Google Sites ranked as the top U.S. video property with nearly 2.5 billion videos viewed (27.0 percent share of videos), 2.4 billion of which occurred at YouTube.com. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 390 million (4.3 percent), followed by Fox Interactive Media with 298 million (3.3 percent) and Viacom Digital with 281 million (3.1 percent).

In total, nearly 134 million Americans viewed online video in July, or approximately three in four U.S. Internet users. Google Sites also captured the largest online video audience with 67.8 million unique viewers, followed by Fox Interactive Media with 35.8 million and Yahoo! Sites with 35.3 million.

Other notable findings from July 2007 include:

• Online viewers watched an average of more than three hours of online video during the month (181 minutes).
• The average online video duration was 2.7 minutes.
• Nearly three out of four (74.2 percent) U.S. Internet users viewed video online.
• More than one out of three (36.7 percent) U.S. Internet users viewed video on YouTube.com.
• The average online video

The largest profits went to YouTube’s three founders and Sequoia Capital, the principal financier of the internet’s number one video-sharing site.

The NY Times reported that founder and YouTube’s chief executive Chad Hurley received 694,087 shares of Google and an additional 41,232 in a trust. Based on Google’s closing price yesterday of $470.01, the shares are worth more than $345 million.

Another founder, Steven Chen, received 625,366 shares and an additional 68,721 in a trust, for more than $326 million.

The third founder of YouTube, Jawed Karim, who left the company early on to pursue a graduate degree in computer science, received 137,443 shares worth more than $64 million.

Sequoia Capital XI, the Sequoia fund that invested close to $11.5 million in YouTube from November 2005 to April 2006, was listed as having 941,027 shares, which are valued at more than $442 million.

Source:  SECinfo.com

Netflix is entering a more crowded market that includes not only the likes of Apple and Amazon, but also MovieLink, CinemaNow and video-on-demand services offered by cable companies. And while Netflix’s DVD rental business has thrived in part because of the company’s superior logistics, that competitive edge will not mean much
in the world of digital distribution.

Like most other electronic distribution services, Netflix’s system will work initially only with a limited catalog — about 1,000 movies and television shows, only a tiny fraction of the more than 70,000 titles that Netflix offers for rent. It offers titles from NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers and others.

Source: New York Times

Milan-based e.Biscom is already funneling feature films and television shows — in addition to conventional Web and phone services to PCs and TVs in Milan, Rome, Florence, Naples, Bologna and Turin.

Babelgum, the latest attempt to profit from the boom in online video, promises to combine “the lean-back experience of traditional TV with the interactive and social power of the internet”.

The advertising-supported service will offer a free, personalised, full-screen video service to PC users.

The test launch, expected in March, will see Mr Scaglia in direct competition against the founders of Skype, who are developing an internet protocol television service which recently launched as “Joost” after being codenamed the “Venice Project”.

“When I started work on this a year and a half ago I was afraid we’d end up with five [competing IPTV services],” Mr Scaglia says. “The fact it’s still two probably gives us a good lead.”

NewTeeVee argues in its preliminary review of the service that while the Babelgum feels a lot like watching TV, and has a slick and straightfoward interface:

“What Babelgum lacks right now is a compelling differentiator — it needs to offer better content, better features or better technology than Joost and any other upstarts if it wants to win.”

The winners in this space may be those services best able to sign a significant amount of content partners, perhaps by affording them some sort of copyright protection, in order to offer a compelling service to a captive community.

In Babelgum’s case, content protection is accomplished through unspecified DRM and due to the fact that the content is free. Babelgum makes its pitch to content providers based upon security, distribution, and the ability to monetize content on behalf of the producer.

Babelgum seeks to provide a new venue for producers of high-quality professional content to reach the truly global audience of potential viewers.

With more than 300 million broadband users worldwide, even niche content – especially if it’s good – can find an audience that rivals or exceeds the mainstream TV audience in any local market.

“Babelgum’s breakthrough technology means the content is easy for users to see in high-quality video streaming and there is usually no distribution cost to the content owner. So it is really an ideal platform for content owners to serve directly the Long Tail of viewers’ interests not addressed by today’s broadcasting television networks.”

Source: FT

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have been talking about the idea behind Joost™ for a long time – even before their last venture, Skype, was born. But to make it work, they needed the right combination of factors – widespread broadband and powerful computers in particular. In early 2006, the time was right. Gathering the world’s best engineers, web gurus and media visionaries, they started work under the code name of The Venice Project™ – and now, after much fretting and polishing, that work is ready for public viewing.

Source: Joost

Co-founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, Joost fills a critical gap in the online video entertainment arena. Joost is powered by a secure, efficient, piracy-proof Internet platform that enables premium interactive video experiences while guaranteeing copyright protection for content owners and creators.

“People are looking for increased choice and flexibility in their TV experience, while the entertainment industry needs to retain control over their content,” said Fredrik de Wahl, chief executive officer of Joost. “With Joost, we’ve married that consumer desire with theindustry’s interests.”

Joost is the first global TV distribution platform, bringing together advertisers, content owners and viewers in an interactive, community-driven environment. Joost can be accessed with a broadband Internet connection and offers broadcast-quality content to viewers for free.

“We’ve received positive and constructive feedback from our early beta-testers and are now at a stage where we’re ready to reveal our true brand,” said de Wahl. “The Joost name has global appeal, embodies fun and energy, and will come to define the ‘best of TV and the best of the Internet’”.

Joost™ provides a new way of watching TV that combines the best of full-screen television entertainment with online interactive and community benefits to bring an unprecedented selection of video content to viewers anytime, anywhere. Joost is based on a state-of-the-art, secure, peer-to-peer streaming technology.

Source: Joost Press Release

Amid iPhone madness, many may have missed the invention that could kill cable. Last week, Apple released AppleTV, a tiny white box that connects the shows and movies you’ve downloaded from the computer, and wirelessly transmits them to your TV screen.

No longer will you have to pay a monthly fee to your cable company to watch your favourite show. Apple’s iTunes has made it possible to download an episode of a TV show for about $2, keep it stored on your computer and watch it whenever you want. It’s a blow to the cable networks, which offer services that are often expensive and bloated – hundreds of channels, thousands of shows and nothing to watch.

Source:  TheStar.com

Called Clip+Sling, the application gives Slingbox customers the power to grab short segments of programming and share them with their “digital community” directly from live or recorded television.

Source:  CBS Teams With Sling

Wallstrip takes an irreverent approach to the market, focusing each day on a single stock trading at an all-time high or a hot trend. With the funding, Wallstrip plans to create five more original shows on the topics of finance and venture capital.

Source: NewTeeVee

The new device, the SlingCatcher, allows viewers send TV streams to different rooms in the home, clip and send video from broadcast TV shows to friends and view media stored on PCs or on web sites like YouTube on living room TVs. The device is expected to be available by the middle of the year at an approximate retail price of $200 USD.

Source: Reuters