The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for excellence in broadcast and digital journalism, is inviting a broad range of digital/Web video news journalists to submit for this year's awards, says Abi Wright, Director of the program in this interview with Beet.TV The duPont Awards, founded in 1935, are administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, which also runs the [...]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA  -- Google's reboot of its Google TV over-the-top product aims to bring changes to the service that will help it win traction with consumers. The product has stumbled from the gate, dating back to its 2010 release, but the Web giant is gearing up to roll out a new iteration with new manufacturing partners this year. We caught [...]

WASHINGTON  -- Politico, the fast-growing Web site for U.S. politics,  has been expanding its video programming with live Webcasts, reports from the campaign trail and recorded shows done in the newsroom. Yesterday, we were in Politico's newsroom for a chat with executive editor Jim VandeHei who is encouraging many staffers to appear on video.  He says "authenticity" is essential --  no [...]

The biggest challenge in online video advertising is proving the "effectiveness of the buy" to the brand marketer, says Anthony Risicato, General Manager of VideoHub, a unit of Tremor Video, in this interview with Beet.TV VideoHub hopes to change that with its recently announced partnership with Nielsen to incorporate GRPs into online video, a landmark deal for the online video business [...]

WASHINGTON - Rob Malda, aka CmdrTaco, co-founder and former editor-in-chief of Slashdot has joined the The Washington Post Company's WaPo Labs as Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large. We spoke with him earlier today in the Post's newsroom about the the changing nature of journalism, the power of video and his reasons for joining the company. Malda's appointment was announced on Monday.  Here's his [...]

As the online video business continues to grow, video vendors are racing to introduce new products, eager for a piece of the $3.1 billion ad spending pie. Companies from online media company Local Corporation, to ad serving platform Undertone, to ad network YuMe, to ad technology firm Adap.tv have all introduced new features in recent weeks and months. For more details [...]

LONDON --  As the cost of bandwidth decreases, video is becoming the "mainstay" of the BBC's global news offering via its digital platforms, says Peter Horrocks, Director of the BBC World Service in this interview with Beet.TV Video rich devices and Apps from the BBC, notably the iPlayer, are boosting video consumption. In  late February, the BBC expanded its digital offering with [...]

Mobile and social music app Songza is gaining traction on Facebook and via mobile phones and now counts more than 500,000 users since its launch in September 2011. We caught up with Songza's CEO Elias Roman recently and he talked to Beet.TV about how the digital music service works. "Songza is a music service for people who love discovering music but [...]

TVGuide.com has bought the nascent digital video programming guide Fav.tv, reports Janko Roettgers at GigaOm.  TVGuide.com has been been making considerable efforts around organizing programming around social media with its Watchlist.  The acquisition of Fav.tv will presumably accelerate these efforts. In August, we interviewed Christy Tanner, EVP General Manager of TVGuide.com about the Watchlist and the expanding scope of the site.  We [...]

Original, made-for-the-Web video is gaining traction with brand advertisers, says Paul Kontonis, VP, Group Director, Brand Content, the Third Act, Digitas, in this inteview with Beet.TV He explains progress in the emerging medium as well as challenges to advertisers who seek to embrace it. Kontonis and his team at Digitas, have established a marketplace for brands and content creators to meet at [...]

MSNBC.com's Xbox LIVE app is getting considerable traction as consumers are using the gaming console to watch video news on their television screens, says Stokes Young, Executive Producer of MSNBC.com in this interview with Beet.TV MSNBC.com, a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft, is the only major news organization on Xbox. (YouTube, Dailymotion, ESPN and TMZ are also on the [...]

SUNNYVALE, CA -- Yahoo is wedding social TV and interactive TV with its companion TV app IntoNow  says Cameron Johnson, Director of Product Management, IntoNow, in this interview with Beet.TV at the company's headquarters. Yahoo acquired IntoNow in April 2011 and is weaving Yahoo content into the Shazam-like app that recognizes audio cues from TV shows to identify which program a [...]

Global video management software firm KIT Digital has created a "social" TV electronic program guide, says KIT's Alan Wolk, Global Lead Analyst in this video interview.  KIT Digital has built its own white label social electronic program guide that it will market to network operators and service providers, Wolk said. So far, social TV apps have been limited in scope because many [...]

SUNNYVALE, CA -- Ranked by far as the biggest news site, Yahoo lacks a distinct voice and identity, but that is changing says Jai Singh, Editor-in-Chief of the Yahoo Media Network in this interview with Beet.TV Singh points to changes including the hiring of "brand" journalists including Virginia Heffernan from The New York Times, hiring a White House correspondent reorganizing the [...]

More than half of U.S. smartphone users turned to their phone to perform retail-related activities while in a store, comScore said in its newly released mobile forecast for 2012. That could be taking a picture of a product, comparing prices or scanning bar codes for coupons. For details on how brands and retailers are incorporating this behavior into their mobile marketing, [...]

SUNNYVALE, CA -- With more than one million monthly users, Yahoo is aiming to expand the reach of its connected TVs this year and is planning several new feature rollouts in the coming months. That includes tablet features that will let viewers watching videos on their mobile devices  "flip" them up to connected TVs for viewing there, said Russ Schafer, senior [...]

Today at the IAB leadership conference in Miami, Adobe announced its new, comprehensive video publishing platform.  It is called project "Primetime." With last year's acquisition of online video ad services company Auditude, Adobe aims to provide a range of video solutions including content management, analytics and advertising services. In November, we spoke with Ashley Still, Director of Video for Adobe about the [...]

While there has been dramatic growth in online video advertising, mostly in the form of in-stream ads, there is a big opportunity for original, sponsored video programming.  Seeking to connect advertisers, producers and the  big portals with the emerging medium, the big digital ad agency Digitas is organizing a two-week series of day-long programs in New York. Digitas, which has had its [...]

Although short, edited reports are the mainstain of video journalism on the Web, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other news organizations are commiting increased efforts around longer form, documentary-style reporting. For the Journal, a significant recent effort was the paper's feature about the European financial crisis.  The 23-minute video was shown on the WSJ in its entirety [...]

Tonight (2/23), Yahoo! will host a free one-hour comedy special with Bill Maher as part of extensive slate of comedy programming, says Yahoo! video chief Erin McPherson in this interview with Beet.TV Maher's performance will be streamed live from the San Jose Performing Arts Center.    We spoke with McPherson at the reception for the International Academy of Web Television awards  at [...]