Andy Plesser

Cisco's, latest report on internet network growth and trends, the Visual Networking Index Forecast (VNI) predicts that the Internet will generate 1.3 zettabytes of traffic in 2016.

According to the report, an increase in the number of devices -- each person is expected to have almost 2.5 connections, more internet users, faster broadband speeds, more Wi-Fi connections and more video traveling the across the internet every second, will contribute to this significant level of growth.

Geographic trends show the Asia Pacific region to generate the most IP traffic, beating North America's output per month, while China and the United States will be the highest traffic generating countries by 2016, as per the VNI's forecast.

From San Jose, Shetty explains the trends to Beet TV. Here is a press release summary of the story.

Standardizing metadata and leveraging it across each aspect of the work flow, will increase the visibility of online video, says Michael Dunn, CTO of Hearst Interactive, in this interview with Beet.TV

He explains that attaching metadata will help with the internal comprehension of video content and external discovery via search avenues such as social media or content syndication partnerships.

In the interview, he describes how Hearst Interactive works with both Brigthcove and Kaltura as online video platform providers.

We spoke with Dunn last month at the Streaming Media East conferene where he was a speaker.

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VOX Media, the fast-growing sports and tech blog network, is making a substantial investment around original video production and distribution, says CEO Jim Bankoff in this interview with Beet.TV

One the most popular sports sites, with microsites for nearly every professional sports team in the U.S., VOX's SB Nation has added video in a big way with a newly constructed studio in Manhattan, on-air talent and a featured channel partnership with YouTube.

The company is also creating original video programming around its The Verge site, he notes.

Bankoff was a speaker at the paidContent conference in Manhattan last week where we caught up with him.

Andy Plesser

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Verizon FiOS is increasing download speeds to as fast as 300 Mbps to residential customers, the company announced today.

The increase is largely to meet bandwidth demands from intensive video and gaming, says company spokesperson John Bonono in this inteview with Beet.TV

The service will be for areas with FiOS.  For communities without, the service is unlikely to be available as the company has stopped the national expansion.

Andy Plesser

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Shelby.tv, the web/APP video platform, gathers and streams video from different social networks to create a customized one-stop-shop for online video, says Chris Kurdziel, Director for Business Development in this interview with Beet TV

Users receive instant access to online videos friends share on social networks, along with its context and the virtual conversations it generates.

YouTube, Blip.tv, Vimeo and Dailymotion are some of sources surfacing on Shelby.tv, although the company hopes to bring premium content to the platform. 

The online platform has an app downloadable for free, allowing viewers to watch their customized streams on the go.

Kurdziel says the site will incorporate branded content in the future to make the advertising experience useful and fun for the user.

We spoke with him at the AppNation conference during Internet Week in New York.

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theGrio, the NBC News unit which targets African Americans, has built a growing audience and revenue model with original video, says co-founder Barion Grant in this interview with Beet TV.

Grant spoke at a recent online video news forum at the Columbia Journalism School hosted by duPont-Columbia Awards and the Online News Association

He says social media has enabled the site to have a "top down bottom up approach" to building a more organic audience.

NBC News-owned site, targeting African Americans, has over 400,000 Facebook fans.

More the growing impact of theGrio in this story on paidContent.

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The Financial Times has created its own App based on HTML5 and it is better than the earlier "native" App created for the Apple iOS, says Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director of the FT.com in this interview with Beet.TV

With 2 million downloads of the new App, acquisition of new subscribers has been easier outside the Apple App store than within it, he ads.  And, the financial arrangement is better as the publisher is not compelled to provide 30% of revenue to Apple.

Grimshaw explains that the FT has taken advantage of HTML5 to use its caching cababilities to create the App, which has been done in-house.

We spoke with him earlier this week at the paidContent conference in Manhattan where he was a speaker.

Andy Plesser

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DBG, the New York/LA-based Web video production and syndication company, has launched a highly produced home design show called "Spaces" on YouTube. 

The series is one of the new YouTube-supported partner channels.

Yesterday, we spoke with DBG's Bradley Werner, VP for Production and Series Development, about the new series and the opportunities around the new YouTube initiative.  He calls Spaces a "hipper HGTV."

Here's a story on the launch in yesterday's New York Times.

Earlier this year, we spoke with DBG founder Chris Young about this company and its mix of production and syndication on it's "own" network.   We have republished that interview below.

Andy Plesser

Mobile blogging is growing quickly with over four million active users of the mobile WordPress platform, says WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg in this inteview with Beet.TV

We spoke with him after his presentation at the paidContent conference in Manhattan yesterday.

He also speaks about progress with Jetpack, video blogging and the growth at San Francisco-based Automattic which has over 100 employees.

Andy Plesser

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Global Post, an online news site producing some 150 international daily news stories a day, across video and print platforms, is meeting a growing demand for foreign news says Solana Pyne, a senior Global Post Video Producer, in this interview with Beet TV.

Founded in January 2009, the Boston-based firm has maintained its revenue through advertising.  The site publishes stories from more than 50 countries spanning Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas. It has nearly 3 million monthy unique visitors, Pyne says in this interview.

The company syndicates video news content to U.S. networks including CBS and PBS NewsHour.

Pyne was a panelist at last week's online video news forum at the Columbia Journalism School hosted by duPont-Columbia Awards and the Online News Association.

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The New York Times used Google+ 'Hangouts On Air,' streaming live video on its home page, YouTube channel and Google+ page for the first time. In this video interview with Beet TV, Alexis Mainland, New York Times Social Media Editor describes the on air feature as a "light weight production tool with inherent social elements." 

Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof moderated the discussion on human rights, foreign affairs and international issues between U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice and a host of participants from the paper's Google+ page, last Thursday at 2:30pm Eastern Time.

Google first launched 'Hangouts On Air,' in 2011 to selected broadcasters, but earlier in May this year, it became available to Google+ users world wide. In addition to live streaming, the host can instantly view the number of people watching live. At the end of a 'Hangout On Air,' Google automatically posts a recording of the broadcast to the host's Youtube channel and Google+ post.

The Times' 'Hangout On Air' is the first in a series of live broadcasts from its Opinion...

Online video is more measured than most other mediums, but it's not necessarily more transparent, says Kelly McEttrick, Director of Platform Strategy for at VideoHub, during an interview with Beet.TV. We caught up with her at the OMMA Video conference this week in New York for a discussion on transparency in video media buying.

"Data transparency is needed for the right type of inovations," she says, adding that bringing more online video players on board with transparency can drive more investment from brands.

She explains that transparency is more than a site list and it includes factors such as the time of day people are watching, when ads complete, when during the day brand lift is highest, and the size of the video player. Those data points can help brands fine-tune their online video buys even more, she says in this video...

BOSTON (via Skype Video) - The Boston Globe, which has been producing and streaming video clips for over five years, has launched it first regular live show. 

The subject is sports and the 20-minute program is hosted by columnist Christopher Gasper.  It streams Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at noon.  It is also available on demand.

Earlier this week we spoke with Caleb Solomon, Managing Editor, about the opportunities around live programming and why the paper chose sports to debut its live effort.  We interviewed him via Skype Video link-up from the Globe's newsroom to ours. 

Simulmedia, the New York-based company lead by Dave Morgan, recently raised $6 million in new funding and is on its way to building a system to effectively deliver targeted advertising to TV users, using a Web-like solution, says Morgan in this inteview with Beet.TV

We spoke with him yesterday at the OMMA Video conference.

Andy...

Nearly two-thirds of media-savvy U.S. consumers say they used an Internet-connected device for at least a few minutes the last time they watched TV, underscoring that TV viewers are multitasking on other screens, according to Anna Bager, VP and GM, Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Beet.TV caught up with Bager outside the AppNation conference in Soho during Internet Week to discuss a study released today from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Nearly the same amount of consumers use a connected device while watching DVR content too, she adds in this video interview. The top activities include researching the show or the people in the show, Bager tells us. Smartphones are the most popular "secondary" device, with about 45% of consumers saying they use a smartphone when interacting about a TV show, with 30% citing a tablet, and 21% naming a computer as the device of choice in those situations.

The IAB is a global trade association of digital publishers.

Stephen Colbert's on-air routine taking Wheat Thins and its advertising memo to task in a branded sponsorship earlier this year was deliberate, says Amanda Richman, President of Digital at MediaVest, in interview with Beet.TV

We caught up with her at the Ad Age Social TV conference last week to discuss the Colbert-Kraft Food sponsorship.  She says that it generated mega buzz as the host poked fun at the brand as well as how the agency looks to social media to measure the impact of such integrations.  (See the routine edited into this clip.)

The Wheat Thins program was architected by Kraft agency MediaVest. The goal was to "spark a dialogue," she says. "The program was started with our conversations with media partners to integrate the Wheat Thins brand into the dialogue and do it in a way that is playful and makes fun of itself." The next step was to brief the Colbert team, who then used the brief as part of the segment, she explains in this video interview.

When measuring these type of deals, agencies should look at engagement, time spent, conversations, volumes of tweets and the viral nature of the content, she tells us. Branded sponsorships, such as the Colbert one, can bring value to the marketer in the on-air mention, but also in the continued conversations among consumers via social channels. Social TV deals such as this are becoming more common for brands and networks. Richman also discusses the impact of the recently-held New...

Like the the Financial Times which has totally left the Apps platform for an enhance HTML mobile Web scenario, MIT's Technology Review has abandoned its App strategy.

Writing in Tech Review, Jason Pontin, who is both editor-in-chief and publisher explains how difficult and costly the Apple iOS integration has been for the venerable publication.

In March, Pontin was the keynote speaker at the Beet.TV Executive Retreat. His presentation was about the pervasive "linkyness" of publishing on the Web and the drawbacks of the walled garden of Apps.

We have republished that interview today.

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The New York Times Company has released a new digital program called Ricochet, helping brands better meet audience needs by attaching advertising to Times content says Michael Zimbalist, VP of Research and Development, in his interview with Beet.TV

Traditionally, brands have purchased content to reach a publisher's specific audiences. Now with Ricochet, brands can bring new and informative content to its following, while serving its own advertising goals.

Zimbalist says the company's launch partner SAP has put the product to test by selecting articles on cloud computing, enterprise computing and mobility and attaching its advertising using Ricochet's many templates. 

The program then generates a unique link to the content with SAP branding, which the company can share via Twitter, Facebook, eNewletter, Google+ and other social media. Currently, each link is valid for a one-month, timeframe, but  that will change as the product develops.

He says the next step is for Ricochet to become a self service tool, "brands can [in the future] login, find the content they want, upload their creative, send it to us, we have an editorial checkpoint and then we make it live." 

Revision3, the popular technology and geek lifestyle original video network will be acquired by Discovery Communications, the company announced today. Terms were not disclosed.

Last month in Las Vegas and NAB we caught up with Revison3 CEO Jim Louderback for an update on the technology of distribution and consumption for the San Francisco-based video network

Louderback said Revision3 is streaming 100 million monthly video views.

News of the possible deal was reported earlier this week by The New York Times and TechCrunch.

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PARIS -- UbiQ, a new digital media and entertainment conference will debut in Paris on June 18 and 19, with several highlevel speakers including Randy Zuckerberg, Machinima's Allen DeBevoise, Ooyala co-founder Sean Knapp and some 60 others who will be part of the conference at the historic Palais Brongnairt.

For an overview on the event, we produced this video in Paris with Mira Emmerling, who heads marketing and operations for the conference.