There’s been a lot of talk lately about online video platform providers looking to Akamai for CDN services. Brightcove’s been using them for a while now, Ooyala went against their own grain and decided to partner with them pseudo-exclusively, VMIX, Kit Digital, Multicast, and now Delve Networks (I guess they weren’t happy with EdgeCast – partnered in 2008). What’s the big deal here? Why is this such exciting news? So Akamai realized that the CDN space is becoming commoditized and decided to lower their once astronomical rates to play within the Small Medium Enterprise space. OK, now what?
It seems all these partnerships are only stalling the inevitable, convergence. BitGravity got into the Platform game several months back announcing OV APIs while Platform Providers like Ooyala and thePlatform have been touting their CDN services. With over 80 online video platforms and more than 40 CDNs, how long do you think it will take for either M&A conversations to get real or for incestuous relations to fire up?
