Video Sites

Once again proving the old adage that content is king, Hulu's traffic spiked 47% in October versus September, thanks mainly to the fall season and ABC shows joining the video site's library, AdAge.com reported.

According to comScore Video Metrix, Hulu served 856 million video streams in October compared with 583 million during the previous month. Unique visitors also rose, to 42.5 million from 38.7 million, as did minutes per viewer, to 123 from 92, according to AdAge.com.

And with higher traffic comes stronger ad sales, as Hulu CEO Jason Kilar told AdAge.com:

We are getting to a spot where we won't be able to accommodate additional advertisers until the new year. Advertiser demand has exceeded our growth.

The main thing is we are now able to look back see the seasonality from the prior year. In 2008, we had no prior year to look back on.

Adconion Media Group acquired whatever was left of the key assets of failed video service Joost, and the company told TechCrunch it will follow the strategy Joost had attempted to shift to months ago: providing white-label video platforms.

Index Ventures, an early backer of Joost, is also a major investor in Adconion, TechCrunch pointed out.

Adconion CEO Tyler Moebius said:

Video is a top priority for our company and, through the acquisition of the Joost assets, we will be able to provide advertisers, content owners and Website publishers with an end-to-end global video platform and cross-channel video and display ad-serving solution.

Moebius also told TechCrunch it would continue to operate the Joost Website.

The Full Ginsburg posted a video poking fun at CNN for thinking it is breaking news while that news has already broken via Twitter, Facebook and other online sources.

The video features Brendan Collins and Zara Findlay-Shirras as CNN anchors, and it was written by Findlay-Shirras and directed by Eric Cunningham.

However amusing the premise may sound, there really isn't anything all that funny about a 62-year-old woman getting smacked in the face by a thrown ham. But many people on this Twitter thread find the video of Food Network star Paula Deen taking a tossed ham to the nose during a charity event this morning in Atlanta to be absolutely LOL-worthy.

Of course, how they find it is one thing, but where they find the video is another matter. And apparently that won't be on YouTube, from which the video "has been removed due to terms of use violation."

Meanwhile, Deen says she had nothing to do with YouTube yanking the video. She posts on her @Paula_Deen Twitter account:

Google unveiled new technology to automatically add text captions to YouTube videos, The New York Times reported.

The technology can only add English-language captions thus far, but Google told the Times its automatic translation system will enable users to read the captions in 51 languages.

The captioning technology will roll out later this week, initially to only a few channels that specialize in educational content, but expanding gradually, Google told the Times.

Ken Harrenstien, a deaf engineer who helped to develop the automatic captioning system, told the Times:

This is something that I have dreamt of for many years. To see it happen is amazing.

Because the tools are not perfect, we want to make sure that we get feedback from the video owners and the viewers before we roll it out for the whole world. Sometimes the auto-captions are good. Sometimes they are not great, but they are better than nothing if you are hearing-impaired or don't know the language.

Facebook jumped up to the No. 3 spot in terms of total streams of video for the month of October, according to Nielsen's VideoCensus numbers, trailing only video-exclusive sites YouTube and Hulu, NewTeeVee reported. Facebook was No. 10 in September.

The top 10, by thousands of total streams: YouTube (6,632,964), Hulu (632,662), Facebook (217,765), MSN/WindowsLive/Bing (183,556), Yahoo! (173,482), Fox Interactive Media (160,698), ABC Television (136,348), Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network (119,850), ESPN Digital Network (109,799) and CBS Entertainment Network (103,741).

Many politicians think that a tweet is something given to kids in costume on Halloween, but Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick regularly posts videos on his YouTube channel, has collected more than 8,000 Twitter followers, had his administration launch the Commonwealth Conversations blog, encourages staffers to post photos on Flickr and maintains both a personal Facebook page and a fan site, the Boston Herald reported.

As an example the Herald reported that during a stop at the Greater Boston Food Bank to help load turkeys for the needy, Patrick's handlers shot video and pictures, while he tweeted about his visit on his BlackBerry.

Patrick told the Herald:

In this time, if you don't have a presence through some of the new social-media networks, then you're missing something. I would say in some respects, it's overtaking or certainly supplementing traditional media.

That's not just a strategy for winning an election: That's really an outlook about what a strong democracy ought to be and how we build communities.

I'm a little wordy, so 140 characters is a real challenge.

Video sharing site YouTube early this morning announced a free API that enables media sites to moderate and post videos uploaded by visitors.

Early adopters of the new feature are NPR, Politico, The Huffington Post, the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. YouTube plans to offer the API to more media sites as well as any organizations that want to leverage community-submitted video content.

Here are some details of the announcement from YouTube's Steve Grove on the YouTube Biz Blog:

Almost any event that takes place today has a chance of being captured on camera. As YouTube has become a global platform for sharing the news, media organizations have been looking for a good way to connect directly with citizen reporters on our site so they broadcast this footage and bring it to a larger audience.

That's why we created YouTube Direct, a new tool that allows media organizations to request, review and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users. Built from our APIs, this open source application lets media organizations enable customized versions of YouTube's upload platform on their own websites. Users can upload videos directly into this application, which also enables the hosting organization to easily review video submissions and select the best ones to broadcast on-air and on their websites.

Below is an explanatory animated video from YouTube. On the jump is an NPR video soliciting viewer-submitted science-related videos for a feature called The Wonderscope and some quotes (courtesy of Beet.TV).

continued...

NightTline, the half-hour digital Twittercast from ABC News' Nightline, will be available via Ustream Mondays at 12:30 p.m. ET, in addition to its already existing availability on the Nightline Website and ABC News NOW.

NightTline is hosted by Nightline's anchors and correspondents.

Nightline executive producer James Goldston said:

Nightline is always looking for new venues to engage with our audience. We are excited at the opportunity to collaborate with Ustream.

And Ustream president and founder Brad Hunstable added:

Bringing ABC's Nightline Webcast to Ustream provides an even greater depth and breadth of news coverage and analysis to add to our high-quality, premium programming. Ustream's shared viewing experience will add to the dynamic conversations and interactivity around this ongoing show.

Former Russian police officer Alexei Dymovsky is risking his life via YouTube, posting videos addressed to Prime Minister Vladmir Putin discussing corruption within the police force, ReadWriteWeb reported.

According to ReadWriteWeb, Dymovsky served in the Russian army from 1996-98, and then worked as a district commissioner of the city police in the Amur region until 2004, when he was transferred to the city of Novorossiysk police department, eventually advancing to the post of senior security officer and overseeing crimes related to drug trafficking.

At points during his videos, Dymovsky says:

Maybe you don't know about us, about simple cops, who live and work and love their work. I'm ready to tell you everything. I'm not scared of my own death.

We are working as hard as we can with all our souls. I want to talk about it now. I am not afraid. I am telling my name…But I cannot stand detecting the nonexistent crimes, imprisoning people who are not guilty. I can't stand it anymore.

ReadWriteWeb added that the officers mentioned in Dymovsky's videos filed libel suits against him, and the Russian interior minister's office is investigating the claims.