also help IBM reach into different parts of the market. Its “Pro” platform, for example, is a generic, all-purpose system that can take on large-scale events, while its “Align” product taps the same core technology but is tailored for smaller events, such as corporate training videos and town halls. Align is “like an internal version of YouTube,” Hunstable said.

The team-up with IBM will fuel the “next phase of our growth” and deliver a “different kind of scale,” Hunstable said, noting that Ustream had reached an inflection point. To reach the next step, it needed to either consider a major round of capital financing or take on a strategic partner, he said.

“Live [streaming] is definitely hot right now,” Hunstable said, adding that virtual reality presents another significant opportunity.

RELATED: Big Blue Goes Big on Video Streaming [subscription required]

IBM said it has closed its acquisition of The Weather Company’s business-to-business, mobile and cloud-based web properties (including weather.com and Weather Underground), The Weather Company brand, and WSI, its global business-to-business brand.

As previously announced, IBM is not buying Weather’s cable TV unit. The Weather Channel will continue to operate independently, but will license weather forecast data and analytics from IBM under a long-term contract. Financial terms of the acquisition and the licensing agreement were not disclosed.

The Weather Company’s Cloud Data Platform will become the “backbone” for IBM’s Watson IoT Cloud platform.

IBM said The Weather Company will now be led by Cameron Clayton, The Weather Company’s’ former president, product and technology. The Weather Company has become part of IBM’s Data and Analytics Platform business unit.

David Kenny, former chairman and CEO of The Weather Company the once president of Akamai Technologies, will head up the IBM Watson platform business. Michael Rhodin, who launched the Watson business, will lead Watson Business Development, IBM said.

In tandem with the deal, IBM announced plans to expand weather.com into five new markets -- China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Japan, expecting to boost the site’s global user base by “hundreds of millions over the next three years.”

IBM expanded its cloud video play again via the M&A path, this time snapping up Ustream, a provider of cloud-driven live video streaming services that counts HBO, the National Football League and Discovery Channel, NASA, and Facebook among its clients.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the purchase comes on the heels of IBM’s acquisition of Clearleap, a multiscreen video platform specialist based in Duluth, Ga.

San Francisco-based Ustream handles on-demand and live streams to about 80 million viewers per month, IBM said, noting that the portfolio includes Ustream Demand, Ustream Align (for secure internal employee communications), and Ustream Pro Broadcasting, its scaled live video streaming system.

Ustream will become part of its newly-formed IBM Cloud Video Services unit that combines Big  Blue’s R&D labs and its strategic acquisitions and investments, including Aspera and Cleversafe.  That unit is led by general manager Braxton Jarratt, the former CEO of Clearleap.

“Aligning our expansive video and cloud innovations into an integrated unit will create opportunities for clients to take advantage of this medium in the most strategic way possible,” Robert LeBlanc, SVP of IBM Cloud, said in a statement.

“Through this latest acquisition and the creation of a new cloud business unit, IBM will provide an end-to-end suite of digital video solutions for the first time under one roof,” added Jarratt.

IBM said 2015 revenues for its cloud business rose 57%, to $10.2 billion.

IBM’s Ustream deal again shines the spotlight on the M&A action swirling around video streaming, and follows other recent mergers, including Amazon Web Service’s buy of Elemental Technologies, Turner Broadcasting System’s takeover of iStreamPlanet.

Few know and appreciate that one of the best examples of the power, indeed the magic, of modern data analytics is Netflix’s series House of Cards (HOC).

Indeed, HOC registers as one of the most successful TV and video programming introductions of all time. Yet, what is most remarkable is how HOC was developed and introduced. As HOC star Kevin Spacey explained in his iconic YouTube speech, “Netflix was the only network that said, ‘We believe in you…we’ve run our data, and it tells us the audience would watch this series’” (emphasis added).

Netflix replaced the traditional (and very expensive) “pilot” TV test process with intimate knowledge (via intensive data analytics) of the Netflix viewer. Netflix used its sophisticated data analytics as a basis to invest $100 million upfront in HOC; then, as a basis to green light HOC for at least four seasons (thru 2016), and for today’s 39 completed episodes. Today, Netflix producers envision a 12-season collection of HOC, through 2023.

Anther Example: AMC and 'Mad Men'

Other ways in which data about viewers is being collected are nearly as interesting. AMC, the network home of The Walking Dead and Mad Men, has also taken a fascinating lean toward data collection and analysis.

As noted in a recent, free IBM-New Bay Media whitepaper, Vitaly Tsivin, AMC’s SVP of business intelligence, used IBM’s advanced analytics to get a richer picture of who its viewers are, what they want, and how to keep their attention in an increasingly crowded entertainment marketplace.

“We need to know who’s watching and why, and we need to know it quickly, so that we can decide…whether to run an ad or a promo in a particular slot during tomorrow night’s episode of Mad Men,” Tsivin said.

Much of the challenge comes from having so much information available – hundreds of billions of rows of data from industry providers such as Nielsen and comScore; from channels such as AMC’s TV everywhere live Web streaming app and video-on-demand service; from retail partners such as iTunes and Amazon; and from third-party online video services such as Netflix and Hulu – and the need to analyze data minute-by-minute and viewer-by-viewer.

And CBS, Too

A recent article talked of CBS News Digital (CBSN), a free, ad-supported streaming news network, available on the Web, via mobile and on connected TVs. Providing 15 hours a day, typically, of news-related content, CBSN taps into its deep well of video viewer data and analytics, much of it via social media, to determine what  viewers want to see (or see more of).

The data analysis also helps CBS News strategize what content to promote on its social channels. Additionally, data influences CBSN content in the presentation itself, i.e., if the average age of the viewing audience is 40 years old, a subtle but important change involves dressing male news anchors without ties, and having all anchors stand instead of sit behind a desk occasionally.

CBSN is another prime example of how networks and others in the ecosystem are accessing data and analyzing it to drive better viewing and thus more profits in the making and distribution of content.

10 Lessons

The IBM white paper mentioned above spells out 10 key lessons that members of the telecom, media, and entertainment ecosystem need to consider and eventually understand and implement if they are to be successful in marketing and selling future content, including (1) Know Your Goals; (2) Know the Viewer; and (8)Realize the Vastness and Potential of Today’s Analytics.

A current telecom adage has it, “We will see more change in the next 10 years than we have in the past 100.” Data analytics in the media, entertainment and telecom worlds (especially the video part of those) is a perfect example of this very lesson.

Jimmy Schaeffler is chairman and CSO ofThe Carmel Group, a streaming/broadband, broadcast and pay TV/video consultancy based in Carmel by the Sea, Calif.; he writes about telecommunications, entertainment and media.

IBM has struck a deal to  acquire The Weather Company’s B2B, mobile and cloud-based web properties, including WSI, weather.com, Weather Underground and The Weather Company brand.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the TV segment – The Weather Channel – will not be acquired by IBM, but will license weather forecast data and analytics from IBM under a long-term contract.

IBM said the deal will “serve as the foundation for the new Watson IoT Unit and Watson IoT Cloud platform,” expanding on a $3 billion commitment made by IBM in March 2015.  IBM said Weather Company’s cloud data platform handles 26 billion inquiries each day, and that the platform will enable IBM to more rapidly collect and analyze global data that can be applied to Watson. Weather Company’s models, IBM said, analyze data from 3 billion weather forecast “reference points,” more than 40 million smartphones and 50,000 airplane flights per day, underpinning data-driven products for more than 5,000 clients.

The deal comes after The Weather Company said earlier this year that it would shift its weather data services platform that powers its B2B division to the IBM Cloud.

“We see the next wave of improved forecasting coming from the intersection of atmospheric science, computer science and analytics,” said David Kenny, chairman and CEO, The Weather Company. “Upon closing of this deal, The Weather Company will continue to be able to help improve the precision of weather forecasts and further deepen IBM’s Watson IoT capabilities by enabling the integration of global atmosphere and weather insights with enterprise information to create disruptive industry solutions that optimize decision-making.”

The Weather Channel, meanwhile, will continue to operate independently. 

"The Weather Channel will continue to be owned and supported by our existing shareholders -- Bain Capital, Blackstone and NBCUniversal -- and operate as a standalone business,” Dave Shull, CEO of The Weather Channel Television Network, said in a statement. “Each month, almost half of all American households tune in to The Weather Channel network for coverage of severe weather, daily forecasts, and the science behind the weather. With our world class weather experts and thousands of localized versions of the network, we are uniquely positioned to provide the world’s best storm coverage as a hyper-local streaming service as well. We are continuing to invest in our strategic partnerships with our distributors, advertisers, and emerging technology start-ups."

Computer giant IBM is in advanced talks with The Weather Channel Cos. concerning a purchase of its digital assets, according to a report on tech news website Re/Code.

The Weather Channel Cos. include is linear cable channel and online assets like weather.com, Weather Underground and Weather Services International. The assets have been unofficially on the block for about a year,  and in August co-owners The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital hired investment bankers J.P. Morgan and PJT Partners to begin entertaining offers for the company.  NBC Universal, which also owns a stake in The Weather Channel, is not expected to make a bid for the company.

According to re/code, IBM is in advanced talks with The Weather Channel, but a still could still fall apart. IBM partnered with The Weather Channel earlier this year with its WSI business-to-business initiative to provide reap-time weather data and analytics to enable communities to predict natural disasters before they happen. Re/Code said a Weather purchase could provide sophisticated weather analysis for IBM’s cloud computing initiatives like a law enforcement database it is constructing.   

The Weather Channel has come under fire recently, being dropped in March by Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV service. In 2014 DirecTV dropped the channel for about three months.  The network, which is available in about 100 million homes, has said it is scaling back on reality programming in favor of more weather forecasting information. 

Blackstone and Bain Capital teamed with Comcast’s NBC Universal to buy the channel in 2008 for about $3.5 billion. In the second quarter, Comcast wrote down its investment in the channel to about $86 million, $250 million less than its original valuation.   

The Weather Company and IBM have launched a "global strategic alliance" that will integrate real-time weather "big data" into an array of services, primarily aimed at business/professional customers but also affecting data collection and delivery via TWC's subsidiary The Weather Channel and other media outlets. 

The deal is a big win for IBM, since The Weather Company will shift its vast weather data services platform to the IBM Cloud, where it will be integrated with IBM analytics and cloud services. TWC had primary used Amazon Web Services for its cloud computing requirements.

The TWC/IBM alliance is the first connection in IBM's plan to invest $3 billion during the next four years in an Internet of Things (IoT) unit that will develop a portfolio of cloud services, software and related intellectual property, according to Bob Picciano, senior vice president, IBM Analytics. “The Weather Company and IBM partnership can be a catalyst to making critical business systems even smarter," he said.  Financial details of the TWC/IBM alliance were not revealed.

Initial plans call for WSI, TWC's professional services subsidiary, to provide data to IBM, which will combine live weather forecasting with a range of business data, providing value-added services to corporate users such as media, aviation, energy, insurance, agribusiness and retailers.

The companies said that their collaboration of IoT and cloud computing will enable the venture to collect and process information from more than 100,000 weather sensors, aircraft and drones, millions of smartphones, buildings and even moving vehicles. WSI’s forecasting system ingests and processes data from thousands of sources, resulting in approximately 2.2 billion unique forecast points worldwide, and averages more than 10 billion forecasts a day on active weather days.

In addition to televised forecasts, the WSI data powers weather apps for Apple, Google, Microsoft and others.

"Combining weather data with traditional business data and rich data from an unprecedented number of Internet of Things (IoT) enabled systems and devices will fundamentally transform enterprise decision-making," the companies said in a joint announcement. 

The deal underscores the way that some content vendors with roots in the media industry are finding new ways to exploit their business-to-business capabilities as well as leveraging new IoT tools to create targeted services.

The Weather Company is owned by a consortium that includes NBCUniversal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital.

IBM's new $3 billion commitment to IoT and Big Data projects affirms recent indications that the computer services behemoth is accelerating its activities into the Internet of Things. In late February, IBM and Juniper Networks revealed plans to collaborate on a project that could cover IoT applications, especially for predictive analytics that would improve mobile experiences.  Last October, IBM teamed up with Twitter in a deal that is intended to use IBM’s data-analysis capabilities to mine information from Tweets; however that relationship is not believed to involve IoT.