Here on the streets of Manhattan last week, we spoke with Kara Swisher, Co-Executive Editor of All Things Digital,  about her Loeb award and her definition of blogging (it's the same as reporting, she says). Asking how she gets her scoops, and there have been several lately, notably the Zynga IPO, she replied with "tasers and idle threats."  Seriously speaking, she said [...]

In the last six months, the number of adults with e-readers has doubled to 12% of the population, but only 8% own a tablet and tablet growth is slowing, according to the latest research from Pew. That's about the same penetration as earlier in the year. The research giant also found that e-readers are most popular with Hispanic adults, adults under [...]

I am very pleased to report that AOL Video is the exclusive sponsor of Beet.TV for the months of July and September. We are hosting display and pre-roll ads, and will produce three, news-making Webcasts, live from the AOL studios in New York and Los Angeles.  Stay tuned for details on this series featuring our industry’s leaders. AOL is an important partner [...]

While most of the online video ecosystem is fine, "there is a dark side," where some companies artificially increase view rates, while others place inventory in unwanted locations, says Toby Gabriner, President of Adap.tv.  Gabriner says that these problems parallel some of the earlier issues with display advertising. He expects it will be worked out. A recent article by Mike Shields in [...]

Subscribes of a limited number of cable services were able to access ESPN’s live streaming of the Wimbledon matches on their mobile devices for the first time. The programming was ad free, but that will change as ESPN will add in-stream advertising to its digital delivery later this year, says Tim Connolly, VP of Digital Delivery for Disney/ESPN, in this interview [...]

Electus, the Los Angeles-based television production studio founded by former NBC executive Ben Silverman, is expanding its digital and television offerings, says Drew Buckley, COO in this interveiw with Beet.TV. We spoke with him last month at the OMMA Video conference where he spoke about the work of Electus in producing a big Web original series for Denny's. Electus is producer of [...]

All Things Digital, the fast-growing events and publishing unit of Dow Jones, headed by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, plans to expand its reviews section, says Swisher in this video interview with Beet.TV We caught up with her yesterday in New York for this interview.  She says she hopes to hire "Little Walt Mossbergs everywhere," referring to Mossberg who is one [...]

Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of All Things Digital, says that while there is "froth" around IPO activity, including the anticipated IPO filing of social game maker Zynga, the fundamentals around these companies are more substantial than during the tech boom of the late nineties. Of the buzz around the Zynga offering, she says much of the chatter has come from the [...]

LONDON (via Skype Video)  Skype has released an Android App for two-way video calling and SMS messaging.  The App is available on selected handsets. This morning, we inteviewed Skype's Mark Douglas in London via Skype Video about the new offering. Andy Plesser

The free ESPN App for live sports on the iPad was released in April. When combined with the downloads on the Android platform, the ESPN App has had in excess of 2 million downloads, says Tim Connolly, VP of Digital at Disney/ESPN in this interview with Beet.TV. The App has been widely used this week for ESPN's coverage of Wimbledon and [...]

Specific Media, one of the biggest online advertising networks, has purchased MySpace from News Corp. for $35 million today. We spoke with CEO Tim Vanderhook recently about growth of the Irvine-based company, which is now one of the industry's largest video ad networks with its $55 million acquisition of BBE.  Andy Plesser

Animoto, a company which allows users to create custom videos from a sort of "clipboard" in the sky, has raised $25 million in venture funding. The new round is for mobile expansion, to allow users to create moble video on the run, reports Ryan Lawler at NewTeeVee. At the TechCrunch 50 in San Francisco in 2008, we interviewed CEO Brad Jefferson.  We [...]

Social marketing platform provider Roost recently rolled out a free tool for small businesses to track how they’re faring locally with their Facebook marketing efforts, which often include videos targeted to local customers. The new service offers reports on how effectively, or not, small businesses are reaching the constituents in their zip code. Local Response is another such social media startup, and this week's [...]

As more video is being produced and consumed on the Web, the marketplace for file footage is becoming a growing profit center for Hollywood studios, news organizations and sports leagues. Denver-based Thought Equity has some 400 media clients, including most of the Hollywood studios, to news organizations, including the BBC and the New York Times. The company calls itself the "world's deepest [...]

ABC News is producing a multimedia offering of text and video reporting in the form of a video book, or "vook," for the Apple iOS devices, Android and Nook Color.  ABC is working with the New York-based company Vook to create the publications around major news events including the capture of Osama Bin Laden and England's Royal Wedding. NBC News recently introduced [...]

While online video advertising spending will increase by nearly 40 percent this year, the big opportunity for marketers is to create "useful" content, says Geoff Ramsey, CEO and co-founder of eMarketer. In this interview with Beet.TV, he states: "Marketers need to be in the content business." We spoke with him about the opportunities and challenges around online video content creation in our [...]

LongTail Video, the New York-based provider of online video services, widely known as the provider of the open source JW Player, is serving a half billion ads into the streams of its publishing customers, says Dave Otten CEO in this interview with Beet.TV. In addition to building the ad network, which he says has grown 400 percent over the past 12 [...]

SAN FRANCISCO (Via Skype Video) -- Yidio, the online video guide which claims 10 million users, is launching today a personalized Twitter and Facebook feed for its users called Yidio Alerts. Yesterday, we interviewed CEO Brandon Eatros about the new product and developments at the company. He says that the angel-backed company is profitable.   Yidio derives revenue by sending its visitors to [...]

FremantleMedia, the big Los Angeles-based television production company, producer of the hit global franchise,"Idols," is expanding its original Web offering with the "World's Greatest Mom," starring Daphne Brodgon, a stand-up comic and creator of the "Cool Mom" video blog.   We spoke with Brodgon and Fremantle's Richard Vargas, SVP of development and production, about the new show at the Digitas NewFront11 conference [...]

Online video advertising is on pace to grow a whopping 52% in ad dollars this year to surpass $2 billion in ad spend, eMarketer recently reported. On the heels of that news, Miles Beckett, CEO of EQAL and the creator of LonelyGirl15, talked to the New Media Minute about best practices in working with brands in online video to drive marketing ROI, [...]