LOS ANGELES -- Jane Espenson, veteran television writer of "Buffy" and "Battleship Galactica," has a new online video series about gay marriage called "Husbands." The series, hosted on Blip.tv,  is co-created by Brad "Cheeks" Bell. We caught up with Espensen and Bell last month in Hollywood at the BigScreen LittleScreen Meetup. Here's a story about the new show and its creators by [...]

LOS ANGELES -- Actress and producer Tanya Ihnen, star and executive producer of "Vampire Zombie Werewolf," has teamed up with her partner Robb Padgett to launch a sitcom about married couples facing the prospect of parenting called "Life's Little Ultimatum." We caught up with Ihnen and Padgett last month at the BigScreens LittleScreens Meetup at the LA offices of Clicker. Andy Plesser  

LOS ANGELES -- The successful Web show Leap Year, which just wrapped the ten-episode series that ran on Hulu, logged nearly 3 million views for the show and is angling for a second season, the show's creator Yuri Baranovsky told Beet.tv during a recent interview. Baranovsky, the co-founder of digital production shop HLG Films that counts several hit Web shows in [...]

LOS ANGELES -- For women-centric online programmer Deca.tv, a wide-reaching syndication strategy across bloggers, as well owned sites, can help grow a show, said Beth Le Manach, VP of Programming at Deca, in a recent interview with Beet.TV. Le Manach explained that Deca works closely with its brand partners to distribute Deca shows to about 100 key bloggers, experts and influencers [...]

LOS ANGELES -- Producing sci-fi programming for the Web brings a host of challenges given smaller online budgets, but the key to make Web shows work often lies in setting the story "five minutes in the future," advised Web creator Taryn O'Neill during a recent interview with Beet.TV. That philosophy helps her to focus on the characters and the story [...]

LOS ANGELES -- Digital studio and advertising agency Indelible has been expanding its client roster to now include Sears, KMart, Sephora, Scoop NYC, Mac Cosmetics, Victoria's Secret and others, the company's co-founder Ross Glick told Beet.TV during an interview last week in Los Angeles. For those companies, Indelible creates branded entertainment and helps to distribute, amplify and optimize the campaigns using [...]

Metacafe, one of the first major video portals, has been focused primarily in creating specific entertainment and gaming channels. Today it announced the launch of channel for men 18-34 around original, live and aggregated content. Last year, when Metacafe launched its game channel, we spoke with CEO Erick Hachenberg about the evolution of company and its focus on entertainment verticals. We [...]

HOLLYWOOD  -- Creators should carefully outline a social media and Web optimization strategy to help grow their video audiences, said Max Benator and Margaret Laney with the talent management studio Collective Digital Studio. We spoke with them earlier this month at the BigScreen/LittleScreen meet up at the Clicker offices in Hollywood.  "We are in the hit business," Benator said, explaining that Collective [...]

LOS ANGELES -- The Collective started as a traditional talent management shop, but now also develops, produces and distributes content online reaching 300 million views a month, including the new show "Figgle Chat," said Dan Weinstein, manager of The Collective during an interview last week with Beet.TV in Los Angeles. Today's artists can have direct relationships with fans thanks to social [...]

"Audience and data is sexy" and is key to the success of branded content, says Stephanie Sarofian,  Managing Director of Brand Content and EVP at Digitas, in this interview with Beet.TV. Sarofian was a panelist in the Beet.TV Leadership Webcast on Branded Content presented with AOL Video.  You can watch the entire 90-minute session right here.  We spoke with her after [...]

The placement, context and library surrounding online video is critical to success in growing video views, said AOL Video's head Ran Harnevo in an exclusive interview with the New Media Minute. He also shared tips on growing ad revenue through content quality, unique formats and a deep understanding of data. For more details, check out the episode. Daisy Whitney Editor's Note:  Daisy's New [...]

Mobile video usage is growing fast among consumers and big video sites like AOL Video are implementing mobile solutions as a result, AOL Video's SVP Ran Harnevo tells the New Media Minute. In part two of this interview, he discusses how video sites can migrate their videos to mobile platforms, drawing on his experience at AOL Video and Huffington Post.

LOS ANGELES -- Social TV is growing quickly for consumers, brands and media companies and with good reason, said Lori Schwartz, Chief Technology Catalyst for McCann Worldgroup, North America in this interview with Beet.TV. Schwartz is the co-governor of the interactive media peer group of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She has long been a proponent of interactive TV. One [...]

LOS ANGELES -- Web video producers should launch a show first on their own web site, then use tools to distribute and build up the program on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, said Steve Woolf, VP of content at Blip.tv, during a recent interview with Beet.TV. A windowing strategy across different Web sites could also be a smart move, but above all, [...]

LOS ANGELES - Celebrities from Kevin Pollak to will.i.am have driven audiences for their newer projects by actively engaging with social media to boost ratings and viewership, said new media expert Amber J. Lawson who is the chairman of the interactive media peer group membership committee at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. "The gateholders are no longer there. You [...]

Watch live streaming video from beet_tv at livestream.com       Live from the AOL Studio in New York today, September 27 at 2:00 p.m. EDT, tune-in to the Beet.TV Leadership event, a ninety-minute Webcast with top Web personalities, senior media and advertising agency executives for an exploration of the strategies around branded entertainment for the Web. Topics discussed will include what goes into producing [...]

AOL Video has found a growing business around original Web programming, meaning shows which are sponsored by a specific brand, says Karen Cahn, VP for Branded Partnerships. As an example, she says "The Savings Experiment," which is sponsored by Bank of America, has garnered some 12 million views. Cahn, who joined AOL earlier this year from YouTube where she ran Branded Entertainment, [...]

LOS ANGELES -- First-run ad-supported windows have the greatest upside when it comes to Web video advertising, said Chris Williams, co-head of Disney Online Originals during a recent Beet.TV interview. "I am a big believer in that model to drive revenue into this medium," said Williams, who was a panelist at the Beet.TV Leadership Webcast presented by AOL Video and [...]

LOS ANGELES - Brandon Laatsch and Freddie Wong are collaborating on some of the most successful viral video hits, including Gamer Commute, which is nearing 9 million views in just over two weeks. We sat down with Laatsch last week in the AOL Studio in Beverly Hills to talk about the creative process around his work with Wong.   You can find our [...]

LOS ANGELES -- Video is becoming part of the Huffington Post's "DNA" with a combination of original video and related videos drawn from the 5Min network, the giant AOL-owned syndicator, says Gabe Lewis, Head of Original Video at AOL in this interview with Beet.TV. Lewis speaks about the expansion of video content ranging from news to original entertainment programming to branded [...]