NEWS: Video IChannels

Ed: Keeping branded partners has been the scalability challenge at SuperSite and through out the history of media.

Ustream.TV Takes $11.1 Million Series A

by Duncan Riley

Ustream.TV has taken $11.1 million Series A in a round that included Doll Capital Management and existing investor The Band of Angels.

Ustream.TV was in the first wave of live broadcast sites that launched in 2007 along with Justin.TV,BlogTV and Mogulus. Ustream.TV took $2 million in angel funding in December and appointed General Wesley Clark to the board. Rumors surface in January that the company was in takeover talks with Microsoft with a $50 million price tag.

Ustream.TV has grown from its original launch to become a broadcast hub for Presidential hopefuls, popular entertainers and musicians, technology industry gurus and business executives. The live broadcasting service has been complemented with a depth of tools that allows people like Chris Pirillo to build a video empire. Ustream.TV offers video conversion and download in .FLV, .WMV, .MP4 and .MOV, and users can syndicate videos created from live shows on video sites such as Blip.tv. According to Ustream.TV, their traffic has grown 325% over the last 6 months...

WorldTV partners with Qik for live video

by Mike Butcher

WorldTV, an online TV startup which lets users mix clips from video sharing sites and their webcam, is adding interoperability with mobile video broadcast service Qik, which itself just raiseda $3 million Series B round. Qik users will be able to stream live video to WorldTV channels and WorldTV users can now broadcast live video from their mobile phones simultaneously on Qik and their WorldTV channel. A longer review is on TechCrunch UK. Suffice it to say live video is clearly a hot sector right now.

With “under $1M” in private funding, WorldTV ’s Flash-based interface allows users add clips from YouTube, Metacafe, Yahoo, Google Video, Blip.tv and others. It then puts these into a playlist which plays them automatically, effectively creating a full-screen TV channel. You can also watch channels created by other people. A number of other sites allow users to create personalised internet video channels including Vpod.tv, Cozmo, Kyte, me.tv, Mogulus, Magnify and SplashCast, but WorldTV has a simple, consumer-friendly feel to it.

The revenue model is based on a subscription-based prosumer version for additional scheduling features and an enterprise version for broadcasters with logo overlays.

Badly Kept Secret: Veronica Belmont To Host Tekzilla

by Duncan Riley

Geek chick celebrity Veronic Belmont has signed to co-host Revision3’s Tekzilla show.

Belmont resigned from the Mahalo Daily podcast last week after only 5 months, with a relatively cool send off from Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis.

Prior to working for Calacanis, Belmont worked for CNET.com, where she produced and co-hosted shows including Buzz Out Loud, MP3 Insider and Crave. She also regularly appears on programs on DL.TV, MSNBC, CNBC, the G4 Network, PC Gamer, and This Week in Tech...

CBS Insists It Has Not Yet Decided To Fire Katie Couric

by Henry Blodget

The Los Angeles Times reports:

CBS News (CBS) shot down a report Wednesday that implied that anchor Katie Couric was preparing to leave the network and her post on its flagship evening newscast as soon as next January, saying no such decision had been made.

MySpace TV Going Global

by Sarah Perez

Just because MySpace's web show "Quarterlife" was a big flop on NBC here in the U.S., that doesn't mean that MySpace is going to stop shopping their web shows for TV syndication. While the U.S. market for web-to-TV programming may be dead, the worldwide market awaits, and, overseas, web shows might have a better chance.

This morning Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that Rupert Murdoch's MySpace will be using daughter Elizabeth Murdoch's production company, Shine Group, to try to get web shows like "Quarterlife" and "Roommates" licensed abroad. Additionally, potential deals could involve making localized versions of the programs instead. The Shine Group is known for making similar deals for network television shows, most notably, they brought the British show "The Office" to American TV...