Tubemogul Buys Illumenix

It sounds like an acquisition of comic book companies: "Tubemogul Acquires Illumenix" in order to take over the world. Well I don't know about taking over the world but this is certainly a step in the direction of giving Visible Measures a run for their money.

I think it's a very smart move for Tubemogul but what's really missing in the marketplace right now is a combined FLASH / Quicktime / Windows Media Player / Silverlight metrics standard that tracks all videos served on the planet.

The technology is there. Let's see who is able to get everyone on board and agree on standards that advertisers and content creators can use. Maybe by 2012?

When Will Independent Online Video Content Producers Be Able to Dynamically Serve Video Ads in Quicktime for Free?

Today NewTeeVee reports that VoloMedia Makes iTunes Interactive.

What does this mean for independent video content creators?

Well, if you are accepted into VoloMedia as a content publisher (they are a little picky) and you can afford their technology (it's not FREE), you will be able to dynamically insert video advertising into your iTunes videos and your subscribers will be able to share your content with friends, bookmark your videos and link back to your site or your advertiser's site. You will also be able to track your views through VoloMedia's Mesurement Services. Unfortunately it only works with Windows right now.

If you have high end content, have a large Windows based group of subscribers and a steady flow of advertisers this is a really cool solution to serve ads and track your video podcasts.

If you have a large Apple/Mac based group of subscribers and don't have a steady flow of advertisers this won't be of help to you one bit...yet.

I think VoloMedia has some great technology. I wish I could get my hands on their technology for FREE or as a REV share. The reason I say this is that right now I can sign up for affiliate programs, post banners and text ads on my site for FREE and using a free ad server I can change out those ads for free without having to redo my website each time. Unfortunately I can't do the same with my Video Podcast. However I'm working on changing that.

Right now I'm in talks with several of my independent producer friends who like me, have millions and millions of Quicktime video views each month that are going unmonetized each month because we don't have low cost technology and hosting to dynamically deliver video ads in our video podcasts and swap them out without having to re-edit and repost our videos.

I'm also in talks with technology companies who are working on making this technology available to my group of friends and me for FREE.

I'm also in talks with sponsors and affiliate marketers who want to advertise and sponsor online videos but don't have a turn key way of doing it.

When will independent online video content producers be able to dynamically serve video ads in Quicktime for free? I'm trying to make it happen in the next few months.

Tim, This could hurt people's businesses, why would you want to do this?

I don't think it will hurt anyone's business who is in online video for the long haul because standards are coming. Standards that will use the same types of technology to deliver video ads in video podcasts and track those ads. It has to happen. We can't be using different technology to do this because advertisers need things to be simple. Media buyers need the buying of online video advertising to be easy. Could you imagine if we had different technical standards for delivering and tracking TV commercials at each TV network?

Video Podcasts are an untapped resource for advertisers to reach consumers who are emotionally engaged with niche content that they really care about. In these hard economic times media buyers are going to discover this and and take advantage of it but we need to make it easy for them. Especially the small and medium sized advertisers.

If Google had charged a $5 CPM for the privilege of using Google AdSense technology Google would have never become the number one text based advertising company on the planet. If we as independent content creators can get our hands on dynamic ad insertion technology like VoloMedia's, Castfire's and Podaddies' for free we will be able to cross promote each other, build larger audiences, deliver ROI for our advertisers / sponsors and make a living or better with online video. And companies like VoloMedia, Castfire and Poddadies will be able to sell statistics and advertising to ad agencies, media buyers and other advertisiers.

By making dynamic video ad insertion free in QuickTime and Flash for that matter, online video content creators will become "Pain Killers in a Pain Killer Economy," Independent video producers will be able to help small and medium sized advertisers reach consumers in relevant ways by advertising to audiences who will care about and want to buy their products. Most importantly by making dynamic ad insertion for video FREE Independent Online video producers and content creators will be able to make money with online video on their own by cross promoting other independents, sharing sponsors, using affiliate marketing programs and online video producers will be able to do it all without having to give away ownership of their original content.

Are you working on a dynamic ad insertion for video technology? Are you interested in monetizing it by giving away the technology for free or for rev share?

Email me at 1timstreet at gmail.com.

QuickTime or Flash ? Who's Better for You?

Right now there is a war going on in online video and it's not a pretty one. It's a war between video players. Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media Player and that other one what's it called? Oh that's right Real Player.

Sure there are other video players out there but these four are real "PLAYERS" in the online video business world.

From my point of view here are the simple benefits of the top four players.

Flash seems to have the biggest distribution (Installed on over 850 million Internet-connected desktops and mobile devices) being the player of choice for YouTube but more than that Flash is also the player of choice for online video Ad Networks because they can show their advertiser real time reports. The quality of flash is great if it's used at it's highest quality but to save bandwidth most sites don't use Flash at a high quality but it's use is getting better but not the best thing to watch on your wide screen HDTV.

QuickTime delivers high quality video and works on the iPods, Apple TV and yes with video sharing apps like mDialog you can even send video to the 3G iPhone.(Disclosure: mDialog is one of my sponsors) You can use QuickTime in your RSS feed and keep your subscribers iTunes full of your latest content. The big problem with QuickTime is that advertising networks don't use it because they don't have real time tracking of the views os RSS feeds.

Windows Media Player is well deployed on PCs and works really well on the Zune but I don't know of (and please correct me if I'm wrong) any ad networks using Windows Media Player to deliver advertising. If I was doing a sponsors episode of a product that was only targeted at PC owners I would definitely use Windows Media Player to distribute my videos.

As far as Real Player goes, I'm at a loss. From what I can tell Real Player is good for partnering with big corporations on "speacial" video projects that take advantage of Real Players network of subscribers. Like getting to watch all the BTS on CBS's Big Brother. Please feel free to help me out on this one. I know there is something great about Real Player but I forgot what it is.

Other videos players are in the mix like Silverlight which is Microsoft's competitor to Flash but I have yet to see traction with these other players.

As a content producer what video players do you like and why do you like them?

Flash vs QuickTime is it Like Obama vs Clinton?

Well it looks like Flash has won the video player wars when it comes to site embeded streaming video but QuickTime is still king when it come to downloadable video to play on an iPod, iPhone or iPod Touch.

Now when it comes to placing ads (pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll) in and around video I've found that Ad-Networks are shying away from QuickTime and downloadable media because it's hard to tell in real time if someone has watched an ad in a downloaded video.

iTunes, iPods, iPod Touches and iPhones don't play Flash because Apple has made them that way but they do support video podcasting where many of us online video producers get our views. On the other hand advertisers, media buyers and ad agencies like Flash because they can see real time stats.

When will we be able to sort this out?

When will we have our National Convention and decide on our video player candidate?

How will BARACKY: THE MOVIE end?