The TV Everywhere experience is now virtually… everywhere. And Adobe is right in the middle of the game with its authentication technology, Adobe Pass. Launched only six months ago, Adobe Pass is now available as a log-in option to roughly 90 percent of the pay-TV market. According to the company’s press release today, Adobe Pass includes Fox Networks, Turner Broadcasting, Hulu, and AMC among its customers, and the technology can be used for authentication with online services from Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Verizon, Cablevision, Charter, Suddenlink and others.

We announced Limelight Video Platform as one of the original Adobe Pass partners earlier this year. There are several advantages to the technology including its ability to streamline the integration process between programmers and pay-TV providers, as well as the fact that it doesn’t require consumers to suffer though any additional downloads or plug-ins before accessing premium content. As more premium content moves online, this ease-of-use factor grows increasingly important. The only way video gets monetized is by making the viewing  process simple for subscribers, and the security function smooth for providers.

Mobile video content is most popular in the first 30 days after publication. Now that should come as no surprise, but it does have implications for media archiving and monetization. From our customer data, we’ve found that on average, 88.8 percent of mobile video views take place in the first 30 days, with 95.5 percent taking place within a 90-day window. Publishers may use this information to fine-tune their media storage policies, or they may choose to target ad insertions only within the first 90 days after a piece of content is published. After 90 days, the value of most video assets (not all) goes down significantly.

With the release of Limelight REACH Version 4.8, our customers now have direct control over video deletion and ad insertion policies right from the OpsCenter interface. Both can be adjusted at a granular level, with users determining how long both primary videos and advertisements should remain active. Maybe they should all stay active forever, but maybe old video assets are just taking up space.

One of the great things about online gaming is the ability to extend the life of a title through a series of software updates. As any fan of Angry Birds knows, there’s a little thrill when the update comes in, and suddenly you have a flock (?) of new levels to play. But what’s in it for the game publisher? If the updates are free, as they often are, what’s the payback for the extra time and money invested in a single game?

Beyond building consumer loyalty, game upgrades open up new avenues for other forms of monetization. As we’ve talked about before with our download manager solution, there’s no reason to waste the time when a user is downloading a new file. Instead turn that upgrade experience into a revenue generator. Deliver interactive and video ads through the download interface. Or, create a retail storefront. Offer virtual goods and rack up micro-transactions online. Sell products for the offline world that promote fandom and extend the game brand even further. Advertising and upselling are common in other media. It’s only because the online gaming industry is still in its early stages that these tactics have barely begun to surface within the game experience.

For online gaming, a lot of the rules and best practices have yet to be sorted out, and that means there’s money being left on the table. Where monetization is concerned, there’s a lot of opportunity ahead.

Our own Jonathan Cobb, CTO for the Limelight Mobility and Monetization group, recently participated in an interview with John Ebbert over at AdExchanger.com. He discussed the new REACH Interactive product, challenges that publishers face in the mobile video space, and the growing publisher ecosystem. What also surfaced in the interview were three specific trends in mobile video advertising. Here’s what Jonathan sees happening in the industry today, and what’s just over the horizon.

1. Publishers are looking for more control.

Initially, online video publishers were content to let ad networks do most of the monetization work. Now, however, they’re looking to control more of the action. Increasingly publishers are taking a hybrid approach, combining ad network relationships with direct ad sales that let them capture premium rates on their most valuable inventory.

2. There will soon be a glut of mobile video inventory.

As consumers get used to the idea of watching video on their mobile phones, publishers will increase their mobile distribution, and that will raise the amount of available ad inventory. However, even though there will soon be an oversupply, most of the new inventory will not be associated with premium content. Premium mobile video content will still be relatively limited and will command higher rates.

3. Standardization in metrics

Mobile ad measurement is evolving, and there’s an increasing push to standardize metrics. The more advertisers come to rely on the mobile channel, the faster we’ll start to see consensus around how to define and measure mobile audiences.

Here’s a new one. Shazam, the company known for its app that lets you identify and tag songs with your phone, has now raised a substantial amount of money to get into the interactive TV business. It’s adding a twist to the old example of using “web TV” to buy a piece of clothing your favorite TV star is wearing. Shazam’s approach is to partner with retailers and television networks to tag shows and commercials in a way that lets consumers open up a mobile app and instantly get access to information about products on the TV screen. See a shirt you like? Shazam wants you to be able to learn more and buy it instantly right from your phone.

The strategy here is highly innovative, but it also exemplifies a trend we’re seeing in the advertising world where companies want to bridge the gap between online and offline experiences. QR codes solve the same type of problem, as do location-based apps like Shopkick that allow consumers to check in at physical locations and earn online credit. Now that more of our world is Internet-connected, we need ways to bring the online and offline domains together.

According to a recent survey conducted by Group SJR and Liz Claiborne Inc (and reported on my Mashable), nearly half of smartphone owners, and more than half of tablet owners, plan to buy more products on their mobile devices in the future. That’s good news for the mobile commerce sector, and it suggests we’ll continue to see further innovation in the industry as retailers recognize the growing value of this new channel. In recent months we’ve seen a rise in QR code activity, new mobile ad formats, location-based apps, mobile payment apps, and other technologies designed to influence mobile shoppers and facilitate purchasing. What’s next on the horizon?

Today we are introducing Limelight REACH Interactive, a new service for in-app advertising that takes the best of our mobile video solutions and combines it with our award-winning interactive advertising technology. REACH Interactive lets publishers insert in-stream video ads into their mobile applications in a way that engages consumers, but doesn’t take away from the primary app experience. It does this by making pre-roll and post-roll ads “tappable,” allowing users to open new microsite landing pages, all without ever leaving the app. In other words, consumers can learn more about the ads they’re viewing (a benefit to advertisers), while at the same time publishers stay connected to their audiences within the app domain.

Other benefits of REACH Interactive include:

• Easy integration with iOS and Android devices
• Enhanced analytics, including data on video start and end times, playback duration, user interactions, buffering events, and more
• The ability to pause video playback for ad interaction
• The ability to make ads unskippable

You can see a demo of REACH Interactive here. The new product launch also comes with a re-branding of our entire line-up of Limelight Networks mobile solutions. All mobile solutions now fall under the REACH umbrella, which includes REACH Video (formerly REACH), REACH Ads (formerly ADS), and the new REACH Interactive.

In a recent panel-format webinar on Monetizing Access to Digital Content, our own Jason Thibeault gave a presentation on streaming video and monetization strategies. The slide deck covered multiple issues, but one point Thibeault highlighted was the increasing shift from Flash streaming to HTTP. Apple effectively changed the online video landscape with the iPad, and the implications of that product are still manifesting more than a year after the tablet was first launched.

To be sure, Flash is still king today, and Limelight Networks has one of the largest Flash media server footprints on the planet. But there’s more HTTP streaming on the way.

Here are five characteristics Jason Thibeault listed as critical components of streaming video in the future:

• More HTTP
• Adaptive bitrate streaming
• Multi-format availability
• Access-rights management
• Content from the cloud

For video providers, the news here is all positive. These technologies contribute to a better consumer experience on more devices, which means more opportunities to present ads and offer subscription services. In other words, more opportunities to generate revenue.

Mobile is the new frontier and with roughly one billion mobile broadband subscribers around the globe, it offers rich new opportunities for advertisers.

As more publishers get on board with mobile monetization, we’re rapidly adding to our list of sites that support EyeWonder ad formats. Today we’re announcing integration with Microsoft’s premium mobile properties, including MSN, Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and FoxSports.

“EyeWonder is a solid addition to our growing list of certified industry leading rich media solution providers,” said Raj Kapoor, Director, Global Product Planning & Marketing, Mobile, Local & Commerce. “EyeWonder not only brings a growing global footprint but a robust portfolio of both online and mobile rich media solutions as well. EyeWonder is excited to be working with us and we believe our partnership will strengthen our multi-screen story by allowing us to deliver highly interactive and engaging ad experiences for Microsoft’s premium properties on the PC and mobile.”

These mobile landing spots support EyeWonder expandable and non-expandable banners, as well as standard and click-to-video ad varieties.

With this new initiative, advertisers will have access to the most robust and unique mobile ad formats, providing them the opportunity to reach and engage audiences worldwide across mobile and connected devices.

Want to see an example? Check out this demo of a click-to-video ad, best viewed on a mobile device. It’s the type of interactive format that’s now available in media buys targeting Microsoft’s mobile advertising inventory.

Interested in finding out more about EyeWonder mobile ad formats on Microsoft properties? Read Microsoft’s blog post here.

DIGIDAY has released the results of a recent survey sponsored by YuMe (but conducted independently), and the news for online video advertising is decidedly good. More than 45% of the 225 agency and advertiser respondents said they expect to increase their digital video ad spend this year. Even better, if you work out the calculations, roughly 5%  of those 225 respondents are adding money to their overall spend in order to hit digital video. That’s instead of stealing the dollars from somewhere else. Extrapolating out from this (admittedly) small survey, we should see more revenue from online video ads and the ad market as a whole in 2011.

Most advertisers are looking at digital video ads to increase brand awareness and engagement, and that certainly jives with the way we’ve seen video successfully used in marketing campaigns. However, some publishers aren’t on board with video advertising yet because they’re afraid it still lacks reach. That may be true now – although it’s arguable – but adoption is growing. More connected media devices, including smartphones and tablets, mean more opportunity for consumers to watch video online. And even though publishers have to support a number of platforms in order to reach a wide mobile audience, that too is not an insurmountable challenge. In fact, it’s rather easy if you have access to the right tools.

As a side note to the DIGIDAY study, a recent survey of 415 smartphone users conducted by ad agency MGH found that consumers are increasingly using QR codes to access information about products. A full 32% of respondents to the survey had used a QR code, and nearly a quarter of that group had scanned a QR code in order to access online video.