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LOS ANGELES--Michael Eisner wasn't miffed enough at Veoh to stop him from investing in the company once again.

Dmitry Shapiro, Veoh founder

Last week, the former Disney chairman took the stage at Digitas' "Newfront," a showcase of Web video for potential advertisers held in New York. Joining him was Veoh's founder Dmitry Shapiro.

According to Silicon Alley Insider, Eisner used the opportunity to chide Shapiro about when Veoh, a company that bills itself as a Web TV network, is going to pay off. Silicon Alley Insider called the exchange between the two men "uncomfortable."

On Tuesday, Shapiro was at the OnHollywood Conference and he said he was dumbfounded after reading the story. He and Eisner were joking around and that everyone in the audience understood that except Silicon Alley Insider. What should have tipped off the blog's reporter, according to Shapiro was when Eisner started picking fun at Veoh for posting an ad for a penis enlargement herb.

Shapiro said Eisner is pleased with Veoh's progress and was part of a $30 million funding round the company closed recently that included such other investors as Intel and Adobe Systems. This was Eisner's second investment into the company.

Maybe the important question is whether Eisner should be down on Veoh. In a sector where YouTube has devoured almost everything video on the Web, Veoh says it has 28 million unique visitors worldwide. They spent more than 100 minutes each month on the site. The company is able to keep them there so long because it offers long-form content and a recommendation search engine that helps people find the clips that appeals to them.

Veoh's goal is to attract the best videographers on the Web or the people Shapiro calls "the YouTube graduates."

But when can he start putting cash into Eisner's already deep pockets?

"We'll be profitable in 2009," Shapiro said.

Veoh, an online video site, sure can attract VIP investors.

The company announced that it has received another round of funding, this time for $30 million, from such new backers as Intel and Adobe Systems. Previous investors include Goldman Sachs and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

Veoh, once widely referred to as a video-sharing company, has taken to calling itself an Internet TV service. The term video sharing is considered an unattractive label for a company--unless you're YouTube, that is. It implies that you're trying to take on the powerhouse, and almost everyone has given up on doing that.

Veoh is still under pressure from YouTube and Hulu, the video start-up created by NBC Universal and News Corp. that launched earlier in the year and has received glowing reviews. For all its star power and money, Veoh can't seem to break out of the pack of also-ran video sites.

The company's valuation is in the $120 million range, and the total money raised is $70 million, according to Silicon Alley Insider.

The company reports that it has accumulated 28 million viewers who spend on average more than 100 minutes each month on the site. These are respectable numbers, although they pale compared with YouTube. The Google-owned site boasts more than 300 million users worldwide.

Brightcove, the Internet-video syndication and services company, announced on Monday that video content from its customers will appear on social-networking sites: Bebo, Meebo, RockYou, Slide and Veoh.

Brightcove helps media companies display their video over the Internet and offers varying services for managing video including publishing, distribution and advertising.

CEO Jeremy Allaire has amassed a customer list that reads like a who's who of media conglomerates, such as CBS, HBO, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and 20th Century Fox.

The new deal means that Brightcove customers will have access to the combined 300 million monthly visitors of the social networks.

Video-sharing site Veoh, which is backed by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, is rumored to be looking for $40 million in new investments, according to Silicon Alley Insider. The company has hired Bear Stearns to raise the funds, which would give Veoh a valuation of $150 million, according to the report.

If it raises the cash, Veoh would have a war chest of more than $80 million to compete with video rivals YouTube and Joost, among others. Its investors include Goldman Sachs, Spark Capital, and Shelter Capital Partners. Other backers include Tom Freston and Jonathan Dolgen, former executives at Viacom, a content partner of Veoh.

A Veoh representative declined to comment.

Updated 12:30 p.m. PT

A coalition of major media and technology companies that notably does not include Google appears to be getting serious about copyright on the Internet.

A who's who of media companies--CBS, News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group, NBC Universal, Viacom, and Disney--as well as Microsoft and the News Corp.-owned MySpace, along with video-sharing sites Dailymotion and Veoh Networks released a set of guidelines Thursday designed to halt online piracy.

Notably absent from the list is Google, which unveiled filtering technology for its YouTube video-sharing site on Monday. Sources familiar with the coalition plan say Google was involved in the talks at one point, but backed out shortly before making its own announcement. Disney and Microsoft initiated the effort, multiple sources said.

"Initially Disney reached out directly to us," Veoh Networks CEO Steve Mitgang said in an interview with CNET News.com.

In response to questions, Google released a statement from YouTube Engineering Director Jeremy Doig: "We appreciate ideas from the various media companies on effective content identification technologies. We're glad that they recognize the need to cooperate on these issues, and we'll keep working with them to refine our industry-leading tools."

A YouTube spokesman who asked not to be named says Google had talked to Disney about the guidelines but Google and YouTube executives decided not to join the alliance because they were worried that creating "industry-wide mandates" would stifle innovation.

A source close to the deal hinted that the longstanding billion-dollar lawsuit between Viacom and Google over copyrighted content on YouTube may have played a role in Google's decision to back out, citing the possibility that it could have affected how the litigation would unfold. And another source familiar with the alliance finds fault with the fact that Google's new filtering system doesn't actually block infringing content from being posted, but supposedly removes it from the site within minutes. The media group's guidelines call for "blocking infringing uploads before they are made available to the public.

"It's unprecedented that these disparate companies have come together," the source says. "It's a real loss that Google isn't a part of this."

The companies expect to implement the guidelines before the end of the year, another source at one of the companies says. It hasn't been made clear whether this will mean we'll be seeing more announcements and partnerships--or more specifically, whether the two video-sharing platforms involved in the alliance, Veoh and DailyMotion, will become more attractive business partners for the major media and technology companies involved.

"Our goal is to be a vital partner for premium independent and individual producers. We're already a partner to CBS," Veoh's Mitgang said, referring to the company's new online video-sharing network. "We are actively working with everybody on the list regarding this."

Representatives from multiple companies involved in the initiative emphasized that it's not a closed partnership and that other corporations may be introduced into it as well--provided they are willing to adhere to and support the guidelines.

"The principles acknowledge a collective respect for protecting copyrights and recognize that filtering technologies must be effective and are only a part of what is necessary to achieve this goal," a joint news release said.

The guidelines also call for companies to: balance the legitimate "fair use" rights for using copyrighted material, promptly address claims that content was blocked in error, and upgrade technology "when commercially reasonable."

Protecting fair use--which allows people to post excerpts of copyright content and use content for educational purposes and for parody--is important, says Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, which monitors copyright issues online.

Boehm criticized Google for not joining the effort. "Google is continuing to play hard ball," he says. "They are going to use their market share and economic power to just hold off any kind of reform or compromise."

Several sources say plans have been made for representatives from some members of the new alliance--though it's not yet clear which companies--to head to Washington, D.C. soon to meet with members of Congress on the matter. Rather than move to encourage more legislation, it's to educate lawmakers on the issues and show them that occasionally-sparring media and technology companies can handle this on their own.

A full list of the principles involved in this new set of guidelines, which emphasize high-tech filtering, quick removal of pirated content, and promotion of infringement-free digital content, are publicly available at the new site UGCPrinciples.com.

The news was originally reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier on Thursday.

With contributions from CNET News.com's Elinor Mills.