Old media urge FCC to ease ownership rules

By Brooks Boliek
传统媒体要求放宽版权限制

WASHINGTON -- The nation's old-media empires are telling federal regulators that the government must relax its media-ownership regulations because the nation's new-media players have changed everything.

In a series of arguments filed Monday with the FCC, such companies as the Tribune Co., NBC Universal and CBS told the FCC that its restrictions on who can own what media property where have to be eased if newspapers and broadcast outlets are to survive in the face of cable and Internet competition.

"Four years ago, when the FCC last reviewed its broadcast-ownership rules, the YouTube.com domain name had not even been registered, the first Windows version of the audio iPod was just rolling out, Google was only a search engine, cable companies sold primarily video packages, and telephone companies sold primarily voice service," CBS wrote in its filing. "And NBC was the most popular broadcast network thanks to its high-rated sitcom 'Friends' airing in the first hour of primetime."

CBS went on to say that the intervening time has exponentially increased all the arguments media companies made to ease the rules in 2003.

"Today, just four years later, Google is preparing to acquire 18-month-old video-sharing Web site YouTube for more than $1.65 billion (which will increase Google's market capitalization by less than 2%), Apple has had its fifth-generation video iPod on the market for more than a year, and cable and telephone companies now sell packages of video, voice, broadband and wireless services. Cell phones double as TV receivers for multichannel video services operated by new entrants such as Qualcomm using broadcast-type technology on spectrum allotted to broadcasters," the company wrote. "And NBC announced last week that it was making drastic cuts in its television operations, including phasing out costly scripted dramas and comedies during the first hour of primetime."

While CBS' filing might be the most colorful, it sums up the arguments the companies made to the FCC as it undertakes a review of the rules limiting common ownership of multiple broadcast outlets and newspapers and TV stations in local markets. Monday's filings come as the commission undertakes its second stab at rewriting the media-ownership regulations.

The commission's original attempt was discarded when the federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled that the commission failed to justify the changes. One regulation that raised a single company's audience-reach ceiling to 45% of U.S. households instead of 35% was taken off the table when Congress set the audience-reach ceiling at 39% by statute.

Tribune, a company that has experience in the joint ownership of newspapers and TV stations, argues that the regulations hamper the development of diverse viewpoints. The commission has issued waivers that allow Tribune to own TV stations and newspapers in five markets including Los Angeles.

"As the commission concluded in June 2003 after years of review, the combination of a newspaper and a television station in all but the smallest markets therefore enhances diversity and localism by fostering the production of more and better local news and public affairs programming," the company wrote. "Tribune's experience demonstrates that in every category reviewed by the FCC in its 2003 order, and especially with respect to the Internet, the proliferation of available and competitive sources of information and public discourse has increased."

In its filing, NBC Universal didn't reference its recent decision to lay off hundreds of employees in its news and entertainment divisions as it faces competition from new sources. Instead the company emphasized the cost of producing news programming.

"Rhetoric about 'big media' without analysis and discussion of the realities of providing high-production values and expensive news, entertainment and sports sought by today's media-savvy audience does not help the commission discharge its obligations to set reasoned and realistic public policy," the company said. "The commission should take into account that significant financial resources are required to meet the demands of audience for high-production-value TV programs with increasingly costly infrastructures."

Opponents of easing the regulations contend that those arguments are nonsense. To that end, a coalition of consumer-interest groups submitted more than 800 pages of comments backing up their contention, including a set of new studies that claim easing the rules would allow a handful of people to dominate news coverage in communities nationwide (HR 10/20).

"There is simply no evidence that supports permitting further media consolidation -- no justification in law, economics or social policy," said Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America. "The cornerstone of the FCC's argument to relax ownership limits is that consolidation is in the public interest. The evidence to the contrary is very clear. Stations that consolidate don't produce more news, they produce less. And diversity of news and opinion from the most influential media declines. The record is clear: More consolidation hurts our democracy without any discernible benefits."

Personal videos get $tar billing

By MARISA GUTHRIEDAILY
NEWS STAFF WRITER
草根视频选绣活动

The YouTube revolution will be televised. Carson Daly is making sure of that.
The host of NBC's "Last Call" has been a pop culture arbiter since turning MTV's "TRL" into a staple of the GenY vernacular. Now he's giving a generation of amateur video artists a major platform on broadcast television - and some cash.

"It's Your Show TV" (www.itsyourshowtv.com) - the brainchild of Daly and financed by NBC - is asking viewers to submit short videos throughout October and early November. There's a cash prize of $1,000 for the winners of each of 18 challenges, and a chance to compete for the big payday: $100,000 and the opportunity to get their video on NBC.

"User-generated content," said Daly, "seems to have been everywhere. What we're doing is creating a site that offers a little more focus. And also paying people, because everybody's making these videos but nobody's getting paid."

One of the weekly challenges, for instance, includes "Bald Is Beautiful," where participants are asked to make a promotional video illustrating the advantages of being bald.

At the end of the project, the top 20 winners in each challenge are entered into the final $100,000 contest.

Daly said he hopes to showcase many of the videos, not just the big money winner, in an NBC special he would host.

Daly is no stranger to YouTube. Last summer, he recruited YouTube user Brooke Brodack, known as "Brookers," to create and star in videos for TV and the Web.
But will the presence of a big media conglomerate like NBC quash the ruthlessly individualistic spirit of the genre?

"That's everybody's knee-jerk reaction," answered Daly. "NBC, if anything, is offering the viral community an incredible opportunity to A, earn money, and B, get their 15 minutes of fame."
Or more, said Daly. The next "Brookers" could be in their bedroom right now with a hand-held video camera and Windows Movie Maker.

"You could potentially launch your own career off a site like ["It's Your Show"]," Daly said. "We're not taking it lightly - here's $1,000, thanks for your goofy little video of a worm on the floor."

The television networks aren't taking the so-called viral video movement lightly either.
"They recognize that viewers exist in a multiplatform universe now," he said. "They're not just sitting in their living room watching TV on the big screen."

Just as technology has spurred a shift in viewing habits, it has also enabled viewers to become stars from their living room couches.

"People want to be heard," said Daly. "People want to be seen. They've just never had the ability until now. They can make videos. They can write blogs. Before, when they wanted to read the news, they went and got a newspaper. Now they can become the news."

Showtime airs entire Sleeper Cell series on VOD

Filed in archive Video on Demand by martino

电视剧在电视网首映前,投放到视频点播

If you understand the new media landscape of today, you also understand that "it's all about me." In other words, the viewer responds more favorably when they get to watch what they want, when they want it, and on whatever device they choose.

Showtime is stepping up to that reality. It will be the first TV network to make an entire series available On Demand simultaneous with the program's premiere. Now that's what I like to see in a VOD offering.

On Dec. 10, it launches all eight episodes of "Sleeper Cell: American Terror," on Showtime On Demand, the same day the second season of the serialized suspense drama returns. The "Sleeper Cell" strategy marks the first time an entire series has been made available On Demand before it has been shown on the network.

"Sleeper Cell" follows the deep-cover assignment of an African-American FBI agent who is Muslim and infiltrates Islamic terrorist organizations in the United States. The first season drew controversy and mediocre ratings, but won near-unanimous critical raves and several awards.

Why Prime Time's Now Your Time

New ways of getting video has shifted the peak times for viewing and advertising.

By Johnnie L. Roberts

Newsweek
黄金时段就是你的时段

Oct. 30, 2006 issue - The job commute may be a daily headache for most, but it's the favorite part of the day for Verizon Wireless. Why? Evening rush hour—4 to 7 p.m.—is prime time on its V Cast Internet service, when captive audiences in cars, buses and trains dial up a flood of streaming videos to while away the miles. Three to 5 p.m. is the peak of prime time for video at AOL. Time Warner Cable's video-on-demand channels peak on weekends from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. "It's a terrific alternative to lackluster network-TV offerings," says Bob Benya, the company's chief of video on demand.

Broadcast television's prime time as we know it is fading. Since the industry's formative years in the 1950s, the powerful medium has revolved around initially four but now three nocturnal hours, from 8 to 11 o'clock. Mass audiences would settle in for appointment entertainment. Prime time dominated broadcast economics, produced memorable pop-culture moments (Who shot J.R.?) and, as the broadest forum for advertising, propelled modern consumer society. But in a media landscape now increasingly aglow with online video, prime time is essentially any time. Empowered by the Internet and digital video recorders, massive numbers are resetting their TV clocks. Viewership is beginning to spike during daylight hours, when videos are streamed or downloaded to office computers, laptops, iPods and cell phones. Daytime, says reality-TV king Mark Burnett, is "the new prime time."

Industry experts say these changes could affect, among other things, scheduling, programming and ad pricing. NBC acknowledged prime time's shifting nature just last week. The network, which is trying to dig out of fourth place, announced plans to air more cheaper-to-produce reality shows and games at 8 p.m. in place of costly sitcoms and dramas. "Nobody can afford three hours of expensive prime-time programming," Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal, told NEWSWEEK, expressing a view his rivals dismiss. And with the rise of streaming and downloaded video, he added, network execs must stop counting only viewers who catch a show at, say, 9 o'clock on NBC and start noting "how many watched it in all of its incarnations."

That number is in the millions. In just 10 days recently, Burnett's reality series "Gold Rush" generated 7 million streams at AOL, its exclusive home. The peak hour: 4 p.m. That would make it a respectable hit on television. NBC.com counted 2 million streams of the network's new prime-time shows, including "Heroes," in the first week of making them available online. Daytime streaming on PCs accounts for the vast majority of all Internet video. Some 70 percent of streaming at home is done when the sun is out, and more than eight of 10 videos at work stream during daytime, according to data prepared for NEWSWEEK by comScore, a digital measuring service.

Although the networks' share of prime-time audiences has been shrinking since the rise of cable, roughly half of all television homes still tune in between 8 o'clock and the late local newscast. And at least $9 billion of ads air then. Yet every major broadcast network hastens to note that the audience for a show generally grows once the programming is made available for digital streaming. Like its rivals, CBS streams its prime-time hits, including "CSI" and "Survivor," on its Innertube site. But speaking at an industry gathering last week, CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said that prime time remains the "epicenter" of CBS's programming. "Prime time isn't going away, it's just being redefined," says Mike Bloxham, director of insight and research at Ball State University's Center for Media Design.

Noon has been pinpointed as the absolute peak of Internet prime time. "Noon is when everyone feels liberated to indulge," says Hunter Walk, product manager of Google Video, which soon will be bolstered by Google's $1.6 billion purchase of YouTube. Is streaming the new coffee break? Or is the office audience merely downloading and transferring videos to portable devices to watch later? Either way, experts are identifying an emerging pattern dubbed "session viewing," says Bloxham. "People are stockpiling and watching a number of episodes in a row." The trend may be the final stake in the heart of television as a communal experience.

Not everyone buys into the notion of a new prime time. Some network executives won't even acknowledge peaks in online viewing. Others believe that any notion of prime time will vanish as the market continues to expand and viewing patterns flatten across the entire day.

Although raw counts of video streams are available from third-party Web-measuring services, video sites are just beginning to determine the makeup of their audiences. The industry will make huge leaps next year in "breaking down the audience and at geographic and demographic targeting," says Kevin Conroy, a top AOL exec. "No one thought the [online video] market was going to happen so fast." AOL and others aren't completely in the dark. Everyone knows, for example, that office workers account for most of the streams, and the majority are 18 to 34 years old. "People have [Web] access at work, where it's really truly high-speed," says Greg Stewart, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

NBC Universal another sign of old media's need to change

By Shira Ovide

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- News organizations have said they must innovate or die.

主流媒体现在应该是网络而不是电视广播

But NBC Universal's plans to streamline its news operations and invest further in online news are perhaps the starkest recognition so far that traditional media must make drastic changes as viewers and advertisers migrate to the Internet.

"No one has yet truly embraced the idea that online is now the dominant medium - not broadcast, not print," said Robert Niles, editor of the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review. "Finally it's getting to the point where ... it's time to start competing very aggressively with the nimble startups online that have started to suck the audience away."

The rise of startups like online-video site YouTube Inc. are attracting increasing amounts of people's time - and advertisers' dollars.

"Advertisers are always looking for the most targeted opportunities and they're also looking for that next step," said Bill Carroll, vice president and director of programming at media-representation firm Katz Media Group. "Ultimately advertisers don't want to be left behind."

As a recognition of the migration of ad dollars, traditional media have invested in their own digital properties and - as NBC will do - cut staff.

The newspaper industry lost 3,500 to 3,800 newsroom jobs from 2000 to 2005, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Venerable news organizations like the New York Times Co. (NYT), the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post Co. (WPO) have not been immune from the trend of shrinking newsrooms.

But few news organizations have committed to consolidating their operations as drastically as NBC. The company will drastically cut its news staff and move cable-news network MSNBC to NBC headquarters in Manhattan and Englewood Cliffs, N.J., home of CNBC. Dow Jones & Co. (DJ), publisher of this newswire, provides news content to CNBC in the U.S.

Carroll said the move will help MSNBC, a ratings laggard. "There are so many brand names out there from YouTube to ESPN," he said. "If you've got multiple brands out there in the marketplace, you might be confusing people."

In a similar move, Walt Disney Co. (DIS) this summer eliminated its ABC Sports brand name, a recognition of its convergence into sports network ESPN, which Disney also owns.

The moves are part of a broad restructuring at NBC Universal, where lackluster ratings at NBC have hurt parent company General Electric Co. (GE). The company said it will cut annual administrative and operating expenses by $750 million by the end of 2008, in part by cutting staff by about 5%, or 700 positions. The NBC broadcast network also will cut back on high-priced programming during prime-time hours.

Ultimately, Niles said NBC's steps will have the most lasting impact on its news operations by following the audience migration online.

"Corporations are recognizing that media are merging," he said, "and that they're holding back their news operations by continuing to slot people in one medium or another, rather than enabling them to work across multiple media."

The Venice Project expected to lanuch P2P Televison Network

Filed in archive Internet TV by martino
理论家试图利用p2p技术整合Skype, Ebay和电视
conspiracy theorists link the grassy knoll to Skype, eBay, and targeted television

A few weeks ago, I first got wind of Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom's latest venture codenamed "The Venice Project" and reported on it. This project interests me because it's aimed at distributing television and video over the internet. These two gentlemen were also responsible for Kazza's file-sharing system and the Skype peer-to-peer phone service so they have experience in disruptive technologies.

The Venice Project team says that it is not a file-sharing application or a video download service. My take is that it will be similar to Veoh, making it a streaming peer-to-peer platform for television but built on top of the global index that provides the foundation for Skype.

The terms of service at their site suggest that it will involve users uploading and tagging content. Additionally, the platform will provide a targeted advertising-supported system, sharing revenue with programming providers.

So, let's scratch the Machiavellian itch in our brains.

We do know that eBay paid $1.3 billion for Skype and that (separate from Skype) eBay has not been faring well from Wall Street's vantage point. Also, eBay will soon be testing their auctioning system for television advertising. Might they not find a way to exploit the Venice Project and throw PayPal into the mix?

Another thing to contemplate is that Google's vision for YouTube rests on people uploading and tagging video and monetizing it with targeted advertising. Might the only difference be that The Venice Project will be built on a scalable low-cost distribution platform?

Could be interesting days ahead.

德国上网电脑和手机用户将付广电收视费

新华网

北京10月20日专电：据德国媒体报道，德国各州总理19日举行会议决定，从明年起将向德国可以上网的电脑和手机用户收取广电收视费。这项新规定主要针对工商业界，从而招致了后者的不满。

根据新规定，办公室电脑不论是否用来收看电视都要按每月5.52欧元的标准交纳收视费。据德国工商总会估算，德工商企业将因此每年增加1.5亿欧元的负担。而本来就交纳广电收视费的德国民众则无须再交费。

广电收视费是德国公共广播电视业运营费用的主要来源。德国有电视和收音机的个人或家庭目前每月必须交17欧元的收视费。据统计，去年全德广电收视费总计为71亿欧元。

中国网络视频用户观看网络视频时间分布特征

iResearch艾瑞市场咨询调研数据显示，经常观看网络视频的用户其观看时间段分布特点突出。观看视频1周7次以上的高频次用户，其观看时间段更为集 中的分布在工作日的三次高峰，和假日晚间高峰上，即工作日的11－13时、17－19时和19－23时，假日的17－22时和节假日的17－22时。

Google,Youtube和版权大佬们的幕后交易

By hopesome

Google吞了YouTube，大伙儿担心的是：Google该不会让自己以后整天打官司吧？

但怪异的事情发生了，BBC报道说，那个很早就曾扬言要对YouTube动粗的Universal Music 并没有象大伙担心的那样来找YouTube的麻烦，而是气势汹汹地扑向了另外两个视频共享网站Grouper 和 Bolt

Universal Music指控这两家网站“大规模侵权”，并且给出了价码，每家网站给Universal Music造成的损害达15万美元。

这着实让人好生奇怪：抓小放大——YouTube它们不管了？

纽约时报的Music Companies Grab a Share of the YouTube Sale 这篇报道，揭开了谜团：

纽约时报说，就在Google和YouTube签约的当天，在Google和YouTube“签约前不久”，YouTube和包括Universal在内的的当今四大唱片公司中的三家（Universal, Warner Music以及 Sony BMG）分别签署了一份协议。据说，这三家版权大佬共从YouTube那取得了相当于5000万美元的YouTube股权。一些大媒体如CBS、NBC也和YouTube谈判，但未遂。
这就不难解释为什么Universal酒饱饭足，抹抹油嘴，扑向的是Grouper和Bolt 而不是YouTube了。

现在看，Google吞YouTube并不是一桩简单的并购，里面牵扯了太多的利益。这桩并购，更象是多方利益集团的一次共谋，在这桩交易中，YouTube、Google和版权大佬们三方的利益都被无微不至地照顾到了——

YouTube成功地高价出卖了自己
Google吞下YouTube，不留版权后遗症 （呃，还有EMI、 CBS、NBC没摆平？）
版权大佬们拿到了Google股份作为封口费，正在打饱嗝呢
当然还有红杉，如果大家没有忘记，这桩交易的最大获利者之一红杉，既是YouTube的风投，也是当年扶Google上马的金主

这样的故事，很好莱坞

MTV拿1.5万小时视频与百度合作 尝试从广告赢利

网易科技

国际传媒巨头们，一直在探索通过网络渠道进行音视频节目的销售。10月17日下午，维亚康母宣布与百度达成协议，将通过百度进行视频节目的网络销售，共同开拓中国数字媒体市场。

根据双方签订的协议，维亚康母旗下的MTV音乐电视台将提供总长度超过1.5万小时的视频节目，而百度将在其影视搜索服务中特设MTV音乐专区，利用百度“下吧”为互联网用户提供这些内容的在线浏览和下载服务。

MTV参与此次合作的内容包括：MTV音乐电视台的电视节目；MTV全球的“真人秀”节目；MTV旗下的尼克儿童频道制作的动画；MTV拥有数字版权的音乐录影带。另外，MTV还将海碟唱片、天娱、大国文化、爱回音乐和摩登天空这五家唱片公司也被引入到了百度的合作体系中。

MTV称，在下一步的合作中，还将陆续向百度提供其在全球购买的网络游戏以及其它新媒体内容。

据称，摩托罗拉和宝洁将成为此合作平台的首批品牌广告客户。除少数高清内容收费之外，百度和MTV的合作也主要是通过广告收益的商业模式来实现收益。在这之前，百度影视的主要内容都是收费观看。

Yahoo! Buys AdInterax

By Roger Park
Yahoo购买富媒体制作公司

Yahoo! Inc. announced it has bought AdInterax, a provider of rich media advertising solutions to online publishers.

The acquisition of AdInterax will enable Yahoo! to provide advanced rich media creative assembly and campaign management tools directly to marketers at no charge as part of Yahoo's graphical advertising offerings, according to a company statement.

"The Yahoo acquisition of AdInterax complements our business nicely as it should help Eyeblaster's agency-focused business deliver even more campaigns on Yahoo around the globe. The Eyeblaster and Yahoo relationship has seen consistently strong growth throughout this year, and we see this acquisition furthering that growth," says Eyeblaster CEO Gal Trifon.
Financial terms were not disclosed.

"Creativity in advertising is critical to the further adoption of the internet as a marketing medium, and Yahoo is committed to giving marketers more creative choice and control over their ads," says Greg Coleman, executive vice president of global media sales, Yahoo. "We look forward to working with our customers and AdInterax's publisher partners to generate new and innovative solutions for marketers that help simplify the rich media creation and purchasing process."

Yahoo,CBS Teams Up for Local Video

CBS和Yahoo联合提供本地新闻

Yahoo today will begin offering news clips from 16 local CBS television stations post 10 to 20 local news videos a day from each of the CBS-owned TV stations. Yahoo and CBS will split revenue from pre-roll advertising and banners that accompany the news clips. Yahoo will offer the local video inventory only to its national advertisers to avoid conflict with the CBS stations' local ad sales efforts.

By entering their city or ZIP code on the Yahoo home page, users can access news from multiple local sources.

FOX记者现在这样报道新闻

By hopesome

上周三，当一架单引擎飞机坠毁，第一个报道在现场报道的，不是CNN，更不是路透社，而是Fox新闻频道的一个摄影记者Scott Wilder 。


当时Scott正在距飞机出事地点不远处执行任务，赶到现场，他拿出Treo智能手机，摁下一个按钮，Treo手机立刻就与Fox新闻转播室的电脑相连，于是，他在现场用手机拍摄的视频直接就在Fox新闻频道上向观众直播了……..

Fox用的是CometVision系统，这个新系统首次派上用场，可以再往前追溯到10月2日阿米什学校的枪击事件。


据说现在，Fox的摄影记者每人都至少配备一至两部Treo手机。

时效是新闻的生命。和100多年前路透独创的信鸽传递信息、CNN的卫星转播一样，相信Fox记者的手机直播也将为Fox加分。

这也许就是通讯社的未来了吧。
呃，如果未来还有通讯社的话。

40 live NBA games coming to the Internet

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer
NBA比赛将在网络上直播
NEW YORK - Some 40 NBA games will be available live online each week as the league extends its television subscription package to the Internet.

Fans, however, will be restricted in their ability to follow hometown teams. Technology will be used to block access to local games to preserve television rights. Also excluded are games broadcast on television nationally.

The NBA League Pass package costs $179 and will give subscribers access to the regular-season games both online and through cable or satellite, according to a league announcement scheduled for Monday. However, fans can only sign up through a cable or satellite provider, and the broadband service is not available separately.

The league said it is also offering a free, ad-supported service giving fans highlights of top plays, news conferences, interviews and other coverage.

The package will be available only in the United States.

A separate service is being sold in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Nearly 90 regular-season and playoff games will be available, most of them live. The games will carry commentary in Chinese.

The NBA represents the latest professional league to expand its online offerings.

For years, baseball has been selling Internet packages of live games with similar blackout technologies to preserve lucrative television deals. Last month, the NFL launched a service with Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) to show games live on computers outside North America. College sports are also making their way online.

Baseball and football employ technologies that can pinpoint an individual's location by checking a computer's Internet address.

Because the NBA is selling games through cable and satellite providers, the league will block games based on the provider's location. That means a New York fan will have Knicks and Nets game blacked out even when traveling to Los Angeles.

The NBA said the service is available through EchoStar Communications Corp.'s DISH Network and DirecTV Group Inc. satellite systems and through most digital cable providers.

Big Changes Ahead

By Anne Becker, Ben Grossman, John M. Higgins and Allison Romano -- Broadcasting & Cable
巨变

Google's $1.6 billion deal last week for control of YouTube triggers an avalanche of questions, but one fact is indisputable: There's a new elephant in the control room. Given the ever increasing appeal of online video, and the need to translate this content into sales, Google-YouTube will impact every element of the industry.

Decision makers in the TV business, never much for sitting idly by, will now face new competition in everything from ad sales to production budgets to distribution. Google's wish to be the one-stop shop for information and video makes it an ideal foil for the networks. And as Google-YouTube develops its business model, with a potential to become a richer partner, broadcast-network and station executives may find Howie Mandel's voice ringing in their ears: “Deal ... or no deal.”

“YouTube has been fascinating,” says media consultant Tom Wolzien, “but until someone put a financial model behind it, it wasn't particularly a threat to anybody. With Google, YouTube will have that model.”

Google-YouTube will no doubt face its own growing pains. Both sides began with hip, indie reputations. The combined company's emergence as an established player may repel an audience that once reveled in YouTube's garage-brand attitude.

Still, on paper, Google-YouTube looks to be more of a force than ever, at least in the boardroom. In the wake of the new reality, with everybody deciding how best to react, here are five major arenas where television may never be the same again.

A Bigger War for Ad Dollars

Just when it appeared safe for networks to steam further into the waters of online video content, the Google-YouTube merger has created a giant competitor, ready to sink its teeth into the market.

The TV industry takes in $70 billion annually in ad revenue. According to industry estimates, online-video-ad spending may reach as high as $2.5 billion by 2010. If that ends up taking a big bite out of the network's number, it could affect everything from production costs to the way networks choose what to air.

“Off-line linear television is vulnerable and has been vulnerable to things like VOD and streaming video,” says Tracey Scheppach, Starcom USA VP/director, video innovation. “Advertisers are still looking for the eyeballs and connection with consumers, which is something that potentially Google can offer.”

Advertisers and media companies are tapping into YouTube and MySpace.com as a route to more users. YouTube's business fits Google's strategy of using Internet content as a platform to sell ads.

Given Google's ability to display contextually relevant ads, YouTube is suddenly more attractive to advertisers that may have been skittish about finding their brands next to amateur videos of Coke-bottle/Mentos explosions.

A Google-owned YouTube may not undermine the value of traditional linear-TV advertising. But networks, eager to feed their coffers in this expanding new-media universe, may need to decide whether their strategic attitude toward Google-YouTube should be “beat 'em” or “join 'em.”

“For us,” says NBC Universal Chief Digital Officer George Kliavkoff, “[Google's acquisition of YouTube] means hopefully more advertising dollars spent on television.”

NBC and YouTube signed a deal in June to create a network-branded channel on YouTube to distribute promotional fare for NBC shows. “We assume that results in more folks watching the TV shows and therefore higher ad revenues in television,” Kliavkoff says.

It may, however, become a question of how the revenue pie gets divided. Google has cornered a huge chunk of the user-created online-video market. But will it soon control ad sales on the networks' own Websites as well? Toward that end, Google has been shopping its ad-targeting technology to the networks, executives say. While Google's technology could help in the short term, ceding control of online sales leaves networks' content vulnerable to devaluation. Google could be determining the value of TV content against the vast inventory that exists online rather than against other TV content. That would upset the entire revenue model upon which TV supports the costs of production.

Many media buyers are skeptical. “The networks don't want to lose a revenue stream by any means, so they're going to offer one-stop shopping that makes buying easier for agencies,” says Tom DeCabia, president of media-buying company TSD Marketing.

Networks may also go beyond just offering pre-roll and banner ads and develop sophisticated targeting technology of their own.

“As television networks, we should be proactive in making sure we develop our own tools,” says Albert Cheng, executive VP of digital media for the Disney-ABC TV Group, “and I don't think networks are there yet. It's about maximizing digital technology to deliver value in a way that Google will. We need to come up with the same level of sophistication they have.”

A Goldmine for Stations

Aside from an occasional clip of an anchor's on-air flubs, very little video from TV stations has found its way onto YouTube. That stands to change.

Google's expertise in branding and ad sales is an enticing lure to stations eager to reach a larger audience and collect more ad revenue for video already produced.

The issue for station managers, however, is control. Funneling video to Google-YouTube means letting go the reins on its usage and placement.

Despite some initial talks, no major group has cut a deal to put its stations' video on YouTube or Google's own video site, although several executives have expressed interest. (CBS' recent YouTube deal does not cover its owned-and-operated stations.) Stations have focused largely on building their Websites and using video as a centerpiece to compete with local newspapers.

But once Google-YouTube establishes a business model, more station groups may shift their focus. Several are already experimenting with online syndicates' selling video to third parties, such as NBC's National Broadband Co. But YouTube already has a track record for building a large audience at a good clip. “This is a way for stations to get more people to their content and more users from outside,” says Bill Hague, a consultant with Frank N. Magid Associates. “You can grow a Louisville or Columbus beyond your market.”

Station managers also recognize You Tube's potential. “We have great local content, but we need to take it beyond our sites and monetize it,” says Jason Gould, regional VP for Clear Channel's Internet division Inergize.

Some broadcasters are naturally wary, citing the need for Google to work out a copyright model to protect creators before broadcasters share content. But the concerns will not stall the inevitable.

“Stations need to let go because it is already happening,” says new-media consultant Steve Safran. “What they should try and control is the revenue from distributing their video online.”

The Rights Stuff

Google and YouTube have agreements in place with three of the world's largest record companies to add music videos to their Websites. The new conglomerate will no doubt attempt to license TV networks and other new clients as they come aboard.

But given YouTube's anarchic content, it's safe to say networks will be keeping whole cadres of lawyers on retainer.

It's also a safe bet that part of Google-YouTube's business model will be the creation of copyright guidelines—and a path for where all the money goes.

That won't stop the spin. YouTube has faced complaints before, but with the site poised to better monetize its content through Google's ad-targeting technology, the shouts could get louder. Last week, Time Warner Chairman Dick Parsons vowed to vigorously pursue any copyright complaints against YouTube.

For privately owned YouTube, litigation didn't much matter. Google, with a market cap of $130 billion, is a more vulnerable target.

Brian Baker, CEO of Seattle-based content-security firm Widevine, met with Disney, Universal and Sony last week to discuss how his company's technology could be implemented to police YouTube's use of their content. The issue of copyright infringement by YouTube has clearly become a priority for studios, he notes.

For now, the networks' own online-video efforts offer something YouTube does not: full-length episodes of their series. To protect against these episodes' being posted illegally, YouTube is developing technology that can “fingerprint” and block copyrighted content.

According to Baker, fingerprinting software—such as Widevine's Mensor product—analyzes a piece of content, such as a movie, and creates a small “key” that identifies it. The key technology allows owners to identify the illegal use of their product.

NBC Universal is interested in talking with YouTube about ways to allow content creators to remove copyrighted content rather than having to rely on the site to do so, according to NBC U's Kliavkoff. As long as the site does not post full-length episodes, a Google-owned YouTube does not represent a threat to undermine the value of streaming content on NBC.com. Kliavkoff notes that the company is “actively talking” to YouTube and other video aggregators about how to monetize this “premium product.”

He says, “That benefits both [parties] and, at the end of the day, consumers because they'll be able to get the content in different formats in different ways.”

Some, however, don't trust that even a Google-owned YouTube will efficiently police itself. Says one network executive, “YouTube wants to say, 'Here's the technology. We'll give you this, and you monitor your own stuff, and I can wash my hands of any potential lawsuits.'”

Under a separate deal, CBS will use YouTube's technology to monitor the site for copyrighted network content. User-submitted and network-approved CBS material will remain on YouTube, which will sell ads against it. (CBS will also supply content for a network-branded YouTube channel, selling the ads and sharing the revenue.) Content that the network requests be removed will be taken down. Just what criteria CBS will use to determine whether content is objectionable, the network won't say.

“That's our sole discretion. I'm not going to lay out the exact criteria for you,” says CBS spokesperson Dana McClintock. “If we feel that it has a greater benefit promotionally and financially than it does a detriment to us in terms of copyright violation, then we'll leave it up.”

An Assault on Cable

Today, YouTube's flood of confessing teens and skateboarding bulldogs is no substitute for a 100-channel package from Comcast or Cox. But as networks increasingly put their top shows online, it's not hard to see the day when cable networks become fully available on the Web. And as the Web becomes more and more like television—as storage gets cheaper and compression of video signals better—will subscribers use it to bypass cable?

One major network—Starz—already presents a good test case. The pay movie service puts all the theatrical films it licenses on the Web through its subscription service, Vongo. HBO has for years paid studios to at least secure the same online rights.

But it wouldn't take many more walls to crumble for Google-YouTube to offer bundles of full “cable” channels alongside its free or pay-per-view programs. Cable networks have readily pounced on new avenues of distribution in the past, happily feeding satellite TV's DirecTV and EchoStar in their earliest days, though at higher prices than they charged cable operators.

Established channels wouldn't simply put their feeds on the Net for free; that would risk the billions of dollars in license fees paid by cable and satellite operators. But Google would have the clout and the infrastructure to start selling packages of networks.

Cable operators would still generate revenue from sales of high-speed Internet connections to receive that video but would nevertheless lose on the bottom line.

Not everybody is convinced the threat is real, or technologically viable. “Don't confuse people watching video on the Internet with watching linear television,” says Cox Communications President Pat Esser. “The capacity is not there to do it.” He further cautions, “Don't underestimate what happens when 50 million [customers] change channels on the Internet.”

That didn't keep fear of “Internet bypass” from being a hot topic among cable investors last year. Comcast President Steve Burke called this anxiety one of two forces that depressed cable stocks for all of 2005 and the first months of 2006 (the other force: telco video).

Granted, such a reality is miles down the road. Video is a bandwidth hog, and widespread streaming of live action would tremendously tax the Internet's architecture. Google-YouTube would have little control over the quality of service. Glitches in free clips of Ted Turner's latest outrageous speech are tolerable; a stall in the last seconds of an ESPN football game is not.

Cable's best weapon to keep the status quo may be HDTV. The more consumers become addicted to crystal-clear pictures on the big screen, streaming Web video will pale by comparison. Bank of America media analyst Doug Shapiro doesn't see enough Web capacity for widespread HD video until 2015.

That gives the cable operators at least some time.

New Life For Indies

“Production and distribution are the barriers to entry that have kept studios and networks in power,” says former WB Network CEO Jordan Levin, now a principal in content-production and -management firm Generate. “But those barriers are continuing to come down.”

The Google-YouTube deal marks another step in a shifting balance of power. The emergence of a financial model for tying advertising to user-generated content may force some industry decisions. An expected trickle-down effect has media players eager to cash in.

“This further legitimizes online video,” says Jon Vlassopulos, VP, business development, digital media and strategic planning, for Endemol USA, the independent production company behind hits Deal or No Deal and Big Brother. “We are interested in creating original programming for these platforms. We just continue to see the number of valid partners growing.”

Adds Greg Spiridellis, co-founder of Jib Jab, a successful online producer/distributor, “To be able to tap an entity like [YouTube] to bring advertisers into online video will be a boon for a lot of businesses like ours.”

Although Jib Jab has deals with big-name sponsors, Spiridellis says it had already spoken with Google prior to the deal and is eager to discuss ways to leverage the ad-sales technology.

And while content providers are eager to explore profit potential, Generate's Levin says even the average person may soon be able to make a little money from his or her own content.

“It's not just about getting your stuff out there, but maybe now you can make a little money,” he says. “It's not Hollywood money, but $35,000-$50,000, which is what some content generators are starting to make on sites like Revver. For a kid in Nebraska in his garage, that's probably pretty good.”

And one of those garage kids could turn out to be the next Oprah. Google-YouTube is no doubt banking on it.

Picasa Web albums开始允许付费用户上传视频

Ken Wong

Picasa Web Albums的免费帐号拥有250MB图片空间，如果你在美国，你还可以成为付费用户，享用6GB的空间。根据"Haochi"在googlified里的消息，现在Picasa Web Albums的付费用户已经可以上传视频。视频上传至Picasa Web Albums后，会调用Google Video Player来播放：


根据dpneal的 观察，把视频上传进Picasa Web Albums，实际上视频被上传到了Google Video上。因此，无法观看Google Video视频的用户也无法观看Picasa Web Albums上的视频，包括中国大陆地区的用户。Google Video与Picasa Web Albums结合起来固然不错，但目前只有美国地区和户才能使用。

在Picasa Web Albums的更新页里，Google明确写明了升级至6GB容量的用户已经可以上传视频。另外，Picasa Web Albums的logo也去掉了test字样，估计接下来还会有其它动作。

Google AdSense to Benefit YouTube

By Jordan Berg | More by this Author

Questus首席创意官建议Youtube利用Google AdSense创新广告形式

Questus' chief creative officer advises YouTube and other video sharing sites to invest in a new advertising strategy, one where Google's AdSense lets the ad travel with the video.

Preroll advertising sucks. Period. I hate watching a 15-second Lexus ad just to watch a 45-second clip of the San Francisco Giants losing again.

I have a solution, one that Monday's news about Google acquiring YouTube suggests may soon be a reality.

Most video on TV news stations has a bottom portion of their screen reserved for scrolling news. ESPN calls theirs the "Bottomline." I propose doing the same for all online video. How? Pull in a Google AdSense stream into the Flash or Windows Media file dynamically. The AdSense stream would sit at the bottom of videos and serve one advertiser message at a time at the bottom of the video. The user could click on the ad if they chose and a new window would pop-up. But there is more…

The ads could be contextual based on meta data imbedded in the video. Watching a video about cars. See ads about cars on the bottom of the video. But wait, there is even more…

This new way of serving adverting means that the ads travel with the video. Now if the video is saved and put on a different site, the advertising travels with it, as does the revenue for the creator.

The implications for sites like YouTube.com are enormous. Any video with a Google AdSense stream imbedded in it has the ability to generate revenue anywhere it is. Popular videos on YouTube end up on thousands of MySpace profiles. Now YouTube and the creator can profit from "video sharing."

Even established networks might feel better about allowing their precious programming to be let free on the web. Wouldn't it be great if we could share the Lost episode we just downloaded from iTunes with our friends?

This could even stamp out the protest of pirating or stealing video and placing it on sites like BitTorrent.

The only hitch at this point is that the user must be connected to the internet to pull the ad stream. Not a huge hurdle considering the proliferation of wireless networks and broadband cards, and the soon-to-be-released internet-enabled iPod.

Microsoft eyes another chance to be a TV player

By Daisuke Wakabayashi

微软又瞄上了电视

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp.'s decade-long push into television is notable for false starts, bold promises and failed investments, but the company hopes to finally move into the living room this year with a service delivered over high-speed Internet networks.

The success or failure of Microsoft's Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) initiative could determine the fortunes of a number of telephone companies betting billions that the company can help them encroach on cable television operators' home turf.

Unlike the video clips uploaded to Web sites like YouTube, which depend on normal consumer Internet connections, IPTV gets priority from phone companies, using the main highways or backbone of the Web to deliver television programs with nearly all the features available from cable or satellite TV.

Microsoft sees a future when its IPTV platform will make a television set not linked into an IP network seem as obsolete as a personal computer today without access to the Internet.

"Microsoft's been successful signing up customers to date," said Michelle Abraham, principal analyst at research firm In-Stat. "But the large-sized, commercial deployments haven't happened so there is a lot that is unknown."

Fourteen telephone carriers around the world have signed up for Microsoft's IPTV platform including BT Group, Deutsche Telekom AG and AT&T, but none of those companies are selling the service yet beyond tests.

Microsoft hopes its IPTV software will eventually open up the TV to a world of services already on the Web, such as shopping, e-mail and instant messaging. With 1.6 billion televisions in the world, the opportunity is immense.

For now, it is more interested in making sure it can match the features available in cable and satellite TV with some new bells and whistles, such as faster and easier channel and program surfing with picture-in-picture capability.

$13 BILLION INDUSTRY?

Microsoft has spent the last decade trying to crack the TV market with billion-dollar investments in cable and telecom companies, numerous attempts at moving into the set-top box with limited success and an acquisition of WebTV, a service to allow people to browse the Internet through a TV set.

None of these investments delivered the results Microsoft had hoped: a prominent place near the couch.

This time, Microsoft thinks the technology infrastructure and, more importantly, the consumers are finally ready for IPTV, an application that is one of the most complicated ever run on computer servers.

IPTV, along with Microsoft's Xbox video game console and its Zune portable media player, is part of the company's push to move beyond the office and into the living room.

"IPTV is a huge growth initiative. It's huge for us, it's huge for our partners," Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told analysts in July. "Count the number of TVs (and) you don't have to get a lot of money per TV per year to start feeling kind of excited about the size of the opportunity."

Industry research firm Gartner predicts the number of global IPTV subscribers to reach 49 million and revenue to top $13 billion in 2010. Last year, three million IPTV subscribers generated revenue of about $400 million.

German conglomerate Siemens AG beat Microsoft to market with small IPTV roll-outs in Europe and Asia.

In the United States, AT&T is investing about $5 billion to build out a fiber-optic network to neighborhoods in their 13-state coverage area. AT&T plans to carry its "U-Verse" television service, built on the Microsoft IPTV software package, over that network.

AT&T, the largest U.S. telephone carrier, aims to make "U-Verse" available to 19 million homes by 2008, starting with commercial deployment in 15 to 20 markets by the end of 2006.

Verizon Communications Inc. is spending nearly $23 billion to lay fiber lines all the way to people's door step and offer a video service that combines features of a cable network and Microsoft's IPTV platform.

The technology is still largely untested since AT&T has yet to offer high-definition video as part of its testing. Installations for the new service are taking longer, but Microsoft says these are just normal growing pains.

"Sometimes people lose sight of how ambitious this is," said Enrique Rodriguez, who took over as the new head of Microsoft's TV business in April. "We're not there yet in meeting 100 percent of our objectives, but we are on our way."

One additional benefit to Microsoft is that the Redmond, Washington-based company's IPTV platform will require a slew of Windows-powered servers to gather and stream content.

Currently, one server can service about 500 to 700 set-top boxes, but Microsoft said it expects improvements to soon push that number above 1,000 set-top boxes per server.

Blinkx微软签视频搜索协议欲做视频搜索老大

【eNet硅谷动力消息】据Blinkx公司于当地时间本周一公布，它与微软公司达成了一笔交易，根据这一交易，微软公司将在MSN和Live.com网站上使用其视频搜索技术。这可能是Blinkx公司有史以来的一笔最大交易。

据Blinkx公司的联合创始人兼技术总监Suranga Chandratillake向记者透露：我们将成为Web上最大的视频搜索引擎。Blinkx公司的视频搜索技术已经被应用在包括从AOL到诸如 ITN、Lycos、Times Online等在内的多家网站上。除此之外，Blinkx公司还对来自诸如BCC、Fox、MTV、Sky News、路透社以及YouTube等网站上的视频内容进行索引，使用户可以在其网站或合作伙伴的网站上搜索到这些网站上的视频内容。

据Chandratillake表示，微软公司同意根据访问其网站的用户使用Blinkx公司搜索系统的量直接支付许可费用，而非采取广告收 入分成的方式。消费者利用Blinkx能够根据关键字搜索视频内容。搜索结果不仅仅是对视频内容的标题或文本进行搜索的结果，还可以利用语音识别技术找到 相应的词汇。

这一协议与YouTube或Google的区别在于：Blinkx存储的是音像内容的信息，而不是音像内容本身。它既降低了在构建计算机系统方面的成本，又减小了有可能要面对的法律上的风险。

User-Generated Revenue

用户自创内容收入将成为收入的重要组成部分

As more eyes turn to user-generated content sites, can ad dollars be far behind?

A new report from In-Stat asserts that over the next several years user-generated content (UGC) will boost Website revenue, mainly from advertising.

The research firm estimates the volume of views and downloads at these sites will surpass 65 billion by 2010, and at the same time revenues will exceed $850 million.
The bulk of the revenues will come from advertising — including banners, embedded video ads and branded channels or pages.

Among UGC leaders, the study found that currently YouTube has the highest market share for video, but MySpace has the most visitors.

In its latest ranking of online video sites, ComScore found that in July over 106.5 million people, about three out of every five US Internet users, streamed or downloaded video during the month of July.

In total, nearly 7.2 billion videos were streamed or downloaded in the US, an average of 67 streams per streamer, which means that the typical video streamer viewed more than two streams per day.

Yahoo! ranked as the top online video-viewing site, followed closely by MySpace. Fast-rising YouTube ran third, trailed by Time Warner and Microsoft sites.

In a tracking study also conducted this summer, Nielsen//NetRatings found that UGC sites accounted for five of the top 10 fastest-growing Web brands.

Google agrees to buy Youtube

Google终于买了Youtube

Google agreed to buy YouTube in an all stock deal worth about $1.65 billion.

The initial reports indicate that YouTube will initially retain a "significant measure of independence." No comment as to whether initially is measured in Internet time or not.I note that Google should feel at home owning YouTube because both companies are known for their run-ins with content owners.

Noted that Google posted a job today for a Director of Video Ad Sales that would build a team of sales professionals.

Could be interesting times ahead.

YouTube and Google?

google要买Youtube
Techcrunch just covered the possibility that Google is looking to buy YouTube for $1.6 billion.

I think this acquisition makes a lot of sense. While it was pointed out that Google would be unafraid of the copyright issues, I think another reason why the acquisition is a safe bet is because Google can support the infrastructure and bandwidth costs. Owning YouTube would not be a significant strain on a company’s hardware resources. Seeing as Google seems to have a genuine interest in the video market, signified by the presence of Google Video — which was NOT a free-time-project-gone-gold – I’d say this acquisition has a lot of potential to be true.

If the future of the web is in streaming media, owning the current #1 player would be the smartest way for Google to maintain their edge. What’s surprising is how little speculation there was of this acquisition until this post. It seems like a completely random shot in the dark.

I will say that the acquisition doesn’t sit right with me 100%. Google is not a content provider, and owning YouTube and investing $1.6 billion dollars pretty much guarantees they MUST focus on being a content provider as well as an ad broker. Perhaps they’re starting to realize that in order to keep Microsoft off their toes they need to own some of the content as well? Of course then they’d be competing with AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN for content, but having YouTube certainly would help in that race.

Of course this all assumes the rumor has any substance.

Top Media Execs Gather at Google Think Tank

By Daisy Whitney
巨鳄开会

Solidifying its position as one of the dominant forces in the American economy today, Google is hosting top media company executives at a two-day think tank at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters that kicked off Tuesday night and wraps up Thursday morning.

But the search giant invited not only executives from major media players and broadcast networks but also executives from some of the most powerful companies in the United States, such as General Motors and Nike, as well as top thinkers such as the chief scientist from NASA, the top librarian from the U.S. Library of Congress and former Vice President Al Gore.

The event marked the second annual Google Partner Forum, a conference that's been likened by attendees to the Sun Valley, Idaho, conference held each year by Allen & Co. CEO Herb Allen. However, the Google event is more akin to a think tank; today's speaker list included a presentation by the NASA scientist advocating why traveling to Mars is a good long-term goal, for instance.

The event is a private and closed to the press. Google declined to share specifics about attendees.

However, a television executive who attended the event told TelevisionWeek that the attendees include Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corp.; YouTube CEO Chad Hurley; Steve Mosko, president of Sony Pictures Television; JetBlue CEO David Neeleman; and Dell Chairman Michael Dell, as well as executives from broadcast and cable networks and the chief marketing officers for Yahoo, Nike and Sony, who participated on a panel Wednesday.

"It's less of a deal conference and it's a lot more of a collection of thoughts and ideas and absolutely the top leaders in digital content and distribution and technology," the executive said. "It's sort of everyone I need to talk to is within 200 feet."

He said Mr. Moonves spoke earlier today, giving a presentation outlining CBS's digital vision, similar to ones he has done at other conferences.

On the "Inside the Mind of the CMO" panel, the chief marketing officers for Sony, Nike and Google's biggest competitor, Yahoo, discussed how CMOs deal with accountability and whether the Internet is a good venue for brand marketing, among other topics, the executive said.

He added that attendees also had the opportunity to ask candid questions of Google executives. Mr. Neeleman challenged Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin on the relevancy of the site's search algorithms, including why a 2002 Wired magazine story on privacy issues was among the first page of search results when a user searches for "Jetblue."

Google's response: The search giant is working on it.

Video Ad Firms Hit Fast-Forward

By Mark Walsh

WITH WEB VIDEO NOW DRAWING TV-like audiences, a herd of companies are jostling to meet the growing demand for ads accompanying online videos.

Venture-backed startups are vying with online ad networks, ad networks are pairing with video-savvy boutiques, and Internet giants such as AOL and Google are gearing up their own video ad-serving efforts.

No wonder that 15- and 30-second spots that run before videos are typically commanding CPMs of $15 to $30--among the highest on the Web.
But the scarce inventory driving up CPMs is also slowing faster expansion of video advertising. Marketers remain reluctant to place their brands alongside user-created videos of questionable content and quality.

None of that has stopped emerging video ad companies from reaping big venture capital dollars. "Broadband penetration and speeds are sufficiently high to enable high-quality video and ads--that's not something you could say as recently as two years ago," said Warren Lee, a partner at Canaan Partners, which recently led an $8.4 million investment in video ad-serving firm Tremor Network.

Driving firms like Canaan to jump in are projections of a burgeoning video ad market. Market research firm eMarketer recently identified online video advertising as the fastest-growing online ad format. It predicts video ad spending will grow by 71 percent this year to $225 million, and to $640 million by 2007. By 2010, video is forecast to make up 8 percent of the total online ad market.

Young companies such as Tremor, Brightcove and PostRoller are touting their video technology expertise to compete with existing Internet ad serving networks. "Delivering video across a network of publisher sites is significantly more difficult than delivering a text or banner ad," said Lee. He noted that video ads, for instance, must be able to run on a variety of formats including Flash, Windows Media Player, Real Media and QuickTime. "There's a lot more that can go wrong," he said.

Video startups are also focusing on particular markets to nurture nascent video ad networks online. For its part, Tremor is bypassing the biggest Web sites to target less trafficked ones in the auto, finance and entertainment categories. "That's where a lot of the volume and opportunity is," said Jason Glickman, chief executive of Tremor.

He said the company has a network of about 150 sites on which it serves in-stream ads, including WhitePages.com and RedOrbit.com.

Similarly, PostRoller so far has cultivated mainly video-centric sites such as Blip.tv, Streetfire.net and WeakGame.com for serving video ads. Started earlier this year, PostRoller is already serving more than 2 million video and static ads daily to a network of 25 sites, according to founder Tod Sacerdoti.

He estimates that less than one-third are video ads, because many sites prefer less intrusive banner ads. The dubious content of some sites also keeps branded advertisers from buying video ads. Hewlett-Packard and Netflix are two prominent video advertisers with PostRoller, said Sacerdoti, who previously started Plaxo.

Both Tremor and PostRoller are gearing up their sales force to build up their networks. Tremor is especially aggressive, planning to triple its sales staff to 15 by year's end.

Large, established ad networks aren't just standing by. Advertising.com earlier this year acquired independent video ad company Lightningcast and in June Google began offering click-to-play video ads on sites in its content network. A month ago, ValueClick--the second-largest ad network--moved to upgrade its video capability through a partnership with video ad specialist EyeWonder.

As video advertising grows, the demand for third-party verification by ad-serving services will only increase, according to analyst Denise Garcia of WR Hambrecht & Co., who covers ValueClick and other Internet ad firms. That means big ad networks will continue to team up with or acquire video ad shops if they don't have the expertise in-house.

But both emerging and established ad networks are currently constrained by a dearth of professional video content of the kind that brand advertisers want. About 95 percent of the inventory of video pre-roll ads were sold out through April, according to an AccuStream iMedia Research study. "Inventory still exceeds supply for professional video and it's going to stay that way for a while," said Hambrecht's Garcia.

Advertising.com's In-Stream Video Network, which has inventory of 200 million pre-roll video streams each month, is about 80 percent sold, according to Elicia Brand-Leudemann, the network's director of marketing. She explained that it can operate more efficiently than other networks, in part, because it's constantly adding new inventory.

She said that until advertisers have more control of what content their ads will be associated with, they will be wary of user-generated content.

At the same time, video-sharing sites such as YouTube have to be mindful of alienating their users if they start to impose greater control over content to create a more friendly environment for advertisers. Members could end up migrating to any of the dozens of competing video sites.
For its part, Advertising.com is trying to strike a balance. It has agreements with sites such as YouTube and MySpace to place video ads, but only on landing pages within the sites that have no user-created video. "The quality and content of the sites is very important," said Brand-Leudemann.