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We expect more details to emerge on Monday about Conde Nast’s $25 million acquisition of technology blog Ars Technica.  News first broke late on Friday afternoon. David Carr at the New York Times dedicates his column tomorrow to the evolution of digital media at Conde Nast. He interviewed Ars Technica co-founder Ken Fisher on why […]

So, we’ve been talking with some clever independent Hollywood Web producers about making money out of Web video by creating entertaining, sponsored content.  Tim Street, producer/director/writer, has developed a hit with his show French Maid TV which gets millions of streams on YouTube and other sites. Having developed the franchise, he is using the "maids" […]

From small online videos content producers such as EQAL and NextNewNetworks, to giant ones like Yahoo!, the marketing messages of sponsors are being "baked" into original productions.  These messages range from product placements to branded characters to stories about a particular product or service. As online video advertising is in its nascent stage, sponsored content […]

BigThink, the site that features original and stylized interviews with thought leaders in business, the arts, public policy and academia, has a syndication deal to publish selected videos on the washingtonpost.com. Here’s a New York Times story about the company’s January launch. Videos of Esther Dyson and Jimmy Wales went live today.  The agreement is […]

Mashable, one of the world’s top 10 most influential blogs, is expanding its events business. Tomorrow in Manhattan, hundreds of Mashables will be partying at Webster Hall for a performance of Grand Master Flash. The tickets are just about sold out, we have learned. If Mashable’s party in San Francisco last month, which was called […]

Click To Play Surely one of the biggest challenges facing publishers seeking to monetize their online video content is how to effectively use ads from a multitude of ad networks.   These ad networks represent the largest pool of online video inventory. The problem is that there are a number of video ad networks which have […]

This just in: CBS and EQAL, the new producer of online video which has been recently funded and opened its Hollywood office last week, have a production and distribution deal.  EQAL is a company founded by Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, the producers of lonelygirl15 and KateModern. Seems the deal is not just for online […]

Magnify.net, the New York-based start-up which organizes video collections around specific interests on customized Web pages, has new plug-ins that will allow bloggers using Movable Type and WordPress to insert customized video directly into a blog post. Steve Rosenbaum the CEO says that the search and discovery technology of Magnify.net will easily curate relevant videos […]

As publishers seek to maximize the opportunities for video advertising on their sites, some are offering prominent thumbnail images, animated banners and custom video players.  CNET Networks is providing branded video channels with multiple players and companion ads. It has a campaign up for Ford Sync which uses multiple television ads in its proprietary player.  […]

StumbleUpon, the platform that allows users to discover and recommend videos to others has expanded sources of videos curated into the system.  The San Francisco-start-up initially allowed users to "stumble" and collect clips from YouTube.  It expanded in recent months to include Google, MySpace and Metacafe. Today, it added College Humor, Funny or Die, Vimeo, […]

Slide, with 170 million unique vistoris per month, making it the world’s seventh biggest online destination, is not a Web site at all, but a network of third party applications, known as widgets.  These widgets sit on social networks and are shared among members. Its application FunWall is the number one active application on Facebook, […]

LOS ANGELES — Most folks who upload to video sharing sites simply want to share. They want exposure for their clips just for fun or to build a reputation.  Some content creators want to make money and several sites offer monetization.  Although the aggregate amount of money paid out has been modest to date, this […]

SANTA MONICA — Yahoo!’s daily digest of highlights of the previous night’s network prime time programming is turning into a hit.  Primetime In No Time, launched in March, had 4 million daily streams per day last week, Beet.TV has learned. On Wednesday afternoon, I visited the the Yahoo! entertainment complex in Santa Monica for a […]

LOS ANGELES — DailyMotion, the video sharing site started in France, has dramatically grown to be a global powerhouse, second only to YouTube, according Joy Marcus, who heads U.S. operations for the site. I sat down with Joy earlier this week at Digital Hollywood. She explained that DailyMotion has a channel strategy, with contents organized […]

LOS ANGELES — It is amazing how Pete Cashmore started Mashable from his home in Scotland at the age of 19, just three years ago, to create one of the most widely read blog about technology and social media. It is among the top 10 most influential blogs in the world. Pete recently moved to […]

LOS ANGELES — Bebo, the fast growing social network which was sold recently to AOL for $850 million, is driving an extraordinary amount of video consumption.  Ziv Navoth, Vice President, told Beet.TV that Bebo is driving one billion videos views a month. Bebo doesn’t require that publishers use its video player. It provides an open […]

LOS ANGELES — The co-producers of lonelygirl15,  Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, have raised $5 million in venture funding, moved into their new offices, just got their computers this week and are hiring.  The funding was announced last month. The new company is called EQAL. I caught up with Miles and Greg on Monday night […]

LOS ANGELES – Seesmic, a new "video conversation company" launched by uber blogger Loic Le Meur, will provide a plug-in for video comments to be uploaded to MoveableType and TypePad blogs later this month, Beet.TV has learned. I caught up with Seesmic evangelist Cathy Brooks at a poolside party on Monday night at the Digital […]

LOS ANGELES — Here at Digital Hollywood yesterday, HP announced that YouTube clips would be made available on the soon-to-be-released MediaSmart Connect digital media receiver.  The box acts as a connection between multiple PC’s and Macs around the house to television sets.  HP is squarely taking on Apple TV with the new device which will […]

FORA.tv, referred by TechCrunch as the "C-SPAN of the Web," has closed a Series A round of venture funding with $4 million from William Randolph Hearst III, Adobe Ventures and other investors.  Hearst and Adobe were investors in the original $2 million seed round.  The San Francisco start-up organizes videos of symposiums and conferences from […]