It’s a known fact that adding a photo or photos to an eBay listing (or Craigslist, or any of the other options open to sellers) can massively increase the chance of a successful sale.

Another way to boost your chances of getting a good price is by using a photo of the actual item rather than a stock image of the product weaned from the manufacturer’s site.

Prospective buyers don’t just want to read a description, they want to see exactly what they would be spending their money on since some sellers can be very vague with their words.

Picture Managers

For this reason, several services such as Auctiva, MyEasyPics, BiggerBids, and even eBay’s own Picture Manager have become profitable in offering indispensable tools to eBay sellers.

Now, with the popularity of online video rapidly growing, vzaar is aiming to take eBay auctions to the next level by allowing sellers to include short video ads (2-3 minutes maximum) of their items within listings… YouTube-style. 

(more…)

When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006, my guess would be they planned to make some money out of it. So far though, that hasn’t happened.

YouTube has experimented with video advert formats, but overall, the site remains an ad-free, and hence profit-free Web destination.

Eric Schmidt Speaks

It seems that may all be about to change however, after Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo in an interview to be screened later today.

(more…)

Metacafe was once the hottest video sharing site, and although it’s growth has seemed to falter over the past year, it still boasted 28 million unique visitors during March.

But that hasn’t stopped the service’s founders, Arik Czerniak and Ofer Adler, from leaving the company, and cashing in their shares to the tune of $5 million on their way out of the door.

No Longer CEO

Czerniak had already stepped down as CEO of the company in February 2007, just months after the company was reportedly offered to interested buyers for between $200 and $300 million.

Now, according to Israeli newspaper The Marker, both he and fellow founder Adler have left the company for good. Between them the pair are thought to have held only 5% of the company’s shares.

(more…)

Warner Bros. today announced two new websites, which will form part of its overall online strategy, and are also likely to increase interest in Web television as a serious alternative to traditional TV.

It will be bringing back the WB network TV brand, which existed as a female targeted television channel before being merged with Fox’s UPN Network, as an online destination at TheWB.com.

Ad Supported Video On Demand

This will be an ad supported video on demand venture which is hoped to become a viable location for new shows, which will be tested on the Web before possibly being given a network television slot.

(more…)

BSkyB is looking to launch Picnic, a pay-TV service with Sky Sports 1, Sky Movies, Sky One, a children’s channel and a factual channel.

The current plan is to broadcast the channels at various times of the day on MPEG-2 streams, which would be sent to a DSL set-top box likely to be a hybrid of an existing Freeview box.

Permission For IPTV

However, Sky has asked Ofcom for permission to also use IPTV to offer Sky channels over the Web. They also want to employ MPEG-4 to enable Sky News to broadcast 24 hours a day.

(more…)

The BBC iPlayer has surprised everyone, even the BBC itself, with the amount of viewers it has picked up since it’s relaunch over Christmas. But not everyone is happy with that success.

James Murdoch (yes, media chief Rupert’s son) is the Chairman of BSkyB, a pay television service in the UK, has criticised the service, and almost accused it of monopolizing the business of on-demand - surprise surprise.

(more…)

Games console manufacturers are slowly but surely realising the potential for Web video, and are gradually turning their consoles in to viable distribution methods for it.

We’ve already seen the Wii getting the BBC iPlayer, with the PS3 expected to follow soon. We’ve also seen rumours that Sony are soon to launch an online video service for the Playstation 3 to rival Apple TV.

Now, Sony and Sky Television have announced they are teaming up to bring the first official PlayStation Portable video download service to Europe.

(more…)