CBS has released an iPhone/iPod Tourch application for its TV.com site that can play full episodes of TV series, ranging from C.S.I. or Beverly Hills 90210 to Star Trek, over both the cellular network and Wi-Fi. His competitor Hulu has kept its content only for computers connected to the Web.
Currently, the only other app that features full episodes of TV shows is Joost, but its content is limited. NBC have set up an iPhone application too, although it has not enough content. Now it is expected apps from other TV networks, Hulu or Sling.
Good news is that Apple isn’t blocking these apps, which are, after all, competing with downloadable shows in iTunes.
A new evolving sub-genre: YouTube’s video series containing clickable links within the screen
A growing number of videos on YouTube contain clickable links within the display screen. That’s the result of Video Annotations, a feature introduced last year that allows other clips to be embedded into videos. Several videos are used to create interactive video series, suggesting a new way, a news genre, to package future video content.
GigaOm has collected some sampling of interactive videos: The Time Machine, M.I.V.E Halo and M.I.V.E. Killzone, 2009 Oscars Interactive Picture Photo Hunt!, or the Interactive Girl.
YouTube explains that “Video Annotations is a new way to add interactive commentary to your videos”, which can be used to: add background information about the video, create stories with multiple possibilities (viewers click to choose the next scene), link to related YouTube video, channels, or search results from within a video.” This video explains how to use Annotations.
ManiaTV puts itself up for sale
Several video startups are putting themselves up for sale. Last fall waves of layoffs hit online video startups, but now the shakeout leads to sell-offs.
One of them is ManiaTV. After a round of layoffs in October (20 of 70 employees), the Los Angeles-based company is now rushing to close a sale. New Tee Vee online news service says that “it’s expected that the company will go for cheap.”. Its value may be more in its video-serving infrastructure than its content library, though its gaming shows are popular.
Founded in 2004, ManiaTV has tried a number of strategies, including live streaming, soliciting user-generated content, making original content, being an ad network… Main competitors are Revision3 and Crackle.
ManiaTV has raised $26 million from Benchmark Capital, Centennial Ventures, Intel, DAG Ventures and Comerica Bank.
60Frames, which also made significant layoffs last October, is another company whose name has come up as an active would-be acquisition target.
