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KT reviewing network fees on Youtube, Internet TVs

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:22:08 GMT

KT fired its first salvo on "free riding" Internet services earlier this month by blocking access to certain TV applications offered by Samsung Electronics Co, the top manufacturer of Internet TVs, with the burgeoning TV industry set to generate profits from advertising and applications at the expense of heavy investments by network operators.

"We want to set a rule that we can equally apply to every platform operator that offers data-heavy content as those services threaten to black out our network. They should pay for using our network," Kim Taehwan, vice president of KT's smart network policy task force, told Reuters in an interview.

"Payment could take various forms, from sharing a portion of advertisement revenues or profits to settling network usage fees. We are open to discussing that and are focusing our efforts on Internet TVs for a start before broadening our target to other data-heavy services such as Youtube."

Such moves could have wider implications for the likes of Apple and Google, which are trying to replicate their enormous success in the smartphone market in the living room by offering services such as high-quality videos, movies, games and social networking via TVs.

"Once we set a rule with Samsung, we will apply it to other Internet TV operators, be it Apple or Google," Kim said. Apple is in talks with Canada's two biggest telecom firms about launching iTV, a device combining the features of the wildly popular iPad tablet with those of a TV set, according to Canada's Globe and Mail. Google is also preparing revamped Google TVs through alliances with firms such as LG Electronics Inc.

Telecoms operators, under growing pressure to upgrade their networks to support increasing data traffic, have already seen free Internet phone and text message services such as Kakaotalk and BlackBerry Messenger hit steady and superbly profitable sources of income.

Hardware manufacturers like Samsung, which hopes to build on its dominance of the TV market in the Internet TV segment, argue networks should not discriminate against content or services and that applications do not cause massive traffic slowdowns.

YouTube to create 96 new channels

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:56:02 GMT

CALIFORNIA: YouTube is enlisting Hollywood's help to reach a generation of viewers more familiar with smartphones than TV remotes.

The online video giant is aiming to create 25 hours of programming per day with the help of some of the top names in traditional TV. The Google-owned site is spreading its wealth among producers, directors, and other filmmakers, using a $100 million pot of seed money it committed last fall. The fund represents YouTube's largest spending on original content so far.

YouTube believes it is laying groundwork for the future. While the number of traditional TV watchers has leveled off in recent years, more and more people are watching video on mobile phones, tablets and computers, especially the 18- to 34-year-old age demographic that advertisers covet.

The idea is to create 96 additional YouTube channels, which are essentially artists' home pages, where viewers can see existing video clips and click "subscribe" to be notified when new content goes up.

Well-funded videos by a select roster of stars are likely to be more watchable than the average YouTube fare of cute cats and webcam monologues. YouTube is betting that a solid stream of good content will attract more revenue from advertisers, bring viewers back frequently and bolster its parent company's fledgling Web-connected-TV platform, Google TV.

The cash has enticed some of TV's biggest stars, including "Fast Five" director Justin Lin, who directs episodes of "Community," ''CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker and Nancy Tellem, the former president of CBS entertainment.

Zuiker is teaming up on a horror series for YouTube after observing his own family's behavior. His three pre-teen sons spend more time on phones, iPads and computers than watching TV these days.

"We want to jointly take the risk with YouTube and roll the dice on the future," Zuiker says. "The old regime is going to falter because everybody thinks the TV is the only device that really counts, and that's just not the case."

For producers, it's a chance to create shows that are completely free of meddling from major studios. They can also stay relevant with a younger crowd whose viewing is moving increasingly online.

Several new channels such as the extreme sports-focused Network A and Spanish-language Tutele have launched already. YouTube hopes to have them all up and running by this summer.

"This was really about galvanizing the ecosystem at large," says Alex Carloss, global head of original programming for YouTube. "We see the portfolio (of funded channels) really representing the best of TV meeting the best of the Web."

YouTube isn't the only Web video service that has started to pay for original content. Netflix Inc. recently launched the original series "Lilyhammer," while Hulu premiered "Battleground." But YouTube videos tend to be under 10 minutes, instead of fitting into traditional half-hour or hour-long TV slots. And aside from a few guidelines, ultimate control is given over to the artist, including what is uploaded and when new episodes appear.

YouTubers also get away with far edgier stuff than the middle finger that rapper M.I.A. flashed during the Super Bowl halftime show. Although YouTube's entire investment is less than half of what some studios spend on one blockbuster movie, about a third of the new channels were awarded to scrappy YouTube veterans who already know how to make it big online while keeping production costs low. YouTube expects to recoup what it spends on the grants by sharing ad revenue the new videos generate.

At Maker Studios, which received money for three new channels, the funds have turbo-charged an already teeming operation that has about 160 full-time staff spread across several buildings crammed with props and computers in west Los Angeles.

On a recent visit, two scenes were being shot in an alley. One was for a parody of a Christmas movie trailer. The other was for a new series about a crime-fighting van called "Si, Es I, Pepe."Maker cranks out about 300 YouTube videos each month at a bare-bones cost of about $1,000 each. The studio's videos generate a whopping 500 million views each month, thanks largely to established hits that include Ray William Johnson's roundup of crazy videos and such viral giants as "Epic Rap Battles of History."

Advertisers pay up to $10 per thousand views for video ads that precede the featured content, according to TubeMogul, a major buyer of YouTube ads for the nation's biggest advertisers including Proctor & Gamble Co. and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox movie studio.

Established YouTube partners share roughly half of their revenue with the site. So if Maker videos generate $1 or $2 in ad revenue per thousand views, it would just be scraping by.

Maker co-founder Danny Zappin, who quit film school to buy a high-end camera to start a career on YouTube, says it's a "tricky balance" to keep the studio's share of ad revenue higher than the cost of video-making. The undisclosed amount it got from YouTube, on top of the $4 million venture capital it received about a year ago, lets Maker put up more videos without waiting for the views and cash to roll in.

"It gives us resources and runway that we wouldn't otherwise have," Zappin said.

For other less-established players in online video, the money has given them an added reason to get involved.

Former CBS executive Tellem teamed up with TV entrepreneur Brian Bedol to create Bedrocket Media Ventures, an upstart production company behind several new YouTube channels, including Network A. The funding "allowed us, or caused us, to focus on YouTube ahead of other platforms," Bedol says. Analysts believe YouTube has made a wise investment at a time ad rates for online video are rising.

YouTube can be successful with just a few big hits - think of Rebecca Black's "Friday" - even if thousands of videos fall flat. It's similar to the hit-or-miss approach to traditional TV and movies. "The investor community does not look at this as money wasted," Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter says.

Since promising to share ad revenue with its most popular uploaders in 2007, YouTube has invested in original content mainly by paying for equipment and training new artists, but it was never as big as this.

Backing up its new strategy, YouTube also revamped its homepage to prioritize channels and recommendations above just the most-viewed videos. The revamp allows advertisers to target popular channels or categories of content more easily.

YouTube's funding plan takes a page from Apple Inc.'s playbook. When the iPhone maker launched its App Store in 2008, a $100 million seed fund created by Silicon Valley investor John Doerr spawned hundreds of thousands of new apps.

"Our developers are not software engineers," YouTube's vice president of global content partnerships, Robert Kyncl, told a convention in January. "Our developers are Hollywood stars, are online stars, are regular folks like you and I."If nothing else, the injection of funds will spawn content never before been seen on any screen, large or small.

"Fast Five" director Lin, who is teaming up with YouTube stars Ryan Higa and Kevin "KevJumba" Wu on the "YOMYOMF" channel, said his focus is not to try to find audiences with stereotypical Asian-American content. Rather, the idea is to give a platform to people who have unique voices but haven't been heard yet.

He says Higa and Wu didn't follow any set rules when they jumped to popularity with a mix of oddball humor, brutal honesty and rap. "They just did what they loved, and people came," Lin said. "If we're going to fail, I would rather go out with that philosophy."

YouTube enlists big-name help to redefine channels

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:16:09 GMT

YouTube is enlisting Hollywood's help to reach a generation of viewers more familiar with smartphones than TV remotes. The online video giant is aiming to create 25 hours of programming per day with the help of some of the top names in traditional TV. The Google-owned site is spreading its wealth among producers, directors, and other filmmakers, using a $100 million pot of seed money it committed last fall. The fund represents YouTube's largest spending on original content so far.

YouTube believes it is laying groundwork for the future. While the number of traditional TV watchers has leveled off in recent years, more and more people are watching video on mobile phones, tablets and computers, especially the 18- to 34-year-old age demographic that advertisers covet.

The idea is to create 96 additional YouTube channels, which are essentially artists' home pages, where viewers can see existing video clips and click "subscribe" to be notified when new content goes up.

Well-funded videos by a select roster of stars are likely to be more watchable than the average YouTube fare of cute cats and webcam monologues. YouTube is betting that a solid stream of good content will attract more revenue from advertisers, bring viewers back frequently and bolster its parent company's fledgling Web-connected-TV platform, Google TV.

The cash has enticed some of TV's biggest stars, including "Fast Five" director Justin Lin, who directs episodes of "Community," "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker and Nancy Tellem, the former president of CBS entertainment.

Zuiker is teaming up on a horror series for YouTube after observing his own family's behavior. His three pre-teen sons spend more time on phones, iPads and computers than watching TV these days.

"We want to jointly take the risk with YouTube and roll the dice on the future," Zuiker says. "The old regime is going to falter because everybody thinks the TV is the only device that really counts, and that's just not the case."

For producers, it's a chance to create shows that are completely free of meddling from major studios. They can also stay relevant with a younger crowd whose viewing is moving increasingly online. Several new channels such as the extreme sports-focused Network A and Spanish-language Tutele have launched already. YouTube hopes to have them all up and running by this summer.

"This was really about galvanizing the ecosystem at large," says Alex Carloss, global head of original programming for YouTube. "We see the portfolio (of funded channels) really representing the best of TV meeting the best of the Web."

YouTube isn't the only Web video service that has started to pay for original content. Netflix Inc. recently launched the original series "Lilyhammer," while Hulu premiered "Battleground." But YouTube videos tend to be under 10 minutes, instead of fitting into traditional half-hour or hour-long TV slots. And aside from a few guidelines, ultimate control is given over to the artist, including what is uploaded and when new episodes appear. YouTubers also get away with far edgier stuff than the middle finger that rapper M.I.A. flashed during the Super Bowl halftime show.

Although YouTube's entire investment is less than half of what some studios spend on one blockbuster movie, about a third of the new channels were awarded to scrappy YouTube veterans who already know how to make it big online while keeping production costs low. YouTube expects to recoup what it spends on the grants by sharing ad revenue the new videos generate.

At Maker Studios, which received money for three new channels, the funds have turbo-charged an already teeming operation that has about 160 full-time staff spread across several buildings crammed with props and computers in the west Los Angeles suburb of Culver City.

On a recent visit, two scenes were being shot in an alley. One was for a parody of a Christmas movie trailer. The other was for a new series about a crime-fighting van called "Si, Es I, Pepe."Maker cranks out about 300 YouTube videos each month at a bare-bones cost of about $1,000 each.

The studio's videos generate a whopping 500 million views each month, thanks largely to established hits that include Ray William Johnson's roundup of crazy videos and such viral giants as "Epic Rap Battles of History."

Advertisers pay up to $10 per thousand views for video ads that precede the featured content, according to TubeMogul, a major buyer of YouTube ads for the nation's biggest advertisers including Proctor & Gamble Co. and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox movie studio. Established YouTube partners share roughly half of their revenue with the site. So if Maker videos generate $1 or $2 in ad revenue per thousand views, it would just be scraping by.

Maker co-founder Danny Zappin, who quit film school to buy a high-end camera to start a career on YouTube, says it's a "tricky balance" to keep the studio's share of ad revenue higher than the cost of video-making. The undisclosed amount it got from YouTube, on top of the $4 million venture capital it received about a year ago, lets Maker put up more videos without waiting for the views and cash to roll in.

"It gives us resources and runway that we wouldn't otherwise have," Zappin said. For other less-established players in online video, the money has given them an added reason to get involved.

Former CBS executive Tellem teamed up with TV entrepreneur Brian Bedol to create Bedrocket Media Ventures, an upstart production company behind several new YouTube channels, including Network A. The funding "allowed us, or caused us, to focus on YouTube ahead of other platforms," Bedol says. Analysts believe YouTube has made a wise investment at a time ad rates for online video are rising.

YouTube can be successful with just a few big hits - think of Rebecca Black's "Friday" - even if thousands of videos fall flat. It's similar to the hit-or-miss approach to traditional TV and movies. "The investor community does not look at this as money wasted," Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter says.

Since promising to share ad revenue with its most popular uploaders in 2007, YouTube has invested in original content mainly by paying for equipment and training new artists, but it was never as big as this.

Backing up its new strategy, YouTube also revamped its homepage to prioritize channels and recommendations above just the most-viewed videos. The revamp allows advertisers to target popular channels or categories of content more easily.

YouTube's funding plan takes a page from Apple Inc.'s playbook. When the iPhone maker launched its App Store in 2008, a $100 million seed fund created by Silicon Valley investor John Doerr spawned hundreds of thousands of new apps.

"Our developers are not software engineers," YouTube's vice president of global content partnerships, Robert Kyncl, told a convention in January. "Our developers are Hollywood stars, are online stars, are regular folks like you and I."

If nothing else, the injection of funds will spawn content never before been seen on any screen, large or small. "Fast Five" director Lin, who is teaming up with YouTube stars Ryan Higa and Kevin "KevJumba" Wu on the "YOMYOMF" channel, said his focus is not to try to find audiences with stereotypical Asian-American content. Rather, the idea is to give a platform to people who have unique voices but haven't been heard yet.

He says Higa and Wu didn't follow any set rules when they jumped to popularity with a mix of oddball humor, brutal honesty and rap. "They just did what they loved, and people came," Lin said. "If we're going to fail, I would rather go out with that philosophy."

As YouTube Comes Of Age, Google Eyes Studios

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:18:50 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Google Inc. (GOOG) is taking a hands-on approach to revamping the Hollywood star system. The Mountain View, Calif., company is spending more time and money on the creators of YouTube videos, in a bid to draw more interest from big-spending advertisers with a better-looking product. But the changing approach to YouTube is also emblematic of a costly expansion at Google that has rubbed some investors the wrong way.

An example of Google's ambitions: studios. A studio facility with amenities such as green screens for higher-quality video production will be moved from Next New Networks, which Google acquired last year, into Google's New York offices. Other studios are possible at Google locations such as London and Tokyo, to provide training to promising YouTube partners, or video creators.

YouTube already has spawned production studios outside of the company. Maker Studios, a Los Angeles-based collective of YouTube talent, has expanded into roughly 18,000 square feet of space and offers shooting spaces, wardrobe areas and a music-recording studio.

Tom Pickett, YouTube's global head of content operations and YouTube Next, a team tasked with fostering talent, pointed to Maker Studios as a positive development--though more ambitious than Google's internal studio efforts. "Anything we do is going to be much more contained and targeted, and about engagement rather than long-term infrastructure," Pickett said.

Pickett said bringing aspiring YouTube talent into studios is a logical step. "That's the real opportunity to help them get to the next level in a hands-on way," he said. Google is in the midst of a steady build-up of resources committed to YouTube, which has developed around a group of channels.

YouTube has given gift certificates for video equipment to promising partners, issued $35,000 grants to others, and more recently laid out $100 million to help draw in media firms and jump-start content efforts.

"They're going to have to basically re-create what the TV studios had to do in the 1950s," said Gartner Inc. analyst Allen Weiner. "They have to come up with content to fill channels."

Maker Studios received a portion of the funding distributed by YouTube. Separately, it has raised about $19 million from investors including venture capital firms Greycroft Partners and GRP Partners, according to Mark Suster, a partner at GRP Partners. It is now responsible for about 500 million video views per month, Suster said, adding, "We think this is a billion-dollar company."

Maker Studios co-founder and comic Kassem Gharaibeh has garnered nearly 2 million subscribers to his "KassemG" YouTube channels. Gharaibeh says he is now in the early stages of producing a feature film, and is part of a new generation of Hollywood talent earning a living that's more pleasant than extravagant.

YouTube's Pickett said that in the past year the site's partners have started "making serious money," and there are now "hundreds of folks making over six figures a year." In total, YouTube now has some 30,000 partners who have revenue-sharing arrangements.

Google's spending on initiatives like YouTube that sit outside of the company's core search business hasn't gone unnoticed. Last month, the company reported a fourth-quarter profit that disappointed investors, as costs rose. Analysts questioned the spending pace. Google says it is investing wisely, and that the closure of more marginal products has enabled it to "double down" on services like YouTube.

Shares of Google fell sharply following the earnings report, and remain about 5% lower since then. Google's display advertising business, which includes YouTube, is generating more than $5 billion in annual revenue, the company says. The site boasts a significant audience; Google sites primarily consisting of YouTube drew nearly 182 million viewers in December, according to comScore, compared with about 53 million for Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) sites and 31 million for Hulu.

By investing more in YouTube's production quality, Google hopes to wring more advertising revenue from that large audience, according to Rebecca Lieb, an analyst with Altimeter Group. "You can charge higher prices for ads on premium products," Lieb said.

Meanwhile, partners such as Gharaibeh say they feel their efforts are now more appreciated. Assistance from YouTube with technical issues such as advertising formats has become commonplace, Gharaibeh says. "That shows that YouTube believes that original content is where it's at," he said.

Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum YouTube channel launched

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:33:51 GMT

Dubai In a first-of-its-kind initiative for a head of state in the Arab world, the Government of Dubai Media Office (GDMO) yesterday launched a special YouTube channel on His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The channel will broadcast updated video clips of news about Shaikh Mohammad, providing users with an interactive means of communication. Users can send videos they have filmed of Shaikh Mohammad, which will be ascribed to the owners if uploaded. Clips can be emailed to mbrvideos@gmail.com.
The videos on Shaikh Mohammad, including unseen footage, will include interviews, field visits and inspection tours as well as important speeches and statements.

Visitors can also learn about Shaikh Mohammad's local and international sporting achievements. Moreover, they will be able to acquaint themselves with the poetic and social characteristics of Shaikh Mohammad's personality through the featured clips. The YouTube Channel will also allow live broadcasts of national celebrations and official events in Dubai and the UAE.

Explaining the security and authenticity aspects of the YouTube channel, the team operating and managing it said that official channels require exclusive copyrights from the YouTube management as every video has its own content identification that guarantees higher levels of protection.

logging on Internet users can log on to youtube.com and type ‘Mohammad Bin Rashid' in Arabic or English in the search box. The user can then click the ‘filter' icon on the left side of the screen and select ‘channel'.
n Mobile phone users can also access the channel directly through scanning its QR (Quick Response) barcode.

What's in a LOL? YouTube ranks funniest videos

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:28:31 GMT

Charlie's fans turn baby bite into big morsel of money
When laughing out loud online, are we more amused when we ''lollllll!!!!!!'' or ''looooooooolll''? Google thinks it has the answer and has come up with an algorithm to measure ''funny''. Google created the complex algorithm to form the basis of its YouTube Comedy Slam, and found that the funniest YouTube video is currently a clip of a cat appearing to say ''no, no, no, no'', which has garnered just 65,000 views.

The funniest of all time at the time of writing, according to Google, was a clip with 16,000 views from the show South Park - but the list changes regularly. Also making the list are ''The Human Slingshot'', ''Fat kid on rollercoaster'' and ''Hilarious cats'' - all chosen with the help of an algorithm that measures comedic value by analysing viewer comments and many other aspects of the clips.

Comedian Dan Ilic, who knows a thing or two about funny videos as he creates them for a living, is sceptical, saying he's not sure whether you can judge if a video is funny by how many ''lols'' are written underneath it or whether those ''lols'' have more than three o's.

''The algorithm works if you don't account for the two biggest cultural forces on the internet, irony and sarcasm,'' said Ilic, adding the best way to judge sentiment is to measure laughter. ''Haters like to hate, and the internet is filled with them, when you throw sarcasm and irony into the mix you could end up with a very different result. 'Loool awesome algorithm douche bags'.''But a data scientist said the algorithm appeared solid and there were many interesting future possibilities such as a stand-up comedian being able to road test their latest routine by running it through a Google comedy filter.

The technology appears to have teething issues, as the South Park clip it said was the funniest of all time had just 16,000 views and only one comment. The ''No No No No Cat'' clip may be funny for some but cat lovers have reacted critically, saying the noises the cat was making showed it was clearly in distress.

Google researcher Sanketh Shetty wrote in a blog post that humour preference was perhaps even more subjective than musical taste but it was possible to design algorithms to rank funny videos by comedic potential. The pool of videos was drawn from the ''comedy'' category of the site, but then the analysis gets far more complicated. Google started by capturing the uploader's belief in the funniness of their video by analysing the title, description and tags. It also analyses the content for evidence of comedy such as audible laughter and shaky camera motion. The engineers then analyse viewer reactions in the form of comments and note instances of words associated with amusement.

''These included (a) sounds associated with laughter such as hahaha, with culture-dependent variants such as hehehe, jajaja, kekeke, (b) web acronyms such as lol, lmao, rofl, (c) funny and synonyms of funny, and (d) emoticons such as :), ;-), xP,'' said Shetty. ''We then trained classifiers to identify funny videos and then tell us why they are funny by categorising them into genres such as 'funny pets', 'spoofs or parodies', 'standup', 'pranks', and 'funny commercials'.''

Psycho Siri is scaring up views on YouTube

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:14:34 GMT

Talking computers are inherently creepy, so it should come as no surprise that a mini-spate of Siri-gone-mental films are making the rounds on YouTube. The Internet's favorite (for now) is Psycho Siri, a no-budget, 4-minute, 25-second video in which the actors are amateur in the very best way and the computer graphics are kind of unexpectedly awesome. So far it has racked up almost 300,000 views thanks mostly to people tweeting and Facebooking it.

The narrative is pretty basic: A young man finds an iPhone 4S outside his school and starts to try it out. Siri plays normal for about 10 seconds before she starts murdering people. Over the course of the movie Siri blows a hole through a house, sprouts robotic spider legs, rains glowing blue grenades onto a kitchen floor, and manifests an AK47.

"Boop boop. Now that we are alone. I overheard you saying something about selling me?" she says in one of her best lines in the film. "I'm afraid I cannot let that happen. Goodbye Nathan," she says right before the bullets start flying.

Psycho Siri is just the latest offering from 18-year-old Andrew McMurry, a filmmaker from Little Rock, Ark., who has put off college for now to concentrate on his YouTube channel. YouTube connoisseurs may remember him from his earlier hit, Real Life Super Mario Bros., a live-action short peppered with lots of computer graphics in which a young man is suddenly presented with the opportunity to play a life-size game of Super Mario Bros.

In an interview with the L.A. Times, McMurry said he shot the film in about 7 hours and completed the special effects in about 5 or 6 days. McMurry taught himself how to work with Adobe After Effects and said he is working on improving his Cinema 4D skills. He used both programs for the special effects in Psycho Siri, as well as PF Track for the 3D motion tracking.

McMurry's videos, which can be found on his YouTube channel AndrewFilms, have been viewed 5.8 million times, and he is trying to keep to a self-imposed schedule of uploading one new film every two weeks.

Next, he plans to make a Nazi zombie movie. "I don’t have many details right now, but I do know that I'm finally not going to film outside my house," he said. "That will be nice. Every other movie I've done has been filmed outside my house."

YouTube Reinstates Chrysler’s Popular Super Bowl Ad

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:09:02 GMT

Could a computer error have caused Chrysler’s high-profile Super Bowl ad to go mysteriously missing from YouTube?

Chrysler Group LLC’s two-minute long spot (watch below), dubbed “Halftime in America,” featuring Clint Eastwood trying to rally America, disappeared from Google Inc.’s online-video outlet YouTube late Sunday night. The ad was one of the most popular among Super Bowl viewers.

“This country can’t be knocked out with one punch; we get right back up again and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines,” said Mr. Eastwood in the spot.

Anyone checking YouTube hoping to see the gritty and emotional ad Monday morning instead found a message: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by NFL Properties LLC.” That sparked some blogs to speculate about what happened.

This was a big deal for Chrysler. The automaker was one of the few big-game advertisers that didn’t release its Super Bowl commercial prior to the game. That meant it missed out on the millions of dollars in free publicity that other advertisers got from online airings of their ads beforehand. Post-game online availability would have helped make up for that.

So when word got out that the spot was gone, Chrysler scrambled to get to the bottom of the mystery, according to people familiar with the matter.

Google, the owner of YouTube, told Chrysler that it had received a “take down” notice from a third party company authorized by the NFL to uphold copyright and trademark protection, according to a person familiar with the situation.

This third party had classified the Chrysler commercial as NFL content due to its proximity to the official halftime show and alerted YouTube to remove the content. But that classification was a mistake. The ad had been approved by the NFL and NBC, the Comcast Corp. unit that broadcast the Super Bowl, according to people familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for the NFL confirmed “our office did not ask to take it down. We asked Google to reinstate it immediately, which it did. We did not object to the ad or its placement online.”

Indeed, the ad was reinstated to YouTube late Monday morning. YouTube said in a statement that it “expeditiously removes content when it receives a copyright notification from copyright owners, or from third party agencies operating on their behalf. We reinstate content when we receive a retraction from the party who originally submitted the notification. The video has been reinstated,” said a statement from YouTube.

So ended the mini-drama. One interesting sidelight: Chrysler filmed two versions of the commercial, according to people familiar with the situation. The other, unused version, starred actor Al Pacino. Another big name considered for the commercial was Bruce Springsteen.

YouTube star Green powerful on the page

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:18:52 GMT

One of the big publishing buzzwords of the digital age is "platform."

At its simplest, the term refers to a built-in audience: someone active online has a measurable, accessible platform of potential readers. The larger the number of readers, the larger the platform. It's become a common element in everything from contract negotiations (a writer with a larger platform has a more powerful bargaining position) to career development (publishers often provide guidance on how to build and nurture a platform).

Platform, however, is a doubleedged sword. What of the writer with a large platform who can't deliver the goods in a book? And what of the gifted writer who has spent time at work on a manuscript rather than blogging and participating in social media?

Indianapolis writer John Green has no problems on either side of the equation.

His Vlogbrothers channel - a series of video blogs and communiqués between Green and his brother Hank on YouTube - has more than 600,000 subscribers, and more than 190,000,000 upload views. That's not a misprint - 190 million views! The Green brothers have also fostered an entire movement, the Nerdfighters, a geek outsider movement celebrating the quirky, the creative, and the nerdy, raising money and awareness for good causes along the way.

As impressive as that platform is, though (and make no mistake, most writers would give their eye teeth for even a fraction of those eyeballs), it wouldn't mean much, literarily speaking, if Green didn't also have the chops as a writer.

Which he does, in spades. The Fault in Our Stars is the latest YA novel from the Printz-prizewinning Green, author of the bestsellers Looking for Alaska and A Multitude of Katherines, and it's a powerful, moving and significant novel, beautifully written, and populated with characters who will break your heart

The Fault in Our Stars focuses on Hazel, a 17-year-old girl with terminal cancer, her life extended by an experimental drug.

Living in the ongoing shadow of death, she meets Augustus Waters at a support-group meeting. As one might legitimately anticipate, the two teenagers develop a relationship, though neither of them (nor the readers) can imagine where it will take them. A trip to Amsterdam to meet Hazel's favourite writer is just the beginning.

The novel serves as a handy rejoinder for those few who might still be inclined to cast aspersions on young adult literature. Straightforwardly written, it is never workmanlike, and the language reveals the depths and sensitivity one might expect from young people forced to question their own deaths and the loss of those they have come to know. (The facilitator of the support group where Hazel and Gus meet has a list of former members, now gone, which he reads at every meeting: It gets longer as the novel unfolds.) Suffused with pain and fear and heartbreak, it is never leaden; instead, it is infused with life and light, the wild joy that is a cry against the coming dark. Make no mistake, it will make you cry, but you'll also feel like singing.

YouTube arrest OAP gets £20k compo

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:43:06 GMT

Retired businessman Robert Whatley, 73, was pulled over in his Range Rover and expected the officer to gently knock on his window. But one policeman hit the glass 15 times with his baton - while another climbed onto the bonnet to kick in the windscreen of the £60,000 motor.

The entire incident was filmed by the police's own patrol car and later posted onto the web where it became a global hit. Mr Whatley, of Usk, Monmouthshire, said: "The police went completely over the top - you would have thought I had robbed a bank. "I was terrified when they started smashing in the window and trying to kick in the windscreen.

"I feel the rogue officers were too quick to turn to aggression. I brought this claim as a matter of principle and not for compensation."Gwent Police yesterday paid Mr Whatley compensation for the "post-traumatic stress disorder" he suffered at the hands of the two PCs.

Former property developer Mr Whatley was arrested at the scene, charged with driving without a seatbelt and failing to stop for police. He was found guilty and fined a total of £235.

But Mr Whatley had the last laugh yesterday - when Gwent Police agreed to pay an out-of-court settlement and his legal fees. The force also paid for repairs to his black Range Rover costing £9,800.