Sumner Redstone is about to violate your privacy

-SDH We almost forgot that Viacom still had an open lawsuit against Google's Youtube.com for copyright infringement. Well the legal action just got bumped up a notch by a court ruling this week ordering Youtube to hand over sensitive user information to Viacom and its legal eagles. Viacom will get their hands on your Youtube.com user IDs, information about which clips you watched and your IP address. The question still remains, what does Viacom really want? If the company is taking this action against Youtube, what about those other sites that are also streaming Viacom owned content without the company’s permission? Guess you have to go after the big guy in the yard to prove a point. While Viacom is looking to prove widespread unauthorized viewing of its shows like "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" on Youtube, privacy watchdogs are howling that the move is a massive invasion of privacy. YOUTUBE HANDS PROFILES TO VIACOM [NYP]

Media News aggregated

-MEDIA WIRE DAILY Jim Nail, an exec with Cymphony, the online advertising analytics firm, predicts that web properties like Youtube, Myspace and Facebook won't become the ABC, NBC and CBS of the 21st century. These fuckers really have time on their hands don't they? [CNNMoney] Is this a Murdoch call? DowJones is thinking about selling off their Ottaway group of eight daily and 15 weekly community newspapers and related media franchises. They seem to be lightening the load before Rupe takes control at the end of the year. [Marketwatch] Mad Money-ist Jim Cramer shares with us why media stocks are not the way to go right now. One word sums it all up GOOGLE [BloggingStocks] We don't think Jeff Bewkes will sell AOL but just in case he is planning to do so when he takes office, but here is another but familiar reason he should just spin it off [TWBS] Is Jeff Bewkes Ghost writing for the Carson Daly hosted "Last Call with Carson Daly" while writers are still on strike? [Reuters] Conde Nast and other's we can't bother to mention because there names are too long will to produce MOVIES ROCK(TM) a Celebration of Music in Film, but the names scheduled to appear aren't that exciting. [PRNW]

Will NBC Universal and News Corp's HULU.com be another flash in the pan like NBC's NBBC.com?

NBC Universal and News Corp are probably putting the final touches on their soon to be launched online video joint venture, Hulu.com. Both companies are the latest big media players attempting to keep audiences from running to Youtube to see their programming by creating a video destination of their own. Viacom made every single episode of "The Daily Show" available online at the newly launched Thedailyshow.com. But back to Hulu. This won't be NBC's first run at an online video venture. A year ago with much fanfare NBC launched a mediocre site called NBBC.com. The site has since vanished into thin air. The venture was a flop right out of the gate due to it overly corporate look and discription (see image below). Online video ventures need to have a welcoming image sans the corporate lingo. Audiences and most advertisers could care less about that. It was an attempt to interact with NBC's audience but it turned out that NBC's audience didn't want to interact with them, and around that time there was a little site called Youtube smoking up the place. So will News Corp's involvement make a difference this time around? We think so. With News Corp's Myspace, if the right people are in charge of this new venture, it can make some noise. But it won't be an issue for the folks at Youtube, because at Youtube, the audience runs the show. EARLIER: Fresh Off The Wires: NBC Launches "NBBC"

Philippe Dogman Dauman would pimp Viacom to Apple

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman is open to opening up Viacom to a content licensing deal with Apple because Apple is in bed with Youtube and Dauman wants to some how join in the fun. Apple said on Wednesday that YouTube's entire video catalog will be made available on its Apple TV set-top box device, which lets consumers view media and listen to music stored on computers directly on their television screens. "We're always vigilant about protecting our copyrights," a Viacom spokesman said. "But we would welcome the opportunity to license our content to Apple as we do with all distributors," he said. Viacom welcomes licensing opportunity from Apple TV [Reuters

Can big media take on the mighty Google?

-LENN HINDSMANN When Google swallowed Youtube in a $1.6 billion deal, it set off the online video race. Big media companies knew it would take loads of cash and new technology to go up against the internet monster, so some of them teamed up and some decided to go it alone. Now it looks like there is some kind of joint goal among big media and the major internet companies who stand beside them to crush Google. But will Google CEO Eric Schmidt even give them the chance to catch up? While the big media guys are busy trying to figure out how to challenge Google’s Youtube, Schmidt has been building the company via some smart and key acquisitions quietly moving into traditional media territory. Maybe this is exactly what Schmidt wants, so while big media leaves their back door unguarded he can slip right in and catch them by surprise. One by one, the big media companies and the Internet giants have started to ante up for the big poker game over the future of the video content business. Google started it all with its acquisition of YouTube. Then GE’s NBC-Universal and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. responded by joining forces to create “NewCo,” which Comcast, the country’s largest cable company, also just joined. Sumner Redstone’s CBS followed with the announcement of their own independent distribution initiative, called the “CBS Interactive Audience Network”. Standing alongside these big media giants are all the biggest Internet portals, including Yahoo!, AOL , and MSN. What has essentially happened, in a very short period, is that most of the existing Internet and media establishment have lined up on one side of the fence in support of each other, all against GooTube! Viacom Needs to Team Up With Google, Rather Than Sue It [SeekingAlpha]

The fight for your eyes

-LENN HINDSMANN There is a major race going on among media companies. We all know big media like to compare dick sizes, but the question is who will have the biggest dick of all in the long or short run. Google may have been called idiots for paying $1.6 Billion for Youtube, but perhaps they saw something on the horizon and jumped on it when they got the chance. For years big media has controlled what, when, how, and where you watch your favorite television programs, but with a major shift going on from old to new media, they are now begging you to take the controls. Enter search engine blinkx and other search engines fighting to become thee destination for professionally made online programming. Suranga Chandratillake, founder of video search engine blinkx, likes showing off his new remote control. It can't change programs on TV, but this mouse-controlled tool will help users channel surf the Web. Much like the on-air channel guides on cable and satellite TV, the blinkx tool provides a comprehensive list of network TV programming available on the Web. Then, it lets users call up a show—from virtually anywhere on the Web—with the click of a mouse. The Surfer's Guide to the Web TV Galaxy [Businessweek]

Viacom's sneaky little bastards?

Over at Valley Wag Nick Denton posts what he calls an exclusive which attempts to uncover the sneaky doings of Viacom bloggers who allegedly try to cover their tracks when using Youtube video clips. The bloggers at Comedy Central, one of several cable networks owned by Viacom, exploit a service called Scenemaker, which lets users tag and cut online video; once copied over, the video shows up as hosted at scenemaker.com, rather than youtube.com; and the Youtube logo is stripped off. (Thanks to Valleywag commenter, kavalier, for spotting this.) The Comedy Central Insider site started using Scenemaker immediately after the parent company accused Google of building a video business on copyright piracy, suggesting a deliberate effort to cover up the conglomerate's hypocrisy How Viacom's video pirates cover their tracks [VW]

Viacom blogs still use video clips on Youtube

-SHOMARI HINES Viacom may be suing Youtube for copyright infringement but that doesn't mean Viacom owned websites were issued a memo to stay away from the site. Then again the whole lawsuit thing is designed to drive publicity for Viacom and its revised digital push. Could Sumner Redstone's Viacom, the media giant that's suing Google for facilitating piracy of shows such as the Colbert Report, please get its act together? It's bad enough that the 83-year-old billionaire's other company, CBS, is still flirting with the Mountain View search engine. Or that one of Viacom's own subsidiaries, a video sharing site called iFilm, allows snatched videos to be uploaded without vetting -- the same offense of which Google is accused. Viacom blogs still using Youtube [Valleywag]

Video Wire: Walt Mossberg adds his two cents to the whole Viacom Youtube shit hole while schooling us on copyright laws

-SHOMARI HINES Sometimes its good to hear a calming voice explain what needs to be done to prevent copyright wars between media companies. We just wish Walt avoided mentioning the Viacom Youtube thing which is slowly becoming painful for us. But we guess he had to, being that it made for a perfect example for his lesson on copyright and piracy issues. And Walt, you're right, it should not be considered piracy of you download a song and share it with your wife, after all that's what marriage is all about right? Sharing.

Poll: Join them, or go against them? You decide

Since its launch and rise, Youtube has caused quite a bit of noise in the media industry. Traditional media companies have voiced their opinions about the site and its lack of respect for copyrighted content leading many of them to take action in their own way. Some have gotten in bed with them, some are planning to get in bed with them, some are taking legal action and some are going up against them. Well we want to hear from: WHICH IS THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH YOUTUBE? GET IN BED WITH THEM TAKE THEM TO COURT GO UP AGAINST THEM IGNORE THEM

NBC Uni and News Corp moving forward with their Youtube killer!

-SHOMARI HINES After what we're sure was much debate, both NBC and News Corp will move forward with their plan to launch a Youtube killer. A press conference is scheduled for this afternoon however News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch will not be the one speaking on behalf of News Corp's roll in the deal, instead he is sending his number two Pete Chernin. We guess Rupe feels like he is above Jeff Zucker even if he is the CEO of NBC Universal. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the new venture could launch this summer and provide “an advertiser-friendly destination” for NBC's Heroes and The Office, and Fox’s Family Guy and 24. The newspaper reported that the companies also plan to sell downloads of movies from Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox. Isn't this new venture a rival of other video sites like Veoh and Revver as well? Why do we always forget about these guys? In other words, NBC and News Corp will have to get through them before they can even put a dent in Youtube. News Corp., NBC to Launch YouTube Rival [News MultiChannel]

AdAge looks into whether or not Youtube is a $1.6 Billion white elephant

-Shomari Hines Yup another article surfaced this week asking a now familiar question of whether or not Google dropped major cash for buzz? We won't get into why this question is being asked because by now unless you've been living in Saddam's old rat hole you already know the story surrounding this. However AdAge takes a little different approach to the matter. Just six months ago, before the close of Google's $1.65 billion deal for the video-sharing site, these questions would have been unthinkable. But there have been continued stumbles in inking the deals that will get it enough legal content to support a robust ad model, and that's rendered the site's future surprisingly murky. The central question these days is whether a web version of "America's Funniest Home Videos" has anything advertisers actually want. Did Google Flush $1.6 Billion Down the YouTube? [AdAge]

Viacom VS. Youtube, the headlines round up

-Neil Yoshida This Viacom, Youtube thing has taken on a life of its own. Since Viacom ordered Youtube to remove all Viacom content from its site, the coverage began and now with Viacom suing Youtube it has gone through the roof and to be honest, we're kinda getting sick of it. Everyone one has an opinion on what Viacom suing Youtube means for both traditional and new media. However at the end of the day it means shit. All it is, is one company suing another which will probably never land in front of a judge. Below is collection of articles about the lawsuit. Some people didn't bother to get creative with their headlines and some just went with the cliche How Viacom could really protect its content [CNN Money] Viacom’s Full-Court Press for Online Ads [NYT] Viacom's Big Blunder? Analysts Say $1 Bil. Suit vs. Google Is Shortsighted [Mediaweek] Viacom Slaps YouTube, Google with Lawsuit [SEN] Google confident of defending itself in Viacom copyright violation lawsuit [A3D] VIACOM LOSING ITS POP [NYP] Why Viacom's Sumner Redstone Is Not A Hypocrite [SA] And it goes on and on and on

Viacom was losing it's pop way before the whole Youtube thing

-Shomari Hines Peter Lauria of the New York Post has an interesting article on the whole Viacom Youtube thing. See Peter seems to Imply that its due to Viacom's beef with Youtube that Viacom may end up losing its pop appeal, its cool, its street cred if you will. But the truth is, Viacom started losing its cool way before anyone knew what Youtube was and that fact needs to be blamed on the very people who ran and now run Viacom. See Viacom started to be more concerned about Wall Street and not enough about their audience and what they want. Many of MTV’s audience started to complain about the lack of music videos on MTV due to a major push into reality TV. Sure there was and still is an audience for this but the network got saturated with it reducing room for music programming which is what the network was built on. Then came the rapid rise of new, new media, and missed opportunities. No one can honestly say that Myspace wouldn't have fit in with Viacom had Tom Freston moved on it. Sure its in the hands of Rupert Murdoch and doing well but, for us personally, the site would have been a hand in glove fit with MTV and its many brands. Viacom is fighting hard to keep whatever cool it may have left by snatching up any and every website that attracts teens. Viacom has recently opted to go it alone regarding online videos allowing its website visitors to embed videos where ever they want online. However the last team who decided to go it alone is stuck in a dark hole and can’t find a way out. Hopefully this won’t be the case for Viacom. VIACOM LOSING ITS POP [NYP]

Morning Wire: Greedy NY Timers | Viacom | AOL's Bid, and more in this morning's worthy media news

-Shomari Hines New York Times CEO Janet Robinson and others still collected big pay checks even with no profits at the company. Corporate greed at its best. [NYP] AOL withdraws bid for Swedish online ad firm Tradedoubler causing a drop on that company's stock price. Wonder what AOL CEO Randy Falco has his eyes on now? [Reuters] If you're a parent and a group of people have to talk you out of taking your kids to "R" rated movies, chances are you suck as a parent [Reuters] ESPN has hired former New York Times sports editor Le Anne Schreiber as its ombudsman. OK so what the hell is a ombudsman? Oh wait that's like a mediator/investigator type right? [Reuters] Viacom has the support of it's bigger media rival Time Warner with its jihad against Youtube [Bloomberg] Steve Case fresh off the launch of his health website, is now planning to launch an online payment system called GratisCard. [Businessweek].

We all know where Viacom's frustration really came from

-Shomari Hines So by now we have no doubt that you heard that Viacom is taking it to the courts with Youtube over some copyright issues. We thought we heard the last of this when Viacom ordered Youtube to pull all their content but it looks like Viacom was out for blood from the start. So what’s really up with this crazy $1 Billion suit which probably won't go to court anyway? What kind of message is Viacom trying to send by bringing this lawsuit to a site that basically promotes their content? Sure we can understand where Viacom is coming from but, was a lawsuit really necessary? We think Viacom is still letting off steam from missing out on Myspace which many now refer to as the MTV of the internet. Viacom is pissed and they are letting it show. Why get tied up on legal crap when they could be putting that time and energy into correcting their digital fuck ups. Hell if they’re so pissed they should send some goons to Tom Freston’s house and slap him around for a few ticks. He is who they should be pissed at.

Viacom taking Youtube to court just for the hell of it

Viacom is taking their dislike for Youtube to a whole new level. The media giant is suing the pants of Chad Hurley and company over airing copyrighted content. But we won't attempt to say anymore. Just read the email sent to Viacom troops by CEO Phil Dauman regarding their beef with Youtube as well as a press release announcing the suit obtained by our friends in our heads at Gawker CONTINUE... TO: All Viacom Employees FROM: Philippe Dauman DATE: March 13, 2007 As you already know, Viacom has spent months trying to come to an agreement with Google and YouTube in order to provide our popular video content on the YouTube platform. Unfortunately, they refused to negotiate a reasonable licensing offer. Instead, YouTube continues to take no responsibility for airing copyrighted content, and selling advertising against it. None of this advertising is shared with us, and despite many promises, Youtube has not taken any significant steps to keep our creative works off the site and no timetable has been set. Therefore, today Viacom has brought action in U.S. District Court against Google and YouTube in order to protect our creative works from their continuing and intentional infringement, and to be compensated for the significant past infringement of our copyrights, which resulted in damages in excess of $1 billion.The decision to take this step was thoughtfully considered by our entire management team and our Board of Directors. We had hoped and expected that Google and YouTube would voluntarily comply with the law, and would respect the creativity and hard work of the people whose imagination, effort and investment created some of the most popular entertainment on their platform. We have continued at our expense to take down our content from YouTube but have seen no significant movement from Google or YouTube to rectify this untenable situation. As always, I greatly appreciate all your continued good work and support. The attached press release describes today's announcement in more detail. VIACOM FILES FEDERAL COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT COMPLAINT AGAINST YOUTUBE AND GOOGLE Suit Seeks Court Ruling to Require YouTube and Googleto Comply With Copyright Laws and Pay $1 Billion in Damages NEW YORK, March 13, 2007 - Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) today announced that it has sued YouTube and Google in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for massive intentional copyright infringement of Viacom's entertainment properties. The suit seeks more than $1 billion in damages, as well as an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement. The complaint contends that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom's programming have been available on YouTube and that these clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times. In connection with the filing, Viacom released the following statement: "YouTube is a significant, for-profit organization that has built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others' creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google. Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws. In fact, YouTube's strategy has been to avoid taking proactive steps to curtail the infringement on its site, thus generating significant traffic and revenues for itself while shifting the entire burden - and high cost - of monitoring YouTube onto the victims of its infringement. This behavior stands in stark contrast to the actions of other significant distributors, who have recognized the fair value of entertainment content and have concluded agreements to make content legally available to their customers around the world. There is no question that YouTube and Google are continuing to take the fruit of our efforts without permission and destroying enormous value in the process. This is value that rightfully belongs to the writers, directors and talent who create it and companies like Viacom that have invested to make possible this innovation and creativity. After a great deal of unproductive negotiation, and remedial efforts by ourselves and other copyright holders, YouTube continues in its unlawful business model. Therefore, we must turn to the courts to prevent Google and YouTube from continuing to steal value from artists and to obtain compensation for the significant damage they have caused."

With Sumner's balls less about face on the Tom Cruise thing, we wouldn't be surprised

-Shomari Hines Viacom may be taking steps to not be Youtube dependant, but some think the media giant will go running and falling at Chad Hurley's feet in the long run. Hopefully digital czar Mika Salmi will make us all eat our words. The bottom line: YouTube does not need Viacom or NBC. For the moment, Viacom and NBC can tell themselves that they do not need YouTube. In another year or two, however, when every other content producer on the planet has set up a dedicated "channel" on YouTube, it will be the stubborn old media conglomerates' turn to say "please." YouTube Doesn't Need Viacom and NBC - But They'll Need It [SeekingAlpha]

Viacom to Youtube: Our traffic is up too!

-Shomari Hines Viacom is making it clear that they really don't need Youtube. In what looks like a shot back at Youtube's recent comment that the removal of Viacom content didn't hurt their web traffic, Viacom says that traffic to their MTV websites have increased as well, validating its decision to force YouTube to remove all Viacom video clips. Is Viacom's digital czar Mika Salmi to be credited for this? The media group said it had been “heartened by the broad industry support” for its move against YouTube last month to force it to remove more than 100,000 video clips from the site. The action followed a break-down in negotiations between Viacom and YouTube to license video content that was being widely watched without copyright permission on YouTube. Viacom hails fight against YouTube [FT]

Another Youtube esque launch, this time from Viacom's Nickelodeon

Chad Hurley opened a bag of we don't know what to call it. More and more media companies are doing their own thing when it comes to the online video thing. The latest to hop on the bandwagon is Viacom's Nickelodeon which is launching a kiddie Youtube like site for kids to upload video clips of themselves. Yup, now web predators don't have to search for kids, they have another one stop shop where they can pick chose and refuse. It's no secret that Viacom and YouTube have had a rocky relationship; the two have not been able to sign a deal over video content, and Viacom has gone ahead and started offering its own videos, complete with embedding code. In a further sign of how Viacom would just as soon create its own alternatives and retain control over its content, its Nickelodeon subsidiary last week announced the "first-ever TV programming block featuring user-generated content provided by kids." "Nickelodeon's ME:TV is you TV," says Tom Ascheim, Executive Vice President of Nickelodeon, who couldn't make the "YouTube" parallel any more explicit without calling the new program "YouTube for kids." Nickelodeon launches YouTube clone for kids [ARS Technica]

Video Wire: The masked Youtuber takes on Philippe Dogman of Viacom International

You can't get any cornier than this but........ Just watch. Can you say "Time on their hands?"

Viacom confirms their Bitchiness by doing deal with Youtube rival Joost

Viacom sure can act up when it misses a buy. Last week the company publicly ordered Youtube to remove all Viacom content which also included videos that weren't even owned by Viacom. Apparently they couldn't stomach the terms of a deal put on the table by Youtube so they did what any little kid would do, throw a tantrum. Now they are trying to make Youtube jealous by announcing a deal with one of Youtube's many rivals Joost. Viacom said on Tuesday hundreds of hours of TV programing from its MTV and BET Networks and feature-length films from Paramount Pictures will be available to Joost users for free under a revenue-sharing deal between the two companies.It did not disclose financial terms, but an industry source said Viacom was likely to have secured a slightly better agreement than its traditional deals to receive two-thirds of advertising revenue Viacom lands video deal with Joost [Reuters]

Video Wire: Jeff Zucker's haters really have some time on their hands

**Video Wire is our sporadic feature where we post a video we think is interesting, stupid, crazy or all of the above. It doesn't necessarily have to be related to the media business just worth our time and effort to post it. Was this planted by a loyal Youtube employee, a Jeff Zucker hater or both?

Watchdog group encouraging Youtubers to take on Viacom, Sumner Redstone could win this fight while swimming naked in his pool

Last week we posted a video clip from Youtube showing an angry Youtuber pissed off by the fact that Youtube removed his original clips mistaking them for Viacom owned content. in the clip he vowed to take on Viacom in court if he had to because he "Loves a good battle". Well this guy's message must have caught on with other pissed off Youtubers because now a watchdog group is urging said Youtubers to take the fight to Viacom. The controversy, which followed the takedown of an unprecedented number of YouTube videos, is the latest example of how rules for digital media in an emerging user-generated culture are often made up on the fly. It also illustrates the many pitfalls confronting media companies as they attempt to maintain control of their digital content. "The question we need to ask is do we have the right mechanism to balance the needs of corporate content creators, intermediaries like Google and YouTube, and users," said John Palfrey, professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School. EFF takes Viacom to task over YouTube takedown [ZDNet]

Headline Screenshot: Chad Hurley how could you let this happen dude?

The heat just got turned up a notch on Youtube CEO Chad Hurley. Not only did he and his underlings drag their asses on filtering software to block pirated video clips, News Corp beat them to the punch installing filter software on Myspace.com which only recently introduced their video feature. Until MySpace's announcement yesterday of a pilot program to stop such clips from appearing on its site, both it and YouTube argued they had the right to let the content stay on their sites unless media companies made a formal request that it to be removed. The move by MySpace to crack down on pirated material itself "lets media companies say, 'Look, it's your job to track down unauthorized material," said Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research. YOUTUBE TO FEEL HEAT FROM NEW MYSPACE FILTER [NYP]

Youtube continues to get tongue lashings from media's elite

Youtube can't seem to catch a break from getting lashed out against by some of the media industry's top players. Two of the most vocal have been Rupert Murdoch and newly crowned media big shot Jeff Zucker. Both men are accusing Google and Youtube of not doing enough to crack down on illegal videos being uploaded. Rupert also wants to know, where the hell is the money in Youtube. "How do you monetize it," asked Murdoch, whose social-networking site MySpace offers its own video player. "If you interrupt the flow of videos with commercials, (YouTube viewers) are going to go with (MySpace) or somewhere else." "YouTube needs to prove that it will implement its filtering technology across its online platform. It's proven it can do it when it wants to," Zucker said. "They have the capability. The question is whether they have the will." Murdoch the latest media mogul to take on YouTube [Cnet]

Viacom to Youtube: We're not friends, remove our content now

Viacom's demand that Youtube remove all its content from their site is raising questions again as to whether or not Youtube can really build relationships with major media companies. We don't know why this raises questions because at the end of the day, just like CBS, and other media companies, Viacom will be knocking on Chad Hurley's door really soon. Viacom on Friday demanded YouTube remove all of its content from its website, raising questions about the user-generated internet company’s ability to cement relationships with the traditional media companies that supply the bulk of its material. Viacom, which owns youth-oriented brands such as MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, made the demand on Friday after months of negotiations with YouTube and its parent company, Google. It said that the move would affect more than 100,000 video clips on the YouTube site, which had generated more than 1.2bn video streams. We're sure this has to do with Youtube probably not agreeing to Viacom's terms during negotiations towards a potential deal Viacom tells YouTube to remove content [FT]

Video Wire: They never saw it coming

In the video link below, Youtube founders Steven Chen and a bearded Chad Hurley attempt to explain how their newly launched video sharing website worked and how un-cool it is. You also get a quick glimpse of Youtube's third less talked about founder Jawed Karim who opted to go to college instead of sticking with the site. However we're sure he will pocket some of the $1.6 Billion it sold for. Youtube's early days [Time.com]

The Viacom of The Internet!

YOU didn't think it all started and ended with Youtube did you? Drew Massey the founder of ManiaTV new this online video shit was going to be huge way before Chad and company got their hands in the game and he was right. The only thing is, Chad and company were so huge, Google wanted in. So what about Mr. Massey? Where is he taking his ManiaTV? The 36-year-old Fort Collins, Colo., native dreamed up the idea of ManiaTV in the late 1990s, after founding the young men's magazine P.O.V. If Massey has his way, he'd like to grow ManiaTV into the "Viacom of the Internet," providing a variety of channels for viewers of all tastes. With the help of investors, including Benchmark Capital and Centennial Ventures, the world's first Internet television network went live from a 15,000-square- foot warehouse in Denver in September 2004. Two years later, traffic has steadily surged to more than 3.2 million unique visitors each month, according to comScore, and the site pulls in more viewers than rival sites MTV Overdrive and iFilm in the coveted 18-to- 24-year-old market. Sumner better watch his back! ManiaTV striving to be 'Viacom of the Internet' [SPI]

Saddamized: One of the most popular video clips of 2007 will be Saddam Hussein getting wacked, if he does

TV NEWSER asks the question "How Will TV Networks Handle Video Of Hussein's Hanging?" But seriously who cares how they will handle it if and when the former dictator gets lynched? We're all waiting for it to hit Youtube or some other video sharing site. As far as the networks, well one insider basically said Americans have weak stomachs, which may prompt networks to pass on airing the actual clip, not that we really expected them to. "I'm sure every network has had their standards and practices discussions about this already. It is inevitably going to make it onto YouTube -- and likely some other channels around the world, whose audiences have tougher stomachs for this stuff, will air whatever the video in its entirety -- then do the American nets use the excuse the 'story about the video' to air it? Which magazine show does it first? Saddam: How Will TV Networks Handle Video Of Hussein's Hanging? [TVN]