Looks like DivX has given up on Stage6 – it’s just too costly to operate… While they didn’t lay out exactly what those expenses are, in addition to the obvious bandwidth and hosting requirements of video, I assume policing content and the potential lawsuits (or costly licensing deals) were factors.
[…] the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. […] we tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service.
Stage6 closes this Thursday, February 28th. Unfortunately, for the same reasons, it’s likely we’ll see more of this… acquisitions (such as Revver and Maven) and shuttering of web video properties.