WebProNews

Tag: YouTube

  • YouTube Makes Caption Translation Easier

    YouTube Makes Caption Translation Easier

    Google announced that it has made it easier to translate YouTube video captions into over 300 languages.

    “You’ll first need a caption track for your video, so if you don’t yet have one you can learn how to make one here,” the company explains in a blog post. “Select ‘Request translation’ in the YouTube Video Manager, choose the languages you’d like to translate into, and click “Next.” We’ll create caption translation documents that you can now invite anyone to help translate, or you can translate yourself. To translate the captions yourself, select the language, and it’ll open up the caption translation document in the Google Translator Toolkit editor to help your translate faster.”

    YouTube translation

    “To give you context on the captions, we’ve also embedded the YouTube video in the editor so you can watch as you translate,” the company notes. “For several languages we’ll provide first draft of the translation using Google’s machine translation technology. We’ll also provide preview of what the translated caption looks like on the video so you can make sure the translated captions fit.”

    After all of that, just click “Publish to YouTube”.

    If you need more instruction, YouTube has a help center article on the topic.

  • Gangnam Style Is Now the Most-Liked YouTube Video in History

    First, he took over YouTube. Then, he took over mainstream television. Now, he’s the proud owner of a Guinness World Record.

    South Korean rapper PSY has just set a new YouTube-based record with his megahit “Gangnam Style” – the most likes in history with 2,141,758 (and growing).

    That bests the previous record holder, LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” which has 1.5+ million likes. Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” come in at #3 and #4.

    As of the writing of this article, “Gangnam Style has 2,227,650 likes and 96,838 dislikes. The video has been viewed 227,450,628 times and currently sits at the top for the YouTube 100 for this week. It sits just beyond YouTube’s top 30 most-viewed videos (across all categories) of all time.

    “Having been the ‘Have you seen this?!’ video of the last two months across the web, it’s great to be able to award a record for this tremendously popular video. In years past it was unthinkable that something would be viewed a million times, and now “Gangnam Style” has achieved more than twice this figure in just 3 months on YouTube,” said GWR’s Dan Barrett.

    I’m sure that if you tallied up all of the views from all of the videos based on “Gangnam Style” (remixes, parodies, mashups, etc.), we’d be flirting with close to a billion Gangnam-related views. It has truly become a cultural phenomenon.

  • Cindy Lee Garcia Wants YouTube To Take Down “Innocence Of Muslims”

    Cindy Lee Garcia, an actress who appeared in the trailer for the controversial film “Innocence of Muslims”, says she had no idea that it was an anti-Muslim work and was led to believe she would be starring in an Egyptian adventure film called “Desert Warriors”. She also contends that the dialogue in the film was dubbed over to contain hateful messages and racial slurs, none of which she was a part of.

    Garcia is now bringing a lawsuit against the filmmaker, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, for fraud and slander and has asked YouTube repeatedly to take down the video, saying it has caused her serious negative attention in the form of death threats; YouTube has so far denied her requests, but says their lawyers will meet with her in court today.

    “This lawsuit is not an attack on the First Amendment nor on the right of Americans to say what they think, but does request that the offending content be removed from the Internet,” the lawsuit states.

    The complaint also says that Garcia was “was fired from her job as a direct result of the film, in as much as she is now considered a target and the safety of those in her presence cannot be guaranteed” and that she is no longer permitted to care for her grandchildren.

    Garcia’s lawyer, M. Cris Armenta, said his client “wants to clear her name, get the content taken down and let the world know that she did not consent to have her image used in this way.”

    “This is not a 1st Amendment issue,” Armenta reiterated. “This is an invasion of privacy issue.”

  • Werner Herzog Is Directing a Killers Concert, and You Can Watch it Live

    Werner Herzog Is Directing a Killers Concert, and You Can Watch it Live

    Werner Herzog is the lastest director to helm a concert in YouTube, VEVO, and American Express’ UNSTAGED concert series. Today, he’ll be directing the broadcast of The Killers’ concert in NYC, set to kick off at 7 pm ET.

    And you can watch it live on The Killers’ VEVO channel on YouTube.

    The UNSTAGED concert series kicked off in 2010, and allows viewers to not only watch the performance live, but interact by switching camera angles. Previous artists have allowed fans to vote on which songs they will play for their encore, for example. Former UNSTAGED artists include Coldplay, Jack White, Mary J. Blige, Usher, My Morning Jacket, and Duran Duran. Previous big-name directors include Gary Oldman, David Lynch, and Todd Haynes.

    The Killers are also dropping their new album “Battle Born” today, in tandem with their live streamed concert.

    “To pair such visually gifted musicians with Werner Herzog is nothing short of inspired. Herzog is an iconoclast of the first order, a German director whose work compels, fascinates, and alienates in equal measure. Herzog is drawn to the margins, outliers and extremes whether in his fiction or documentary offerings,” says YouTube in a blog post.

  • Google Play And YouTube Get Over 600 20th Century Fox Titles

    Google Play And YouTube Get Over 600 20th Century Fox Titles

    Google announced today that Google Play and YouTube are getting over 600 titles from Twentieth Century Fox, for users to rent and/or purchase.

    “Today you can buy Fox’s new release Prometheus in HD, available three weeks ahead of the Blu-ray, DVD and video-on-demand release,” writes Jonathan Zepp, Manager of TV & Film Content Partnerships at Google, on the Official Google Blog. “And over the next few weeks you’ll be able to rent or buy your favorite Fox movies like X-Men, Ice Age and Black Swan, and TV shows like ‘Glee,’ ‘Modern Family,’ ‘New Girl’ and many more.”

    That many more includes Family Guy, as Zepp makes clear in his post. “Google Play and YouTube offer the latest new movie releases and your favorite TV shows to enjoy on your Android phone or tablet and on the web,” he says. “But you’ve been missing one critical thing…Stewie Griffin.”

    The titles will be available in the U.S. first, but they’ll also be coming to other countries in the near future, though Google does not specify where or when that will be.

    Google now has all six of the major film studios on board, as well as a number of independent studios. It’s quite an accomplishment on Google’s part to have Fox on board, considering the company’s battles with Rupert Murdoch over the years.

    The news is just part of a broader initiative from Twentieth Century Fox, called Digital HD, which lets users download or stream over 600 Fox movies on various devices via Google Play and YouTube, as well as Amazon, CinemaNow, iTunes, Playstation, VUDU, and Xbox Live.

  • YouTube Makes Some Changes To Channel Pages

    YouTube announced some tweaks to its channel pages. It has merged the Feed and Video tabs into a single “Browse Videos” tab.

    “This new tab will house all Channel activity: uploads, playlists, likes, activity, and comments. Upon clicking the ‘Browse videos’ tab, by default your viewers will be taken to Uploads, but they can easily view other activity using the menu,” says a software engineer from YouTube’s channels team. For example, everything you used to see on the Feed tab can be viewed by clicking on ‘Activity.’”

    Browse Videos Tab

    In some cases, channel owners can change the presentation of the content. For example, you can change the sort order or interface type of the videos:

    Browse Videos

    “Our testing showed that this change makes Channels easier to navigate,” the engineer adds.

    YouTube also introduced a new iOS app this week in time for the upcoming release of the iPhone 5. More on that here.

  • YouTube Blocked in Afghanistan Following Violence Tied to Anti-Muslim Video

    The government of Afghanistan has blocked YouTube following violent protests in Egypt and the killing of an American diplomat in Libya.

    “We have been told to shut down YouTube to the Afghan public until the video is taken down,” said Aimal Marjan, general director of Information Technology at the Ministry of Communications.

    According to the report, Marjan would not go into any more detail concerning why YouTube has been blocked in the country – whether it was to prevent more violence or to simply prevent Afghan citizens from viewing the video.

    The video in question is titled “Innocence of Muslims,” and depicts Mohammad as a philanderer and a fake prophet. The video was created by Sam Bacile, and Israeli-American who said that he made the film in order to draw attention to “hypocrisies” in the Islamic faith. The highly controversial video has sparked protests across the world, some of which have been violent.

    The U.S. mission in Egypt was attacked earlier this week, as protesters violently stormed the walls of the compound. And in Libya, four people were killed when a mob fired rockets at the U.S. Consulate in anger over the video. One of the men killed was U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens.

    Libya’s Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib has since apologized “to the American people and the government, and also to the rest of the world” for the “cowardly criminal act.”

    Although YouTube has been blocked in plenty of countries around the world, this marks the first time the government of Afghanistan has fully blocked the site to its citizens.

    [via Reuters]

  • YouTube Returns to iOS With Brand New App

    YouTube Returns to iOS With Brand New App

    Early last month, developers fiddling with a beta release of the forthcoming iOS 6 found a glaring omission in Apple’s pre-installed app lineup. The familiar old school television icon that signaled the YouTube app, available on iOS since the beginning, was no longer there.

    Apple said that the licensing deal with Google had expired, and iOS would not contain the YouTube app. We were directed not to worry, as we were told that YouTube was working on its own app. Today, that app hits the App Store.

    The new YouTube app for iOS is “built by YouTube engineers, to give our iPhone and iPod touch users the best mobile experience,” according to YouTube. The first big thing about the app is that it allows users to watch tens of thousands more videos – like those official music videos that oftentimes weren’t available on mobile.

    As you can see above, the app also feature a channel guide, where users can easily navigate everything they’re subscribed to. All you have to do is swipe right on any screen to reveal your channels view. There, you can also subscribe to new channels on the fly.

    The search feature is improved (from the Apple-regulated app), as it now features autocomplete and works with voice search. Watching videos doesn’t prevent you from exploring either, as you can browse related videos, comments, and info while your video is playing.

    The new YouTube iPhone app also feature one-click sharing via Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and email.

    In all, YouTube has built the unrestricted experience that iOS users were unable to get for the past few years with the old YouTube iOS app. YouTube says that the site sees over 1 billion mobile views a day, which is 25% of all views. With a new iPhone (with a larger screen and iOS 6) set to launch tomorrow, it makes sense that YouTube would unveil their new iOS experience now.

    You can grab the new app at the App Store right now. They say that an optimized iPad version is on the way in “the coming months.”

  • DNC Livestream on YouTube Blocked, Marked Private [UPDATED]

    DNC Livestream on YouTube Blocked, Marked Private [UPDATED]

    UPDATE: Videos from the convention are appearing on the DNC’s official channel. YouTube says that there was no copyright violation and that it was simply an incorrect error message that users saw on Tuesday night. Here’s their statement:

    “After Tuesday’s live stream ended, YouTube briefly showed an incorrect error message on the page hosting the completed live stream instead of the standard “This event is complete” message. There was no copyright violation on the video and neither the live stream nor any of the channel’s videos were affected.”

    YouTube has made a big deal out of the fact that they are one of the best places to go this year for campaign coverage. Whether that be behind-the-scenes videos, news reports, short features, debate coverage, or live streaming of the conventions – YouTube’s new Elections Hub has the American voters covered.

    Well, except when things fail to go according to plan.

    Viewers who attempted to access YouTube’s livestream of the Democratic National Convention late last night were unable to do so. Shortly after First Lady Michelle Obama completed her speech, the archived recording of the event went black.

    Actually, here’s the message that users received:

    This video contains content from WMG, SME, Associated Press (AP), UMG, Dow Jones, New York Times Digital, The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), Warner Chappell, UMPG Publishing and EMI Music Publishing, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

    Blocked for copyright purposes. Say what?

    YouTube told GigaOM that it wasn’t their fault.

    “After tonight’s live stream ended, YouTube briefly showed an incorrect error message. Neither the live stream nor any of the channel’s videos were affected,” they said.

    But many took to Twitter to lament the blocked video. Now, when you try to access the video it is marked as private. If this really isn’t a copyright problem and simply an error, it shouldn’t take those responsible very long to fix this and make the video public again.

  • Watch the Winning Short Film from YouTube’s Your Film Festival

    Over the weekend, ten aspiring filmmakers traveled to the Venice Film Festival to pitch their ideas to a special jury featuring director Ridley Scott and actor Michael Fassbender. Those ten people were the finalists in the YouTube-Sponsored “Your Film Festival,” announced earlier this year. The finalists were whittled down from over 15,000 entries, and included two Australian and two American short films.

    But it was a Spaniard, David Victori, that took the prize. His short film, The Guilt, won top honors from the panel. As the winner, he will receive $500,000 to launch a new YouTube project with the help of Fassbender and Ridley Scott’s production company, Scott Free Productions.

    Check out the winning film below, and check out the other finalists’ work here.

    “After the murder of Leo’s wife a single idea circles endlessly within his head: revenge.”

  • Democratic National Convention Streaming Live on YouTube

    Democratic National Convention Streaming Live on YouTube

    Last week, the Republicans had their chance to showcase what they have to offer the American voters. Some of the highlights included Ann Romney’s well-received speech, Paul Ryan’s controversial speech, Clint Eastwood’s much-discussed speech, and finally Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech. Those interested in the 2012 election were able to watch all of those speeches live, streaming on YouTube.

    And YouTube isn’t playing partisan favorites. Starting today, they will be streaming the DNC speeches to millions of people on their dedicated DemConvention2012 channel (in English and Spanish).

    “Starting September 4, we’ll give you an all-access pass to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Once again, every night during prime-time, you’ll be able to turn to YouTube to see all of the speeches like President Obama’s live address from Bank of America Stadium on September 6,” said YouTube in a blog post.

    Before either of the conventions kicked off, YouTube unveiled a new Elections Hub that features reporting and videos from the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Al Jazeera, Univision, and BuzzFeed. The convention live streams are just an arm of this expanded political coverage, and you can check out the main Elections Hub for tons of campaign 2012-related videos while you wait for the DNC to kick off.

    The conventions aren’t the only things that YouTube will be streaming this election season. They’ve also committed to bringing users the Presidential debates, starting in October.

  • The Labor Day BBQ Recipes YouTube Thinks You Should Try

    YouTube has curated a series of Labor Day BBQ recipes from various sources. If you want to watch the whole series together, you can go here, and click “Play All.”

    Otherwise, just watch the ones you want right here.

    Cheese Stuffed Cheeseburgers, Double Stacked From Aussie Griller

    Cantaloupe & Basil Agua Fresca Drink From Kin Eats

    Guacamole From Kin Eats

    Grilled Stuffed Pork Chops From Cooking With Jack Show

    Glazed Grilled Bananas With Chocolate Sauce From Watch Mojo

    Grilled Chicken Kebabs And Applewood Smoked Pork Burgers From The Brothers Green

    I’m a little disappointed to see that nothing from Epic Mealtime made the cut, but YouTube must see a ridiculous amount of recipe ideas uploaded regularly. These must be pretty good ones, for the site to showcase them like this.

  • Bill Nye to Host ISS Live Stream Featuring YouTube Space Lab Experiments

    Back in March, YouTube announced the winners of their Space Lab competition, which challenged high schoolers to design experiments that could be performed in space. After traveling through a panel of judges (including Stephen Hawking!), the two winning experiments featured spiders and bacteria.

    Dorothy and Sara from Troy, Michigan designed an experiment to test how common bacteria behaves in space, while Amr from Alexandria, Egypt designed one based on how spiders spin webs and trap prey. Now, both of them will get to see their experiments performed, live, on the International Space Station.

    From YouTube:

    On Thursday, September 13, Bill Nye the Science Guy will host a special live stream between Earth and the International Space Station (ISS). You’ll see the bright, young scientists of YouTube Space Lab and the NASA astronaut 250 miles above Earth performing the winning experiments of the competition launched by YouTube and Lenovo last year.

    The Science Guy-helmed stream is set to kick off at 8:30am ET, but that time could shift a bit depending on the ISS schedule.

    The live stream will feature an appearance from NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who will conduct an interview with Nye. If you’re looking for a chance to have your questions posed to Sunita, you can post them on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter using the hashtag #SpaceLab.

  • Jay-Z, Budweiser’s Made in America Festival to Stream Live on YouTube & Pandora [REPORT]

    Jay-Z, Budweiser’s Made in America Festival to Stream Live on YouTube & Pandora [REPORT]

    28 performances, on 3 stages, over the course of one weekend. That’s the pitch for the Budweiser-sponsored “Made in America Fest,” set to kick off this Saturday in Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It’s the inaugural Made in America music festival, and if you can’t make it to the city of brotherly love, YouTube and Pandora apparently have your back.

    Mashable is reporting that both YouTube and Pandora will be live streaming the festival to music lovers everywhere. For YouTube, this is old (but still cool) news. They’ve been streaming festivals like Bonnaroo, Coachella, and Lollapalooza for years. But this does mark the first time that Pandora will dedicate itself to streaming a weekend music festival.

    You should be able to access the live streams from 2pm to 11pm on both days of the concert. Clips from the festival should remain available on YouTube for a month after the festival is over.

    Made in America is rapper Jay-Z’s baby, as he has curated all of the talent. Performers included Skrillex, Passion Pit, D’Angelo, Pearl Jam, Drake, Odd Future, Mike Snow, and more. Yesterday, we heard that Ron Howard has signed on to direct the film of the festival. He told the Hollywood Reporter that the film will be “a reflection of the fabric of what it means to be Made in America — what the festival represents, why Jay is doing it and how he relates to each artist” – not just your typical concert documentary.

  • Venice Film Festival Begins Tomorrow

    Venice Film Festival Begins Tomorrow

    The 69th Venice International Film Festival begins tomorrow and features the premiere of 18 movies from across the world that will compete at the event. The festival will run from tomorrow until September 8th.

    As the world’s oldest film festival, the Venice Film Festival’s goal is to raise awareness and promote international cinema as art, as entertainment, and as an industry. This year’s festival in particular appears to be a look back at the history of cinema and how it can be preserved. The director of the festival, Alberto Barbera, stated that this year’s festival is more restrained, with fewer films in competition, and that the festival’s retrospectives are important for film culture.

    “It serves to raise an awareness among young people, of extraordinary films restored to their initial splendour and projected in the best possible conditions,” said Barbera. “Just to remember that the cinema, even the ‘old’ one, should be seen on the big screen, and that without the past there wouldn’t be a future for the movies.”

    Four of the movies in competition are from U.S. directors. Ramin Bahrani’s At Any Price is set to premiere, as is Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder. Paul Thomas Anderson will debut his latest film, The Master, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Jaoquin Phoenix. Spring Breakers, Harmony Korine’s new movie, will also be shown in competition. Spring Breakers stars James Franco, as well as Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens as sexy college girls who plan to rob a fast food shack for spring break money, but quickly fall in with Franco’s thuggish character.

    The festival also features showings of some restored classic films and documentaries on cinema from the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts of the Biennale. Restored classics scheduled to be shown include Heaven’s Gate and Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander.

    The finalists from the YouTube-sponsored Your Film Festival will be chosen at the Venice Film Festival. The winner of that competition stands to win $500,000 and a chance to create a project with Ridley Scott and Michael Fassbender. The finalists, who will be traveling to Venice this week, can be seen in the video below.

  • Mitt Romney’s Best (and Worst) YouTube Moments, Remixed

    With the Republican National Convention underway, What’s Trending thought it would be a good time to compile some of the most popular Mitt Romney-themed videos into one big supercut.

    “Mitt Romney accepts the Republican nomination for President at the GOP Convention in August 2012. So what better time to look back at Mitt’s long and storied YouTube history than right now? Included in this timeline of Mitt’s Greatest Hitts are his official campaign ads and announcements, parody music videos, impressions of Romney and even Romney remixes and auto-tunes,” they say.

    And what we get is neither an endorsement or an attack on Romney, but simply a history of how the candidate has been represented on YouTube, based on how many views were garnered by specific videos from 2007 on. Of course, the majority of the popular Romney-centric videos come from 2012 – and the parodies reign supreme.

    Check it out below:

    Romney is set to speak at the RNC on Thursday night, as he wil presumably accept the Republican Nomination for President. I wonder if he’ll say anything worthy of getting on the next Mit Romney YouTube mashup.

  • YouTube Just Got A Lot Better On Xbox

    Google just announced the launch of its new YouTube app for Xbox, which it says is five times faster. This complements the recently launched Playstation app. In addition to the speed improvement, the app also adds channels with official music videos.

    “With this new app, viewers have an improved YouTube experience, and YouTube creators have a better platform to build audiences for their channels,” a YouTube spokesperson tells WebProNews.

    Here’s what it looks like:

    YouTube Xbox app

    YouTube Xbox app

    YouTube xbox app

    Google said in a Google+ post, “For Xbox LIVE Gold members, the app will update automatically when you login, or you can download it from the Xbox Live Marketplace.”

    YouTube is currently available on 350 million devices, and according to Google, the highest weekday viewing occurs during prime time evening hours across all devices.

  • Republican National Convention Streaming Live on YouTube [Reminder]

    Republican National Convention Streaming Live on YouTube [Reminder]

    After weather delays, the 2012 Republican National Convention will really get underway today with speeches from the likes of Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, and Ann Romney. This morning, YouTube is reminding us that we can watch all of the speeches (plus backstage coverage) live on their GOP Convention channel.

    The GOP Convention channel is an arm of YouTube’s Elections Hub, which they just debuted last week. The Elections Hub features reporting from The New York Times, Univision, Al Jazeera, the Wall Street Journal, ABC, and more – and will eventually feature live streams of the Presidential debates as well.

    But tonight, it’s all about the GOP. You can live stream every word from the featured speakers from now until Mitt Romney’s (highly likely) acceptance speech on Thursday night.

    You can visit the GOP Convention page while you wait for live coverage to begin. It features, “did you know”-style facts, conversation boards, highlights from Twitter and Google+, as well as photos, videos, and bios of the featured speakers.

    Of course, YouTube isn’t playing favorites with the GOP. Starting September 4th, you can watch all of the action from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. That live coverage will run all the way up to President Obama’s speech at the Bank of America Stadium on the 6th.

    Tonight, you can watch House Speaker John Boehner, former candidate Rick Santorum, and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus around the 7pm hour. At 8, you can catch New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayottte and Republican Governors Nikki Haley, Scott Walker, and Brian Sandoval.

    Possible first lady Ann Romney is scheduled to go on around 10, and in that hour we’ll also hear from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

  • Google Gives Advertisers Skippable TrueView Format On Mobile

    Google announced today that it is now offering advertisers its TrueView in-stream video ad format for mobile devices.

    TrueView ads are cost-per-view. Advertisers only pay when viewers actively select their videos or choose to continue watching them, once they’re first loaded while they browse content. The content has to be hosted on YouTube, but they can appear on both YouTube and other publisher sites in the Google Display Network.

    Skippable TrueView ad format

    “With TrueView, we’ve developed a model where user engagement matters — people can skip ads they aren’t interested in after five seconds,” says YouTube group product manager Phil Farhi. “Giving viewers choice over ads they watch has led to a better, more engaged viewing experience, benefiting the entire YouTube community of users, advertisers, and content creators. Advertisers only pay when someone chooses to watch the ad, so their budgets go toward the people most interested in what they have to say. ”

    “Hundreds of our advertisers are experiencing ‘buy one, get one free’ — for every view they pay for, they’re earning another one through sharing,” Farhi says. “This is because after a user watches a video ad, they can stick around to watch more content from that brand, visit their website, or share the video with friends. Many of you are seeing this in action today – TRX, for example, saw the greatest ROI from their TrueView campaign during their busy season promotions.”

    Google says brand recall improves when ads are run across TV, PC, phone and tablet screens. With that in mind, Google says the new offering will enable easier creation and management of multi-screen campaigns.

    Settings can be managed from AdWords for Video.

  • Watch the Conventions, Debates Live with YouTube’s New Elections Hub

    Watch the Conventions, Debates Live with YouTube’s New Elections Hub

    YouTube has just announced a pretty impressive addition to the flood of political coverage leading up to the November 6th election. YouTube’s Elections Hub is billed as a “one-stop channel for key political moment from now through the upcoming election.”

    And this includes both live streaming and on-demand content.

    The live streaming lineup includes speeches from the upcoming Republican and Democratic National Conventions, as well as the official Presidential and Vice Presidential debates beginning in October. It will all culminate with live election night coverage on November 6th.

    The Elections Hub is also broadcasting Google+ Hangouts featuring “power brokers behind the scenes.”

    It’s not just about the live streaming convention and debate video, although that’s admittedly the main draw. The Elections Hub also features on-demand and live streaming content from a variety of news organizations including; ABC News, Al Jazeera, BuzzFeed, Larry King, the New York Times, Univision, and the Wall Street Journal.

    Plus, clips from players in this season’s election will be housed on the new hub. For instance, GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin’s YouTube apology, which was posted to the Todd Akin for Senate YouTube channel and cross-posted to the Elections hub. You may recall Mr. Akin getting in some pretty hot water for comments he made regarding rape, pregnancy, and abortion.

  • YouTube: 231 Million Total Olympic Streams, 500K+ Livestreams at Peak

    YouTube: 231 Million Total Olympic Streams, 500K+ Livestreams at Peak

    Say what you want about the coverage of the 2012 London Olympics in the States (and I’m sure you have a lot to say), but YouTube and NBC’s partnership accounted for a lot of streaming hours over the two+ weeks.

    Today, YouTube has released their statistics for the Olympic Games coverage and the immediately eye-popping number is 231 million total streams (worldwide, including the U.S. and 64 other countries). YouTube says that out of those 231 million, 72 million come directly from the IOC YouTube channel.

    At one single time, YouTube says that they had over 500,000 livestreams going at the same time.

    That aforementioned partnership with NBC (YouTube powered NBCOlympics.com) saw over 159 million streams.

    And it wasn’t just live streaming video that saw a spike in views. The TeamUSA channels saw 6.75 million views of their behind the scenes coverage.

    Youtube also talks about a 7X improvement in quality “based on low buffering and high frame rates” for live video. I’m not sure that I noticed that much of a difference between Olympic streams and other streaming content on the site, but I guess I’ll take their word for it.

    Facebook and Twitter also released their own Olympic Games stats. Facebook says users generated over 116 million Olympic-themed communications, while Twitter announced more than 150 million Olympic-themed tweets.