Blip.tv Brings Vlogs to MassesMajor media companies and politicians start paying attention, and money, to video bloggers.
January 19, 2007
By Michael Cohn
Blip.tv CEO Dina Kaplan
wants to make video blogging into a paying profession for video makers.
Her company is out negotiating and signing deals with major media companies and advertisers that see vlogs as great exposure for their own performers and brands as well as a way to find fresh talent.
While user-generated video sites like YouTube, Revver, and Break.com have captured the attention of millions of web users, video blogs have been building more quietly but generating a set of viewers who have become heavily addicted to their favorite series.
Ms. Kaplan sees them as better adapted toward more episodic forms of video making and well suited to the needs of professionals. The site splits advertising revenues 50-50 with video makers.
Lately politicians have begun to pay attention too. Senator Barack Obama made headlines this week when he announced he was setting up an exploratory committee for a possible 2008 presidential campaign through an Internet video.
‘It’s a real entertainment marketplace.’- Dina Kaplan Blip.tv
But another Democratic candidate who threw his hat in the ring a few weeks earlier, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, has set up a video blog of his own on Blip.tv. Another candidate, John Edwards, was one of the first people to appear on Blip.tv.
Vlogs are a step forward from the blogs popularized by Howard Dean’s bid for the Presidency in 2004.
“Video blogging will have a much bigger impact on the general elections of 2008, more so than the blogging in the last elections,” predicted Ms. Kaplan in an interview Thursday.
She comes from a political background herself, having worked for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign and later at the White House. She moved from politics to media, with stints at both NBC and MTV before founding New York-based Blip.tv in April 2005.
Taser Damage
Since then, she has put down roots in the tech business.
Her company recently hired Amanda Congdon, former hostess of the news vlog Rocketboom, to take her Los Angeles-based show to Blip.tv (see Amanda Congdon Moves to Blip.tv).
Ms. Congdon has also begun working for ABC News and HBO, though lately she’s been sidelined after getting zapped with a Taser during an on-air demonstration at the International Consumer Electronics Show for a report on ABC News earlier this month. While Ms. Congdon recuperates, her brother Andrew is co-hosting the vlog.
Ms. Congdon, however, helped show how vlogs could start making money, winning sponsorship for her show from Dove Cream Oil Body Wash, as well as the video chat service Paltalk. Viewers of her vlog used a wiki to help her create a commercial for the body wash in which she starred.
Meanwhile Ms. Kaplan has been persuading media companies to latch onto the video blog trend. The Scranton Times-Tribune has been running video blogs via Blip.tv. The newspaper used the vlog to show footage of a flood that hit the Pennsylvania town recently, getting the footage out before the paper could be delivered.
“The editor grabbed a video camera and tracked the flood,” said Ms. Kaplan. “He put it up and it was one of the most popular videos. They could get it on the news before 5 pm.”
Her company has also been running a citizen journalism service for CNN called I-Report where ordinary people can upload their own news videos.
Blip.tv also powers a fashion photo gallery for Condé Nast’s Glamour.com site. Ms. Kaplan has been in talks with Turner Broadcasting about setting up a private-label vlog service as well.
Video makers on Blip.tv get exposure through Apple’s iTunes service, News Corp.’s MySpace, AOL Video, and Yahoo Video. Once Apple introduces its Apple iTV box, it will be able to bring content from Blip.tv to TV sets as well (see Apple Tunes iTV for Battle).
In addition, Blip.tv is available on TV sets through Akimbo. The company is in talks with TiVo about bringing its content to TiVo subscribers as well. TiVo has recently begun expanding its efforts to run content from the Net (see TiVo Brings Online Video to TV).
Blip.tv is also trying to make its vlogs available via cable TV and has been in talks with Time Warner Cable, Cablevision Systems, and Comcast, but as with TiVo no deals have yet been struck.
Entertainment Mart
Meanwhile, Blip.tv has been hosting a variety of professional video bloggers, including a crew that has been shooting footage of the fighting in Iraq on a series called Alive in Baghdad. An episodic sitcom series called Goodnight Burbank has also attracted viewers.
Other popular series include the Buzz TV show from the technology blog Technorati and a travelogue series, Weird America.
“It’s a real entertainment marketplace,” said Ms. Kaplan. “We only focus on the people creating the best episodic content on the Net. They’re really passionate and the videos look great.”
While several video bloggers have been asked to sign deals with major media outlets, some have been wary of surrendering their independence. “There have been people on Blip who were approached but didn’t want to give up control,” said Ms. Kaplan.
She has taken a similar attitude toward funding. Her company has talked to venture capitalists who have offered extra financing. So far the company has gone through two angel rounds and some bridge financing through a convertible note, but Ms. Kaplan is reluctant to bring in the VCs.
“We are totally driven by our users,” she said. “It’s not top-down control. If we had done a VC round, somebody out there would be pushing us in a different direction.”
Her preferred direction for Blip.tv is giving videos more exposure through multiple media outlets, while allowing vloggers free rein to document their latest adventures.
JOHN
LONGENECKER
