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Read the full post February 2nd, 2007
Archive for February 2nd, 2007
Web edit tools, phone cams blowing the doors off video
Meet the new auteurs: they carry cell phone camcorders, shoot in murky natural lighting, roughly edit their clips online at Jumpcut or Eyespot, and there are millions of them. Nearly 350 million cell phones with camcorders were sold last year, this year the number may brush against 500 million, and we already know the numbers that YouTube is taking in and dishing out daily. One of the main catalysts in the explosion is the sheer simplicity of the online editing tools. “The reason we started was that we had DV (digital video) phones and DV cameras and were trying to edit video, but it was really hard. Packaged software is like a freaking space shuttle, it’s so difficult to use,” said Eyespot co-founder David Dudas. Hans van Haagen, the video editor of news and documentaries at Dutch public television broadcaster NOS, says, “Cutting a news item is something you can learn. There’s not too much to it.” In the future, which may already be here, shooting and cutting simple video may be a skill as common as burning a cd or typing, widening opportunities outside the industry.
Add comment February 2nd, 2007
Viacom-YouTube: Your thoughts?
The most popular TV video on YouTube, arguably, is provided by the Daily Show and Colbert Report. In fact, I have to admit that I’ve watched probably one-third of all my Daily Show video on YouTube despite the fact I record the show on my DVR. I rarely visit ComedyCentral.com, which has now improved its video player (embeddable) and reworked the home page to highlight a video player front and center — even automatically playing a Daily Show clip when you visit the site (below). So as Comedy Central clips disappear off YouTube, what will happen? Will ComedyCentral.com’s traffic increase? Ratings go up? Or will the loss in promotion from disappearing from YouTube have the opposite effect?
Writes Safran in comments below: “There is this strange assumption that viewing is zero-sum. That if you watch a clip on YouTube, that takes away from your viewing it on a network’s site. It’s nonsense. And even if it does take away from an ‘official site,’ so what? The show has received terrific exposure by getting passed around. Networks obsess over promos - promos that nobody cares about and people fast-forward through. YouTube is the ultimate promo: find a clip of a show you like and tell a friend. Everyone wins.”
12 comments February 2nd, 2007
YouTube says it will comply and remove clips
A statement issued by YouTube after Viacom demanded it remove its video:
“It’s unfortunate that Viacom will no longer be able to benefit from YouTube’s passionate audience, which has helped to promote many of Viacom’s shows. We have received a DMCA takedown request from Viacom, and we will comply with their request.”
A quick search of Comedy Central clips at this writing shows they’re still up, for now.
Add comment February 2nd, 2007
Urban Dictionary adds new description for ‘Mooninite’
A wonderful postscript to the utterly disposable Boston Bomb Scare story comes from the Urban Dictionary. The site has updated its definition of a “Mooninite” to include the following: Mooninites launched an attack on Earth in January 2007. They succeeded in shutting down Boston on Wednesday, January 31.
11 comments February 2nd, 2007
Super Bowl stadium site hacked
The official site of Dolphin Stadium was hacked and seeded with exploit code which opened up visitors’ computers to outside attacks, according to Websense Security Labs. A short time later, DolphinStadium.com was cleaned, but Websense reports that hundreds of other sites are now infected, including the Centers for Disease Control site.
4 comments February 2nd, 2007
Viacom statement on YouTube
Viacom just put this out explaining why it’s yanking its clips from YouTube. As I suspected, the delay in filtering technology was a big factor:
“After months of ongoing discussions with YouTube and Google, it has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement that would make Viacom content available to YouTube users. Filtering tools promised repeatedly by YouTube and Google have not been put in place, and they continue to host and stream vast amounts of unauthorized video. YouTube and Google retain all of the revenue generated from this practice, without extending fair compensation to the people who have expended all of the effort and cost to create it. The recent addition of YouTube-served content to Google Video Search simply compounds this issue. Virtually every other distributor has acknowledged the fair value of entertainment content and has taken deliberate steps to concluding agreements with content providers.”
A couple more paragraphs after the jump below.
Read the full post 12 comments February 2nd, 2007
Viacom demands YouTube pull clips
Say goodbye to John Stewart on YouTube. After failing to reach an agreement, Viacom has demanded that YouTube pull down all its video clips from Comedy Central and the rest of its cable channels. Those clips are estimated to number 100,000. And even more surprising, Viacom said an outside consultant estimates its clips have generated about 1.2 billion streams on YouTube. This is a major blow to YouTube and Google and their ongoing efforts to get the networks in their corner. You may remember back in November when Viacom asked that YouTube pull down selected clips from Comedy Central, but after a quick purge, they were back in full force. I suspected that it was a negotiating ploy, but this time it looks like it could be a done deal. Oddly, Viacom sister company CBS did the first network deal with YouTube back in October, and CBS has since applauded its success, even suggesting it has increased ratings. One other thing to point out: There was news last month that YouTube had missed a deadline for debuting its promised technology to automatically identify and filter out copyrighted clips, and I haven’t heard anything since. Some speculated this would have an impact on YouTube’s ongoing talks with content providers. Update: Read the statements from Viacom and YouTube.
3 comments February 2nd, 2007
Gawker caught uploading TV clips to YouTube?
A great story on CNET discovers that someone by the handle of Belowtheradar is encoding copyrighted clips from TV, embedding graphics that identify them with Gawker’s blogs and uploading the video to YouTube. The clips then appear on those same blogs a short time later (example). Could this be Gawker running afoul of copyright laws and even taking credit for it? Gawker didn’t respond to CNET’s calls, but broadcasters contacted by the CNET reporter are none so happy. “We have plans to pursue this matter further,” said Audrey Pass, spokesperson for WNYW Channel 5, which had a newcast clip posted on YouTube with an animated open that reads, “Gawker recommends.” If this turns out to be Gawker’s doing — stealing TV video with the intent to increase traffic (and revenue) on their own blogs — they could have a real mess on their hands. Of the 60 videos posted by Belowtheradar, 51 feature graphics for a Gawker blog and appear to be material obtained from major broadcasters. Stay tuned.
Add comment February 2nd, 2007
Report: ‘Nightly’ going HD in March
NBC Nightly News will switch to high definition in March, and NBC News crews will begin shooting in HD in early 2008, reports TVNewser.
Add comment February 2nd, 2007
Bride bad hair clip is fake
As a few Lost Remoters suspected, the incredibly popular YouTube clip of the bride throwing a fit over her bad hair is a fake. The clip was played over and over again in a Today Show segment on bad hair earlier this week. But it turns out the “bride” is 21-year-old Toronto aspiring actress Jodi Behan, as outed by the blog Dlisted and confirmed in this National Post story. And now the clip has been “removed by the user” from YouTube. Good instincts, LR readers. First, Lonelygirl15 and now the bad hair bride — can you believe anything on YouTube these days? One thing’s for sure, the media will be a lot more careful when airing video from YouTube going forward.
9 comments February 2nd, 2007
