After long negotiations, ABC are becoming a stake holder in Hulu, the Internet TV company funded by NBC, Fox and Providence Equity Partners. This deal further strengthens Hulu’s position as the leading premium online TV provider, with 27 partners, and newly extended 2 years exclusivity of the main players’ content.
Hulu is proving that great content is king. The site, that was launched a little more than a year ago, has shown meteoric growth and is the third largest online video site in the US. However, as Jeff Zucker, NBC’s President, mentioned in his NYC Media Summit interview, the site is still not profitable.
This deal has a profound effect on YouTube, the queen of video UGC. The site, which is losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually, is facing a huge challenge, that puts it in a collision course with the TV networks’ prodigy. Continue reading…
In one word - nothing.
Wallstrip was, for the last couple of years, a success story in the world of Internet TV. The show raised half a million dollars, and was sold to CBS for $5M - a X10 on the initial investment, which is the factor of successful startup exits. This was my favorite example for investors in Internet TV shows.
Today we were informed that the show is canceled, which is sad. However, saying that its cancellation means that Internet TV can’t make money is like saying that the fact that some mobile startup closed its doors means that there is no money in mobile innovation.
Sad as it may be, we shouldn’t look at it as if this is a clear sign that well produced Internet TV shows can’t make money. How many startups are closed every day? Some stats are claiming that startup success rate are less than 10%. But still, no one says that the whole idea of startups is flawed.
Let’s put things in perspective. Yes, independent Internet TV, especially high end productions, is still a young market. many production companies will not survive, especially with the latest economic slowdown. But, the vector is positive. We see more and more technologies bridging the gap between the TV set and the Internet. Online video is reaching more people than ever, on more devices. So we are in the right market - we just need cash and air to be there when the market will have enough money for all of us.
Women in Media Project profiles influential, decision making and visionary women in the new media business. This time we profile Dina Kaplan, from blip.tv. Why is she on the list? Read to find out.
Who are you and what do you do? My name is Dina Kaplan and I am the co-founder of blip.tv
Tell us a bit your history and background. Before blip.tv I worked in the White House, for MTV News, and as an on-air reporter for local NBC stations.
Continue reading…
Video comments are a tricky thing - they allows users to leave comments in video instead of text, and meant to enrich the conversation in blog’s comments. However they are not that straight forward as text comments.
I’ve been using Seesmic as my Video Commenting system, but didn’t really promote it till now. Other sites such as Techcrunch are using the same product.
What’s your opinion?
If you support video comments - please leave one! Also - I’d love to see the faces of my readers for a change 
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