Andy Plesser

Microsoft's Xbox LIVE has some 23 million subscribers with two million watching concurrently.  With such a big, engaged audience, Microsoft has created a hybrid media environment for advertisers seeking to reach 18-34 year-old males.

One of the most exciting uses of video as performance art can be seen in the current Broadway production of Sondheim on Sondheim.

Foursquare, the fast growing location-based social media platform, which now has 1 million active users and is adding about 15,000 per day, is dealing with problems in scaling the service to keep up with demand.

SecondMarket, a new New York-based electronic market place for shares of privately-owned companies and other illiquid assets, has recorded $100 million in sales of Facebook shares over the past 12 months.

David Kirkpatrick, longtime Fortune staffer and author of a much anticipated book about Facebook, says that TechCrunch Disrupt is the "best tech conference ever" in New York. 

"Video is not boring," it is dynamic and useful as social medium, says seventeen year-old Andrey Ternovskiy, the creator of the international phenomenon Chatroulette.

The problem with the media business is not the result of technology, it's about quality of content, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press briefing today at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

Metacafe, one of the earliest UGC video sites, has expanded its operations to premium content with the launch of a movie channel.  

Not many gadgets were on display at Streaming Media East earlier this month, but this was my favorite:  a portable, battery-powered video encoder, which we understand to be the world's first.

Facebook is inevitably moving towards becoming a major e-commerce destination, says Leena Rao, a reporter with TechCrunch.

MG Siegler, a reporter for TechCrunch who follows Facebook closely, says that sources tell him that Facebook's much anticipated location-based function has been put on hold for now, a result of the recent uproar over breaches of privacy protocol at the giant social site.

Ooyala, the Mountain View-based online video services company founded by several ex-Googlers, is providing customers the ability to publish YouTube clips into the publishing system and on an Ooyala player.

LAS VEGAS – The tools for creating 3-D programming will soon become available to "mid-tail" video producers with the imminent introduction of a new camera from Panasonic.

Two tech blog powerhouses, TechCrunch and GigaOM, are readying ambitious original online video programming.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Rachel Maddow's Wednesday night, news-making interview with Rand Paul–Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Kentucky–has gotten over 500,000 online video views in just twenty four hours, making it one of the most widely seen online news clips.

LONDON — The Guardian Newspaper, which is organizing massive amounts of government and other data into its API, is making the API available to the public on a commercial basis, the paper announced today.

Reporting a narrowing loss and a substantial gain in revenue, up 140 percent to $33.7 million, shares of Blinkx, the video search portal, rose 52 percent on the London Stock Exchange today (5/19), making it one of the market's biggest gainers for the day.

Kyte, the San Francisco-based online video services provider, announced today an Android application framework and SDK allowing publishers to easily create custom apps for the Android.

Blip.tv, the New York-based online video services site, has raised $10.1 million in new venture funding, the company announced this morning.

Yahoo has purchased the crowd-sourced content company Associated Content.  Kara Swisher puts the price tag for the company at $90 million cash.