A recent study from the Yankee Group found that one in eight consumers plan to cut back or ditch entirely their pay TV service this year and live off the Internet only. This week's New Media Minute looks into why consumers are going cable-free and what challenges this choice will present. eMarketer also weighs in with its latest research on connecting [...]

"Video is not boring," it is dynamic and useful as social medium, says seventeen year-old Andrey Ternovskiy, the creator of the international phenomenon Chatroulette. The site allows strangers to randomly meet others via Web-cam in real time.  It is one of the most successful uses of video in social media.  I caught up with Andrey earlier today at the TechCrunch Discrupt [...]

The problem with the media business is not the result of technology, it's about quality of content, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press briefing today at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. In response to a question from this reporter, the Mayor, aka media mogul, says that over the past ten years the quality of content is not what it was and [...]

Metacafe, one of the earliest UGC video sites, has expanded its operations to premium content with the launch of a movie channel.   Earlier this month at Streaming Media East, I interviewed Jack Rotherham about the evolution of the Palo Alto-based company.Andy Plesser, Executive Producer

Not many gadgets were on display at Streaming Media East earlier this month, but this was my favorite:  a portable, battery-powered video encoder, which we understand to be the world's first. The device, which can be attached to a camera, creates a H.264 file which is streamed to a CDN via Wifi or to a cellular network. This sort of functionality for [...]

Facebook is inevitably moving towards becoming a major e-commerce destination, says Leena Rao, a reporter with TechCrunch. While many marketers are using Facebook, Zynga, and other social sites as branding platforms -- and others or dispensing virtual payments -- Facebook will become a a place where goods and services are bought and sold.   Leena doesn't give a time frame, but [...]

MG Siegler, a reporter for TechCrunch who follows Facebook closely, says that sources tell him that Facebook's much anticipated location-based function has been put on hold for now, a result of the recent uproar over breaches of privacy protocol at the giant social site. I caught up with MG on Sunday afternoon in Manhattan at the downtown location of the TechCrunch [...]

Ooyala, the Mountain View-based online video services company founded by several ex-Googlers, is providing customers the ability to publish YouTube clips into the publishing system and on an Ooyala player. By using the Ooyala player, publishers can track metrics of how the clip performs on their sites.  There are limited opportunities to monetize the YouTube clips, which come without advertising.   [...]

LAS VEGAS - The tools for creating 3-D programming will soon become available to "mid-tail" video producers with the imminent introduction of a new camera from Panasonic. At the NAB conference in Las Vegas, we got a peak at the industry's first 3-D HD camcorder.   The Panasonic camera will sell for under $23,000.  We got this rundown and demo from [...]

Two tech blog powerhouses, TechCrunch and GigaOM, are readying ambitious original online video programming. While both have published some original clips, mostly with staffers using Flip cameras, they are readying sophisticated studio facilities and are using top-shelf video management services:  TechCrunch is using Brightcove, while GigaOM is using Ooyala.  Last week we spoke with TechCrunch's co-editor Erick Schonfeld about the upcoming [...]

LOS ANGELES -- Cable operator Cox announced that it is rolling out a new program guide for its customers that integrates linear channels, video-on-demand, and digital video recorder viewing, the company said during an interview at the recent Cable Show.  The new guide allows for searching through TV content and will also show viewers recommended and related programming, explained Lisa  Pickelsimer, executive [...]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Rachel Maddow's Wednesday night, news-making interview with Rand Paul--Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Kentucky--has gotten over 500,000 online video views in just twenty four hours, making it one of the most widely seen online news clips. Viewers have watched the clip on Maddow's page on MSNBC and through the [...]

LOS ANGELES -- While much of the industry's attention was on yesterday's announcement of Google TV, a small Georgia based company has been making considerable progress in bringing IPTV to the living room by integrating its service with existing cable gear. One year after launching its Web-to-TV technology, Clearleap is now delivering content and services to more than 10 million video [...]

Measurement company Rentrak inked a deal earlier this week with the Gannett Broadcasting Station Group to provide local market viewing information, along with data on ad retention and ad engagement, to the station group. Gannett's 23 stations reach 21 million homes.The Gannett deal is one of the first for Rentrak's new local TV station measurement product. TV stations are facing [...]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Interactive video technology provider Coincident TV is landing both early buzz and deals:  the platform provider just inked a deal with Fox's hit show "Glee" to power its interactive video player. Coincident TV was also selected as a hot new technology to watch during a keynote presentation at ad:tech San Francisco led by eMarketer's CEO Geoff Ramsey. We [...]

LONDON -- The Guardian Newspaper, which is organizing massive amounts of government and other data into its API, is making the API available to the public on a commercial basis, the paper announced today. Here's an overview of today's news by paidContent's UK editor Rob Andrews. In March at the paper's headquarters in London, I spoke with Stephen Dunn, head of [...]

Reporting a narrowing loss and a substantial gain in revenue, up 140 percent to $33.7 million, shares of Blinkx, the video search portal, rose 52 percent on the London Stock Exchange today (5/19), making it one of the market's biggest gainers for the day. Recently we spoke with founder and CEO Suranga Chandratillake in our New York offices.  We covered [...]

Kyte, the San Francisco-based online video services provider, announced today an Android application framework and SDK allowing publishers to easily create custom apps for the Android. Last week at Streaming Media East, I spoke with Kyte CEO Daniel Graf about the emerging popularity of the Android and what the new framework will provide publishers. Andy Plesser, Executive Producer

LOS ANGELES -- thePlatform, the Seattle-based online video services provider,  aunched today what it calls the first commercially-available, ad-supported video player development kit (PDK) with HTML5 support from a major online video publisher. Last week at the the Cable Show, we caught up with Marty Roberts, VP with an update on the company's publishing platform. Earlier this year, the company introduced [...]

Blip.tv, the New York-based online video services site, has raised $10.1 million in new venture funding, the company announced this morning. The second venture round comes from existing investor Bain and a new one in Caanan Partners.  Here's a story on the funding by David Kaplan at paidContent.Last year, I caught up with Blip.tv co-founders Mike Hudack and Dina Kaplan for [...]