Frank wants to use that energy to get started with his new show soon. His plan is to have first episodes up at the end of March and release three new episodes every week. He told me he hasn’t made up his mind yet on how to distribute the show, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if the episodes end up on YouTube one way or another. Frank said that he’s been getting advice from Craig Benzine ( aka wheezywaiter) as well as the VlogBrothers John and Hank Green on the matter. All three of them are veteran YouTube stars.

Speaking of YouTube: the Google-owned video site has been on a buying spree in recent months, securing talent for premium channels by paying out sizable advances. So why go to Kickstarter, instead of just asking YouTube for a check? Said Frank:

Kickstarter is an amazing way to get the audience involved from the ground up, which is a big part of what I am trying to do with this show. That said, I would certainly be open to having YouTube as a partner in this. They are the epicenter of online video and home to some of the best new talent on the web and beyond.

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Cont3nt founder and CEO Anton Gelman calls the marketplace “an e-commerce platform for journalism,” enabling videographers and photographers to license their content to news agencies by giving them full control of the transaction. Journalists can specify 30-, 60- or 90-day exclusive or non-exclusive licenses to their content, with Cont3nt.com handling all billing and order fulfillment.

One big advantage of the Cont3nt platform is that it gives more money back to the content provider. While other marketplaces command as much as 50 or 60 percent of the license fee for content, Cont3nt takes a maximum of 5 percent per transaction. That’ll be key as it hopes to recruit more professional and semi-pro video journalists.

The goal is to bring to light video that might not have been seen, and to help monetize content that would have otherwise ended up on YouTube. While some news agencies have used YouTube footage in their reports, it’s often difficult to verify the accuracy of the reporting and the source of the content.

To that end, Cont3nt currently has about 170 publishers tapped into its platform, and about 15,000 journalists signed up from around the world. It’s focusing specifically on international markets like Sudan, Syria, Libya and Russia. As a result, much of its work has been around ensuring that journalists on the platform provide high-quality content.

“It’s very difficult to verify a piece of content,” Gelman told me in a phone interview. So Cont3nt works to verify and create a trusting relationship with the person delivering the content. To do so, the startup has been searching for good content online and trying to contact journalists directly, and has been recruiting media organizers who work in the regions it’s targeting. Once signed up, they can create media profiles and establish credibility as their content is licensed by major publishers.

All that said, there’s really only one major requirement for producers who wish to license their video on Cont3nt, according to Gelman: “It has to be true, it has to be good and it has to be yours.”

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For example, voice-over-IP and texting services are up 114 percent from the first half of the year, presaging a future when the line items of texting and voice plans could disappear. Already companies are declining to buy texting plans for their employees, rightly recognizing that they can communicate via text without going through the carrier’s SMS system. It is a phenomenon already cutting into revenues at European carriers, and it will be felt soon here in the U.S.

Meanwhile, VoIP calling services, whether they are via Skype or Viber, are on the rise as well. And while carriers that are transitioning to LTE networks will eventually move their voice calling over to IP calls, it is unclear if the price paid for voice plans will see a subsequent drop. But data plans will only represent almost 40 percent of the average revenue per user (ARPU) by the end of the first quarter this year, according to Chetan Sharma, an industry consultant. This is a problem for two reasons, the first being that if people stop buying voice or texting plans, operators have a large hole to fill in ARPU. Second, the per-gigabyte price of VoIP calls or IM would not fill that hole but would also replace a higher-margin service with a lower-margin one.

So is compromise in the air?

In the wake of these losses in revenue, Allot’s recommendation to carriers is now compromise. A few years ago Allot was selling new types of pricing plans to help carriers cut down on bandwidth-hogging video applications while some carriers were trying to curb usage of new service by changing their terms of service to forbid users from streaming video to their phones. Allot called it. A backlash to the terms of service changes and carrier’s realizing that pricing was a better and more profitable carrot to use has reshaped the industry. It is becoming difficult to find someone with an unlimited mobile broadband plan.

I will take Allot’s recommendation that carriers should work with over-the-top providers pretty seriously. Already Skype, whose business comprises 79 percent of the VoIP traffic that Allot notes is rising, has a deal with Verizon that could represent the new breed of compromise. Unfortunately, details of their arrangement are hard to ferret out, but it seems to benefit Verizon over the consumer.

Also, we still waste a lot of time on YouTube

Aside from predicting the future for mobile operators, Allot’s data shows how much of our present we spend surfing YouTube on mobile networks. Globally, almost one out of every four packets (24 percent) traversing the mobile network was from YouTube, and it also accounts for 62 percent of all streaming traffic.

It appears from the report that the next big worry on the horizon will be HD video streaming traffic. YouTube’s HD-streaming traffic has increased by 300 percent from the first half to the second half of the year. Better and bigger screens are to blame for this boost, according to Allot, but I think faster LTE networks that are rolling out around the country play a role. Faster networks mean we can stream higher-def content, although we may end up paying for it in overage charges later.

And in those faster networks, along with our tendency to guzzle video content, may lie the secret to mobile operators’ success. Customers are already used to paying a set amount for voice, texting and data, but right now more than half of that amount is voice and texting. The challenge for carriers will be in shifting their pricing so customers pay about the same amount per month but “see” more of that going to data and less to voice or texting plans. Perhaps consumers would pay a bit for a VoIP plan that exempts Skype from counting against their data plan or ensures they could make a call.

For carriers, the worst thing that could happen from a pricing perspective is that consumers begin dumping voice and texting plans and acclimatizing to paying them less overall. But if operators cooperate with VoIP, IM and even video-calling services to offer an easier on-ramp to IP communications as well as plans that shift more of the costs paid by a consumer over to data, they may win. Companies like AT&T might be able to keep the same amount of consumer wallet share, co-opt their competition and probably eke out a few quarters of higher margins.

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Machinima CEO Allen DeBevoise, in the company's West Hollywood offices.

Drama is usually a tough sell for web audiences, but in 2011, Machinima used its primary YouTube channel to distribute three high-profile series: Kevin Tancharoen’s Mortal Kombat: Legacy, Felicia Day’s Dragon Age: Redemption and David van Eyssen’s RCVR. The first episode of Mortal Kombat currently has 16.3 million views, with following episodes averaging four to five million, while Dragon Age and RCVR‘s premiere episodes each racked up over a million views, with subsequent episodes earning solid six-figure viewcounts. In addition, all three shows were nominated for awards at the inaugural IAWTV Awards last month, with RCVR picking up best drama.

While it’s true that both Kombat and Dragon Age are both video game-inspired, the three shows — a gritty martial arts thriller with some supernatural elements, a high fantasy epic and an X-Files-esque conspiracy drama — are relatively diverse in style and content. However, what they have in common, according to Machinima CEO Allen DeBevoise, can be categorized as “extraordinary characters in an extraordinary world.”

In a sit-down interview, DeBevoise attributed the company’s success with drama online in large part to its audience of video game enthusiasts. “It’s an adrenaline-oriented audience that engages with mythologies. Other companies have a demographic that’s more random — but we have 95 percent males, and we know there’s content they care about,” he said.

Two elements were key to Machinima building that following — first, its approach to platforms, focusing exclusively on YouTube instead of diversifying. “We decided not to put all our content on every platform, instead saying ‘let’s just get this one right,’” DeBevoise said. Machinima currently has over 4.1 million subscribers on the platform, and is one of the participants in YouTube’s Made For Web channel initiative.

In addition, rather than trying to appeal to all video game fans at once, it started with one small specific audience and then grew outwards. “First, we focused all our energies on Halo [gamers], then grew to shooter games, and then we went broader,” he added. “Machinima now stands for game-centric programming — not just gaming.”

That doesn’t mean Machinima would ever attempt a pivot, though: “Our core gaming audience will be something we never abandon,” DeBevoise said. “But we don’t have to give up gaming content to bring in a new audience. The shelf life on YouTube is essentially unlimited.”

Machinima has room to evolve, though; DeBevoise looks to premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime as inspiration. “We want to become a more consistent global entertainment commodity. There are always two or or three shows going on on HBO — are we doing that in every category? No, not yet,” he said.

He also looked to the importance of establishing franchises: “What’s our Simpsons? What’s our Sopranos? We need to figure out what our big franchises are.” Zombie comedy Bite Me is returning for a second season March 6, but followups to RCVR, Mortal Kombat or Dragon Age have yet to be announced.

Most importantly, though, DeBevoise expressed interest in finding content that taps into the zeitgeist of this current generation, reflecting upon the way movies like The Godfather resonated during their time. “We think about what would be The Godfather for us — really compelling but really rooted in our audience,” DeBevoise said.

DeBevoise pinpointed several elements that might connect with the Machinima crowd — the CGI aesthetic that permeates both modern gaming and much genre filmmaking, the distinction between a virtual world and the real world — and also the fact that in order to achieve that goal, the company needs a talent base. “We can’t be HBO without great writers or directors,” he said.

It’s overstating to say that what Machinima is doing is the future of all entertainment. But it does represent one of the most important trends of the evolving digital age — content that achieves success by knowing its audience intimately.

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The startup released the Clik mobile app Thursday, letting users browse YouTube videos on their iOS or Android mobile devices and beaming them to the enabled Clik screen. The app is more of a proof-of-concept than anything, showing how the platform can be used to connect mobile devices with more or less any screen that has a browser. The most obvious example is a PC, but it can also be used with Google TV-enabled devices, as well as devices with Webkit browsers, like the Boxee Box by D-Link.

To take advantage of the app, users need only download the Clik mobile app, go to www.ClikThis.com in any supported browser, and scan the website’s QR code to pair the screen and mobile device. Multiple users and mobile devices can be used to control the same screen, by enabling multiplayer mode.

While the current Clik app adds mobile control to YouTube videos, the startup hopes to enable other developers to create apps on the platform. Currently in private beta, the startup’s partner program is targeting three verticals to start: streaming video providers, streaming music services and game developers.

Imagine, for instance, being able find to control a Spotify playlist from your mobile device while blasting it through your home theater system. Or you could play a game of Texas Hold ‘em on a TV or PC where your cards appear on the mobile device, but community cards and bets appear on the primary screen. Those are the types of experiences Clik CEO Ted Livingston, which can be powered over Wi-Fi or even mobile 3G networks.

While there are lots of smart TV development platforms out there, few now provide the same kind of flexibility in connecting mobile, PCs and TVs that Clik enables. The closest might be Samsung’s Smart TV platform, which is pushing connectivity between the manufacturer’s TVs and Android-based mobile phones and tablets. One other advantage of Clik is that developers can use today’s web standards, without having to worry about writing specifically for one mobile or connected TV platform.

Livingston and the rest of the Clik crew were the same group that released the popular Kik messaging platform. The new venture is funded by $8 million that the Kik team raised from Union Square Ventures, RRE Ventures and Spark Capital last March. The company now has 26 employees, most of which are focused on developing the new smart TV but it will continue to support Kik’s messaging apps.

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I noticed an interesting trend at the MusicTech Summit in San Francisco this week: A lot of the talk over lunch and during hallway conversations wasn’t about the next big thing, about fancy Spotify apps or sexy mashups. Instead, people were busy talking about CRMs, CMS platforms and e-commerce.

Some of the companies that I ran across at the event included Official.fm, which helps artists to manage, publish and track their music online; Bandzoogle, which powers websites for musicians; and Cash Music, which wants to become a kind of WordPress-like open source CMS for bands. There was also lots of talk about licensing solutions, e-commerce apps and platforms that help bands to establish a more direct connection to their fans. You know, the nuts and bolts stuff. Much of it wouldn’t really be a very exciting story to tell on its own. But to me, it seemed like there was something bigger going on here.

To learn more, I sat down with Ian Rogers, who may be the perfect example for this new B2B focus. In a former life, Rogers managed the Beastie Boys. He went on to work for Nullsoft, the software company whose Winamp player was a key player in enabling the MP3 revolution. Rogers also worked as a GM of Yahoo Music some years back. He left the company in 2008 to start Topspin, which does marketing and retail for bands like Linkin Park and Sigur Rós and a whole bunch of other acts, many of which you’ll immediately recognize. If you ever see a band selling its T-Shirts on YouTube, chances are that those transactions are powered by Topspin.

Rogers told me that he decided to go into this space because of a huge untapped opportunity. “30,000 to 50,000 artists are making a living in the world,” he said, adding: “But there are millions of people who shop at Guitar Center.” Opening your very own online store may have seemed like a waste of time for the average bedroom musician just a few years ago, but then something interesting happened. A combination of online video and social media opened up new avenues to find a fan base around the world without investing a dime in traditional promotion. That’s huge, because it removed a key bottleneck: “Now you have people building businesses without radio,” explained Rogers.

Of course, an audience alone doesn’t guarantee that you can make a living, and new research from the Future of Music Coalition that was unveiled at the event showed that the majority of artists never see any money from services like Spotify. So is it really sustainable if every singer with a few thousand fans on YouTube wants to be a working musician? Rogers countered my question by asking: “Has it ever been sustainable?”

The good news is that there are more and more success stories, like the one of Nataly Dawn, who found fame on YouTube as part of the indie duo Pomplamoose. Dawn recently turned to Kickstarter to finance her solo album. She asked her fans for $20,000 – and got more than $100,000 instead. Dawn is not alone, but only one example for a new generation of bedroom musicians who use the Internet to connect with their audience. As they become more successful, these artists are starting to look for tools that help them make a living with music. That’s much less flashy than any story about disruptive streaming services, piracy or major labels clashing with their artists. But for music lovers, it points to a very exciting future.

Image courtesy (CC-BY-SA) of Flickr user quinn.anya.

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According to a couple of job postings on the Amazon jobs site, the online retailer is hiring creative execs to develop programming through its Amazon Studios initiative. The jobs specifically are for the “People’s Production Company,” which is the name of the production studio producing original content, located in Sherman Oaks, Calif. Successful applicants would report to Amazon’s VP of Series Development and would be expected to:

• Assess pilot proposals
• Work with writers and artists to develop series ideas
• Staff, cast and produce pilots in a cost-efficient way
• Supervise series production when series are greenlit

While Netflix, Hulu and YouTube have already introduced their own original programming, the Amazon Studios project preceded all of those other initiatives. However, while Netflix, YouTube and others are sourcing their programming from professional production companies, Amazon took a different approach with its studio plans — it’s crowd-sourcing scripts and projects from a community of artists and optioning them for free.

Amazon Studios apparently paid $580,000 to script writers and $2.1 million for test movies in 2011, but programming has yet to make it to distribution. But the fact that Amazon is hiring creative execs to shepherd projects through the development process means that we could see some original shows popping up soon.

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To set up, Nowbox asks users to specify categories of entertainment that are of interest to them, then to link their YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Once that’s done, they’ll be shown a TV guide-like navigation pane that will look familiar to anyone who’s ever seen a cable channel guide. All of which is the point — Nowbox demystifies the online video experience by serving up channels in the same way most viewers are already used to seeing them.

It has a few other perks as well: for one thing, users are served up a continuous stream of videos, making online video viewing more akin to the type of non-stop stream they’re used to seeing when watching regular TV. Users can swipe back and forth through videos on a particular channel, and since Nowbox pre-caches those videos, they play pretty much instantaneously. Users can star videos as favorites, save them for later or share with friends and followers on social networks.

With more than half a million video views under its belt in less than two months since launch, Nowbox is expanding the app’s feature set to make it even easier to discover new content. For one thing, Nowbox has added a channel of video recommendations based on the categories of content that users signed up for. It’s also added an indicator to highlight new videos as they appear in a user’s channel lineup.

Nowbox is just one of many apps focused on improving discovery of streaming video on the iPad. Other competitors include apps like Showyou, Squrl and the Boxee iPad app. The hope is that Nowbox’s unique channel guide approach, as well as its new features, will extend the play time that users spend with the app. Those users are already showing pretty strong engagement, however: Nowbox founder Thomas Pun told me that users spend 18 minutes with the app per session on average.

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YouTube is betting big on original programming, reportedly spending more than $100 million on 100 channels of professional content. Those channels are mostly being focused on various verticals: action sports, for instance, or food or fashion. But while it’s investing in quality, Kamangar told the audience at the D:Dive Into Media conference this week that it’s still too hard to find the stuff people want to watch.

To fix this, YouTube also redesigned its website to highlight content that is relevant to its users. The idea behind the redesign, according to Kamangar, is that once users have selected channels that interest them, they will be shown the newest videos of interest to them. In the same way that viewers typically pick between a handful of favorite TV stations, allowing users to self-select channels could potentially keep them coming back.

It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not perfect. As I’ve noted before, the biggest issue is one of discovery: Once users have chosen the channels that they’d like to subscribe to, it’s difficult to find new content that might be relevant to their interests. Suggested channels — including its featured new channels — are hidden off to the side and below the fold.

Kamangar admitted Tuesday that discovery is still a problem for YouTube. “Google historically has been a search company, so for us to get the discovery and recommendations right, it’s a big challenge. But it’s the kind of challenge that the engineers at Google absolutely love,” Kamagar said.

YouTube is the second-biggest search engine in the world, behind parent Google. But it’s one thing to serve up the right video when a viewer searches for it. It’s a whole other thing to anticipate what a viewer wants to see and help them find it. That’s something YouTube will need to get better at, especially as it tries to increase the average session time that users are staying online for.

The site has a massive number of users stopping by the site every day, but few of them stick around for very long. That’s something the company has been struggling with since its inception. If it’s going to become a bigger competitive threat to traditional programmers, it’ll need to step beyond the hunt-and-peck process of video search and provide better discovery tools.

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A significant part of this has been driven by the smashing success of the Khan Academy. Salman Khan’s no-frills biology, calculus and physics lessons have clocked close to 120 million views on YouTube since he started uploading them in 2006. However, there is a growing movement toward more entertaining and visually appealing lessons that speak the language of the YouTube generation.

The most recent examples for this type of programming include some projects launched in January as part of YouTube’s new channel initiative: Crash Course, for example, combines lessons about biology and world history with smart humor, a YouTube-typical in-your-face style of narration and professionally animated graphics.

Crash Course is a co-production of Hank and John Green, of Vlogbrothers fame. The channel launched just days ago, and the duo have already managed to get around 275,000 views with little more than two lessons posted. John Green told me during a phone conversation this week that he has been very excited about this initial success: “It really stabs in the heart the lie that YouTube is about cat videos,” he said.

The Vlogbrothers are among dozens of content makers that have been receiving sizable advances from YouTube to professionally produce content. Reports put the total spent by Google for this kind of content north of $100 million. That money buys YouTube participation from stars like Rainn Wilson and Tony Hawk, but the initiative also includes around a dozen channels with news and educational content.

Many of these channels are part of YouTube for Schools, a program launched last month that offers educational institutions access to a controlled YouTube environment to ensure that students don’t goof off watching the latest music videos. Green told me that he has already received “dozens of emails” from students who were introduced to his new show by their teacher. “People are already watching Crash Course in classrooms,” he said.

But with great power comes great responsibility; in this case, there is a duty to get the facts right. Green has been using a real-life educator to make sure that he doesn’t get his history dates mixed up. Fact-checking is absolutely necessary for this kind of content, he told me, admitting, “I don’t trust myself.”

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