Andy Plesser

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Whether user generated  video from the new YouTube Direct will create valuable content for its launch partners including the Washington Post, NPR, Politico and the Huffington Post is too early to say.

WASHINGTON, DC –  To succeed with monetizing online video, media companies need to better understand their audiences –  but they don't, said Caroline Little, former CEO of Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive who is now CEO of the Guardian News & Media, North America.

Saul Hansell, the veteran technology reporter and columnist for The York Times has left the paper to join AOL's new "Seed" unit, a mostly automated news site. 

TubeMogul, the Emeryville-based video syndication and analytics company, has entered into an agreement with Brightcove to provide analytics tools to the big Boston-area video services company.

Livestream, the New York-based live video services company, is getting traction with its premium service, booking some $350,000 per month in revenue from 1,000 premium customers who pay $350 each.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Stung from  the 2008 election losses, Republican members of Congress are uploading videos to YouTube in much greater numbers than Democrats.

SAN JOSE, CA — Software giant Adobe Systems is using its new open source media framework player on Adobe.TV, the company’s new video site.  The site launched in September.

SAN JOSE, CA — Some of the most innovative uses of online video have been pioneered by technology companies, notably Microsoft’s Channel 9,  the videoblog for customers and developers.  

Facebook's introduction of Ajax and an e-mail importer functionality were among key factors in Facebook's ascent over MySpace as the preeminent social network, according to this big feature published in the Financial Times,  entitled "The Rise and Fall of MySpace."

Reuters, a longtime powerhouse in providing content to the online world, is making a push as a destination site with its redesign, which went live last night.

Tom Brokaw, in one of his first comments on the just announced Comcast/NBC merger, says the prospective merger would be "a good thing."

In a deal just announced, Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, will buy a controlling stake in NBC.  The deal will take a year to close and will surely be subject to strenuous regulatory review, notably from the FTC.

Vizu, a San Francisco-based start-up that has developed a means to measure the value of online video advertising, has raised an addition round of $6.8 million in venture funding.

MSNBC.com today introduced a new embeddable player in a move to increase consumption of news video to other locations, notably on Facebook. 

WASHINGTON, DC — Olivia Ma, news manager at YouTube, will be one of the media luminaries to speak at today's Beet.TV Online Video Roundtable here in Washington, D.C.  See the list below:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Ooyala, the online video services company started by ex-Googlers, is developing realtime analytics for video producers to closely monitor the success of their content.

On Tuesday (12/1) in Washington, Beet.TV will gather an extraordinary group to talk about online video and its role in the evolving news environment.

SAN JOSE — NBC Sports is demonstrating the highly interactive functionality of its online experience with Sunday Football.  Much of this functionality will be part of NBC's Winter Olympics online presentation.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA –  With smart phone sales outpacing PC sales, mobile devices represent "the future of media" and video producers will soon begin to produce videos for the small screen first,

Fashion icon Norma Kamali, the New York-based designer, is making a big retail push online with a custom page on eBay.