Comments on: CNN, AOL launch new video services - trouble for startups?

By: techcrunch » Blog Archive » Eyespot partners with Blip.tv, Veoh to provide online video editing

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:05:30 +0000

[...] York City’s Blip.tv was selected to provide the underlying technology for CNN’s user generated video section, CNN Exchange, launched last [...]

By: TomBomb.com

TomBomb.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:38:42 +0000

YouTube sold its soul–and its love base–to the devil already. They might as well get it over with and sell out completely to Microsoft anyway. That would be the big boy move.

By: Modern Day Alchemist

Modern Day Alchemist — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 23:20:49 +0000

Shirish makes a good point. CNN and AOL cater to a different audience than YouTube and Guba

By: Joheve » Blog Archive » Eyespot

Joheve » Blog Archive » Eyespot — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:09:12 +0000

[...] New York City’s Blip.tv was selected to provide the underlying technology for CNN’s user generated video section, CNN Exchange, launched last month. [...]

By: Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Eyespot partners with Blip.tv, Veoh to provide online video editing

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 15:49:50 +0000

[...] New York City’s Blip.tv was selected to provide the underlying technology for CNN’s user generated video section, CNN Exchange, launched last month. [...]

By: Blogico » Blog Archive » Rotativo

Blogico » Blog Archive » Rotativo — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 04:27:11 +0000

[...] Como? qué youtube y google video no es suficiente? no se preocupen, CNN y AOL ahora le meten mano a los vídeos también en un nuevo proyecto. [via techcrunch] [...]

By: houseofbenjamin.com » Blog Archive » CNN, AOL launch new video services - trouble for startups?

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:06:54 +0000

[...] CNN, AOL launch new video services - trouble for startups?: “ [...]

By: gregtyree.com » Blog Archive » CNN snatching page out of YouTubes book

gregtyree.com » Blog Archive » CNN snatching page out of YouTubes book — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 03:25:04 +0000

[...] CNN, AOL launch new video services - trouble for startups? [...]

By: Shirish

Shirish — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:48:36 +0000

One point CNN and AOL miss out (by a mile) is that the major part of the success of YouTube and the likes is because of the viewer’ perception of unbiasness of the content at these sites. CNN is a news organization and whatever you see on CNN, let it be user content, will always be percieved as edited/censored. Similar thing can be said about AOL. User generated contents (blog, video) are largely successful because they lack such perception in the readers’ mind.

So whatever CNN and AOL are doing will have its own territory… different than that of YouTube’s.

By: Zoom-In Blog

Zoom-In Blog — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:06:25 +0000

CNN and AOL rediscover video online…

Both CNN and AOL have announce they will be revamping their online video initiatives to cater to the millions of viewers who watch videos on YouTube, Google Video, and the Apple iTunes Music Store (a name which is quickly going……

By: kumar

kumar — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 08:13:09 +0000

tesing

By: Dead2.0

Dead2.0 — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 04:06:29 +0000

YouTube hirin’ a lawyer…

Saw this in a newswire today:
Corporate Counsel - YouTube, Inc. - San Mateo, CA
YouTube, Inc., the explosive new Internet company for uploading and sharing digital
video (www.youtube.com), is seeking a corporate counsel for its San Mateo, California
of…

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 04:03:34 +0000

Adding some thoughts… I don’t believe YouTube’s user base is even slightly loyal, it’s all about content. Once YouTube is forced (and this IS happening) to take down all copyrighted material, the users will flock to the next ’safe haven.’ Sound familiar? It should, the last time it went something like Napster - Grokster - Kazaa - Torrent…

Remember, you can’t get 100 MILLION daily video streams with all long-tail content (which, at present, is about 95% awful, and I’m being generous).

I am dubious to believe CNN or AOL can really pull off the same phenomenon as YouTube has, but I also don’t think that that necessarily matters. They don’t NEED the same traffic, it’s all supplemental. Furthermore, if they can slowly intertwine professional and amateur content together, they could actually come up with something compelling.

And to whomever said it above - UI does NOT matter at this stage in the land grab. Not for a long long time. UI is nice and all, but YouTube ain’t so gorgeous itself.

Most important here is the fact that the big players are making a stab at it, which I believe makes them MUCH less likely to look into acquisition paths. Why buy something you can build for next-to-nothing, when the traffic base (aka ‘the asset’) is unlikely to follow?

By: CNN’s Got Nothing at Crunchd

CNN’s Got Nothing at Crunchd — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 03:42:46 +0000

[...] Also… while CNN is making other improvements, what’s up with the design? There are 470 pixels (yes, I counted) of headers and titles before you get to any content whatsoever! Here’s the TechCrunch article Filed under: TechCrunch, CNN | [...]

By: Somewhat Frank

Somewhat Frank — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 03:29:33 +0000

CNN Launches User Video Play via Blip.tv…

Time Warner is looking for citizen journalist videos as CNN has launched a product called the CNN Exchange. The exchange asks users to submit video footage for specify stories on the CNN site. The videos can be up to 30…

By: Jonathan Elias

Jonathan Elias — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 03:10:39 +0000

As Shuki Haiminis notes, CNN has a “different demographic and userbase” than MySpace and YouTube, and I think that bearing in mind the CNET story mentioned in this post–bearing in mind that CNN was inspired by war footage from Lebanon placed on YouTube–CNN might be able to capitalize on the integrity their name has with this demographic. In Vietnam network TV news changed war, and maybe it’ll take the trust that comes with a name like CNN to let civilian video change war again.

By: Crunchd - CNN's Got Nothing

Crunchd - CNN's Got Nothing — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 02:19:49 +0000

CNN’s Got Nothing…

…in answer to his question “trouble for startups?” I respond with a resounding “No!”…

By: Nick Gavronsky

Nick Gavronsky — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 01:03:42 +0000

I think CNN Exchange is a great way to break into consumer created/captured footage that can further enhance CNN’s coverage of events from a personal perspective. Interesting to see if AOL and CNN will end up competing if CNN launches an expanded version of their service.

By: Shuki Haiminis

Shuki Haiminis — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:03:52 +0000

CNN is targeting a different demographic and userbase. Most of the people on Myspace and youtube don’t know what CNN is

By: Barry

Barry — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:05:18 +0000

I agree with you Techwarrior. Most of these players are jumping in because this is a hot market. It’s not their core business and thus they don’t have the motivation to devote a lot of resources to these areas. Their businesses won’t live or die on their Web 2.0 ventures. But they do have tons of cash and resources that make them formidable opponents. The problem startups like YouTube have is that they need to find a business model fast. I suspect the growth of their burn rate due to the costs of serving so many videos is considerably higher than their revenue growth. They will be able to continue to tap the capital markets for now, but at some point they’re going to have to start making big money or sell out.

This is no different than the last bubble. Even though they’re creative and run by motivated, customer-centric people, 99% of these startups will fail and when the field clears, big companies will still be around and by virtue of that will have a strong position in the marketplace. First mover advantage is not all it’s cracked up to be. By sticking around and seeing how things play out, big companies can learn from the mistakes of early entrants. Let them exhaust themselves and then move in for the kill. In any race, the hare may get off to a quicker start but the tortoise often wins. And if the tortoise doesn’t win or have the desire to race, it can buy the hare (think News Corp. buying MySpace).

By: brian

brian — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:04:53 +0000

wow. what horrible ui design.

By: Techwarrior

Techwarrior — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:16:24 +0000

It seems that as of late, some big players and Fortune 500 companies are
catching on to Web 2.0 technologies or at least trying to. In my opinion, they don’t capture the creativity and customer centricity that new services and start-ups have.

By: Barry

Barry — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:13:24 +0000

cgraham149: Read the YouTube terms of service and tell me why anyone would want to send footage to YouTube when they get non-exclusive ownership of the submitted content without paying the user for the content. If (and that’s a big if) any of these services start generating major revenues from the user-created content I think you’ll see users wanting a cut. It is definitely in the best interests of these companies to keep their content producers happy and the content rolling in.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:09:39 +0000

@wayne: I’d say that %99.9 of that “instant YouTube content” is of no interest to CNN (or makes them nervous wrt copyright violations). Why would they want to buy that?
@Ping: Yes, user-generated content that *could* be broadcast on TV has a lot of glamour appeal to content generators. Could be a good diferentiator. While web distribution is all the rage right now, having one’s content on TV is still very sexy.

By: PostBubble

PostBubble — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:03:01 +0000

AOL gets ready to take on YouTube and iTunes…

The big news story today is that AOL is planning to dive into the already crowded online video space. The new service is slated to launch this coming Friday for public testing. AOL will be offering both free content as well as paid commercial-free do…