Vice launched its YouTube Originals channel this month. It’s called Noisey. And it’s the YouTube-distributed (and at least partially funded) offshoot of Noisey.com, which is an offshoot of Vice.com that’s described as “a video-driven music discovery platform, documenting the most talented emerging musicians…bands and music scenes from over 10 countries,” which is a slight departure from Vice Magazine’s traditional coverage of “cocaine, whores, and denim” and Vice Video’s (formerly known as VBS.TV) documentaries about toxic locales, North Korea, Mexican gore tabloids, and cute animals.

The driving force behind Noisey is the desire to give local music scenes an international audience and “music lovers the opportunity to discover great bands.” Noisey is attempting to fulfill that desire with the help of corporate support from Dell, Intel, and Vitamin Water and by way of a handful of original web series and online video specials featuring indie musicians, people talking about indie musicians and their music, and/or mainstream musicians who are appealing to the indie music scene. The programs include:

• Record Store Dude – Sean works at Rough Trade West in London. He’s the first up in this music review series where Noisey interviews the “nerdiest record-shop clerks in the US and UK to give you recommendations for music that’s actually good.”
• Bandmate – ”A show that incites Yoko Ono-level acrimony by asking bands the sort questions we’re all really wondering.”
• Noisey Talks – Editors and writers of renowned music magazines and publications sit around a table and talk shop.
• Party Pics – “A new show that follows balls-out nightlife photographers as they push their way to the front of the most insane shows and ragers of the week.”
• You Review – The Noisey crew “sources music reviews from actual humans instead of boring music snobs (bodega owners, bankers, firemen, whatever!),” which kinda makes this series like a video version of Yelp for music.

Of course there’s also “behind-the-scenes looks at the making of videos, documentaries, intimate interviews,” and music video premieres from acts like MIA and A$AP Rocky. You can watch and listen to them all out at YouTube.com/Noisey.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Music, News, Noisey, VBS.TV, Web Series, YouTube by Joshua Cohen
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Speaking of online video celebrities hosting impromptu Q&A sessions on an online platform that at least one technology expert calls the “web’s unstoppable force,” Phil DeFranco established and then set up shop in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (aka AMA) post earlier this week.

The YouTube star who recently signed with San Francisco-based new media network Revision3, launched the multiple-times-a-day online video news program for Generation X and Y called SourceFed, and ranks in the top 20 on YouTube’s All-Time Most Subscribed List (with almost 2 million subscribers) couldn’t find his voice on Wednesday. So, he engaged with fans via Reddit instead of his regularly scheduled Phil DeFranco Show.

DeFranco’s post received over 3,500 comments in total (by comparison, Jake and Amir’s AMA numbers topped out at just above 2,600 and Bear Grylls’ – whose name DeFranco once had difficulty pronouncing – racked up 6,500). The questions range from why DeFranco broke apart from one of the original YouTube supegroups, The Station (Short Answer: He didn’t like where it was going), to why he hasn’t married his girl yet (He copped out of a short answer), to how many people he employees between his online video efforts and t-shirt line For Human Peoples (Short Answer: Five for For Human Peoples and 11 total in Phil DeFranco, Inc.), to how much money he makes from YouTube (Short Answer: Not telling, but he pays himself $100,000 a year and reinvests the rest into his company).

It’s the kind of thing every Philly D fan should read and a great supplement to even the most informative of on-camera Phil DeFranco interviews.

Filed under: Articles, Industry, News, Phil DeFranco, YouTube by Joshua Cohen
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ComScore recently released its 2012 US Digital Futre in Focus Report. The white paper is meant to examine “how the prevailing trends in social media, search, online video, digital advertising, mobile and e-commerce define the current United States marketplace and what these trends mean for the year ahead” and (as the title would imply) help bring the digital future into focus.

The online video findings detailed in the report are sure to make anyone involved in the online video industry all jazz hands about the direction in which consumer behaviors are heading.

First, those living the US are watching a helluva lot more online video than they did before. By December 2011, comScore estimates an average of 105 million Americans consumed some form of online video every single day. That’s roughly one-third of the entire US population and up 43% from December 2010’s numbers.

Second, individuals in America viewed 43.5 billion videos in December 2011 (of which YouTube accounted for roughly half), up 44% from the 301 billion videos viewed in December 2010. Third, online video consumers are consuming a lot more video. The average videos viewed per viewer amounted to 239 last December, an increase of 37% year-over-year.

And fourth, comScore made a few interesting findings about the state and quality of online video advertising, the most notable of which is consumers find online video ads to be 38% more memorable than ads on traditional television.

ComScore Product Manager for Online Video Dan Piech attributes the rise in online video consumption to “an increase in quality, original, created for the web content.” Check out the video below so you can hear that quote and other key findings from the 2012 US Digitual Futre in Focus Report straight from the horse’s mouth.

Filed under: Articles, comScore, Featured, Industry, News by Joshua Cohen
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If you’ve been meaning to add Reddit to the list of sites you compulsively visit while you should be doing something other than compulsively visiting websites, but for whatever reason you haven’t been able navigate past the homepage despite that article Farhad Manjoo wrote for Slate proclaiming the site to be the “web’s unstoppable force” because the site’s design is kinda evocative of a command prompt screen updated for the internet age and you’re not technically-inclined, then you should definitely check out Reddit’s recent Q&A with Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenefeld. It’s just the impetus you need to subscribe to Reddit’s daily feed.

It’s also technically not a Q&A, but an IAma, which is Redditspeak for a dedicated post in which a celebrity or otherwise well-known individual (e.g. Louis C.K., Anthony Weiner, Bear Grylls, etc.) or kind/class of individual (e.g. Chick-Fil-A crew member, guy who is about to be released from jail in a few months, former heroin addict, etc.) sits in front of his/her computer and answers all the questions (or almost all the questions) Reddit users wish to ask.

Jake and Amir started their own IAmA Ask Us Anything session earlier this week. In one day’s time the post has received over 2,600 comments, which is sort of a lot! (By comparison the Louis C.K. IAmA racked up over 9,300 comments total.) The duo made famous by their eponymous CollegeHumor original web series start off by paying their respects to the Reddit community (“We hope we’re doing this right… Any mistakes we are making are purely accidental.”), before answering questions like is Amir scared of what’s going to happen in Prank War 9?” (Answer: “Always.”), did one of the two crash a Hollywood high school prom (Answer: No), if they ever consider pursuing careers outside of CollegeHumor, (Answer: Odds are they won’t stay at CollegeHumor forever), and more.

It’s the kind of thing every Jake and Amir fan should read and a great supplement for even the most thorough, entertaining, and awesome of on-camera Jake and Amir video interviews (like the one below).

Filed under: Articles, CollegeHumor, Featured, Jake and Amir, News by Joshua Cohen
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Chris Hardwick, actor, comedian, writer—and general nerd lover—announced the Course of the Force, a five-day Olympic-torch-style lightsaber relay run benefitting the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Nerdist Industries—in an exclusive partnership with Lucasfilm and Machinima—is sponsoring the epic Star Wars tribute, which begins at Santa Monica pier on Saturday, July 7th and ends in at San Diego  on Wednesday, July 11th, just in time for San Diego’s Comic-Con preview night.

“To me, going to Cons as a kid was all about having a safe haven—a place where like-minded folks could come together to celebrate nerdly passions and accept each other for the oddball (by the larger and more boring sector of society’s standards) stuff we were all into,” Hardwick wrote on the YouTube Blog.

Segments are purchasable in quarter-mile increments, and space is limited to about 500 running slots. Participants better come decked out in their best Star Wars-themed running gear to make the best of the $500 ticket, though runners will also receive a Star Wars Ultimate FX lightsaber along with other gifts celebrating the Force and Comic Con.

“The Course of the Force lightsaber run is a great cause that combines fitness with helping others, principles that aspiring Jedi Knights can embrace,” said Kayleen Walters, Senior Director of Marketing for Lucasfilm. “We have long supported the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and this is a great opportunity to raise funds and awareness while letting Star Wars fans celebrate their favorite saga.”

The entire relay will be live streamed on The Nedist Channel on YouTube, a partnership between Nerdist Industries, The Jim Henson Company, and Broadway Video.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Hosted, Machinima.com, News, Web Series, YouTube by Drew Baldwin
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The astronomical summer season begins June 20. That’s 130-some-odd days away, which means you still have plenty of time to plan your warm weather getaways and be inspired as to the location of where those warm weather getaways should take place by watching a few or more travel-oriented videos on YouTube.

YouTube Vacationer is an online channel and destination for “travel videos from folks like National Geographic, LonelyPlanet and the TravelChannel” (as well as a few independent content creators) meant to provide you with some good initial answers to the question, “Where should I go on vacay?”

Snippets from shows staring recognizable cable channel faces like Andrew Zimmern and Guy Fieri, made-for-the-internet clips showcasing lesser-known tourist destinations, and more generic “This is What This Place is All About“ videos are placed on a Google map according to their geographic location to make your video viewing experience and the planning of your upcoming vay-or-stay-cation more easily navigable.

The whole endeavor is sponsored by Alamo Rent a Car, which is hoping the title sponsorship of a dedicated YouTube channel about vacation will help drive signups for its Alamo Insiders rewards program.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, News, Travel, YouTube by Joshua Cohen
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Did you tweet your favorite Suber Bowl ad? Advertisers sure hope you did.

Social video advertising platform Unruly released a whitepaper on social ad effectiveness after commissioning an independent study by Decipher Research. The results? Decipher found that social recommendations had a direct impact on traditional brand metrics and ad enjoyment.

Duh. We’re no strangers to social video here at Tubefilter.

Hence, Rainn Wilson’s (Dwight Schrute from The Office) and Chevy’s heavy promotion of OK Go’s Needing/Getting video during the Super Bowl (I was watching on SNF All Access NBC Sports—how great was the multi-cam feature? How great were the same six commercials over and over again?)

The study surveyed online video viewers aged 18-34 across four social video campaigns from Guinness,Coca-Cola, Unilever’s Cornetto, and Energizer Batteries to determine the impact of peer recommendations.

“Social video is a powerful format for engaging consumers. If a brand creates great video content and makes it easy to share, it will see impressive results across the entire purchase funnel,” said Unruly COO Sarah Wood.

Reports like these come out every couple of months, and they always have a big “no shit” factor, but it’s nice to know what we always felt to eb true. Online video is a better medium for advertisers.

You can go ahead and download the whole whitepaper, or I can give you get the key findings right here:

• Brand recall and brand association rose 7 percent among viewers who had been recommended the videos versus viewers who found it by browsing
• 73 percent of respondents who viewed a peer-recommended video recalled the brand when prompted versus 68 percent of viewers who had browsed to the video directly
• There was a 14 percent increase in the number of people who enjoyed the video following a recommendation versus those who had discovered it by browsing
• People who enjoyed a video were 97 percent more likely to purchase the product featured in the video

Now I’m no statistician, but I think I understand how they figured out the first three. The last one I’m still wrapping my head around. My only guess is that’s why they chose fast-moving consumer goods so they could complete the study in five months. Hmmm.

So share your videos! Especially commercials.

And while you’re at it, here is a video we produced for our friends over at Citi. Share it up!

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, Featured, Industry, News, Online Video by Drew Baldwin
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The online video sharing site of choice for many independent content creators and the internet’s self-proclaimed “place to discover the best in original web series, from professional and up-and-coming producers” just secured another round of financing.

Blip (which Tubefilter readers already know has a shiny new logo and is to be no longer known as blip.tv) announced it closed a $12 million round of venture capital from existing investors “including Bain Capital Ventures and Canaan Partners, and debt from Silicon Valley Bank.” Part of this is old news. We told you about Blip raising $6 million from the aforementioned investors back in December, but the additional $6 million in debt wasn’t disclosed until recently.

The new investment comes at a time when Blip is still on the search for a new CEO, but seems to be doing a-okay without one. Chief Operating Officer Steve Brookstein told Erick Schonfeld at Techcrunch 2011 revenues were up 100% over 2010 to total $10 million, a number which Brookstein expects to double again in 2012. The company is also currently seeing more than 13 million unique monthly viewers in the US and over 30 million globally.

Filed under: Articles, blip.tv, Featured, Industry, News by Joshua Cohen
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Looks like Hulu is getting into the Valentine’s Day spirit.

The premium video destination site has announced a new original series from Generate and Warner Bros. Television Group’s Studio 2.0—one of the first original programs since its announcement that it’s committing $500 million to original programming.

Paul The Male Matchmaker, from actor-writer Paul Bartholomew (Mad Men; Yes, Dear), will debut February 13 exclusively on Hulu. In the 10-episode series, Paul is a socially inept misogynist who, inheriting a matchmaking service from his aunt, dispenses brutal advice in his attempt to help women find love.

“This show is for anyone who has ever been set up on a horribly misguided date by their sister, friend, co-worker—and then been blamed for it not working out. Which is basically everyone,” said Bartholomew.

Co-created by Bartholomew and best-selling author, writer, and executive producer Liz Tuccillo (He’s Just Not That Into You, How to Be Single, Sex and the City), the series guest stars include Janeane Garofalo (The Larry Sanders Show), Lisa Edelstein (House M.D.), Tony Hale (Arrested Development, Chuck) and Sam Trammell (True Blood).

Despite the comedic angle, the show actually help people. The series also features prominent relationship experts including The Millionaire Matchmaker‘s Patti Stanger and authors John Gray (Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus), Ellen Fein and Sherri Schneider (The Rules), and Mireille Guiliano (French Women Don’t Get Fat)—whom Paul interviews when he feels his business is not thriving as it should.

“Hopefully, everyone will understand our intention,” Tuccillo said. “By making Paul so mean, and such a buffoon, we’re trying to underline how much single women still have to put up with, even in 2012.”

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Featured, Hulu, News, Studios, Web Series by Drew Baldwin
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The YouTube Next Up initiative has helped foster and train fledgling online video talent with promise, but not necessarily the training, means, or production skills to elevate their status from mild-mannered online video amateur to paid entertainment professional.

First, the good people at YouTube bestowed a $35,000 check, entry into an exclusive four-day YouTube Creator Boot Camp, and the title of NextUp Winner upon 25 burgeoning new media content creators. Next, YouTube selected 16 trainers and 16 chefs to participate in the YouTube Next Chef and YouTube Next Trainer programs, which included three months of virtual classes held on Google+ Hangouts, as well as an equipment kit worth more than $5,000, filming and editing lessons, more than $10,000 worth of promotion on YouTube, and mentoring from some of YouTube’s finest content creators, including DeStorm, FreddieW, Michelle Phan, Chow.com and Billy Blanks.

YouTube Global Creator Initiatives Manager Bing Chen notes “there are still millions of creators who could benefit from participating in the [Next Creator] program,” but having already helped out individuals in the vierticals of All-Around Interesting Content Creators, Chefs, and Trainers, Chen and company are having difficulty deciding on which genre of YouTubers to target next. So, they’re soliciting your help.

Let YouTube know which type of content should be the focus of the next round of the YouTube Next program. There are a lot of categories from which to choose, but I’d go for politics. Given the upcoming election, the program could be a serious launchpad for the careers of some currently under-the-radar political pundits.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Industry, News, YouTube by Joshua Cohen
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So, you’re a premium subscription entertainment service featuring programming that consists primarily of major motion pictures and/or classic and current television shows and specials, but you want to expand your content catalogue to include original series so you can compete with HBO. It’s not a bad idea to tap talent that once appeared in uber-popular HBO programming to headline at least one of your new series in order to invigorate and/or jump start your company’s original content division.

That’s what Showtime did. Twice. And it’s working. Now Netflix is doing it, too.

Lillyhammer is a Netflix original series shot on location in the town of Lilliehammer, Norway, produced by Shine Group’s Norway-based Rubicon TV AS and Steven Van Zandt, who also co-wrote and stars in the series and who you will recognize as both the guitar and mandolin player in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and the long-time lieutenant and short-term skipper Silvio Dante on HBO’s The Sopranos.

In the words of Netflix’s Cheif Content Officer Ted Sarandos, Lillyahmmer is a quirky fish-out-of-water comedy, in which Van Zandt plays New York mobster Frank Tagliano, “who after testifying against a mob boss, is placed in witness relocation in Lilliehammer, Norway. His character will be familiar to U.S., Canadian and Latin American audiences, but the setting and situations are brand new.” So is the language.

Van Zandt insisted the series be as Norwegian as possible within the constraints of the production’s non-Sopranos-sized budget. That includes making sure a good portion of the dialogue was in Norwegian or a fumbling Norwenglish, as well as having the main character interact with the most particular Norwegian things and locations the writers could find.

“I told the other two writers, I’ve watched this happen twice in my lifetime – with Bruce Springsteen, and with David Chase – and the more eccentric and particular and detailed they are about things you wouldn’t think anybody outside of New Jersey would ever be interested in, that’s the stuff hat ends up being the most relatable and most universal,” Van Zandt said.

Lillyhammer is being released as a regularly scheduled weekly television program in Norway. The series is currently in its third week and reportedly receives an average of 1.2 million viewers per episode, which means roughly one out of every five individuals living in Norway is tuning in, which also means it’s the most watched TV show in Norwegian history (according to Netflix).

Individuals living in the US couldn’t catch the program until Monday evening, when Netflix made all eight episodes available at once to its subscribers. It’s the kind of distribution strategy we’ve sometimes seen from high-profile web series, but this is one of the first premium television-style offerings to give viewers the ability to watch an entire season of a series as soon as the program debuts.

“We are trying to give our members what they want,” Sarandos explained. “Choice and control. If you want to watch one episode a week, you can. If you want to watch the whole season this week, you can do that too.”

Sarandos revealed he had a difficult time convincing some people involved of the all-at-once distribution strategy, including Van Zandt, but he made a great argument in terms easily understood by the E Streeter. “I said, ‘Stevie, its exactly what happens when you record an album with Bruce.'”

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Featured, Netflix, News, Production Companies, Web Series by Joshua Cohen
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Web series favorite Felicia Day is at it again!

In 2011, Day had great success with the fifth season of The Guild and the debut of her Bioware/ Machinima series Dragon Age: Redemption, but it looks like she has even bigger plans for 2012. On Friday, Day #FF-ed her new company Geek and Sundry. Day tweeted to her followers that the new project will be “bringing you awesome web video awesomeness very soon!” Now, it is no secret that I am a big fan of Felicia Day and her work. The moment I saw this announcement I wanted to learn more. Beyond the description of offering “Eccentricities for your Entertainment,” however, Geek and Sundry remains a mystery for the moment.

The first and only video on the Geek and Sundry Youtube channel is a simple welcome message from Felicia Day herself. Day’s introduction does not give much away about her new project, but she touches briefly about being busy with production and “cool stuff” coming soon. Until the Geek and Sundry site officially launches Day encourages fans and viewers to subscribe to the channel or join the newsletter for early access to videos going online in a few months.

Wait, MONTHS?! I guess Day’s fans will have to wait to learn more about Geek and Sundry for a little longer than “soon.” Until then, I know this fan will be rewatching The Guild and wondering what geeky things Day has in store for the future.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Geek and Sundry, News by Brittany Sandler
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