Source Interlink Media (SIM), LLC launched a Motor Trend channel on YouTube to provide viewers with original automotive content. The Motor Trend Channel is part of about 100 original-content channels that YouTube will roll out over the course of this year.

Following its homepage redesign in December, YouTube's Browse, Video Editor, and Video Manager pages are being nipped and tucked to bring them in line with the rebranding that Google has pushed out to many of its sites and products.

TrafficLand has launched a direct sales program and increased its network of authorized dealers: Real-time traffic video content is now available directly through TrafficLand or through its authorized distributors: BeatTheTraffic, Radiate Media, and Total Traffic Network.

After examining 3Q trends, Stefan Anninger, an analyst for Credit Suisse Group AG, projects the pay TV industry to lose 200,000 subscribers next year. While he said his prediction is "overweight," Anninger had previously forecast an industry gain of 250,000 subscribers.

Paramount Pictures announced that the three Mission: Impossible films would be available to rent from the Mission: Impossible Facebook Page. Facebook users that like the page can rent the entire collection using Facebook Credits: each rental can be purchased for 30 Facebook Credits, or $2.99.

Everyone knows there is money to be made in online and platform-based video, but finding ways to profit from your favorite streaming clips, shows, and games is not enough. In November Bain & Co., one of the world's largest business consulting firms, surveyed more than 3,000 consumers in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. regarding online video, revealing some interesting findings.

The Super Bowl is annually TV's biggest event. Last year, it drew 111 million viewers, making it the most-watched television program in history.This year, you don't even need a TV to see it.On Sunday, for the first time ever, the Super Bowl will be available to stream live. The game will be available live, on NFL.com and NBCsports.com.

On Wednesday morning, HBO co-president Eric Kessler told a group of industry wonks that despite the success of digital offerings like HBO GO, it plans to remain true to its cable roots.

With the online launch in October of The Legacy Project, an educational video series that features original interviews with Stephen Sondheim, Edward Albee, and eight other legends of American theater, the series' publisher, Alexander Street Press, contributed a substantial amount of new, firsthand documentation of the creative processes of these cultural icons to the historical record. But the fact that the collection is fully accessible through an online streaming platform is substantial in and of itself, and it says something significant about the current state of academic publishing and the direction in which the industry is headed.

Much like print publishers have stood by and watched their customer base dwindle as the web took over, cable companies have been watching as their customers found new alternatives to shelling out hundreds of dollars for the privelege of watching The Jersey Shore. Accounts vary, but so far "cord-cutters" have represented a relatively small drop off in revenues. As internet connected TVs become more popular and a whole new generation of kids come out of college without any intention of ever getting a cable hook-up, smart pay-TV providers are looking for new ways to offer their consumers value.

It's true in any industry: you never know where the next success story is going to come from. That's especially true in the world of digital publishing, where anyone with a passion and a little bit of know-how can start a site or community for like-minded people across the globe. No where was this more evident than in the story of Sean Collins, an icon in the surfing community and founder of Surfline.com.

Whether you're a traditional publisher with corporate money at your disposal or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants blogger, you should already have a solid strategy in place that guides the content you offer on your website. For most publishers, no matter their size, that strategy involves the kind of content that your site visitors read. Attention-grabbing headlines and search engine optimization (SEO) are no doubt at the top of your priority list, but with the popularity of websites such as YouTube, easy-to-use digital video equipment, and computer monitors that can double as television screens, content providers are beginning to recognize the importance and value of having an online video content strategy as well. It's becoming increasingly necessary to appeal to site visitors who want to view, not just read, your content.

The expectation of professional interactions to be more like those on the open web extends inside the enterprise as well. If you don't use video inside your organization or institution for company meetings, corporate communication, or training purposes, you're missing out on a powerful tool that enables users to connect and collaborate in a manner rivaled only by true face-to-face interaction.

As we eagerly await each successive advance, we've gotten used to thinking that when it comes to content, richer is always better. More rich media! More audio, more online video, more animation-this is the stuff that makes today's web attractive and exciting, though not necessarily more efficient or more useful. Since most of this eye candy is either part of or is sponsored by advertising, it seems safe to assume that the richness of the content correlates to the outcome desired by advertisers, which is, by and large, to induce us to make some kind of purchase. However, while that assumption makes sense on the surface, it turns out that the reality is more subtle and complex than suggested by the simple proposition that "rich content sells."

The trouble with streaming communications begins when you try to define it: Ask 10 different people, and you'll likely get 10 different answers. Whatever the definition, however, streaming offers teh world of business communication an exciting new medium to deliver its message.

I recently had lunch with a senior-level film producer who is based on one of the major studio lots. He's a guy who has spent his entire career navigating within the studio folds. Despite his young age, he has been very successful at it, having had a hand in some really great movies over the last decade. The purpose of our lunch, however, was for him to lament that nothing innovative ever happens at his studio. His feeling was that the model of film producing today is broken, and his greatest fear is waking up at age 50 and suddenly finding himself irrelevant. Sure, his studio would survive ... but would he?

A few days before the wedding, I found myself sitting with my laptop searching YouTube for makeup tips. In a matter of seconds, I'd found exactly what I was looking for. I discovered a channel called The MakeUpChair With Sineady Cady (she has a really lovely accent, and the videos are worth watching just to hear her). Sineady is a young makeup artist living in Ireland, who uses a blog and her YouTube channel to promote her brand and find new clients. Her email address is posted right there on the channel, so if you're looking for someone to do your makeup for a special day, you can shoot her a message.

When I graduated from college and moved into my first place with two roommates, it was months before we decided to get cable. We used rabbit ears to get the basic channels. The images were fuzzy, but it was enough to watch the Red Sox games and Gilmore Girls. That was all we needed, because we spent most of our free time sitting around the kitchen table playing UNO and drinking cheap beer anyway. Now I'm down to zero roommates and back to no cable. Yes, I've cut the cord, so to speak.

For Hollywood studios, rigidly defined distribution windows have traditionally dictated the sequential release of a movie: first exclusively in theaters, then on DVD, then on premium cable, and so forth. Previously pleasant relationships are being strained as theater owners try to maintain their place in the chain and studios try to bleed out as many bucks as are left in Walmart's dying (but still substantial) DVD revenues. As these battles distract the traditional Hollywood players, new platforms are quickly sneaking past the guards.

I was part of a conversation the other day with the CEO of a niche animation company. He explained the company's digital strategy, which was to drive audiences solely to its website because, as he boasted, once your living room television talks to the internet, people will navigate to his company's site and it'll have "twice as much value." This presented me with the opportunity to hypothesize on what actually might happen when your TV does merge with the web.