AllThingsD » Web video

TV Everywhere's Counting Problem

Peter Kafka — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:30:21 +0000

“TV Everywhere” is supposed to let the traditional TV business hang on to the status quo, by promising viewers they can watch whatever they want, whenever they want it.

As long as they keep paying for TV.

But even if consumers go for that deal, the TV guys need to make sure that advertisers buy in, too.

And that won’t happen until the TV guys can get some basic stuff right. Like counting eyeballs, no matter where they watch a show.

That could still take a while. Witness Comcast’s announcement yesterday, made at the cable industry’s annual convention in Boston, that it has been working with Nielsen on a plan to count viewers when they watched video on an iPad*, using Comcast’s Xfinity app.

For various technical reasons, this is much harder than you’d think, and the two companies have already been beavering away at this for 18 months. Now they’re launching a trial, and Comcast executive Matt Strauss is optimistic that they can work the kinks out by 2013, and advertisers could have true “multiplatform measurement.”

But that only works if all of the big pay-TV providers sign on to the new technology. And the media-measurement business is full of different tests and initiatives, all shooting off in different directions.

Last week, for instance, Spanish-language powerhouse Univision announced a “video neutral” deal with media-buying agency Starcom, which is supposed to mean Univision gets credit for its stuff no matter where anyone watches it. But the announcement describing the deal doesn’t explain how Univision or Starcom will track those eyeballs.

Meanwhile, Nielsen’s rival eyeball-counter comScore recently announced that it had its own technology in place to measure mobile devices like phones and tablets. And earlier this year it announced its own “multiscreen research initiative,” where it paired up with AT&T.

But comScore isn’t tracking any traffic on connected devices, like Google TVs, Apple TVs or Microsoft Xboxes. So if any of that really is taking off, that’s yet another headache.

Shouldn’t this stuff be easier? After all, we’ve figured out how to get the video all of these places — why can’t we count it, too?

On the other hand, recall that the iPhone is still a mere five years old, and the iPad is only two. That’s a blink of an eye for the measurement guys, who move deliberately because there’s billions of ad dollars at stake, no matter what they do. But they may still have to speed things up.

*Or, theoretically, on another tablet.

(Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Liewluck)

Is YouTube's Ad Pitch Working?

Peter Kafka — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:19:25 +0000

Last week, YouTube threw a glitzy party designed to get advertisers to move their money from TV to the giant video site. Is it working?

Capstone analyst Rory Maher thinks so. He’s been polling ad buyers and thinks they may collectively be spending 40 percent more on YouTube than they did a year ago.

He also thinks YouTube’s strategy of grouping its new channels into “genres” — like “women,” “pop culture,” etc. — and selling those as megapackages is attractive to advertisers, and that they’ve at least placed tentative commitments on all 18 packages YouTube is selling.

But those dollars aren’t going to come from TV, Maher thinks. Instead, advertisers will take money they would have spent on other Web ads and move them over to YouTube. That’s still a win for Google, but it’s not the win it really wants.

Last week’s event didn’t win everyone over. Several folks I’ve talked to — including people who are making stuff for YouTube’s channels — say they’re underwhelmed with the actual content they saw onstage at the Beacon Theater.

“It looked like Web video,” one Web video maker told me. That is, it didn’t look like the stuff the TV guys show off at their advertiser events.

Some of the stuff may get close to TV.

YouTube is brimming with pride over WIGS, a series of soapy dramas featuring actresses you’ve heard of, like Jennifer Beals and Julia Stiles (News Corp., which owns this site, had a hand in putting the series together). The teaser trailer they’ve put out looks like a reasonable facsimile of Lifetime, at least to my eyes. And Machinima is planning a series based on Halo, the hit Xbox game, and the few seconds of that they showed looked pretty slick.

It’s more likely that most of the Web video YouTube produces with its channels this year really will end up looking like Web video. But if that doesn’t bother the people who watch it — and there are some 800 million people watching this stuff every month — then it shouldn’t be a problem for the ad guys, either.

Cable Fee Fight Takes Another Turn as Dish Networks Uses iTunes, Netflix and Amazon as Weapons

Peter Kafka — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:07:00 +0000

The basic contours of the TV programmer versus pay-TV provider fight are fundamental and unchanging: The programmer tries to get more money for his stuff, the pay-TV provider says that’s too much, and the two sides chest-bump for a while.

Eventually they settle, and you, the pay-TV customer, ends up paying more.

And that’s what’s happening in the latest dustup between Dish Networks, the satellite TV service, and AMC Networks, the programmers now best known as the guys who bring you “Mad Men,” “The Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad.”

The slight twist here: For argument’s sake, at least, Dish is saying that because AMC is selling digital versions of those shows to other outlets, its hit shows are worth less to Dish subscribers. “It’s actually devalued,” says Dish chairman Charlie Ergen.

The fact that networks are selling or giving away their stuff online has been a minor but growing issue in carriage fights for a while now. But this is the biggest stink that a cable/pay TV provider has made about it, at least in public.*

Dish first brought this up via a press statement last week, but Ergen went on about it at length today during the Dish earnings call.

It’s worth reading. I’ve cleaned up his comments just a bit for clarity (note that AMC Networks includes multiple channels, including AMC, IFC and Sundance):

We have very, very specific viewer measurement. Much more granular than somebody like Nielsen might have. So we’re able to watch our customer base and — we realize we skew a bit more rural — between [AMC Networks] programming, they have very, very low viewership, outside of a few obviously popular [shows] on AMC.

But those particular channels are also available to our customers on a variety of other sources, like iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and so on.

One of the things that programmers have done is that they’ve devalued their programming content by making it available in many multiple outlets. So, when someone asks for price increases …

We just look at it. Our customers are not really saying “We want to pay more money,” they’re saying, “We want more flexibility in our programming, and we don’t want to pay more.”

And when you look at that from a timing perspective, that’s just a contract that we can change. And we believe that the product is actually devalued. Not that there’s not some good programs, but that they’ve been devalued, because you can get it in multiple ways. And customers are asking for more flexibility, or have more flexibility to get the programming. So it’s not quite the same as something that was exclusive.

So we look at it and say, “This is a good opportunity to make a good business judgment call.” And obviously there’s a price where an [AMC Networks] product makes sense. We just don’t think that’s where we are today.

First things first: Obviously it makes the most sense to dump all of this into the “posturing” bucket, and treat it accordingly. The easy money here is to bet that, yet again, Dish and AMC will strike a deal, which Ergen, at the end of his remarks, explicitly says is on the table.

That said, a couple of points:

Most of the big TV programmers seem to agree with Ergen’s point when it comes to free repeats of recent shows. Which is why they have been taking stuff that they’ve been giving away via outlets like Hulu, and either pulling them off the Web entirely, or requiring that customers “authenticate” — prove that they’re paying for cable or satellite TV — in order to see them without delay. Note that Dish was the first pay-TV service to participate in the Fox authentication plan last summer. (Fox is owned by News Corp., as is this Web site.)
TV programmers don’t seem to think that iTunes’ and Amazon’s a la carte sales of shows that aired the night before are devaluing their product. Because they’re still selling them, and by all accounts there doesn’t seem to be a ton of volume for those episodes. If there was, advertisers would squawk long before pay-TV providers would.
The really touchy subject here is what happens to prior-season episodes of AMC hits like “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” on Netflix. Netflix has been arguing that these episodes are big draws for its customers, and that this is good for networks like AMC, because people discover the old shows on Netflix and then watch the new ones as they air. There is some evidence for this, too.
But there is also evidence that Netflix repeats hurt some cable programming — like kids’ shows — too. And that leads to speculation that Viacom and Disney will pull back their shows from the service or raise prices when their contracts expire — even though Netflix is already paying big dollars for them. Netflix will have its hands on “Mad Men” and other AMC shows for at least a couple of years more. But it will be interesting to see what Dish’s complaint means for the renegotiations.

*There is also a wrinkle involving a lawsuit between Dish and a former AMC subsidiary, but that’s par for the course, too. All of these guys sue all of these guys, all the time. No recession, ever, for TV attorneys.

Google Gets Deeper Into the Content Business, by Putting Money Into Machinima

Peter Kafka — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:00:46 +0000

Google has been handing out money to video makers so they’ll make more stuff for YouTube. Now it’s putting money into a video maker itself.

The search giant is set to invest in Machinima, one of the most popular networks on YouTube, via a funding round that should close within a month. Machinima focuses almost exclusively on YouTube videos for and about videogame players, and generates more than a billion views a month.

People familiar with the round tell me it should end up raising more than $30 million, and will value the company at around $190 million, post-funding. No comment from Google or Machinima.

Google will be one of several investors backing Machinima in this round. And even if it put in the entire amount itself, it wouldn’t be material for a company that did $8.1 billion last quarter.

But the move has significant symbolism, because it’s the first time Google has openly backed a content company by taking an equity stake. YouTube is spending more than $100 million on its much-publicized channel program, but it is writing those checks as loans to content makers, and it recoups the money via ad sales.

The deal may ruffle some feathers among other video makers, some of whom already complain that YouTube favors Machinima and a handful of prominent content partners. And people familiar with the funding round tell me that at one point Google considered routing the investment through its Google Ventures arm to try to allay those concerns.

The counter to that argument: Why shouldn’t Google back content producers who make stuff for its properties? After all, YouTube is trying to become more like TV. And most of the big TV networks own their own studios outright.

Discovery Gets a Web Video Arm, Courtesy of Revision3

Peter Kafka — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:00:23 +0000

Web video is supposed to disrupt cable TV. And maybe it will, one day. In the meantime, the cable guys are doing just fine.

Here’s a proof point: Discovery Communications, parent of the Discovery Channel, has purchased Revision3, a Web video start-up that makes and distributes its own shows, like “Tekzilla” and “Epic Meal Time.”

Discovery isn’t disclosing a purchase price, but multiple sources familiar with the transaction tell me the cable guys will pay around $30 million for the start-up. The company ended up raising about $10 million during its six-year lifespan, with the last chunk coming from a group of investors that included Mark Cuban.

All of Revision3’s 50 employees are supposed to stay on, and there’s a chance that they could end up pulling down sizeable earnouts. But they probably won’t, because that’s the nature of earnouts.

TechCrunch reported the deal talks earlier this week.

This deal isn’t an “acqhire,” as Discovery intends to keep Revision3 operating out of its San Francisco headquarters. The idea is that Revision3 will continue to make its own Web shows, which generate some 100 million streams a month, and that Discovery will eventually figure out ways to sync up some of its own stuff into the mix.

“We want them to continue doing what they’re doing, and to continue developing native digital talent,” says Discovery’s digital boss JB Perrette. To date, Discovery hasn’t done a lot with Web video, and has traditionally kept most of its cable programming off the Internet. That has changed a bit recently, via library deals with Amazon and Netflix, and may ramp up a bit more in the future.

The deal comes as big Web players are trying to convince advertisers that their video stuff is just as good as TV — see Google’s big show in New York last night.

But Discovery thinks there’s still a distinction between TV and the Web — which is why it wanted to buy Revision3 in the first place.

“We produce content on a $500,000 to $750,000-an-hour scale,” Perrette says. “Producing something at a tenth of that cost means it has to be very different.”

Meanwhile, Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback, who used to write blog posts with titles like “Cable TV Is Screwd,” now says there’s life in the cable business, after all. “One’s not going to destroy the other,” he says. “I don’t think any new media destroys the other. I think it just creates its own path.”

How to Get Into YouTube's Super-Exclusive Advertiser Event Tomorrow

Peter Kafka — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:57:54 +0000

So this is partly a white whine and partly a humblebrag. But really, it’s a public service message for the people who plan on coming to YouTube’s big, standing-room only advertiser showcase tomorrow in New York City: Find a printer.

Really! Because you’ll need to get to one between now and 6 pm Wednesday when the event kicks off, in order to… print out your invitation. See below:

I know what you’re thinking: It says you have to print this thing out. But you don’t really have to, right? Because you don’t need a paper ticket to get on an airplane these days. Surely the geniuses at Google — the guys who are making virtual reality glasses — could figure out how to check you in digitally to an ad event.

Right?

Nope, says a YouTube rep. Bring that paper. See you there!

(Shutterstock/Alice Day)

Big Web Video's Big Star Is … Anthony Zuiker?

Peter Kafka — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:40:21 +0000

Have you been on TV before? Have you made something that has been on TV before?

Then the big Web video companies would like to talk to you: They’re looking for recognizable names and faces they can bring in front of advertisers, so they can move some of those really big TV dollars over to the Web.

That’s why Google trotted out Anthony Zuiker, the guy behind “CSI,” when it made its first big pitch to marketers back in January. And when Yahoo made its own pitch to advertisers in New York yesterday, it devoted plenty of stage time to … Anthony Zuiker.

Anthony Zuiker? Yep. There were plenty of other famous people on hand for Yahoo’s pitch, too — notably, Katie Couric, who wore some very high, very ambitious heels and totally pulled them off.

But Zuiker got his own solo spotlight, where he got to pitch “Cybergeddon,” a 90-minute sci-fi movie that Yahoo will start showing in 10-minute segments in September.

It’s a fair bet that most of the crowd (and most of you) would have a hard time identifying Zuiker on the street. But he’s the cabbie-turned-writer who created “CSI,” and “CSI” has generated a gazillion dollars for CBS, so the marketing message here is clear: Hey! This guy could do anything he wants, and he wants to make Web video. So pay attention — and pay up, please.

Zuiker hasn’t actually abandoned his TV roots. He has a production deal with ABC, and thinks that some of the Web stuff he’s doing could end up migrating to the biggish screen one day, too. But he’s clearly reveling in the freedom and flexibility that the Web offers — and the stage time, too.

We talked briefly after his presentation yesterday:

[ See post to watch video ]

Netflix Posts an In-Line Quarter, but Investors Balk (Updated)

Peter Kafka — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:06:53 +0000

Reed Hastings had a good Q1, and says the rest of the year will be good, too. Wall Street doesn’t believe him, and is hammering the stock. His conference call, which starts at 6 pm ET, should be interesting.
—————
Earlier:

First look at Netflix numbers: A loss of $0.08 a share on revenue of $870 million. Wall Street was expecting revenues of $855 million and a loss of $0.27 a share. The crucial number: 23.41 million domestic streaming subscribers. Netflix had told investors to expect 22.8 million to 23.6 million.

Netflix had previously said it might lose money throughout 2012, but now says things could get better sooner, and predicts that it may turn a profit in Q2. “The improvement in the outlook is a result of continued member growth (both domestically and internationally), as well as increased efficiency of our content and marketing spending,” CEO Reed Hastings writes in his shareholder letter.

But the market isn’t happy with something — shares are down 16 percent — so we’ll try to figure out why. Perhaps this: “Q2 net adds will be below those of 2010, despite Q2 gross adds following the traditional seasonal pattern, and despite us expecting to match 2010 in annual net additions,” Hastings writes. He adds: “We see nothing new or particularly concerning this quarter to date in our member viewing, acquisition and retention. All are healthy.”

Someone disagrees.

(Update: OK, here’s Citi’s Mark Mahaney’s take on the market’s reaction. As I suspected, it is about the paragraph above — Hastings is saying subscriber growth will slow next quarter, but net out just fine for the year, and Wall Street doesn’t believe him.

“We believe this is due to concerns over the company’s Domestic Streaming Net Adds outlook — 500K Net Adds in Q2 vs. the Street at 1.2MM. NFLX is, however, laying out an outlook for 7MM Domestic Streaming Adds in 2011. This is higher than our 5MM estimate, and we believe is in-line with or higher than most Street estimates. The issue is market skepticism that NFLX can reach this level given the June Quarter guide.”)

Per usual, Hastings notes competition from Amazon and Hulu, and now Comcast’s Streampix offering. Also per usual, he says he can’t see any near-term effect from those services on his business, but promises to “watch them carefully.” And again, he argues that his long-term competition comes from the cable guys, and the promise of their “TV Everywhere” strategy.

Hastings also said the company’s expansion into U.K. and Ireland is promising. But he acknowledges what many Wall Street analysts have already concluded: Latin America will be a challenge. “The odds of us building a large, profitable business in Latin America are very good, but it will take longer than we initially thought.”

Again, here’s the “cheat sheet” from Citi’s Mark Mahaney so you can try to interpret the numbers yourself.

"Use a Bear, if Possible." Viral Video Tips From the Dollar Shave Club Dude.

Peter Kafka — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:30:31 +0000

We all know the story of the Dollar Shave Club video. It was really funny, it went viral, and it helped the razor-selling start-up that created it make a huge splash.

So the lesson here is clear: If you want your start-up to break out from the pack, you need a viral video — five million YouTube views and counting — too. Right?

Right. Except you probably can’t make a viral video. Because if it were easy to do it, then everyone would do it.

Still, you can improve your odds. Dollar Shave CEO Michael Dubin stopped by the Ad Age conference this week (he was picking up a “Viral Video” award) and gave us a couple minutes and a couple tips. One how-to he could have mentioned to me beforehand — don’t shoot your stuff in a stairwell.

[ See post to watch video ]

Side note: The thing I find most interesting about the Dollar Shave Club video is that Dubin had the video before he had the start-up: He shot a rough cut of the clip last fall and used that as part of his funding pitch. And once he rounded up his money — from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins — he figured he’d use the clip as an ancillary bit of media, not his primary launch tool.

His backers set him straight, he says. “They told me, ‘The video is the thing,’” he says. And they were right.

Live, on Tape, Via the Internet: WikiLeaks, the TV Show

Peter Kafka — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:10:28 +0000

Sooner or later, everyone with access to a video camera, a couple chairs and a broadband connection decides they want to get into the Charlie Rose business. Hence “The World Tomorrow,” from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Here’s the promo, released this morning. The first episode, featuring Assange chatting up bird-flipping Super Bowl performer M.I.A., runs April 17. WikiLeaks says you should be able to watch it on the Web and via Russian cable news network RT, which you can get in the U.S. via the Dish Network and on some Comcast and Time Warner Cable systems.

WikiLeaks says Assange has taped 12 of these so far. I hope one of the guests turns out to be Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader.

Paramount, Google Link Up for Movie Rentals

Peter Kafka — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:00:22 +0000

Viacom and Google are locked in a copyright lawsuit that is nearly five years old. But that doesn’t mean the companies can’t do business together.

This morning, for example, Google’s YouTube is announcing a deal to rent movies from Viacom’s Paramount studio. The move will bring some 500 titles to Google, ranging from newish hits like the “Transformers” movies to oldies like “The Godfather” trilogy; users will also be able to rent the movies from Google’s new Google Play hub.

The announcement means that Google, which has been struggling for years to figure out Hollywood, now has rental deals with five of the six big studios: Paramount, Sony, Time Warner’s Warner Bros., Disney, and Comcast’s Universal.

The lone holdout is 20th Century Fox, which, like this Web site, is owned by News Corp. All six studios rent their movies via Apple’s iTunes. It’s worth noting that Paramount is one of the few studios that has experimented with direct-to-customer sales and rentals, via its own Web site.

Reed Hastings Is Just Like You -- He Complains About the Cable Guys on Facebook

Peter Kafka — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:13:07 +0000

Last fall, Reed Hastings took to Facebook to field his customers’ complaints. Now he’s using Facebook to complain to Comcast.

Here’s a screenshot of the Netflix CEO’s most recent post, where he gripes that Comcast won’t let its subscribers watch HBO Go — the pay channel’s “TV Everywhere” app — via an Xbox 360, and goes on to talk about the way the cable provider enforces its broadband usage cap.

Both of these complaints are the kind of thing that most people don’t care about, but vex a certain kind of technically savvy user. They are important, though, because they underscore some of the tensions between programmers and providers that have made “TV Everywhere” more conceptual than it ought to be, nearly three years after Time Warner and Comcast announced a grand launch plan.

Still, this is one of those stories where the form matters more than the content — it’s just interesting to see the head of a public company handling company business on Facebook. Then again, Hastings happens to be on Facebook’s board of directors.

Also note that Hastings doesn’t just gripe about Comcast on Facebook. Here he is a couple days ago, praising the company’s new Xbox app, and complimenting/wooing Comcast executive Sam Schwartz. And then he gripes, just a tiny bit, about Streampix, Comcast’s sorta-kinda Netflix-killer.

HuffPo Co-Founder Ken Lerer's Stealthy Start-Up Aims at CNN, Fox

Peter Kafka — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:48:46 +0000

Ken Lerer helped build an Internet news powerhouse out of thin air. Now he wants to do it again.

The Huffington Post co-founder, who sold his site to AOL a year ago, is working on another Web news start-up. But Lerer isn’t trying to replicate his old site. Instead, he’s trying to create a digital video news operation built to attract a generation of Web natives who watch Jon Stewart but not CNN or Fox News.

People who have heard Lerer pitch the start-up say he has been vague about the details but broad about his ambitions. Here’s what I know for now, which doesn’t include the project’s name:

The site/service is a joint venture between Lerer’s Lerer Ventures and Bedrocket Media, the video start-up that Lerer invested in last year.
Lerer is telling potential investors and employees that he’ll be actively involved in the project, along with former HuffPo CEO Eric Hippeau and Bedrocket’s Brian Bedol.
The service, which will launch this summer in advance of the U.S. presidential elections, will use a mix of livestreaming video and taped reports, and a mix of professionally produced segments along with contributions from amateurs.
While Bedrocket has landed four YouTube “channel” deals for its programming, the new venture won’t be confined to any particular platform. Lerer and company have been promoting the idea that the service will rely heavily on social media like Facebook and Twitter for distribution.
The site/service has started hiring production/back-end staff but hasn’t brought in “on air” talent yet. When it does, it will likely look for relatively unknown reporters, not established/expensive TV folks.

There are plenty of other folks trying to figure out how bring TV-style news to the Web, including the TV people themselves. And Web sites that have their roots in “print” journalism are diving into video news, too. That formula usually involves positioning a couple reporters in front of a newsroom camera to discuss the day’s events (if you’d like to see me talk, for instance, I’ll be on The Wall Street Journal’s “Digits” show at 1 pm ET today). Interesting to see if Lerer and company can figure out a new take.

(Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Daboost)

Apple's TV Remote of the Future? It's Already Here, In Your Hands.

Peter Kafka — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:12:37 +0000

It’s possible that, one day, Tim Cook will stand up onstage and show off a “real” Apple TV set — an integrated box/screen/entertainment device – that will replace whatever’s sitting in your living room now.

Another possibility: Over time, Apple simply builds an Apple TV set right in front of us, in bits and pieces — so slowly that we don’t really notice it.

Take the remote, for instance. PatentlyApple has its hands on an Apple application for an “advanced TV remote” that would offer some cool features. Like the ability to automatically scan your other devices and figure out the right code to control them, instead of requiring users to use a combination of manuals and trial and error.

At least as important is that, while Apple’s patent, filed back in 2010, could be a standalone device, the application makes it seem much more likely that users will use their iPhones, iPods or iPads to control their TVs.

Which makes sense, because Apple is already offering a “Remote” iOS app that handles some basic functions for its existing Apple TV. That is: There’s a good chance you’re just a download away from owning a bona-fide Apple TV remote already.

This kind of incremental building may be even more important on the content side, which is the real key to an Apple TV: If it’s simply a very nice screen that offers the same content choices that TV viewers already have, then it’s just a very nice screen. And for years, Apple has been making attempts to wrangle different TV choices, at different price points, without much success.

But instead of one grand, sweeping video package, Apple may end up just cobbling together an array of offerings, piece by piece.

To wit: The latest refresh of Apple TV didn’t offer any new content, but it did make it easier for Apple users to buy the content that’s already there. Anyone with an iTunes account can subscribe to Netflix, and soon, Major League Baseball’s MLB.TV service, directly from Apple, without having to pull out a credit card again.

Netflix + iTunes + baseball games won’t make up a full suite of programming choices for most people. But now that Reed Hastings and Bob Bowman have agreed to let Tim Cook handle their billing for them, more media moguls will likely follow in their footsteps. Get enough of them in there, and you could end up with something really compelling.

Vimeo Gets a New Boss: AOL, Yahoo Vet Kerry Trainor

Peter Kafka — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:21:13 +0000

Earlier this year, video site Vimeo showed off a new look. Now it has a new CEO: Kerry Trainor, who just left his job overseeing AOL’s entertainment and video properties.

Trainor replaces Dae Mellencamp, who has been running the site since 2009. Vimeo says she’ll stay on as president.

This is an interesting time for Vimeo, which started as a side project for the College Humor crew way back in 2004, and migrated to IAC when Barry Diller bought the comedy site. Since then, Vimeo has occupied a weird space in IAC’s portfolio. It’s a small player in a booming industry — not big enough to attract much of Diller’s time or resources, but perpetually promising enough not to kill off.

To its credit, Vimeo has never tried to compete directly with YouTube. It has a tiny fraction of Google’s audience — it claims 70 million uniques, compared to YouTube’s 800 million-plus — and has only grudgingly pursued advertising.

Instead it has tried to stake out a niche as a high-end video site for a sliver of people who care about video quality, and offers a premium version for users who want more features, etc. But that’s not a huge business, either, and I’d be shocked if the company was making money.

So what now? I wouldn’t be surprised to see Vimeo explore a more aggressive approach to ads, given Trainor’s background — he was a well-regarded ad guy at Yahoo, and FlipGloss, the start-up he co-founded, was an attempt to create “magazine-style” advertising for Web sites.

Last month, PandoDaily reported that IAC was trying to “sell” Vimeo; when I asked Diller about that, he said Vimeo is not for sale, and that the story had exaggerated his interest in creating a separate corporate struture for Vimeo, like Condé Nast has done with Reddit.

Regardless, if Diller wants to be in a position to do anything with Vimeo, the company will eventually need to start generating some real revenue. Landing Trainor is a sign he’s getting more serious about that.

Jon Stewart Solves the Homeless-Hotspot Debate

Peter Kafka — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:59:44 +0000

Turning homeless people into human hotspots at SXSW was a terrible idea. But one of the bizarre features of our media culture is that some people feel compelled to argue otherwise. Luckily, our media culture also features Jon Stewart.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Amazon Adds Discovery Shows to Streaming Service

Peter Kafka — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:41:48 +0000

Amazon has added shows from Discovery’s cable networks to its “Prime Instant Video” service, which offers free videos for Amazon Prime members. Like other video licensing deals Amazon has struck, this one will give it access to “library” content from channels like Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet. Amazon says the deal brings its Prime catalog to more than 17,000 titles. Discovery and Netflix struck a similar deal last year.

Please Don't Tell Me What You're Watching on Netflix

Peter Kafka — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:00:11 +0000

Facebook’s “frictionless sharing” system means you end up telling your friends about everything you’re doing, whether they want to know or not. Netflix wants to tie this into its streaming service, but can’t, because of a U.S. privacy law.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who is also a Facebook board member, is backing a bill that would change the law. Right now, it’s tied up in the Senate.

But if it passes, don’t expect Netflix subscribers to thank him. They have absolutely no desire to learn what their Facebook pals are watching.

That’s the no-doubt-about-it conclusion from a new survey commissioned by Citi analyst Mark Mahaney: He finds that seven out of 10 Netflix subs are “not at all interested” in “seeing what [their] FB friends have watched on Netflix.”

Here’s what that looks like in a bar chart:

As Mahaney notes, it’s possible that the folks he surveyed just don’t know how cool it will be to learn that their pals are watching “Mad Men” or “Dora the Explorer” or whatever. And that if it becomes possible, they’ll change their mind.

But it’s worth noting that Hulu has synced up with Facebook (I’ve never really understood why it’s not constrained by the same law, but whatever). And so far I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Facebook pal tell me what they’re watching there.

There are a bunch of ways to explain that nonscientific observation away. But my gut is that people are actually sort of private about a lot of their video viewing, and don’t want to automatically share it with the Web.

It’s not like Spotify, where even though you may not be proud that you were listening to .38 Special, you don’t really care if anyone knows.

Yes, lots of people will tell you — on Facebook or Twitter, or maybe even one of those TV check-in services — about a specific show they’re watching.* But that’s a lot different from a deluge, which is what Facebook seems to want.

And Netflix users, at least, want no part of it.

*I just finished season 4 of “Breaking Bad” this weekend. So great. I literally yelped in delight at the end of the last five or six episodes.

(Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Everett Collection)

Discovery Vet Kelly Day Is Blip's New Boss

Peter Kafka — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:00:17 +0000

Web video distributor Blip has a new CEO: Discovery’s Kelly Day, who had been at the cable network for seven years, most recently as the head of its U.S. Web sites and e-commerce.

Day takes the spot vacated by Blip founder Mike Hudack, who left the company last fall. She’s one of several top hires with traditional media credentials that the Web video company has made in recent years.

COO Steve Brookstein, who joined a year ago, spent most of his career at cable providers like Comcast. And sales chief Evan Gotlib came to Blip after stints at Conde Nast, Time Inc. and Disney.

Blip was one of many Web video start-ups created in the wake of YouTube, and it deserves credit simply for sticking around since then. Blip’s co-founders were smart enough not to make it a (would-be) YouTube competitor, and focused instead on helping video creators distribute and sell their stuff on other sites.

By last year, that business was generating around $10 million a year, and Blip now says the clips it distributes generate around 300 million video views a month. Which sounds big, unless you compare it to YouTube, which generates four billion views a day.

Blip doesn’t need to worry about YouTube’s scale, per se, but it does need to pay attention to the video giant’s renewed focus on “professional” content. That means clips from Hollywood talent, but also from the new breed of Web video natives that Blip has made its living helping out.

Last year, YouTube bought onetime Blip rival Next New Networks, specifically so it could increase its outreach to video creators. This year, it upped the ante by leasing out a huge warehouse complex in L.A., where it will provide studio space and advice to video creators. Day has her work cut out for her.

Exactly How Much Did That Skateboarding Dog Earn?

Peter Kafka — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:00:09 +0000

That’s a cool YouTube video you made. How much money is it making you?

If you distribute your own clips on the world’s biggest video site, that’s easy enough to figure out: You look at the site’s analytics tool, which well tell you exactly how much ad revenue the video is generating.

But if you’ve signed up with one of a growing number of YouTube networks, which promise to increase your distribution and dollars in return for a cut, that can get a little fuzzier. YouTube provides the information to the networks, but they’re not required to pass it along to their partners.

Now one of the bigger networks, Maker Studios, is pledging to make all of its data available to all of its creators.

In a note he sent to the company’s video-making partners earlier this week, CEO Danny Zappin says Maker is “the first Network to bring this feature to all of our partners.” You can see a sample of what that dashboard looks like, below — note that the estimated earnings number is a gross revenue figure, before Maker takes its cut.

All of this is very inside baseball, but there’s a bigger picture here: Maker and other networks are starting to grapple for the services of YouTube stars and would-be stars. Odd that “transparency” can count as a competitive advantage, but if Maker’s peers don’t follow suit, it will be.

Here's What a Netflix-Cable Deal Could Look Like: The One That Netflix Just Announced With Apple

Peter Kafka — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:43:16 +0000

The new Apple TV is a fairly incremental technical upgrade. But the refresh also includes at least one interesting business deal: Apple will let users sign up for Netflix directly from the device, and will let them pay for the monthly streaming service using their iTunes account.

That’s the first time Netflix has handed off its customer billing to a third party. And it’s a significant step for Reed Hastings and company.

For starters, it will make it that much easier for Netflix to sign up more users. But it also sets up a model for a possible Netflix-cable provider deal.

Reuters reported yesterday that Hastings was looking to bundle his service with pay-TV operators, and to deliver movies and TV shows through cable providers’ set-top boxes. But people familiar with his thinking tell me the Apple TV model is a more plausible tie-up: Netflix would be happy to let cable operators take care of billing, but wants to send its video over the Web, just like it always has.

That assumes that the cable guys buy the argument Hastings has been making for some time — that his service isn’t for cord-cutters, but for people who like watching lots of video, and don’t mind paying another $8 for what is essentially another cable channel.

How much would Netflix be willing to pay to let a third party market its service and take on billing duties as well? I don’t know.

But I have a hunch that that it’s less than the 30 percent per month that Apple has previously required from subscription services that want to let users sign up via its iOS devices.

One hint: Though you’ll now be able to sign up for Netflix using Apple TV, you still won’t be able to do that with Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPods. Those devices will still require you to sign up somewhere else before you can stream video on their screens.

Worth noting that Netflix isn’t the only outside service handing over billing to Apple. Major League Baseball is doing the same thing with its app, and presumably we’ll see more down the line. Curious to see if Hulu Plus joins in.

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HBO Deals Keep Fox, Universal Out of New iCloud Movie Service

Peter Kafka — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:00:19 +0000

As widely predicted, Apple has updated its Apple TV accessory. This isn’t an overhaul, but an update: The new box offers better resolution, and software upgrades.

The new device will support video in 1080p, and Apple will now allow users to re-download movies they’ve already purchased from iTunes, like they’ve already been able to do with TV shows, via Apple’s iCloud service. No details yet on whether this means all movies from all studios. If I had to bet, I’d guess that some studios may not participate, but I’ll ask around.

Update: A studio executive tells me that Apple does not have all six of the major studios on board. And here’s confirmation from a source with first-hand knowledge: News Corp.’s Fox and Comcast’s Universal aren’t in, because they have preexisting deals with Time Warner’s HBO that give the pay-TV service exclusive “windows.” (News Corp. also owns this Web site.)

That means that if you bought, say, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” from iTunes earlier this year, you won’t be able to re-watch it on Apple TV.

But that should get sorted out eventually, says HBO spokesman Jeff Cusson. “With every technological enhancement, we have always been able to find common ground with our studio partners, and we’re sure that will be the result here.”

The price for the device remains the same: $99. The upgraded boxes will be available next week, says Apple CEO Tim Cook.

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How to Make Web Video That Looks Like TV: Make Web Video About a TV Show

Peter Kafka — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:00:28 +0000

YouTube is spending more than $100 million to launch a series of “channels,” which are supposed to make the site more appealing to users and advertisers.

But you don’t need a YouTube deal, or YouTube’s money, to launch a channel with nice-looking content.

You can do it the old-fashioned way, and get an advertiser to foot the bill.

That’s what Outrigger Media, a Web video sales start-up, has done with Tumi, the high-end luggage company, and Road Bite TV.

Road Bite TV is a mashup, conceptually speaking, between TV’s Food Channel and Travel Channel. Outrigger doesn’t work with either cable channel, but it is leaning on one of their stars, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, to launch the thing.

Outrigger is piggybacking on Bourdain’s globe-hopping shows by getting producers Zero Point Zero, who put together Bourdain’s “No Reservations” and “The Layover,” to shoot a series of behind-the-scenes vignettes. Tumi underwrites the series in exchange for prominent placement in the clips (see below), as well as pre-roll ads and other promotional spots. (Zero Point Zero wants to make it clear that while Bourdain is on camera, he’s not part of the deal. Here’s more clarification from the producers: “There was no deal between Anthony Bourdain and Outrigger to launch Road Bite TV. Zero Point Zero Production was commissioned to create the content for Outrigger with a separate production crew.”)

Outrigger CEO Mike Henry says the first eight clips (he’s got another eight in the works) cost something in the “low-mid six figures” to produce. That gets him around half an hour of content, which makes it expensive by Web video standards, and dirt cheap by TV standards.

The finished product sort of straddles the line between the two. Interesting, but you’re not going to watch 30 minutes in a row.

What I’m really waiting for is the moment when “No Reservations” — or something like it — appears as a Web-only show. That is — something that’s as good as a good reality TV show, but which just happens to be running on the Web.

Free Web video sites still don’t generate enough money to support a TV-quality reality show (subscription services like Netflix are a different story), but those costs should keep coming down. And if YouTube is successful, ad dollars will go up, and we’ll get to that point sooner than later.

Warner Music's YouTube Channel Is Not Not the Anti-Vevo

Peter Kafka — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:38:19 +0000

Three of the big music labels distribute their clips through Vevo, the online video heavyweight. Warner Music works on its own, via a standalone deal it cut with YouTube a couple of years ago.

Now Warner has another music deal with YouTube, but this one has a twist. Warner will launch a new “channel” with the video giant, which will feature even more content from the label’s artists.

The idea has a business logic to it, but it’s hard to see the consumer appeal behind “The Warner Sound.” Because, with a couple of minor exceptions, people aren’t fans of labels — they’re fans of specific artists, songs and genres.

But at least the channel is trying to do something a bit different here — instead of showcasing music videos you can see other places, it’s going to create brand-new stuff. Some examples, via a press release:

CeeLo Green Presents ManTazia: “Directed, shaped and cut in 2D Jankyvision, each episode of this short-form series will take you on an adventure into the lush imagination of CeeLo Green.”
Untitled: “Hot on the heels of his award-winning ‘A Tribe Called Quest’ documentary, actor and director Michael Rapaport presents this documentary series featuring different WMG artists.”
Staged: “This show takes the famous lyrics of top stars and re-imagines them as the script of a drama. Each episode will be in a different style and feature recognizable lyrics from a WMG artist.”
The Live Room: “Intimate performances shot in legendary recording studios around the world.”
Countdown to … : “An up-close look at the last frenetic days before a hotly-anticipated album comes out. In the first instalment, teen rap sensation Diggy criss-crosses the country headlining tours, shooting music videos, meeting fans and even doing homework.”
Finding Cody Simpson: “Using YouTube’s annotation technology, fans will be able to create their own Cody Simpson movie.”

Here’s a teaser clip. The channel is supposed to launch later this month, in conjunction with SXSW.

YouTube Boss Salar Kamangar Takes On TV: The Full Dive Into Media Interview

Peter Kafka — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:38:42 +0000

Some 800 million people visit YouTube every month, and they watch and upload a staggering amount of video there every day. It works really, really well.

So why is Google trying to overhaul the site, using “channels” filled with clips from professionals?

YouTube head Salar Kamangar has a bunch of answers for this question, but eventually you can get to the one that really matters: He thinks that making the site look more like traditional TV will convince marketers to pay traditional TV ad rates.

He explained the concept at D: Dive Into Media last month: “If you see a dog on a skateboard video, the CPMs, the cost per thousand impressions, are about $2. Now, if you package that [video] as part of a dog lover’s channel or a skateboarding interest channel, that same video can command a $20 CPM.”

YouTube is going to depend on advertising for most of its revenue, but Kamangar also discussed YouTube’s interest in offering subscription services down the road. Given that Kamangar, Google’s ninth employee, oversees all of the company’s video efforts, that’s worth keeping in mind as it edges closer to selling cable TV.

[ See post to watch video ]