Your not dreaming. Google are testing out an option that lets you (the viewer) click a link to skip the preroll ads and jump straight to the video stream! Amazing to think that the one thing everyone hates, but is used to can be avoided.

Google who own Youtube have launched testing on these skippable advertisments as a way to test new advertising methods. Unfortunately only a small selection of videos will have this option and of course they may stop it altogether reports Mediapost.

What possible reason you may ask would the content providers have to allow skipping though? well, they want to know who skips the ads rather than what ads are skipped. And the test can determine at what point in the ad it gets skipped.

Googles’ goal might be to create a new advertising model to replace, or at least augment, pre-roll ads, overlays, and traditional display ads, says MediaPost.

“We’re already down that road with promoted videos,” Phil Farhi, a product manager at Googles’ YouTube, told MediaPost. “We see the ability to skip ads as another form of engagement.”

Testing ad formats is nothing new for the video Goliath, in June it tested a model that let users choose whether to watch a long pre-roll or several shorter instream “commercials” during selected long-form videos.

At the time, Farhi said the test would run for several months and be part of a general ad-testing mix the company was using to attempt to monetize the more than 30 billion videos it streams each month.

“We are constantly testing a wide range of options to find the right advertising format for the right content on YouTube,” Farhi said. “And we think giving users a say in the process helps our efforts.”

Oh well. I thought i was imagining having an ad free online experience. Although when everyone starts charging to view maybe they will be kind enough to remove them for us.

Read full article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117200

We all love watching a little TV, a bit in the morning whilst eating breakfast. Maybe a little at work. Some at lunch time. Hang on, thats quite a lot when i think about it. And funnily enough, a new set of stats from Nielsen shows that US residents are watching more TV than ever before.

The survey showed that the average time spent watching the television was four hours and 49 minutes each day. This is for the 2008-2009 season and is up four minutes from last years numbers and up 20% from ten years ago. The average household watched eight hours and 21 minutes a day, which not surprisingly is also a new high for vegitating in front of the tube.

According to Nielsen, the rise is partly due to the fact that households have more TV sets in their households and there are more channels to watch.

So what are reasons for the upsurge in viewing numbers? Well we have the rise in digital tv availability, then of course their is the recession. People have less cash available, and as so many more are unemployed – more time on their hands to sit around watching brain numbing soap operas and freaky/dull chat shows.

This confirms what we already know, in that most people are still looking at their shiny tv as a main form of entertainment and that the gradual evolving to watching shows tv on the internet is still a long way back in second place. For now.

Sony in a groundbreaking move are showing its animated hit “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” via Internet enabled televisions and Blu-ray players before it gets its DVD release.

It’s the latest move by Hollywood who are looking for a way to recoup the massive losses in home entertainment.

Its an interesting change in the movie industrys ‘release windows’ for top movies, because Hollywood has previously been reluctant to change because of losing profits on DVD sales and upsetting its biggest customer, Wal-Mart. However the decline in DVD sales, which is down up to 25% at some studios, has meant that looking for new ways to distribute movies has become a top priority.

The price of the film, $24.95, is high enough not to alienate retailers, Sony said.

“We don’t need a war with Wal-Mart or any other organization, and I don’t think they’re hostile to this,” said Howard Stringer, the chief executive of Sony. “It will make televisions more valuable, and that’s a good thing.”

Sony Pictures Entertainment, the only Hollywood studio tethered to a major hardware manufacturer, is in a unique position to experiment with selling movies directly to consumers through television sets, in this case Sony’s Bravia Internet-enabled sets.

As part of this new trial, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” will also be available through Sony’s networked Blu-ray Disc players, which came on the market last month.

Hollywood is currently looking for ways to capitalize on film distribution via the internet.

“The time when a majority of consumers have Internet-enabled TVs is a long way off,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Capital. “But it’s moving the ball in the right direction.”

“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” Sony’s biggest animated hit, was released in September and has generated almost $174 million in worldwide box office receipts, according to Box Office Mojo, which tracks movie ticket sales.

It will be available to owners of Sony Bravia sets and Blu-ray players with Internet capability from Dec. 8 to Jan. 4, the day before the movie is released on DVD. Sony is looking to eventually distribute movies across a wider range of devices, including its PlayStation console.

In addition to the industry ramifications, the experiment is important to the vision of Mr. Stringer for Sony’s two pillars — hardware and content — to work together profitably. “The process of moving to the next stage of content delivery is as inevitable as night and day,” he said. “And we’re the only company that can do this because we own hardware and content.”

Sony hopes later to entice other studios to make their films available to owners of Sony televisions, bypassing cable and satellite companies that offer their own video-on-demand services.

Hollywood and cable and satellite companies have been reluctant to offer films over video-on-demand before their release on DVD because of the threat that movies will be copied with digital video recorders and other devices. The Motion Picture Association of America recently filed a letter with the government seeking approval to block technologies that allow the copying of high-definition movies on cable set-top boxes.

Mindful of the music industry’s contraction after the collapse of compact disc sales, Hollywood is frantically trying to develop new sources of home entertainment revenue. In the third quarter, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, spending on home entertainment was about $4 billion, down 3.2 percent. But spending on DVDs, which has been the profit engine for the movie studios, was off 13.9 percent. Spending on rentals of DVDs, which provide smaller profit margins than sales, was up about 10 percent.

Meanwhile, at some studios the decline in DVD sales has been steeper. At Paramount, for example, which is owned by Viacom, movie ticket sales rose 16% in the third quarter, whilst home entertainment revenue was down 21%.

It looks like movies over the net will be happening more frequently as Sony tried a similar experiment last year with its Will Smith movie Hancock which has obviously shown them a way movie distribution can go.

The much heralded deal between UK TV broadcasting network ITV and US TV on demand service Hulu is moving closer to a conclusion, it has been reported by Mediaweek.

The exclusive agreement, which could be signed as early as this month, will mean ITV gains a 25% equity stake in online service Hulu, which will be launched in the UK shortly and allow Hulu to screen full-length episodes of ITV shows in a UK launch which has been eagerly awaited by advertisers

It is beleived that both companies, who have declined to comment, already have a deal in place to distribute short clips of ITV shows, with a deal for the complete content nearly complete.

A source revealed that the firms have agreed a ‘happy compromise’ over who will sell advertising around ITV’s content, a stipulation central to the deal.

The purchase will also, says Media Week, secure the appearance of full-length ITV content on Hulu’s UK system. Hulu also has an agreement in place to show shorter-form programming and clips from ITV shows.

The agreement for ITV will enhance the broadcaster’s internet presence, allowing it to compete more forcefully with rivals Channel 4 and the BBC.

Channel 4 recently signed a similar deal with YouTube to stream its content on the popular video sharing site and the BBC is also trialling its iPlayer service on Freesat at the end of this month in anticipation of a full launch next year.

At present Hulu is a free service, and funded by advertisments. However, US reports are suggesting that Hulu may start to charge viewers a subscription charge next year.

If the deal goes forward Hulu plans to appoint its first UK chief executive, while Johannes Larcher, senior vice-president of international, will take care of its UK venture in the meantime.

Hulu’s UK launch was expected earlier this year following the demise of VoD service Project Kangaroo, which was backed by ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide, but it was halted in its tracks by competition regulators in February.

However, since then MSN Video and SeeSaw, created from the remains of Project Kangaroo, has launched, and we have the imminent launch of YouTube’s full length service around the corner.

Microsoft sre making changes to its MSN video site and merging it with Bing Videos. When you visit video.msn.com it now has the Bing Video branding. The new video search destination lets you both search for videos on the Web and watch them within the Bing player.

The main video page is set up to help you browse and discover videos, with featured videos in a large player across the top and tabbed categories below that including editorial picks, viral clips, “Last Night on TV”, and the “Best of Bing.” A lot of this looks like a direct port from MSN Video. there is still even a tab called “Most Watched On MSN Video.” They might want to change that now.

Bing Video, is designed to be a website destination for watching everything from viral videos to full length TV shows and videos, taking content from sites such as Hulu, CBS, MySpace, DailyMotion, and YouTube. It also directly hosts 900 TV shows. When you search for a show like True Blood, you get Bing’s familiar guided navigation on the left, which lets you narrow down your search by season, episodes, trailers, length, and format.

For what seems like months now, the Comcast buyout of NBC to expand its enormous business empire has been bubbling along. But what kind of price can you put on a deal like this? According to Rueters reporting in the Wall Street Journal its $30 Billion agreed by both parties and making Comcast a true giant by acquiring NBC’s movie and television operations.

A deal is still to be completed, and reports suggest Comcast will control 51% of the new company, with NBC parent company General Electric owning the remaining 49%. However, both parties are reportedly talking about a deal that would have GE gradually selling its share of the joint venture to Comcast over a period of five to ten years, eventually leaving Comcast the sole owner.

The deal would include NBC’s broadcast television network as well as cable properties, which include channels like Bravo, Sci-Fi, and USA. NBC also owns major online sites like iVillage, and is a partner in the successful online catch up tv service Hulu.

The valuation of NBC Universal was seen by many as a hurdle in advancing the deal, according to sources. Comcast naturally was intent on maximizing the value of its own networks and minimizing the value of NBCU to limit the amount of up-front cash it would need to invest in the new firm. Latest reports say that Comcast would inject anywhere from $4 billion to $6 billion into the new entity.

However, both companies have reportedly agreed to base Comcast’s final cash payment on NBCU’s financial performance before any finalized deal closes. If its performance tanks, Comcast could end up paying less.

omcast has been attempting to compete with Hulu via it’s own Fancast offering. Another variable in the deal is French media company Vivendi, which owns a 20 percent stake in NBC. Vivendi has reportedly been looking to unload its NBC stake for a while, but has yet to weigh in on a potential deal with Comcast.

Any merger between NBC and Comcast would require regulatory approval, and that can take up to a year to complete. With an NBC acquisition, Comcast would be moving into the same area that TW cable worked for years to get away from, being both a media distributor and a media creator. Carriers are required to maintain a neutral outlook on content.

If Comcast were to get in the business of producing its own shows and movies, there would be a natural tendency to want to leverage its broadcast, cable, and Internet operations to promote and monetize those offerings, and that would come at the expense of competitors.

Simon Cowell Runs, operates, stars in and controls the top rated UK TV show ‘The X Factor’. But after last nights show, many are claiming he has destroyed the principals of the show and doomed it to an early grave. So what did Simon ‘God’ Cowell do?

It revolves around a singing duo on the talent show called John and Edward, twins who cannot sing but are still in the show. Mr Cowell said about the duo a week ago:- “If they win, it will be a complete and utter disaster. I’d probably sulk for about six months and I’d probably get on a very fast plane out of the country.”

On last nights show, the terrible duo up against Welsh warbler Lucie were ready to be booted out. The casting vote was Mr Cowells, so after he had said how much he hates them and this was a ’singing competition’, they were going right? Wrong.

Lucie, who can actually sing, was booted off the show. Leaving a complete Country shaking their heads in disbelief.

Seen by many as a cynical move, Simon Cowell went back on all he holds dear (allegedly). MAybe he was thinking of the controversy his decision would make. All those tickets being sold for next year’s The X Factor tour, may not be sold based on Lucie’s great singing. It will be based on who can get those seats filled.

Although the twins singing is pants, they interest the nation in a sick kind of way. The internet has been awash with comments all slating Simon and declaring that the X Factor is no longer a singing competition – it’s a search for a pop star who can shift a load of records and make a load of money. Against all the odds and with Simons help, the twins look as though they might be able to do that.

It looks as though Simon may have made a bad decision as thousands threaten to boycott the show and say they have lost all respect for the once great man.

Selection of viewer comments:-

Whole thing is ludicrous. Simon is judging a show where people get through because of their SINGING talent, Jedward have got through because of their complete lack of any talent whatsoever. He has really knocked his own credibility as a judge. If he wants to just be a Producer and concerned with ratings, he should step down as a judge.

Right, so this was the moment the x factor became cheap and trashy. Everything on the show up until this point was packed full of talent, credibility and honesty and now, only now, has the show become a joke….

Its no surprise that Cowell who has sold his soul to the devil would act with such cynicism. He knows the twins can’t win, but he’s desperate for more of the magic effect they have had on the show’s ratings. Surely this demonstrates that he knows this show has reached its demise, and that he needs to resort to extreme measures to keep it going. By booting out Lucie, he also was strategically eliminated the strongest female competitor, effectively paving the way for one of his own acts to the final.

I used to respect Simon Cowell for being Firm but Fair. Unfortunately his performance last called his integrity into question. I really felt I was watching a man who cannot, or will not stand by his word(s).
In my world it disingenuous in the least, and cowardly in the extreme. Driving to work today.. “Simon Coward” was on my mind.

I am not going to watch the rest of the x factor show as it has turned into a joke.

There are literally thousands of comments like this all slating Simon ‘This is a singing competition’ Cowell. Who may now find he cannot dig his way out of a hole that could spell the end of X Factor.

X Factor is available to watch on ITV Catch up TV for UK viewers.

The explosion in Catch up TV and Online TV services could pose a significant risk to free to air tv industry. So says ABC TV in Australia head of television, Kim Dalton. He has called for an overhaul of Australian content regulations for TV broadcasters to ensure emerging online and mobile TV players did not rush for cheap international programming and cripple the local production industry.

Mr Dalton stopped short of suggesting online and mobile TV operators should be bound by similar local content quotas as free-to-air broadcasters – commercial TV networks for instance must air at least 100 hours of drama each year – but he warned the “revolution” in how TV content is being watched needed urgent industry and regulatory attention.

Speaking at a broadband conference in New Zealand, Mr Dalton said Australia was experiencing an “explosion” in the “number of platforms, business models and technologies” which can deliver TV services to viewers and that they posed “significant risks” to free-to-air TV and the Australian production industry.

Although the Federal Government’s national broadband network [NBN] is widely expected to usher in scores of new TV-style services over the next five years, a number of hybrid IPTV [internet protocol] ventures are already being planned for 2010 by local and international companies looking to capitalise on the boom in online video streaming.

Australia’s biggest online publishers have been astonished this year by a sudden surge in streaming of “catch-up TV” shows online. Streaming numbers are approaching 5 million per month between ninemsn and Yahoo!7, and Ten’s MasterChef has proven to be the single most popular TV franchise online so far, generating 9 million video streams during its broadcast season.

Mr Dalton, who is also chairman of the free-to-air TV industry’s marketing group, Freeview, said if a new regulatory framework for Australian content was not extended to “somehow cover” emerging digital TV services, international content would ultimately take over because it was cheaper for aspiring TV providers to acquire. The NBN, he said, would only entrench the problem.

Full story – http://www.smh.com.au/business/content-rules-needed-for-internet-tv-20091105-i0b0.html