Ford has launched a new video podcast, that features music videos from Cat Power, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wolfmother and Gomez.

The video podcast is basically a collection of four music videos, with short “Ford Edge” branding segments. Ford believes the new offering is the first sponsored video podcast of mainstream music videos.

“We are using the music to attract the demographic and bring them to the brand,” says Jon Melrod, vice president of Rock River Music who is collaborating with Ford on the program. “There will be imagery that evokes what the Edge is about and links so the subscriber can view the product.”

“We expect more customers to look at the Edge, but what we are really trying to do is create a community of users that is interested in the Edge and the music,” says Dave Sanabria, SUV marketing communications manager for Ford.
In the next couple of years, video podcasts will explode just the way audio podcasts did, says Sanabria, and Ford wants to be at the forefront of the industry.

“It’s the first time consumers will be able to download videos for free. A television ad is only 30 seconds, but the video will be 15 minutes,” adds Sanabria. “It’s more time to engage our audience and show them the all-new Edge.”

(more…)

Watch Now:

 Ford Edge Video Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Internet video promises to become a huge factor in the 2008 presidential campaign. Some are speculating that this video, which appears to show Senator John McCain of Arizona snoozing during President Bush’s recent State of the Union address, could kill his presidential chances:

According to the New York Times, “the clip went straight for Mr. McCain’s Achilles’ heel: his age. He is now 70 years old. By 2008, if elected, he would be the oldest president to move into the White House.”

“A video of the elderly statesman appearing to doze during the president’s speech — and particularly during a portion of the speech where terrorism was being discussed — seemed to put questions of his fitness for office in stark relief.”

Will this be McCain’s “macaca moment”?

YouTube founder Chad Hurley has confirmed to BBC NEWS that his team was working on a revenue-sharing mechanism that would “reward creativity”.

The system would be rolled out in a couple of months, he said, and use a mixture of adverts, including short clips shown ahead of the actual film. The offer will only apply to people who own the full copyright of the videos that they are uploading to the YouTube website.

YouTube is working on “audio fingerprinting” technologies to identify copyrighted material, which could be used to identify videos that use copyrighted musc without permission.

YouTube vierwers will not have to put up with overly long “pre-roll” adverts, according to Hurley. Add clips of three seconds length will be one of the options, but the details had not been worked out yet.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, YouTube CEO Chad Hurley said his company “is going to move in the direction” of rewarding video creators for their content.

Hurley says that he intends to share revenue with video producers, and that YouTube did not do that at first because he wanted to build a community of people who wanted to be there to be there and who would not just leave for the next best offer.

via Jeff Jarvis

Adult film industry concerns that Blu-ray had banned porn from using the HD format look like they may have been over-blown. The Blu-ray Disc Association is denying it has plans to ban porn studios from releasing titles in Blu-Ray format.
Last week, several adult studio executives said they would release their films on HD-DVD, the HDTV DVD rival to Blu-ray, because Blu-ray copying facilities were refusing to cooperate with them.”The BDA welcomes the participation of all companies interested in using and supporting the format, particularly those from the content industry,” said Marty Gordon, vice chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association.

“We look forward to working with any content providers interested in providing their audience with (the) possible High-Definition home entertainment experience,” he added.

Adult film studio Vivid Entertainment plans to release the first blue Blu-ray disc, Debbie Does Dallas…Again, to be released March 28th.

“We have had many challenges, but have secured both authoring and replication for Blu-ray,” co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment Steven Hirsch told Video Business.

via TV Predictions