Vevo is a music video website in stealth mode that was started by YouTube and Unviersal Music. The company is currently seeking funding and is reportedly finding partners for their content. Reuters recently revealed that CBS Corporation and NBC is in talks with Vevo to license and develop shows for Vevo. Vevo is expected to officially launch in December and will have high quality music videos. The website will also have music-related shows streaming.
YouTube will be providing the technology and back-end for the website while Universal Music will provide the content. Sony Music is also on board with Vevo, but it is Warner Music and EMI have kept their distance thus far. Rio Caraeff is currently the CEO of Vevo. Vevo will make money from the advertising banners and text laced throughout the website. Since the quality of video will be higher, Vevo hopes to have higher advertising rates than YouTube. About 40 people are being hired to work for Vevo.
One of the reasons why Tr.im decided to initially shut themselves down is because of the monopoly that Bit.ly has for URL shortening services. Twitter and TweetDeck both use Bit.ly as the default URL shortening services. Now Google, TypePad, and CBS has embraced Bit.ly for shortening the URLs of their content.
One of the reasons why Bit.ly has become the preferred choice for URL shortening is because of their constant service upgrades. Last month Bit.ly started to track what links are malicious in content and warns users before sending them to the link.
Within the last few weeks, Google added Bit.ly to Google Reader’s “send-to” feature. This feature allows anyone using Google Reader to send Bit.ly links on Twitter to their followers.
TypePad added a feature that generates Bit.ly links on Twitter for new blog posts. Bit.ly statistics have also been added into TypePad’s dashboard. All TypePad users will see this feature integrated by this fall.
CBS is also launched a new service called cbs.bit.ly. This service tracks the URLs on CBS’ website that has been shortened and tracks how many people clicked on the shortened links.
iBiquity Digital Corporation is a company that develops HD radio technology. It gives radio signals better sound quality and less static. The company has been working on better radio technology on cars and households for several years now.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, iBiquity has raised $42 million in funding from investors such as Grotech Ventures, CBS Radio, Radio One Inc., Entercom Communications, FirstMark Capital, New Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, and Clear Channel Radio. This round of funding puts iBiquity at over $172 million in total funding over the last decade.
Its not every day that you see a traditional media company poach from a new media company, but this is exactly what happened when CBS hired Richard Lawson from Gawker Media.
Lawson will be writing for TV.com in a role that is similar to what he already has been doing for Gawker: writing what is happening on famous TV shows.
Lawson will be writing fewer posts per day and do actual reviews. Lawson has supposedly been generating 2.4 million pageviews per month for Gawker, more than any of Gawkers’ others writers.
Joost was started by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis back in October 2006. The company raised about $45 million in funding shortly after starting up. Investors included Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Viacom, CBS and Li Ka-shing. Joost killed off their desktop application and became purely a web service in September 2008.
Joost announced that they have replaced former CEO Mike Volpi. Joost SVP of Engineering Matt Zelesko will be replacing Volpi. However Volpi will remain as Chairman of the board.
As a result of Joost’s lack of growth compared to YouTube, Hulu, and other video services Joost has decided to focus on providing video platforms for bigger companies. There will also be major layoffs. Joost employs about 100 people in New York and London.
The three founders of Last.fm Richard Jones, Martin Stiksel, and Felix Miller will most likely be leaving CBS by the end of the year. About two years ago, Last.fm was sold to CBS for $280 million. The three founders will be leaving to start another project.
“This is the latest stage in a long journey for us founders, which began in a living room in east London in 2002, and took us to the headquarters of one of the biggest media companies in the world,” stated the founders of Last.fm.
The founders are not planning on any reasons revolving around the acquisition, but more because the website is in great shape. They even said the company may even do better without the “crazy founder dudes hanging around.”
The three co-founders will be stepping down by the end of the month, but will serve as advisors for three months. The three co-founders will also help pick another head for Last.fm. Last.fm has about 37.7 million users.
In the past, TechCrunch had heard rumors accusing either CBS or the Last.fm founders of sending user data to the RIAA. Both CBS and Last.fm had denied those claims.
TechCrunch wrote a post several months ago about whether Last.fm submitted user information to the RIAA. Last.fm denied it. And now a new rumor has came up about how Last.fm’s parent company CBS Corporation sent information to the RIAA by tricking Last.fm. The trick that TechCrunch claimed took place was that CBS told Last.fm that they were planning to use the information for internal uses, but sent it to the RIAA anyway.
The source behind this whole issue is an anonymous individual that spoke directly with Last.fm employees. However Last.fm claims that no one at the company knows anything about a leak of information. “Any request for such data would have to be approved by myself first. The suggestion that CBS’s ops team provided this data is just not possible – Last.fm operates as a separate entity and their operations staff do not have access to our system,” stated Russ Garrett, a developer at Last.fm.
paidContent published a response that CBS has made in relation to the aforementioned controvery:
“Both CBS and the RIAA have already stated quite clearly, for the record, that absolutely no individual user or listener information was supplied to the RIAA by last.fm or any division of CBS Corporation in the past, nor do we plan to do so in the future. The story posted by the website was based on an unnamed tipster. No inquiry was made to CBS or last.fm about the veracity of the anonymous source. Those who consult such blogs should be aware of the standard by which such postings are sourced and published.”
The original source TechCrunch had for the story about Last.fm sending data to the RIAA stated that the employee that leaked the information was fired.
Disney has decided to jump on board with online video streaming by sending over content over to Hulu. That’s not all. Disney has acquired 27% of the company. Disney joins other Hulu owners NBC Universal, News Corporation, and Providence Equity Partners. Soon Disney will be sending over shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy to start with.
“We are smiling big today because we are honored to be working with a company that quite frankly inspired us from the very start of Hulu. Walt Disney was a founder, an innovator, a person with an atypically high quality bar, and someone who was maniacal in his obsession to delight his customers. Hulu has always taken great inspiration in that example and the culture Walt Disney created (which Bob Iger and his team carry forward and push to new levels),” stated the Hulu blog regarding the partnership.
CBS and the CW are basically the only major TV networks left out of Hulu. CBS is hosting high quality episodes of their own TV shows on CBS.com and TV.com. The CW hosts full TV shows on their website too.
CBS is working on ways to compete against Hulu. The CBS.com website has been thoroughly enhanced to stream high-quality episodes of their TV shows and these videos are linked to TV.com, a website that is owned by CBS as well. Hulu removed their shows from TV.com recently.
In March, TV.com received about 679,000 unique U.S. visitors and streamed 3.4 million videos. In February, TV.com has about 330,000 unique U.S. visitors and streamed only 1.6 million videos. Hulu received abut 8.9 million U.S. visitors in March and streamed 349 million videos. Hulu is run by NBC and FOX.
This morning CBS sent me a press release about this new iPhone application that they are putting together that revolves around NCAA basketball March Madness. It looks very impressive.
CBSSports.com is partnerning with the NCAA and MobiTV to create a March Madness on Demand application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This will provide basketball fans a chance to watch streaming audio and video from March Madness starting today and continuing all the way through the Men’s Final Four, taking place in Detroit.
Over a Wi-Fi connection, MobiTV will deliver live video of all 63 basketball games in the first round of the tournament through the semifinals/finals of the Final Four. Brackets will be updated in real-time with up-to-minute scores.
The application is available for $4.99 on the Apple App Store. This is not a bad price to pay for being able to carry around games in your pocket. It costs less than a lunch at a fast food place. If you’re a die-hard basketball fan like I am, I highly recommend buying this app. Go Michigan State Spartans, Final Four Champs!
Showtime, the subscription television channel owned by CBS has decided to launch an iPhone and iPod Touch application. The application was developed by Transpera.
“This year, by providing viewing access via iPhones and iPod Touch devices, Showtime continues to offer TV Academy members even more convenient opportunities to enjoy and consider Showtime original programming,” stated Richard Licata, EVP of Corporate Communications for SHOWTIME.
The application will be launched later this month. More details to follow when it becomes available on the App Store.
“This is simply about our running down the checklist and trying to address each thing the fans have said they want” stated Jason Kint, CBSSports.com SVP and General Manager. “Last year, it was foremost about eliminating registration and blackouts, which we did. And this year, it’s about improving the video experience itself as much as we can.”
CBSSports.com has decided to go with Microsoft Silverlight media player to stream March Madness basketball games on their website. About 4.8 million unique visitors tuned into March Madness on CBSSports via March Madness on Demand. This lets viewers watch the game on a first come, first serve basis. March Madness will be starting on CBSSports.com on March 15. It will be available through Windows Media Player or Silverlight.
Silverlight has been winning major content syndication sports deals. Last year, Silverlight was chosen to stream the Olympics this past summer. MLB used to run on Silverlight, but recently decided to switch to Flash. It is absolutely crucial for Silverlight to perform when it comes to March Madness as people take basketball very seriously, including myself. I’ll be a very happy guy if Michigan State wins the Final Four this year.
Joaquin Phoenix, a famous actor whose most notable role was as Johnny Cash from the movie Walk The Line. Recently David Letterman had Joaquin appear on his show. Joaquin showed up with sunglasses on and a giant beard. Joaquin then proceeded to talk about how he wants to get into making an album and rapping. The audience was loving it.
Joaquin mumbled quite a bit to himself and kept questioning whether Letterman’s witty remarks were necessary. Letterman’s witty remarks were provoked by Joaquin’s lack of response when being asked about questions regarding his new movie. The whole ordeal was quite awkward, but the YouTube audience loved it.
Within 36 hours of the below clip being added to YouTube, it received over 2.5 million views.
WallStrip is one of the cheesiest video programs on the Internet right now. In October 2008, one of the last clips that WallStrip made a “Happy 2 Year” video. When blowing the candle on the cake, one of the hosts wished for another successful season of WallStrip. It turns out that this wasn’t going to happen.
“A source familiar with the situation says that Wallstrip owner CBS Interactive plans to “take the DNA from WallStrip and apply it” to fellow CBS property BNet. No word on if that DNA includes current WallStrip host Julie Alexandria, or past host Lindsay Campbell (whose subsequent CBS show MobLogic also hasn’t published since Dec. 12),” according to Portfolio.
CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) acquired WallStrip for about $5 million in May 2007. Angel investors in WallStrip include Fred Wilson and Howard Lindzon. The last episode of WallStrip was called Auto Bailout and was launched on December 12.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has made a deal with CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS). The agreement is that Netflix members will be able to watch shows appearing on Disney and CBS the day after they air on TV. This means if you are a fan of How I Met Your Mother or Hannah Montana and you have access to a Netflix account, you are in luck. Even though many of the shows already appear on sites like Hulu and CBS.com itself, many of the shows on that site arrive days after the show originally airs.
The effort by Netflix to make these deals indicates the pressure that the DVD market is in when competing directly against downloads. Amazon.com recently created a new video site. The sales of movies on iTunes is increasing at a rapid pace. And Hulu and Joost are rapidly adding free video content.
Those paying for monthly subscriptions on Netflix at $8.99 can already play select TV shows and movies at no additional charge. This move alone was made in order to compete with Blockbuster’s DVD mail order in-store return strength. Netflix hosts about 12,000 videos to watch online. “With deals like CBS and Disney, we’re giving subscribers additional reasons to try it,” stated Ted Sarandos, chief content office of Netflix.
