Video Sites

Is former NBC Entertainment chairman Ben Silverman going back to college? Probably not, but CollegeHumor may be going to Silverman, AdAge.com reports.

According to AdAge.com, IAC is in talks to fold Connected Ventures into Silverman's Electus entertainment company. Connected Ventures is the parent of CollegeHumor and TV-production arm Notional.

CollegeHumor president and co-founder Josh Abramson told AdAge.com:

We are certainly going to be working with Ben, and we are focused on trying to blow up CollegeHumor. How that's going to pan out is still up in the air.

Former YouTube head of content Jordan Hoffner recently joined Electus, and AdAge.com believes IAC chairman Barry Diller is trying to mine Silverman's connections in the TV industry.

Will Ferrell and producing partner Adam McKay explained why their Funnyordie.com abandoned plans to start its own comedy version of YouTube and instead took advantage of the Google-owned video site's move to allow content creators to sell and serve their own ads, AdAge.com reported.

Funnyordie.com was founded three years ago by Ferrell and McKay and backed by Sequoia Capital and HBO, according to AdAge.com.

Ferrell and McKay on the move to YouTube:

Jordan Hoffner, who developed content partnerships for YouTube, is ending his three-year gig at the online video giant to join IAC-based start-up Electus, run by former NBC entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman.

Hoffner's job at Google-owned site was to cut deals with networks, smaller production houses and other professional content producers to bring premium content to YouTube. Like Silverman, Hoffner previously worked at NBC.

According to paidContent.org, which broke the story:

Hoffner's leaving at a delicate time for the dominant online video service, right when it seems content/media industry's frosty relationship with YouTube is beginning to thaw a bit, with the latest U2 live webcast as a small example of it. Another deal, in the works, would bring streaming movies to the video service; it is in talks with Lionsgate, Warner Bros. and Sony.

Hoffner will be succeeded at YouTube by Chris Maxcy, who also will continue developing music partnerships for the site, paidContent reports.

Australia's Channel 9 news anchor Peter Hitchener bravely carries on with his broadcast even as a seemingly man-sized seagull crosses the cityscape behind him.

OK, it just looks like that. But the short video below, which has attracted more than 300,000 views since being posted two days ago on YouTube, is worth a quick laugh. Now run for your lives.

Fresh off their hoax that fooled CNBC and Fox Business Network, The Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, now have their own exclusive channel on Web- and mobile-video content platform Babelgum.

The Yes Men describe themselves as "culture-jamming activists who practice what they call 'identity correction,' revealing the true, planet- and people-raving intents of business and political powers by posing as official spokespersons of organizations ranging from ExxonMobil to the World Trade Organization." Their documentary, The Yes Men Fix the World, will launch across the United States Thursday.

Babelgum's Yes Men channel will premiere with several stunts recently executed in New York, including The Yes Men Intervene at Whole Foods (below), which took place Oct. 8 following a preview screening of The Yes Men Fix the World. The duo and their co-conspirators passed out flyers with the lyrics to "Hey Mackey," a song done to the tune of Toni Basil's 1982 hit, "Hey Mickey," which attacked Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's stance against pubic healthcare.

Babelgum Music Channel publisher Laurence Billiet said:

We are very pleased to be able to give the world a backstage view of these important art and political statements in the making. We are already looking forward to riding in the sidecar, with cameras trained of course, as the Yes Men take on more powerful causes and organizations in the year to come.

The Yes Men added:

We are a band of pranksters who work to expose the truth and hold naughty corporations accountable. The Yes Men and Babelgum "chew" up society's wrong-doers to cause change and inspire action, so check out Babelgum to keep an eye on all of our misadventures and see more exclusive material out of the closet!

Beet.TV will provide videos to NBCBayArea for its technology coverage, led by editorial director Owen Thomas, under terms of an agreement with NBC Local Media.

NBCBayArea has already offered Beet.TV videos featuring Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz and vice president of media Jimmy Pitaro, as well as World Wide Web Consortium Director Tim Berners-Lee. NBC Local Media said it will publish up to four Beet.TV clips weekly.

Beet.TV West Coast producer Daisy Whitney offers details on the arrangement with NBC Local Media:

The National Football League will wrap up its promotion of Hispanic Heritage Month with ESPN's Monday Night Football telecast, pitting the visiting New York Jets against the Miami Dolphins, but in addition to TV spots, the NFL has used four viral videos to promote its efforts, AdAge.com reports.

The four videos pit a Hispanic Jets fan against a Hispanic Dolphins fan in four contests—one for each quarter—with one team "beating" the other in each video.

TechCrunch pointed out some interesting factoids about the new YouTube logo.

YouTube has apparently been averaging more than 1 billion views per day for a few months, but the reason for the timing of the new logo: Three years ago today, Google acquired YouTube.

And Twitter user Coweybear pointed out to TechCrunch that the name of the image file for the new logo is "logo_holy_crap_1bn_a_day."

CBS has been quietly trying to un-ring (or at least dampen) the bell in the David Letterman affair/extortion case. Brian Stelter of The New York Times reports that the network over the weekend was busy removing unauthorized videos of the talk-show host revealing after last Thursday's monologue the alleged plot and events leading up to it.

In a remarkable 10-minute segment Thursday night, Mr. Letterman told viewers of a Connecticut man's suspected $2 million extortion attempt, predicated on evidence of Mr. Letterman's sexual relationships with female employees. The suspect, Robert Joel Halderman of CBS News, was arrested Thursday and released on bail Friday.

Copies of the segment were uploaded almost immediately to YouTube by users, but many of them were flagged by CBS for removal, citing copyright claims. The network did not provide an official copy.

Indeed, a copy that WebNewser had embedded was removed, but another copy embedded by TVNewser remains available for viewing.

Meanwhile, Halderman's lawyer, Gerald Shargel, hit the morning talk shows to reframe the case. There's a video below from his Today Show appearance, in which he hints that his client's trial also will be about the "motive, intent and conduct of David Letterman."

On CBS' Early Show, the New York Daily News reports, Shargel said:

"Here's a guy who is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, who has dealt with cops and wiretaps and undercover investigations virtually his entire life.

"Look at the fact that there was a $2 million check. In the history of extortion, I don't think there's been a single case where the alleged extortionist took a check in payment. It just doesn't make any sense."

Revision3 announced the addition of Bytejacker to its show roster, along with the relaunch of The Totally Rad Show.

Bytejacker features Brooklyn based Anthony Carboni reviewing games that are only available via download for Xbox Marketplace, WiiWare, Playstation Network, PCs and the iPhone.

The Totally Rad Show, meanwhile, will now begin each week with a completely original opening theme song, in which hosts Alex Albrecht, Jeff Cannata and Dan Trachtenberg will be depicted in new and different story arcs, referencing rad moments from TV, movies and pop culture.

On Bytejacker, Carboni said:

We were really excited when Revision3 approached us. They're responsible for so much of our favorite programming. We can't wait to work with them to bring independent gaming to a larger audience. I'm also hoping that this will convince my parents that hosting is, in fact, a "real job."

And on The Totally Rad Show, Cannata said:

We are excited to keep switching things up to make sure that our show stays fresh and surprising, even after two-and-one-half years. Having such talented viewers, we are always blown away by their contributions. From the start, we've used a new and different viewer-submitted title background each week, and we are excited to be able to highlight their influence on a bigger level going forward. The new music is a riff on our current theme, as interpreted by one of our viewers who is a musician, and the new segment backgrounds are quite spectacular. This level of interaction with our audience is what makes creating a show on the Internet so rewarding.