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New Media News Every Morning

Muppets Launch YouTube Channel

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Entertainment industry execs, take note: this is how an old classic can successfully make the transition into new media. When The Muppet Show was cancelled in 1981, a lot of us felt like we lost our old gang of childhood friends. Fortunately, the Muppets just launched their own YouTube channel, and they’re hitting the medium of online video with the force of Gonzo shooting out of a cannon.

Kermit and crew clearly did their homework. With punchy new original content perfectly tailored to the viral, shortform, fourth-wall-breaking nature of online video, the Muppets know exactly what they’re doing on YouTube — despite Statler’s and Waldorf’s constant assertions to the contrary. Apparently, old frogs can learn new tricks.

Originally posted on November 27, 2009 @ 9:08 am

Google Adds Auto-Caption Feature in YouTube

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Video captions are useful not only for the hearing impaired and the deaf but also for video owners as well as it improves search findability of videos and machine translation. The thing is adding caption to videos before uploading them can be a pretty dauting task.  The YouTube folks know this, and so they just rolled out two useful features – automatic caption or auto-caps and auto-timing.

Auto-caps use the same voice recognition algorithms in Google Voice for automatically generating video captions. The captions are no where near perfection but since this is a new feature, it is bound to improve in time – hopefully. [Read more…]

Originally posted on November 19, 2009 @ 3:08 pm

Funny or Die Launches YouTube Channel

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Even goofball Hollywood comedians know the value of distribution in new media. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, cofounders of the comedy video site Funny or Die, announce the launch of their site’s YouTube channel. Considering that fans have been uploading Funny or Die clips to YouTube for over two years now, it’s about damn time.

Watch out for a cameo by Mark Wahlberg — apparently on the set of his upcoming movie with Ferrell, The Other Guys.

Originally posted on November 15, 2009 @ 12:01 am

Ageing rockers U2 to stream live concert on YouTube

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U2 has announced that this weekend’s Californian concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl will also be streamed live on YouTube.

Of course, if you’re outside the US you’ll have to watch it at a bizarre time — 3.30am on Monday morning in the UK for example — but manager Paul McGuinness said that, as the gig was being filmed, it made the perfect opportunity to “extend the party beyond the stadium”.

Google-owned YouTube will slap adverts around the video, as well as making highlights available after the concert. In addition, there’ll be links to Twitter streams discussing the concert as well as the opportunity to donate money to Bono’s RED charity. [Read more…]

Originally posted on October 21, 2009 @ 9:46 am

YouTube Sensation Dude Perfect Reveals Techniques

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It’s amazing what can make you famous in the new media. Two years ago, a gymnastics video made $27,829 on Metacafe. Five months ago, a bunch of college kids started filming their crazy basketball shots and posting them to YouTube, getting more and more extreme as they went along. Almost nine million video views later, their group Dude Perfect is a YouTube sensation. Here they are revealing their extreme throwing techniques.

As revenue-sharing members of YouTube’s partner program, these kids are making money from their videos. Who knew playing around with a camera and a basketball could make you a national sensation?

Originally posted on September 28, 2009 @ 9:51 am