Though lonelygirl15′s secret has been out for a while, the star power of her progenitors at EQAL remains appealing. They created a follow-up series, KateModern, in conjunction with social networking site Bebo; the show averages 1.5 million views online per week.

CBS hopes some of that online pixie dust will sprinkle good fortune over them. The network arguably pushes the most to get their content into as many Internet-accessible outlets as possible.

A deal announced today between CBS and EQAL means CBS will more actively look for new concepts for shows they can present beyond the world of television. CBS said the non-exclusive partnership gives them a “first look” at EQAL’s ideas for shows they can distribute across multiple platforms.

“This partnering signals CBS’s attention to the Web as a new medium across both Interactive and the Network,” Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive, said in a statement.

A hit or two on the Internet side of their business would be welcome at the network. CBS also plans some tried-and-true programming for the Internet; Hollywood Reporter noted the CSI franchise has daily webcasts on tap for the fall.

Spark Capital, which includes names like Conrad Riggs, Ron Conway, Marc Andreesen and George Harik, leads the way in funding.

Founders Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried cite the 150 million views of their web video creations as the foundation for forming EQAL, which they’ve dubbed as a "social entertainment company." The concept involves entwining online social networks with interactive content.

From their About Us page:

"We believe that the community is just as important as the content we create. With this as our blueprint, we construct interactive shows that transform passive viewers into active participants. Our shows entertain and enlighten, driving discussion and encouraging viewers and participants to immerse themselves in a shared entertainment experience."

Lonelygirl15 is the most recognizable example of social entertainment success. "Bree," a character outed as a character in 2006, was played by Jessica Rose, who was a bit of an online sensation. Rose has parlayed that success into another, currently taking on the role of Tina in a recently debuted movie called Blood Cell.

That Beckett and Goodfried secured funding for their company is significant because venture capitalists are still at odds about where the return on investment most likely lies: in content or networks.

In an interesting dialog relayed by NewTeeVee last November, ex-Sony executive Dennis Miller argues with other investors about business models. "If the studio was such a great business they would not be offloading the cost of making those films," said Miller. "The net return on a film is 4 or 5 percent. The only reason the studios make those is because they own the entire food chain, including television distribution.”

$5 million thrown toward a content company and not an entire online distribution pipeline is a nice vote of confidence for great content.  
 

Starting tomorrow Friday, August 3 at 8 am a new video of the LonelyGirl15 season finale will be available on MySpaceTV every hour for 12 hours in a row.

"With more than 115 million potential friends on MySpace, LonelyGirl won’t be lonely any more," said Jeff Berman, GM of MySpaceTV. "By joining Sony Minisodes, Prom Queen, and all of our branded channel partners coming online this month, LonelyGirl will be in good company on MySpaceTV."

The LonelyGirl15 episodes are between 1 to 4 minutes in length and will follow the cast as they try to find their missing friend. The second season of LonelyGirl15 starts the week of August 6 on MySpaceTV.

"We’re thrilled to give LonelyGirl15 the global platform it deserves via MySpaceTV," said Greg Goodfried, co-creator and producer of LonelyGirl15.

"The artistic concept of LonelyGirl15 is that the characters are real, live in the real world, and interact with the fans," added Miles Beckett, co-creator and producer of LonelyGirl15. "We expect MySpace users to welcome the show with open arms."

 From the YouTube blog post: "Now some of your favorite YouTube members, including LisaNova, renetto, HappySlip, smosh, and valsartdiary, will begin to participate in the same revenue sharing and promotional opportunities that are available to YouTube’s other partners."

The company says that the initial video contributors have been selected because they have been successful at building and maintaining a consistent audience, offering unique videos as well as producing content that is attractive to advertisers.

So how will the advertising and monetization work? "Participating user-partners will be treated as other content partners and will have the ability to control the monetization of the videos they create."

"Once they’ve selected a video to be monetized, we’ll place advertising adjacent to their content so participating user-partners can reap the rewards from their work."

Om Malik points out that YouTube is late to the revenue sharing game as competing sites such as Revver and Metacafe already have a program in place to share the wealth. He writes, "The move shouldn’t be a surprise, though one has to wonder what took them so long."

"At one point, some YouTube stars up and left for promises of payment at competing site LiveVideo. And creators such as Lonelygirl15 and Ask a Ninja actively promote their Revver uploads as opposed to their YouTube ones because Revver viewings earn them money."

If you are wondering if you could participate in YouTube’s revenue sharing plan, the company says that currently it is only available to the initial participants. They add that if you have created a sizeable audience and think you qualify, to check out their partnership lead form.

LonelyGirl, Flickr Take Webby Honors

Who’s not on the list is Google, but lets not focus on who dropped the ball most this year, after winning half a dozen last year.

If you’re a David Bowie fan, then you probably already know he sits alongside musician Beck, Internet inventor and evangelist Vint Cerf, Arianna Huffington, "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and Virgin Atlantic’s Richard Branson to choose the centennial winners.

Bowie, it just so happens, receives the Webby Lifetime Achievement award, commemorating all those years he was mercifully not making music and, instead, founding Web companies. Bowie launched BowieNet ISP in 1998, followed by UltraStar and BowieArt.

EBay and company president Meg Whitman also received the Lifetime Achievement award "on behalf of the 233 million registered buyers and sellers" on the site. YouTube cofounders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, each the other’s better half, took the Webby Person of the Year award for "transforming the media landscape and reshaping everything from politics to pop culture.

Just like at the Academy Awards, there is a Best Actor and Best Actress Award. "Ninja" from "Ask a Ninja" took the best actor nod, and Jessica Lee Rose, a.k.a. "lonelygirl15" takes home the best actress award.

Interestingly and correctly, David Michel-Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards, thinks one day we’ll look on these early winners the same way we remember Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Cops.

"The winners will go down in history as the first stars in a medium that has already radically altered the media and entertainment landscape," said Michel-Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards. "From major networks to independent filmmakers, the diversity of the winners also reflects the Internet’s democratic roots, as well as its star-making power."

Speaking of the Internet’s democratic roots, one of the funnier twists of this year’s awards came in the Activism category, as grassroots Net Neutrality site SaveTheInternet.com received the "People’s Voice Award." The majority of 400,000 voters chose SaveTheInternet.com over Apple’s Green Peace page (the celebrity panel’s choice).

The People’s Voice must have sounded like nails on a chalkboard to Verizon, a sponsor of the Webby Awards, and vehement Net Neutrality opponent. Maybe next year the vote will go to DontSqueezeYourCustomers.org.

A few sites shined with multiple awards. Yahoo’s Flickr and Adobe took home 5 Webbies each; HowStuffWorks won 4; graphic designer Jonathan Yuen grabbed 3; the BBC carried 3 across the Pond; and LinkedIn hooked up for 2.
 

Other winners (Webby/People’s Voice):

1. Best Home/Welcome Page: Sony.com/NYTimes.com
2. Best Navigation/Structure: IKEA/IKEA
3. Best Use of Video/Moving Image: Jonathan Yuen/Adobe CS2.3 – The Creative Mind
4. Best Visual Design – Function: Flickr/Flickr
5. Broadband: Blip.tv/Blip.tv
6. Guides/Ratings/Reviews: Yelp.com/CNet.com
7. Humor: The Onion/The Onion
8. Services: LinkdIn/Gifts.com
9. Travel: Wikitravel/TripAdvisor

YouTube Introduces Revenue Sharing

Sometime in 2007, YouTube will start sharing advertising revenue with the people who contribute video content to the site. The people behind LonelyGirl15 are probably smacking their heads in Homeresque “D’oh!” fashion, considering how popular their series was on YouTube before it was outed as a fake.

The Financial Times cited YouTube’s co-founder Chad Hurley on the decision to let others share in the site’s good fortune, now that it has been sold to Google for $1.65 billion and made Hurley eligible to be a speaker at the World Economic Forum, recently concluded in Davos, Switzerland:

PaidContent’s Rafat Ali commented about the story, calling it “vaporware about vaporshare”:

Other video sharing sites that have revenue sharing in place, but not YouTube’s reach or audience, felt the reverberations of the announcement according to GigaOM leader Om Malik:

Is the announcement an indication that the rough and ready world of video will receive a vigorous scrubbing in the hopes of earning some filthy lucre? Some video makers will probably try to make their work more buzzworthy in the hopes of cashing in some ad revenue. If the profit angle motivates people to make better videos, that should be a good thing for YouTube’s viewers.

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Well we got our guitars and we got thumb picks
And we go on after some lip-synch chicks
We're feelin' good from the pills we took
Oh, baby, don't gimme that look
-- obligatory lyrics from The Replacements' song, 'Talent Show'

We have to wonder if LonelyGirl15 will show up for Yahoo’s open call for Yahoo! Talent Show. The latest promotion from Yahoo seeks a talented “web celeb” to, in the words of Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, “Save The Web From Bad Videos.”

Oh, and it’s Ninja-approved too.

People looking for fame (some), and fortune ($50,000) can upload videos through November 27th. Starting November 13th and running through December 4th, visitors to the Talent Show site can vote and comment on videos selected for attention from show host Mayleen Ramey.

The voting will narrow the field down to a group of five finalists. Yahoo said these lucky finalists will compete in a series of creative video challenges that people will be able to watch at the Talent Show website.

Those viewers will vote for the grand prize winner, who will get the grand prize of starring in or producing an online show on Yahoo, along with the $50,000. Yahoo will run the grand prize winner’s video on December 14th.

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