Reel Pop

What are daily headlines without a little bit of context?

Below, a timeline of major online video deals and news events from May 2005 until August 2006. I'm sure I missed a few here and there, so leave your suggestions in the comments.

And to the left, a graphic depicting a few of those events and where they occured on YouTube's page views graph. (FYI, I guesstimated the August 2006 traffic number b/c full data wasn't available from comScore at the time.)

May, 2005

• Yahoo Video launches. Relaunched in 2006 as a video-sharing site a la YouTube. 
• iTunes offers Video.
  
• ABC considering online video site. The site would go online in May 2006 with three shows available 24 hours after broadcast.
   
• Scripps announces their broadband strategy
• Nielson to add VOD to TV Ratings

June, 2005

• AOL Video Search debuts
• Slingbox debuts. The Slingbox allows you to watch your home TV on any Internet-enabled device. Sling Media made Red Herring's Top 100 companies in North America in 2006.
   

July 2005

• AOL's Live8 coverage gets 3 billion viewers. It would go on to win a new non-traditional platform Emmy the following year.
• AP announces plan for online video network. Everybody announcing plans, nobody doing anything yet. When this network debuts it will only work on PCs with Internet Explorer.
• Shuttle launch on AOL sets concurrent streams record. It was the first launch in two years.

August 2005

• Flash 8 Debuts. Flash has been roundly credited with spurring the video-sharing phenomenon.
• Online TV/video-sharing site Veoh gets pre-launch funding. Veoh becomes a major online video player in the following year.
• More people watching Hurricane Katrina on Web than TV. Mostly because of broadband at work.

September 2005

• Yahoo Hires Kevin Sites for online show. First of three online shows, the company has since backed away from original content.
• Bittorrent gets funding, starts discussing deals with studios.
• Google streams Chris Rock show. The previous February Yahoo streamed Fat Actress. In September 2004, AOL aired the WB pilot of Jack and Bobby.
• The BBC begins testing its online TV archives.

October 2005

• YouTube gets $5M in funding, traffic would double to almost 104M page views by January.
• Apple announces TV shows on iTunes, ABC and Disney Channel shows available for $1.99. One million videos sold in first 12 days. TV business model cracked, says Forrester. Time magazine cover story on Apple's Steve Jobs.
• Video-sharing community VidiLife gets funding from former MySpace CEO. VidiLife very skin-oriented.
• Yahoo hires Richard Bangs to do online show, which was just recently cancelled after one year.
• Video-sharing site Revver.com launches with funding, post-roll advertising strategy.
• NBC decides to stream NBC Nightly News in its entirety. NBC's VP of digital media, Mark Lukasiewicz, told me in March 2006 that the show streams about 250,000 times per month. 

November 2005

• Yahoo launches music video service.
• Comedy Central launches Motherload broadband channel.
• YouTube receives another $3.5M.
• CNN Pipeline starts private beta. An interesting service that shows four unique streams of content, but I haven't heard that it's been that well adopted.
• TNT Launches NBA Overtime broadband channel. NBA launches a free broadband video channel.
• NBC moves Trio to broadband.
• Brightcove, one of the big video providers, receives $16.2M.
• eMarketer says the online video marketplace is set to triple to $640 million by 2007 from $225 million.

December 2005

• iTunes adds NBC, SciFi, USA. Meanwhile, Disney says they've had 800k downloads on iTunes so far and agrees to add ABC's Commander in Chief.
• Grouper gets $1.75M in funding, will be bought by Sony the following August for $65M.
• NBC puts Meet the Press online.
• Video-sharing company PureVideo gets $5.6M. Company runs stupidvideos.com and grindtv.com.
• Yahoo says they'll create Wow House online show, which morphed into Hook Me Up, which now appears on Yahoo Tech.
• Reuters starts syndicating video to Web sites.

January 2006

• Google launches video store, partners with CBS to sell content. Despite its recent popularity bump, Google Video can't compete with YouTube.
• E! launches The Vine broadband channel.
• Scripps launches its first broadband channel
• ABC downloads on iTunes exceed 1.5M after just three months.
• Video content provider VideoEgg receives funding
• MySpace launches video sharing
• iTunes adds MTV content
• Heavy.com gets $10M funding
• Sling Media gets $46M funding

February 2006

• Disney says it will stream kids programming online
• CBS sells direct with Survivor on CBS.com
• NBC serves C&D to YouTube over Lazy Sunday video. NBC roundly criticized in the blogosphere because the video player on nbc.com doesn't work as well as YouTube.
• NBC premieres Conviction on iTunes
• iTunes reaches 15M video downloads
• NBC.com serves 9.1M streams of the Olympics

March 2006

• Associated Press launches video syndication network. Roundly criticized for only making videos work only with Internet Explorer.
• Yahoo backs away from TV-style content. Lloyd Braun apparently unable to bring TV ethos to Silicon Valley.
• MTV partners with YouTube. First major content deal for YouTube.
• Scrubbs gets onto iTunes. Pact marks first time a network and studio from different congloms have gotten together to make a series available for online purchase.
• First iTunes movie download. So it's a made-for-TV Disney movie, at least it's available weeks before the DVD release date.
• YouTube promotes film trailers. Second content promotion for YouTube features Deep Focus film "Scary Movie 4."
• Scripps launches 2nd broadband channel, this one about bathroom design.
• YouTube limits videos to 10 minutes or less to combat piracy. People just start breaking long clips into multiple episodes.

April 2006

• Two television schedule sites, MeeVee and Zap2it, launch.
• Studios start collapsing the DVD release/download window.
• Video-sharing and editing site EyeSpot launches.
• YouTube gets another $5M in funding.
• First non-traditional platform Emmys announced.
• Video-sharing site Revver.com gets another $8.7M in funding.
• Fox cuts revenue deal with affiliates.
• Discovery Channel launches two broadband channels.
• Video-sharing site Veoh gets another $12.5M funding.
• CNET announces CNET.tv
• NBC and affiliates form Broadband JV
• ABC launches online theatre.

May 2006

• Warner Brothers lets local TV stations put sitcoms on Web.
• Fox finally gets with iTunes.
• CBS debuts Innertube. Promotional site eventually recast as online streaming destination for CBS shows.
• ABC works out affiliate deal.
• MTV plans to simulcast awards show on TV and Web.
• SciFi launches Pulse broadband channel.
• National Lampoon launches broadband channel.
• Warner Brothers sells movies through Bittorrent.
• MySpace offers "24" downloads.
• Video-sharing site PixPo gets $6.5M in funding.
• ABC's online theatre gets 3M views in two weeks.
• Video-sharing site vpod.tv gets $5.1M in funding.
• Google to begin selling video ads.
• Yahoo imitates YouTube with relaunch of video site.

June 2006

• Amazon launches online show "Fishbowl with Bill Maher."
• Tivo offers Web video
• Hoity-toity code.tv launches
• Nielsen to measure TV everywhere
• Fox streams shows on O&O sites
• Carson Daly signs YouTube talent
• OLN launches "The Player" broadband channel
• Warner offers films through Guba
• NBC partners with YouTube, markets fall lineup shows "The Office" and "Saturday Night Live."
• CBS reaches deal with affiliates
• Veoh faces copyright lawsuit

July 2006

• Video-sharing site MetaCafe gets $15M in funding.
• Video-sharing site eefoof launches.
• Bittorrent cozies up with studios to sell content.
• Yahoo launches online show "The 9."
• Blip.tv closes first round of funding.
• News service sues YouTube.
• NBC starts video blog for Brian Williams.
• CMT launches broadband channel
• TimeOut NY launches broadband channel
• CNN launches user-generated video upload site CNN Exchange

August 2006

• New AOL Video goes live. Oh look. YouTube.
• Unions and advertisers reach tentative deal. Includes a study to examine alternative models of compensation for commercials that appear on television, radio, and in new media.
• Viacom aquires Atom after buying iFilm a few months earlier.
• OctaneTV broadband channel launches.
• Showtime puts Weeds on MSN Video.
• VideoEgg hatches ad plan.
• CBS does an ABC, says will stream shows next day on Innertube.
• Google Video leapfrogs Yahoo Video after link placed on google.com.
• Sony buys video-sharing site Grouper for $65M. A small price to pay for insught into how video-sharing communities work.
• YouTube starts brand channels, video ads.
• CBS signs cross studio deals for online streaming.
• Yahoo closes down original show Richard Bangs' Adventures after one year.
• CSTV launches 100 broadband channels.
• YouTube hires away Yahoo's treasurer.
• CBS simulcasts Katie Couric's Evening News online.