YouTube to Offer Users 'Insight'

Google has introduced a new, free tool to YouTube that will provide
those who post video clips on the mega-popular site--whether they are
semiprofessionals or media conglomerates--with deeper insights into
when, where and how often their video clips are viewed.

Using YouTube Insight, publishers are able to analyze the viewing
patterns or individual videos far more thoroughly than in the past,
when only total views and users ratings were available. For example,
with the new tool, any content producer who posts videos on YouTube
can examine what days of the week or hours of the day traffic spikes,
what U.S. states account for the most streaming and how long
particular clips remain popular.

Theoretically, content publishers can use the tool to determine
programming strategies. Advertisers can use it to test the popularity
of several different ads in different parts of the country. Media
planners could use it gauge when and where their best spending
opportunities lie.

"Effectively, we've become the world's largest focus group," said
YouTube product manager Tracey Chan. "There are so many use cases.
This really enables programmers and marketers to optimize their
presence on YouTube."

One use case that is not available up front is a measure of total
audience reach for an individual video – something that many in the
burgeoning online video space have been clamoring for, but something
that is not available upfront in YouTube Insight. However, Chan said
that several innovations to the new tool are already in the works.

It's even possible that YouTube Insight could be used to measure video
traffic on other sites – something that is mostly Nielsen or
comScore's domain at the moment. "If there is a strong desire, there
is the ability to take it to other platforms," he said. "We're really
open."

Alternative Flash Servers Follow H.264 Path

Last week Wowza introduced live H.264 capability in a preview version
of Wowza Media Server Pro; Red5 promises live H.264 to come in an
upcoming release of Red5 Server.

"As the popularity of Flash player video delivery increases, fueled by
Adobe's support for the H.264 video codec and the release of the Flash
Media Server 3 family of streaming servers, two alternative servers
that have also been growing in popularity continue to add features to
keep pace.

One of those alternatives, the Wowza Media Server Pro, staked a claim
last week as the first Flash media server to support live H.264
encoding using, as Wowza puts it, "readily available H.264 encoders
that support standard RTP/RTSP protocol." While the server won't be
available for final release until April, the preview version has
already begun to create interest. The Wowza Media Server Pro 1.5.0
preview release is available for download from the company's website
and, according to the company's press release, has been tested for
interoperability with Apple QuickTime Broadcaster, Vara Software
Wirecast, and HaiVision SD and HD hai1000 series network video system.
The last encoder mentioned, from HaiVision, is a high-definition H2.64
encoder, which means that Wowza also has provided a path to live HD
H.264 streaming.

Not to be outdone, the team at Red5, makers of the Red5
Server--another alternative Flash server--have also announced their
intentions to put H.264 into their product.

"Red5, or more specifically, our team member Paul Gregoire, is
working on the h.264 support," said Chris Allen in a February 14 post
on FlashComGuru. "We are releasing Red5 0.7 today or tomorrow, and the
h.264 stuff will follow soon thereafter in 0.7.1."

One of the reasons that alternative Flash servers have found a
footing was Adobe's previous pricing policy for Flash Media Servers.
Along the way, though, these alternative servers began to add features
that appealed to certain content delivery networks and broadcasters.
So, while the pricing on the Flash Media Streaming Server has fallen
to the same price as the Wowza Media Server Pro ($995) the market for
alternative servers has not completely disappeared.

Video Search News Conference

There is an upcoming conference I'd recommend you to check: they have lined up great panels, great speakers and great topics! Check it out, it's on April 7-9 in San Francisco.

Click here: VideoSearchNews.com

Should television and Internet ratings for shows be combined?

From Venture Beat:

With more content making its way from the small screen to your computer screen, it was only a matter of time before television executives realized the number of viewers watching a show on the Internet is probably important too.

At the OMMA Global conference in Hollywood yesterday, CBS Interactive's vice president and chief marketing officer, Patrick Keane, suggested that perhaps shows should combine television and Internet ratings, reports Online Media Daily.

The case Keane cited was CBS's show "Jericho," which was once — and still is — near cancellation. The show's 4.2 rating (meaning 4.2 percent of homes with televisions in the U.S. were tuned in) is hardly stellar. However, when factoring in the audience watching it online, the rating jumps almost a full point to 5.1. This difference can literally make or break a show.

Another example is NBC's hit show "The Office." That show was not always a hit and was, in fact, teetering on cancellation when NBC saw an explosion in popularity via Apple's iTunes store. That audience has since helped the show translate into a blockbuster on the network as well.

A combination rating would seem to make sense on the surface, but monetization remains somewhat of an issue for online programming — and a show's life or death naturally boils down to money. iTunes offers direct revenues to networks, but NBC backed away because it felt it was getting a raw deal (somewhat ironic given the above-mentioned salvation of "The Office" via iTunes).

For streaming video, newer services such as Hulu offer a nice online experience with advertisements that are not too intrusive, but the jury is still out on whether it will succeed or not.

Going the other way, a show that originated online, "Quarterlife," was not able to translate its online success into viewership on a network. The show was yanked after just one airing on NBC last month.

Video company Clearleap raises $9 million from Trinity Ventures and Noro-Moseley Partners

Video technology company Clearleap claims it is expanding viewer
options for "what's on TV." The details are vague as the company
appears to be in stealth mode, but it says it is working a new model
for bringing the near-infinite range of online video content to
television.

The Atlanta, Georgia company has raised $9 million in a round led by
Trinity Ventures and Noro-Moseley Partners. There's also a regional
digital media angle here. Atlanta is also home to Noro-Moseley, which
invests in companies based in the South — and to Turner, the large
cable television arm of Time Warner. Notably, individual investor Jim
Chiddix also invested: He's a former chief technology officer at Time
Warner Cable (a different cable division of the Time Warner
conglomerate). So did individual investor Sig Mosley, who's the the
president of Atlanta-based investment firm Imlay Investements.

The company itself boasts a number of founders with experience
building video technology.

Adobe Working on Media Player for iPhone

Adobe Systems Inc. has begun work to create a media player destined
for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen said
Tuesday, thus adding a new wrinkle to a standoff between the two
long-term partners.

The X Factor: Why online pre-roll is dead

From iMedia -

Pre-roll was a bad idea from the start. It was lazy traditional thinking encroaching on an innovative medium. Here's why.

Online pre-roll video is dead. Okay, maybe not dead, but it has checked into a roach motel. Wow, did we screw this one up. All of us. I have received a lot of calls lately from media properties talking about all the extra inventory they have for pre-roll. And the prices dropped again! Wow, isn't that great? I'm reminded of something a friend told me once when we saw a sales sign in a shop window: "2 for 1 Suits." He said: "If they really wanted to screw you, they'd give you three of them."

You see, it's not just about the cost. So what happened? Numerous things, but they boil down to five points:

  1. How the client end is managing the buy
  2. How it is measured
  3. Ad content
  4. Ad content plasticity
  5. Consumer tolerance

Now, you may be sitting there reading this and thinking I'm insane and that your programs are great, but I'll just tackle those points and let you make up your own mind. Oh hell, no I won't, I'm right, just listen. I can sum up all five points easily.

Who is managing: A lot of companies made their initial foray into pre-roll through the traditional side of their business; their offline agency trying to encroach on digital. They had the commercial assets and weren't giving them up easily. "Hey, we can use the television commercial and just put it in front of content online." Done.

How it's measured: How are you going to measure it? "Oh, it's about branding." Pa-lease. As I've said before, if you are not going to measure, and it exists online, don't do it. At least measure the branding impact if you're going to use that cop-out. Dynamic Logic, ever heard of it? And if not that, then Insight Express? Cookie viewers and measure post-view to your site over a week, and then pop your own survey to those that were cookied -- 'cause trust me, if they didn't come within a week, it didn't do your brand any good. And that's where the shift happened. The buys shifted to those who were controlling the online media plan -- the ROI side of things. Once you remove the "branding" escape clause, for many people it just didn't make sense.

Ad content: Let's face it, the ad content sucked. And for the most part, it never got better. Developing web-specific video content is still expensive. Agencies haven't figured out how to do guerilla production, and they charge too much. The time frames take longer to create, and then you have SAG or some other rights agency sucking out more of the budget. It's fine when you're spending millions in TV but absolutely nightmarish for online. Unless it is going to be a massive ongoing effort, the cost benefit analysis just doesn't work. So what do you? You slap that 15-second spot up and call it a day.

ROO Group Signs LOI to Acquire Kamera

ROO Group (OTC Bulletin Board: RGRP - News) today announced that it
had entered into a Content Distribution Agreement (CDA) with Kamera
Content AB, providing for a collateralized and callable advance
payment by ROO of US$300,000. The CDA provides ROO with an exclusive
time period during which to fully negotiate the acquisition of Kamera.
The binding CDA was signed between the companies on March 12, 2008, at
the same time as the execution of a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI)
for the purchase of 100% of the capital stock of Kamera by ROO.

Kamera is privately held and based in Stockholm, Sweden, with certain
back-office operations in Cairo, Egypt. Through its proprietary
software and content distribution agreements, Kamera enables corporate
clients such as Vodafone, MSN, Orange, Telefonica, O2, Hutchinson and
China Mobile to deliver IPTV channels to their customers over mobile
and online networks. Kamera's content library includes localized,
ready-to-publish clips from ABC News, Associated Press (AP), SNTV and
others, and its proprietary ingestion engine allows for video content
to be transcoded into any mobile/digital format.

Online Video Viewing Down in January after Record-Breaking December

YouTube.com accounted for one-third of the 9.8 billion videos viewed
online in the U.S. in January, according to comScore's Video Metrix.
That total was down slightly from the more than 10.1 billion viewed
during a record-breaking December 2007, writes MarketingCharts.

Google Lead Grows
* Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property in
January with nearly 3.4 billion videos viewed (34.3 percent share of
videos), gaining 1.7 share points versus the previous month.
* Google's YouTube.com accounted for more than 96 percent of all
videos viewed at the property.
* Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 584 million (6
percent), followed by Yahoo Sites with 315 million (3.2 percent) and
Microsoft Sites with 199 million (2 percent).

Online Video Viewers
* More than 139 million U.S. Internet users spent an average of
206 minutes per person viewing online video in January.
* Google Sites also attracted the most viewers (80 million), and
they spent an average of 110 minutes watching video.
* Fox Interactive attracted the second most viewers (53.9
million), followed by Yahoo Sites (36.3 million) and AOL LLC (21.9
million).

Other Notable Findings from January 2008
* More than three-quarters of the total U.S. internet audience
(75.7 percent) viewed online video.
* 78.5 million viewers watched 3.25 billion videos on YouTube.com
(41.4 videos per viewer).
* 49.4 million viewers watched 534 million videos on MySpace.com
(10.8 videos per viewer).
* The average online video duration was 2.9 minutes.
* The average online video viewer consumed 70 videos.

Hulu’s long tail of old TV shows and movies — something for everyone

Most people know Hulu as the site where they can go to (legally) watch
currently popular television shows like Family Guy, The Office, 30
Rock and movies like Ice Age.

But the Hulu library of TV shows and movies is far richer than
modern-day hits, and users are loving it all. On any given week, more
than 80 percent of videos in the library are viewed, the company says.

Hulu only left its private beta this past Wednesday, so I'm interested
to see how growth on its "long tail" of older shows and movies plays
out on the web. Hulu videos can be embedded on other sites — more than
50,000 were during the private beta — and it partners with
video-sharing sites like Veoh for additional distribution.

These shows are, by this point in history, an important part of
America's cultural heritage. Sample TV titles include 80's detective
show Remington Steele, the 70's sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, 60's
sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show (below), and one of my personal
favorits, 90's sketch comedy show In Living Color (see this classic
scene featuring "Homey the Clown").

Older shows like Arrested Development, Doogie Howser, M.D. and Airwolf
are regular favorites among Hulu users, the company says. Some of
these shows, like Arrested Development, weren't even popular enough in
their prime to make it past a few seasons.

And, older movies that have caught on with the Hulu audience include
1986 sci-fi flick Planet of the Apes, 1993 semi-fictional biography
Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story and perhaps one of the most brilliant
movies of all time, post-film noir comedy The Big Lebowski (I can
hardly believe I'm able to embed the entire feature length movie at
the bottom of this article, but there it is).

Many of these shows and movies have never been seen before on the web
(again, at least not legally). Old fans are rediscovering them while
new fans — many of whom weren't born when the shows first aired, are
falling for them, for the first time.

This "long tail" of Hulu is most certainly part of the Hulu game plan
(Note: Although the phrase itself has become a cliche, this is a
pretty good case for using it). Just take a look at who's the chief
executive of Hulu: Jason Kilar, a former executive at Amazon.com, a
company that showed that the long tail could be wildly profitable
through serving each niche of book lovers. Kilar was most recently
Amazon's senior vice president of Worldwide Application Software, and
before that, the vice president and general manager of Amazon's North
American media business — in fact, he led its entry into the video and
DVD selling business.

But Hulu is all about online distribution, as Kilar makes clear, and
just getting these shows spread out widely across the web will create
a plethora of new opportunities for advertising and other ways of
making money (more on that here).

It's also easy to imagine broader cultural significance, like a
resurgence of fan sites around these older shows on Hulu. Stay tuned.

Windows Mobile to get Flash content

From Venture Beat:

Microsoft has licensed Adobe's Flash Lite and Reader, so users of phones with the Windows Mobile operating system can access Flash and PDF web content on their smart phones.

On one level, it's a surprising move, because Microsoft clearly wants to compete with Adobe on the mobile front. Earlier this month, the software giant announced it was moving its Silverlight web application developer software onto Nokia smartphones, with Windows Mobile compatibility coming soon. As we noted at the time, Silverlight is going to have a tough time taking on Adobe's dominant Flash player for regular web browsers — but it has a better chance in the mobile market, where Adobe is still bringing Flash Lite technology up to speed.

On the other hand, there's so much Flash content on the web that any smartphones claiming web-browsing capabilities will start seeming increasingly crippled without Flash Lite. The licensing deal gives Windows a leg up over Apple, where founder Steve Jobs said he isn't planning for any Flash or Flash Lite compatibility with the iPhone (our coverage).

Neither company has announced exactly when Flash Lite will become available for Windows Mobile.

Brightroll Ads, Now in HD

Months after receiving $5 million in funding, Brightroll's video
advertising network is coming out with HD ad units, enabling brands to
deliver HD-quality advertisements across Brightroll's network of
content publishers. Despite initial hesitation to push HD content
across the web, the continued merging of web and home theater
entertainment, along with increased use of web distribution for
premium and broadcast network content has kept the spreading of HD
content going across the Internet.

Given the current climate for video advertising and the promise most
content providers and marketers think video advertising holds, it's an
expected progression for an online video advertising network to make.
Finding ways for advertisements to best fit into existing content is a
key component of brands to strive towards, and Brightroll is looking
to make itself a more attractive advertising network in supporting HD
ads.

In doing so, Brightroll is also straddling the fence that currently
divides web and home theater content, even as these two channels of
content delivery are finding more and more ways to overlap each other.
By supporting HD ads, those brands with HD-ready marketing content can
turn to Brightroll for a turnkey solution that fits with existing
content to be spread across the web.

Of course, there's lots more than just HD offering to being the
prominent or all-inclusive advertising solution for online ads, but
it's evident that Brightroll is really appealing to the bigger brand
names with this latest feature. Brightroll already has a good-sized
list of brand name clients, so HD ads is something that Brightroll
needs to do in order to provide continued value as an online
advertising service.

Universal Pictures: Optimizing Video for Search

By Michael Boland, Search Engine Watch

We hear a lot about universal search and how it will keep SEO professionals on their toes with constantly evolving ranking algorithms. So how can local online advertisers take advantage of universal search?

Since universal search algos increasingly look favorably on video, the medium has been discovered by some clever SMBs as a side door into top SERP rankings. For these local marketers, top spots for certain keywords that have a great deal of bid pressure (i.e. "restaurant San Francisco"), suddenly become more accessible with optimized video.

Combine this with the relative dearth of optimized video out there, and it becomes a great opportunity for local video producers that are on top of their SEO game. Most local online video is buried within the listings of Internet yellow pages (IYP) sites that don't optimize the content effectively.

What are some of these optimization tactics? It can be as simple as uploading a video to YouTube that also resides on your Web site or landing page, according to Steve Espinosa, director of product development for eLocalListing. When Google sees that the copy and meta data surrounding your video is the same as the equivalent YouTube clip, it will rank your video and landing page higher as part of its increasing favorability of YouTube content.

Enter eLocalListing

eLocalListing has started to take some of these tactics to market. It's the latest in a growing wave of companies to offer video advertising to SMBs. Unlike many others, eLocal has SEO in its DNA.

"We've had top results in Google within three days of creating and submitting the video," Espinosa said. "These are terms such as 'painting in Columbus Ohio' or 'photographer in Sacramento.' These aren't small cities."

The company's strategy originated because SMBs aren't willing or able to shoot a video ad, convert it to a digital format, upload it to YouTube, and build a corresponding landing page with optimized tags and site copy.

With this in mind, it offers a low barrier video production product, similar to the well known Spot Runner, which lets SMBs customize a short video ad using stock footage. It also offers a landing page for the sizeable segment of SMBs that don't have a Web site (or have one that's poorly optimized). This all costs $99 for set-up plus $159 per month for SEO and SEM placements.

"You pick a video you like, and we'll assemble it with the information you want shown at the end, add the music, and then it becomes part of your online profile," said CEO Tim Judd.

The company's viral distribution and SEO strategy is a double-edged sword, though. While universal search creates the opportunity to push video into top SERP rankings, rapid evolution of universal search algorithms makes it difficult.

"Our content syndication strategy and our profile pages have changed three times in the past two quarters to adapt to how Google and Yahoo read and establish authoritative documents for their algorithms," Espinosa said. "It's constantly evolving and our strategy has to constantly evolve along with it."

Optimizing How-To Videos

So far this year, we've already seen noticeable interest and investment levels around how-to video sites. These often have the informative and entertaining attributes that make them a natural fit for viral distribution.

New sites include HowCast, which launched earlier this month with $8 million from Tudor Investment Corp., as well as MonkeySee, and WonderHowTo, which both launched last month.

Like the local video ads outlined above, there's a great opportunity to use basic SEO tactics to make how-to videos surface in SERPs. This opportunity becomes even clearer if you consider that Hitwise reports 2.6 percent of all searches are how-to in nature; and 5 percent of the traffic from the top 10 how-to searches goes directly to video sites.

Hitwise's top how-to searches for the four weeks ending January 26th:

1. How to tie a tie
   
   
2. How to ...
   
   
3. How to have sex
   
   
4. How to get pregnant
   
   
5. How to write a resume
   
   
6. How to win the lottery
   
   
7. How to kiss
   
   
8. How to lose weight fast
   
   
9. How to lose weight
   
   
10. How to solve a Rubik's Cube

So what does this mean (besides the fact that the searchers for questions 3 and 4 should meet up)? For IYPs, local search sites like Citysearch, and anyone else dabbling in local video advertising, a nice opportunity exists. Using optimization techniques, video in certain categories (home improvement, travel, lawn and garden) can generate traffic from this giant base of how-to searches.

Universal Pictures Part II: Sizing up the Local Video Market

In my vertical search column last month, we looked at the opportunity for SMBs to use universal search to their advantage by producing and distributing online video. But what is the size of this local video market? There are lots of projections being thrown around for the overall video ad market, but what about local?

eMarketer, for one, predicts the overall online video ad pie to grow from $775 million in 2007 to $1.35 billion in 2008, and $4.3 billion by 2011. By comparison, today's U.S. television market is about $70 billion.

$1.35 billion is about 5 percent of the 27.7 billion projected for all US online ad spending in 2008. If the same were true on the local level, 5 percent of the total U.S. local online ad spend ($2.4 billion in 2008 according to Kelsey Group data) would be $120 million.

But First...

I think $1.35 billion is probably too bullish, and if so, video's percentage of overall online ad spending will be less than 5 percent this year. Furthermore, in local, video's percentage of the total online ad spend is less than the national figure. This is because online ad networks aren't as developed as the national market, where players such as BrightRoll and VideoEgg place video throughout quickly expanding content networks.

However, video's share of the local online ad spend will equal or surpass the corresponding national number over time. This will be driven by growing demand for video advertising at the local level, and the resulting development of local ad inventory throughout local search and IYP sites.

Some of the factors causing this video advertising demand include:

• Online distribution has lowered the barrier for SMBs to advertise with video (previously limited to cable spot advertising).
• Broadband penetration and killer apps such as YouTube have popularized online video almost to the point of an expectation in search – and by extension, local search.
• Video is traditionally a strong and valued branding medium.
• The "lean forward" mode of watching online video takes advantage of direct response capabilities of the Internet.
• The "vanity factor" that has traditionally driven a considerable degree of local advertising (in yellow pages) is present in video.
• Given increasingly "blended" SERPs, video can be a powerful differentiator among text links.

To further support this, a December SMB survey done by AT&T in 10 U.S. markets, showed that 53 percent expect to buy online video ads within the "next couple of years".

As the $15 billion U.S. Yellow Pages industry only penetrates about a third of the SMB marketplace, video could be one of the ways to combat declining revenue by appealing to a new breed of advertisers.

If publishers are to grow top-line revenue, a significant percentage of the overall revenue mix will have to come from places where new growth is happening, such as search and video. Some progressive Yellow Pages publishers have publicly stated that at least 30 percent of revenues should come from these and other non-print sources.

As publishers are driven by this to resell search advertising and online video in earnest, the needle will begin to move for aggregate local video ad growth. Many IYPs and local search sites are already moving in this direction, including Citysearch, Superpages and Yellowpages.com – each of which formed reseller relationships with local video vendors in the past year.

SEO for IYPs: Video is the Key

Back to SEO, video also has the ability to drive traffic for IYPs and local search players. As examined in the first part of this column, universal search enables well-optimized video to improve search rankings for IYP listings and drive incremental traffic back to them.

But despite IYPs' realization that video will be a valuable tool in their ongoing ad sales efforts, their video SEO strategies have a long way to go. SMB video clips in the IYP environment are mostly buried within listings.

The opportunity here comes down to the fact that search is a sizable front door to most online experiences (duh); and local search is no exception. Although some IYPs have valuable URLs and strong brands, they also benefit from significant upstream search traffic.



So if they can get on the video SEO train in a more concerted way, they can reap these same benefits to a greater degree, given the opportunities universal search will offer. At the intersection of video and SEO, local search sites and IYPs – as the traditional "owners" of local – have the most to gain, and the most to lose.

AOL to buy Bebo social network

Time Warner Inc's AOL Internet division is to buy social network Bebo
for $850 million in cash, bolstering its consumer Internet offerings
even as the media conglomerate mulls splitting off the business.

Bebo, which claims a global membership of about 40 million users, is
one of the top social networks in Britain and market leader in Ireland
and New Zealand, it said. It is No. 3 in the United States behind News
Corp's MySpace and Facebook.

"AOL, at its core, is a way for people to connect," AOL President Ron
Grant told Reuters in a phone interview on Thursday. "We need to get
back to our roots."

The two companies had spent the last six months hashing out the deal,
the executives said. Grant said Bebo's heavy focus on media and
international interest had made it particularly attractive.

It already has a service in Poland and is set to launch in France,
Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands in the next five or six
months.

The purchase comes amid a wholesale transformation of AOL from a
dial-up Internet provider to an online advertising powerhouse.

It has spent nearly $1 billion to create one of the biggest
third-party display ad units, Platform-A. AOL aims to gird against the
prospect of bigger rivals as Microsoft Corp pursues a deal to buy
Yahoo Inc and following Google Inc's purchase of DoubleClick.

"This is a tremendous acquisition and one I think is game-changing for
AOL," AOL Chairman and CEO Randy Falco said on a conference call.

NETWORKING

"Bebo will be the cornerstone of our strategy to transform online
experiences for advertisers, media companies and consumers," Falco
said.

AOL said Bebo would help round out its personal communications
offerings, now comprised of AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ, two wildly
popular services that let users send quick text, video and audio
correspondence.

Despite its global popularity AOL has not had much success turning
that into a business.

AOL said its advertising system is well positioned to turn social
networks into a thriving business despite difficulties its rivals
face. Google, which is the search advertising provider for MySpace,
expressed difficulties in "monetizing" MySpace's traffic.

"The acquisition demonstrates again how important the social
networking sites are to major media and Internet brands, who are
looking for new means to advertising growth," said Paolo Pescatore, an
analyst with UK-based CCS Insight.

"They represent a powerful opportunity, with their access to
demographic data and ability to target specific audiences."

Bebo President Joanna Shields will continue to run Bebo and will
report to Grant after the transaction closes. Falco said he expected
the deal to close in "the normal time" -- within around 30 days.

Falco declined to comment on what multiple of sales or earnings AOL
may have paid but defended the price, comparing it with the $15
billion valuation of Facebook implied by the $240 million Microsoft
paid for its 1.6 percent stake.

Facebook has around 67 million unique users.

"We think it's an excellent asset at a great price and we, I think,
have a proven track record of spotting value," he said."

Banc of America Securities LLC and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
advised AOL. Allen & Co advised Bebo.

Online Video Service NextNew Receives $15 Million Funding; Goldman, Velocity, Pittman Invest

Online video production and distribution service NextNew Networks has
received $15 million in a new second round of funding...the round was
co-led Goldman Sachs and Velocity Interactive Group (Jon Miller is
already on the board from before). Previous investors Spark Capital
has invested again as has Saban Media Group and Bob Pittman.

NextNew, co-founded by former MTVN (NYSE: VIA - News) exec Herb
Scannell, former Sundance COO Jed Simmonds, former Hanna-Barbera
president Fred Seibert, raised a $8 million round in 2006. I have been
skeptical of video production studios like NextNew and since the
company started, many other competitors have entered the field. It is
a hits-driven business in a medium where a definition of hit is still
being defined.

Meanwhile, NextNew has also announced a deal with AOL (NYSE: TWX -
News) to provide AOL Video with about 2,000 episodes from some of the
short-form videos it has produced since its debut last March. AOL will
create a separate video channel for NextNew shows within its portal.

YouTube lets developers build their own YouTubes

YouTube, Google Inc's popular video sharing site, is giving away tools
that let Web developers tap the underlying database functions of
YouTube, in effect allowing users to build their own YouTubes.

The Silicon Valley-based video-sharing site said on Wednesday that it
is providing wholesale access to YouTube's extensive video library,
global audience, and the underlying video hosting and streaming
network that powers YouTube.

The move goes significantly beyond the current access to YouTube
videos in which any Web user can copy and embed selected videos onto
their own Web pages.

YouTube said its latest customization offerings allow anyone building
a Web site or Internet-connected software program to upload videos
straight to YouTube. They can fetch video feeds, comments, responses
or playlists from YouTube.

What YouTube is offering parallels an earlier move by Yahoo Inc to
open up the ability of its Flickr photo-sharing site to provide deep
access to Web developers in order to embed underlying features of
Flickr in other sites.

Web site developers can let users rate videos or add them to a
favorites list embedded within their own sites. They can also
customize and control the Adobe Systems Inc Flash video playing
software through which videos are viewed.

The expansion of what is known in technical jargon as APIs, or
Application Programmer Interfaces, lets developers build a so-called
"chromeless" Flash player -- a video-viewing window that is stripped
of formatting such as title bar, browser buttons or status bars so
they can create their own players.

These free customization features can be used in conjunction with the
existing APIs which launched last year and which provide the ability
to view videos on other sites and to search for videos on YouTube.

By adding underlying features and functions of YouTube, developers can
enable users to publish videos directly from their mobile phone
devices or encourage new users to share videos to the Web site, as if
they were on YouTube itself.

Internet TV subscriptions doubled in 2007

The number of Internet TV subscribers more than doubled in 2007 to
12.3 million worldwide, driven by western Europe where some broadband
suppliers offered the service for free, according to a report.

Western Europe, led by France, accounted for 57 percent of global IPTV
subscribers, research firm Informa Telecoms & Media said in a report
published on Tuesday.

Traditional telecom providers are seeking new revenue streams to
compensate for declining sales of fixed-line connections for voice
calls, and IPTV is a promising new area, especially for state
incumbents with extensive networks.

Informa said France Telecom, Iliad's Free, Neuf and Telecom Italia's
Alice had attracted more than 5 million IPTV subscribers between them
in France by bundling the service free with broadband offers.

A large number of those subscribers may not be paying for additional
content, however, Informa said.

"2007 was a watershed year for IPTV as many western European telcos
launched full packages," the report said, adding that IPTV was still
in its first phase of rollout and growth.

"It will be interesting to note their approach to IPTV in the future:
whether it is used to increase customer loyalty or whether it is a
genuine money-making stand-alone service."

China now has about 1 million IPTV subscribers and Hong Kong already
had 1 million in September, making it the world's most mature IPTV
market with 60 percent of DSL broadband customers subscribing for TV
over the Web, Informa said.

Informa also said the United States added more than 1 million
customers in 2007, largely thanks to fiber-to-the-home rollouts by
Verizon and AT&T. fiber-to-the-home delivers faster connections than
regular broadband.

In Germany and France, Deutsche Telekom and BT more than doubled their
subscriber numbers to reach more than 100,000 each.

Hulu makes public debut, adds Warner Bros shows

Hulu, the online video joint venture of News Corp and General
Electric's NBC Universal, will make its public debut on Wednesday with
programming from Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros Television Group,
Lionsgate and from sports leagues.

Missing from the list of providers are media mogul Sumner
Redstone-controlled companies Viacom Inc, which continues to hold
discussions, Viacom said recently, and CBS Corp, which has said it was
not averse to a licensing deal.

At launch, Hulu will offer full-length episodes of more than 250 TV
series from current hits such as "The Simpsons" as well as older shows
like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It also will offer 100 movies
including "The Big Lebowski" and "Mulholland Drive."

Hulu said it has signed licensing deals with the National Basketball
Association and the National Hockey League.

Hulu's launch is a big bet by big media companies that consumers are
as eager to spend long periods of time watching TV shows and movies in
front of their computers as they are in front of their televisions.

Ahead of its test launch four months ago, the service, dubbed by the
press as a rival to Google Inc's YouTube video sharing site, was
skewered by the press and influential technology blogs for attempting
to compete with the Web's most popular video destination.

Hulu has won over some of its harshest critics including technology
blog, Techcrunch, which has since praised the venture for focus on
professional content, clean, easy-to-use design, and video quality.
Its readers voted it as the best video start-up of 2007.

With no marketing and a private test pool of users, Hulu Chief
Executive Jason Kilar said they have attracted over five million
viewers in the past month with its breadth of legally available
contemporary shows and clean design.

Some 80 percent of its entire video library is viewed every seven
days, a sign likely to be viewed favorably by programming partners
seeking ways to boost profits from vintage shows, Kilar said.

Shows on Hulu also are distributed on AOL, Comcast Corp's Fancast.com,
Microsoft Corp's MSN, News Corp's MySpace and Yahoo Inc.

AD FORMATS IMPRESS

Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said he was most impressed,
not with its features, but with its range of options for advertisers.
"It's the part people overlook," he said.

Among the range of new advertising options, Hulu said that Nissan, for
example, can give Hulu viewers the option to choose to watch any one
of its several car ads.

Advertisers spend "billions of dollars getting the right ad in front
of the right person," McQuivey said of marketing to traditional
television viewers. Hulu's online advertising permits "self-selected
targeting."

McQuivey added, "From the advertisers perspective, it can't get any better."

Hulu said most of the companies which signed up for the test also are
a part of the official launch, including Nissan, Best Buy Co Inc, and
Unilever PLC.

Hulu is available at http://www.hulu.com/ starting Wednesday.

Jivox Hopes to Do for Video What Google’s AdWords Did for Display

from Adotas

Online advertising may be having a moment: according to a study by
Burst Media last month, only about half of online video viewers tune
out after seeing an instream ad. Self-service online video advertising
platform Jivox plans to capitalize on the burgeoning market by
offering smaller, mom-and-pop advertisers access to easy-to-create
online video ads, the company said today.

"Jivox was founded on the premise that businesses are ready to move
beyond ineffective banner ads and costly search advertising by adding
online video ads to their marketing mix, but they need help tapping
into this new medium. The Jivox platform allows local businesses,
independent professionals, and small enterprises to get their products
and services in front of the right customers in a way that is rich and
compelling and drives new business," said Diaz Nesamoney, founder and
CEO of Jivox. "Just as Google enabled small businesses to promote
themselves online with the introduction of Google AdWords, we believe
Jivox can empower small businesses to take advantage of the burgeoning
advertising opportunities within online video."

The Jivox platform combines a video ad creation tool, proprietary
targeting technology, reporting capabilities and a growing network of
publishers to offer advertisers a complete, do-it-yourself service for
online video ads.

Online video marketing is the fastest growing segment of digital
online marketing because their click-through rates are generally much
higher than banner ads and their ilk. The cost of creating the ads was
discouraging smaller businesses, which is where Jivox and its low-cost
alternatives come in for customers like The Diamond Broker.

"Google search advertising has been the primary means of advertising
for us at The Diamond Broker. We specialize in GIA Certified Diamonds
with Excellent Cut grade, and feature nationally known jewelry
designers and our own custom designs, so the visual part of what we do
is very important. Unlike our search engine advertising, with Jivox
video ads we are able to reproduce our in-office experience online.
For our product, video advertising is particularly compelling, as the
beauty of diamonds and diamond jewelry is best expressed visually,"
said Jeff Richardson, founder of The Diamond Broker in Los Altos, CA.
"We are very excited by the capabilities Jivox offers us to create
unique ads featuring our diamonds and fine jewelry."

In other news, Jivox raised $2.7 million in a seed round of financing
led by Opus Capital, a venture capital firm. Jivox says it will use
the money to develop its online video ad platform and expand its sales
and marketing forces.

Disney to Offer Some Vintage TV Series on Its Web Site

From the NYTimes

The Walt Disney Company will begin showing its classic television shows on the Internet, its chief executive, Robert A. Iger, told shareholders on Thursday.

"In the near future, you'll see more of that product available on Disney.com, either for free or through some sort of subscription," Mr. Iger, 57, said at the company's annual meeting. "Providing physical goods on DVD is tougher and tougher these days because shelf space is limited."

Disney, producer of the "Zorro" and "Davy Crockett" TV series in the 1950s, is expanding Web revenue by selling programs from ABC and the Disney Channel on Apple's iTunes Store and offering ad-supported episodes online. "Star Trek" from CBS and "The A-Team" from NBC have been added to those networks' Web sites. Mr. Iger did not say which shows Disney would provide.

CBS and NBC said last month they would put advertiser-supported episodes of older TV series online. CBS shows include "MacGyver" and NBC will provide "Miami Vice."

Disney bought Club Penguin, an online social network for children, in August to help increase Internet sales. Mr. Iger is also expanding Disney's cable network and animation businesses outside the United States. He is using hit TV programs and films like "High School Musical" and "Hannah Montana" to bolster sales in Disney's theme parks and its consumer products division.

"Each of these stories has been developed and enriched over time," Mr. Iger said at the meeting in Albuquerque. They "work on multiple technological platforms and appeal across multiple cultural and social backgrounds."

AARP Extends Platform, Launches TV Channel

In addition to its magazine and lobby efforts, it's launching AARP TV.

Targeting the 50+ audience, its first two syndicated shows - "Inside E
Street" and "My Generation"--will debut on March 10 and 11,
respectively. Both will be distributed through and air on Retirement
Living Television, which reaches more than 29 million households
nationwide. The two weekly half-hour shows extend from AARP's
lifestyle and news platforms.

"AARP TV is another way to reach and deliver valuable information to
boomers and 50+ America," said Kevin Donnellan, chief communications
officer, AARP. "There's a proven demand in the market to serve the 50+
demographic, and RLTV was a natural fit for us."

"My Generation" is a lively lifestyle magazine show that will feature
experts covering issues ranging from health and money to relationships
and volunteering. Hosted by Greg Williams (former sports anchor) and
Cynthia Steele Vance ("CBS Morning News"), "My Generation" will air
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 3 p.m. on RLTV.

"Inside E Street," the channel's new consumer affairs program, is
hosted by veteran journalist Sheilah Kast, who has worked for ABC, CNN
and NPR. It airs at 3 p.m. Mondays and Fridays. The focus is on hot
topics of the day, showcasing a balance of opinion leaders and
newsmakers. Key issues before Congress will also be addressed.

"We are pleased that AARP has recognized the value in teaming up with
RLTV, a cable network with a mission not only to change the way people
watch television, but the way they live their lives," said Brad
Knight, president, RLTV.

RLTV launched in September 2006, and is carried on DirecTV and Comcast.

Deutsch Selects NextMedium as Brand Integration partner

NextMedium, Inc., developer of the first marketplace for brand
integration, announced today that Deutsch, Inc. will be the first
advertising agency to partner with and utilize the company's Embed
platform to maximize brand integration opportunities for its clients.

"We talk to producers, networks and content providers all the time,
but NextMedium's platform adds a critical layer to the discussion,"
said Peter Gardiner, Chief Media Officer, Deutsch Inc. "It will give
us better access to inventory, campaign control and analytics, and
opens more doors for us enhancing brand capabilities for both Deutsch
and our branded entertainment practice Media Bridge Entertainment
(MBE)."

For agencies such as Deutsch, NextMedium's Embed platform serves as a
complete management system to secure and analyze brand integration
opportunities available in the marketplace. Deutsch will be able to
register its brands on the platform and define specific campaign
objectives, including demographic and psychographic targeting, desired
exposure types, and general branding objectives. The Embed matching
engine then displays contextually relevant inventory available from
its network of TV, music and film partners. Deutsch will be able to
negotiate creative aspects and secure inventory entirely through the
Embed platform.

Deutsch will also be using Embed Intelligence, NextMedium's analytics
package, to recommend campaign pricing and assess the media and
branding value after the campaign is complete.

"We have hundreds of registered brands in our network, but Deutsch is
the first to organize an agency-level commitment to offer a brand
integration marketplace to its clients," said NextMedium CEO, David
Bluhm. "We're thrilled to be partnering with a forward-thinking agency
that is committed to offering innovative brand building solutions."

Advertising.com Brings In-Video, Pre-Roll To The Masses

TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF an increasingly video-centric Web,
Advertising.com is now offering advertisers in-video ad formats and
pre-roll inventory placement on a cost-per-click basis, while also
maintaining a CPM payment structure for publishers.

Through the integration of Ad.com's proprietary AdLearn technology,
the new Performance Video Product is seeking to bridge the "value
proposition" to a broader set of advertisers and publishers.

"With the integration of AdLearn technology into our video network, we
can now provide a new video offering for direct-response advertisers
and additional video options for brand advertisers," said Lynda
Clarizio, president of Advertising.com.

"Because the new product offering does not require professionally
produced commercials, all advertisers can benefit from the increase of
consumers viewing video online," she added.

Part of AOL's Platform-A advertising business and the largest
third-party ad network online, Ad.com is in fact playing catch-up with
this latest offering.

Ad network and Web video technology startup VideoEgg, for instance,
has offered in-video ad formats since its birth in 2005, and recently
launched a network for advertisers to negotiate a price for
engagement, thus offering a more valuable indicator of consumer
interest.

Microsoft is one of the first companies to use VideoEgg's new AdFrames
Brand Response Network to distribute video content promoting Microsoft
Office. The ads will run across the Eggnetwork, which includes
hundreds of social sites and applications.

Like Ad.com's new offering, VideoEgg's model diverges from the norm by
which advertisers buy online inventory based on impression--spending a
set amount per thousand delivered views, what's known as CPM.

And competition is bound to increase for Ad.com along with the
increasing revenue flooding into the online video market. Indeed, the
U.S. online video advertising market is expected to grow from $989
million in 2008--to an estimated $7.15 billion by 2012, according to
Forrester Research.

Ad.com's new cost-per-click offering employs a 5- to 9-second video or
flash creative asset and is streamed within an in-player video
environment.

MySpace co-founder acquires video-sharing site

Brad Greenspan, co-founder of MySpace.com and founder of LiveUniverse,
an online entertainment network, announced that his company has
acquired ailing video-sharing site Revver.

Greenspan said in a statement that he plans to merge the offerings of
Revver and LiveVideo.com, his company's social-network and video site.
Revver will continue to operate under its own brand.

But the ex-MySpace executive did not pass up the opportunity to take a
few swipes at his former company. Greenspan opposed the 2005 sale of
MySpace to News Corp. and has badmouthed MySpace and its parent
company ever since.

Half of his press release announcing the Revver purchase is dedicated
to blaming MySpace for Revver's failure to attract fans.

Greenspan traces Revver's troubles to January 2007, when MySpace
blocked access to Revver's video player. MySpace banned Revver because
of its policy prohibiting third parties from posting ads on MySpace.

Revver embedded ads within videos and was booted. That's not how
Greenspan saw it.

"MySpace had become a predator aggressively blocking and censoring any
Web service it deemed competitive," LiveUniverse said in its press
release.

Funny thing is, none of the former Revver employees or founders I've
spoken to ever link the company's problems to MySpace. They typically
talk about YouTube's overwhelming command of the video-sharing sector.

Terms of the Revver acquisition were not disclosed, but sources
familiar with the deal say Revver was sold for pennies on the dollar.
Sources told CNET News.com last month that Revver was asking for
between $300,000 and $500,000 in cash and the assumption of the
company's $1 million debt.

News.com has since learned that Revver's debt was $2.5 million.
NewTeeVee, which broke the news of Revver's acquisition, quoted
sources who said that Greenspan paid just under $5 million for the
troubled company.

Investors had pumped about $13 million into Los Angeles-based Revver since 2005.

Yahoo Unveils Online Video Ad Formats

The two new formats include one in which an ad that appears either
before or after a video contains a cue for the viewer to mouse-over
the video window.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) on Wednesday introduced two online video
advertising formats, and said it would also offer overlay ads through
its recent acquisition of Maven Networks.

The two new formats include one in which an ad that appears either
before or after a video contains a cue for the viewer to mouse-over
the video window. Doing so displays a message in a semi-transparent
overlay on the video ad. The message prompts the viewer to click
through to the advertiser's site for more information.

Along with the above "clickable" ad, Yahoo introduced a three-second
splash ad that appears when a video is launched, but then becomes a
banner ad above the video window. When clicked, the banner pauses the
playing video and launches an interactive ad.

Yahoo has made the new ad formats available in the United States on
all videos across the portal's network. Companies that have used the
formats include Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE), Esurance, HBO, and Sharp.

Maven's overlay ad is an interactive or Flash media ad that runs
inside the video player, but on top of the selected programming. The
ads can be displayed as splash screens, as well as in the middle of
the video or as a live-feed insertion. "These formats increase the
available inventory and choices available to publishers," Yahoo said.

Yahoo acquired Maven Networks last month for $160 million. The
company didn't sell ads, but was heavily involved in testing new ad
formats that go beyond the typical clip that runs before the video.
Maven delivered content with ads inserted to more than 30 media
companies, including Fox News, Gannett, The Financial Times, Hearst,
E.W. Scripps, and CBS Sports.

Yahoo over the years has seen its overall share of the online
advertising market shrink, as Google became the dominant player,
primarily through its success with text ads tied to search results.
Yahoo's drop in stock price as a result of its failure to grab a
bigger share of the ad market has led to a takeover attempt by
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), which is ongoing.

Spot Runner Buys Weblistic to Boost Presence in Online Ad World

Online ad company Spot Runner announced today the acquisition of
Weblistic, an online marketing solutions agency that serves local
businesses. The deal was an all stock transaction – financial details
were not disclosed.

Spot Runner develops technology solutions for small local businesses
to help them create video ads for television. The acquisition of
Weblistic expands the company's online advertising capabilities and
complements its television and radio capabilities.

"Our objective is to help businesses drive awareness and attract new
customers through multiple media channels, in an integrated manner,
and online advertising is a top priority for us and for our clients,"
said Nick Grouf, chairman and CEO of Spot Runner. "With Weblistic, we
gain deep online advertising experience, cutting edge technology and a
top-notch team."

Weblistic has been a player in the online ad biz since the late 90's
when it developed the original technology for YellowPages.com.
"Weblistic has always been passionate about making online advertising
easy and turnkey for small and medium-sized businesses," said Ketan
Shah, CEO of Weblistic. "By joining forces with Spot Runner, which is
the clear leader in local advertising services, we are now able to
offer local advertisers a complete solution — including media planning
and buying for TV, radio and online, affordable and high-quality
creative, and expert consulting services."

Spot Runner bought GlobeShooter — a network of independent filmmakers
and videographers — in January.

YouTube to get live video this year

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen says that live streaming video is
something that YouTube has always wanted to do, and that this year,
with the resources of Google, it is finally going to happen.

Veoh is raising a round, claims to be pretty big and growing

from venturebeat

Updated with more information from the company

Online video startup Veoh is in the process of raising a $40 million
round at a proposed $150 million valuation and has hired investment
bank Bear Sterns to help with the effort, Silicon Alley Insider
reports.

San Diego-based Veoh is a distant competitor to market leader YouTube,
but still claims to be growing at a healthy rate. The site features
user-created videos, clips from partners such as the Independent
Comedy Network, as well as content from large companies like Viacom.
From what we hear, the company is well respected in the media world,
partially because it's made a point of forging partnerships with
entertainment companies.

However, Veoh's traffic numbers are contested, as they have been at
least since the company raised $26 million round last spring (our
coverage).

Last December, third-party analytics firm Comscore showed Veoh
bringing in nearly 16 million monthly unique visitors worldwide, with
only 3.5 million of those in the US. That's versus YouTube's nearly
250 million. Meanwhile, rival analytics firm Nielsen says Veoh
received more than 2 million unique US viewers in December (not
visitors).

[Update: Veoh tells me it has more than 23 million monthly video
viewers worldwide, defined as people who started playing a video on
the Veoh home site or on a Veoh video embedded in another site. It
says that Nielsen's panel may be missing large chunks of Veoh traffic,
because the panel is comprised of the wrong demographic. It says that
using a separate Nielsen tracking service, the web analytics firm
obtained numbers much closer to Veoh's own.]

Today, Spark Capital investor Bijan Sabet, who sits on Veoh's board,
writes that Nielsen's numbers are wrong, after SAI cited them in its
article.

Sabet says that Veoh's internal server logs show 21 million unique
monthly viewers in December, up from 2.5 million at the beginning of
the year. He also says that users are watching more than 30 million
hours of Veoh videos per month, now.

So maybe Veoh is pretty big, but like every other video company, it is
trying to figure out how to monetize. Many startup rivals have also
raised large amounts of money. Two examples: Last year, DailyMotion
raised $30 (our coverage) and MetaCafe raised $34 million (our
coverage). Hosting and streaming lots of videos gets expensive, and
right now there's no way to cover costs.

[Update: I asked the company about monetization. Veoh says the average
user spends more than 87 minutes on the site per month, with much of
the viewing happening during evening prime time hours. It says its
audience presents great opportunities for brand advertisers.]

DoubleClick brings HD to video ads

Advertisers can now create and deliver rich media video ads in high
definition to further captivate audiences, thanks to DoubleClick's
latest feature. Not all ads are created equal and the battle is on to
keep creative treatments and delivery methods "novel" and consumer
eyeballs focused.

Enter DoubleClick's rich media with HD video. Now Internet users can
experience online adverts in the same quality as other mediums,
quality that advertisers have had to sacrifice online. Ads may even be
expanded to fit full screen.

Epson is the first to use DoubleClick's new feature, implemented as
part of their "Epsonality" campaign. "HD Video lets us deliver our
creative in a way that reflects the high quality of Epson products,"
said Jordan Kretchmer, associate creative director at Butler, Shine,
Stern & Partners, creators of the campaign.

"Consumers aren't used to seeing such pristine video online, so we
expect the new HD technology to capture peoples' attention like a
standard video unit never could," he added.

iBloks Rolls Out New Ad Widget So Video, IM Enthusiasts Can Share in Real Time

From Adotas

iBloks today announced that is launching iBloks Video Messenger so consumers can IM and watch videos together – while logged onto Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger. iBloks designed the advertising and consumer widget to connect video enthusiasts and IM customers – it essentially eliminates the unbearable delay e-mail users must contend with when sharing videos.

The widget will be launched with movie content courtesy of Fox Home Entertainment – and using the Windows Live services will significantly increase iBloks' reach, the company says.

"Premiering iBloks Video Messenger widget that includes access to over 300,000,000 Windows Live Messenger consumers unleashes a powerful widget that enables our fans to easily IM each other and watch videos together. By making their lives more interesting and providing convenient access to amazing content from films like Alien Versus Predator Requiem we are delivering on our commitment to entertain and delight fans," said John Cosley, Director of Digital Marketing at Fox Home Entertainment.

The widget can be deployed on a web page, as a video ad or as a gadget on sites like Google , FaceBook and other social network sites.

Denuo to Advise Blinkx on Video Search and Network Ads

From ClickZ

Publicis-owned consultancy Denuo will advise Blinkx on development of the video search firm's ad products under a new relationship between the two.

The paired companies plan to collaborate on ad formats, targeting methods and ideal environments for video ads on platforms operated by Blinkx, and on video-based advertising in general. Denuo clients may also place campaigns on the Blinkx site and on its contextual video ad engine, called AdHoc.

"Denuo has access to many agencies and clients that have an interest in tapping into [our] audience," said Blinkx CEO Suranga Chandratillake. "We will work together to figure out ads and units that are affective. We will launch those on our site doing a lot of testing and trialing."

Denuo's head of new ventures and partnerships practice, Tim Hanlon, stessed the importance of discovery in the partnership. He emphasized the necessity of consumers not only finding relevant programming, but also advertising.

When it launched, Denuo established relationships with a number of up and coming Web start-ups, offering advisory services in exchange for "first mover rights for clients" and in some cases an investment stake. It holds stakes in Brightcove and Shadow TV, among other firms.

Further details about the pairing were sketchy yesterday, though Chandratillake said the companies hoped to experiment with untried video ad strategies. He said an example might include possibilities for running video ads on Blinkx search results pages. The company's results pages currently display text ads only.

"We're a search engine. We're very interested in how we can build video advertising into that experience," he said. "Can we actually have sponsored video matches?"

Blinkx has tried to diversify over the past year, rolling out a contextual ad targeting system called AdHoc and announcing plans for a premium video destination to be called Blinkx Broadband TV. BBTV was originally planned for Fall 2007, but the company postponed its release and now expects to unveil it in March.

Video player company Fliqz raises $2.5M more from internal investor to tide it over

Fliqz, an Emeryville, Calif. company that offers customized video
players to Web site owners, has added a $3.2 million to its second
round of funding.
Mohr Davidow Ventures, which previously provided $2.5 million in the
second round, added the new capital, according to VentureWire.
And as previously reported, the company raised $750,000 in backing
from a number of angels.
The company says it has more than 3,000 customers, including Major
League Baseball and VH1, among others, but its not clear how the
company is making money. It sells a "hosted" version for as little as
$50 a month.
Fliqz is apparently looking to raise more venture money, and so this
round tides it over until it can do so.

DivX is shutting down its video-hosting service, Stage6.

The company experienced significant growth of service last year and
said it would spin out Stage6 as a separate company to raise venture
money. Now it says the service simply became "a very expensive
enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources
that we are not in a position to continue to provide."

Poles Apart on Online-Video Habits

From the NYTimes:

The gulf between casual and heavy consumers of online video is startlingly wide, according to figures released in mid-February. Among people who watch at least some online video each month — from short clips on YouTube to full-length programs on NBC.com and the like — the highest-consuming fifth watches more than 140 times as much as the lower half.
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"It's a clear indicator of how early we are in online video," said Jarvis Mak, a vice president at Media Contacts, an online ad buyer that did the study with the research firm comScore. "If you look at overall Internet usage, the difference between the heaviest users and the lightest users is something like 24 times."

Mr. Mak predicted that this disparity would narrow as television networks continued to put programs online, attracting novice users. "It took a while to decide that this would not cannibalize their broadcasts," he said, "but now they're putting a lot of stuff on their Web sites" and deciding how much to distribute on sites like Hulu.com that aggregate videos.

ComScore gathered the data using special software installed on the computers of a panel of Internet users.

Brightcove Transforms Economics of Internet Video with Support for Google AdSense for Video Beta

Consumer-friendly Ad Format Gives Web's Top Content Providers Ability to Deliver Video Ads at Scale

Cambridge, MA (February 21, 2008) - Brightcove, a leading Internet TV platform, today announced support for the AdSense for video beta program, Google's contextual advertising technology for online video. Brightcove's support of the AdSense for video beta program unlocks a powerful economic proposition for the Web's top media publishers. Brightcove customers, which include some of the world's largest and most innovative media, entertainment and consumer brands, will now have an additional and complementary advertising opportunity available to monetize video streams across their web properties.

Serving ads based on both the content of an Internet video and the context of a web page, AdSense for video beta gives media publishers the additional ability (beyond direct ad sales) to target tailored in-stream overlay ads from Google's large base of advertisers. Publishers and content providers can control which videos get which ads and when the ads play in each video. Appealing to both consumers of online video and the advertisers trying to reach them, AdSense for video's InVideo and text overlay ad format is non-disruptive and does not separate viewers from their desired content.

"Video and rich media continue to account for an increasingly large segment of online content - Brightcove customers alone reach 130 million unique users a month across thousands websites," said Chris Johnston, director of ad product management, Brightcove. "Brightcove's support of Google's AdSense for video beta is particularly important because it combines a vast ad network with the market-leading Internet video publishing platform - ultimately creating a new and powerful, consumer-friendly monetization opportunity for news and entertainment programmers worldwide."

"Monetization of online video continues to be critically important to all video producers," said Will Richmond, president of Broadband Directions LLC. "The market for ad-supported video is evolving, with lots of different approaches. Building from existing, successful approaches and technologies is a smart strategy especially when it comes to capturing revenue from periodic traffic spikes and remnant inventory."

Google's AdSense for video beta is currently available through Brightcove in a limited beta release with select customers. The company said they plan to make the feature generally availability to publishers in 2008.

Online Video: A Changing Picture

Online Video: A Changing Picture
A new eMarketer report analyzes the factors that are inexorably leading to convergence between television and online video content.

Google Expands AdSense For Video, Sets Deals With Tremor, YuMe, Others

From mediapost:
IN A BID TO ACCELERATE its role in the burgeoning online video
advertising marketplace, search giant Google this morning is
announcing a slew of deals expanding its AdSense for video beta. To
date, the AdSense program has focused mainly on enabling Web
publishers to serve text-only ads. The video beta version, enables
publishers to serve targeted, contextually-relevant video graphical
ads and text overlays, and is seen as an alternative to the pre-roll
an post-roll advertising clips that have become the industry's default
standard advertising format.

Google has been working on ways to expand its reach into video ever
since its $1.65 billion acquisitions of YouTube in 2006, and recently
began accelerating its role in TV advertising sales, as well, via its
AdWords For TV program, which enables advertisers to buy addressable
TV advertising on cable and satellite TV systems.

Early this morning, Google announced deals with the Tremor Media and
YuMe video advertising networks, two of what are expected to be
several partnership deals for its AdSense for video expansion.

Tremor said it has incorporated "one-click integration" of Google's
contextually targeted ads into its dynamic ad insertion platform,
Ad-inStream, for publishers in Tremor Media's network to accept
targeted Google AdSense for video advertising formats with only a
check-box.

According to comScore, Tremor Media provides access to consumers
through their network of more than 800 aggregated sites that reach 94
million unique users every month. Publishers across Tremor Media's
network can now support traditional text overlays through Google's
AdSense for video beta, providing contextually targeted advertising by
leveraging a video's metadata.

In addition, Tremor will also support InVideo graphical and rich
media overlays that aid advertisers with a consistent brand message
across their traditional display advertising as well as emerging video
ad formats.

Google Extends InVideo Ads to AdSense Net

from mediaweek

Google is extending InVideo Ads – the "overlay" banner and text ad units the company rolled out on YouTube last year- to its AdSense network of Web sites.

Last summer, the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant introduced InVideo ads – semi-transparent banner-like placements that appear once video clips start playing, as a less-intrusive alternative to pre-roll 15 and 30-second video spots. By extending them to AdSense, the company's ever-growing network of small and mid sized sites for which it supplies text and video advertising, Google says it will be able to deliver online video ads which are contextually targeted, based on either the actual video content they appear atop or the content on the Web pages they run on.

As online video advertising has risen to prominence, Google has run several test programs on its AdSense network, including a user-initiated "click to play" offering that invited users to sample short snippets of content to streaming video ads that participating publishers could implement and control however they preferred. Until now however, video advertising on Google remains in its infancy, as the company continues to garner the vast majority of its ad revenue from its core search ads.

For this new extension, Google has yet to list any advertisers that have signed on. Among the initial participating publishers are the sites VidShadow, Mondo Media and JoeCartoon.

CNET TV Relaunches Video-On-Demand Network

From Mediapost

AIMING TO CAPTURE A LARGER share of tech-hungry consumers, CNET has relaunched its video-on-demand network, CNET TV.

"We've seen a 60% increase in viewership since last year, and we're looking for ways to continue that incredible growth," said Joe Gillespie, executive vice president of CNET.

CNET remains by far the most-trafficked tech news property on the Web. The site was drawing roughly 61.5 million unique monthly visitors as of December, according to comScore, while its closest rival, NetShelter, was recording about 26 million. CNET's numbers, however, were down 17% year-over-year, while NetShelter's nearly doubled.

The tech publisher first moved into traditional media in mid 2006 with deals to supply content to three video-on-demand TV networks. Through partnerships with Cox Communications, TiVo Inc., and TVN Entertainment, CNET began offering paid TV subscribers a range of ad-supported content, including gadget reviews, news reports, trend stories and user generated video.

Since 2006, CNET TV has also existed as a stand-alone Web site, where consumers can draw from various topic channels to program their viewing experiences. Interactive tools let users engage with the site's editorial staff, and share their customized playlists with friends.

The re-launched service includes a number of new features--chief among them a new closed-captioning option. Through partnerships with Automatic Sync Technologies and Adobe Systems, the captioning system is an attempt by CNET to reach an estimated 30 million deaf and hard-of-hearing U.S. consumers.

Not only that, but the captioning makes it far easier for CNET to monetize its video content, Gillespie said.

"It turns into SEO honey," Gillespie said of the meta data, which greatly improves the search engine optimization process.

Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, described CNET's revamped service as "emblematic of the next phase of online video," and expects other top publishers to follow CNET's lead.

In addition to closed captioning, CNET TV has unveiled a more user-friendly design, with video content from premiere partners such as Geek Entertainment TV and Revision 3, along with more original shows featuring CNET personalities and new additions like Natali Del Conte, former host of PodShow's TeXtra, and Kara Tsuboi.

Google testing video ads in search results

From VentureBeat:

Today, Google started testing video ad placement in search results
according to The New York Times Bits blog. Though just a very limited
trial for now, this is an important step in the evolution of the
company's bread-and-butter advertising business.

Even though Google has run both image-based and video ads on sites
using their AdSense platform for a while now, the Google search
results page has always been restricted to the simple text-based
advertisements that don't overwhelm results. As Google's vice
president of search products and user experience, Marissa Mayer, puts
it "We were doing text-based search that was all textual. Visual ads
don't work in that format."

However, with Google now shifting toward "universal search" that
includes images and videos in results, the time has come to test out
expanding the ads that accompany those results as well. Says Mayer,
"With universal search, something is getting shaken up a bit on the
bottom part of the page - The ads on the top part of the page should
match."

Google is indicating that these video ads will appear small on the
page and only expand to playable size when a user chooses to click on
the 'plus' button similar to what is done currently with YouTube
videos in search results

Overlay.tv launches new platform for video ads

Overlay.tv today launched a video-commerce platform that may give
marketers a new way to monetize on online video.

Even online video mammoth Google/YouTube hasn't successfully
implemented a way to extract revenue from its billions of user
generated videos. A number of sites have taken to inserting "pre-roll"
ads into the videos they offer — ads that viewers are forced to sit
through prior to watching the featured content. But the big video
sites haven't adopted pre-roll ads, and for good reason: They don't
work, and neither have contextual banner ads so far.

Enter Overlay.tv. The Toronto, Canada-based company offers a
destination where marketers and users can place "overlays" of content
onto videos streamed from more than 20 online video sites, including
YouTube, metacafe, videojug, and others (it streams the video and
doesn't actually store it on its servers for copyright reasons).
Marketers and users using the platform can then overlay selected
videos with pictures, words and graphics that link to products or
information on external websites.

So take a video clip of, say, Fashion Week in New York City. A
marketer could link a certain shoe or dress in the video to a purchase
point to buy the item. It can then embed this overlaid video in blogs,
websites, and MySpace profiles. Overlay.tv has also launched a
Facebook application that lets users access its platform directly from
Facebook.

And unlike pre-roll ads, viewers can opt out of these overlay ads if
they choose to, the company says.

In one example you can link to here, you'll see a video clip called
"How to Be the Perfect Boyfriend." Overlays in the video link viewers
to how-to books, flowers.com and other relevant vendor sites.

Overlay.tv generates revenue from its more than 600 affiliate
partners, including Amazon, iTunes, and Walmart, through
cost-per-action and cost-per-click at about 5 to 12 percent revenue of
what the merchant makes on merchandise sold through click-throughs.
Overlay's users also get a share in the revenues. The company says it
distributes anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of this form of revenue to
its users.

Overlay.tv also plans to generate revenue through partnerships with
online video destinations as well as media companies, such as record
labels. It's currently at the contract stage with a major company in
the online video space and a major record label interested in
licensing the Overlay platform, although CEO Rob Lane wouldn't name
the two companies. The companies would theoretically integrate
Overlay's platform into their sites, so that users and marketers would
have the same ability to link advertisements directly to the video.

The majority of online advertising is focused on professionally
produced content, Lane says, while no one has successfully advertised
through user-generated content. To illustrate his point, he gives an
example of a user watching a mountain biking clip. This user may not
be interested in a toothpaste ad because it's irrelevant to mountain
biking, but he or she may want to know the exact make and model as
well as the cost of the bike used in the video. The only way to market
effectively is to bring the user in, Lane says.

Many big brands would like to advertise through user-generated
content, but they don't know how, he says. The Overlay platform could
also help marketers find out how effective a product placement is in a
video by tracking the analytics Overlay provides.

Overlay.tv was formed in mid 2006 and received $4.6 million (Canadian)
last November from Canadian VCs Celtic House Venture Partners
, Edgestone Partners and Tech Capital.

Revver is acquired amid spike in interest

Employees of video-sharing site Revver said they breathed a sigh of
relief Thursday after management informed them that the company had
been acquired by LiveUniverse, a little-known online entertainment
network.

Representatives from both companies declined to comment, but two
Revver employees and an executive at a company that had inquired about
bidding on Revver said managers there had informed them the sale was
done. The blog NewTeeVee was first to report the acquisition.

In a report earlier this month, CNET News.com cited sources who said
the beleaguered Revver was asking for between $300,000 and $500,000
and the assumption of the company's debt, which the sources said was
in the $1 million range. Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Bessemer Venture
Partners were among those that invested more than $12 million into
Revver.

News.com also reported that talks between LiveUniverse, owned by
MySpace.com co-founder Brad Greenspan, had stalled last month over the
issue of debt. A Revver employee, who asked to remain anonymous
because he is not authorized to speak for the company, confirmed that
Thursday.

The employee added that negotiations began to pick up again after the
story about Revver's troubles appeared. That triggered, according to
the employee, a flurry of inquiries from other companies. Among those
who called was VideoJug, an online video destination and production
company.

Doug Kamin, senior vice president of marketing at VideoJug, said
Thursday that he contacted executives about the possibility of making
a bid after reading about Revver's woes.

"At those prices, we thought Revver would be a good deal," Kamin said.
"I'm betting lots of others thought the same thing."

On Thursday Revver called Kamin to tell him that Revver's management
had decided to go with the "original bidder."

Revver's staff, which is half the size it was in 2006, was ecstatic to
hear that the company was saved and that they would not be broken up
or moved, according to two Revver employees. The status of the
company's CEO, Kevin Wells, was unclear.

For a year, the company had weathered management shake-ups that
included the departures of all three founders. Employees had witnessed
some of the Web's best-known video producers, such as Ze Frank and
Lonelygirl15, abandon the site. Revver's audience was dwarfed by
YouTube's and other video-sharing front-runners.

More recently, rumors circulated the Web that the company was running
short of cash, according to the Revver employees.

"Everyone is just really happy that this happened," the Revver
employee said. "We always knew that the company had great technology
and a strong following of creators. We knew we had value."

UvLayer Gives Social Networkers New Platform for Video

from mediapost:

THE LAST THING THE WEB needs is another video host site, according to
Michael Hoydich, co-founder of tech startup Unknown Vector.

A better platform and interfaces, however, are another story.

So, with his partner, Mark Grey, Hoydich has launched a new platform
for social networkers to view, store and share streaming video. Dubbed
uvLayer, the full-screen media download allows users and their friends
to interact with each other's videos across multiple social networks.

"The way people interact with and share videos today is limited and
awkward," said Hoydich, who once served as a vice president of sales
for Viewpoint Corporation. With Gray, Hoydich later went on to found
another tech services firm named IndustryNext, and an interactive
marketing agency by the name of Incognito Digital.

Unlike many video viewing experiences, uvLayer sources video content
from multiple sources so users can centralize their videos and play
lists without visiting multiple sites.

Also, uvLayer users can manipulate collected videos into
thumbnail-sized "stacks" atop their personalized media canvas for
better viewing and sharing.

Despite the abundance of tech applications, players, and sites being
offered to video viewers, today, at least one industry analyst is
betting on Unknown Vector to leave a lasting impact on the industry.

"UvLayer could change the way people collect and view their favorite
digital media," said Bobby Tulsiani, Jupiter Research media and
Internet video analyst. "The unique, intuitive user interface,
especially the video playback window that sits atop other desktop
applications, truly differentiates uvLayer within the current online
video marketplace."

Also with uvLayer, users no longer require an open Web browser to
view videos, as the option exists to view a single video or an entire
playlist in a small window anchored on top of a viewer's desktop.
Users can also publish media collections directly to Facebook, with no
coding and no typing.

UvLayer was developed using Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), a
new technology that allows developers to create rich internet
applications developed in Flash, HTML, and AJAX.

Online Video User Segments’ Viewing Behavior Varies Widely

From Marketing Charts:

Heavy viewers of online video watch 11 times as much online video as moderate viewers - and140 times as much as light viewers, according to a proprietary study by comScore and Media Contacts, the global interactive media network of Havas Media.

The research was designed to understand the consumption habits and mindsets of internet video users as they relate to online video, TV, and advertising and content across both media.

The heaviest viewers (top 20% of viewers) averaged 841 minutes of online viewing per month, while moderate viewers (next 30%) averaged 77 minutes, and the lightest viewers (bottom 50%) watched just 6 minutes each, the study found:

"The difference in consumption levels was astounding. The usage differences are reminiscent of the early days of the Internet," said Jarvis Mak, VP of Research and Insight at Media Contacts. "However, the networks' online distribution of first-run content will go a long way to bridging the gaps between heavy, moderate, and light viewers."

Additional findings from the study follow.

Heavy viewers spend time on niche video sites

YouTube is the common thread among the heavy, moderate, and light segments - it is the top video site for all three and reaches the most overall video viewers (54% reach).

Distinctive behavior for heavy video viewers is found by looking at the top indexing sites for this audience, revealing mostly niche video-sharing sites, each reaching less than 1% of the total US Web population:

Moderate viewers enjoy specific online TV content

Moderate viewers show a high propensity to view specific video content on broadcast TV sites, including WorldNow (ABC), CBS TV Local, ABC Daytime, Scripps TV, and CMT, rather than frequenting more general video-sharing sites:

Light Online video viewers are heavy TV viewers

Despite conventional wisdom that the heaviest users of the digital channel are likely to be the heaviest consumers of media, the study found that it was light online video viewers are actually heavier TV consumers:

• Some 46% of light online video viewers say they watch more than 13 hours of TV per week.
• By comparison, just 39% of moderate video viewers and 30% of heavy video viewers watched the same amount of TV.

Proprietary Segmentation

"To discover how best to reach and message online different kinds of video viewers, we used the comScore data to further develop proprietary segments: 'Content Explorers,' 'On Demanders,' 'Sight & Sounders,' and 'Television Devotees,' " Mak said.

A thumbnail sketch of those segments, per Mediaweek:

• On Demanders: 30% more likely to a heavy video users, mainly 18-34-year-old group, tends to use DVRs and video on demand; 89% say inclined to pay for content to avoid ads.
• Sight & Sounders: The 55 and over demographic, generally unimpressed with video content and video ads; almost half have been watching online video for less than a year, most prefer TV.
• Television Devotees: Female-skewing, frequently use the web to catch up on TV viewing, fans of broadcast and cable networks' web offerings; say online video ads are fine.
• Content Explorers: "Platform agnostic," will watch all sort of content on the web; interestingly, they fall in the 35-54, higher income category.

Differences in How Women, Men Consume Online Video; New Primetime Online

From Marketing Charts:

Men and women consume online video differently, and a new primetime has emerged online, according to (pdf) findings from Nielsen Online's initial full release of its new VideoCensus syndicated measurement service.

Below, some of those findings.

Women vs. Men

Women lead online network TV Viewing, whereas men are drawn to consumer-generated media (CGM), Nielsen's data for December '07 found:

• Video streams at broadcast network TV websites were nearly two times more likely to be viewed by women age 18-34 than men; those demos accounted for 22% and 12% of streams, respectively.
• For the top four CGM websites, streams were two-and-a-half times more likely to be viewed by men 18-34 than women; those demos accounted for 27% and 11% of streams, respectively.

Network TV Viewer Loyalty

Among network TV websites, there was relatively low viewer overlap:

Among CGM websites, however, most viewers also watched video content on YouTube:

"Network websites are destinations for fans to deepen their experience - they go to see favorite scenes, episodes and outtakes. These viewers are very loyal and engaged and the website is a place to become immersed in the program," said Michael Pond, media analyst, Nielsen Online.

"With shorter clips and a viral nature, CGM websites are much more about discovery, and consumers are likely to view content on more than one."

New Primetime Online

"[T]he largest appetite for streaming broadcast content is during the noontime hours, when viewers take a break from work to catch up on the shows they enjoy," said Pond.

• Streaming activity at the top network TV websites over-indexed during the weekday lunchtime hours of 12 p.m. - 2 p.m.

• At CGM websites, the most popular time for viewing was during late night hours on the weekend, between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

"Primetime visitors to network websites primarily enhance their TV viewing experience with features like online voting, web-only promotions and other program specific content, although there is some interest in streaming network content during the evening as well," Pond said.

US Video Consumption Metrics (Excludes Video Advertising)

The No. 1 video site in December was YouTube, with 2.6 billion streams during the month, followed by Yahoo with 371.9 million streams and Fox Interactive Media with 364.1 million streams.

• 116.7 million unique viewers, or 73% of active web users, watched approximately 6.2 billion video streams in December 2007.
• On average, each viewer spent nearly two hours and 10 minutes watching online video content in December.
• Each viewer on average watched nearly 54 video streams during the month.

Top 10 online video kids, games & toys destinations:

About VideoCensus: Nielsen Online's VideoCensus is a syndicated online video measurement service that combines patented panel and census research methodologies to provide a count of viewing activity and engagement along with demographic reporting.