Automatic video editor Magisto is now open to the public. A public which is taking more video footage than ever thanks to smartphones, but which has less time than ever to edit them before posting to the Web. These guys could be onto something.

Magisto Begins

How often have you shot hours of video and promised yourself that one day soon you’ll find the time to edit it down to the bare essentials, deleting all the parts that don’t matter, that you didn’t look right, that won’t need keeping for your grandkids to look at?

Magisto is hoping that lots of you out there answered with a resounding chorus of, “I do it all the time!” Because anyone that did is a potential customer for the Web application which automatically (perhaps automagically is more fitting) edits your videos.

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We’ve looked at the facts surrounding what Netflix has been doing in the past couple of days. Now it’s time to wax lyrical with a heavy dose of opinion about the how this flourishing company seems to have made several wrong moves. But perhaps hasn’t, actually.

Netflix and/or Qwikster

It seems as though Netflix has completely lost the plot. Changing the pricing structure annoyed a lot of people, and some customers have reacted by canceling their subscriptions and badmouthing the company they once loved around the Web. But there is a definite method to Netflix’ supposed madness, and Reed Hastings is a logical man.

Netflix needed to make a choice for the future. For too long it has been trying to juggle both services, so why not give people a clear choice: Netflix for streaming, Qwikster for DVDs (and games). If Qwikster dies as physical formats become increasingly redundant then so be it, Netflix will still remain strong, resilient, and here for the long-haul.

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So much has happened with Netflix in the past couple of days that I felt it important to spell out the actual facts of what has happened, what is happening, and what is likely to happen in the future. The opinion will come a little later…

Has Happened

Netflix has, for some time, been transitioning into a streaming-only company. The moves were subtle at first, with streaming given top billing, and CEO Reed Hastings signaling the intent in quarterly financial reports. But things changed in July when Netflix announced plans to drop its dual-service subscription plan and instead offer both separately.

This meant those who only streamed or only received DVDs in the mail paid $2-per-month less, but those who wanted to continue doing both faced a 60 percent increase from $9.99-per-month to $15.98-per-month. The customers were livid, and when the price changes came into effect Netflix lowered its estimates for the quarter. This led to its stock tanking, and eventually to Hastings taking bold action.

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GBTV is now on the air, or on the Web, at least, with the first new Glenn Beck Program having streamed online. But will Glenn Beck actually make money from an Internet-only, subscription-based television network? Most analysts seem to think so, amazingly.

GBTV

In June Glenn Beck launched GBTV, an online television channel only available to subscribers (paying between $4.95 and $9.95-per-month). This came after Beck parted company with Fox News.

The mainstay of GBTV is a two-hour show similar in style to his old network offering. And the first episode of that show has now played out live to an estimated 230,000 people who have already stumped up the cash.

To mark the occasion The Wall Street Journal has taken a long, hard look at the subscription model Beck has used and asked whether the ultra-conservative host will be able to make this work.

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Well, that happened quicker than expected. Hulu has now arrived in Japan, and with U.S. content included as well. But despite the international expansion, the sale of Hulu is still going through, with the various bids now being considered.

Hulu Expands

Hulu has rolled out its first international service in Japan just a few weeks after first announcing its plans to launch in the heart of Asia. But Japanese consumers are being asked to pay through the nose for the subscription service. And all before any Japanese broadcasters are even on board.

Hulu was expected to expand to Europe first but after having no luck in persuading U.K. broadcasters to supply content the company backed out. Japan and Australia were then targeted, and the former has been the first to debut. The latter still hasn’t been officially announced.

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Most startups struggle to reach any real level of market penetration. But the guys at Justin.tv seem to be making a habit of starting projects which are really becoming a force to be reckoned with. Leading to them being left to fend for themselves.

Socialcam Startup

In the spring of 2011 Justin.tv launched a mobile sharing app that was designed to do for video what Instagram has done for photos. That being allowing smartphone users to share them with others across a range of platforms, social networks, and websites easily.

In the six months since the app made its debut it has become a major player in the market alongside the likes of BlipSnip, Viddy, and Vlix. So much so that Socialcam is being spun off from Justin.tv to be its own, independent entity housed in Founders Den in San Francisco.

Justin.tv co-founder and current CEO will be going with it and taking a small band of select engineers with him. Justin.tv will retain a stake in the new company, with additional funding and backers now being actively sought.

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Movieclips was good, now it’s great. And the fact that its range of movie clips (as the name implies) will now be seen on YouTube means it’s about to go mainstream in a big way.

Movieclips

I first covered Movieclips almost two years ago when it first launched in the U.S. with a healthy 12,000 clips. There were a few issues, such as a clunky user interface and slow loading-times, but ultimately the site showed a lot of promise.

Much has happened since then. First off, the number of clips has risen to 20,000. The site has also been improved beyond reproach and the ways and means of searching for the clip you want to see via the added meta-data have been expanded.

Unfortunately Disney is still not on board, which means Movieclips is still missing content from one of the major studios. Still, six out of seven isn’t bad. There’s also the little matter of a new round of funding worth $7 million and some even bigger news…

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