Spout, an online community for film lovers, announced today they’ve collaborated with the makers of the independent film Four Eyed Monsters to make it available for free through YouTube. This reportedly marks the first ever full length feature film released through the online video Web site.
Spout, with exclusive advertising and a financial commitment to the film’s makers Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, has established a $1 donation to the filmmakers’ next independent project for every new Spout member who signs up at its Web site. Spout sees this YouTube distribution as a step in “creating a grassroots alternative to Hollywood’s promotion and distribution model.”
Four Eyed Monsters, for those unfamiliar with it, apparently “has been causing offline and online buzz with its creative approach and unique filmmaking collaboration.” It premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and most recently won the Undiscovered Gems Showcase Sundance Channel Audience.
Originally posted on June 8, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
YouTube releases new embedded video player
YouTube‘s embedded video player now comes with a new scroll-through feature that allows you to view related clips within the player with just a few clicks.
This new and improved YouTube interface shows an array of related videos that pops up at the bottom of the screen by just clicking the menu button underneath. Hovering through the thumbnails and clicking through them opens videos right there and then, saving you time and making your viewing experience easier and more “fun”. With the old version of the embedded player, viewers have to navigate away from the site where the embedded video is, and into YouTube’s web browser to see related clips.
YouTube says in its blog, “It’s fun to play with and lets you discover new, related videos without leaving your site. Just hover over the video after pressing play and watch the magic unfold..”
Interestingly, Search Engine Journal and ZDNet reported that the new embedded player also shows related Google Video Ads mixed with the other user-uploaded clips, another clever money-making strategy by the Internet search giant we’ve all known and loved. With this latest innovation, YouTube not only gives users more reason to embed videos onto their sites, it also gives advertisers wider market reach.
Originally posted on June 8, 2007 @ 1:20 pm
Rocketboom launches new sponsorship model, gets YouTube as first major sponsor
Rocketboom launches its new sponsorship model and gets YouTube, the biggest online video site when it comes to audience share, as its first major sponsor.
Andrew Michael Baron, Rocketboom’s founder and video publisher, announced in his blog this new sponsorship model, along with his personal account of the company’s rocky history detailing the site’s financial struggles and successes.
With the new sponsorship model, advertisers basically get (1) a 7-seconder post roll sponsorship gratitude with its company logo and byline, (2) company name and link that travels as metadata to most platforms, (3) sponsor blog page with text, graphics, audio & video, and (4) quicktime chapter marker that allows viewers to easily access sponsor message from chapter drop-down box. All these on top of a high-value audience that Rocketboom has accumulated through the years, as well as archived pages that can easily be searched. Cost per episode is at $3000 until Sept. 1 when it raises up to $5000. Startups get discounts.
“I’m extremely proud to kick off this Monday with YouTube as our first sponsor,” Baron said in his blog. “Regarding the broad topic of video online, in my personal opinion, there is not a single other group in the world that has done more to democratize the moving image.”
With YouTube as its first major sponsor, Rocketboom does not only get in front of a wide online video market, its videos can now also be easily syndicated, shared, embedded, and commented and subscribed to, through Youtube’s web browser. Apparently, Rocketboom does not have a YouTube account prior to this sponsorship deal.
You can view Rocketboom’s YouTube account here, and its new sponsorship package here.
Originally posted on June 5, 2007 @ 2:18 am
Google sites ranked as top U.S. video property for March 2007
comScore released its comScore Video Metrix rankings for March 2007, showing Google sites as the top U.S. streaming video property with 57.4 million unique people streaming and 1.2 billion video streams initiated. YouTube drove the lion’s share of the video streaming activity at the Google sites property with 53.5 million unique streamers and 1.1 billion streams initiated.
March saw Americans consume more than 7 billion video streams online, led by Google sites with 1.2 billion (16.7 percent share of streams). Yahoo! sites ranked second with 434 million streams (6.2 percent), followed by Fox Interactive with 421 million (6.0 percent) and Viacom Digital with 260 million (3.7 percent).
In total, more than 126 million Americans viewed online streaming video in March. Google Sites also captured the largest streaming video audience with more than 57 million unique streamers, followed by Fox Interactive Media with 47.4 million and Yahoo! Sites with 34.5 million.
Originally posted on June 4, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
YouTube and Hearst-Argyle Television signs licensing pact
Hearst-Argyle Television and YouTube announced an agreement to distribute and monetize select Hearst-Argyle television content with Google and YouTube. Starting today, local Hearst-Argyle television stations in five local markets — Boston; Manchester, N.H.; Sacramento; Pittsburgh; and Baltimore — will begin posting local video content to dedicated Channels on YouTube.
“This innovative deal with Google and YouTube fits perfectly within our overall digital strategy of distributing our content on all three screens — the TV, the PC and the mobile phone,” said Terry Mackin, Executive Vice President of Hearst-Argyle Television. “We have invested significant resources in our growing digital media efforts. With Google and YouTube, we can now better engage users and advertisers with our award-winning local video content and with new user-generated content while further broadening our reach beyond the boundaries of our media markets.”
“We’re constantly looking at innovative ways to not only bring the YouTube community the best content out there, but also to find ways to bring them the most relevant programming,” said Jordan Hoffner, Head of Premium Content Partnerships for YouTube. “Local creates relevance and this agreement will ultimately deliver Hearst-Argyle’s programming to an even broader audience looking for local content. We look forward to continue working with the Hearst-Argyle team as we launch new products and services on the local level.”
Originally posted on June 4, 2007 @ 10:01 am
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