Broadband Jungle Blog

Public Service Administration

Another example of how YouTube owns this election: On their YouChoose '08 initiative comedy gems and informative bits and pieces from voters like you and me co-exist in harmony with complete archives of campaign spots from the various camps. Refreshing.

The maverick comedy team of Public Service Administration recently added a particularly delightful episode: "He said it first" spoofs a breaking news story about presidential candidate John McCain from the pov of the newsroom. Here's the bleeped version just in case.

Lisa Nova Twitter Whore?

Pretty incredible stuff from Lisa Donovan aka  Lisa Nova. Part-time cast member on MadTV, the comedienne and genuine YouTube star has posted a series of two episodes of her her new character Twitter Whore. The intro and Lisa's high-pitched voice acrobatics alone are worth the price of the admission.

The character is addicted to her blackberry like there's no tomorrow, and only twittering away 24/7 offers temporary relief. Or not...

Just some stats: 2 days after posting, Twitter Whore has managed to rack up 200,000 plus views, 1,600 ratings and 1,200 plus comments. Does she know how to engage an audience or what?

Here she is in Twitter Whore episode 2.

goGOOROO Video Embedding

Progressing towards branded hosting solutions as announced earlier this year, our own Internet video community goGOOROO.com recently added a video embed function for its users.

Channel and Video of the Day have moved to the homepage with embed video players prominently on display front and center. From here on, every channel and video added to goGOOROO contains embed code when available, pushing us closer to our next release: goGOOROO-curated  channels  with a revenue sharing model for  our content partners.

We've also modified our catalogue function and are editing a series of top links covering everything from the best online TV links to sports sites and movies currently in release.

Visit the GOOROO and come back often.

HBO dismantles 'This Just In'

What’s the matter with television networks in the broadband space?
Even the storytelling masters at HBO can’t seem to get a popular portal off the ground?

Steven Zeitchik in Variety.com about the site's departure: HBO comedy site shut down.

This Just In, the comedy site HBO envisioned as both a brand extension and a potential development pipeline, is being shut down just six months after launching.
HBO announced the site in late 2006 to much fanfare, saying it would allow advertisers to work with the company and also serve as a breeding ground for new talent. Former Icebox CEO Steve Sanford was brought in to run the site, which offered a mix of celebrity riffs and goofy videos from assorted standup comics.

Here’s how the cabler plans to play it safe instead: Back to the proven distribution models.

HBO has been developing a broadband site together with cable operators that will allow users to access on-demand programming via the Web.

The Burg

Here’s an example of what can happen when a group of talented artists take matters into their own hands: Instead of waiting for auditions and productions to materialize, a bunch of people from NYC’s off-off theater scene got together last summer to create a clever and funny series exclusively for the web.

The result is The Burg—Too Hip to be Spared, a dry and very even-handed observation of the bohemian condition, elevated by strong writing, inspired cinematography and very solid performances.

The creative team around directors Kathleen Grace and Thom Woodley essentially assembled a theater troupe for the web: A devoted team of veteran performers, some of whom also write on the show, and music from local bands in each episode.

The Burg is perfect content for a successful web-series: Fun and edgy everyday life with very relatable characters, usually 1 to 15 minutes in length and all geared to a tech-savvy niche audience of metro hipsters who tired of watching TV long ago but still crave their regular sitcom-shots. The Burg scratches that itch just fine and deserves a large audience.

"It’s filmed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn—The Burg: the hipster world capital where trust-fund kids pretend to be starving artists, starving artists pretend to be able to live completely off of credit cards, and everybody pretends not to notice."