July 2009
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"And, yes, thanks to Nick Denton. For taking a chance on an unknown kid one rainy February day. Quite dramatically, but truthfully, he handed me a new life. So, thanks is maybe too small a word for that." →
gawker.com
I don’t think I’ve ever met Richard Lawson, but he always struck me as a nice guy. Hard to do on Gawker. Anyhow, good luck Richard! It really is amazing how this stuff can really change your life. I’d be a partner in a law firm now. Maybe I’d also have babies. WHEN AM I GOING TO HAVE BABIES? Just kidding.
Awww…yes, Richard is definitely a nice guy! I remember when I met him about two years ago on the eve of his going public as the mind behind rabid commenter, LolCait — before his move from ad/sales over to Gawker editorial. His king commenter status was revealed in confidence and I recall he complimented my commenting (back when I was still an active commenter/reader of Gawker), and I swooned for a moment. His gig at TV.com sounds like an excellent fit and it’s great he’ll be able to help give the site a voice and spearhead its editorial content — if anyone is right for the job it’s him. I’m out of town for the going away fiesta, but I hope to purchase a congratulatory drink for my second favorite Richard upon my return. Cheers, Lawson! :)
Blip.tv Lands A Big Distribution Deal With YouTube And Others; Redesigns Dashboard →
tcrn.ch
TechCrunch
Mike Hudack, the founder of Blip.tv
, just landed a major set of deals to expand the distribution of his Web video network. The biggest deal is with YouTube, which for the first time will allow Blip.tv to place its own ads in the YouTube player on behalf of the Web video creators who use Blip. Hudack is also announcing distribution deals with NBC for regular TV starting in New York City, Vimeo, and Roku set-top boxes. It is also expanding existing deals to show Blip videos on Verizon FIOS, Tivos, and Sony TVs with Ethernet jacks.
About 50,000 different shows have been uploaded to Blip, where video creators can then spread them across the Web, iTunes and set-top boxes. According to the company, Blip is doing 72 million video streams a month to a worldwide audience of 22 million people. Only 4 percent of those views are on Blip.tv itself.
“I think we will double our audience with these deals,” says Hudack. He might be able to double his audience with just YouTube, which comScore estimates does 6.6 billion streams a month and reaches about 100 million people in the U.S. alone. It is not so much distributing videos on YouTube that is a big deal. It is being able to share in the advertising revenues and getting tracking data back.
Way to go Mike and the Blip team!
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