901am » User Generated

Justin.tv Plans Pay-Per-View Scheme

Arnold Zafra — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:52:50 +0000

Is pay-per-view really the best way to go for web video site to monetize their site? I mean, earning some big dough from all the great videos upload to their site is Google’s biggest struggle with YouTube yet. Is Justin.tv, a famous video web site suffering the same fate as YouTube as they plan to make a pay-per-view model for their site?

Beet.TV is reporting that Justin.tv will be testing out a pay-per-view service for selected premium video content. Justin.tv claims more than 35 million views per month, so the owners want to turn some of these views hopefully into cash, to perhaps help pay the bills.

The pay-per-view platform is set to be rolled out next month with a projected full launch across its entire network sometime in Q2 of 2010. Under the new program, Justin.tv channel creators can start charging for their content, with Â Justin.tv managing user authentication and payment system. In return the site will get 30% Â of the payment. Minimum charge per paid view will be $1.

Justin.tv has currently around 40,000 content creators streaming their programming lives daily. There are currently 1800 shows on Justin.tv and around 800,000 registered users.

Will this give Justin.tv a much needed boost in the company’s financial forefront? Would content creators finally be able to earn significant revenue from their video content?

Answers to this question will definitely depend on how much users are willing to spend to get their daily dose of user-generated video content. Â Pay-per-view user generated content is still somewhat an untested water, so Justin.tv should ensure that their premium contents really have value.

DailyMe launches new user-centric news destination

Dennis Bouchand — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:55:13 +0000

Interactive media and technology startup DailyMe.com has launched, a user-centric news destination that offers top-quality content and advanced features as well as three distinct editions: personalized, community driven and editor selected.

The new destination builds on DailyMeâ€™s core strengths of robust content â€“ both licensed and user-generated â€“ and advanced delivery options, which include web views, RSS, email and automated printing. DailyMeâ€™s three editions allow users to select the news they wish to receive based on the level of personalization they seek.

The Weather Channel launches user-generated Earth Day campaign

Dennis Bouchand — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:19:36 +0000

The Weather Channel today launched its Help Make Every Day Earth Day initiative. The campaign encourages green enthusiasts to answer the question â€œWhat are you doing to help save the planet?â€ via user-generated content including photos, text and 30-second videos. The Weather Channel will showcase select user-generated entries that express ideas and solutions about helping the environment on-air and online.

Participants can upload their material to an entry page at weather.com/forecastearth, or theweatherchannelkids.com. Adults and children aged 13 and older are eligible to submit content. The Weather Channel will begin running selected user-generated â€œgreen-ettesâ€ in March on the network as well as online, and increase their frequency leading up to Earth Day on April 22.

KickApps releases version 3.0

Cristina Ledesma — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:53:21 +0000

KickApps announced the release of version 3.0 of its SaaS application suite. This version makes it easier for web publishers and developers of all levels and experience to deploy Social Networking, User Generated Content (UGC), Programmable Video Players and Widgets. In addition, the new release extends a web publisherâ€™s ability to manage media, members and reportingâ€” essential elements to growing a successful online community.

KickApps 3.0 opens community creation to a wide range of non-technical web publishers. A powerful new WYSIWYG site creation and deployment interface allows web publishers with minimal technical knowledge the ability to build and customize social media websites and widgets with just a few clicks. These point-and-click features also help experienced web developers achieve rapid prototyping and fast deployment.

KickApps 3.0 also includes an array of community experiences that focus on driving member engagement and viral growth: community news feeds, social graphs, one-click media syndication, media-enabled message boards and customized group features.

One of the most powerful enhancements is the KickApps 3.0 Affiliate Center. The KickApps Affiliate Center is where web developers deploy, customize, manage, monetize and moderate their online communities. Version 3.0 transforms the KickApps Affiliate Center into a dynamic control panel that provides real-time data essential to growing audience and engagement. The KickApps Advertising Manager in the Affiliate Center enables ad insertion from all major ad networks for optimal monetization.

Hubdub introduces prediction market for top news stories

Dennis Bouchand — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:41:52 +0000

Hubdub is introducing a new technology platform and community that combines the value of user-generated news aggregation with the accuracy and excitement of prediction markets.

Unlike Digg or Reddit, Hubdub tracks only the stories that people decide are worth creating a market around. To create a market, someone simply asks a question, for example, â€œWill Barack Obama secure the Democratic Presidential nomination?â€ They request either a â€œyesâ€ or â€œnoâ€ answer or offer a multiple choice scenario, then determine the duration of trading.

Other community members can wager â€œHubdub dollarsâ€ (H$) to compete on predictions â€“ everyone starts with H$1,000. As market creators and predictors build a successful portfolio, they can establish credibility to leverage within their industry or area of expertise. Successful predictors make the leaderboard in topics such as Technology, Politics and Sports, which they can link back to their blogs, sites or profiles on social networks.

Markets allow people to see how opinion on any question evolves and changes over time, similar to the historical views on favorite financial trading sites.

For each market, Hubdub automatically populates the trading page with aggregated news from across the Web to provide background and insight for predictors and bystanders. Depending on activity, the market, representing opinion, will trade up or down.

At the very least, Hubdub helps people discover, track and discuss all major news stories and offers to challenge, excite, and reward them through competitive prediction of story outcomes. It also promotes and facilitates intelligent user comments and intense debates. In addition, markets can be embedded in blogs, allowing bloggers to highlight news stories, issues and outcomes they care about within their own communities.

Haynes and Boone tapped for acquisition of eBaum’s World by ZVUE Network

Dennis Bouchand — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:02:03 +0000

Haynes and Boone, LLP announced the completion of a series of transactions, including the acquisition of eBaum’s World, with a combined value up to $80 million for San Francisco-based ZVUE Corporation. As part of the transaction, the firm also successfully completed a $28 million private placement transaction for ZVUE.

The recently completed offering and acquisition adds eBaum’s World to the growing roster of user generated content offered through the ZVUE Network of web sites.

With the acquisition of eBaum’s World, the ZVUE Network of web sites now entertains more than 24 million visitors per month, providing advertisers with innovative solutions for reaching the highly prized 18- to 34-year-old male demographic. The company has licensing and content relationships with AOL Video, Facebook, FOX Mobile and others.

Nielsen and Digimarc launch service to manage Internet media content distribution

Dennis Bouchand — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:32:45 +0000

Nielsen Co. and Digimarc Corp. have jointly partnered in launching Nielsen Digital Media Manager, a new service that would enable media companies, social networks, peer-to-peer services and user-generated content sites to monitor and manage the distribution of media content across the Internet.

The new service will use digital watermarking and fingerprinting to establish an industry-wide rules-based product to assure copyright compliance. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Aggregate Knowledge inks deal with LA Times on user-driven content

Dennis Bouchand — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:06:57 +0000

Aggregate Knowledge announced a deal with the Los Angeles Times Media Group to deliver user-driven content suggestions on The Times web site. Pique Onsite Discovery from Aggregate Knowledge will be deployed on the new Travel section of latimes.com, as well as forthcoming sections, to help users discover new and exciting content. That rollout will occur in coming months.

Pique Onsite Discovery provides user-driven content suggestions in the form of â€œPeople Who Viewed This Also Viewed That,â€ across media web sites. The Pique Onsite offering drives suggestions for many types of content including breaking news, articles, videos, photos, and blogs. With each click, Pique Onsite delivers content suggestions based on what visitors are actually viewing on the site.

Pique Onsite is part of the Pique Discovery Network by Aggregate Knowledge, which is a set of offerings that enable media companies to drive content and product suggestions on their own sites, through email, and to and from partner, retail and advertiser sites in the network. The Pique Discovery Network helps companies improve engagement, create new revenue opportunities, drive more traffic, and maximize the value of all their content assets.

HandHeld Entertainment to acquire eBaum’s World for $17.5 million

Cristina Ledesma — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:21:48 +0000

HandHeld Entertainment, Inc., a global digital entertainment company, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire eBaum’s World, Inc., one of the Internet’s premier online entertainment sites, offering user-generated videos, games, jokes, photos and other content.

Founded in 1998, eBaum’s World is one of the oldest and most successful user-generated content sites in the world, generating approximately $5.2 million in revenue and $1.6 million in net income before income taxes in 2006. During the last 12 months, eBaum’s World served more than 2.5 billion unique page views and video streams, with an average time on site per user visit of more than 10 minutes. The company has relationships with such leading media companies as AOL Video, Facebook, FOX Mobile and others.

Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close later this year, HandHeld will pay $17.5 million for eBaum’s World at closing, including $15.0 million in cash, $5.0 million in common stock, which is subject to a $2.5 million one-year hold-back based on achievement of certain financial targets. In addition, HandHeld may pay earn-outs of up to $32.5 million ($17.5 million in stock and $15.0 million in cash) over three years to the owners of eBaum’s World, dependent on the achievement of certain financial and operational milestones of the purchased business.

Eyespot launches Media Campaign Platform to empower advertisers and brands

Cristina Ledesma — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:35:54 +0000

Eyespot announced the launch of its Media Campaign Platform, a powerful new addition to the Eyespot application suite, which enables brand managers and advertising firms to directly harness the energy of social networks and user-generated content. The system allows for the creation of interactive video campaigns that will associate brands with both Hollywood and other professionally produced content.

In the rapidly evolving Internet economy, Eyespotâ€™s Media Campaign Manager is a market first that empowers the creative industry and communities to initiate their own interactive video sharing campaigns directly with consumers. The unmitigated appeal of UGC is available alongside a significant array of premium content supplied by producers, networks, studios, and record labels to engage with new customers, increase brand recognition, and further exploit existing brand loyalty.

The Media Campaign Managerâ€™s robust campaign creation system is specially suited to the needs of advertising and marketing firms. This online suite requires no technical expertise and is an easy-to-use administrative content management system that only requires the oversight, leadership, and decision making of a brand manager or marketing director.