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.