The public television network PBS is taking some of its viewers’ favorite programs and making them available via its newly-launched video portal, PBS.org/video.  Today’s debut of the streaming site marks the first time that programming from a variety of series producers has been available in from one location. The new video site features a broad […]

From the Whispers and Rumours Department, ClickZ is saying that a mid-April YouTube redesign will prominently feature premium and long-form content — and will segregate the professional videos from the vast storehouse of user-generated content. ClickZ’s Zachary Rodgers writes: “According to two sources familiar with Google’s plans for YouTube, the new design will do away […]

Back in 2006, we said that YouTube As You Know It Is Dead, arguing that Google’s desire to make YouTube “legitimate” would kill off the site’s user-generated focus: Google’s announcement places emphasis on the legal distribution of professionally produced content. “The combined companies will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work to […]

Google today announced Knol – an alternative to Wikipedia that promises to pay authors. Getting Google’s advertising onto more and more pages is key to the company’s growth. Wikipedia poses an obstacle to Google’s growth, though, because it’s ad-free and quickly becoming becoming the most popular source for information on all sorts of topics. To […]

Video conversation / social networking community Seesmic moved out of beta and opened up to the general public last week. The company launched in the fall of 2007, and raised $6 million in its “A” series of funding late this winter. Today, Seesmic founder Loic LeMeur announced that the company has raised an additional $6 […]

Daft Punk is working on a live concert DVD, created from footage shot by the audience at the Bercy Live Show in Paris. The Daft Punk Alive 2007 DVD looks like it will be the Cloverfield of concert DVDs. It will feature high-quality sound recorded by Daft Punk synced to audience footage. A preview is […]

Todd Cochrane is the CEO of Raw Voice, a longtime podcaster at Geek News Central and helps connect podcasters with advertisers via his Blubrry podcast network. He’s also known for having strong opinions, on topics ranging from the PodShow/Mevio name change to the quality of podcasters’ RSS feeds. I asked Todd about his perspective on […]

Howcast Media announced the launch of its new site today, a venue for watching and sharing “instructional how-to” videos. Howcast, founded by veterans of Google and YouTube, also announced a directors’ program for “emerging filmmakers” to pad out video offerings on the site. Howcast paints itself as a hybrid of “user-generated content with the quality […]

According to research from Accustream, user generated video (UGV) – things like video podcasts, vlogs and YouTube videos – scored 22 billion views in 2007. That’s a 70% increase over 2006. People’s attention is moving to online video fast, limited mainly by bandwidth and the availability of content. Other research highlights: Long tail videos getting […]

Internet media is moving to the mainstream, according to research from Deloitte & Touche: 38% of Americans are watching TV shows online. 36% use their cell phones for entertainment. 54% of Americans use social networking sites, chat rooms or message boards to socialize. 45 percent have a profile on a social networking site. Online ads […]