This week, famous faces, new shows and pleas for advertising dollars brought many web video companies to web video’s version of TV’s upfronts. Here are just a few of the biggest stories to emerge. Read more at paidContent »
Yahoo is passing on the opportunity to buy a stake in the video site Dailymotion after regulators stepped in to alter the deal. So which company should the internet giant buy instead? Read more »
Blip used to be just another video hosting site trying to compete with YouTube. These days, it’s looking very different – and it’s getting ready to take on cable TV. Read more at paidContent »
Video site Blip is looking to increase the ad load on the content it’s hosting by making advertising mandatory. The changes are going in effect early next month. Read more at paidContent »
Thanks to public access television, comedian Chris Gethard has found a way to bring the New York alt comedy scene to the web with The Chris Gethard Show, one of the strangest and funniest interactive talk shows you’ll ever see. Read more »
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 »
The television business is on the cusp of the biggest technological upheaval since the introduction of cable TV. The addition of Internet connectivity to living room devices will enable new functionality around programming services, program discovery, social networking, ad targeting and measurement — aspects of the TV viewing experience that have remained largely unchanged for decades. These trends have the potential to become the foundation for new economic models around how viewers pay for video service and how program creation is financed. In this report, we examine the leading contenders’ strategic positioning, relative strengths and weaknesses, and provide the early line on their odds of success. Companies mentioned include Google, Apple, Boxee, Roku, Vudu, Samsung, Microsoft and Sony. To see a full list of companies and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Director Mike Rotman celebrated Star Wars Day this year by uploading his documentary feature Star Wait as a series. Filmed in 2002, the show consists mostly of interviews filmed with Star Wars enthusiasts waiting in line to see Episode II. Read more »
Comparing a web series to a TV show isn’t something I love to do, because the playing field is pretty uneven. But in the case of the indie series Reservation, when compared to the NBC drama Heroes, I don’t mind doing so because Reservation wins. Directed […] Read more »
Last fall, I interviewed Pixar CTO/indie film producer Oren Jacob for a GigaOm Pro piece about using online data in the offline world. At the time, Jacob was considering the idea of putting his latest project, the Spellbound-esque documentary Ready Set Bag!, online in full for […] Read more »
