Media

WASHINGTON, DC — Vivian Schiller, former head of the NYTimes.com and now President and CEO of National Pubic Radio, told me in this interview that she is "bearish" on the opportunity for non-television media companies to undertake original news video production.

Pontiflex, a New York based company which provides advertisers with the tools to pay for just the CPL, or cost per lead, has secured a second venture round of funding of $6.25 million.

ScanScout, the Boston-based online video advertising network, has raised a third venture round of $5.1 million, according to a report in Mass High Tech, citing financial filings.

Hulu is on fire. The video site, co-owned by Fox and NBC Universal, had nearly 350 million video streams in March, up 50 million streams from February, according to just released numbers from Nielsen Online.  As was the case in February, Hulu is second only to YouTube.

Showtime will debut the full-length version of Edie Falco's new series Nurse Jackie, online in June before its first showing on the premium cable service.

TechCrunch scored a big coup in grabbing star blogger MG Siegler from Venture Beat.  Siegler's boss Venture Beat boss Matt Marshall gave him a classy send-off.

NEW YORK — While pay-per-view for fights have long been a staple of cable operators and satellite networks, it is very new for online publishers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — For Vivian Schiller, CEO and president at NPR and the former head of NYTimes.com, the ongoing debate about free vs. subscription for the newspaper industry is clear for her: Free is the way to go. 

Whether Google helps or hurts the newspaper industry is subject to much discussion today following Google CEO Eric Schmidt's speech to a newspaper industry gathering this week in San Diego.

Brightcove, the Boston-based video publishing services company which provides video services to many U.S. newspapers, has published an analysis of consumption on 187 of its customer newspaper sites. 

Fictional docs have long been the staple of television, now the real ones are getting some attention.

SAN FRANCISCO — API, the code which allows content to be used widely in varying formats, is essential to content creators, says Robin Sloan of VP of strategy for CurrentTV

SAN FRANCISCO — Video, which is already a part of Facebook through the use of embeddable players and a few applications, will become more extensive and "social" with the release of the first Adobe Flash toolbox for developers, according to Josh Elman, Facebook platform manager.

China has been increasing its censorship of online video, according to published reports.  I spoke with Rebecca Fannin, a China watcher and author of the Silicon Dragon, last summer at Stanford.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA –  NPR has a comprehensive API offering that allows other web sites, blogs and social media to host content from the radio network.

The future of streaming video is in live events, according to Ustream CEO John Ham, who says that whereas on-demand video services separate viewers, live events bring them together.

SAN FRANCISCO — Rich media on Facebook, exemplified by the CNN/Facebook Inauguration collaboration and simple games made by companies like Playfish, have made Facebook an increasingly multimedia experience. 

Video RSS feeds, made publicly available by many video publishers, lead to high levels of consumption by subscribers, according to Sean Doherty, founder and CEO of Channels.com.

TubeMogul, the video distribution and measurement company based in Emeryville, has raise a $3 million venture round, according to a report by Liz Gannes on NewTeeVee

HOLLYWOOD — We couldn't get to the Streamy Awards in LA on Saturday night, but Lon Harris of Mahalo Daily was on the "red carpet" and filed this report.