Hulu CEO is leaving as company wrestles with future
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is leaving the company along with CTO Rich Tom. The two will stay on in the next months to manage the transition. Read more at GigaOM »
YouTube sucks on French ISP Free, and French regulators want to know why
photo: 20th Century Fox
After users complained about bad online video experiences, France’s telecom regulator launched an investigation trying to figure out if a local ISP was blocking YouTube or if it was just underinvesting in its network. A decision is expected soon, and could have worldwide repercussions. Read more at GigaOM »
The best of web video: 4 highlights from 2012 you should know
Two of the funniest women in comedy today. A channel that brought together cop show parodies and sci-fi drama. A series that created a community. And a brand that pushed the boundaries of serialized content. For those who like web video, 2012 was a great year. Read more at GigaOM »
How social media is rewriting the rules of modern warfare
photo: Flickr user Rosaura Ochoa
In the past, information flow during a military campaign was mostly controlled by the armies involved, but now that everyone has the ability to publish and distribute data including photos and videos, it changes the nature of attacks like the latest Israeli campaign against Hamas. Read more at GigaOM »
Israel and Twitter: Where does free speech end and violence begin?
Israel is waging war on Hamas, but it is also waging an information war using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other tools. How firmly do these networks support the principle of free speech, and how do they decide what content to permit and what to remove? Read more at GigaOM »
When armies become media: Israel live-blogs and tweets an attack on Hamas
photo: Flickr user Petteri Sulonen
How does it change the way we perceive a war when the armies involved become media entities — publishing their own live news reports, uploading photos and videos and even live-tweeting their attacks as they happen? The Israeli army has started doing just that. Read more at GigaOM »
How video will provide a third act for AOL
AOL has been a basket case for years as it tried to figure out if was a tech or a content company. But today it announced earnings and a strategy that suggest it may finally have found a way forward. Read more »
Hank Green and Bernie Su’s Lizzie Bennet Diaries celebrates #darcyday
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries might be one of the most important web content stories of 2012: The YouTube adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has not only secured its financial future thanks to DECA, but has built an intense fanbase for future literary adaptations. Read more at GigaOM »
Wit, wisdom and breaking news from the New York Television Festival
The web’s most popular Jane Austin adaptation gets a big deal. The value of mainstream celebrities might not measure up to web celebrities. Some people actually miss Myspace. And other things learned from the New York Television Festival. Read more at GigaOM »
DS2DIO: Jon M. Chu builds YouTube a home for dance video
The internet has never wanted for dance videos, but DS2DIO seeks to create a central hub for dance-related content of all genres on YouTube, guided by a guy who knows a little bit about making the art of dance cinematic. Read more at GigaOM »
YouTube revamps content ID, defaults to DMCA in case of unresolved disputes
YouTube just added some additional recourse for users that feel like they’ve been wrongly targeted for the alleged upload of unlicensed content: The site added an appels process to its Content ID program that defaults to the DMCA if the dispute isn’t resolved. Read more at GigaOM »
Debate sponsor taps YouTube, Yahoo and AOL to quiz, inform voters
The Commission on Presidential Debates is partnering with three online media companies to stream debates and educate voters. The platforms will also give the companies a way to showcase their other content. Read more at GigaOM »
YouTube wants to double down on mobile music videos
YouTube wants to give mobile phone users a chance to find music video content by artist, discography and genre, with the goal of bringing music content to hundreds of millions of its users. These plans could be an answer to Vevo’s mobile music initiatives. Read more at GigaOM »
How ad agencies are a bottleneck in the video economy
While publishers and developers have evolved to take advantage of new digital platforms, advertisers are lagging behind. Too often, they are simply repurposing TV material rather than tailoring their creative material to the online video environment. Read more »
Simon & Schuster to stream book videos on Roku and Blinkx
Book publisher Simon & Schuster is ramping up video distribution, creating content channels and signing with partners like Roku, Blinkx and Taboola. For now, the videos are intended to promote books and authors, not to drive advertising revenue. Read more »
Should Google be censoring videos just because they are linked to violence?
Google says it blocked viewers in Egypt and Libya from seeing a controversial video clip on YouTube, after the video was allegedly linked to violence in both of those countries. But should Google be censoring content without even a request from a government or court? Read more at GigaOM »
In just 3 months, WIGS finds the ladies online
Quality production value and a star-studded cast have propelled the YouTube channel WIGS to the top of the scripted content charts in a short period of time — and proven that there is an audience for adult drama online. Read more at GigaOM »
Katalyst rolls out its primary weapon to support new channel: Ashton Kutcher
In the battle to get its new youth-targeted YouTube channel filled with cable-esque reality shows heard over myriad other channels offering similarly targeted content, having the resident celebrity co-founder do a little on-camera work probably doesn’t hurt uniques. But Katalyst insists it won’t over-use its boss. Read more »
OMG! AwesomenessTV closes $3.5M Series A round
With the L.A.-based video production company’s millennial-targeted YouTube channel already delivering 10 million video views since launching in mid-June, investors including MK Capital make a commitment. Read more »
YouTube’s U.S. channels: “Forget Europe, show us the money”
As YouTube plans to expand its premium content initiative into the U.K. and France, some existing channel partners say additional production funding is needed in the U.S. “We’re not really funded enough to win,” said one channel operator. Read more »
A platform of one’s own: Video Game High School takes control
What happens when a creator uses a highly-anticipated web series to launch a new website? The creators of Video Game High School found out when the highly-anticipated web series debuted on Rocket Jump — bringing millions of views to a platform they fully controlled. Read more at GigaOM »
Poll: Which screens will you use for the 2012 Olympics: TV, PC, mobile?
There’s an unprecedented amount of digital video coverage for this year’s Olympic Games and yet analysts suggest that the TV will easily trump viewing on other screens again. The numbers look low because of our time- and place-shifting mentality: Share your viewing plans in our poll. Read more at GigaOM »
Streaming the Olympics: How YouTube and NBC do it
YouTube is in charge of the streaming for NBC’s ambitious online coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, delivering some 3,500 hours of live coverage from the event on the web and through native apps. Here’s an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at this cooperation. Read more at GigaOM »
Thousands of YouTube partners now make six figures a year
Thousands of people are now making six figures on YouTube, the company revealed during its Q2 earnings call Thursday. YouTube had previously put that number in the hundreds. Google’s Chief Business Officer, Nikesh Arora, said that the company has found its model for YouTube. Read more at GigaOM »
Move over, golden record: YouTube launches partner rewards
YouTube is sending golden play buttons to any partner that has surpassed one million subscriber on his YouTube channel. The company is also honoring partners with more than 100,000 subscribers, and released some interesting new stats about these audience magnets. Read more at GigaOM »
Can Harry Potter teach English? Papagei think so
Papagei.tv wants to use movies and other video entertainment to help people learn new languages — and it’s doing well out of the gate, with at least €10m to extend its immersive language-training courses and a role as the official language trainer for Germany’s Olympic team. Read more at GigaOM »
YouTube sends video makers to summer school
YouTube is starting a series of educational workshops this week that aims to teach video makers how to produce better clips – and it wants to reach as many of them as possible: YouTube’s new summer workshops are held as Hangouts on Air, viewable by anyone. Read more at GigaOM »
Musicplayr: cross-platform harmony for web music
It’s easy to embed a wide variety of music players on your website, but hard to get them singing from the same hymnsheet. Musicplayr’s trying to fix that with a newly-revamped player it calls ‘eye-candy for the ears’ Read more at GigaOM »
Starbucks CEO extends “Indivisible” campaign from coffee to social media
photo: Starbucks
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz likes his coffee black and his politics nonpartisan. Last year, in a move to break gridlock in Washington, he launched a campaign urging CEOs to boycott political donations. Now he’s leading “Indivisible,” an initiative focused on job creation. Read more »
Google moves to snuff sites that rip music from YouTube videos
photo: VladimirB
In a move that suggests Google is coming to see itself as a content owner, the company is threatening legal action against sites that let users strip audio from YouTube videos and play them as stand-alone audio clips. Read more »
Google says US government takedown requests have doubled in last six months
photo: Tonis Pan
New data released by Google shows that US government requests to remove search results, YouTube videos and other content has increased by 103 percent. Information from around the world show countries targeting everything from social network profiles to a citizen peeing on a passport. Read more at GigaOM »
30 minutes or more: Why web content keeps getting longer
The rule of thumb used to be that web content shouldn’t be longer than five minutes an episode — a rule that’s pretty much dead here in 2012, with the spread of longer runtimes into least-suspected places, such as YouTube. Read more at GigaOM »
Google’s Wojcicki fires back at “misinformed” Ari Emanuel
photo: Asa Mathat | All Things Digital
Google’s Susan Wojcicki defended the search giant Thursday against the newest claims from the content industry that it has amassed a fortune partly on the back of pirated content, made the previous night by “superagent” Ari Emanuel at the D: All Things Digital conference. “I think […] Read more at GigaOM »
How Phil DeFranco plans to save YouTube
Philip DeFranco’s new YouTube channel Sourcefed clocked 100 million views since it launched three months ago as part of YouTube’s new channel roll-out. But with YouTube focusing on professional content, smaller producers could be left behind. That’s why DeFranco wants to share the stage with them. Read more at GigaOM »
Analyst: Digital Newfronts will fail to take TV dollars
Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Todd Juenger doesn’t believe digital media companies like YouTube, Yahoo and AOL can entice advertisers into committing huge portions of dollars all in one buying session, a la TV’s traditional upfront market. Read more »
YouTube’s April video usage up 55% over 2011
Aggressive investments into professional-grade (and semi-professional-grade) video content have dramatically increased the average amount of time viewers on YouTube and Yahoo spend watching shows each month. The competition, meanwhile, has seen its usage decline in a big way. We crunch the comScore video numbers. Read more »
YouTubers bring audience to Ford-sponsored NBC reality series
Think reality TV is saturated with product placement? Meet Escape Routes, which uses large amounts of screen time to sell you on the Ford Escape. But there is some interesting digital innovation involved — in the structure of the show and in the casting. Read more at GigaOM »
Cable’s answer to the NewFront? Discovery buys Revision3
With digital companies like YouTube and Yahoo making aggressive pitches for cable ad dollars, one of cable TV’s stalwart programmers, Discovery Communications, rendered a bold response Thursday, purchasing top digital program provider Revision3 for $30 million. Read more »
YouTube: “We are to cable what cable was to broadcast”
Closing out the NewFronts alongside A-list talent ranging from Jay-Z to Virginia Madsen Wednesday night, top Google execs including Eric Schmidt and Robert Kyncl showed advertisers yet more premium YouTube channels. They also unveiled an ambitious TV-like promo campaign to let everyone know they’re around. Read more »
Hey Google — your G+ desperation is showing
Google is doing everything it can to integrate the Google+ social network into all of its properties, so that it can become a “social layer” across the entire company. But that same behavior is irritating users like actor — and prominent Google+ user — Wil Wheaton. Read more at GigaOM »
