The survey was conducted with around 2000 Web users over 18. This is the important point:

Casual games don’t generate as much attention as social networking or video sharing, partly because many advertisers still don’t understand gaming as a medium,” said Michael Cai, director of broadband and gaming, Parks Associates.

There is a reticence on the part of some clients to try something like gaming, but the reach is incontrovertible. Development does not need to be arduous, and it complements other products very well.

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Video sharing site Veoh has filed a lawsuit against Vivendi’s Universal Music Group in federal court seeking protection against possible copyright-infringement lawsuits. Veoh is not seeking damages. Rather, the move is meant to counter threats leveled at the start up about allegations of copyright infringement. The company wants a judge to declare it is not liable if users upload unauthorized videos to its site containing music with Universal artists.

(via Cynopsis Digital)

Revver.com is seeing a 4-7 times jump in revenue by adding pre-roll ads to user-submitted videos, according to comments made by Revver co-founder and chairman Steven Starr in an email debate on WSJ.com with Sab Kanaujia, VP/Digital Product Strategy for NBC Universal. Starr characterizes the digital media revolution as social and inclusive, demanding a new skill set. Kanaujia agrees, but sees no reason why traditional media can’t adapt and integrate.

(via Cynopsis Digital)

Advantages:

* Targeting an audience that isn’t going to get near television anyway with time to kill
* Panic button to hide it when the Powers-that-Be pass by.

Disadvantages:

* Appointments on the web are notoriously hard to keep
* I’m not sure you could actually get away with watching television at your desk for that long

Perelson of the past, you’re full of it. Destination programming on the web has not worked. Whether be it site (see my entry on the demise of the HBO/AOL web venture) or a time of day, in this case, no site based on this model has found the niche audience that it had hoped.

I still think that investment in online video will continue along the lines I suggested the other week. Independent production groups like Vuguru and the phone companies are going to try to succeed where the networks did not, but I don’t see audiences flocking to their products either. There is a gap between what major media producers are making online and how users are consuming video. What sounds great in product development — a “sticky” video “destination” “experience” that will “engage” “users” in a way heretofore unknown — has yet to be developed.

Yes, I know, some of these shows are getting as many viewers as a cable show or as a traveling rodeo or whichever comparison you want to pull out. Regardless of these individual successes, I don’t think you can argue that these shows are making an impact equivalent to those numbers unless buoyed by press interest (lonelygirl).

Fremantle Media Enterprises will launch a new direct-to-consumer web portal to offer classic shows for purchase or rental via download. TVComedyClassics .com, due to launch later this month, will feature comedy shows from the Fremantle archive including Tommy Cooper Half Hour, George and Mildred and Bless This House. TVComedyClassics.com will be cross-promoted on branded DVD releases, which FME is looking to expand by introducing local versions of the site around the world.

The Weather Channel’s weather.com launched a new interactive video player powered by Brightcove that utilizes DoubleClick’s In-Stream video ad serving solution. The “Blue Box” player features enhanced search, share and embed options and offers easy-to-browse category tabs to navigate back and forth between multiple genres. Weather Channel Interactive also signed a deal to adopt the Brightcove IPTV platform on a corporate-wide basis, allowing the company to syndicate video content to website affiliates through blogs, emails and social networks.

TBS talent Bill Engvall (The Bill Engvall Show) and Jim Gaffigan (My Boys) will headline new broadband projects on TBS.com. Bill Engvall, also a regular on Blue Collar TV, will offer advice to viewers who submit “Ask Bill” letters to the site. The “Andy’s Car” segments feature Gaffigan gaffes as he commutes each day from the suburbs.

Multimedia channels widget SplashCast launched a new Facebook version of its player. The “white label” service creates a custom media wrapper for clients and loads the application into Facebook, sharing revenue based on ad impressions. NPR is one if its first clients with the NPR Podcast Player, allowing Facebook users listen to and share the latest NPR podcasts.

(via Cynpopsis Digital)

Apple announced the iTunes store surpassed 3 billion songs sold and downloaded. The iTunes catalog now includes over 5 million songs, 550 TV shows and 500 movies for purchase, making it the third largest music retailer in the U.S., according to the NPD Group’s MusicWatch survey.

(via Cynopsis Digital)

Former MTV and VH1 executive Rob Barnett has gathered together some big names in comedy and music for the launch of MyDamnChannel today, a new online entertainment studio/channel geared around regular episodic shows viewers can return to once a week. Mr. Barnett’s strategy is to try and sign name talent to longer-term deals by offering them creative freedom and a cool interactive flash-based home page to help promote their other projects. The ad-supported video is completely embeddable and shareable and will be distributed across a variety of portals, beginning with YouTube. Check out Harry Shearer as Dick Cheney crooning “No Cooler for The Scooter,” David Wain (Stella) kick off a comedy series called “Wainy Days” and web celebrity Andy Milonakis introduce his own channel coming in August. Damn funny stuff.

http://mydamnchannel.com/

Here’s an example.

Hard to see a meaningful technological advance from a quick viewing, but fear not! CEO Luke Thomas predicts, “We’re going to be a billion-dollar company.”