Media

SAN FRANCISCO — Comcast's TV Everywhere, an online service for its cable subscribers, is providing DVR-type functionality that is driving consumption of video on its Fancast by a factor 2X, according to Karin GIlford, Senior VP.

London –The BBC has been surfacing an increasing amount of Web-specific videos and television packages to its giant portal.

Kit Digital, the Prague-based video services company, has over 1100 customers around the world. It recently reported $47 million in annual revenue and is growing organically and through acquisitions including the Feedroom and last month’s $18 million purchase of Multicast.

Boxee, the developer of software that allows users to connect PC's to television to watch Web video, has just announced a new application for MLB.TV.   Separately, Kyte announced that its videos are integrated into the Boxee system.

Los Angeles-based Break Media, the fast growing network of young man-oriented Web sites, announced today the launch of its proprietary online video ad server called Apex.

Way back in September of 2008, newly appointed Newsweek tech columnist Dan "Fake Steve Jobs" Lyons confided in me that he was "uncomfortable" covering Apple after having skewered its CEO in his blog.

Consumers will tolerate more ads and stay tuned into online TV when networks up the ad load, according to data I came across during my reporting on Comcast’s TV Everywhere initiative.

LONDON – The Financial Times, which serves and an increasingly mobile audience, is finalizing efforts around a non-Flash solution to deliver video to Apple and other mobile devices based on H.264, according Stephen Pinches, Lead Product Development Manager for the FT.com.

SAN FRANCISCO — Kyte, the San Francisco-based online video platform that has been a front-runner of video distribution for customers, including MTV to mobile devices, will soon release a software developer kit (SDK) for the iPhone and the iPad.

The New York Times, long an innovator in creating unique news video for the Web, is now allowing anyone to copy videos from the site and embed them onto blogs, social media, and Web sites.

LONDON –  The BBC has found a growing audience for online news in the U.K., with some 5 million unique visitors watching 28 million videos in January, up 25 percent over the previous four months, according to the latest numbers from comScore.

The imminent introduction of the iPad, which does not use Adobe's Flash to play video, has accelerated the the creation of HTLM5 solutions by video services companies and sharing sites, including Ooyala, YouTube, Vimeo, and now Brightcove.

Blip.tv, the New York based video sharing and services company that publishes episodic Web video shows had 85 million video views in February, according to report by Will Richmond in VideoNuze.

AUSTIN – Fox TV Studios is using its new digital studio 15 Gigs as an incubator for new types of content that might also make the leap to the TV, said  Rachel Webber, director of digital strategy and development at Fox TV Studios. 

NEW YORK — Cisco Systems, which has a big* video teleconference business with a product called TelePresence, is entering the broadcast world with the MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who is using the system to conduct remote interviews.

The historically private daily deliberations of New York Times editors in their Page One meeting, which sets the day's coverage and has a big impact on the global news cycle, are now being shared in a daily video program called TimesCast.

Today, Fox is expected to announce a Hulu-like service for mobile devices that will offer a range of content from Fox, NBC Universal, and Discovery, according to a report in GigaOM

LONDON –  The  lack of a by-line for  Economist writers provides a high degree of access, which is a big benefit in the reporting process, says Executive Editor Daniel Franklin in this interview with Beet.TV at The Economist's headquarters. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles-based Break Media has found a growing business around Web videos targeting males 18-34. 

LONDON — LIvestation, the small London-based start-up that organizes real-time feeds of 20 of the world's leading video news sources, had 5 million video views with 65 million minutes of video watched in January, according to founder and CEO Matteo Berlucci.