Slowly but surely, YouTube has been able to bump up the number of “premium” content creators willing to hand over some of their stuff to the world’s biggest video site. Here’s yet another one: Funny or Die, the comedy site backed by Will Ferrell, Sequoia and HBO, among others.
Just in case anyone thought Time Warner had any lingering interest in NBC Universal, this ought to put it to rest: Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes just compared the proposed Comcast/NBCU deal with the disastrous one his company made with AOL nearly a decade ago.
Another big player has signed onto Comcast’s Web TV trial: Discovery Communication is handing over a few of its shows for the cable provider’s program, which gives subscribers online access to (some) of the shows they get on TV. Discovery joins other big names like CBS and HBO in Comcast’s “On Demand Online,” which launched last month in a few thousand homes.
Yet another addition to the growing list of programmers signing on to Comcast’s “On Demand Online”: CBS will join the cable provider’s trial program, which will allow subscribers to get Web access to shows they get on TV.
CBS will join previously announced partners Time Warner, which is offering up programming from its Turner channels and HBO; Liberty Media’s Starz, and smaller players like Scripps, Rainbow and A&E. The twist is that CBS is the only broadcaster to sign up for the trial.
Here’s a scoop from Silicon Alley Insider, published this morning: “Gawker Media announced last night that it acquired BloodCopy.com. It’s a blog about vampires. Really.” No, not really. The business blog got tripped up by a promotional campaign for “True Blood,” HBO’s vampire melodrama.
Adam Carolla used to get paid a lot of money to host a morning radio show with a national audience. Now he’s spending his own money to produce a podcast for a fraction of his old audience. Does that sound like progress to you? It should.
How did MegaVideo.com become the 10th most popular video site in the U.S.? By offering users really easy access to pirated movies and TV shows. If Hollywood doesn’t want to end up like the music business, it’s going to have to move very quickly.
Even in the worst of times, people are supposed to hold their TVs close to their hearts: Turn off the heat? Sure. But don’t you dare take my cable away. So this can’t be good: Cable giant Comcast turned in a fourth-quarter report card this morning that beat Wall Street’s revenue and earnings expectations. But it lost more basic subscribers than analysts had expected and added fewer higher-end digital subs than anticipated.
Netflix executives spent a lot of time yesterday playing up the success of their online streaming video offering, but won’t say how many of their customers are using it. Here’s one educated guess: at least 20 percent.
Viral videos–you-gotta-see-this clips Web surfers pass along to each other without any prompting–are every marketer’s dream. Here’s HBO’s clever attempt to create one: Use an existing video that’s already popular on YouTube and try to piggyback off that to promote its excellent “Flight Of The Conchords” show.
“There is nothing wrong with the music business. There’s something wrong with the CD business.” Talk to a music industry optimist for any amount of time, and you’ll inevitably hear that line. If it’s true, that means there’s opportunity for some nimble players. Ex-Yahoo executive Ian Rogers wants to be one of them.
Yep, Mike Hudack was in the video that’s supposed to symbolize the excess–and end–of the Web 2.0 era. And no, he doesn’t care what you think about it. He’s got bigger things on his mind. Like convincing more advertisers to take Web video seriously and making a business out of it.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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