Media

The big challenge facing mainstream media with online video is scale; a lack of inventory of content and viewers, according Vivek Shah, head of digital news at Time Inc.

Although pre-roll advertising, the 15-30 second ads seen before a video begins, is the dominate media form, the promise of online video advertising is much greater.

While many video publishers seek the widest possible distribution of their videos through an embeddable player and Media RSS, some, like HealthiNation and Virgin Media, are using a syndicated player which is placed on specific sites.

Gary Vaynerchuk, the Internet video/social media phenomenon, is having his book "Crush It" published as a "vook," a digital version with video and text. 

We were encouraged to read today's Wall Street Journal report about the projected uptick in technology advertising for 2010. 

Roku, the the alternative set-top box provider in the video market and is now expanding its line of players today from one to three, the company announced this morning.

Richards Rosenblatt, the former CEO of MySpace who launched his network of Web properties titled under Demand Media, has a big hit with eHow, a video site providing "how-to" instructional videos.

Having established iReport three years ago, CNN is the most established mainstream media organization publishing user generated content. 

CNN.com has nearly 6 million followers on Twitter, KC Estenson, Sr. VP and General Manager of CNN.com. told Beet.TV in this video interview.    

The Wall Street Journal's twice-daily, 8-minute show the News Hub, expanded this week with a live report on Monday's Apple earnings.  It was the first live Web video program around earnings. On Tuesday, the paper did a Webcast on Yahoo.

CNN.com has taken notice of the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast as "opinion destinations" and wants to be a "horse in that race," CNN.com General Manager KC Estenson told me last night, after the industry introduction of the revamped CNN.com site.  (transcript below)

Msnbc.com,  was the first major video provider to provide an embeddable player, allowing users to play videos on their sites. 

Pete Cashmore, the founder of Mashable, the influential blog about social media and technology, will be among new personalities and contributors to the new CNN.com which launches on Monday.

As an online video news source, msnbc.com has the enormous advantage of the resources of NBC, but opportunities exist for video news producers who focus on a niche areas and use low cost digital news gathering.

Video-on-demand network Music Choice reported that its viewers watch 83% of all ad messages, an incredibly high completion rate suggesting VOD on cable TV could be one of the most powerful ad mediums.

I’m very pleased to announce that Beet.TV has a syndication agreement with NBC Local Media to provide our videos to NBCBayArea for its growing technology coverage spearheaded by Owen Thomas, a veteran digital journalist who is the Editorial Director of the Bay Area site.

(Great event today — you can watch the event on a loop right here.  Daisy's live blogging is below, Andy)

Last month, the Wall Street Journal launched an initiative around live video programming, with a twice daily, eight-minute show titled The News Hub, originating from the paper's newsroom. 

The fast growing business of online video does not revolve exclusively around media companies, but increasingly around companies and organizations who want to publish video for internal and external audiences.

The Economist, which has been quickly expanding online, is creating original online video with a weekly series entitled "Tea with the Economist."