• On Mobile, Any Time is Prime Time
    The big pitch for mobile video always has been that the handset makes TV catch-ups and media snacking available throughout the day and when a TV or desktop monitor is out of reach. So one of the more surprising stats from video ad network Rhythm NewMedia's first "Mobile Ad Report" is that the biggest bump in mobile video usage occurs during TV's prime-time. While the difference in prime time mobile video viewing and activity through the rest of the day is not massive, it is remarkable.
  • What Would You Do With a Roll-Up Video Display?
    We know that foldable, roll-up video displays are coming sometime in that Jetsons future. Everyone with any foresight can sense that the iPad is just the first iteration of large, portable screens that ultimately we can wind up into a cylinder and pop into the raincoat pocket. Someday will handbags and satchels (yeah, we'll still want those) come with a nine-inch cylindrical case attached for everyone's "iScreen?" Well, Sony may have the drop on Apple this time.
  • Metacafe Movies Tries to Channel Access Hollywood
    Metacafe started years ago as a popular YouTube clone, but it has since veered into a more curated and editorially driven approach to video. The launch this week of Metacafe Movies underscores the evolution and is the first of several video verticals the company plans to release in coming months. While it still looks like a typical assemblage of trailers at present, Metacafe Movies promises a blend of Hollywood teasers for upcoming films, relevant movie-related content from around the Web, and exclusive original material.
  • Toasted Galifianakis, Trippy Pages and a Stoned Pynchon Keep Book Trailers Hip
    Go ahead and marvel over the digital wizardry of the latest branded viral video, but if you want a safe haven of genuine creativity and flat out hip weirdness, then try on some of the top book trailers from last year. Last week the 2010 Moby Awards were given in a strange assemblage of categories for the online videos that have now become a standard part of book publishing.
  • Comcast and thePlatform to Preserve Nielsen Ad Tracking Online
    "TV Everywhere" publishers will be able to track consumer ad viewing across broadcast, VOD, DVR and now online, according to Comcast Media Center, thePlatform and Nielsen. The three companies have announced that the Nielsen C3 ratings, which measure the average commercial minutes viewers watched live or over the three following days of a broadcast, will now extend to online publishing by TV providers.
  • Did Google TV Just Eat Boxee and Roku?
    As I watched the Google TV promotional trailer yesterday my first impression was that I had seen this somewhere before. In fact, I can pull in most of the TV shows, movies and video programming that live on the Web via the Boxee software that I baked into AppleTV. Soon Boxee plans to issue its own "Boxee Box" that connects directly into the home theater system. Similarly, my Roku box, which is said to have sold half a million or more units, also pulls in select programming to my TV in the shape of apps. While much has been made …
  • 'Over the Top' Prediction: Internet TV to Surpass Broadcast by 2020
    Describing not immodestly its own forecast as "bold," The Diffusion Group argues in a new report that by 2020, Internet video consumption will outstrip broadcast TV viewing. Now there is a caveat to this prediction. TDG is talking about video that is stored and distributed over IP, but they aren't necessarily saying the video will be viewed from people's desktop. In fact the key to this shift in video platform is the living room TV itself. Over the next 5 to 7 years, the researchers say the TV will become the primary viewing vehicle for Web video.
  • Pay Per Plate: CS Monitor Launches Paid Video Service
    What will people pay for online? We are about to see in coming months as a range of publishers erect new pay walls, fee-based packages and tiered services. Is video one of the commodities worth paying to get? Christian Science Monitor seems to think the answer still resides where it always did, the value of the content. It has launched a freemium video product in the Monitor Breakfasts, video recordings of weekly meetings between Washington figures and journalists. But unlike other online video, full video of the Monitor Breakfasts will run $14.95 a month or $99.95 a year. Highlights of …
  • YouTube Is Only Five Years Into a Great Transformation
    Five years of YouTube adds up to a pile of keyboard-playing cats, wannabe singing stars, and self-serving politician posts. Not to mention all of those three-year-olds thwapping Dad in the crotch with plastic waffle bats. Ouch. A lot can be said about YouTube's cultural implications, from insights about the supposed democratization of media to our rampant exhibitionism. But I think that on the basic level of communications history YouTube at the very least helped us treat video in much the same way we used text and images for decades, as a kind of media reflex rather than a specialized form …
  • Obamavision: A West Wing And A Prayer
    Can you blame the newly installed Team Obama for wanting to channel some of the slick dramedy of the classic West Wing TV series? After all, don't you think most of them came of political age as the NBC political series was at its zenith. You have to imagine that as a deputy press secretary and senior advisors are doing their walk-and-talks down the White House halls more than once they flashed to just that right scene when Toby and C.J. or Josh and Sam were doing the same thing. Check the video shelves of any Obama staffer and I …
« Previous Entries