At South by Southwest, executives and talent from Maker Studios participated in a panel discussion about the business challenges for those creating original content for YouTube. The Culver City-based studio boasts more than 2.5 billion page views a month. The talk was moderated by company COO Courtney Holt and featured co-founders and comedic talent KassemG and Shaycarl and co-founder/CEO Danny Zappin. Continue reading Maker Studios Discusses the Business of YouTube at SXSW

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley has plans to launch a collaborative online video startup within the next month, he announced at South by Southwest over the weekend. The new service will allow people to work together to create content. This is a clear sign of the direction of video distribution, suggests Wired. It demonstrates how video networks are becoming increasingly more like social networks. Continue reading YouTube Founder to Launch Social Online Video Service

Google’s Roppongi Hills studio in Tokyo, Japan is making efforts to increase the amount of original international content on YouTube. The site is currently recruiting talent in order to launch international based channels. YouTube said that it has also created deals with other media companies in Asia and India, and has even agreed to host a channel in China with “state-owned” CNTV. Continue reading YouTube Makes Push to Launch More International Content

After being in development for about five years, video streaming service HitBliss is finally launching in beta this week. Aimed at users with more time than money, it offers viewers the chance to sit through targeted ads in exchange for virtual funds they can redeem to access new streaming movies and TV shows. The service is launching with content from The CW, Universal, Paramount, Starz Media and the Weinstein Company. Continue reading HitBliss Service Offers Free Streaming if You Watch Ads

Thalmic Labs is providing a vision of computing’s possible future — a wrist cuff that can control computers, smartphones, gaming consoles, and other devices with simple hand gestures. The Myo armband reads forearm muscles for cues regarding what the user wants, providing an alternative to both voice and camera-based computing controls. Myo will initially be offered for $149 for the one-size-fits-all model. Continue reading Myo Armband May Be the Next Generation of Gesture Control

Samsung’s new TV Discovery service will enable viewers to search for and watch live TV, on-demand video and online videos from outlets such as YouTube. The company plans to unveil the new platform at Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona. TV Discovery will work on Samsung’s line of smart TVs and its mobile devices. The service will learn user preferences and give recommendations based on each user’s viewing history and interests. Continue reading Samsung to Launch TV Discovery for Video, Live Television

After a crash and flying debris injured at least 28 fans at a Daytona NASCAR race over the weekend, NASCAR’s video copyright policy came into question. NASCAR claims to own any “images, sounds and data” from NASCAR events. Fans began posting videos of the crash to YouTube, but NASCAR, claiming to own the videos, had the videos removed. But later in the day YouTube reinstated some videos after ruling NASCAR did not have the right to remove the videos. Continue reading NASCAR Crash and YouTube Vids Raise Copyright Questions

Twitter-owned video-sharing app Vine is designed for shooting and sharing short, looping clips with your friends. But what happens when those six-second snippets are delivered in succession to create a larger product? Film production company Oscilloscope is testing this approach by releasing its full-length feature film “It’s A Disaster” in short segments through the app. Continue reading New Film Premieres in Clips on Vine Video Sharing Service

SoShare is a new tool from BitTorrent designed for sending large files from person to person, allowing users to send bundles of up to 1TB for free. The app combines BitTorrent file transfer technology with cloud caching, so users can access files even when the sender is offline. The SoShare software — which targets media creators such as musicians, photographers and filmmakers — keeps files available for up to 30 days. Continue reading BitTorrent Launches SoShare App for Sharing Media Files

Condition One, the augmented reality app backed by Mark Cuban that lets users view videos from a 180-degree field of vision, just released its version 2.0 and Business Insider is “more impressed than ever.” The company, led by Academy Award nominated storyteller Danfung Dennis, launched an updated version that is “filled with cool new ways to watch video, particularly full high-def videos filmed with GoPro or RED epic cameras,” according to the article. Continue reading Condition One Releases Version 2.0 App for Interactive Video

YouTube’s “de-spamming” initiative aims to remove unintended views from videos. The initiative has removed millions of views from videos, and large channels like Sony, Universal and RCA have been among the most affected. Together, these channels have lost upwards of 2 billion views since the Google-owned video site began its de-spamming efforts in December 2012. Continue reading YouTube Channels Lose Millions of Views to De-Spamming

Amazon’s new Elastic Transcoder service allows people to upload and convert digital video to h264, AAC and MP4 formats for smartphone and tablet playback. The service offers 20 free minutes of transcoding per month, after which Amazon offers tiered plans starting at $0.015 for SD or $0.030 for HD per minute. The prices undercut existing cloud services like Zencoder, and the service is more convenient than purchasing external transcoding equipment. Continue reading Amazon Elastic Transcoder for Converting Video in the Cloud

A new NOVA special, “Rise of the Drones,” features the Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System, or ARGUS-IS. The sensor uses 368 imaging chips similar to those found in cell phones to capture separate videos and piece them together to form a 1.8 billion pixel video. This means that the surveillance drone can capture images of birds flying, people walking on streets and cars traveling — all from 17,500 feet above the earth. Continue reading HD Surveillance System Capable of 1.8 Billion Pixel Video

Tivli understands that young adults today are not watching TV in the traditional manner, but instead they are taking in programming via streaming subscriptions and other online alternatives. The startup is an “attempt to adapt to the ways young people increasingly want to watch TV — through a computer or tablet or video game console — while keeping the existing cable model intact,” reports The New York Times. Continue reading Streaming TV Arrives on Campus, Could Prevent Cord-Cutting

“TV networks may have plenty of flaws, but one thing they’re really good at is promoting other TV shows,” writes AllThingsD. But what about Netflix? The streaming service does not have experience promoting its own shows and does not have advertising support from TV networks. How will it advertise new shows like “House of Cards” (to launch in February) and “Arrested Development” (due in May)? Continue reading Netflix Markets its Original Content Without a TV Network