More stories from Chris Albrecht

Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate are duking it out in an 18-hole playoff right now, and thanks to NBC, you can watch it live (on the sly, at work). Can the underdog, Mediate, topple the mighty Tiger? Hat tip to Lost Remote. Read more »

Internet video will account for half of all consumer Internet traffic by 2012, according to new research from Cisco. In its Visual Networking Index (PDF), the company says video already accounts for a quarter of all consumer Internet traffic, a number that will rise to 32 […] Read more »

Backchannel Media Makes TV Ads Interactive (Kinda); company’s technology inserts an icon into a TV ad that, when clicked on by remote control, sends a link to the user’s portal for more information. (The New York Times) Angel of Death to Go DVD Via the Web; […] Read more »

loading external resource

Crackle launched “season 2″ of its C-Spot comedy web series this morning. The good news? It’s dropped most of the dead weight from season one and kept The Roadents. The bad news? Most of the replacement shows still aren’t funny. There is one bright and shining […] Read more »

For cable aficionados following the development of tru2way, it’s been a hectic week. On Tuesday, IP Democracy broke a story that the first certification test of the technology was “a disaster of spectacular proportions.” Tru2way is a Java-based open platform for developing interactive applications for cable […] Read more »

First Obama Girl, Now the Incredible McCain Girl Smash! You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry, but the Internets will like that Barely Political has kept all the boobs and short shorts in their work. (Next New Networks Blog) AT&T Joining the Bandwidth Cap Parade; telco […] Read more »

Never let it be said that fans of the twice-canceled show Jericho give up easy. Our friends over at TV by the Numbers pointed us to a renewed effort by fans to save the show. This time, they’re taking their message straight to TV. Quick refresher: […] Read more »

Top BitTorrent TV Downloads Week Ending June 9, 2008 Rank Last Week Title 1 1 Lost 2 2 Prison Break 3 3 Smallville 4 6 Heroes 5 5 How I Met Your Mother 6 4 Desperate Housewives 7 8 South Park 8 7 Grey’s Anatomy 9 […] Read more »

Redlasso Establishes Media Advisory Board; company looks to escape its copyright conundrum by bringing on former Viacom and Paramount execs as advisers. (emailed release) GlassBOX Raises $5 Million (Canadian); parent company of BiteTV gets first round led by JLA Ventures. (paidContent) Will Anyone Love Brad Garrett? […] Read more »

Sure, we were a little crestfallen this week when Apple didn’t announce a video camera in iPhone 2.0. But who needs one when the industrious folks at Flixwagon just rigged up the current iPhone for live video broadcasting? Here’s the maiden footage: It’s an unlocked iPhone, […] Read more »

loading external resource

As we touched on earlier this week, in exchange for releasing new content directly to your home sooner, Hollywood studios are seeking governmental permission to choose how that content will get to you. According to The Wall Street Journal, studios want the option to block video […] Read more »

Best-selling author Paulo Coelho is working with MySpace to integrate UGC elements into his filmThe Experimental Witch, which is an adaptation of his book, The Witch of Portobello. Users can select one of the 15 characters from Portobello and create a short film or music video […] Read more »

Quarterlife creator Marshall Herskovitz and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, so when I introduced myself to him at the Digital Media Summit in Hollywood, I wasn’t sure if he’d shake my hand or pop me in the face. Turns out Herskovitz was a nice guy and […] Read more »

Pluggd Launches Brightcove Competitor; just-launched (and renamed) Delve Networks offers users a way to search for key topics within a video. (TechCrunch) Netflix Sells Out of Rokus; movie rental company says it’s run out of the $99 set-top box; the stat is somewhat meaningless, however, as […] Read more »

A couple of old media titans made separate new media news today as Disney announced it would stream full-length movies online for free, and HBO invested in comedy site Funny or Die. Following its Wonderful World of Disney programming on Saturday nights this summer, Disney will […] Read more »

Boxee wants to be the Firefox of the connected media home, and it wants you to join its alpha testing this Monday. I caught up with Boxee founder and CEO Avner Ronen at the On Hollywood conference in L.A., where he gave me a sneak peek […] Read more »

There are always two ways to look at a competitor getting into your market: It either validates what you are doing, or it could spell the end of your business, depending on the size of the competitor. With Cisco now entering the enterprise video market, you […] Read more »

Project Canoe Gets a CEO; cable’s targeted ad consortium to sell its services to networks, not directly to advertisers. (The Wall Street Journal) Amazon’s Outages Related to New Video Service? BofA analysts speculate that the upcoming pay-per-view streaming system could be causing the downtime. (Bits Blog) […] Read more »

By 2010, an average household with 2 standard definition TVs, one HD TV and two computers will be using 1.1 terabyte of data a month, according to Ken Wirt, vice president of consumer marketing for Cisco Systems. Wirt was kind enough to chat with me about […] Read more »

So remember when Warner Bros. said it would release all of its film titles on VOD day and date with the DVD release? Well… about that… At the Digital Media Summit, Michele Edelman, vice president, marketing for Warner Bros. digital distribution told me that the studio […] Read more »

Revision3 continues to gobble up high-profile web content: the new media company will add Gary Vaynerchuk and his Wine Library TV to its roster. Veynerchuk is already a success in the vlogging world, with his wine show pulling in 60,000 “Vayniacs” a day. Partnering with Rev3 […] Read more »

Crackle to Launch New Series; The Jace Hall Show and Take-Away Shows added to lineup, The Purple Onion and The C-Spot re-upped. (MediaWeek) MPAA Looks to Block DVR Recording of Some Movies; at the request of the film organization, FCC has started a proceeding to determine […] Read more »

Watch out, oldteevee! According to new Nielsen data, the next generation of video watchers is spending even more time with online video at home than the current crop of adults do. During the month of April, kids ages 2 to 11 watched an average of 51 […] Read more »

From our poll, it looks like most of you are salivating over the thought of a video-enabled iPhone — more than half of some 740 voters said they would buy such a device. But there are already some iPhone video apps already being shown off in […] Read more »

YouTube has a new plan to make money — let the creators do the work. The company will start allowing professional content producers that have their own sales teams start selling their own ads on their YouTube channels, according to Advertising Age. Creators will be able […] Read more »

Conan O’Brien wants you to create a commercial to promote his show, but the top prize may not have you reaching for that camcorder quite yet. I could explain the whole joke, but why not let Mr. O’Brien tell it himself: P.S. It’s real. Hat tip […] Read more »

Just four episodes in, Revision3 has dropped the axe on its social network show, Social Brew. Rev3 CEO Jim Louderback explained the decision in a post to the company’s forums: First let me apologize to everyone who had developed an attachment to Social Brew. This news […] Read more »

Comcast has filed for trademark protection for two devices as the company looks to extend its reach beyond the set-top box and stave off the rising competition. Multichannel News reports: Last fall Comcast registered for trademark protection for AnyReach, a portable TV and video player, and […] Read more »

TakeTV, we hardly knew ye. Unveiled just last October, SanDisk’s USB PC-to-TV video device along with Fanfare, its accompanying content portal, were both shut down on May 15th, a SanDisk spokesperson has confirmed. The official party line is that TakeTV was no longer a priority for […] Read more »

MPAA Sends Takedown Notices to Laser Printers; study shows how indiscriminate organizations are when identifying potential copyright violations. (Bits Blog) Howcast Signs Distribution Deals; how-to video company will get content from places like 60Frames, Popular Science and Playboy. (TVWeek) YouTube Launches Reporter Channel; just as there […] Read more »

Dominance perpetuates itself, and that adage looks like it will hold true for YouTube as the company positions itself to be the 800-pound gorilla of short-form video on your TV as well. YouTube is spreading itself all over the set-top world, getting to your oldteevee through […] Read more »

Top BitTorrent TV Downloads Week Ending June 2, 2008 Rank Last Week Title 1 1 Lost 2 5 Prison Break 3 3 Smallville 4 2 Desperate Housewives 5 4 How I Met Your Mother 6 8 Heroes 7 6 Grey’s Anatomy 8 11 South Park 9 […] Read more »

Consumer electronics companies like Apple, TiVo and HP either are or will be putting YouTube content on your TV through set-top boxes. But Panasonic’s new PZ-850 plasma Viera TV ditches the box and puts YouTube directly into your TV, and I got to see a demo […] Read more »

BBC to Put All its Channels Online; riding the success of its iPlayer, the Beeb plans to stream all its channels — but only to the U.K.. (Variety) Kiptronic Raises $3 Million; audio and video ad insertion company gets Series B from unidentified investors. (peHub) Chinese […] Read more »

While oldteevee remains the top video-watching dog for most people, the PC is gaining ground, according to a recent study by Ipsos MediaCT. Ipsos found that, among U.S. video downloaders and streamers, the amount of video consumed on a TV set dropped to 70 percent in […] Read more »

Thank you, Jason Kottke! The blogger has captured an insidious new ploy being used by TBS to promote one of its shows: During Family Guy, blue-collar comedian Bill Engvall walks on screen, pauses the show like a DVR, then launches into a pitch about his show’s […] Read more »

TechCrunch launched Elevator Pitches today, a new service that lets founders and CEOs upload videos of themselves pitching their startup in under 60 seconds. The audience then votes for their favorite, with the highest-ranked pitches landing a coveted spot on TechCrunch. The videos are all hosted […] Read more »

After going after dudes with Bushleague.tv, new media studio DECA is nurturing its maternal side with the new online series CoolMom, which launches today. Show host Daphne Brogdon hopes to provide an entertaining jolt to the motherly market with a comedic takes on what’s good (and […] Read more »

Pure Digital Releases New Flip Video Camera; slimmer version features touch controls, but no HD. (The Wall Street Journal) Disney Buys Fanlib, in Process of Acquiring DigiSynd; acquisition of fan-fiction site interesting from a copyright perspective, DigiSynd is a stealth startup founded by Revver co-founder. (paidContent) […] Read more »

YouTube has unveiled a new tool, Video Annotations, which, according to YouTube, allows creators to: Add background information about the video Create stories with multiple possibilities (viewers click to the next scene) Link to related YouTube videos, channels, or search results from within a video Annotations […] Read more »

1373839404157page 39 of 57