Wochit, the video news company that aims to "produce ever-fresh, studio-quality news video content about any topic as it happens," has just closed a $4.75 million series A venture capital round from Redpoint Ventures, Cedar Fund and Greycroft Partners. Beet.TV is republishing this video interview with Co-Founder and CEO Dror Ginzberg filmed in February at our studio in New York.

LONDON - Usage data gathered by the Associated Press around video news shows that consumption is getting shorter, with most viewers watching content from a minute to 90 seconds,  says Sandy MacIntrye, global chief of video, in this interview with Beet.TV.  This duration is "shorter than any of us journalists would like," he says.   Viewership of raw, unscripted video can [...]

With YouTube's pulling back from the big investments in Web originals, which  it announced last year, there are now many opportunities for Blip,  explains Jason Krebs, the newly appointed president of sales and marketing at Blip, in this interview with Beet.TV At recent Digital Content NewFronts, Blip unveiled a slate of new shows.  Krebs speaks about monetization opportunities around Web original [...]

Innovid, a New York-based  provider of interactive video ad technology, recently launched a program with with Sony Crackle to serve ads across multiple devices. Beet.TV spoke with CTO and co-founder Tal Chalozin about this and other company developments in this video interview. "The premise is that marketers that want to reach their audience can focus on finding the right audience and [...]

Online video innovation is now quickening outside the United States – but in very different ways, according to the international director of video ad technology group Videology. "The general notion when we first started our international business three years ago was, markets outside the US were 18 to 24 months behind," Ryan Jamboretz told Beet.TV's recent London Video Ad Strategy Summit. [...]

On-demand video advertisers are now beginning to target their spots using richer data. That's according to video ad tech firm Videology's international product manager Catherine Hallam. "Although VOD has been primarily age- and gender-targeted, now up to a maximum of 60 percent of campaigns only use age and gender," Hallam told Beet.TV's recent London Video Ad Strategy Summit. "We're getting far more diversification [...]

If you can't teach an old dog new tricks, can a new medium learn to play by an old rule book? Nielsen's new Online Campaign Ratings mechanism seeks to measure online viewers as people, not clicks. That's just what TV has done for decades – and that's just fine for now, according to Nielsen's media client consulting VP Andrew Bradford. "In the future, hybrid measurement [...]

Automated or programmatic video advertising buying techniques can be a great boon for marketers – if used in the right way and at the right time in the targeting cycle. That is according to Digital-Labs founder Eamon Tuhami. "Programmatic buying allows for a huge amount of efficiencies," Tuhami told Beet.TV’s recent London Video Ad Strategy Summit. "But there are dangers in saying to someone, 'You can [...]

AOL announced 15 new shows for AOL On channels at the AOL NewFront 2013. Gabriel Lewis, head of AOL Studios, says they "wanted to focus on short-form, docu-style series that really were focused on a particular perspective or talent or point of view, that when you finished watching it, the world was a more interesting place. "We tried to create a [...]

In conjunction with its Feed the Beat program, Taco Bell is producing a fan-made rockumentary from this year's South by Southwest music festival, focusing on bands Passion Pit and Wildcat! Wildcat! Beet.TV spoke with Amy Kavanaugh, vice president of public affairs and engagement at Taco Bell, about this novel way of reaching consumers. "What we know about our consumers is that [...]

The growth of consumer-TV program interaction via platforms like Twitter reenforces consumers' demand for "two-way communication," and advertisers are finally starting to embrace it, says Bob Lord, global CEO of Razorfish, a digital marketing industry. Content and technology are coming together at the 2013 NewFronts in interesting ways, says Lord. "You're starting to see a lot of user-generated content come into play [...]

The New York Times, long a pioneer in producing feature video for the Web, is readying a significant expansion of its video news programming, says Times veteran editor Rick Berke, who has the new title of  senior editor and director of video content development. In this interview with Beet.TV, the former assistant managing editor says that video will become "as central" [...]

Kiip, a mobile rewards app, allows brands to connect with consumers by surprising them with tangible rewards for things they do already in the virtual space, like playing a game, logging a run or completing a to-do list. Beet.TV spoke with Kiip Founder and CEO Brian Wong in this video interview at the Digitas NewFront 2013 in New York. "In indicating these [...]

Online video advertising is taking off – because most of the ads are just plain ol' TV commercials. Ruth Cartwright, the broadcast director at GroupM's Maxus agency, told Beet.TV at the recent London Video Ad Strategy Summit her outfit is spending six to 10 percent of clients' budgets on online video ads. "Ninety percent of the clients in the UK are using their TV [...]

Data-driven, automated video inventory buying (AKA programmatic buying) is "the future for video advertising," according to one advertising executive working in the space. "With online video combined with traditional TV, we have much more precise targeting possibilities," Rosa Markarian, the EMEA region product development director of GroupM's Xaxis audience profiling unit, told Beet.TV during the recent London Video Ad Strategy Summit. "What [...]

Many advertising execs are advocating the amalgamation of video ad buying across TV and online. But, at Beet.TV's recent London Video Ad Strategy Summit, the online investment head of GroupM's MediaCom agency, warned a single piece of creative must be judged very differently across the two formats. "There's a tendency to want to revert everything back to one level," Damien Hodge observed. "We're [...]

News consumption is inexorably moving to mobile devices and New York-based start-up "NowThisNews" is making important strides in creating a mobile-first video news platform says veteran publisher Eric Hippeau,  managing director of  VC firm Lerer Ventures, an early investor in NowThis News.  Today, Lerer and other investors announced they would provide $4.8 million in new funding. We spoke with him last [...]

Programmatic ad-buying technologies, which are all the rage, can be a revelation for advertisers – but their use must go hand-in-hand with conventional advertising practices, according to one marketing advisor. "You may have the best targeting or programmatic technology, but if you're not very good at engaging with your clients from a planning point of view, if your people skills are weak, then [...]

Honesty, transparency and authenticity are the new trends in advertising, says Lincoln Bjorkman, chief creative officer of Digitas North America, during an interview with Beet.TV at the Digitas NewFront 2013 in New York. "We're finding for all brands, yes, you can navigate legal; you can navigate budgets; you can navigate all the different things in your organization out in the world; and you can do something [...]

LONDON – Programmatic buying is growing quickly in the United Kingdom and beginning to take hold not only in display but in online video as well, says Nicholas Bidon, UK Managing Director Xaxis. About 12 percent of ad spend in the UK in 2012 came from programmatic buying and this sector of the market is on track to double year over year, [...]