Media conglomerate Vivendi has formed a new unit called Vivendi Mobile Entertainment that the company hopes will compete with YouTube and MySpace. The site will distribute multimedia for PCs, televisions and mobile phones. The site is expected to first launch in France, eventually expanding to neighboring countries in Europe. The venture will be Vivendi’s second […]

Companies hoping to create the “AdSense for video” just got some major competition. Google has announced that it is launching a pilot with a small group of publishers to test streaming video ads in their online video content. With this pilot, publishers control when the ads play in their videos and choose which videos get […]

A new plugin for Apple TV called “A Series of Tubes”, now in advanced hacking stage, promises to bring YouTube to Apple’s media set-top box. The YouTube plugin isn’t available yet, but its author “XDog” has published a video that shows how it will work: The plugin delivers a number of playlists, including spotlighted YouTube […]

Wallstrip, the Rocketboom of financial news, has been purchased by CBS Interactive for a price in the millions, with a multi-year commitment to continue show and enhance its site. “You can make money from blogging!” said Wallstrip’s Howard Lindzon. The show, described as “Cramer with breasts” by its creator, is a short (about four minute) […]

ESPN today launched a set of free, downloadable video podcasts available daily. The first video podcast offerings include: a downloadable version of the popular ESPN.com SportsCenter Minute; the “Big Finish” from ESPN‚Äôs Pardon The Interruption (PTI); the “First Word” segment from ESPN‚Äôs Around The Horn; ESPN Digital Media‚Äôs “Fantasy Focus” daily original fantasy sports news […]

The market for premium Internet content is exploding, according to ABI Research, as major studios and content aggregators are working to make some of their content available as digital downloads. They expect the television to become the ultimate destination for Internet video content, and for set-top box Internet video to deliver $1.5 billion in service […]

It looks like the recent Valleywag hype on Natalie Portman becoming the first 24/7 lifecast video star was unfounded. Boston.com reports that the supposed investor in the project, George Zachary of the Waltham-based Charles River Ventures, has revealed the Natalie Portman lifecast to be bogus. “We do enjoy talking with Natalie but don’t have more […]

adap.tv, an digital video advertising platform, today announced its public launch and a strategic partnership with Metacafe, one of the world’s largest video Web sites. The company’s technology is designed to not only analyze video content and determine the most relevant ad, but also to adapt in real time to viewer behavior, thereby increasing the […]

The future of Internet television belongs to free video podcasts and ad-supported video downloads, according to a new report by Forrester Research. Forrester estimates that paid video downloads will peak in 2007, generating $279 million in revenue, up from $98 million last year. Beyond 2007, advertising models will drive the online video market. Despite the […]

Rocketboom’s Andrew Michael Baron has an interesting post at his personal site about the huge interest in creating Internet video platforms. Baron name checks Open Media Network, Current.tv, Akimbo, AT&T Homezone, Brightcove, Innertube and others, asking “Why are these always going wrong or why are they not going better?” There are some good reasons why, […]