Is online video more than just YouTube? What do you think?

WebProNews caught up with the CEO of Revision3, Jim Louderback, at the Blogworld Expo in L.A. where he discussed his optimism in regards to the future of online video. He told us that there were 4 major platforms that people need to be thinking about in terms of online video.

The first is, obviously, YouTube. The video giant is just that – a giant. It has created multiple opportunities for people in the online video space and, with its latest move, hopes to create more. Last month, the company announced that it was adding more than 100 channels of original content from media companies and celebrities including the Wall Street Journal and Madonna.

According to Louderback, these new channels will raise the bar of professionalism on YouTube. In addition, he believes they will raise the “perceived value” for advertisers. He thinks that YouTube will package this new content with the big online video players, such as Revision3, in order to build itself into a multichannel bundle similar to Comcast or Viacom.

However, Louderback told us that, even though YouTube is the “next big platform as TV gets disintermediated,” there are other platforms that need to be focused on as well. Secondly, he believes that Apple should be taken seriously as a video platform because Apple developed iTunes, which produced podcasts and multiple online video outlets. He suspects that they’re working on “something” else as well.

“When Apple does ‘something,’ things happen,” Louderback points out.

The third platform that Louderback thinks people should be acknowledging is Microsoft. Already its Zune product runs content across Xbox and Windows, and with its new Metro OS rolling out soon, Louderback sees this content coming to phones, tablets, PCs, and potentially, TVs.

Lastly, he thinks that Amazon belongs in the video platform game. He told us that Amazon’s Kindle Fire would be the biggest selling consumer electronic device and that it would “revolutionize the way we consume media.”

Although he didn’t categorize it as a platform yet, Louderback hinted that Facebook could become a potential player going forward.

Do you agree with Louderback that these other companies are video platforms that we need to pay attention to? Let us know.

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For most, online video is just the “big DVR in the sky“, as CEO of Revision3, Jim Louderback, recently told us. People visit sites like Hulu, CBS, TV.com, etc. to play catchup, because that’s where you go when you’ve missed them the night before. Louderback went on to say:

“There is this whole other part of online video where people are trying to create stuff that looks like television. Like comedies, dramas, news… but that’s done at less of a budget or more focused and targeted and the people doing it are able to be more experimental. There is a lot of experimentation that can happen with video when you break out of that structure… when you blow up that bottle that it’s contained in.”

So is the experimentation with online video a good thing? In this case yes. Louderback says that we’re seeing more professional stuff going in, it’s easier to create, the tools and compression are getting better, and it gives talented people the ability to go out and cover things in their own way.

During his interview with WebProNews at the Blogworld Expo, Louderback stated:

“You couldn’t do this on TV, but you can do it here, build an audience and make it as long as it needs to be. You don’t have to hit a network timeout, you don’t have to hit a particular advertising break, if I’m boring… you cut me off and we’re done. I think that’s great because it allows the creativity of people before that had to be focused. They had to go to New York / L.A., you had to pay your dues, you had to sit within these rigid formats, and now you can do it in Lexington, Kentucky.”

For the most part, network TV and online video are both getting better and better… but they’re both still trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up and where they should intersect.

For 5 years, WebProNews has partnered with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

Professional content producers — those who come equipped with their own ad-sales teams — are now able to sell advertising on their YouTube channels. That includes the click-to-expand overlays that run across the bottoms of YouTube videos [InVideo ads] and display units on the page that hosts the video player. The revenue is split between the content creator and YouTube, just as it would be if YouTube sold the ads.

This is a pretty good move on the part of YouTube—have current content producers do the work of recruiting interested, qualified, related advertisers and then split the profits. I do wonder, though, if content producers get a bigger proportion of ad proceeds from advertisers that they brought in.

Ad Age gives a great prediction of how this could extend further into YouTube’s monetization efforts, using a current content provider & advertiser working in the new ad selling program:

Content creators could not only sell ads that would appear next to their content but also extend the reach of those ads to third-party-created videos on YouTube. One hypothetical: Revision3 sells ads to GoDaddy to run not only on YouTube pages showing “Diggnation” videos but also on other third-party, tech-focused videos. Under such a deal, revenue could be split three ways: among Revision3, YouTube and the producers of the third-party content where the ad ran.

And of course, that’s only if YouTube chooses to share the revenue.

Ad Age also says we can expect to see more advertising efforts from YouTube:

[Product Manager Shiva] Rajaraman said YouTube will conduct a series of brand-effectiveness tests, and it’s not finished experimenting in the ad space.

“We’ll be trying new formats, new ways to engage users,” he said. “No one knows quite how to crack video advertising yet.”

That may be true, but YouTube seems to be getting closer. What do you think: have they done it yet?

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Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3, was surprised when he found out that MediaDefender was behind the attack that took down their whole network over the weekend. MediaDefender used Revsison3 BitTorrent tracker for the fake torrents they upload to BitTorrent sites.

In a detailed blog post Louderback writes," Media Defender was abusing one of Revision3′s servers for their own purposes – quite without our approval. When we closed off their backdoor access, MediaDefender’s servers freaked out, and went into attack mode – much like how a petulant toddler will throw an epic tantrum if you take away an ill-gotten Oreo."

Louderback continues, "They saw us as a ‘distributor’ – even though we were using BitTorrent for legitimate reasons. Once we shut them out, their vast network of servers were automatically programmed to implement a scorched earth policy, and shut us down in turn."

Louderback says the FBI is looking into the matter and that MediaDefender executives have admitted to being behind the attack. Media Defender says it has since taken steps to make sure it won’t happen again.

In the end Louderback does not believe that MediaDefender deliberately targeted Revision3 but did point out that the company has a history of using their servers to launch denial of service attacks against distributors.

An FBI investigation is ongoing into MediaDefender’s role in disrupting Revision3′s service, according to Louderback. He posted about the discovery of the company behind the flood of disruptive traffic, and his chat with MediaDefender’s executives about their firm’s outrageous conduct:

First, they willingly admitted to abusing Revision3’s network, over a period of months, by injecting a broad array of torrents into our tracking server. They were able to do this because we configured the server to track hashes only – to improve performance and stability. That, in turn, opened up a back door which allowed their networking experts to exploit its capabilities for their own personal profit.

Second, and here’s where the chain of events come into focus, although not the motive. We’d noticed some unauthorized use of our tracking server, and took steps to de-authorize torrents pointing to non-Revision3 files. That, as it turns out, was exactly the wrong thing to do. MediaDefender’s servers, at that point, initiated a flood of SYN packets attempting to reconnect to the files stored on our server. And that torrential cascade of “Hi”s brought down our network.

Grodsky admits that his computers sent those SYN packets to Revision3, but claims that their servers were each only trying to contact us every three hours. Our own logs show upwards of 8,000 packets a second.

Louderback pointed out how a dozen federal statutes cover the activity engaged in by MediaDefender.  “Revision3 suffered measurable harm to its business due to that flood of packets,” he said. “Thus we were unable to serve videos and advertising through much of the weekend, and into Tuesday – and even our internal email servers were brought down.”

Words simply fail us to describe MediaDefender’s cracking activity as described by Louderback. Instead, we’ll look forward to seeing a statement from the US Attorney General’s office, hopefully with the words “arrests” and “arraignments” prominently displayed.

Starting in March, Revision3 programming will be part of several Virgin America flights. Revision3 joins the Red system’s programming for passengers traveling between the seven cities served by the airline.

“The discriminating flier that chooses Virgin America is the same person that wants to enjoy programming about the subjects they are passionate about – music, technology, comedy, comics and movies,” Jim Louderback, Revision3 CEO, said in a statement.

In-flight services have broadened over the past few years, as airlines look for ways to distract passengers from what can be a cramped, expensive travel experience. By making some of the services available for a fee, an airline may gain some additional profit on a typical flight.

As a smaller carrier coming out of big cities with likely a more sophisticated customer base, Virgin America can take a chance on Revision3 appealing to its passengers. Since one destination, San Francisco, is in the heart of the tech industry, Revision3 should find some fans flying in and out of SFO.

Over 103 million clips traveled to web browsers from Revision3 during 2007, the company announced today. Even better, the website reached the people advertisers want to find: 18-34 year old males.

“Our programming delivers an unprecedented 100 percent unaided sponsor recall, and 4 out of every 10 viewers have purchased product or services from our sponsors,” said Brad Murphy, VP of Advertising Sales for Revision3, said in a statement. “That

Revision3 delivers podcasts like Diggnation and The GigaOM Show, both popular within the techie niches that follow the entertaining, informative hosts of those shows. Their popularity puts emphasis on the point Louderback made during his keynote, in response to a questions.

When asked if shows without hosts can be successful, Louderback cited the importance of the host in the podcast:

If you are doing the long format, you want to give them someone that can be their friend; they need to connect. The relationship through the videoscreen with the host really drives the viewers.

Louderback touted Revision3 as a television network for the Internet. That old media reference may look odd, but the site’s operation mirrors his view. “No new media makes the old media obsolete,” he said. “What it does is (new) changes (old).”

Whatever the new media does, let’s hope it does so without pre-roll advertising, which Louderback does not like. He’d like to see more ad formats, with content that people find interesting.

He expressed a take on ad networks and their suitability for podcasts. There are great ones that can help a smaller operation. When it grows, the podcast can bring on its own network instead.

WebProNews anchor Kara Ratliff contributed to this report.