I’ve been a big fan of the BBC iPlayer ever since it first launched this time last year. And so it is with great delight to now find that the BBC have given the free Web TV service a rebuild.

The new BBC iPlayer version 2.0 is available from today in beta form, with the current software being put out to pasture on July 7th. With such a short testing period, the BBC needs all the feedback it can get.

Radio Now Included

So what’s new? The most obvious new feature is the integration between television and radio, with the BBC’s on-demand radio service now becoming part of the iPlayer.

The old static iPlayer landing page has been revamped to become a new dynamic page with many more interactive features, and a much more Web 2.0 feel to it. It’s confusing at first but after a while shows itself to be much more user-friendly.

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You may or may not have heard of Fred, but it doesn’t really matter, as many people have. In fact, Fred is probably the hottest thing on YouTube right now, with the possible exception of Avril Lavigne who is about to overtake The Evolution Of Dance as most watched video ever.

Which is pretty amazing seeing as Fred is just the 6-year-old alter-ego of a 14-year-old kid from Nebraska. And all he does is speak in a squeaky voice and mug to camera.

Who, What, Why?

So why the success? And where has it come from all of a sudden? Fred is one of those Internet phenomenons that seem to come from nowhere and blind side you with their sudden and unexplained appearance.

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It was just yesterday that we talked about a new strategy coming from YouTube which involved longer form video taking the place of the shorter 10 minute limited shorter videos we are all used to.

That new side of the site has now been officially unveiled as The YouTube Screening Room, a place for independent film-makers to showcase their work, get it seen by millions, and potentially make some money in to the bargain.

High Quality Shorts

Each week will see four high quality short films featured on the site by independent film-makers from around the world. Starting with work from Norway, Sweden, Canada, the UK, and US, directors from other countries such as Germany, Austria, France, Kenya, Australia, and Ireland will also be featured.

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There has been a lot of talk over the past few weeks about the problems Google are experiencing in trying to make the 82 million viewers a month help pay back the $1.65 billion investment.

Things have got so bad that we asked whether Google should just cut its losses and kill the site. However, this week has seen the company making plans to go long-form, which could potentially help make Google some money.

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Ever since 9/11 took citizen journalism, ordinary people on the street giving their side of the stories dominating the headlines, to the next level, the desire for the genre has grown.

From the Iraq war, and the current race for the White House, people everywhere are having their say. 

Web video, along with sites such as Twitter, is playing a big part in this, with vlogging becoming more popular every day.

YouTube Takes It Mainstream

YouTube recently introduced an entire channel for citizen journalism and reporters, causing many to applaud it for its foresight. While I agree that a channel devoted to citizen journalism on a mainstream site like YouTube is a good thing, citizen journalists don’t need the approval of a mainstream web site to be heard. 

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The move by many television networks to get their content on to the Web, in some format, usually for free, means that cable companies now have a quandary: do they pay the same price for the privilege of broadcasting shows that are also being broadcast free elsewhere for all to see?

The cable arm of Time Warner is about to split from it’s media giant parent to become a separate company chasing telephone and broadband customers as well as TV subscribers.

The man in charge of this is Glenn Britt, who gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal about the challenges ahead, the biggest of which he claims is the emergence of the Internet as a viable platform for television viewing.

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The popularity of Web video is now no longer in question. YouTube is massive, and growing all the time, and services such as Hulu and the BBC iPlayer have proved to be massively successful.

However, an ongoing problem which has yet to be fully explored, let alone solved, is how to successfully monetize the business of online videos.

Sure, Google saw fit to pay $1.65 billion for YouTube, but that worth was all potential. So far it has yet to make so much as a bean from the site.

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