I had a very healthy discussion with a spokesperson from HP about advertising, user-generated content and appropriate content for advertisers to associate with. They provided the following statement:

HP has marketing relationships with numerous media entities around the globe. Media relationships are chosen to extend HP’s reach to certain target audiences and not based on media content. The relationships should not be construed in any way as endorsements of such content. As a general practice, HP strives whenever possible to avoid ad rotations that include offensive programming.

In my own follow-up to the original post, I have been unable to find any of the HP layover ads running alongside the content mentioned in my earlier post. In my conversation, the spokesperson wouldn’t confirm the specific status of the campaign with VideoEgg, whether it was pulled entirely or just from the site we observed.

Either way, I commend HP for their action and thank them for getting back to us on the matter. We still love their laptops.

Just in time for opening weekend in college football, ESPN will re-launch 360 on Saturday with a new look and 26 live events. Rumor on the street is that like the ABC.com player it will be powered by Move Networks, but we’ll have to wait and see.

The long tail, while bringing less popular content to greater numbers of fans is not immune to regional blackouts - if for new reasons.

ESPN 360 will carry the UCF Golden Nights football season opener, a prospect that initially excited many in the Orlando area. Unfortunately, while UCF doesn’t have the audience for a national TV broadcast, their regional ISPs don’t have agreements in place to carry ESPN 360 either.

Also launching this weekend on the TV side, Big Ten Network, with an online video component powered by Brightcove. At the moment games will not be available live online, but we hear that’s coming soon.

Internet calling company Skype has announced new partnerships with Dailymotion and Metacafe as part of the introduction of the latest version of the platform, Skype 3.5.

The newest feature enables users to include videos from Dailymotion and Metacafe as part of their Skype “Mood,” providing a new outlet for sharing your favorite videos. According to the press release, users can also share videos during their conversations. “Video content is a great conversation starter because people love talking about video clips and especially the ones that are personal to them.” said Carter Adamson, general manager, desktop products for Skype.

A new level of convergence? Maybe. Why you wouldn’t just share the link is beyond me, but I’m not one for mixing my media. “Check out this video ,” has always worked just fine for me.

Be sure to RSVP and meet up with the rest of NYC’s video-rati at tonight’s Video2.0 meetup.

For Your Imagination Studios
22 West 27th Street 6th Floor
New York , NY 10001

Tonight’s presenters are Max Haot, Founder & CEO, Mogulus; Ben Weinberger, Founder & CEO, DigitalSmiths; Vitaly Leokumovich, Founder & CEO, Yuxt; and Rami Rinot, Founder & CEO, Chic.TV.

Gmail released their final M-velope game compilation video, and after 1100 submissions from 65 countries, it’s probably fair to call it a success. The videos are creative and the compilation below received over 100,000 views in its first day on YouTube.


Above: The Gmail Collaborative Video

A Google maps mashup posted on the Gmail blog shows where all the videos came from, selecting a location plays that video. All Google was after was fun free engagement with their most active users and they got it.

Its official. The joint venture YouTube killer from News Corp and NBC Universal has a name and that name is Hulu.

What the Hulu?

“We just wanted a name that is short and easy to spell,” Hulu spokeswoman Christina Lee said. “We like the idea that it rhymes with itself. We wanted a fun name.”

Well, hello to you too, Hulu.

American Hulu shares its name with Swedish WiMax company Hulu and, as Reuters points out is also “Chinese for the gourd we know as the calabash.” Update: apparently it’s also Swahili ‘for cease’ and ‘desist.’ Karma?

When people talk about user generated content, we mostly think of stupid home videos, dogs on skateboards, guys getting hit in the groin by object after painful object.

But in the following few clips, I’m asking for your feedback. What other content shouldn’t be monetized? Is there any? Is the debate between brand advertisers protecting their brands vs. direct response advertisers that will run anywhere a complete farce? Or are HP and Canon just willing to take advantage of the cheaper, available content farther down the tail? Does it matter? Does it matter to you?

Click to enlarge the stills, but you can see from the images, this isn’t the type of content you’d normally associate with traditional brand advertisers. Worse still, the HP post-roll ads are a minute long and running against clips that are 4 and 10 seconds long.

Click Here To Play Insurgent Video



Click Here for the Video about unloading 40,000 pounds of cocaine.

Update: OVW was contacted by HP’s PR folks earlier today and informed us that they are seeking comments from the appropriate departments. We’ll keep you posted….

Get Ready for fan-based social networking. In the coming weeks a number of fan-based social networking sites are set to launch.

The new offerings, many of them backed by big bucks will offer a chance for individuals to share their support for a team (or animosity toward a rival) and a big part of their appeal will be use of video.

Continue Reading at Tilzy.TV

I think Hendrik Hertzberg’s head may explode. Or maybe that’s my head, I just found Hendrik’s blog and if more journalists like him begin blogging I may never find the time to work again.

First off, like everything Hertzberg writes, his blog is terrific, but how can we add this much media to our day? The need for a better filter is growing by the minute.

One of the great things about reading blogs is that they’re just thoughts on a page. They’re drawn up relatively quickly and while some are more eloquent than others there’s a casualness not found in the New Yorker or the Times which is liberating. This is not as true of Hendrik’s blog.

The New Yorker is the last print publication I still receive and its columns require more focus to consume in one sitting, a good thing. But how long will that patience last? I feel some guilt when skimming an article in the Times or New Yorker. I want to take every added piece of knowledge away, but I read them less and less.

Hertzberg’s first post points to some of the new sources of information he reads. Like many, he starts his day reading RSS feeds, then gets ideas and blogs about them.

It begs the question: with so many of the professional sources so often quoted writing far more specifically on their topic of knowledge than anyone, what will happen to traditional journalism?

If search can more efficiently aggregate relevant content from all sources than a single news organization, why start with the New York Times?

What is it with the novelty and gimmick of using online video these days?

Republican Fred Thompson, who created what is probably my favorite video of this campaign, a brush back at Michael Moore complete with cigar and cinematic chair spin (below), will use online video to officially announce his candidacy reports Bob Novak.

Above: Thompson Responds to Michael Moore’s Challenge

The idea that creating a YouTube video is the way to go here still baffles me. Thomson has no shortage of money, and his base probably isn’t the core YouTube demo. He could certainly find a talk show that would happily allow him make his announcement to a far larger group of people at once.

Online video is like any other medium, its value is in the content it displays. The only thing that separates it from traditional media is its allowing creative people to do on their own what previously required a larger budget.

The incentive for politicians appears to be that when they create video online, it gets more press than a campaign ad would on TV. Many of these videos are unique to the medium. If this is what Americans want to see, why not use the same style on TV?