ZDONK

I recently read an article in the Financial Times that predicts Hulu will catch YouTube next year in gross advertising revenue. This prediction is clearly a response to Hulu’s ability to attract brand advertisers with their higher quality content versus YouTube’s predominantly user-generated platform (even though YouTube’s has recently cozied up to large studios such as MGM).

Despite this forecast and a recent article in Variety predicting that “Hulu ads are expected to keep growing despite the tough economy”, I believe that YouTube will remain on top during this economic downturn. YouTube’s recent business decisions to offer video ad words on YouTube (basically, their search model transplanted into YouTube) and to create content deals with large studios (MGM and Lions Gate) and talented content creators (Seth McFarlane) will position them well for the times to come. After all, Hulu’s user base is still a small fraction of YouTube’s.

I recently spoke with Patrick Jones, Director of Client Relations at InterClick (an ad network), about how he feels the recession will effect digital distribution platforms such as Hulu and YouTube:

“Hulu offers premium branded advertisements in the form of pre and mid-roll video ads resembling TV commercials, whereas YouTube’s reach, technology, and scalability make it better suited for direct response and ROI driven advertisers. In an economy that is already seeing ad budgets being cut, dollars that cannot show positive ROI will be the first to get slashed.”

Time will tell if YouTube is a billion dollar bust for Google. If advertisers remain weary of the immensely popular user-generated platform, Hulu could turn out to be the model that is used for digital distribution going forward. Either way, keep in mind that gross revenue is not net revenue and YouTube will certainly dominate in that category for some time.

The new 007 flick: Quantum of Solace hits theaters tomorrow. A friend of mine saw an early screening and said the film uses every penny of its $261 million dollar production budget to deliver huge stunts from exotic locations. At 106 minutes, Quantum of Solace is the most expensive film per minute according to Nikki Finke’s blog, Deadline Hollywood. For all you whiz kids that’s almost $2.5 million every sixty seconds.

Any amount of money can be thrown into a movie and for the most part, people will be impressed by the production value. But I’ve heard good things about the story of Quantum of Solace, and I think Daniel Craig might be the second best James Bond behind the legendary Sean Connery.

Daniel Craig puts on a solid performance as 007, but the last installment of the franchise, Casino Royale played more like a Bourne Identity/Ultimatum film than your traditional Bond flick. Lots of hand held camera work and hand to hand combat. The action scenes even have that gritty, grainy film quality that the Bourne franchises use.

That style is certainly a popular trend for action films, but James Bond better not become Jason Bourne. The fact they share the same initials is enough for me.

Manic Attack is a site run by a team of comedians who combine improv with written story lines to provide ongoing entertainment that is driven by their fans. Basically, the registered audience gets to vote on what the characters will do next.

The one episode I watched was ok but the concept is great. I’m not sure what their plan is to attract users in the first place but, if they can get past that hurdle, this method of engaging an audience is great. Conceptually, ZDONK.com will be engaging its users in a very similar fashion soon after our launch in April.

In my last post I wrote about movie-centric sites geared towards content creation and/or tools for independent filmmakers. Today I wanted to mention some of the notable sites focused on providing a distribution platform for those content creators to either syndicate their content across the web or display their work for public consumption.

One of the interesting sites we’ve come across is Tubemogul. It is essentially a tool created to allow content creators to distribute their work across a huge variety of distribution sites with the click of a button. It also offers detailed analytics on how many viewers are watching your content and on which sites. One of the most interesting components of this tool is that it allows advertisers to bid on the most popular videos with the intention of compensating them and displaying ads on their content.

Some of the distribution sites are listed below. Some sites have exclusive deals with networks and studios (no user-generated content) and some offer a steady mix of both:

Youtube - Screening Room - Geared towards professional content. This YouTube channel was created to offer 4 new films every two weeks. It is a great tool for talented independent filmmakers who can find no other form of distribution (YouTube gets a few viewers a day I think).

Myspace TV - This is one of the more interactive video distribution sites. It allows user-generated content as well as exhibits professionally produced content made exclusively for MySpace TV. According to Variety, MySpace is the top online destination for 15 to 24 year-olds looking for information about new film releases.

Hulu - Hulu focuses on digitally re-distributing professionally produced content through their relationships with almost all the major networks and several major Hollywood studios. Their design and video player make this site look very cool and professional (we often reference this site when putting together our initial designs) and their advertising model puts YouTube and MySpace to shame (namely, they don’t overwhelm the user; they have a “less is more” attitude it seems).

Crackle - Crackle is currently undergoing a revamp and should emerge with some high-quality content. They are owned by Sony and therefore have access to a huge amount of content as well as cash to develop new content. They also host periodic contests but other than that are not huge on accepting user-generated content.

Vimeo - Vimeo is a great, simple platform to share user-generated content. They encourage you to upload your videos, whether made with an HD camera or a cell phone, and share them while collaborating with other users in the community.

Strike.TV - very funny videos written and produced by writers who were bored during the writer’s strike. Good stuff.

Some other noteworthy sites include: Jamman, 60Frames and Veoh