SiliconANGLE » Online Video

Google Faces Antitrust Probe in India, Invests Heavily in Online Content and Broadcasts

Mellisa Tolentino — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:35:01 +0000

While Google waits for the jury to come up with a unanimous decision in the copyright phase of the Google-Oracle trial, they’ve been busy with other matters as well, facing an antitrust probe in India and growing its investments in online video.

Google slapped with another antitrust probe

The Competition Commission of India launched an antitrust probe against Google’s online advertising business, AdWords, but there’s a possibility that the probe could extend beyond AdWords if the commission sees fit.

The commission received numerous complaints against Google regarding their anticompetitive market behavior, but clarified that the probe isn’t based on one specific complaint. The complaints alleged that Google abused their market power by allowing rivals of certain brands to bid for keywords that are closely related to their brands, which forced the complaining brands to pay steep prices to retain keywords closely associated with their services.

Google declined to comment on the issue, stating that they haven’t received any notice from the Competition Commission regarding the probe.

Aside from the AdWords probe, Google is also facing criminal charges in court for allegedly failing to remove Web content deemed objectionable by Indian authorities, which, if Google is convicted, company executives could face jail time. India’s finance ministry is also conducting a probe to determine whether the Internet company violated local rules on foreign-exchange transactions.

Google negotiates fine for Safari breach

In February, Google was caught tracking and monitoring Apple’s Safari activities. Allegedly, Google and other advertising companies used a code to bypass the privacy settings of Safari that block tracking.

The code was spotted by Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer and independently confirmed by a technical adviser for the Wall Street Journal, Ashkan Soltani, who found that ads on 22 of the top 100 websites installed the Google tracking code on a test computer, and ads on 23 sites installed it on an iPhone browser.

When the expose was published, Google had already disabled the invasive code and stated that the WSJ misunderstood the advertising cookies and that those cookies did not gather personal information.

The incident led to an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, and Google cooperated with the probe. If found guilty, Google will be fined $16,000 per violation, per day, totaling to about $10 million. Now, Google is negotiating with the FTC for the possibility of lowering the fine.

Google invests in Machinima

It’s not all about legal woes for Google as the search giant invests in one of the most popular networks on YouTube – Machinima – which focuses on creating videos for and about video game players.

Sources told AllThingsD that the round of funding could accumulate to $30 million, which would bring Machinima’s valuation up to $190 million.

It’s no secret that Google pays content makers to create videos for YouTube, which the search giant makes up for in ad sales. But this is the first time Google openly backed a content company by taking an equity stake. This move may not go well with other video makers, as many already expressed discontent over the search giant’s apparent favoritism towards Machinima and other prominent content partners.

Google opens Hangouts On Air to everyone

Google+’s Hangouts may be the most popular feature of the latest Facebook competitor. So to keep things interesting and fun for all, Hangouts On Air is now available for everyone to use. Google+ users can now broadcast their Hangouts for everyone to see by just clicking the “Enable Hangouts On Air” button.

Hangouts On Air was previously available for some performers, celebrities or influencers like the Dalai Lama, which live streamed his video chat with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This is yet another way Google+ is updating its core feature set to appeal to brands looking to use the social network as a broadcasting platform, which Google really needs in order to reel in the end users and make Google+ a true success.

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Amazon Seeks Their Own Sitcom Television Programs

Saroj Kar — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:42:33 +0000

The pioneer of e-commerce is going to greatly expand their range of video content. Amazon on Wednesday announced plans to launch its own comedies and children’s television programs to digital transmission, and requested contributions from developers.

The Internet giant also said that their division Amazon Studios now aims to develop comedies and children’s series. Amazon has started to create television programs for their own online distribution system, but its latest announcement realizes its plans to include sitcoms comedies and children’s programs.

“Amazon Studios wants to discover great talent and produce programming that audiences will love,” said Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios. “In the course of developing movies, we’ve heard a lot of interest from content creators who want to develop original series in the comedy and children’s genres. We are excited to bring writers, animators and directors this new opportunity to develop original series.”

Due to increasing competition from Netflix in the U.S., Amazon is forced to expand its library of multimedia materials. Amazon Studios was launched less than two years ago and has already received more than 700 movies from various film distributors, 7,000 pilot scripts, and currently 15 ongoing film projects.

The series will be distributed through Amazon Instant Video, the digital video streaming service from Amazon. Amazon Studios is asking content developers and writers to submit a five page details of the show along with 11-minute pilot scripts for a children’s show or 22-minute script for a comedy show.

“We’re now developing original programming for Amazon Instant Video. Submit your children’s series or comedy series idea — it could be the next hit show,” says a message on the company’s Web site. “Within 45 days of submission, Amazon Studios will either extend an option on the project for $10,000 or invite the creator to add the project to the Amazon Studios site. If a project is not optioned, creators may remove their idea from the Amazon Studios site or leave it to get community feedback.”

Each new project will be tested for a month and if the idea is selected for production, the creator will receive a payment of $55,000, and up to 5 percent of Amazon’s net income by licensing toys and t-shirts, and other royalties and bonuses.

The accessibility of streaming devices like smartphones, tablets and game consoles and the rise of cable and satellite have pushed streaming demands to the hilt. Amazon competitor, Hulu, the free-for-all model Internet TV provider, is moving towards a new model where paid TV customers can only watch their favorite shows. Viewers would have to log in with their satellite TV account number or cable to stream shows and other content. The move is aimed at keeping cable companies and networks to profit and protect their contents and creating a revenue sharing model among cable and free TV providers.

The sudden entry into the world of sitcoms can open new possibilities in this market, suggesting to a rivalry with the major studios. Amazon does have a distribution network and already a publisher of media and all the capabilities to make Amazon Studios a big success.

Amazon’s rivals Netflix announced plans to launch its first original episodic show, Lilyhammer, earlier this year. Last month, Hulu presented four original shows, including The Awesomes, an animated series from Saturday Night Live; Endgame or The Booth at the End. YouTube is investing in original content providers to create a digital content ecosystem.

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Will Cable and Satellite Mean the Death of Free Hulu Internet TV?

Kit Dotson — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:52:54 +0000

Dark rumors and accusations seem to be telling a compelling narrative about Hulu—the broadly popular venue for free Internet TV (supported by advertisements)—potentially backing away from offering their media without strings to the pubic and instead requiring cable or satellite authentication.

The New York Post reports that sources told them that this might be the intent of Hulu and it leads an explanation as to why Providence Equity Partners has left the Internet TV outfit after almost five years and $200 million of support. According to the numbers, Hulu has attracted in excess of 31 million unique users in March, all under their free-for-all model; but that is potentially soon to dwindle.

Under the new model, users will log into Hulu using authentication numbers received from their local cable or satellite TV network—meaning, from the outset, that if you don’t happen to have a customer number for cable or satellite TV then you’re out of luck.

What this will do to Hulu-centric shows such as Endgame or The Booth at the End is anyone’s guess. Being part of a free-to-watch model means that advertisers and producers have an audience they otherwise couldn’t reach via conventional distribution networks.

Hulu, owned by News Corp., Disney, Comcast and Providence, could see its March audience, as measured by ComScore, shrink after authentication. Hulu racked up some $420 million in ad revenue last year and is expected to do well in this year’s ad negotiations.

But the move toward authentication, which could take years to complete, will make cable companies happy because it could slow cord-cutting by making cable subscribing more attractive.

At the same time, networks are asking cable companies for retransmission money, a process that could be more appetizing for Comcast and its rivals if their subscriber base stopped shrinking.

We’ve spoken about cord-cutting as a phenomenon before on SiliconANGLE and it’s a potential fear of many cable outfits, which is why Editor in Chief Mark Hopkins believes this move has Comcast’s fingerprints all over it.

“This will end Hulu,” Hopkins says. “This has the fingerprint of Comcast (NBC’s new owner) all over it.”

Subscription-based services receive both a monthly fee from users and they display commercials (often more commercials than venues like Hulu) but are cumbersome and expensive. As a result, they’ve been eschewed by much of the Internet TV subscriber base for cheaper options—after all, why pay for cable or satellite when the Internet is already something we pay for.

Even Hulu sought to may extra money by offering Hulu+ in order to compete with Amazon Prime’s streaming, Netflix, and even YouTube. Although insofar Hulu has been the best option for organized, good content without a subscription—Netflix and Amazon Prime both have a subscription, and licensing wars with HBO, Starz, and media networks continue to rip holes in their capability to provide content.

We’ve seen set-to-boxes begin to edge into the marketplace because they offer the capability of bringing Internet TV into the home via extra subscriptions atop fees to an ISP. We’ve also seen Xbox LIVE narrowing in as entertainment-center for media produced via various outfits (but for a cable-like subscription.)

If this is a cynical move by Comcast to tighten their grip over Hulu and push out competition by making sure that viewers have no place to go, it will change the Internet TV landscape. As a free-TV offering, Hulu has made an amazing run. We’ve seen statistics that say that advertisers who show ads on their network get a higher eyeball return (or at least people watch them more often instead of ducking out for the commercial break) and the number of visitors to watch streaming shows means that the producers of these features get a lot of attention themselves.

Cable may be shaking in their boots at this prospect; but perhaps they should be embracing it instead and convince their networks to license more work to distributors like Hulu rather than trying to choke them out.

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Video Chat While You Dominate on the PS Vita with Skype April 25th

Kit Dotson — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:33:00 +0000

Tomorrow, Skype will appear in the app store for Sony’s magnificent handheld PlayStation Vita—and the device is perfect for it.

The Vita has two high quality cameras (forward and rear) and there are both Wi-Fi and 3G models capable of connecting to the Internet. Perfect for the gamer on-the-go who also wants to stay in touch with friends and family—and feels the need to get a picture with their voice call.

As always, when I think of mobile video-chat devices I hearken back to the old comic Dick Tracy and the video watches. The PS Vita doesn’t quite sit in that role comfortably but it does show that application-ready devices can grow out of their expected niche and reach into others. Currently smartphones are the shining stars of communication with gaming as a secondary; handheld gaming devices (with similar capabilities to smartphones) may be the reverse but have the same sort of multifunction.

The Skype app includes free Skype-to-Skype voice calling, as well as high quality video calling that utilizes PS Vita’s front and rear cameras. The Skype app on PS Vita runs in “background mode” while you’re gaming or using other applications — meaning you have the capability to “pause” a game, conduct a call and then return to your previous activity — so you never miss a call. Plus, with a little Skype credit you can make low-cost calls to landlines and mobile directly from your PS Vita.

One expectation we can have for the PS Vita over something like the iPhone is that Sony will seek to produce a quicker screen, better resolution, and possibly even higher quality cameras. Gamers are exacting creatures who crave speed and quality—although they’re willing to sacrifice quality for reactivity and speed in the end.

Skype and other VoIP entries have been seeking penetration into markets outside of computers and teleconference and they’re starting to show their teeth in the market. With the expected integration with Xbox meaning that hopefully we’ll be seeing video calls coming into the living room and its migration to Android, iOS, Windows Phone and other mobile devices. As a market, video-VoIP is good for mobile devices but with current data rates it might still be a little bit of a barrier for the common customer.

Although we’re starting to see companies like Sprint offer (actually) unlimited data deals, which might enable more customers to take advantage of the higher bandwidth of video calling from mobile devices.

I imagine a future where people with mobile devices can telepresence their friends into conversations, parties, concerts, events by using video-VoIP to broadcast into someone’s living room and back again. Imagine seeing a table full of friends at a bar on the big screen TV even though they’re in Boston and you’re in Phoenix.

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Where’s the Data Fit into Social TV Platforms and Ads?

Kristen Nicole — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:01:42 +0000

While the social element of television is not new, Social TV is a relatively new concept used to describe the emerging generation of television services that integrate with other communication platforms like voice, chat and social media on the web. Social TV leverages the power of social networks to create a new type of highly interactive user experience.

According to a report from Nielsen, 86 percent of U.S. smartphone owners and 88 percent of tablet owners use their devices to watch TV. Moreover, about 69 percent of tablet owners use two screens regularly each week, and more than 26 percent use single screens several times a day.

Social activity growth in conversation and check-ins on TV programming has increased to about 91 percent year over year, according to a study by social TV tracking service Trendrr.TV.

Adding to the emergence of Social TV, another report says about 72 percent of respondents used Twitter, Facebook or a mobile app to comment on shows. The recent study from marketing agency Digital Clarity found that use the devices to communicate with friends while watching TV.

“TV shows with small audiences can generate enormous traffic on Twitter,” said Digital Clarity’s founder, Reggie James. “Social TV is a new platform for engaging with a TV show and has turned TV programs into online events.”

February’s social TV mega event- the Super Bowl – was the latest example where saw the trend of ad spending on national network and cable TV. Advertising time during the Super Bowl this year was estimated to cost $3.5 million per minute.

Social TV Content Providers

Media companies are now developing new ways to take advantage of Social TV trends that have heightened the level of commitment among loyal viewers.

The online gaming platform TwitchTV announced the launch of its live tournament applications for mobile users across iOS and Android. The main functionality of the TwitchTV mobile application is the ability to view all available streaming content on the web in high definition and in full screen mode. It also includes a search engine and easy navigation between the different game platforms.

Users can follow their favorite channels directly from the video stream and see a list of channels that are broadcast live. They can also chat with other users while viewing the videos.

TweePLayer, dubbed the first DVR for social media, provides social media content associated with TV shows, advertisements, conferences, films, political events and more. The platform uses social TV data to stream time-shifted context for video players like Hulu, so you can see tweets about a program when you watch the replay online.

As TweePlayer expands to include social content beyond Twitter, it’s rebranded itself with a new name: Tomorrowish.

“Fans post millions of social media messages about their favorite TV shows every day, and we’re bringing those conversations together in context to make it easy to find the best posts,” said Tomorrowish CEO Mick Darling. “Live TV and social media content is a great combination. Time-shifted TV viewed with the curated content of Tomorrowish’s time-shifted Social TV makes this combination even more powerful and fun.”

Tomorrowish is a system designed to retrieve past conversations from Twitter to sync with any program that we are seeing, regardless of the time. The company’s Machine Curation tool helps content providers engage their audiences and their social networks by displays the most relevant posts.

Social TV is also a Great Marketing Platform

Social TV is also a great marketing opportunity, providing a new way to approach potential customers and build relationships based on affinity, and the value of sharing, participation and exchange.

Companies can access personal user preferences to improve television advertising. In addition, companies can determine the best strategy to approach marketing via connected TVs, use social ratings analytics tools to find and target lean-forward audiences and leverage the second screen to drive synched, deeper brand engagement.

Darling recognizes social media’s impact on TV, and hopes to differentiate his startup by following the viewers. Instead of leveraging social TV to keep people glued to the TV in real time, he wants to bring the conversation to the content, no matter when or where that content’s being consumed. As a result, Tomorrowish is also able to infer a great deal more data about consumer viewing patterns, like when they pause and resume playback, which parts of a program are most or least likely to get paused, and what context emerges from viewer responses at any given part of the program.

Building a market around that data is an important next step for Tomorrowish, as they determine the best way to make the leap from startup to full-blown revenue. In the short-term Darling’s company is focused on TV, creating an experience that doesn’t force viewers to disengage from the social scene if they miss 5 or 50 minutes of a real-time program.

“Long term I’d like to see Tomorrowish be the default place where people go to have watercooler conversations about all media content,” Darling says. “We’re great for TV but we’re good for conferences, political events, education, government meetings and everything in between. If there’s media and a discussion, we can be the thing that ties those two together.”

Contributors: Saroj Kar

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New Media Minute: How to Build and Boost Your Brand’s YouTube Channel

Daisy Whitney — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:47:50 +0000

All brands should be on YouTube, but feeding a YouTube brand
channel can feel like a daunting task. However, there are many ways to
build up the video in your brand channel without producing all the
videos in house. At a recent conference, YouTube executive Eric
Meyerson offered several tips for brands to boost their YouTube
presence through original videos, content curation and consumer
content. For more details, check out this week’s New Media Minute.
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[Thanks, Daisy!]

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Context in Content: Thismoment Leverages a Social Distribution Model

Cherr Aira — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:15:49 +0000

thismoment.com, a provider of social content management software for brands, today announced that it surpassed 650,000 user generated content (UGC) submissions through its flagship product, the Distributed Engagement Channel (DEC).

Thismoment’s UGC contest engine allows brands to collect video, photo, and text content from users directly through YouTube, Facebook, and brand site pages, and offers full moderation and workflow controls to manage submission data.

Big brands can use YouTube, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Instagram as viable content and sales channels.

Thismoment customers can build and deploy creative and engaging UGC brand channels on YouTube at a faster rate than ever before.

Since partnering with YouTube in 2010, thismoment has launched over 100 YouTube brand channels for customers within all major industry verticals, including more than 100 Fortune 500 brands. Throughout this time, thismoment has powered some of the most inventive uses of YouTube APIs in the deployment of engaging and flexible brand experiences on YouTube.

According to Vince Broady, CEO and Founder, thismoment

“Given our successful relationship with YouTube to-date, we are pleased to broaden the reach and scope of our UGC contest engine. We’re seeing an increasing demand for user content enabled engagement programs in all international regions that YouTube supports. This is a clear indicator that YouTube is approaching brand relationships more aggressively and openly than ever before and underscores the value that custom YouTube channels provide to brands.”

Security in social context

While social networking proves to be a lucrative space for branding and marketing, it could also be risky for sensitive information with privacy issues looming. SocialVolt knows this well, and promises to drive engagement without having to expose customer’s data. With security measures in place, they partnered with DigitalMedia, a leader in digital communications for financial firms to bring cutting-edge social media engagement.

“Given the SocialVolt team’s history in banking security and strong understanding of the unique challenges the industry faces, robust risk and compliance features were of the utmost importance when we developed the platform,” says Scott Oppliger, CEO of SocialVolt. “DigitalMailer’s deep expertise in the banking space will help us reach businesses who understand the importance of social media engagement, but require a platform uniquely suited to their heavily regulated industry.”

To audit social media content, there will be a detailed audit trail and administrators will be assigned to oversee passwords and profiles.

Capitalizing existing social engagement platforms

Facebook has the benefits of building hype around social advertising, and milking billions from it. Arguably, Zuckerberg’s brainchild is in a league of its own. Capitalizing on this is Offerpop, another social content marketing that runs engaging and viral promotions in Facebook and Twitter for brands that wish to grow fanbase and repeat customers. It’s recently released a Facebook-sponsored feature called Stories. This support will allow marketers to amplify Offerpop campaigns across the social network.

Mark Cooper, co-founder and CMO of Offerpop, briefly explains benefits of the new feature, saying, “Facebook Sponsored Stories is a powerful way for brands to build awareness and engagement around new initiatives. Our Stories feature helps take the guesswork out of running effective Sponsored Stories campaigns – marketers can literally set them up in minutes.”

The Opportunity in Fragmented Social Portals

The fragmentation of media right now, while it may seem a dilemma for brands to break through the barriers, is a sign of distributed opportunities for social platforms. YouTube was a frontrunner, and still is the one to beat when we talk about online video streaming with a “social” component. For brands, building a social presence is the focus to stay relevant in the game. Making sure that they execute efficiently is another story.

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Viddy Video Rocks Facebook and the iPhone with Linkin Park

Cherr Aira — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:42:08 +0000

Viddy is bringing its Video App alongside the launch of Facebook’s Open Social Platform. The popular mobile video app will be one of the first ventures to take advantage of Facebook’s big update.

There are very few elements that are revealed as what the world’s largest social network newest adventure is all about. This is the total opposite of how the public and pundits are fleshing out facts about their massive $100 billion valuation post-IPO debut. But Viddy is generous enough to share what to expect with the Video App.

Viddy will capitalize on the inherent social element of watching videos with friends. Users will be allowed to share video content and appear on their Facebook Timeline, News Feed and Ticker. Before launching the app, the company conducted integration trial, and the results were very promising. Brett O’Brien, CEO & Co-Founder of Viddy, boasts on the perfect fit of Viddy and Facebook:

“The power of Facebook Platform gives Viddy the ability to reach and engage with hundreds of millions of consumers and enables Viddy’s content and content partners such as Linkin Park to become a key part of people’s experiences on Facebook. Viddy is the perfect app to bring to Facebook timeline, and is enabling Viddyographers to express themselves and connect with friends through social video.”

The “Production Packs” feature, launched at SXSW Interactive 2012 gives user different tools to invigorate a video and turn it into a cinematic act. For the event, they demoed 15-second moving postcard visuals. Other SXSW Viddy videos may be viewed here. Apart from the showcase at the Austin conference, the business has partnered with Grammy award-winning rock band Linkin Park to offer their 40 million Facebook fans worldwide the opportunity to create custom-made music Viddys from their iPhones.

Last month, Viddy was trapped in a controversy following its removal from Apple App Store due to adult contents. It re-entered the largest applications market shortly after the temporary ban. Since videos created via Viddy cannot be longer than 15 seconds, it seemed unlikely “adult content” could be the cause and Viddy claims they have filtered to help prevent that sort of use. There was no concrete explanation what happened between the ban and the rescinding of that ban.

The app is free, but revenues are generated from in-app purchases. Dubbed as the Instagram of video, Viddy’s popularity in the social playground started second quarter of last year as it spread across 80 countries and amassed 175,000 users in barely a month since its inception. The invasion of Facebook is another milestone for them, indeed.

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Online Video Streaming To Victory: Youtube at the Olympics, Nextflix Battles HBO

Cherr Aira — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:00:07 +0000

The viral phenomenon is the definitive characteristic for online video business’ success. In this day and age where the internet, social media and mobile devices dominate technology, fame can be easily gained by uploading a video online. Becoming an overnight sensation with millions of hits in a short span of time is turning into a trend. To aggravate this is the ease of video-sharing through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. For these reasons and more, the industry has come a long way from featuring videos of the past to real-time online streaming. And the future is burning bright for the market and organizations within the circle. Here are some recent noteworthy updates from online video streaming providers.

Netflix

Netflix is gearing up to battle HBO. Reuters reported that Netflix is eyeing to stream movies online, and that CEO Reed Hastings has secretly met with several cable companies in the United States to pursue this ambition. The company desires to be the on-demand option for cable subscribers through their set-top boxes.

Hastings hinted on this issue while speaking at an investor conference last week, saying, “it’s not in the short term, but it’s in the natural direction for us in the long term. Many (cable service providers) would like to have a competitor to HBO, and they would bid us off of HBO.”

Netflix was thought to be a serious threat to cable companies, even if it streams really old TV programs and movies. It’s significantly lower package price has stricken fear in the industry with the rising trend around cord cutting. The cheap online video alternatives are growing at a record pace. But some cable execs think otherwise, viewing Netflix as a booster of old shows that have long been thrown in the casket.

Is there a reason for HBO to be worried? It’s too early to put a punctuation mark on this subject. Netflix has a good track record of surviving competition and pondering their opponent’s misery. This was seen when they bested in streaming services, noted in Q4 of 2011 with figures that U.S. Netflix subscribers watched more than 80% streaming video hours than were viewed within the same time on all U.S. PayTV VOD.

Hulu

Hulu teams up with Nintendo Wii to offer current television shows and classic movies on its console. With an internet and monthly subscription of $7.99, Wii owners will be able to watch their favorite programs and flicks. Hit series available for streaming include Family Guy, Glee, New Girl, Vampire Diaries, The Office, The Biggest Loser and Modern Family.

Pete Distad, VP of Marketing and Distribution at Hulu, expressed excitement as they venture on being present everywhere and accessible at any given time:

“We want to be everywhere, on every screen where people want to watch their favorite shows and discover new ones on their own schedule. Wii is not only one of the most important entertainment devices in the living room, but one of the most heavily anticipated and requested platforms by users and subscribers. Teaming up with Nintendo gives millions of households across the U.S. an immediate way to access some of their favorite current season shows on-demand in their living room through Hulu Plus.”

Together with industry biggies, Hulu is also keen on producing original TV content.

Youtube

Google-owned YouTube will be at this year’s Summer Olympics in London, thanks to NBC. The media giant tapped Youtube’s services to provide the video player for NBCOlympics.com for the entire duration of the world’s most anticipated sporting event. This means that YouTube will not be streaming live, but will direct viewers to NBC’s site and drive Olympics ads revenues.

And YouTube’s influence is mounting. There are numerous ways the service is used at present: showcasing talent, pleas for help, expressing stands on an issue, showing affection towards loved ones in the form of marriage proposals, and now for self-validation. The “Am I Pretty or Ugly?” videos from a growing number of teens asking this question has collected massive attention, with one clip getting more than 4.5 million views.

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In the same vein:

New Media Minute: How to Build a Loyal Video Series Audience

Daisy Whitney — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:01:34 +0000

Since only one in twelve branded videos pass the one-million
view mark, brands and producers are better off building an audience
than going for a viral hit. There are several best practices that any
Web producer, marketer or brand can follow when making a video series.
Jay Miletsky, CEO of online network MyPod Studios, shared several with
the New Media Minute.

[Thanks, Daisy!]

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