Web Video – State of the Union

Shel Israel for Social Computing Magazine, on the huge phenomenon of online video.

"I've been looking at online video for about a month now, spending less than an hour on most days, just poking around. There's so much going on, in so many areas, that this approach is very much like assaulting a glacier with an ice pick. Except that even a glacier on steroids would not come close to keeping up with this rapidly growing, rapidly changing category.

Over half the web's content is now digital video, my friend JD Lasica, a citizen video expert says. He says many predict the web will eventually be 98% video.

This changes things. It changes how the Internet will be used. Some of this is just a new and better distribution mechanism. For example, the day is fast coming when you'll be able to get whatever commercial TV or video program you want from your computer and wirelessly send it to your TV set for viewing whenever you want. Cable providers need not be involved. There's also the new pro-am explosion best typified on YouTube.

But there is much more happening and from time-to-time, I plan to write about the companies and people who stand out in my perception as the diamonds in the coal mine, companies and people who are changing the nature of the online experience."

[Read more on some of the companies reviewed by Shel Israel]

Warner to put ad-supported video archive online

Warner Music is putting its archive of music video online and making it available for free to fans. Reuters reports.

"Warner will work with digital services provider Premium TV to create online TV sites or "digital hubs" that will be organized by artist, genre or label and funded by advertising.

The move is part of the music industry's drive to generate revenue from new sources to offset the fall in CD sales and follows the explosion in popularity of online video.

Warner said the platforms would show previously unseen footage and would eventually be available in different languages.

Revenue will be driven by advertising but music fans will be able to download the videos for an additional fee and Warner will also examine syndicating the content to a third party. The deal includes plans to develop subscription-based services and a version to be used on mobile platforms."

Australia. Net video, digital TV grow

More than 25 per cent of all Australian homes accessed video content from the internet last year, a groundbreaking report by the broadcasting regulator has found. Australian IT reports.

"The Australian Communications and Media Authority yesterday released a report titled Digital Media in Australian Homes, which provided the first figures on how downloaded video content was being viewed in Australia.

Of the content downloaded from the internet, the survey found 22.6 per cent was being viewed on computers or laptops, 11.5 per cent was watched on mobile phones and 2.3 per cent was watched on a television.

But the research also revealed the first significant increase in sales of free-to-air digital TVs, with the technology now in 29.6 per cent of homes, compared with only 13per cent last year."

Apple TV set to download YouTube

Thousands of hours of user-generated video madness will soon be available through Apple TV, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced Wednesday, reports News.com.

"Starting next month, Apple TV users will be able to select YouTube as an option from the device's main menu and view thousands of the most viewed and most popular videos on the site.

... Apple TV is designed to connect a wide-screen television with content purchased or downloaded over the Internet by a Mac or PC. Until now, however, Apple TV users looking for content were mostly dependent on television programs or movies they had purchased through the iTunes Store. There's no browser inside the interface that would let users access other Internet videos, though they could move their home videos to Apple TV."

Related: - The trouble with Apple TV - (Fortune)

ABC launches user-generated video show

Variety reports on ABC News' user-generated video show.

"Hour long "i-Caught" will get a six-week run on the network starting Aug. 6 with an eye toward a mid season return if it performs as well as the network hopes.

Amateur video will form the basis of the show's segments, but ABC News correspondents will build news stories and features around video captured on cell phones or digicams and uploaded to a companion Web site.

Much will depend on what rolls in, but Sloan said ABC News journalists also will shoot segments on video getting viral play on other sites.

The networks have tried various concepts to marry a television show with the viral appeal of YouTube-fueled clip culture.

Al Gore-backed Current TV allows amateurs to upload material for broadcast. Warner Bros. and AOL are producing the syndicated "TMZ," based on the Web site.

CNN recognized the value of cell-phone video early on and set up i-Report, inviting users to upload video. A student at Virginia Tech used the service to upload the only live footage of the campus shooting rampage in April."

Related:

-- USA Networks, Fox and NBC 's new user generated shows

-- Current Mobile TV requesting citizen cellphone videos

Chicago Movie Theater offer audience device to rat on movie pirates

CBS reports that Regal Entertainment Group, which owns several Chicago area theaters, is offering a device to enable audience members to rat on those talking/texting on their cell phones, or filming the movie.

"Using a device the size of a cell phone, certain patrons will be able to push a button to alert the management to somebody else's rude behavior, or even a problem with the movie.

The device, called a “guest response system,” has four buttons corresponding to problems; one is to report piracy if you see someone recording a movie with a camera.

The devices are now in use at just over 100 locations nationwide and could be headed for Chicago in the near future."

Related:

-- Theater Chain arms theaters goers with cell phone busters

-- Malaysia cinemas use night goggles to nab pirates

-- High-tech paint will block cell phone calls

-- Sydney Pollack Teams With Cingular to Promote Cell Phone Courtesy at the Movies

-- US movie theaters may ask to jam cell phones

-- Cell Phone Jammers Authorized in French Theaters

-- US Lawmaker may propose banning cell phones in theaters, stores

-- NZ Cinema Owners Seek to Curb Phone Rage

The Newest Lobbying Tool: YouTube

According to The Washington Post, interest groups seeking influence in Washington are joining presidential candidates in discovering a new electronic tool to press their agenda: YouTube.

"Send your underwear to the undersecretary'' urges the actress in the Competitive Enterprise Institute's stinging 66-second anti-regulatory video posted on YouTube.

The video blames a 2001 Energy Department rule for an energy-efficiency standard that it says has made new models of washing machines more expensive while getting laundry less clean.

The underwear video illustrates what other advocacy groups are finding out: YouTube is a cheap, creative way to get a message to a potentially vast audience. This slow migration is in addition to more traditional lobbying approaches, such as direct mail, Web sites and scripted phone calls to federal officials.

YouTube site 'blocked' in Morocco

Internet users in Morocco who have been unable to access YouTube have voiced concern that it is being deliberately blocked by the authorities. The BBC reports.

"Many Moroccans have been unable to see the video-sharing site since 25 May. A spokesman for the Moroccan government said he could not comment on telecommunications issues, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Some people have linked the problem to videos critical of Morocco's actions in Western Sahara, a disputed territory which Morocco took control of in 1975."

Business Week to launch video hub

Businessweek.com is exploring the launch of an online-video-based contest that would invite anyone with a idea for a new business to submit a plan on the site with the chance to land $500,000 in venture capital funding. MediaWeek reports via NewTeeVee.

"Users would rate each proposal and ultimately vote on the winner, who would receive half a million dollars from a VC firm to invest in the proposed business. "

What every family wants to know about Television (Jan, 1949)

Will TV really change America’s family habits? A blast from the past from Modern Mechanix.

"... One night just about a year ago, Phil Young came home from his advertising office a tired but not unhappy man. He walked through the living room of his home in Dobbs Ferry, N. Y., looking for his family and then headed toward his den.

As he entered this room, he saw a strangely disturbing sight—16 pairs of eyes glowed up at him from the floor. ‘What’s going on here?” he asked. And from among the eyes his two. children answered reproachfully: “Shhhhh, daddy.” Television had come to Phil Young’s home."

New Google Video Ads Formats

A year after Google's launch of click-to-play video ads, Google is introducing 3 new video ad formats.

[Inside Adsense via NewTeeVee]

EU condemns organ donor tv show

Dutch News reports that The European Commission has condemned Dutch public-service broadcasting network BNN reality show scheduled to air on June 1st - whereby a 37-year-old terminal patient with a brain tumor, will chose, live, on TV, which of three contestants in need of a kidney transplant, will get her kidney once she dies.

The program has already been criticised by the cabinet and MPs. However, ministers Ronald Plasterk (media) and Ab Klink (health) will not ban the show. Plasterk says the media law does not allow him to act before the program is shown.

Klink's spokesperson has said however that the star of the Donor Show is not free to decide who will receive her organ, reprots Expatica News. "Only donors who donate a kidney while living are allowed to designate the recipient. In the case of posthumous donation the kidney will go to whomever has been waiting the longest."

BNN says the programis a serious attempt to highlight the scarcity of donor organs and to honour the memory of the broadcaster’s founder, Bart de Graaff, who died five years ago at the age of 35. De Graaff suffered from kidney disease all his life, which stunted his growth and eventually killed him, despite a kidney transplant in 1997."

Previously: - Dutch TV show has viewers voting on who should get donor organ

TNT and TBS will offer series online for a month after their TV premiere

Turner Broadcasting System’s TNT and TBS plan to stream all seven of their combined original summer series on their respective Websites, reports Broadcasting & Cable.

"The shows—The Closer, Heartland and Saving Grace, The Company, and House of Payne, The Bill Engvall Show, My Boys and The Frank Show— will offer episodes online after they run on linear TV.

They will launch on the networks’ Websites, TNT.tv and TBS.com, generally at 3 a.m. the next day and remain online for about a month.

... Time Warner’s Turner networks are the first major entertainment cable networks to stream full series runs of new originals. Cable networks typically have had a harder time than their broadcast counterparts in streaming shows online because they have to get both the rights from studios and the go-ahead from cable operators."

SBS wants your movie reviews

Australian television network SBS has harnessed the web and online video for a new Movie Show, converging TV and internet audiences, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The show, which premieres on Thursday, will allow viewers to upload their own video reviews of movies to a companion website with features similar to the popular video sharing website YouTube. Some reviews will be televised.

... Written feedback on the site is also expected to shape the TV show."

Dutch TV show has viewers voting on who should get donor organ

BNN, a public-service broadcasting network in the Netherlands, has programmed a reality show on June 1st, whereby a 37-year-old terminal patient with a brain tumor, will chose, live, on TV, which of three contestants in need of a kidney transplant, will get her kidney once she dies.

Viewers will be able to send text messages to the show, giving their choice of who deserves the kidney organ most.

Daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad reported that this show is creating a huge controversy - including at government level - for making light of organ donations. The show claims they are trying to reflect the harsh reality; that receiving a donor transplant is one big lottery.

[via Fenêtre sur l'Europe (in French)]

TV-Helmet

Walter Pichler figured out forty years ago that there could be more ways than one to watch TV.

His TV Helmet (left) and Small Room (right) thematized new media such as TV and telecommunications.

They are both pieces from a series of sculptures Pichler made in the '60s, exploring the overlap of architecture/design/sculpture.

Spotted on we-make-money-not-art

How films reflect, create the cruelty of our culture

Television dramas wallow in violence; reality shows thrive on public humiliation and rejection. An opinion piece by the Seattle Times.

... We are living in a mean season — in our movies, in our music, in our television shows, in our politics — and it shows no signs of ebbing. The anger is epidemic.Radio hosts like Don Imus traffic in personal invective and ethnic insults. Rappers heap abuse on gays and reduce women to crudely caricatured objects. The blogosphere is full of "flame wars," endless explosions of attacks and take-no-prisoner shout-downs.

... The gore of modern horror movies, the callousness of TV crime dramas, the humiliation of reality shows, the insults and bombast of radio shows and bloggers — it may seem like a grab-bag of different troubles. But it's really one trouble. It's really just seeing other people as unworthy of the same rights and respect as ourselves, as fit subjects for contempt and cruelty. It is, very simply, learning to see others as something less.

... Look at your big-screen TV, if you dare, where the Sopranos have replaced the Huxtables as America's favorite family, and top cop shows like "CSI" detail the dehumanizing particulars of crime scenes. Even upbeat reality programs depend on humiliation and spite.

... All art is a product of the time it's created in, and reflects that time whether it wants to or not, even if it attempts to escape it by hiding in fantasy. If we have TV shows that feature torture, and movies that feature beheadings — well, there is plenty of news footage of that happening in real-life too, lately. All art is a mirror."

New Jersey Turnpike Authority Sues YouTube Over Crash Video

This is wild. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) is claiming copyright infringement for a film of an accident that occured on the turnpike and was upoloaded on YouTube and other video sharing sites.

According to Phys.org, "the NJTA is suing for direct copyright infringement by public performance, public display and reproduction, as well as inducement, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. "

"The NJTA requested the footage be removed under the DMCA — which YouTube complied with — unfortunately, the video was copied to several other sites.

The NJTA still seems to be targeting YouTube since YouTube 'did not try to prevent the very same video from being uploaded again by users immediately after it was purportedly removed."

The complaint, the offending video has been viewed 19,833 times on YouTube, 189,037 times on LiveLeak.com and 6,933 times on break.com as of May 21. Less than 24 hours later, on May 22, the videos had been viewed 24,346 times, 213,295 times and 16,812 times, respectively.

The NJTA also is suing unnamed corporations and individuals who may have helped distribute the stolen video. "

[via Slashdot]

Malaysia cinemas use night goggles to nab pirates

Malaysian cinemas have found a powerful new weapon in their fight against movie pirates -- military-style night-vision goggles. Reuters reports.

"After showing people to their seats, trained ushers are strapping on the goggles and scanning darkened cinemas around the country to spot anyone trying to make illegal copies of movies with hand-held video recorders or mobile phones.

Malaysia figures on the U.S. watchlist for movie and software piracy, but local authorities have launched a major crackdown on producers and retailers of illegal DVDs since the country began free-trade talks with the United States a year ago.

The association, which represents the big Hollywood studios, recently brought to Malaysia two dogs trained to sniff out DVDs -- with stunning results. The two Labradors, Lucky and Flo, have sniffed out more than a million DVDs and broken a fake DVD ring."

EU extends TV law to Internet

The European Union has passed a law which extends the laws governing television broadcasters to companies providing video content online regardless of how it is transmitted, reports The Register.

"The Audiovisual Media Services Without Frontiers Directive broadens broadcast rules introduced in 1997 to encompass content on the internet, mobile phones and other devices, video on demand, and peer-to-peer networks. But it does not cover non-commercial content.

Citizens are granted new rights by the modernised Directive. This includes the right to access extracts of important events for general new purposes, clear identification of the media service provider; improved access for people with visual or hearing disability to audiovisual media services, and clear rules on product placement, obliging broadcasters to inform consumers when it takes place."

Full press release

Underemployed TV writer posts resumé on YouTube

28-year-old David McMillan is an underemployed Hollywood writer, looking for a job as staff writer on a show. Tired of relying on the normal channels, this year he decided to take action and made a video pitch describing "the top ten reasons why you should hire me to write for your show" and then posted it on YouTube last week. The LA Times reports. [via Reel Pop]

"... He forwarded the YouTube link to about 100 industry contacts. McMillan hasn't received any job offers since he posted the video last Wednesday, though he says he's received "great feedback" from those offering to forward their words of recommendation."

Watch the Video

Last December, the WSJ published an article on résumes posted on YouTube: "So far, the video résumés featured on YouTube have been posted mostly by people in entertainment or media, but it's spreading by job seekers in other fields-- especially among younger workers.

The article also mentions Aleksey Vayne video, the Yale University student who applied for an investment-banking job. Entitled "Impossible Is Nothing" and featured him lifting weights, showing off his tennis serve and ballroom dancing -- was widely watched on YouTube and made Mr. Vayner an object of ridicule" - as well as a current event entry in Wikipedia .

KFC uses videos from community website for its new ad

Last Tuesday on American Idol, KFC, the popular chicken restaurant chain, aired an ad put together with snippets from consumers' submitted Web videos. USA Today reports.

"The ad, called "Celebration," shows people pumping fists, flipping, jumping and generally going bonkers, ostensibly for the chain's new menu of chicken with no trans fats.

KFC evaluated 400 videos and got approval to use 35, before making the final cut to clips from 13 people, including a vegetarian."

KFC seems to be in tune with the latest technolgoy crazes. In April, Moco News reported that KFC had struck a cross-branding partnership with the company behind the MosquitoTone mobile ringtone that inserts the high-pitched sound in one of the fast-food company’s latest TV advertisements.

It's not the first time user generated content is used for a commercial. Yahoo and Doritos teamed up to collect video submissions for a commercial to be aired during this year's Super Bowl.

Video Sharing websites attracting grandparents

Interactive Media reports that YouTube, "a magnet for technology-crazed teens, aspiring actors and people who like to show off their pets, is starting to attract another demographic: those people’s grandparents."

"As making home-grown online videos becomes ever easier, senior citizens – some of whom don’t even own computers – are seeking to preserve their legacy through videos showcasing the famous family chicken-soup recipe or stories detailing the provenance of cherished family heirlooms. The clips take on special meaning for relatives who are finding new meaning in old stories brought to life and the assurance they will stay in the family.

Some are attracting interest beyond the family circle, generating tens of thousands of hits, like the 90 year-old piano man on YouTube or , Feed me Bubbe, an online cooking show by grandmother Bayla “Bubbe. on blip.tv.

... Seniors’ foray into online video comes as they are pursuing a range of other online activities as well. Seniors 65 and older are one of the fastest growing segments of the online population, according to Jupiter Research. "

French TV investigates the success of US TV Series

One of French TV's best weekly investigative reporting shows, Envoyé Spécial, on May 3rd looked into the huge popularity of American TV series. The French crew flew to LA and New York, where they filmed sets and locations and talked with writers and producers.

Video (in French) on dailymotion via Gigi Studio.

We learn that those who rule TV shows actually never set foot on a set. They are the writers. 24' has 10 of them. Three were interviewed:

"TV is the kingdom of screenwriters, because primarily, you watch TV for the story. You go to the movies for the images, TV is all about the story. American movies have forgotten that. Movies today are a display of big money, explosions and special effects, where the audience does not feel involved."

One of the reason we succeed is that we are not afraid of rewriting if there is a lull. We will write several additional scenes. We never know where we are going to end up. It's like a train at full speed. We discuss episodes constantly to have one big story.

The crew went to ABC and met with Lauri Younger, responsible for the International Market. May is the time of year ABC sells it's series world wide - where their copyrights are respected.

According to Younger, "we sell both Lost and Desperate Houswives on mobile phones". Viewers now sometimes see a series first online, then go to their TV, or the reverse. Series today have a life beyond TV.

American TV series offer a wide variety of programs. Some sell the Amercian dream, others subvert it, like the Wire, shot in Baltimore.

Most Americans believe that drug addicts or the homeless are people who chose to be. Blacks are shown with handcuffs. The Wire series gives those that are excluded a voice. If through a series you follow them, understand where they come from how they got into the situation they are in. Then you can feel for them, it's no longer just fiction, the TV series takes you another step.

Subscription based cable channel HBO is known for it's audacious shows, commercial free and uncensored:: Sex & The City, The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under...

Envoyé Spécial concludes as follows: These stories accompany us and we follow them too long for them not to be taken seriously. Because some of these show say as much about our society as a documentary. Because the characters are more complex than movie characters and because a good idea will always find an audience. Fiction is the most faithful mirror of reality.

Google AdSense coming to a video near you

Google AdSense has announced that this week, that they are extending AdSense to online video content.

A pilot program has been launched with a small group of publishers to test streaming video ads in their online video content.

With this pilot, publishers control when the ads play in their videos and choose which videos get the ads.

More details on AdSense Blogspot.

America lags behind Europe and S Korea in watching TV Online

In a related article on South Korea's grip with US TV series fever, YONHAP News reports that according to a recent poll of 114 college students, forty-four percent of the viewers said they take the episodes off peer-to-peer Web sites, while 48 percent said they watch the dramas on cable TV.

"We started adding our own translation scripts to watch American TV series on our computers long before TV adopted them," said one co-runner of an Internet fan club of 150,000 members, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of possible legal complications. "Public TV has belatedly jumped on the bandwagon."

Some warn that digital viewership can pose serious legal problems. "It does present a copyright issue, no doubt," said Won Woo-hyun, a mass communications professor at Korea University in Seoul.

Early May, the BBC reported that almost half of European broadband users are using their computers to watch television online, with the French being the most enthusiastic in consuming their favourite programs via the web.

And yesterday, TBO reported that in the US, only about 4 percent of the people who have an online connection are watching TV shows online.

So the US is really lagging behind. Behind Europe and behind Asia.

One explanation which I have given before and am sure it's a main reason is that in Europe at least, we get TV series 6 months to a year on our TV channels after their broadcast in the US. So being able to watch as soon as they come out in the US, is a huge attraction. They are usually posted on video sharing sites one to two days later.

Some of the Challenges Joost faces

A very interesting read from the San Francisco Chronicle, on Joost and other online video services targeted to the growing number of people around the globe who have access to high-speed Internet.

"Joost isn't the only company that has recognized the trend. It faces competition from just about every direction.

Telecommunications carriers are developing set-top boxes that download shows from the Web. Television networks such as ABC have set up their own sites and are encouraging fans to go there to watch their shows.

Apple is selling television and movie downloads from iTunes, which customers can transfer to their iPod, as well as to their television set via the new Apple TV.

BitTorrent, which developed the original peer-to-peer technology that made sharing large files possible, also has launched a download service with high-definition content.

Another challenge: While Joost has a growing list of programming, it isn't exclusive. Its partner, Turner Broadcasting System, for instance, also has a deal with Veoh. Warner sells its television shows on BitTorrent and iTunes. The National Hockey League also supplies clips for YouTube and Google.

Joost's success doesn't have to be at the expense of someone else, or the other way around, said Brent Weinstein, head of digital media at the United Talent Agency, which represents some of Hollywood's biggest stars and has been evaluating Joost for its clients. "It's not like traditional film and television where everyone is fighting over rare and finite time slots," he said.

Image from FutureLAB.

Korea in the Grip of U.S. TV Series Fever

Korean viewers are gripped by US made TV series fever, reports Digital Chosunilbo. Cable and terrestrial channels are broadcasting more than 30 series.

"With the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement concluded, U.S. drama fever is expected to soar even higher. Under the agreement, U.S. investors are able to invest in Korean cable TV channels to the extent of owning a 100 percent stake.

Series such as "Friends" and "Sex and the City", and dramas like "Desperate Housewives", "CSI" and "Lost" all owe their popularity to cable TV. The craze has broken all the rules of TV broadcasting in Korea, changing the concept that terrestrial TV leads and cable follows.

... U.S. drama fever is a warning to domestic soap opera producers.... Prof. Choi Chang-sup, of the Department of Mass Communications at Sogang University, said, "Domestic drama has to improve its content to compete in a more challenging media environment.”

Related: - America lags behind Europe and S Korea in watching TV Online

Don't Call It Advertising

An article after my own heart, by Jeremy Lockhorn from Clickz.

"Consumers have long expressed annoyance with TV advertising and are now showing the same feelings toward pre-roll and other interruptive ad formats online. The discussion has reached a fever pitch over the last few years as DVRs have become the great disruptor and the raw amount of advertising that people are exposed to has increased.

We all understand advertising underwrites the content, but there's a point at which the value proposition breaks. And the situation is all the more annoying when most of the advertising is completely irrelevant to most of the audience.

... Innovation around video advertising is absolutely critical to its long-term success online. Why be satisfied with annoying but effective? Why not experiment while the audiences are ramping up and clamoring for new and different experiences?

I can't tell you the number of calls I get from technology vendors or publishers who are proud to exclaim that they've invented a new way to force people to watch advertising. "Thanks but no thanks," is about all they get from me. We have the technology and the energy to completely reinvent these ad models. Let's not accept "good enough."

Viewers Catch Up On TV Shows Online

Broadcast networks have just started experimenting this season with online repeats of popular series right after they air, writes TBO.

"Fans can find recently aired episodes of series such as "Lost," "24" and "Heroes" at various Web sites.

ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, The CW and PBS offer many of their series for free online. But there are other sources, such as Apple's iTunes Web site, which has more than 350 TV series - current and classic - that can be downloaded to a computer or an iPod for as low as $1.99 per episode.

Wal-mart, through Wal-mart.com, sells downloads of TV shows from Fox, The CW, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and VH1 for $1.96, starting the day after they air.

A trend that is expected to explode next year as today, only about 4 percent of the people who have an online connection are watching TV shows online.

Jeff Gaspin, NBC Universal's president of digital and cable content, recently told MulltiChannel News that online viewing doesn't steal viewers away from broadcast episodes. "I see the opposite," he said. "It's a chance to get in front of new eyeballs and generate traffic and interest back to the on-air broadcast."