Speaking at a paidContent 2012 panel Wednesday called “The Video Boom: What’s Next?”, media executives Rob Burnett and Lisa Gersh  approached the topic from two very different yet interesting perspectives.

As president and CEO of Worldwide Pants, Burnett controls a library of nearly 8,000 hours of programming, most of it comprised of 18 years worth episodes from CBS’ Late Show With David Letterman.

“We know the web is perfect for small chunks of comedy, and we have lots of it,” Burnett told moderator Chris Albrecht, who serves as creative director for paidContent parent company GigaOM. “Right now, we’re exploring ways to get all that content out into the world.”

For Gersh, president and CEO of lifestyle publishing giant Martha Stewart Omnimedia, the question is, “why bother?”

“Libraries aren’t cheap,” she explained. “Rights need to be cleared, then you need to digitize and tag everything and put it someplace. And a lot of the time that stuff is really old. The hairdos are old, the clothes are old, and it needs to be updated. I sometimes think it’s cheaper and easier just to make new stuff.”

This may be true for how-to cooking and gardening videos. For Worldwide Pants, however, age often works. “For some of the stuff we have, old is where the value is,” Burnett explained, “especially when you’re talking about Steve Martin’s first appearance on the show, or Jerry Seinfeld showing up when he was just a kid.”

Beyond the subjective discussion of the value of libraries, the panel — which also included cable business veteran Brian Bedol — discussed the virtues of the platform they’ve all come to rely on, YouTube.

Bedol, who now serves as founder and CEO of digital video production company Bedrocket Media Ventures, believes we might have already seen the launch of the last independent cable channel.

“To launch a cable channel, you need a satellite, a sales staff … you’re in the hole $50 million to $100 million before you even know you have an audience,” he said. “With YouTube, you can be distributed everywhere overnight, and you don’t need to make those binary decisions.”

Check out the rest of our coverage of paidContent 2012. Full archived video on livestream (registration required).

• On Friday, Facebook is set to flip the switch from years of hyped speculation to the reality of a mega-hyped IPO. It’s waiting for regulatory approval to spend $1 billion on Instagram. As I write this, the news is breaking that Pinterest is about raise a round that will follow it at $1.5 billion. A quick scan of our own news pages shows hundreds of millions being invested in the digital content ecosystem — often with a firm belief that there is revenue somewhere to justify those investments, but without any real sense of where it will come from. We’ll ask John Borthwick and Fred Wilson, among others, where they are investing and why.
• Cable and broadcast networks have been unveiling new programming slates into a more fragmented video universe than ever before. Discovery Communications bought Revision 3 for $30 million, Turner Broadcasting invested in Funny or Die. At the same time, YouTube’s $100 million investment in original programming is rolling out channel by channel, AOL is finally moving ahead with its major video plans, Yahoo is investing in original programs with Tom Hanks, Katie Couric and others — and so are Hulu, Amazon and Netflix. Brian Bedol, who is trying to replicate his success as a cable network founder with YouTube channels and other efforts; Lisa Gersh, president and COO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and Rob Burnett, CEO of David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants, will take us inside their thinking as they make their way through The Video Boom.
• Just this week, one of our moderators turned from board member and adjunct professor to active exec again. That means Larry Kramer will be sitting down as president and publisher of USA Today with John Paton and Jim Bankoff to talk about what it takes to lead and innovate, to be a “new publisher.” Since paidContent 2011, Bankoff taken SB Nation, a network of sports sites, to Vox Media and added a tech vertical with The Verge and has a gaming vertical on the way. Paton, meanwhile, has added MediaNews to his Journal Register portfolio, and is now the the CEO of the much-larger DigitalFirst.

As much as things change, one goal remains the same: the creation and evolution of sustainable business models that will support quality media, entertainment and information across platforms.

We’ll be covering the topics that matter to you in our signature one-day, single-stage, 360-degree style. We have a stellar roster of speakers and moderators who are more than up for the task, including:

• Jon Miller, Chief Digital Officer, News Corp.
• Bob Sauerberg, President, Condé Nast
• Vivian Schiller, Chief Digital Officer, NBC News
• Josh Marshall, Editor & Publisher, TalkingPointsMemo.com
• Mark Johnson, CEO, Zite
• Matt Mullenweg, Founding Developer, WordPress and Founder, Automattic

The full list of confirmed speakers is here.

Just as important as the speakers, though, is the fact that we have great attendees with a lot to add to the discussion.

But space is limited and tickets are selling fast — so if you want to take full advantage of this jam-packed agenda and the opportunities that come with networking throughout the day from breakfast to closing cocktails, I strongly suggest you register now.

If you’re interested in sponsoring paidContent 2012, please contact eventsales@gigaom.com.

The move marks the beginning of the end at CBS for Brian Bedol, the CSTV Networks co-founder who continued to head the sports net and its expansion after it was acquired by CBS in late 2005 for $325 million in stock. Tony Petitti, EVP and executive producer of CBS Sports, will run day-to-day operations. Bedol will aid with the transition and then serve as a “senior advisor” to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves. When Quincy Smith moved to CBS from Allen & Co. in late 2006, he cited Bedol’s presence there as a reason. Allen & Co. invested in CSTV and had a seat on the board before the sale. Smith said at the time that he saw it as a sign of an open attitude that a serial entrepreneur like Bedol still wants to work within the company: