Very interesting read on Tech Crunch by Ali Partovi on the search industry’s search for respectability in the late 1990s.  In some ways, video is exactly where search was: big media companies are comfortable making a lot of money from both search and display (I wrote about this in my last Media Post article, comparing it to the innovator’s dilemma).  Read this paragraph and replace search with video and it reads like a contemporary article:

In the days before Google, Yahoo was the dominant search company – they had the vast majority of all search query traffic and seemed completely invincible. The other top search drivers were Excite, Altavista, Netscape, MSN, and AOL. All, including Yahoo, were victims of what Graham calls “easy money.” Thanks to the dot-com bubble, it was so easy to make money selling banner ads (to VC-backed dot-com startups) that everybody was distracted from the real opportunity in search — even when it was presented to them plainly. continue reading...

Last week Tech Crunch wrote an article talking about the increasing important of size and reach.

Today they published an article I wrote talking about the need to balance that with quality. continue reading...

Updated list of companies by specialization.

Video companies tend to fall in the following buckets: continue reading...

It must be some kind of tribal, Mortal-Kombat-esque kind of ritual: continue reading...

Why did Blockbuster fail against Netflix?

Why did Barnes & Noble stumble while Amazon thrived? continue reading...

From Tech Crunch:

With the flood, comes the feast. Advertising dollars are pouring into online video. Some of the largest online video ad networks are seeing revenue growth accelerating this quarter, and expect the fourth quarter to be even bigger. “Last year we grew 40%, this year we are growing 90%,” says Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media.  He expects Break’s total revenues in the third quarter, which include more than just video advertising, to be well above $10 million for the first time. continue reading...

The latest revenue and EBITDA multiples, according to Peachtree Media Advisors:

Revenue valuations for Consumer, Advertising and Search companies fell from 3.2x to 2.9x. E-commerce companies saw some of the biggest drops, with revenue multiples falling from 3.5x to 2.0x and EBITDA multiples down 36 percent from 29.9x to 19.1x. continue reading...

Historically, comScore combined total video views (content and ads), giving a skewed count of video activity.  When Nielsen issued their figures some time ago, I inquired with the two firms and comScore confirmed that their count was for all video views (content and ads).

Today I see smaller absolute figures coming out of comScore’s data, but nothing changes really: continue reading...

Hulu and Demand Media both filed for an IPO.  Demand files a week ago, Hulu today.  Both companies are content plays.  However, the similarities end there. 

The real question is: which is the better investment? continue reading...

One of the best magic tricks WatchMojo performed in its 4-5 year history is simultaneously open up distribution to hit 160M all-time views, but also create scarcity and demand for our content in obtaining multiple licensing deals.  This is something that you will see more companies worry about in order to create more value for their content and inventory:

Steve Smith, from MediaPost: continue reading...