Google announced today that its AdSense for Video program is now open to publishers. Previously, the AdSense program has focused on serving (usually) contextually relevant text-only ads.

Google’s video pilot program originally was going to serve up video-in-video advertising. However, as it has evolved, the video part has been replaced by targeted, contextually-relevant CPM banners and CPC text overlays. Some web publishers see these ads as an alternative to the pre-roll and post-roll advertising clips that have become the industry’s default standard advertising format.

AdSense for video is now available to publishers who, at a minimum, serve one million video streams each month and are based in the U.S. with English language sites. Google has a site that explains their video ad options at http://www.google.com/ads/videoadsolutions/

Podcasting pioneer Dave Winer is working on a new podcast client as part of his FlickrFan project.

FlickrFan is a a platform for uploading and downloading Flickr images and viewing them on an HDTV. Even more important, though, it’s an attempt to turn your HDTV into a platform that embraces the Internet.

Yesterday, he announced a new podcatcher for FlickrFan. It lets users manage podcast download subscriptions on the platform.

Today, he added a script that copies the podcasts to a playlist in iTunes.

Winer’s platform is at an early enough stage that a lot of people don’t “get” it. But think of it as an open version of Apple TV, and it’s easier to see the potential for this category of software.

Most marketers believe that television advertising has become less effective in the past two years. As a result, marketers are interested in exploring new ad formats and new forms of video commercials, according to the the latest TV & Technology survey conducted by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and Forrester Research, Inc.

Highlights of the study include:

• Sixty-two percent of marketers believe television advertising has become less effective in the past two years.
• Close to half of the advertisers surveyed have already started to experiment with new ad types to work with DVRs and video on demand (VOD) programs.
• Advertisers are eager to try new ad formats, including ads in online TV shows (65 percent), ads embedded in VOD (55 percent), interactive television ads (43 percent), and ads within the set top box menu (32 percent).
• Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they intend to spend more on Web advertising this year.

• Media agencies are getting better at helping clients deal with new media. Only 28 percent of respondents reported that their media agency is ill-equipped to address the changes in TV advertising, compared to 47 percent two years ago.
• Creative agencies did not fare as well, with 47 percent of marketers indicating that their creative agency was still ill-equipped to help deal with changes, a slight improvement from 55 percent of marketers two years ago.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has issued guidelines (pdf) regarding blogging and other user generated media at the 2008 Beijing Olympiad. And while the Olympics may be a celebration of athleticism and global togetherness, they aren’t going to be a celebration of personal expression.

The IOC’s guidelines address rules for blogging and other user-generated media for “accredited people (Olympic athletes, media representatives, officials and staff”:

• The IOC considers blogging a form of personal expression, not a form of journalism;
• Because they don’t consider blogging a form of journalism, it will be allowed;
• Their definition of a blog is a website that is a personal diary, so blog entries should not contain interviews or stories about other people at the Olympics;

Stranger still, the blogging guidelines effectively ban athletes and other accredited people from podcasting or photoblogging:

3. No Sound or Moving Images of the Games

The dissemination of moving images of the Games through any media, including display on the Internet, is a part of the IOC’s intellectual property rights. No sound or moving images (including sequences of still photographs which simulate moving images) of any Olympic events, including sporting action, Opening, Closing and Medal Ceremonies or other activities which occur within any zone which requires an Olympic identity and accreditation card (or ticket) for entry – e.g. competition and practice venues, Olympic Village, Main Press Centre – (“Accredited Zone”) may be made available, whether on a live or delayed basis, regardless of source.

4. Still Pictures

As a general rule, blogs by Accredited Persons containing Olympic Content must not include any still picture taken within Accredited Zones at the Games. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Accredited Persons may feature still pictures taken of themselves within Accredited Zones provided that such pictures do not contain any sporting action of the Games or the Opening, Closing or Medal Ceremonies of the Games. It is the Accredited Persons’ responsibility to obtain the consent of other persons appearing in any pictures which may featured in accordance with this Section.

In otherwords, audio podcasting, video podcasting, photoblogging and vlogging are banned for Olympic athletes, media representatives, officials and staff.

Anyone violating the guidelines may be banned from the Olympics and sued for damages.

via Nir Ofir

The BBC is warning about the rampant new problem of techno addiction – when gadgets get so damn sexy that people become addicted to them.

According to the venerable BBC:

• Techno addiction can become so bad that people wake up several times a night to check their e-mails and text messages;
• Techno addiction can interfere with an addict’s job as he feels he has to be linked up all the time;
• Techno addiction can even interfere with an addict’s personal relationships.

Yep – we’re talking full-blown iPod Madness.

“We are creatures of habit and we can get addicted to quite unusual things,” says Professor Nada Kakabadse of Northampton University. “You would be surprised how many people had their PDA or Blackberry next to their bed heads.”

And if you’re already caught in the grips of gadget-lust, it may be too late for you.

Good news for Apple: half of all music sold in the US will be digital in 2011.

Sales of digitally downloaded music will surpass physical CD sales in 2012, according to a new report by Forrester Research. Digital music sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23 percent over the next five years, reaching $4.8 billion in revenue by 2012, but will fail to make up for the continuing steady decline in CD sales. In 2012, CD sales will be reduced to just $3.8 billion.

Among the drivers of Forresters forecast for music sales:

• MP3 player adoption. The average MP3 player is only 57 percent full, suggesting that the devices are underutilized, while more of the devices are being bought by households with more than one MP3 player. Moving forward, a majority of MP3 players will be sold to households that already have one.
• DRM-free music. With the four big music labels now committed to eliminating digital rights management (DRM), DRM-free music will extend beyond pioneer Amazon.com to Apple iTunes and the other major online music sites.
• Social networks. DRM-free music enables every profile page on MySpace.com or Facebook to immediately become a music store where friends sell friends their favorite tracks.

“The industry has to redefine what its product is,” according to Forrester’s James McQuivey. “New forms of revenue will come from unexpected sources. For example, the industry has failed to capitalize on the growing popularity of video games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band.”

A new version of HandBrake – the free, open-source DVD to MPEG converter – is now available.

HandBrake 0.9.2 incorporates many changes, including full support for the AppleTV Take 2 and the latest iPhone/iPod Touch firmware.

Download it now.

Features for Apple fans:

• Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3) sound in MP4 files, for a true DVD experience on the AppleTV and in Perian.
• Multi-track audio support for Apple devices
• iPhone-compatible anamorphic video at its full size

Power users features:

• Variable frame rate encoding with detelecine filtering
• More flexible, “loose” anamorphic video
• MP4 optimization for progressive web downloads
• Dynamic range compression for encoding from AC3 audio
• Robust program and transport stream support
• A fresher, faster version of x264
• Tuning of FIFO sizes by processor count

Other changes:

• Better handling of audio discontinuities
• Better handling of DVD read errors
• Work-arounds for missing end-of-cell markers
• Recovery when streams have signal loss
• Better synced chapter markers
• Better handling of B-Frames
• No more cutting off the very ends of films
• No more lost subtitles or chapter markers
• No more crashes in 2-pass encoding

Mac users take note: this release is only compatible with Mac OS X Leopard, 10.5.

PodCamp Toronto 2008, a two-day conference exploring the world of “new media community tools,” is coming up this weekend, February 23-24, 2008 at the Rogers Communication Centre at Ryerson University in Toronto.

PodCamp Toronto 2008 will bring together professionals and hobbyists from across North America. Over 330 participants are expected at the weekend gathering.

Like the several dozen PodCamps before it, PodCamp Toronto is a participant-led, open space “unconference.” The conference is a free event, with costs are offset by the event’s sponsors. Anyone interested in attending, facilitating a session, or pitching in to help can register at PodCampToronto.org. Session topics can be about any aspect of social media.

Some of the scheduled sessions include:

• Social Media and Networking Starter Guide, by original PodCamp co-founder Chris Brogan, offers a fast tour of tools you can use, then goes deep into strategy and implementation for your business or organization.
• New media. Old ethics: Are bloggers journalists? Are podcasters news anchors? And should the rules and ethics of journalism apply to them?
• Introducing the Social Media Press Release, by Social Media Group Chief Strategist Collin Douma
• Zero to Podcasting, presented by veteran podcasters including Mark Blevis & Bob Goyetche, is a two-day workshop that will let you start from nothing and learn the skills necessary to plan, prepare, produce, publish and promote your own podcasts.

We like the maple leaf motif on the Toronto PodCamp logo, contrasted with the little tornado motif of the PodCamp Midwest unconference of last weekend.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation, announced earlier today that it would begin selling episodes of some of its popular television programming via the Apple iTunes Music Store. The BBC says it is the first UK television network to offer its shows on iTunes. Episodes of such programs as Torchwood and Little Britain will retail for £1.89 , or about $3.68 US.

Recently-aired episodes will appear on iTunes after they have been made available for viewing on the BBC’s free iPlayer “catch-up service.” The iPlayer is proving extremely popular with viewers, with more than 3.5 million shows streamed or downloaded in the first two weeks after its late December debut.

This is an interesting move for BBC, but the announcement highlights that the size of Apple TV’s hard drive may prove to be a roadblock to people wanting to create digital media libraries.

Apple today announced that it has slashed prices on the iPod shuffle, now priced at $49, and that it is introducing a new 2GB model of the iPod shuffle for $69.

“At just $49, the iPod shuffle is the most affordable iPod ever,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “The new 2GB model lets music lovers bring even more songs everywhere they go in the impossibly small iPod shuffle.”

Pricing & Availability

The 1GB iPod shuffle is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $49 (US) through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The 2GB iPod shuffle will be available later this month for a suggested retail price of $69 (US).