URL shortener, bit.ly, has a new service out, called bitly.tv. Bitly.tv displays a collage of the most-linked videos (through bit.ly) of the moment. Users can also sort by the top videos from the last day or the last two days.
Bitly.tv displays the most buzzed about videos linked through bit.ly.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)The site looks really slick and is well presented. When you click on a video, a light box pops out, which plays the video as well as displays a variety of sharing options (Facebook, Twitter, e-mail) and shows a live stream of tweets about that piece of content. The live stream is especially compelling since you can see what other people are saying about the video as you formulate your own opinion.
The URL shortener space is getting increasingly crowded, with a ton of new and existing companies bringing their offerings to the table. Google is the most recent example of this. Bit.ly is trying to stay ahead of the competition with products like bitly.tv and bit.ly Pro, which currently allows a limited set of beta users to create their own branded short URLs. They have a really strong beta user base for that service already, which includes The New York Times (nyturl.com) and foursquare (4sq.com).
The pop-up video lightboxes play the video as well as feature sharing options and a live stream of tweets about the video.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)Immediately following the Friday night broadcast of MTVU's alternative-music awards show, the Woodie Awards, viewers will be able to watch a 360-degree video of it online.
The Immersive Media technology supporting the online video, scheduled for online availability at 8 p.m. PST, is designed to enable users to freely navigate around a video, 360 degrees, letting them explore angles and shots that they wouldn't normally have been able to see.
While I haven't seen the Woodie feed yet, I did have a chance to play around with the technology on some test videos. The video experience seems perfectly suited for a concert format. It's certainly something worth checking out, even if you don't particularly care for the music, which is scheduled to include performances by Death Cab for Cutie, The Dead Weather, Matt and Kim, and Passion Pit.
This is the first big event for the IM Live technology, so it should be interesting to see how the experience of the fully produced show on TV compares to the IM Live video experience, in which site visitors essentially become their own producers. If you end up making your own comparisons, let us know what you think.
Hulu has debuted a long-requested feature--the ability to find out when new episodes of TV shows will be available to stream.
The video site, which is a joint venture of NBC, ABC, and Fox, calls the new feature Coming Soon. It went live Monday.
Hulu's new Coming Soon feature.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman)The schedule of when TV shows will be released online has been unclear up until this point, leaving people guessing when an episode will be posted. This new feature solves that problem.
The update includes a few additional features. First, people can choose to get an e-mail reminding them when an episode gets posted. This is definitely helpful for those of us who are forgetful and don't use Hulu's excellent Queue feature. Also, Hulu now lets you place the embed code for an unreleased episode on your blog or Web site. I embedded this week's upcoming episode of "The Office" below to show how this feature looks.
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This weekend, starting Friday at 10:30 a.m. PDT, Hulu will be live-streaming the Austin City Limits music festival. Hulu will be using its Watch Now application on Facebook, which has a live events box integrated so that users can discuss the concert as they watch.
(Credit:
Hulu)
You can see the schedule of acts on the Facebook application page for the live-stream. Unfortunately, the stream features only a fraction of the acts that are playing the festival. In fact, some of the biggest acts, including Kings of Leon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dave Matthews Band, and Pearl Jam are missing from the live-stream lineup. Luckily, we still get to check out some great acts like Thievery Corporation, The Decemberists, Ben Harper, and The Dead Weather. There's no real indication of how the selection was made and I'm certainly grateful that we are getting a stream at all, but I can't help but wish that the full compliment of acts would be available for streaming.
Goin' back to Philly.
(Credit: FX)The absurdly offensive "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" makes its season-five premiere Thursday amid a hard social media push by the FX network.
In addition to the standard features (meet the cast, wallpapers, episode guide), FX has included Twitter integration, exclusive video clips, and an awesome trailer mash-up creator.
To collect the buzz around the premiere, its Twitter page is gathering all the tweets with the hashtag #sunnyfx. There seems to be a decent amount of activity there, but it should really pick up as viewers rush to Twitter to offer their thoughts on the first episode.
The creators (and stars) of the show have also flocked to Twitter, maintaining their own accounts: Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, and Danny DeVito.
By far, the coolest thing the site features is the trailer mash-up creator. Built on GorillaSpot's video editing platform, the mash-up creator features signature clips from all the seasons of "Sunny." You can splice these clips together, with music and titles to make your own season-five trailer. From there, you can post it to a variety of social-media sites including Facebook, MySpace, and Blogger. You can also get the embed code, which lets you place your creation anywhere. The trailer I created is included at the end of this post.
I love to see companies doing really innovative things on the Web with their marketing campaigns. Here, FX went above and beyond what's expected and created an engaging experience for fans and potential viewers.
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This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.
Time Warner and YouTube said Wednesday that they have signed an online video distribution deal.
Under the pact, YouTube will distribute Time Warner short-form video content, including movie clips, television shows, and news. Time Warner properties--Warner Bros. and Turner Broadcasting System--will program YouTube videos via an embeddable player.
According to a statement, YouTube will get access to CNN news, the Cartoon Network, and shows such as "Gossip Girl." Time Warner video will appear across Google properties. Time Warner can also create separate channels on YouTube and sell ad time. The two parties will split ad revenue.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said the YouTube deal was a good way to monetize short-form content.
The deal appears to be a win-win. YouTube gets more professional content and Time Warner is allowed to sell ads and control channels.
Also see: Disney, YouTube forge video distribution pact; YouTube: Uploads don't hurt our bottom line; Google moves to show YouTube has 'a very credible business model'; The cure for YouTube's ills: Charge for uploads.
It's here, sort of. Several months after the big announcement that content from Disney's ABC Entertainment division would be coming to Hulu, the entertainment conglomerate's shows have started arriving.
The primetime drama "Grey's Anatomy" debuted on the video hub Monday, and more shows will roll out over the next two weeks.
These include, according to Hulu, consistent hits like "Desperate Housewives" and "Scrubs," along with more recent additions to the network such as "I Survived A Japanese Game Show."
Disney joined Hulu in April, giving it a joint stake in the company alongside NBC Universal, News Corp., and investor Providence Equity Partners. Shows from ABC as well as ABC-owned cable channels like SoapNet and ABC Family are on the way, along with movies from Disney (though no titles have been made available yet).
Would-be Hulu rival Joost closed its consumer video service last month after its peer-to-peer technology failed to make up for its tepid content offering.
My big question: When will we see episodes of my favorite ABC show, "Lost," on Hulu? I've e-mailed a company representative to find out.
Picture this: more venture funding for an advertising-related start-up operating in hard economic times.
Apparently, Tremor Media has gotten just that--to the tune of an $18 million third round of funding, according to a Silicon Alley Insider report.
Meritech Capital Partners led the round in the Web video ad network company, with existing investors Canaan Partners, Masthead Venture Partners, and European Founders Fund participating, according to the report.
Tremor Media, which provides advertisers with in-banner and in-stream video advertising on various publisher sites, has raised a total of $37 million in venture funding, SIA notes.
Tremor's funding comes as other Web video advertising players are looking to teach retool their delivery methods. Yahoo, for example, is gearing up to offer images and video as part of its paid search advertising results.
Update October 1, 4:20 a.m. PDT: Netflix has officially announced the partnership, and says that the first 1,000 or so Starz titles are now available.
A major complaint with Netflix's current selection of streaming movies and shows available through its "Watch Now" service is that it doesn't contain enough recent titles. Now, according to several reports online, it looks as though Netflix is looking to change that.
On Wednesday, the company plans to announce a new partnership with Starz to offer subscribers 2,500 additional movies from Starz Play. Starz Play's selection includes current hits such as No Country for Old Men, Superbad, and Ratatouille, as well as indie films, concerts, and classic movies. The first 1,000 of those movies, added to Netflix's current offering of 12,000, should, supposedly, be available immediately, but they are not available on Netflix's site yet. Expect the update to come sometime on Wednesday.
This is big news for Netflix, which has been struggling to sign studios up to make their new releases available for instant watching. In terms of new releases, this deal gets Netflix one step closer to being on the same level as the on-demand offerings from Comcast and Verizon. Netflix's overall library, however, goes deeper than Comcast's or Verizon's because it offers many classics on top of these newly added new releases. Additionally, this deal allows subscribers to stream the Starz TV network on their PCs.
The best part of this news, for Netflix subscribers, is that all of this extra content isn't going to cost them a dime. All Netflix subscribers with unlimited subscriptions (those $8.99 and up) will have access to the Starz Play selections. When you pair this news with this summer's release of Roku's killer set-top box for Netflix and this fall's Xbox 360 dashboard update, which will enable Netflix streaming, Netflix's service is looking more attractive every day.
Slide, the start-up that brought sheep-flinging to the social-networking world, has inked deals with several major content companies, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
San Francisco-based Slide makes software tools that let people add some personalization--in the form of slideshows, guestbooks, skins, or virtual pets--to their pages on all the major social networks.
Now the company is expanding its reach to include somewhat more sophisticated media. On Thursday, it plans to announce deals with several major media companies that would allow people to view clips of popular TV shows on social-networking sites, according to the Journal.
The video service, called FunSpace Channels, will reportedly include shows from CBS, Comcast's E! Entertainment channel, NBC, Time Warner's Warner Bros., and other media companies. Slide will recommend videos based on how often they are forwarded by others. Slide will either sell ads against the videos, or take a cut of the ads sold by the content owners, the article said.
While Slide's early ventures might have been modest, it's never been lacking in Silicon Valley starpower. It was launched in 2005 by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, and is backed by Khosla Ventures.
CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.
