AOL's network of localized news web sites, called Patch, had record traffic during Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath says John Brod, President and co-founder of Patch. Also in this interview, he explains how the network will become more interactive as part of an initiative begun with a small number of sites on Long Island. We spoke with him earlier this week [...]

NDN, the Atlanta-based video news and sports syndicator, is in comsScore's top-ten U.S. video rankings.  With 423 million video views in September, it had nearly twice as many video views as Facebook and more than both the Viacom and the Microsoft sites. In the ranking of minutes spent per video, comScore finds that NDN ranks second behind YouTube. The company works for [...]

As growing numbers of television viewers are turning to their second screen devices (i.e. laptops, smartphones and tablets) while watching their favorite TV programs, more and more content designed with the second screen in mind is coming to fruition.  We spoke with Greg Ash, writer, director and star of Super Chill, a multi-screen web series and finalist in the recent [...]

The live streaming of multiple video feeds across assorted devices including Xbox, tablets and mobile phones will be part of the new television landscape of election night, says Stokes Young, Executive Producer of Multimedia and Video at NBCNews.com in this interview with Beet.TV This will be the first election to have "second screen" implementation, meaning programming created for both the television [...]

Given the smaller size of the iPad Mini, Apple's latest entrant could be a play to drive meaningful tablet ad revenue, says Ashley Swartz in this commentary on new devices from Apple and Microsoft. Apple needs to build a new revenue stream from its mobile platform to effectively compete with Amazon and others in the mobile ad arena, Swartz says. For [...]

Using Patch, its network of local digital publications,  AOL organized some 500 employees to purchase and deliver needed supplies to towns in New Jersey and New York impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Jon Brod, CEO and co-founder of Patch explains how editors of impacted localities sent lists of needed supplies to AOL management which were they purchased by the company, by [...]

In its third quarter earnings release today, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said that video at AOL will account for $100 million in revenue, up from just $10 million two years ago. In April, at the Digital New Fronts, we spoke with Armstrong  about the growth of video via acquisitions and on the growing opportunities around original video and syndication.   We have [...]

With social media expected to create a great deal of "noise" and make for "a confusing time for alot of people" around the election returns, the Associated Press is telling its staffers not to share the "race calls" by other news organizations, says Eric Carvin, Social Media Editor in this interview with Beet.TV In this interview, Carvin also speaks  about best [...]

Shazam, the app for smart phones and tablets which "listens" to television shows and immediately surfaces up related information, has been used by major brands in 150 television campaigns, says David Jones, EVP for marketing, in this interview with Beet.TV Shazam, which indexes some 150 live television channels in the United States, listens to advertisements and can offer a number of [...]

The Huffington Post has just launched an app for its HuffPost Live video program.  While the app is good but not remarkable, its integration with Apple TV could make it a "game changer," writes Jeff John Roberts in this story on GigaOM. When the streaming service launched in August, we spoke with Roy Sekoff, President of HuffPost Live.  We have republished [...]

In a conference call on Q3 earnings, Brightcove, the big Boston-based video services company, said that both Viacom and Discovery International have become new customers. Discovery International will be using the company's App Cloud services. Viacom is adopting the Brightcove cloud services for digital content delivery across platforms and consumer devices and will be using Brightcove player technology across multiple properties for [...]

LongTail video, the New York-based provider of online video services, has raised a $5 million venture round, reports Peter Kafka on AllThingsD. The company provides various services including a popular open source player.  It has also expanded its syndication business, which we reportered last year when we interviewed Dan Otten, CEO.  We have republished that interview today.  

NEW YORK -- Americans are watching nearly 35 hours of video per week across various screens, and that's why Nielsen and others are trying to find the best approaches to measuring cross-platform consumption, says Andrew Feigenson, Senior VP Ad Platforms and Networks at Nielsen. Beet.TV contributor Ashley Swartz spoke to Feigenson at the Beet.TV Leadership Summit on Digital Video Advertising in an RTB World about measurement strategies, media [...]

With intense interest in the path of Hurricane Sandy, the Weather Channel recorded some 40 million video views yesterday, Sunday (10.28), making it the busiest video day ever, a spokeswoman told Beet.TV today.  She expects today's numbers to be even higher. The company's livestream of its programming, powered by YouTube, has had over a million streams since Thursday. Mobile and tablet consumption [...]

Bravo is turning up the volume around the launch of its upcoming reality TV series Start-ups: Silicon Valley with an interactive  platform that ranks the influence of paricipants, and puts their ranking and faces on six electronic billboards on Highway 101, just south of San Francisco. Influencers are ranked according to social score which combines the person's standing on Facebook, Instagram [...]

As more consumers use a "second screen" video device (tablet/mobile/notebook) to supplement their television viewing, content creators will have an opportunity to make content specifically for a "second screen," says Eric Anderson, head of content and product solutions for Samsung North America, in this interview. in a significant commitment to fostering this new area of creativity, Samsung sponsored a competition [...]

CHICAGO -- The Weather Channel is expanding its marketing reach further into multiscreens via an initiative to create profiles of consumers across screens, says Curt Hecht, Chief Revenue Officer for The Weather Channel Companies.  Beet.TV contributor Ashley Swartz spoke to Hecht at the Beet.TV Advertising Leadership Summit in Starcom's Chicago offices about multiscreen strategies, programmatic buying, and Weather Channel's acqusitions over the last year.  "It's [...]

NEW YORK -- IDG TechNetwork recently launched a data management platform to tap into the audience information it has access to as an online ad network for technology partners, says Sean Buckley, Group Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at IDG TechNetwork. Beet.TV contributor Ashley Swartz spoke to Buckley at the Beet.TV Leadership Summit on Digital Video Advertising in an RTB World about first-party data, data [...]

The World Series is Shazam-enabled, allowing television viewers in the United States to use their mobile and tablet devices to synch up to their televisions for up-to-the minute news, social buzz, stats and other information about the game, says David Jones, EVP for Marketing for the London-based company. Shazam announced its deal with Major League Baseball earlier this month.  Shazam had [...]

By making its London and Paris runway shows "shoppable" in a special streaming video preview for its 15 million Facebook fans, London' fashion house Burberry is transforming the entire "value chain" fashion retailing, says Erich Joachimsthaler, CEO of Vivaldi Partners Group, a global brand consulting firm, in this interview with Beet.TV He explains how the preview, streamed as a rehearsal one hour before the official runway [...]