“Much of my work here is done.”
-George Kliavkoff

George Kliavkoff, the chief digital officer told the staff at NBC Universal that he will be exercising an option in his contract to step down by the end of they year.  Kliavkoff was one of the masterminds behind the launch of Hulu, the startup that shook the online video industry.

“George came to NBC Universal when we were nowhere in digital,” stated Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal. “We asked him to help us change the fundamental orientation of a traditional media company from an analog to a digital mindset. George did that.”  Kliavkoff also pushed for NBC’s role in broadcasting the past Olympics.

Where Will George Go From Here?
George indicated that he is interested in some sort of role as an investor, digital startup, or digital startup within a traditional company.”

Below is the full e-mail that he sent to the company (via paidContent):

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Hulu.com is airing NBC’s 30 Rock one week earlier than the season premier.  This way it helps build up the hype of the show.  I love the idea of putting up a show on the web before it hits the television screen, especially one that wins an Emmy.  

30 Rock is a show that was created by famous Sarah Palin impression expert, Tina Fey.  The show stars Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin, Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski, Keith Powell, Judah Friedlander, Maulik Pancholy, Scott Adsit, Katrina Bowden, Lonny Ross, Kevin Brown, and Grizz Chapman.

The above video will be available for about another week. Showtime did the same thing with Dexter and Californication.

DoubleClick, the digital advertising firm that Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) bought for $3.1 billion in March 2008 has announced today that they will be powering online media advertisements on NBCOlympics.com.  DoubleClick has the ability to embed ads within the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Silverlight 2 player. 

This feature is called DoubleClick In-Stream.  In-Stream supports Flash, Real Media, and Windows Media player.

“With hundreds of advertisers, multiple platforms and large site traffic spikes, we needed to work with a partner that could provide an integrated, scalable, robust solution,” said Steven Gold, Vice President, Sales Planning and Operations, NBC Universal Digital Media. “Thanks to DoubleClick In-Stream’s new support for Silverlight 2, we are able to monetize our groundbreaking online video coverage on the same platform we already use for display and mobile advertising. This lets our sales and operations teams work together really efficiently.”

Words from Google and Microsoft spokespeople

“Microsoft has always had a strong commitment to working closely with partners and the industry to enable them to leverage our tools and platform to deliver great user experiences. With Silverlight, we’ve extended that commitment to the advertising space,” stated Scott Guthrie, Corporate VP of Microsoft’s .NET Developer Division. “We’re pleased to see the investment DoubleClick has made to enable customers such as NBCOlympics.com to take advantage of Silverlight to offer compelling packages to their advertisers.”

“DoubleClick’s vision is to help publishers grow their revenues by creating great user experiences and providing compelling value to advertisers,” said Google Group Product Manager Ari Paparo. “By expanding the capabilities of DoubleClick In-Stream to work with Silverlight 2, we can make it possible for clients to create unique entertainment and advertising experiences without increasing their workload or creating new complex processes.”

Related Links:
1. Google press release
2. InformationWeek

Every weekday between today and mid-August, Hulu will be streaming a new movie, documentary, or sci-fi film.  The calendar of the films is available at: http://www.hulu.com/summer.  Here’s the catch: you won’t know what is playing until the day of.  While this is an annoying feature, I’m sure it’ll keep users coming back to Hulu out of curiosity.

Hulu’s first movie of the event is Lost in Translation starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray.  The movie is about a man that comes to Tokyo to film a whiskey commercial bonding with a woman that he would most likely not find himself getting along with.

Hulu Days of Summer has a widget too.  The widget can be embedded in blog posts, social networks, etc.  The widget can be seen below.

Hulu is a video website created through a partnership between NBC and FOX.  Hulu directly competes with Google’s YouTube.

“We’re absolutely convinced at Cox that online revenue is continuing to grow,”stated John Dyer, EVP of Cox Enterprises. “If you look at Cox’s history, we’ve not necessarily been the first into a space… But we’ve prided ourselves in the course of history in being early investors.”

Cox Enterprises, the communications company that owns a large number of TV, radio, and newspaper companies is planning to acquire Adify Corporation. Adify is an advertising company that brokers ads for publishers and spreads advertisements for marketers. Cox plans on acquiring the digital advertising company for $300 million.

Adify’s clients include Martha Stewart Living Omimedia and several finance web sites created owned by Forbes Inc.

Early investors in Adify include NBC and Time Warner.  These companies will cash out and won’t have any further influence on Adify’s operations.  NBC will still be a customer.  Cox also owns Autotrader.com.

“4INFO clearly fits Peacock Equity’s strategic funding objectives: it has a market-leading position within a high-growth sector and it has an exiting community of users accustomed to receiving customized, ad-supported content in text messages,”
-Peacock Equity’s Tom Byrne

Peacock Equity, created by GE Commercia Finance, GE Media Communications & Entertainment and NBC Universal is a $250 million global fund that invests in media and tech companies. The company recently announced that NBC Universal will take a stake in 4INFO, a San Mateo, Calif.-based company that focuses on SMS advertising. 4INFO gives access to real-time sports, business, entertainment, travel, and local information. 4INFO also provides celebrity, weather, horoscopes, stock quotes, craigslist.com listings, and health tips. The investment made by Peacock will be used to help 4INFO build a solid ad platform. 4INFO will also become NBC’s preferred mobile ad provider.

“4INFO clearly fits Peacock Equity’s strategic funding objectives: it has a market-leading position within a high-growth sector and it has an exiting community of users accustomed to receiving customized, ad-supported content in text messages,” stated Peacock Equity’s Tom Byrne. “Mobile advertising will be a multi-billion dollar industry in the next few years as more progressive content providers and advertisers like NBC Universal realize its potential to engage audiences with targeted, measurable messages.”

Other investors in 4INFO include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, U.S. Venture Partners, and Gannett. 4INFO’s blog is available at: http://4info.typepad.com/blog/.

“Consumers are clearly interested in easily accessing a broad spectrum of programming,”
-Peter Chernin, President and COO of News Corp.

NBC Universal and News Corporation, parent company of FOX, have proved the nay-sayers wrong with their new venture, Hulu.  Bloggers, news publications, and YouTube fans all had a lot of doubt about whether an NBC/News Corp. partnership would be able to take on video user-generated content web sites.  Since NBC and FOX wasn’t happy with sponsored groups on YouTube, it comes to no surprise that full episodes of NBC- and FOX- owned shows are placed on Hulu.  I think it was also a smart move that FOX shows were not placed on MySpace, News Corp.’s own social network.

Even though Hulu is still in Beta testing, some of their clips are available on MSN and on AOL.  The videos that are available by Hulu on AOL and MSN are of high quality so that should be a reason for future Hulu users to be optimistic about the future of video content.  How will NBC and News Corp. make money from Hulu?  Advertising most likely.

What are the pros and cons of Hulu?  The pros are that more time will be spent on Hulu because the quality of the content is much higher than YouTube.  The cons is that YouTube was made for people that wanted that quick snapshot of entertainment.  Let’s say that I wanted to show a buddy of mine a 15 second clip of Family Guy, Hulu would not be the ideal place to do so.  There are a lot of funny one-liners on FOX and NBC shows.  But Hulu does not offer that convenience.  And that will be Hulu’s one weakness.

NBC and News Corp. seem to still be bitter about the massive amount of traffic and attention YouTube is receiving. To the media world, YouTube is looked at as the thief as the neighbor that will borrow your lawn mower and other home maintenance tools, then won’t give it back. Meaning, content that is syndicated to these media companies land on Plymouth “YouTube” Rock and the media companies don’t get any bounty from discovering the land.

The name of the video site is still T.B.D. and will feature content from shows produced by NBC and FOX. I can’t even fathom the negotiations that took place to make this video deal happen between these two companies, because I could have sworn that they are each other’s biggest competitors. I guess YouTube would do that to ya.

Perhaps the inspiration for pursuing and announcing the idea was fueled by interested investors. More specifically, the $100 million for 10% equity deal that Providence Equity Partners is willing to bet on. Through this new venture, a CEO was pulled in for the unnamed company, Jason Kilar. Kilar may be expected to sign deals with other potential content providers (i.e. Disney, CBS, Viacom, etc.).

Another factor to be considered for “New Site” will be considering how to capture the market that Joost has. The idea of Joost has been around for just as long and has changed names (from The Venice Project) and released a Beta product since then. Internet streaming video is moving fast, but perhaps the way that the media companies enter the market may bring meaning to the expression, “well, he knows how to make an appearance.”

References:
[1] Red Herring: Big Money for Big Media