CBS, ABC Aim to Stop Online TV Site FilmOn

Reuters reports that CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox are asking a federal court to stop the   Internet video service FilmOn from offering TV channels over the web and on   Apple's iPad for free. "I'm not a  thief," says founder Alki David. "We're a bona   fide business. We're not pirates." ABC's 'Dancing' Attracts Tea Party Viewers.

Web and TV to Converge in 2011

A new study from eMarketer finds TV and web video may converge in 2011, reports Business Week.

Video ad sales are expected to climb from $775 million this year to $3.1 billion in 2010 and then a jump to $4.3 billion in 2011. However, this still only accounts for $1 of every $10 spent on Internet advertising.

Ultimately, eMarketer believes over the next few years video advertising will enter a grand experimental phase. It is after 2011 that TV and web advertising will really start to converge. Among the current experiements:

Major media companies like Sony are already starting to blur lines. Recently launched Crackle touts high-quality video and has the goal of finding high-quality talent to fill the netwaves.

Yahoo is testing animated window-shade ads that users can pull down over a video and graphical ads that appear during a video in the same way TV networks show ads at the bottom during programming.

Startup VideoEgg is experimenting with overlaid graphic ads that appear within content. A good move, considering 77 percent find current video advertising, such as pre-roll, too intrusive.

Cost is also a major reason why video is growing. Startup TurnHere produces internet videos for as little as $500, pulling from a network of 2,000 independent filmmakers who can shoot for local businesses.

Me.TV Puts Custom TV in Users' Hands

Me.tv, a website upon which users can create their own TV channels online, launches this week, according to a press release.

Created by Demand Media, me.tv asks users to purchase a .TV domain, then provides them with the tools to create a video-centric website with built-in social features like profiles, blogs, message boards, messaging, and ratings.

Talk show host Carson Daly, formerly of MTV, was among the first members to take part, quickly snagging carsondaly.tv.

Joost takes charge with online tv content

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Joost, the Internet TV platform being developed by the influential creators of Skype and Kazaa, said Tuesday it had signed several new content distribution agreements, including one to show CNN programs.

The company also planned to expand availability by the end of the month, letting "beta" testers invite anyone else to download the software from its Web site and view programs on Joost as well.

"This is the way you normally ramp up peer-to-peer software ... and it's a way to give our (beta tester) friends a little bit of a scoop," said Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, the company's top executive for content acquisition.

Joost — pronounced "juiced" — was co-founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the entrepreneurs who upset the music industry with the Kazaa file-sharing service and then developed Skype, the Internet telephone system that was bought by eBay Inc. for at least $2.6 billion in 2005.

Joost operates by distributing streaming video of shows "peer-to-peer," or user-to-user, over the Internet. Consumers choose a channel via a software interface on their desktop that resembles a remote control. Like regular TV, it is free for viewers, and aims to be ad-supported.

In Tuesday's deal with Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting System, Joost said it would air episodes of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" and "Robot Chicken" from Turner's Adult Swim network along with "Larry King Live" and other CNN news and interview programs.

Joost is seen as one of the many candidates to become a primary distributor of television and video to the Internet, competing against Google Inc.'s YouTube, Revver Inc., broadcasters' own Web sites, an as-yet unnamed cooperation between General Electric Co.'s NBC and News Corp., and file-sharing programs such as BitTorrent, among others.