Online Video, - Valleywag

explainer

Why Disney's funding Chinese pirates

If Chinese viewers want to watch Disney's Hannah Montana — no accounting for global tastes — they can do so on 56.com, an online-video site akin to YouTube. The show is pirated. But does Disney really mind? Its startup-investment arm, Steamboat Ventures, put money into 56.com two years ago. More »

10:00 PM on Thu Nov 20 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,671 views, 3 comments

Latest by mind_at_large: funny thing is if you link to those videos sitting here in US, Disney will come sue you for copyright more »

commentards

GM's scare tactics fail to win over YouTube users

General Motors has posted its call for an auto-industry bailout directly to the Net, with predictably disastrous results. GM marketers have clearly fallen for the myth of Internet PR — that taking a company's message directly to the people through social media will give it a much friendlier reception than if it is filtered through the mainstream media. The reality? More »

1:40 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,659 views, 11 comments

Most discussed isights: I think Barack is on the right track. We need to do somethng, but we also need to get EVERYONE more »

great moments in pr

Hulu wants me to tell you they're catching up with YouTube

You've never heard of media analyst company Screen Digest. Keep that in mind when you stumble upon a few dozen news reports today that claim "Hulu ... a smaller upstart backed by News Corporation and NBC Universal ... is forecast to draw level with Google’s YouTube in US advertising revenues next year." Any reporter who reads that sentence in the Financial Times instantly wonders, "forecast by who?" By the Financial Times? By Hulu executives? No, by Screen Digest. Take that as you will.

9:20 AM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Paul Boutin
696 views, 4 comments

Latest by IsadoraBear: Paul, you're welcome to call me anytime and I'll show you our credentials, our client lists, and explain our methodology. more »

barack obama

President Change dumps radio for YouTube

This week's Democratic Party weekly address by our audaciously hopeful President-elect will not be on boring old NPR. Barack Obama's going to upload to YouTube, reports the Washington Post. The WaPo says the Obama administration will also make "online Q&As and video interviews" part of its communications strategy. Think this is payback for Google CEO Eric Schmidt's late-to-the-game Obama endorsement? More »

1:00 PM on Fri Nov 14 2008
By Paul Boutin
2,668 views, 11 comments

Most discussed Omelas: In my experience working for the gov, when we use Gmail or other free services, it's because they're providing a more »

loser-generated content

YouTube ads must be big in Japan

YouTube has never been this exciting. And I don't mean the puppy videos. The video-sharing site is frenetically experimenting with every imaginable form of advertising, from prerolls to rollovers to overlays. There's even that staple of late-night television — headache pills! For this, we can thank Ben Ling, the product manager who recently returned to Google from Facebook to figure out how to make money on YouTube. But surely the most absurd ads we're seeing right now are the adaptations of Google's familiar text ads displayed on Web search results. A blog post featuring two cat-with-head-trapped-in-bag videos — a staple of YouTube users' contributions to the world of cinema — has ads "by Google" slapped on top of them. In Japanese.

3:40 PM on Wed Nov 12 2008
By Owen Thomas
826 views, 3 comments

Latest by Drunken Economist: Oh, Owen, you TOTALLY MISSED the Fark: "Chinese product manager [related to Bai Ling? Another Asian bizarro?] returns to Google to more »

Mark Jung

Vudu CEO to spend more time with his lovely wife

Vudu, which makes a nifty little set-top box that no one is buying, beat the rush by laying off employees in August. Today, an alert tipster notes that CEO Mark Jung has disappeared from the company's management page. Jung's LinkedIn profile has also been updated, putting Vudu in past tense. San Francisco's 7x7 magazine scored this shot of Jung with Mrs. Jung at a fundraiser in May. The boss wants me to draw some big conclusion here. I think it's: Go to the party. You can always work yourself to death when Web 3.0 comes around.

3:20 PM on Wed Nov 5 2008
By Paul Boutin
1,906 views, 2 comments

Latest by SuttonHizer: In 90 days they will be closing shop.... more »

online advertising

Viacom turns MySpace bootlegs into an advertunity

A year ago, Viacom sued YouTube for one billion dollars, claiming YouTube was not blocking uploads of copyrighted Viacom material from Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1 and others. Today, MySpace will join YouTube in running ads targeted to Viacom-owned clips, instead of deleting them. Auditude, a Palo Alto startup, provides the software that identifies Viacom-owned content. Remember when musicians believed all advertising was evil? Now, I'm looking forward to seeing a Big & Rich ad targeted against another Big & Rich ad, overlaid by another Big & Rich ad for a Big & Rich ad I haven't seen yet. Collect them all!

10:40 AM on Mon Nov 3 2008
By Paul Boutin
165 views, 2 comments

Latest by Uncle-Sam's Littlle Helper: Thanks! I tried to write you back on MySpace, but my network is running so slow because of all more »

online advertising

Hulu's surprising lesson

Jason Kilar, the CEO of online-video site Hulu, has rediscovered a truism: less is more. Hulu, which is mostly owned by NBC and News Corp., runs fewer ads on the TV clips it licenses from its TV-network parents than they air when they broadcast the same shows. And yet the ads are more effective. This could simply be a novelty effect; everything about Hulu is new, so the ads also draw more notice. But Hulu may be onto something. Why don't networks try running fewer ads on air, too? (Photo via Alarm:Clock)

5:00 PM on Wed Oct 29 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,494 views, 13 comments

Most discussed marcsiry: I'm not sure this story follows VW style guidelines- aren't you supposed to use at least one vaguely insulting descriptor more »

social networks

No poking your television

"Some of the tools that allow people to build communities and socialize on Internet sites like MySpace and Facebook are making their way to the living room," reports the Wall Street Journal. Awesome! That means we'll be able to throw a sheep at Tina Fey while watching 30 Rock, right? Wrong. The article actually talks about using Xbox Live as a cheap voice-chat service, a Sony service which doesn't exist yet, and a bunch of startups. Too bad, because I'd love to multitask my two favorite brain-dead activities: watching TV and clicking "ignore" on Facebook friend requests. (Illustration by Jason Schneider/Wall Street Journal)

3:00 PM on Mon Oct 27 2008
By Owen Thomas
180 views, Comment

meltdowns

Break.com basically fires 11 people, but calls it a layoff

Web-video-for-guys startup is "laying off" 11 people, but hiring another 11 with different skills, according to its CEO, Keith Richman. Dude, that's not a layoff — that's a classic nutshot. More »

1:40 PM on Thu Oct 23 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,493 views, 4 comments

online video

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