Archive for April 30th, 2007
A dozen Clear Channel radio stations are launching separate social networking sites based on their respective local communities. For example, San Francisco’s KYLD is launching The Wild Space, and WKSC in Chicago is debuting The Mob (screen grab below). The technology company OneSite is handling the back-end for the sites. “The indicators are that people want to connect locally,” said Evan Harrison, executive VP of Clear Channel. (Via PaidContent)
April 30th, 2007
Just days after praising WKRN’s progress online at NAB-RTNDA, WKRN GM Mike Sechrist announced he’s leaving to go after “other opportunities he would like to pursue in this new digital world.” No word on what they may be, but in true style, Mike posted news of his departure on his own blog. (Thanks for the cryptic tip, invitedmedia!)
UPDATE: Sechrist is joining forces with Michael Rosenblum to start offering professional VJ training courses.
April 30th, 2007
In a response to Viacom’s lawsuit against YouTube, Google said the suit was unfounded and it was ready to go to court, asking for a jury trial. “We are not going to let this lawsuit distract us,” said Michael Kwun, managing counsel at Google. “We feel pretty confident about the case.” In a court filing, Google said “Viacom’s complaint threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression.” Viacom responded by saying Google does not qualify for safe harbor protection under the DMCA. The lines are drawn, and this will be a landmark case, folks.
April 30th, 2007
Called an “immersive, online extension of the TV channel,” VH1Classic.com features thousands of music videos from songs released in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s. Press release follows below…
Read the full post April 30th, 2007
That’s over a six-month period, according to new numbers from the Newspaper Association of America. Meanwhile, the NAA said the audience for newspaper sites grew 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2007.
April 30th, 2007
Just announced at MIX07 in Vegas, CBS’ owned-and-operated stations are partnering with Microsoft and its new cross-browser video technology Silverlight to power user-created content on the sites. Explains the press release:
The new local initiative will allow users of the CBS-owned stations’ sites to view, upload, share, rate, comment, sort and search video, images, audio and text submissions. A key component of the application is its full integration into the existing content publishing workflow of the CBS Television Stations’ digital media groups. It allows the community-generated content to be managed alongside the station’s professional content in a single workflow.
The video detail page. You can see more screen grabs here. The functionality is expected to launch in select markets later this year. Press release below…
Read the full post April 30th, 2007
We’ve heard that YouTube is experimenting with video ads — pre-rolls and post-rolls among them — but this is the first time we’ve seen a date. YouTube says it will begin rolling out video ads this summer. But the question has always been: will people put up with pre-rolls on user-submitted clips? Brightcove’s Jeremy Allaire suggests a new model that involves a 3-second pre-roll and a 10-second mid-roll ad. Sounds like a good approach for clips with natural interruption points — semi-professionally produced content — but jamming a 10-second ad into most user-video clips would be a big turn-off, if you ask me. So we’ll just have to wait and see how YouTube tackles it.
April 30th, 2007
MTV plans to launch a revamped Total Request Live (TRL) this summer with a hefty amount of viewer/user participation, and execs say the leading candidate for a new name for the webified show is URL. TRL has lost over half its viewers since 1999.
Earlier: MTV.com unveils ‘radical’ new strategy to attract teens
April 30th, 2007
