Reel Pop

Oh my GodTube: Vid site raises $30M

In a deal of biblically unexpected proportions, vid share site GodTube -- derided, since its launch last year, as little more than an entertainingly earnest knockoff -- has raised $30 million from hedge fund GLG Partners. [via]

When GodTube launched I spoke with WNYC's Brian Lehrer about the site. Although GodTube has an obviously derivative public-facing presence --embeddable flash video, a YouTube-like similarity in design -- the site just as obviously has the potential to tap into America's burgeoning religious fervor, especially given, as Russ Douhat notes in The Atlantic, that Americans are more likely to embrace innovations in religious practice and celebration.

What's more, GodTube's public-facing vids are only a small part of its offerings. The site also provides access to Godcaster, a subscription-based live streaming service that, according to execs, is used by hundreds of churches. According to Rafat over at paidcontent, GodTube plans to offer white label social networking services to churchgoers soon. That, right there, is a pageview goldmine.

Prom Queen international

Vuguru's Prom Queen will be distributed through French and Japanese media outlets under deals that will  revamp the short Web films into programming for local  audiences.

Blockbuster buys Movielink

The all-too-limited, overly-DRM'd, PC-only but otherwise perfect movie downloading service, Movielink, was bought by Blockbuster for $20M, according to the Wall Street Journal. More competition for Netflix, which a few months ago began allowing subscribers to stream movies direct from the site.

Eisner's Vuguru to announce new Web series

Fresh from success with Prom Queen, Michael Eisner's Vuguru is teaming up with Dinosaur Diorama Productions, creators of popular web series The 'Burg, to produce a series called The All-For-Nots."

And get this: The series is about a fictional documentary crew following a fictional band on a real tour across the United States. How's that for meta. The band will visit 24 cities during the filming of the show, and each show will be 7-10 minutes long.

No word on when the series will air. In the meantime keep your eyes out for "Prom Queen Summer Heat," which will air in August.

Webcam Confidential

Ol' F. Scott once said there were no second acts in American lives. Untrue. If you're a former media company CEO or Hollywood producer, your second act will undoubtedly involve either garter-wearing prom queens (hi, Michael Eisner!) or webcam confessionals (hi, Steven Bochco!). God bless, gentlemen. You've renewed my faith in horndoggery.

Bochco, who has produced episodes of "Commander in Chief" and "L.A. Law," among others, will help Metacafe launch on Monday a new series called "Cafe Confidential," in which young, nubile, preferably blonde-haired and buxom users will upload videos confessing "My First Time," "My Weird Family," or their "Most Embarrassing Moment."

Though neither hook-up nor confessional culture is anything new, you've got to admire how Hollywood has managed the transition from Real World to vidcam world. Witness also The Facebook Diaries, produced by R.J. Cutler, which will appear on Comcast and Ziddio later this year.

I'm no frumpy privacy zealot, but I wonder how mom and dad will react when their kids ask (or don't) if they can confess on a Web show. We're soooo beyond "can I have a phone in my room." 

YouTube Safe Once Again for Fake News

Comedy Central clips are safe on YouTube. Viacom has confirmed that it wants at least some of Comedy Central's clips to remain on YouTube.

The New York Post and Ars Technica are reporting that a deal may be imminent. A numbers analysis from Jeff at Idealog shows that roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of South Park, Daily Show and Colbert clips were removed from the site.

It's already well-known that Sumner Redstone thinks YouTube is a good company. With the economics of this space uncertain, I don't think Viacom could eschew a deal while their corporate peers dive in. YouTube: It's a peer pressure thing.

YouTube's Partners Screw Musicians?

YouTube has a good copyright defense, but apparently that wasn't enough for Google. Today's exercise in uncomfirmed scuttlebutt comes from Mark Cuban, who is still trying to justify calling Google "idiots" for buying YouTube and has now quoted an anonymously sourced insider account of the YouTube acquisition. According to the source:

• YouTube sold equity to Sony, Universal and Warner the morning before the Google acquisition so those companies could classify the deals as investments, not licensing, and this wouldn't have to pay the artists they represent.
• Google and YouTube have apprently put 1/3 of the purchase price, or $500M, in escrow to deal with eventual copyright lawsuits, but the music labels agreed not to sue for 6 months.
• But meanwhile, the music labels agreed to sue other competitors in the video-sharing space.

Like most conspiracy theories, this one makes sense on a lot of levels. It answers why Universal sued Grouper and Bolt but ignored other sites which are just as egregiously sharing copyrighted clips. It also neatly explains why YouTube's content deals coincided so closely with the Google acquisition announcement.

If this account is true -- and really, who knows?  -- it looks like a win-win for everybody except the artists. YouTube gets time to grow and sign more content deals, making lawsuits less likely with each one. Google gets the eventual benefit of that growth, as do the labels which now own a share of the site and benefit from the increased exposure. With the top video site in their pocket, the labels then get to go after other sites that don't have Google's lawyers and potentially win favorable rulings.

Universal, Sony and Warner Have Small Stakes in YouTube

The big news today is that YouTube sold part of its equity to the music companies it partnered with just hours before the announced Google acquisition.

Ostensibly, those equity deals increase YouTube's protection against being sued for copyright infringement by those companies.

But the equity deals don't put YouTube out of the woods. The company is still in danger of angering content owners it hasn't yet partnered with. And some of YouTube's partners, most notably CBS, haven't received equity deals.

However, I think what we're seeing is an effort by the music companies to keep their enemies close. The original deal with Warner Music was brokered by Edgar Bronfman Jr., who tried to broker an industry agreement with the original Napster. Whereas the Napster problem metastastized into several services, today's execs understand if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Oh, and meanwhile, sue Grouper and Bolt.

Online Video: Now powered by that shirtless dude

G'morning true believers. Here's what's happening today:

MySpace quietly added a new section called Video Space to the homepage and user profile pages this weekend. The move boosts the visibility of videos on the social network and may help it compete with YouTube's dominant share of the market (46% vs. MySpace's 23%). The move will also ensure you see more half-naked teenagers every day. Online video: Now powered by that shirtless dude.

Grouper, the video-sharing site bought by Sony this summer for $65M, has begun to ship its uploader software with Pure Digital's disposable digital cameras and video cameras. The software allows quick upload of video to Grouper or Google Video. The deal was in the works before Sony's purchase.

Techcrunch briefly reviews five video download stores, noting that iTunes is a Mac user's only friend. (I downloaded two Battlestar Galactica episodes last night.) MovieLink has the deepest category, Guba has the best prices.

A group of media companies have teamed up to study copyright issues on YouTube. News Corp., General Electric's NBC Universal and Viacom are using the study as pressure to wring favorable partnership terms with the company, according to execs.

CBS' O&Os have made a deal to syndicate 10 to 20 local news clips to Yahoo on a daily basis, the first deal of its kind between the locals and a national portal. The affiliates and Yahoo will split ad revenue.

Media Buyers Heart GooTube

Gavin O'Malley at Advertising Age interviews a few media buying execs and concludes the advertising market is reacting positively to Google's acquisition of YouTube.

"With the likes of Google, we do have a deeper comfort that people that understand our programming guidelines are involved in the buying process," said Sean Finnegan, U.S. director of OMD Digital.

Jeff Lanctot, GM of Avenue A/Razorfish said YouTube is working steadily toward a more solid business model.

"The first phase was getting untargeted banner [ad] inventory on the site, which was a good start," he said. "The second phase, which they're in now, is filtering the video content enough to know what content is offensive and what content violates copyrights. The third phase -- and where Google's expertise is going to prove invaluable -- is in understanding the actual content of the video in order to contextually target ads." By Mr. Lanctot's estimation, this third phase is roughly a year away.

Catching Up: Video Searcher Blinkx Hooks Up with Microsoft

I missed this on Monday: Video Search site Blinkx partnered with Microsoft to provide video search technology on Microsoft's Live.com. Below, a looooong Google video roundtable discussion about vertical search trends that includes Blinkx co-founder Shuranga Chandratillake, and my analysis of the Microsoft deal afterwards.

Blinkx is a powerful video search engine, and they appear to have better video search results than Google. Blinkx already powers video search for AOL and Lycos, and indexes video from big media sites across the Web. Their secret search sauce helps them index not only metadata about a video but the speech in the video as well. They don't copy the videos themselves though -- they just hold the metadata. That makes them a great value-added service and, I assume, frees them up to make licensing deals, such as this one with Microsoft.

It's interesting that Microsoft wrapped up a deal with Blinkx on the day that Google acquired YouTube. The greatest benefit Google will provide YouTube (besides deep pockets) is the integration of Google's search technology. By hooking up with Blinkx, Microsoft will try to compete on that level and increase the efficacy of live.com, their new online search and branding destination, that is partially an answer to Google's online services. No word on whether Microsoft will apply Blinkx technology to MSN Soapbox, though.

Google Rumored to be Acquiring YouTube

The entire media world is in a tizzy today after venture capitalist-cum-uber-blogger Michael Arrington posted a rumor that Google was in talks to acquire YouTube for $1.6 billion. Wow. That's like if Voltron merged with Devastator. Or if Sumner Redstone combined with Barry Diller to form God. I'm agog.

We'll skip the feasibility of that valuation number (and how that will affect valuations of Facebook and other sites) and look at why Google would buy YouTube:

1. Investment. Google would be investing in the future of interaction online and ensuring they have the inside track on video search trends.
2. Advertising. Not only would Google reep revenue from text ads on the site and YouTube's branded channels, but they would also be able to apply pre-roll or banner ads to videos.
3. Copyrights. Google has experience dealing with copyright issues, and could afford a legal battle with content owners if it came to that. But Google should placate copyright holders, since Google has more to lose in the courts than YouTube does.
4. Integration with existing products. YouTube's value is also contained in its social networks. Google has several products, including Orkut and Dodgeball, that could be integrated or learn from YouTube. YouTube could also be used as a content repository when Google hooks up with Apple to stream video to TVs with Apple's iTV.
5. Mobile. Google knows the future of online video is on mobile devices. Google is heavily invested in mobile technologies, and the rate of adoption for Internet-connected mobile devices is higher than for PCs. There are also more cell phones than PCs.

There are also several reasons why Google wouldn't buy YouTube. Chief among them is that Google already has a competing product -- Google Video -- and they've spent time and money partnering with content owners on that platform. For that reason alone, I don't see this acquisition happening.

Google does want to make video more integral to the user search experience. But they also seem to be less interested in acquisitions these days, and more interested in making their existing products work together.

p.s. According to Hitwise, YouTube has 47.07% of the video-sharing market, while Google has 11.09%.

Yahoo Buys Video-Editing and Sharing Site Jumpcut

Color me surprised. The video-editing and sharing site Jumpcut has just been acquired by Yahoo. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

By joining Yahoo, Jumpcut joins an impressive and succesful lineup of "Web 2.0" sites, incuding photo-sharing destination Flickr and social bookmarking service de.icio.us,  assocations Jumpcut made sure to tout in their blog post about the deal. Jumpcut has a relatively small amount of traffic -- about 6 million page views per month, according to Alexa -- but I bet Yahoo acquired them less for traffic than for the site's potential. The acquisition is a bet that video-editing will soon trend upward in popularity, much like photo sharing did in the last few years. I think it's a solid bet.

The acquisition also makes sense given Yahoo's perennial interest in courting (or competing with) Hollywood and the television networks. As media companies become more comfortable with handing their brands to consumers -- Chevy's Tahoe commerical experiment and NBC's "Office" promos being early examples -- they will start using community-based sites like Jumpcut to promote those brands.

Jumpcut has made quite a few improvements since I briefly profiled them earlier this year. (Here's a deeper profile from Pete Cashmore at Mashable.) The site recently hooked up with Starz Entertainment in a deal to allow fans to edit clips of the Starz microseries "Stand Up or Shut Up!" And the upcoming movie "The Power of Few" is holding open auditions on the site.

Competitors to Jumpcut include eyespot and Motionbox. Here's an Alexa chart showing their traffic, which has been hovering around 6M page views per month.

alexa website statistics by alexaholic

Fun Size Links: Washington Post wins broadband emmy, MTV debuts show in virtual world, more

There was waaaaay too much news to keep up with today. Edify your mind with some fun size links:

• NBC is expected to announce this week that consumers who own Intel Viiv computers will be able to download TV shows including "Heroes" and "Studio 60." AOL announced a similar deal with Intel last week.
• The Washington Post won the first broadband Emmy at the 27th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards Ceremony. Travis Fox's coverage of Katrina was the big winner. Check out all the finalists here.
• AOL-backed joint venture Network Live moves to MSN. The JV's new name is Control Room, and the launch performance is John Legend live from the Royal Albert Hall in London.
• MTV launches first-ever TV show debut inside a virtual world. Virtual Laguna Beach aired Laguna Beach Tuesday night a day before the television premiere.
• MTV launches short-form broadband channel. Nine months after the network split its programming department into long- and short-form divisions. New shows include My Tunes, in which a band comes up with a theme and then writes an original song based on pictures users send in; Chloe, a live action soap about teenage girls; and MTV Smashed, humorously re-cut footage from MTV shows and series.
• A&E Nets to sell episodes online.
• Gannett Launches Video Enterprises.

It's Monday, here's what you missed last week

And now for something completely gnew.

Warner Brothers and YouTube hooked up. YouTube to use software to filter WB copyrights, WB to approve/disaprove use. Meanwhile Cingular will sponsor a battle of the bands on YouTube and the winner will appear on Good Morning America. 

CurrentTV launched four broadband channels on YouTube.

Microsoft launched its video-sharing app, Soapbox, in private beta. Here's a pretty good review from Rafe at CNET.

AOL releases Tara Reid's Incubus direct-to-download. Good for online video, bad for Tara Reid? Honest question.

ABC relaunched their media player. So did NBC. I think ABC's works better and looks purty.

The New York Post reported that YouTube thinks it's worth $1.5 million. Dunno if I'm amazed by the large sum or the fact that the Post actually reported something.

VideoEgg partnered with several social networks to provide video capabilities. Don't dig for gold, sell shovels.

Amanda Congdon is blogging again.

Mid-Week Wrap-Up: Warner Bros and YouTube, Apple and Google

And now for something completely gnew.

Warner Brothers and YouTube partner. YouTube will make it possible for WB to approve or deny videos if those videos have a WB song in them. Opens revenue doors for YouTube, but possibly makes them more vulnerable to lawsuits, too.

Microsoft launched its video-sharing app in private beta. A me-too effort that could benefit from the MSN brand.

AOL offers free syndicated video search and announced that the new film "Incubus" will be available for download one month before it's released on DVD.

MySpace's share of the video-sharing market continues to fall. Google Video posts a slight increase, YouTube continues to outperform.

Google and Apple are reportedly talking about video possibilities. Google Video + Apple's iTV = boomshackalacka.

---

Video-sharing service (not site) VideoEgg will be providing their tech to several social networking sites, including Dogster, Tagged and Hi5. Helps social sites without a video component attract or keep users who want it. Unattractive people still out of luck.

White House puts anti-drug videos on YouTube. I'm still snoring from D.A.R.E. class. They should start producing straight edge video diaries or sponsor a user-generated video contest.

Amanda Congdon, nee of Rocketboom, starts her Amanda Across America video tour. Nice gal. I hear she's in talks with HBO.

Scott Kirsner explains new licensing opportunities for movies and music. eBay for licensing music and video rights, anyone?

---

NBC now streaming Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip at NBC 24/7. Amanda Peet makes mouths happy.

NBC also going ga-ga over online marketing initiatives (including YouTube), while CBS marketing prez Schweitzer says it's all about the "Outernet." Contrare, it's all about you never using that word again.

ABC's Iger says says movie downloads on iTunes will bring in $50M in incremental revenue in the next year. Says ABC isn't just TV, it's a platform.

News Corp's Murdoch says there's no need to distribute Fox content to other portals. Huh? Aren't Vanished and Prison Break showing on that much-heralded 40+ site network?

MTV will launch Virtual Laguna Beach, a virtual world where viewers of the show can interact. What, LA's not fake enough?

HBO cancelled Lucky Louie, but I'm really hoping somebody buys it and puts it online, like VH1 did with Love Monkey.

Mid-Week Wrap-Up: Hollywood too protectionist, Google partnering with local news, more

And now for something really gnew.

• TV Networks go crazy for broadband. Great wrap-up from Andrew Wallenstein. NBC is syndicating videos and launching its own video player, ABC is relaunching its video player, CBS on Google video, more.
• Sorry movie execs, the WSJ's Rob Pegoraro has a point. DRM doesn't make movies harder to copy, it makes movie downloading services harder to use and illegal file-sharing more attractive.
• Google is looking into helping local TV stations power video upload programs. The biggest problem with indexing video is the lack of metadata (keywords that describe the video's content).
• CBS will put three shows on Google Video in the days leading up to their premiere online. "Class," "Smith" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine" will be pulled before their TV premiere, which makes no sense whatsoever.
• NBC joins ABC and CBS in the primetime streaming arena by showing all six of its new primetime shows on NBC 24/7 one day after their air date on TV. NBC will also allows fans to interact with the creators of all its shows on the night of their premiers, the company said.
• ABC and affiliates reach online deal. Local ads will be included in online shows. ABC also giving away 1 million free downloads of last season's finales. Test of online player this spring netted 5.7M views.
• Paidcontent wraps up coverage of the VON conference. AOL's Ted Leonsis: People are motivated to create content because they want to feel needed and loved in their online experience.
• WBTV signed different online distribution deals with ABC and NBC. NBC will stream “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” on NBC-branded sites, NBC affiliate sites, or third-party sites (like the new NBBC), while WBTV keeps rights to sell downloads. ABC gets to stream "The Nine" and keep revenue from ads on the video player, while WBTV can sell downloads the day after. Note to techies who want everything to be free online: Rights clearing is hard when the studio that produced the movie is separate from the network that airs it.
• Apple sells movie downloads. Available same day as DVDs, $9.99 to $12.99, iTV will send movies to your TV wirelessly. Engadget coverage is fun to read.
• AOL streams two NBC fall shows, "Twenty Good Years" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

Blip.tv Shares User Videos through Akimbo

Blip.tv announced today that it's partnering with set-top box maker Akimbo to make the best user-generated videos on the site available on-demand to Akimbo's customers. Blip received funding in July, and Akimbo has received three rounds of funding totalling about $37M. If these two companies can help me circumvent Web Junk's Patrice O'Neal, giddy up.

Akimbo is also integrated into AT&T's HomeZone (still in limited release in Texas, I think), has a distribution deal with Microsoft's Media Center Edition, and a deal with Thompson for another set-top box. Blip.tv was named the #1 video-sharing site by Light Reading last month.

The Blip.tv deals reminds me of a deal between CurrentTV and video-editing/mashup site JumpCut, where Current takes the best videos and shows them on the tube. Video-makers are paid $100 when their video airs.

Other user-gen news: Chevy gave purpose to would-be video admen when they announced their Super Bowl College Ad Challenge last week. Teams of up to three students will present their ideas on promoting Chevy's new car lineup, and the winning idea will be shown in a commercial during the Super Bowl.

A Brief History of Online Video (in Pictures)

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.