Tonight's episode of "Heroes" will bring the series a little closer to its season one resolution.
As the show really kicks into high gear, videos, clips and spoilers for the series abound. NBC itself is even offering a few little spoilers via YouTube.
While I'm not one for spoilers, per say, the network's use of YouTube for promoting "Hereos" is really starting to intrigue me. In addition to sneak peeks, NBC has even created its own spoof for play on the site.
As I've said, I don't particularly love spoilers personally, but I am pretty impressed with how the promotions have been shaping up for this particular show. NBC's work on the website, blogs and videos has gone above and beyond. It seems to be paying off with viewer numbers, too.
While "Heroes" isn’t the first show to receive major online treatment, it might be one of the best example out there.
"Heroes" airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on NBC. Free episodes are available on the NBC site.
In a move that might put a serious beating on YouTube, NBC and News Corp. have announced a team up that will have a new video-sharing web site taking up residence on the Internet.
In addition, the two will license their content for use on multiple other sites, including MySpace, Microsoft’s MSN, AOL and Yahoo. Interestingly enough, YouTube’s not on the list. Through the deal, some videos will be offered for free and others will come at a charge. Content being discussed includes such shows as “The Simpson,” “Saturday Night Live” and more.
If that weren’t enough, the four named portals and the new site will also have an online music store, set to rival iTunes.
According to Australian IT, the service will be owned jointly by News Corp and NBC with Peter Chernin, News Corp’s president and COO, sitting on the board along with Jeff Zucker from NBC.
"This is a game-changer for internet video," Chernin is quoted as saying. "We'll have access to just about the entire US internet audience at launch." Despite the obvious appearance of being a YouTube killer, Chernin says the site will be anything but. "We are, in fact, willing to talk to anybody who wants to distribute this, provided they meet our economic terms and obviously meet our copyright protection terms," Chernin says.
YouTube killer or not, the new service sounds like it will be a coup for viewers. NBC is absolutely catching on with the online viewing craze and this will only add to viewers’ options.
It’s not been a question of if YouTube would get sued. The real question has been when. The answer, courtesy of Viacom, is now.
The media company filed a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube and its owner, Google Inc., in the U.S. District Court in New York. The suit claims YouTube “harnessed technology to willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale" and had "brazen disregard" of intellectual property laws.
A showdown between YouTube and Viacom has been coming for a while. The company owns the rights to some of the biggest YouTube favorites, such as programming from MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central.
Viacom claims the video-sharing site is profiting off clips it has no right to profit from. Earlier this year, Viacom demanded the removal of more than 100,000 clips from its site. Despite this, many clips have remained.
YouTube has had run ins with big media in the past, including CBS and NBC. Both of those networks struck deals with the site and have allowed their presence to remain. In fact, Leslie Moonves, CBS’ CEO, told investors that its relationship with YouTube boosted shows rather than hurt them.
While it will be up to the courts to decide the copyright infringement issue the CBS stand does make one wonder if Viacom is biting off its nose to spite its face?
I’m not saying piracy is acceptable, but it might just be Viacom is throwing out the baby with the bathwater on this one. Since full shows don't normally show up on YouTube, why not take the free advertisements and run with them?
What happens when ordinary people discover they possess pointless abilities?
It looks like the marketing folks at NBC wanted to find out. Thus, “Zeroes” was born. The “Heroes” spoof on YouTube features more than a single belly chuckle as the “Zeroes” show off their abilities.
They can’t fly, teleport or even become invisible. These “Zeroes,” nonetheless, have amazingly odd abilities. One can kick the back of his own head. Another can touch her tongue to her nose. There’s even a woman with “bendy” abilities.
The 2-minute creation was ordered by NBC and created by Vince Manze, TVSquad reports. The writer over there is wondering if it’s “sneaky or is it creative marketing?”
I have to chime in with brilliant marketing. If you can’t spoof your own show, where’s the fun in life?
YouTube users might notice a bit of a British tone in the air. The BBC’s planning on offering three branded channels on Google’s video sharing site, and it looks like two are already up and running.
The deal, which was announced Friday, will allow YouTube to show excerpts of the BBC’s newscasts and regular programming. The branded channels will include BBC Worldwide, which will offer clips from such shows as “Top Gear,” and “Spooks.” The second channel, just called BBC, will feature clips and video diaries of the “Dr. Who” series and the third, BBC News, will offer just that.
BBC Worldwide appears to be up and running, and it looks like the “Dr. Who” montage has been around for a while. The first of the videos on that channel was posted about a month ago, but the login was created back in 2005, so it looks like the BBC has been eyeing this sort of move for some time. The news channel doesn’t appear to be up just yet.
According to the BBC’s Mark Thompson, the broadcasters sees YouTube as a “key gateway through which to engage new audiences in the U.K. and abroad."
Indeed, this could be a great way to tap into potential viewers for the BBC. While American cable outlets offer many of the BBC’s shows, those without cable don’t necessarily know what they’re missing. Now they will.
While I’m not one to condone piracy in any form, the question of how to burn YouTube or MySpace videos to DVD often comes up. When the material’s not copyrighted, a handy, dandy DVD burn can be achieved.
The folks over at Digital Inspiration have put together a very good guide on how to make this happen, but they do have some warnings about anticipated quality. Don’t expect a great recreation, they warn: “Before you decide to watch Youtube videos on TV via your DVD player, keep in mind that the video quality will be very low - The video resolution on sites like YouTube or Google Video is 320x240 while DVD frame size is 720x480 for NTSC or 720x576 for PAL.”
If quality isn’t a concern, the process to make a burn is fairly simple. All it takes is downloading the video to a computer’s hard disk in Flash Video format. Tools like iTube and keepVid.com can help.
The second step is getting an authoring software program. They recommend DVD Flick for doing so, because titles, subtitles and other neat features can be added to make the presentation a little cooler.
Making a DVD burn of a MySpace or Google Video file is more than possible, but be warned, don’t do this at home with copyrighted materials. The Internet police are out in full force lately and their presence is only just being felt.
Pirates beware! YouTube will no longer be a safe haven in a storm.
The Mercury News is reporting the site will soon start filtering content to make sure pirated videos aren’t posted. YouTube intends to use technology called Audible Magic, which is already in use by MySpace, to keep pirates at bay on the site.
Venture Beat’s writers find the news a bit off since Google has stated it intended to create its own programs to filter copyrighted material, much to the dismay of many major media outlets. Venture Beat’s question is “why?”
If Mercury’s report turns out to be true, it’s my prediction that Google/YouTube ran out of time. The movement to fight piracy on the Internet is serious and it’s strong. The longer the site goes without some form of protection for copyright holders, the wider open it leaves the door for litigation.
Here’s hoping YouTube’s really doing something beyond just removing files when they’re complained about or discovered. Catching it on the front end, when possible, is a heck of a lot more efficient.
If you’ve found yourself wondering how many bloopers took place during the season one filming or you missed the backstories of some of the main castaways, there’s a new place to turn where everything “Lost” is found.
A new YouTube channel is dedicated solely to the ABC show, featuring tons of videos snips from the past three seasons. Right now there are 42 different videos up ranging from Kate and Jack’s backstories to some behind-the-scenes looks and bloopers.
The channel’s been up and running for a few short weeks and already has hosted about 32,000 visitors. With more videos coming online at a pretty fast pace, it looks like this will be a fan favorite and a great source of information for people who want to catch up on the action quickly.
TeevBlogger is dedicated to discussing TV online. This includes what shows are available, how and why we watch TV in the online format, technological issues and advancements in this market, and most importantly the enjoyment of television...
April 30, 2007
In a move that might put a serious beating on YouTube, NBC and News Corp. have announced a team up that will have a new video-sharing web site taking up residence on the Internet.
It’s not been a question of if YouTube would get sued. The real question has been when. The answer, 
While I’m not one to condone piracy in any form, the question of how to burn YouTube or MySpace videos to DVD often comes up. When the material’s not copyrighted, a handy, dandy DVD burn can be achieved. 
