Online video, online video publishing, streaming media, OVP, OTT, web television, video advertising, marketing, startups, gadgets, social media, videoconferencing, collaboration and related topics are discussed here. Thanks for stopping by the "Klessblog."
Move over "Scooby Doo" and "Super Friends" because Saturday morning cartoons just got another addition to its line up with this "Watchmen" animated short by Harry Partridge, which provides us with a hilarious and unnerving glimpse into what it would look like if a Saturday morning "Watchmen" cartoon had actually been made.
So far the video has over 250,ooo views on YouTube and almost 750 comments on Newgrounds where Harry posted a "digitally remastered swf" that he "ripped" from an old VHS tape. He says, "This combines two huge passions of mine, one being the comic genius (?) that is Alan Moore and the other being kids programming from the late 80s which I would say is my biggest animation inspiration."
Also, check out the related post by Liz Shannon Miller on NewTeeVee where she rounds up several other "Watchmen"-inspired fan creations.
This past week on March 4, 2009, The International Academy of Web Television™, a new independent organization founded to promote and recognize excellence in original episodic Web television programming, announced its inaugural membership. Influential digital entertainment leaders were invited to join the Academy by a founding consortium of new media companies, Tubefilter, Tilzy.TV, and NewTeeVee. The Academy members represent a wide crosssection of the Web television community and have achieved notable success in their respective fields. They include a who's who in online video comprising of actors, agents, composers, content developers, directors, journalists, producers, technology innovators and writers, who actively participate in and support the Web television and digital entertainment industries.
Members of the International Academy of Web Television will vote to select nominees and winners of the annual Streamy Awards™, which will be presented for the first time on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills at the 1st Annual Streamy Awards Ceremony & Gala. The nominations will be announced the second week of March.
Jamison Tilsner of Tilzy.tv says, "This is also just the beginning. The IAWTV is envisioned as a member-run organization charged with serving the interests of the internet entertainment community, and we’ll be actively soliciting feedback about the proper organization and governance of this body. Ultimately, we see this organization providing significant value beyond simply selecting Streamy Awards winners, but the form it ultimately takes will be part of a wide-ranging discussion in which you will hopefully be a part."
Inaugural Members:
Alex Albrecht, Creator and Host, Team Awesome and Project Lore, Host, Diggnation
Chris Albrecht, Co-Editor, NewTeeVee
Todd Amorde, National Director of Organizing, Screen Actors Guild
Drew Baldwin, Co-Founder, Tubefilter
Yuri Baranovsky, Creator and Producer, Break A Leg
Ryan Barlow, Director, Distribution & Marketing, The Tornante Company
Rob Barnett, CEO, MyDamnChannel
Andrew Baron, Creator, Rocketboom
Justine Bateman, Partner, FM78.tv
Erik Beck, Creator, Host, Producer, Indy Mogul
Sean Becker, Producer and Director, Awkward Pictures, Comedy Gumbo
Miles Beckett, CEO, EQAL, lonelygirl15, LG15: The Resistance, KateModern, Harper’s Globe
Max Benator, Head of Digital Media, RDF USA
Payman Benz, Writer and Director, Awkward Pictures, Comedy Gumbo
Damon Berger, Director of Branded Entertainment, Moderati
Hayden Black, CEO, Evil Global Corporation, Abigail’s Teen Diary, Goodnight Burbank
Brady Brim-DeForest, Co-Founder, Tubefilter
Bill Cammack, Freelance Video Editor and New Media Consultant
Ned Canty, Festival Director, New York Television Festival
Aimee Carlson, Creative Director, US, Dailymotion
Joshua Cohen, Co-Founder, Tilzy.TV
Felicia Day, Creator, The Guild; Actor Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Legend of Neil
Mark Day, Comedy Manager, YouTube
Zadi Diaz, Co-Founder, Smashface Productions, Epic Fu
Matt Enlow, Content Strategist, Strike.TV
Kim Evey, Owner, Gorgeous Tiny Productions; The Guild, Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show
Mary Feuer, Series Creator, With the Angels
Elisabeth Flack, New Media Representative, Writers Guild of America, West
Nick Fortunato, VP, Programming and Production, HEAVY.com
Brent Friedman, Co-Founder, Electric Farm Entertainment; Afterworld, Gemini Division
Liz Gannes, Founder and Co-Editor, NewTeeVee
Barrett Garese, Founding Agent, Online Department, United Talent Agency
With March 6 almost upon the east coast the midnight of showing of the WATCHMEN movie is little more than an hour away. I know many fans who have their tickets for the midnight movie are waiting with anticipation for the highly acclaimed graphic novel to come to life on the big screen.
Just in time for the opening, here's the third of a three-episode WATCHMEN miniseries! Note the added affect to the Innovid player to help you find the hidden easter eggs.
Episode description: The end is here and it is explosive! Kyle and Doucheus face the third and final visitor - will they survive the experience? This episode is sponsored by WATCHMEN - http://www.watchmenmovie.com - and in honor of the movie release, we've peppered this episode with a bunch of Watchmen references - can you find them all?
See HungrymanTV's Phistophicles for his Watchmen tie-in episode, Comic Book 8 as Phistophicles sells his soul in the name of branded content and viral marketing (which interestingly enough didn’t even exist in ancient Greece!) as he not-so-cleverly shills for the movie, “Watchmen.”
You can also still get in on Watchmen contests at some of the following sites:
I was pleased to offer the exclusive limited ticket giveaway to my blog readers for the advance screening of the WATCHMEN movie in San Francisco on Monday, March 2. For those of you who were the lucky few, I was glad to see some of you there and to those of you I didn't see I hope you had a good time. As faithful comic book fans my friend Jason and I were not disappointed as we recorded our first impressions of the movie following the advance screening without any spoilers. Director Zack Snyder delivered a dark, gritty, and violent adaptation which stayed true to the core story details of the original comic book. It's R-rating is appropriate with the vivid portrayal of violence and sexual content.
Google news has close to 800 related stories for "Watchmen review" with many critics offering sobering critiques rather than gushing praise. Some fans suggesting that the international reviews have been positive, and that an overwhelming majority of U.S. reviews have been negative. Comicbook.com wrote that the movie doesn't live up to the trailer citing negative criticsm from Hollywood Reporter, Variety who predict that once the core fan base sees it that the box office numbers will drop. But to balance that there was positive feedback from other sites like Ain’t It Cool News, Comic Book Resources and Newsarama. However, following the success of Dark Knight (partly fueled by Heath Ledger's untimely demise) and Iron Man, the viral marketing campaign on television and the web and the overall popularity of the comic book film genre this may be the first blockbuster action movie of the year. Or it may be a big flop at box office. We'll know more after a few weeks.
Here's the latest installment on the weekly review rounding out the last week of February 2009 with a focus on online video and advertising.
February 23, 2009 Chumby bets on Internet-connected TVs | last100 — Hoping to move beyond being a geek's favorite boutique gadget to something more mainstream, Chumby is partnering with chip maker Broadcom to make it easy for consumer electronics companies to embed its widget platform into Internet-connected TVs, Blue-ray players and set-top boxes
Leichtman Research Group - Actionable Research on the Broadband, Media and Entertainment Industries Leichtman Research Group | Press Releases ONLINE VIDEO USAGE CONTINUES TO GROW - Yet Online Video is Having Little Impact on Traditional TV Viewing and Services Durham, NH - February 23, 2009 - New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that usage of online video expanded in the past year. In total, 34% of adults online at home report that they view some type of video online at least weekly, including 11% who view video online daily – this compares to 31% of those online who viewed video online at least once a week last year, and 25% two years ago. While those watching recent TV shows online have increased, TV shows rank well down the list of the types of video that people are regularly viewing online, and the impact on traditional TV viewing and multi-channel video subscriptions has been negligible.
Viewing of video on television, Internet and mobile devices — the Three Screens — continues to increase and has hit record levels. Nielsen’s fourth quarter A2/M2 Three Screen Report reports that the average American watches more than 151 hours of TV per month, an all-time high. They are also watching several hours of video on other devices: those who watch it on the Internet consume another 3 hours of online video per month, and those who use mobile video watch nearly 4 hours per month on mobile phones and other devices.
Report: U.S. Video Viewing Continues Rise on TV, Web & Mobile | Digital Media Wire New York - Americans now watch more than 151 hours of TV a month -- an all-time high -- while those who watch video online consume another 3 hours of video per month, and those who use mobile video watch nearly 4 additional hours per month on mobile phones and other devices, according to a report from Nielsen.
Online Video Viewing Up, Impact on TV “Negligible” « NewTeeVee - Television is still king, despite gains being made online. That’s according to two separate research reports released today. Taken together, the studies from Nielsen and Leichtman Research Group (LRG) also help illustrate how newteeve is impacting oldteevee (hint: it isn’t). In its A2/M2 Three Screen Report for the fourth quarter of 2008, Nielsen found that video consumption is up across all three video screens. In the U.S. each month the average TV watcher soaks in 151 hours of television (an all-time high), the average online video viewer watches some three hours’ worth of content on the web, and people who use mobile video watch almost four hours of video on their phones and other wireless devices. The Cable Industry Closes Ranks - Part 2
An article in Friday's WSJ "Cable Firms Look to Offer TV Programs Online" outlined a plan under which Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the nation's 2 largest cable operators, would give just their subscribers online access to cable networks' programming.
MediaPost Publications Firing SQAD: Data Firm Sets 'CPM' As Online Ad Metric 02/24/2009 In a move that will likely align the ROI of online advertising more closely with that of traditional media such as television, an influential source of media marketplace data this morning announced it will use Madison Avenue's long-standing CPM, or cost-per-thousand, metric as the "currency" for tracking online advertising. The announcement by Tarrytown, NY-based SQAD, comes as other influential industry source are trying to reshape online media in the image of television, and as online industry insiders wage their own debate about the best metrics for evaluating the efficacy of their medium. MediaPost Publications Nielsen: Video Viewing Up Across Three Screens 02/24/2009
The appetite for video continued to grow in the fourth quarter as U.S. consumers watched more programming across television, the Internet and mobile devices than the prior quarter, according to Nielsen's latest A2/M2 Three Screen report.
Americans viewed a record average of 151 hours of TV monthly in the quarter, while those tuning into online video averaged nearly three hours, and mobile video users watched for almost four hours monthly. Time-shifted television had the biggest gain, increasing to an average of seven hours and 11 minutes from 6:27 in the third quarter and from 5:24 a year ago--a 33% annual jump. For young people, watching video online and on a DVR are equally popular, with an average of five hours spent monthly on each format.
On24 raises the profile for virtual trade shows » VentureBeat - Virtual trade shows are catching on, according to one of the leading companies in the space. San Francisco-based ON24 says it grew sales 40 percent in 2008 and saw its client base expand to 700 customers. (It didn’t disclose exact revenues.)
Media companies could be training consumers to become pirates, Daisy Whitney warns in the latest edition of her New Media Minute. Hulu recently yanked its content from both TV.com and Boxee, a move that might send some consumers over to the dark side to get their TV shows. Daisy shares her advice to Hollywood on how to handle such kerfluffles. But there are factions of the online video business getting along just fine. The Bay Area Interactive Group, along with media agency McCann WorldGroup, partnered with San Francisco public high school teachers to train them on how to bring blogging, podcasting, online video and social networking into their classrooms. For all the details, watch the New Media Minute.
Chart: Monthly Time Spent Watching Video - TVWeek - News Americans are watching more video than ever, according to Nielsen, which released its “Three Screen Report” covering television, the Internet and mobile video. The time spent watching time-shifted TV jumped from a year ago, while the time spent watching video on TV and the Internet each grew by almost 4%.
Q4 2008
Q3 2008
Q4 2007
Diff %
Diff Hrs
Watching TV in the home
151:03
140:48
145:49
3.6%
5:13
Watching time-shifted TV
7:11
6:27
5:24
33.0%
1:47
Using the Internet
27:04
27:18
26:08
3.6%
0:56
Watching video on Internet
2:53
2:31
n/a
n/a
n/a
Mobile subscribers watching video on a mobile phone
Local Video Ad Space is Bustling with Innovation The ad business in general may be in the doldrums due to the economic downturn, but one space that's bustling with innovation is online video ads for local, small-to-medium (SMB) sized businesses
Netflix plans streaming as stand-alone NEW YORK -- Netflix is looking at launching an online streaming-only subscription service within the next year, CFO Barry McCarthy confirmed here Wednesday.The company is "likely to do a streaming-only product in the foreseeable future," he said at the fifth annual Jefferies & Co. Internet & Media Conference. He later told The Hollywood Reporter that it was likely to launch in the next 12 months, as CEO Reed Hastings had signaled in a recent Bloomberg interview.
Streamingmedia.com: Repurposing TV for Streaming Content can be produced and repurposed for a three-screen universe without having to use completely independent workflows. Here’s a look at how to establish a “create once, use anywhere” converged workflow.
The Death of User-Generated Online Video Content? - ReelSEO AccuStream iMedia Research believes that the end of the user-generated content era is close at hand as outlined in their recent report Pro Online Video Views 1998–2012. Last year, they say, there was a 25% increase in prodfessionally produced content on the web. This content generated 41.6 billion views. However if I remember correctly last year saw a lot of broadcast companies jump onthe online bandwagon. In fact TV programs on the web were around 17% of that according to their report and more than 30% was aimed at children. Is Professional Content the Future of Online Video? - eMarketerNielsen: Total Video Streams Top 10 Billion « NewTeeVee Nielsen released its January VideoCensus data today, reporting that total video streams over the course of the month crossed the 10 billion mark, and the overall number of unique viewers surpassed 135 million. Thank you, President Obama, for live-streaming your inauguration.
MediaPost Publications Online Video Ad Vendors Must Face Standardization Hurdle 02/26/2009 Standardization remains the key challenge facing the online video industry, according to experts gathered Wednesday for a panel on video advertising at Jefferies 5th Annual Internet and Media Conference in New York. "The largest brands are looking for some degree of standardization," said Matt Wasserlauf, CEO of online video network Broadband Enterprises
Will Video for Food » Dismal Advertising Forecast- But Online-Video Has Immunity Idol Despite this gloomy IDC report (AdAge) about online-advertising contracting, online video will flourish. And I’m not the only guy who thinks so. IDC’s director for digital media and entertainment, Karsten Weide, tells AdAge that online advertising spending will be soft the first half of 2009 (but online advertising will do better than the economy at large). Weide says video is currently “enjoying the high ground,” especially as use increases.
Though comScore hasn’t officially released its numbers yet, Hulu was kind enough to share its copy of the VideoMetrix data for January (hence Hulu being highlighted in the chart below). But the big story from the numbers is Google/YouTube, which lept to 6.3 billion videos streamed in January, up from 5.9 billion in December. GoogTube also added another 1.7 million unique viewers to hit 101.8 million, up from a little more than 100 million in December. While Hulu’s overall streams were up roughly 10 million in January, hitting more than 250 million streams, the site dropped more than 120,000 unique viewers between December and January.
And as we saw yesterday with Nielsen’s January numbers, Turner got a nice boost from Obama’s inauguration (thank you, CNN online video coverage) on comScore’s rankings as well, serving nearly 196 million streams in January, up from nearly 184 million in December, and its uniques reached 22.9 million, up from roughly 20.5 million in December.
Contentinople - Ryan Lawler - Reality Digital Tries to 'Harmonize' Social Media Reality Digital Inc. has announced a new platform called Harmony that is designed to enable small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to launch social media tools on their brand Websites. Reality Digital mostly provides social networking and interactive video applications for large organizations through its enterprise-focused core product, called Opus, and a professional services team for custom design and development of those services.
Move over "Scooby Doo" and "Super Friends" because Saturday morning cartoons just got another addition to its line up with this "Watchmen" animated short by Harry Partridge, which provides us with a hilarious and unnerving glimpse into what it would look like if a Saturday morning "Watchmen" cartoon had actually been made.
The appetite for video continued to grow in the fourth quarter as U.S. consumers watched more programming across television, the Internet and mobile devices than the prior quarter, according to Nielsen's latest 
