The Online Video Weekly News Reel - 6 March 2011

February is gone, March is here, winter's ending, spring is near. Well it might not feel like it in parts of the world as there's snow in Milwaukee and it's still below freezing here in the Czech Republic, but temperatures are starting to rise, days are getting longer and soon the birds will sing and the flowers will bloom. In the meantime, let's check in on what was going on in online video this week.

Most Read at ReelSEO

The more read new article this week was The YouTube Black Hole: Where Good Videos Go To Die where Jeremy talks about it being difficult to discover new, good video online and about video curation.

Second most read this week was SocialEyes Launches Unnecessary Video Chat For Facebook which talks about a new video chat solution from two former RealNetwork Robs.

Finally, and not surprisingly is Apple Announces The iPad They Should Have Released A Year Ago do we even need to talk about what that is about? iPad 2, 2 cameras, video recording...

Interesting news out in the world

Nielsen reports that Android is now officially, the most popular OS in America with 29% topping Blackberry and iOS both now at 27%.

Video on Demand

Sharp's Aquos Net+ Users Join Growing Viewster Audience

Viewster, the hit sVoD service from DIVA AG that delivers a high-quality catalogue of classic and current movies and TV series, is to be made available by Sharp to owners of its connected TVs, BluRay players and other devices via its Aquos Net+ platform. The deal will initially deliver Viewster to Aquos Net+ users in 5 key European markets.

Netflix Not Driving Cord Cutting

Home Media Magazine claims Neflix Not Hurting Pay-TV Channels, For Now Thanks to racy original programming such as "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" last year and prequel "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena" this year, Liberty Starz Group reported fourth-quarter (ended Dec. 31) pre-tax operating income of $103 million, up 43% from pre-tax operating income of $72 million during the previous-year period.

Video Advertising

Brand Building in a Digital Landscape Webinar

Join Microsoft Advertising, The interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Unicast for a live interactive discussion featuring the latest innovations on brand building in the digital space—including winning submissions from the recent IAB Rising Stars competition. We'll explore industry-leading rich media executions and mind-blowing creative executions that will leave a lasting impression on your audience.

Click to register.

HTML5 Video News

The debate between using Adobe Flash or HTML5 for online videos could be winding down, but the war among different video formats is heating up.

A whopping 63 percent of all videos on the Web are now HTML5-compatible, compared to only 10 percent just a year ago, according to video-sharing site Mefeedia. Instead of relying solely on Flash to display their videos, many more Web sites are adopting video formats that can run directly in HTML5-compatible browsers.

The majority of the sites uncovered by Mefeedia are using H.264, the most common video format since it's also compatible for playback using Flash. Google's VP8, or WebM, video codec is second on the popularity charts, followed by Ogg, aka Ogg Theora.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20038308-93.html#ixzz1FpfV94Wo

Internet + TV News

mgMEDIA Moves a Step Ahead Creating a TV APPs Division

Up until now, creating TV-adapted interfaces was only one part of the mgMEDIA Open4Content four screens platform. This multi-channel technology allows digital content distribution through TVs, PCs, tablets, smartphones, set-top-boxes, blu-rays and any other Internet-connected device. Some of the companies looking to mgMEDIA for digital content distribution solutions, as well as technological advice, are especially interested in adapting different services to TV screens. "We are aware of the fascinating business opportunity that has opened up with the TV App phenomenon and the importance of being the first movers in this market”, explains Jerónimo Macanás, CEO of mgMEDIA. "Brands want to cement their presence within the platforms of top manufacturers and they aren't sure of how to quickly and appealingly reach these wide audiences of new connected viewers. We are going to help them”, he concludes. Read more at mgMEDIA.

Video Email Marketing

VideoCustomizer blends Personalized video ads with video email

VideoCustomizer, the leading online video marketing and video email platform, announced today its official launch of personalized video ads within video email solution. Now, with VideoCustomizer any customer can send mass personalized video email campaigns.

We are really excited about the endless marketing opportunities to server a personalized video to a mass audience, said Brian O'Connell, CEO of VideoCustomizer, sending personalized video ads on our video email platform go way beyond just name or data, it allows for personalized video based on any number of CRM triggers. But the really cool part is a customer doesn't even need a video to start as we offer 1000's video templates which can be branded and customized. Read more at http://www.videocustomizer.com

That should be enough to get you up to speed until Monday rolls round and we start all over again.

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