Webware

YouTube's Steve Chen, and NewTeeVee's Liz Gannes and Om Malik.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)

Josh and I are at the NewTeeVee Live conference, learning about the future of television... mostly from people in Internet businesses.

Please note, I'm not going to Twitter everything that happens on stage here. I plan to spend more time circulating with the attendees, as I think that will be more interesting. Watch this space.

Update: The conference organizers just interviewed YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, who predicts YouTube on Mars in three years, or, failing that, a usage model where everything you do is recorded to your device, and then later you decide what to upload.

Click through to the story page for the Twittercast, and reload frequently for the latest updates.

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This morning, the NewTeeVee Live conference had a heavy emphasis on monetizing video: that is, advertising. I talked to two companies here that have different takes on producing revenue from downloaded video, as opposed to streaming video, like you get on YouTube.

The challenge with downloads is that if the viewer of the file is offline when he or she views it, or if the file is watched on a player that doesn't phone home, there's no easy way to get statistics or analytics on how an traffic for ad (or content) is doing. That's not a problem with streaming content, where every bit that flashes in front of an eyeball can be tracked from the server.

I chatted first with Brian Steel, CEO of PodBridge. PodBridge inserts advertising in files when they are either downloaded or viewed. For content that ends up on disconnected devices, like iPods, PodBridge can even track when it's played.

PodBridge achieves this magic through a small resident application that users download and install. When I bristled at the need to install software to view content, Steel told me, "It's the bargain. If you want the content, you download the app." When you download, you're asked for some overview demographics, to which ads are targeted.

PodBridge will tell you things about your video downloads that you wouldn't know otherwise.

The big benefit--for advertisers--is that the download tracks what's played on the PC, and gives advertisers rich analytics on media consumption that would otherwise not be available.

The downside is the download. Although it's lightweight, installing software will put off some users (like me), and it limits the platforms that the media can be downloaded to. Fortunately, PodBridge can also be configured to work without the PC-resident software, in which case it will track download data only, not information on what's actually played.

KipTronic competes with PodBridge. It stitches an advertisement into a media file when it is downloaded, on the server. The advantage to this is that the file that the viewer gets is just ordinary media, and can be played just as easily on the viewer's devices. The downside is that once the file is downloaded, KipTronic can't tell the advertiser what's happened to it--if it's ever played, for example, or for how long.

KipTronic is also different because it's purely an ad insertion and analytics play; the company does not sell ads. PodBridge, by contrast, is also its own network, although customers can bring their own advertisers if they wish.

Both companies are addressing an important issue, but I don't think either has the downloadable ad business dialed in yet. KipTronic leaves too much data behind, but PodBridge locks content behind software.

See also: YuMe, PodTrac, Ad InFuse.

At the NewTeeVee Live conference in San Francisco today, AT&T Group President Ralph de la Vega gave a peek into projects from the AT&T lab.

How much is that doggie window?

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)

The focus of all these demos was the interplay of the Net, mobility and television, what AT&T calls, "three-screen integration." The most compelling was a cellular-based videophone application where the video call could be transferred to a television. "Wouldn't you take that call? It's only 50 cents," de la Vega said.

Also in the labs: Multiple picture-in-picture, so you can watch multiple video streams at once. Great for sports.

Other demos duplicated things we can already do on Web-connected PCs: order books, geo-locate loved ones through their mobile phones, track flights, and stream real-time weather data.

This is Mogulus' live broadcasting mode, in which you can cue up clips, add graphics, and see who is watching your show.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I'm looking forward to the public launch of Mogulus today. It's a live-streaming site, like uStream, but with the twist that it supports multiple cameras and other media sources at once. See our Sneak Peek at Mogulus, from earlier this year. With this service, a video producer can select which camera or file the audience sees, in real time. It's like a TV van, but online. CEO Max Hoat told me that Mogulus will be the official streaming provider of the NewTeeVee Live conference that starts in a few hours.

Also launching: A new home page for the site that will let users watch up to 26 Mogulus videos at the same time, on some kind of sick virtual video wall. Sounds like a great productivity enhancer.

See also: Operator11.