Google Vs. Viacom

The Google vs. Viacom legal battle is rapidly approaching its crescendo, with both sides likely to meet in court and tell their own side of the story regarding the copyright infringements that formed a big part of the site’s early days.

As part of the recently-revealed legal documents, confidential profit and loss information was uncovered. Which NewTeeVee has used to build a picture of how YouTube was financed before Google took the site over in October 2006.

BG – Before Google

YouTube’s co-founders – Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim – purchased the YouTube domain in February 2005. Between then and August 2006, when acquirers started being sought, they spent $11.5 million on the site.

$8 million of that total went on infrastructure, with hosting costs hitting $1 million a month between June 2006 and August 2006. The other $3.5 million was spent on paying and training employees, and on travel and costs as the founders pimped their site out to potential purchasers.

The first revenue came in December 2005, but it was a paltry $15,000. In total, YouTube pulled in around $5 million in revenue in its first 18 months, with revenues in the ‘Before Google’ period peaking at $2.5 million in August 2006.

AG – After Google

Before Google came in and bought the site for $1.65 billion in October 2006, YouTube had existed on two rounds of funding totaling around $11.5 million. Which seems meager now considering the price Google ended up paying.

YouTube was on the verge of profitability when Google took over, but the search giant decided to focus on building its user base at the expense of profit for at least a year. Google CEO Eric Schmidt wanted “to grow playbacks to 1b/day [one billion per day].” A target that was finally reached in October 2009, three years after Google’s costly acquisition.

Now, and since early 2008, Google is desperately trying to turn YouTube into a profitable part of its business. Premium content is being added to the site all the time, and adverts, and different types of adverts are steadily increasing. Although a profit is still not guaranteed.

Conclusions

I wonder how long YouTube would have survived had Google not acquired the site when it did. Sure, it was about to turn a profit, but the running costs of managing the user base could easily have outstripped revenue as time went on.

The online video world would unarguably be a vastly different place without YouTube. For better or worse.

The BBC iPlayer

The BBC iPlayer has grown in both usability and popularity since its launch over two years ago. It’s now a must-use service for all residents in the U.K. and those outside of the U.K. who have found a way to circumvent the geo-blocking.

The man now overseeing the iPlayer as part of his job as the BBC’s director of Future Media and Technology is Erik Huggers. And he recently spoke to The Telegraph about the future of the iPlayer at the Changing Media Summit 2010.

iPlayer 3.0

The iPlayer 3.0 beta is set to launch soon. And it will bring integration with various social networking sites to the TV on-demand service. Deals with Facebook, Twitter, and Bebo are already in place, with more sure to follow.

IPlayer users will be asked to integrate their accounts with the BBC site. Them every time they sign in and use the iPlayer, they will also be connected to the social networks they use. This will enable them to see what their friends are watching or listening to, and vice versa.

The only other feature of the new-look iPlayer discussed was a new embeddable video player being rolled out across the whole of the BBC’s online presence. So, online video is clearly at the very heart of the larger BBC Web redesign.

Social Networking

It could be argued that the BBC is playing catchup in offering social network integration with the iPlayer, as social networking sites have grown phenomenally over the past couple of years, most notably Facebook and Twitter.

The effect this integration could have on viewing figures cannot be underestimated. Social networking sites are known to drive traffic to external sites in a big way, and if your friends are watching a show you’ve maybe never even heard of, there’ll be a temptation to give it a try.

Record Viewing Figures

With that in mind, I suspect the iPlayer’s viewing figures are going to continue growing, as they have been all along.

The iPlayer hit the 100 million requests milestone in December 2009, but February saw that figure increase to more than 116 million. That’s a whopping 81% year-on-year increase.

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A Brief History Lesson

Viacom Vs Google can be traced right back to May 2005 before YouTube was under the protective wing of Google. A clip from Paramount Pictures’ Twin Towers was uploaded to the site, and Viacom demanded to know who the uploader was.

In October 2006 YouTube made a deal with Viacom to syndicate content. Then Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. February 2007 saw Viacom retract the previous deal and pull everything off the site.

March 2007 saw Viacom sue Google for 63,000 counts of copyright infringement, for which it was seeking $1 billion in damages. Google argues that YouTube is protected under the Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

BetaNews has the full timeline with many more twists and turns. But it all builds to this point when Google and Viacom’s documents pertaining to the court case have been released. And they make for interesting reading, to say the least.

Google’s Claims

Google claims that Viacom wanted it both ways, continuously uploading its content to YouTube while publicly rallying against it. Google claims Viacom uploaded roughed up versions of videos so they looked stolen, hiring marketing agencies to do the dirty work.

Google claims that Viacom even uploaded many of the clips which it is now suing over. And maintains that it is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as it removes videos suspected of infringing copyrights.

Google also makes the claim that Viacom was interested in acquiring YouTube at one point.

Viacom’s Claims

Viacom dismisses the DMCA defense as it insists YouTube is more than just a passive content host and is therefore responsible for what videos were being uploaded to the site.

What’s more, Viacom also accuses YouTube’s founders of at the very least turning a blind eye to copyright infringing clips, suggesting that traffic was sought by any means necessary in order to ensure a quick sale. Viacom also claims Jawed Karim (YouTube co-founder) himself uploaded infringing videos, using email correspondence between the founders as evidence.

In essence, Viacom argues that YouTube was “intentionally built on infringement,” and deserves no leniency in court despite the measures put in place to clean up the site since the lawsuit was issued.

Conclusions

The documents feel very much like each side is attempting to score points from the other. And it’s almost inevitable that the case will now end up in court.

The sides have until April 30 to file opposing arguments to each other’s motions, with a trial then set to take place later this year. And it’ll be a trial whose verdict could set a landmark in terms of copyright owners vs. online video sites.

Google

Google is, without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest name on the Internet right now. The search giant controls the search sector, is making gains with its Chrome Web browser, has Maps, Street View, and all those other cool apps, and, of course, owns YouTube.

Google has also made the move to smartphones with its Android operating system. But it’s yet to venture into the living room, at least until now.

Google Living Room

There have been rumors of Google attempting to enter the living room by way of a set-top box for a while now, but nothing was really known about the efforts, and whether they would actually amount to anything.

But the New York Times is now reporting that Google TV is its name, it’s very real, and Google already has partners lined up.

Google TV

Google, Intel, and Sony are alleged to be jointly developing the Google TV platform. Google TV would take the form of both hardware (set-top boxes) and software (built into TVs) and bring Google right into the living room.

Google TV would be based on the Android operating system and be open to software developers. The intention being to create a similar buzz and number of applications as experienced by the Apple App Store and other smartphone app platforms.

Google TV would allow users to browse and search the Web, watch online video via Web-based apps including YouTube and Hulu (although Boxee’s efforts to do the same thing have been shuttered), and play downloadable games.

Google isn’t doing this for nothing: it would allow the tech giant to place ads on the system and put it at the forefront of the move to connected TV platforms, of which there are an increasing number.

Conclusions

Google has enough clout to not only make this happen but to sweep away all the other connected TV platforms already out there or emerging from development. But it cannot afford any mistakes on this score, and there’s still no real evidence that people want these platforms in any great number.

More details, and an official announcement from Google and/or its partners are definitely needed before I’ll be getting too excited.

TubeMogul

TubeMogul was the first dedicated online video analytics firm, enabling content creators to track the performance of their videos over a number of online video services.

But that clearly wasn’t enough for the company, which has now launched Play Time, its video advertising platform. And the firm is already seeing results from the year-long beta.

Play Time

According to MediaWeek, TubeMogul is using its experience in video analytics to its advantage with Play Time. The company is aiming to be “far more open and effective than other video networks” and “the largest video ad network in the world.”

Which are big ambitions indeed, but TubeMogul is confident that by using the data from its analytics platform it can target video ads at exactly the right people.

Beta Testing Results

TubeMogul has been testing Play Time over the past year, running campaigns for the likes of 20th Century Fox, Coca Cola, Nestlé, and Kmart. Which are very big names with some very big advertising bucks to play with.

According to NewTeeVee, the company is already reporting higher revenues from this new part of its business than the analytics service it has been specializing in for the last few years. So expect this to become a larger part of the company’s business than it is currently is.

Indeed, Tubemogul has reportedly already started buying “inventory from the top 250 comScore sites.”

Conclusions

Rivals are seeing TubeMogul’s move into video advertising as a conflict of interests, but i really don’t see why. The company is merely attempting to use its experience and the data it has gained from one part of its business to its advantage in another field. And if the results from the beta period are anything to go by, it’s proving a successful strategy.

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Online Video In The U.K.

Online video is veritably booming in the U.K.

The country already has the fantastic BBC iPlayer, my personal favorite 4oD from Channel 4, ITV Player, and Demand Five. And that’s just the catch-up services for the free-to-air terrestrial channels.

There is also Sky Player (for BSkyB subscribers), and the likes of YouTube, SeeSaw, and the MSN Video Player catering for people after older shows online. And Hulu is still endeavoring to kick-start its service in the U.K. as it breaks out of the U.S. and pushes into Europe.

MSN Video Player

Microsoft announced the MSN Video Player in July 2009. The beta version of the fledgling service then launched in August 2009 with an initial 300 hours of content, mostly from BBC Worldwide and All3Media.

Shows on offer from the start included Hustle, Mock the Week, Dead Ringers, That Mitchell and Webb Look, How to Look Good Naked, 10 Years Younger, and Peep Show. All of which were offered for free with advertising support.

Positive Changes

The MSN Video Player has now left beta and fully launched, and many improvements have been made since I reviewed the site over six months ago.

• The site has been redesigned, and is now much easier to navigate.
• As well as TV Shows, there are sections dedicated to TV Clips, Movie Trailers, and even the best Viral Video clips.
• There is a lot more content available now than during the beta. It’s still all archive content, but that was always going to be the case.
• Video quality has been vastly improved, with a shift away from Adobe Flash to Microsoft’s own Silverlight technology.
• The Video Player has a Dim Lights feature, as well as the option to share the clip on a number of social networking sites.

Conclusions

Microsoft has clearly used the extended beta period to improve the MSN Video Player considerably. And it has therefore moved several places up the league table. Although there’s no guarantee that there’ll be content on the service you’ll want to watch, the chances are high. And the user experience now makes watching that content more of a pleasure than a chore.

The Torpedo Projector can project TV, computer games, photos and movies anywhere on a wall or ceiling.

An Inexpensive Projector for Home Media

Torpedo Game and Entertainment Projector enables you to project content from computers, DVD, TV and other media. All you need for this projector is a power outlet and a large, blank wall or garage door. While the output is not high definition, for around $170 it costs much less than other higher-resolution projectors.

The Torpedo Game and Entertainment Projector gives you a projection that is over six-foot diagonally projection, with a resolution of 960 by 240 pixels.

The Torpedo project works with:

• A home PC
• TV (satellite, cable)
• DVD players
• Wii
• X-Box
• Nintendo
• Playstation
• Digital Cameras
• iPod
• etc.

Other Details about the Torpedo Projector

The Torpedo requires a 35 watt 3,000 hour halogen bulb that is included with the system, and which can easily be replaced if needed.

The unit also has built-in speakers and amplifier for audio from the TV or video game system, but it also offers an optional headphone jack if you want to hear the audio privately.

Video Review of the Torpedo Projector

Online Reviews of the Torpedo Projector

The New York Times ran a decent piece on this, identifying some of the key features offered with the Torpedo projector, pointing out that this runs considerably less than higher-resolution models.

Reviews on AboutProjector were all over the board: some are legitimately happy with it, and others feel ripped off by an inferior product.

Torpedo Projector – Prices, Deals and Discounts

On Amazon:
Available to buy at Amazon

On eBay:

Senario Torpedo Entertainment and Game Projector US $79.99   Auction Ends: 26d 19h 22m Make it yours…

Torpedo entertainment projector for movies dvd games US $105.00   Auction Ends: 11h Make it yours…

You may also be interested in:

• The Mitsubishi HC1500, a Budget HD Projector
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EyeView

The Web offers a whole new platform for advertisers to sell their wares. But as with every other medium, there are ways of increasing the success of campaigns.

EyeView offers video solutions for advertisers, having spent the last three years working for and with big names such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo!, HP, and eBay.

EyeView wants to know how much you know about works and what doesn’t in the realm of video advertising, and has created a Video Marketing Quiz which everyone can take.

Video Marketing Quiz

EyeView’s 2010 Video Marketing Quiz contains eight questions pertaining to the way video advertising can be used on the Web.

The questions cover the following elements, as well as many more:

• Whether auto-playing a video advert is more effective than letting the viewer decide when to start the promo.
• Whether video adverts are more effective than static banner ads.
• Whether the gender of the video voiceover person affects engagement.
• Whether the way the video advert is presented really affects click-through rates.
• Whether a lengthy video – more than two minutes – is a big no-no.

I took the quiz myself and only scored four out of a possible eight points. Mainly because as a consumer rather than marketer myself, I answered intuitively, and not all the answers proved to be so.

Conclusions

EyeView’s Video Marketing Quiz offers an intriguing glimpse at a world which most consumers and Web users will know little about. Which is why companies such as EyeView exist in the first place: to help companies and brands maximize their use of video advertising.

SpeedBit’s Free Video boost the speed of video downloading speed and also ends interruptions in video streaming.

No More Freezing YouTube Videos

I have a fairly old Sony VAIO computer, around 10 years old, that I still use because I don’t have the heart to put it out to pasture yet.  And being an old computer, I’ve had problems with YouTube videos that will freeze a couple seconds into each clip.

The videos start like normally, then just freeze completely, showing that the video is loading but going nowhere.  I do all I can to keep the computer in good shape, but alas, those videos would just keep freezing on me.  So what to do…?

The Accelerating Solution…

So I recently gave SpeedBit’s free Video Accelerator a try, and it did a great job speading up streaming videos on my old box.  No more freezing.

What SpeedBit’s accelerator does is integrates itself automatically with your Web browser and system, and then, once you start viewing videos SpeedBit goes to work behind the scenes and kicks things up a notch.

SpeedBit Accelerator at Work

When you start a video up in YouTube, the video will reach a point when it previously have frozen and a popup will appear in the lower right corner of your screen, telling you that it’s now running:

According to SpeedBit’s site, the Video Accelerator supports videos from over 150 sites such as:

• YouTube
• Yahoo
• Dailymotion
• Metacafe
• Facebook
• MySpace
• 5min
• Veoh
• Grouper
• Stage 6
• AOL Video
• Bebo
• Break
• EA
• ESPN
• Etc.

Although not included in the list, I also tried out some clips on Hulu and these all ran perfectly as well (Yay! More ‘Greatest American Hero’!)

SpeedBit Video Accelerator: Free Version vs. Premium

It should be noted that the SpeedBit Video Accelerator program is a free download, but if you want the full version with all the bells and whistles (namely, HD Video Acceleration and iTunes Acceleration) you will need to purchase the premium version (currently $19.99 a year.)

But for all that it does offer with the free program, its definitely worth checking out as the boost in video streaming speed is noteworthy.

Video Review of the SpeedBit Video Accelerator

SpeedBit Video Accelerator

• SpeedBit Video Accelerator
• SpeedBit Video Accelerator Features

You Might Also Be Interested In

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YouTube Mobile

YouTube’s mobile site is a version of the online video leader built especially for mobile phone users. It isn’t the same as the specially-created YouTube interfaces on iPhone and Android, although users of these two platforms can visit the mobile site at m.youtube.com.

The YouTube mobile site is surprisingly popular, boasting “millions of people all over the world … streaming tens of millions of videos every day.” That isn’t even close to the main YouTube Web site, which now boasts over one billion videos viewed every day.

However, with growth quoted as “over 160% in 2009,” and that likely to rise even higher in 2010, Google is keen to wring every drop of revenue possible out of YouTube as it endeavors to make a profit from the site.

Mobile Advertising

Google today announced it was rolling out advertising on the YouTube mobile site. At least in the U.S. and Japan. The decision follows a trial last summer which was successful in terms of “click-throughs, user experience, and brand awareness.”

Banner ads will now appear on the Home, Search, and Browse pages, but none will yet appear on the actual videos.

Google has been filling the full-fledged YouTube Web site with ads, including overlays and pre-rolls on the videos themselves. But the lack of Flash on handsets and the range of different standards throughout the industry means they aren’t yet available on the mobile site. Google is planning to introduce overlay and pre-rolls in the future though.

Conclusions

With big name advertisers including Sony, Kia, Land Rover, and L’Oreal having already bitten the YouTube mobile advertising bullet, the future looks positive. It seems most advertisers will now want to be present on the mobile site as well as the main Web site.

Which can only aid Google’s effort to turn YouTube from being the online video standard to the ‘profitable’ online video standard. How close it is to managing that is open to interpretation.

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