Captivating Connections.

vevo rocks a solid start.

"The music industry doesn't really do subtle, which is why the Vevo launch party in lower Manhattan on Dec. 8 had all the pomp and glitz of an internet launch party circa 1999.

Because three of four major labels are playing nicely in the venture, attendees got to see Bono sharing the stage with John Mayer, 50 Cent, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris, Lady Gaga and Queen Rania, just to name a few.

The difference between now and when Napster was decimating the music business is that the artists themselves fully realize what's at stake, even if they have a misplaced notion that advertising will save their ailing industry. 'Let's hope Vevo can help salvage something that used to be amazing,' Mariah Carey told the crowd.

One thing Vevo has going for it right out of the gate is quantifiable traffic. Somehow, Mr. Morris persuaded Mr. Schmidt to allow all YouTube views of Vevo videos to accrue to Vevo -- a move that will likely make it the No. 3 video site in the U.S. straight out of the gate. 'Now we have a platform, and it's our platform,' Mr. Morris said."

It'll be interesting to see how it fully unfolds in the next 6-8 months.

introducing: vevo.

"In the beleaguered music industry’s latest bid to generate more money from its content, two top music labels on Tuesday will introduce Vevo, a Web site for music videos.

Vevo is co-owned by the Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and the Abu Dhabi Media Company. Vevo said Monday that it had signed up a third major music label, EMI Music, as a video provider, leaving only one holdout among the big four labels, Warner Music. Vevo said conversations with Warner were continuing.

Videos on Vevo will be hosted and streamed by YouTube, the video site owned by Google.

The site will come online in the United States and Canada on Tuesday evening.

'It will be a higher-quality experience around music and videos than anything else that’s currently out there,' Rio Caraeff, Vevo’s chief executive, said in an interview. Mr. Caraeff said the site would host 30,000 music videos by the end of the year. To underscore the exclusive nature of the Web site, Vevo will also carry original programs by artists for their fans."

the current state of webisodes.

The NYTimes has a great article looking at the current state of webisodes, and how advertising plays a role:

"Webisodes — part of a trend called branded entertainment — are growing because marketers feel compelled to find new methods to reach consumers in an era when the traditional media are losing eyeballs, ears, hearts, minds and perhaps other body parts to the Internet. 

Web series can cost from tens of thousands of dollars to sums in the range of $2 million, depending on how sophisticated they are, the number of episodes and whether the cast members are famous or just would like to be. Among the major brands proclaiming 'brought to you by ... ' online are Maybelline cosmetics, which is sponsoring Ms. Bushnell’s Web series, 'The Broadroom,' available at maybelline.com/thebroadroom, and ConAgra Foods, which is sponsoring a daily show, 'What’s So Funny?,' on yahoo.com, peddling products like Healthy Choice and Marie Callendar

The goal is to 'extend our reach,' said Ellen Liu, media director at the Clorox Company in Oakland, Calif., and attain 'a higher level of engagement' than is possible through tactics like running 30-second commercials that interrupt episodes of conventional TV series."

youtube becomes hunter and gatherer.

"YouTube has signed up NPR, Politico, The Huffington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle for YouTube Direct, a new method for managing video submissions from readers.

he new feature, to be formally introduced on Tuesday, is a tool to make it easy for YouTube users to submit clips that news media companies can choose to highlight. The site plans to sign up other media partners.

'We’re trying to connect media organizations with citizen reporters on YouTube,' said Steve Grove, the Web site’s head of news and politics."

introducing: sonic solutions.

"Best Buy Co., the world’s largest electronics retailer, will start an online store for movies and television shows that will compete with Apple Inc.’s iTunes.

The service will use technology licensed from Sonic Solutions Inc., according to a statement today from both companies. Sonic’s Roxio CinemaNow system will be installed on televisions, computers, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes and mobile phones sold by Richfield, Minnesota-based Best Buy. T

he digital video store expands Best Buy’s foray into services, helping the company increase customer loyalty, Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn said in the statement. The content will be stored on servers so people can watch on any device, similar to how Web-based e-mail can be viewed on different computers, said Sonic Chief Executive Officer Dave Habiger.

'What we’re creating is movies in the cloud that play back anywhere,' Habiger said in an interview."

what does the future hold for a post-dvd world?

"While DVD and Blu-ray will remain a huge profit center for years to come, studio executives are finally confronting an uncomfortable reality: little silver discs — for reasons of convenience, price and consumer burnout — may never recover their sales power. To grow, studios need to figure out digital distribution."

So, what are some companies doing?

"Disney announced last week that it had developed a system to track digital ownership, so people won’t have to buy the same movie or television show multiple times for different devices. But that’s just the latest, most likely not the last, approach.

'I expect these guys to try many different ways to figure out an endgame to digital entertainment,' said Doug Creutz, a media analyst at Cowen and Company. 'In the meantime, you will find a lot of false starts.'"

The problem is, "everyone is trying to solve one problem: consumers, the industry believes, will be reluctant to open their wallets for digital movies and TV shows until they get more portability and can watch the same content on several devices. Studios want to make consumers collect digital entertainment the way they would DVDs or books."

However, "standing in the way are technology hurdles — how to let consumers play a video on various devices without letting them share it with 10,000 close friends on a pirate site — and the reluctance of studios to cooperate too closely with rivals for reasons of antitrust scrutiny and sheer competitiveness."

It'll be interesting to see where the market goes over the next few years (or even few months!)

what's up with those college kids online?

"College students are the most connected demographic group in the US. They own multiple electronic devices and are a prime audience for online video.

eMarketer estimates 18.2 million college students, 95.7% of the total, will go online at least once a month in 2009. As Internet usage becomes ubiquitous, the percentage of students online is growing more slowly, rising to an estimated 96.8% in 2013.

'Not only is Internet access widely prevalent, but so is technology ownership in general,' said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, 'College Students: Connecting with the Connected Crowd.' 'Since students own multiple devices, they want to use those devices to interact with friends and information in multiple ways. They care less about what method they use for their interactions and more about how easy and seamless those interactions are.'

Students are heavy consumers of online video—but also regular TV. They use social networking Websites to stay in touch with their friends—but rely on text messaging as well. And smartphones, which are becoming more and more common on campus, give students the ability to do many activities without touching a computer at all.

Despite the fears of some industry-watchers, college students are not abandoning social networks now that the sites have caught on among their elders."

mediavest goes to hulu.

Nice job, MediaVest!

"MediaVest, which represents clients such as Procter & Gamble, said it has shifted millions of dollars that were traditionally earmarked for broadcast TV to online video hub Hulu.com. The upfront-style deal gives the agency inventory across the site, which includes clips from 'Saturday Night Live,' full episodes of cable and network shows and films.

MediaVest said the deal covers multiple clients, while allowing for demographic targeting.

The deal also provides MediaVest with opportunities for 'custom research,' based on Hulu audience behavior. The agency said this is intended to provide insight into online video's effectiveness as an ad medium in general, as well as determining what kinds of messaging work best for specific user segments.

'Smarter targeting, expanded metrics and the opportunity to test new ad experiences and their effectiveness -- these are all critical ingredients for unlocking the full potential of online video and key drivers of this partnership,' says Amanda Richman, executive vice president of digital operations at MediaVest."

WSJ launches a hub of its own.

"The Wall Street Journal on Thursday (Sept. 17) will launch The News Hub, a live video series, which will be streamed twice every weekday at 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. across the company’s digital network, including WSJ.com, Barrons.com, Marketwatch.com, Dow Jones Newswires and AllThingsD.com.

The new series will feature Dow Jones journalists discussing the business news of the day in eight-minute segments. The morning edition of The News Hub will be hosted by Journal economic reporter Kelly Evans and will focus on that day’s key economic news to watch for. Meanwhile, the afternoon edition—hosted by Dow Jones Newswires columnist Simon Constable and WSJ.com staffer Kelsey Hubbard—will dissect that days market happenings.

Officials said that The News Hub will frequently feature guest interviews, both with other Dow Jones reporters as well as important newsmakers from the business world. Episodes of the show will also be available for streaming on demand."

who's afraid of hulu?

Apparently, it should be TV!

"If analyst Laura Martin is right, Hulu is the demon seed that will wipe out the network television business as we know it. In a new report, the Soleil Securities analyst estimates that the online video hub will cost TV networks $920 per viewer in advertising if their audiences are cannibalized by Hulu. And she believes the bulk of viewing on Hulu is indeed taking eyeballs from TV.

It's not the first time Martin has sounded the alarm on the rise of online TV. In a May report she warned that the entire $300 billion market valuation of the television industry is threatened by the shift of programming from TV to the Web. Spearheading the overthrow of TV-as-we-know-it is Hulu, the premium video site backed by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney Co. that offers content from 120 partners from the Food Network to Paramount Pictures.

As of July, Hulu had grown to 38 million monthly viewers who watched 457 million streamed videos, making it the sixth-most-visited video site, ahead of competitors like AOL, CBS Interactive and the Turner Network, according to comScore."