There's been a lot of speculation in the blogosphere lately about whether Kyte, Qik,or Flixwagon will finish first in the cell phone video streaming trifecta. But according to Kyte CEO Daniel Graf, Kyte's broader focus means it's not really in the race with Qik and Flixwagon.  Kyte is focused on a different market, partnering with entertainment companies MTV Europe and [...]

JibJab today debuted its McCain/Obama comedy video. Just got a huge debut on the Today Show.  JibJab has created a business around comedy video and has gotten some serious funding from Polaris Ventures. Last month in Hollywood, I interviewed founder and CEO Gregg Spiridellis.  I've reposted the interview today tied the campaign video debut. -- Andy Plesser Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Microsoft Silverlight, the new rich media Web plug-in, "could become the platform of choice" for Netflix according to a report by Ryan Lawler tonight on Contentinople. Ryan attributes the story to a Netflix executive. Seems that big issue is that Netflix only streams to PC's.  It doesn't stream to Macs as there is not proper digital rights management software available.  Silverlight, which [...]

Karin Gilford, who heads entertainment for Yahoo! is leaving for Comcast, TechCrunch reported yesterday.  This evening, paidContent's Staci Kramer reports that Gilford's duties will be assumed by James Pitaro, General Manager of Yahoo! Sports. In May, I visited Karin in her Santa Monica offices for a rundown on the success of Yahoo! entertainment, which has the largest audience for commercialized online [...]

MSNBC correspondent Courtney Hazlett, who has been reporting on the celebrity gossip scene in a series called "Scoop," has just gotten her own branded destination with customized video player.  The site is up and looks pretty good.  This would be the second microsite over at msnsbc.com -- the first was launched for Keith Olbermann. Because msnbc.com is the first and only [...]

When I first blogged about film distribution site Jaman, I noted that the company had carved out a niche for itself in a crowded market by focusing on independent and international films. Jaman's deal with Paramount means the site will host mainstream content--and that it will now have to compete heavyweights like Apple, Wal-Mart, Netflix, and Amazon. As Chris Albrecht points [...]

Ken Li over at Reuters has what appears to be the first report out today about the new personal finance channel from AOL called  WalletPop.  The launch comes as the portals are gearing up personal finance sites which have become increasingly popular. Yahoo! Finance is the industry leader in traffic, according to a recent report by comScore.  But AOL is a [...]

Congrats to Om Malik and the GigaOM crew on their new syndication deal with Business Week, which Om announced today.  Great way to build attention and audience and to build his brand.  Other bloggers have been doing well with syndicated deals, notably both TechCrunch and paidContent with the washingtonpost.com Above is Om with TechCrunch's Michael Arrington.All the best Om, for continued [...]

Google announced today that it has made its free Webmaster Tools available to qualifying hosting companies worldwide. International webmasters now have the means to make their sites--and web videos--more "Googlable." Google Webmaster tools can generate video site maps that make a site's videos and metadata searchable in the Google Index. R.J. Pittman described how video site maps work in his [...]

comScore just came out with the stats for May and Americans watched 12 billion videos during the month, up 45 percent from last May.  Fox Interactive, owner of MySpaceTV ranks number two with a market share of 6.4 percent, up 1.3 versus April. Last month I visited MySpaceTV in Los Angeles to interview Jason Kirk.  Jason explains the strategy around video [...]

Veoh founder Dmitry Shapiro told Andy at OnHollywood last month about plans to monetize the site with behaviorally targeted ad videos. Today, the program is entering beta, Stephen Shankland at CNET reports. Veoh will track users' video-viewing habits and then places them into one of nine groups, such as sci fi or pop culture. So even when users watch something unrelated to [...]

While it was Kara Swisher who first published the news about the sale of paidContent to the Guardian early on Friday morning, super blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick added confirming comments by uncovering a Twitter post and reply between two senior Guardian editors.  Marshall took the "Tweets" as a confirmation of the deal. For more journalists, Twitter has become a sort [...]

So, one of the big drawbacks for corporate e-mail users with the iPhone was the lack of integration with with Microsoft Exchange.  This has all changed with yesterday's introduction of the iPhone 3G, the software for the new device and an upgrade for the earlier version. Tom Merritt at CNET.com demonstrates how easy this is. Now, we might really have to consider [...]

Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of All things D, had a blockbuster scoop yesterday on the sale of paidContent to the Guardian News & Media Group. Later in the day, she reported that TechCrunch and AOL have been in on and off again talks about an acquisition. The price tag she attributes to multiple sources to a TechCrunch sale is $20-30 million.  She [...]

What do a high-school documentary, an Elvis Costello record, and a photo shoot of phone sex operators have in common? They were all recently recommended on Very Short List, a free, daily e-mail that recommends under-hyped media gems to its 110,000 subscribers. Very Short List helped boost YouTube views of a Zurich Chamber Orchestra commercial from 1,200 to 36,000 overnight, according [...]

Consumers want access to digital content anytime, anywhere, but it's going to take a unified commitment from Hollywood and the consumer electronics industry to make that happen. To move this ambitious agenda along, David Wertheimer, director of the University of Southern California's Entertainment and Technology Center, established the Anytime, Anywhere Content Lab to bring innovators together. The Lab showcase the latest [...]

Wow, exciting news for our good friend Rafat Ali who has reportedly agreed to sell paidContent to Britain's Guardian Media Group for $30 million. The Guardian's Jemima Kiss just published the news of the acquisition and here is her "thought piece."  However, terms have not been disclosed and the company declined to provide them to Beet.TV.  Rafat posts the news himself, [...]

No longer a cheap solution or a recycling bin for television advertising, Web video advertising is now a big budget affair, declares Michael Jacobs, the creative director of the New York office of MRM Worldwide, the big digital unit of Interpublic.  Consumers expect quality video on the web, and digital ad agencies like MRM are delivering it with high-production, big-budget campaigns. Mockumentarian [...]

Vuze, the P2P client software used to watch online videos, formerly known as Azureus, received a mostly positive review by Seth Rosenblatt on CNET Download.com today. We've also published Seth's video review and demo of Vuse (above). In June, Vuze introduced the new user interface.  It has improved its search functionality and added social networking, among other changes. For an in-depth [...]

Mochila, an online marketplace for syndicated news and feature content, has increased distribution of its media by 35 times since late last year, according to a spokesperson for the company. Mochila currently offers rights-managed content from 360 top content brands to its 3,800 members and is adding half a million new content assets each month. The Associated Press, Reuters, Getty [...]