Tubefilter News

Lexus’ LStudio is having a helluva run.

First, Lisa Kudrow – the star of the luxury car company’s online video network’s flagship series, Web Therapy – just got off a hosting gig at the Webby Awards, received a digital media award at the Banff World Media Festival, and will watch the premiere of her original LStudio web series make its Showtime debut in July. And second, the Queen of all Media’s latest media venture is joining LStudio’s programming slate.

LStudio yesterday announced a new four-part original web series and one-hour primetime special collaboration with OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. The Sessions Project: will.i.am is a “four part intimate exploration of the forces that shape creativity guided by legendary photographer and acclaimed filmmaker Norman Seeff.” Seeff sits down with will.i.am in front of a grey glamour shots backdrop and talks to the artist and musician about his craft while snapping a few dozen pictures.

Brian Conley and Steve Wyshywaniuk co-founded Small World News in 2005 to help usher into the internet and onto the world a new kind of journalism. One that’s not biased by way of coverage by foreigners unfamiliar with the context and one where the stories aren’t broadcast via a lens and a reporter paid for [...]

I’m not a cord cutter. Crazy! Right? I know! It’s because the person I live with loves her some Andy Cohen (all the Bravo fans in the audience know who’s got the 411) and I’m all shivers every Sunday night with Old Nan’s stories about the White Walkers and knowing that Winter is Coming (all the George R.R. Martin fans reading know wassup). But if I was a cord cutter, this news about this new native application for Google TV could maybe have me shredding up my cable bill to make faux snow like people do with phone bills in those Vonage commercials.

Redux is Google TV’s answer to the questions “How do I find good things to watch on the internet?” and “How do I sit back on my couch and watch good things from the internet on my TV that’s 10 feet across the room?” The socially curated, leanback TV experience launched yesterday with a blog post from Redux Founder and CEO David McIntosh.

The concept is not terribly unlike VHX.TV and basically goes like this. There a lot of video sharing sites on the web (YouTube, Vimeo, blip.tv) and places to find great content (Hulu, Netflix), but there aren’t a whole lot of places to comfortably watch that content in the manner by which humans have been conditioned through 70 or so years of television and the basic setup of America’s living rooms. Redux brings all those videos you want to watch and didn’t know you wanted to watch into one convenient place for leanback, continuous viewing.

YouTube brought the internet its last interview with the crew from Space Shuttle Endeavor back in May. Now, the planet’s largest video-sharing site is turning its cameras a little more spaceward.

YouTube will live stream SLOOH Space Camera’s feed of today’s 100-minute long, full moon, total lunar eclipse, which is set to commence a few moments after 11:20AM PDT / 2:20PM EDT. The feed of the longest lunar eclipse humans have seen in the last 11 years will come complete with “a live mission interface…equipped with audio narrations from real-life astronomers so you can hear a firsthand, expert account of the event.”

You can also catch the astronomical action from Google Earth (via this plug-in) and straight from the SLOOH.com website, which is currently featuring ads promoting the upcoming theatrical release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which has me half expecting to see some Decepticons appear on screen in the few moments when the whole thing goes black.

Tyra Banks was at the Digitas Newfronts last week to promote Bankable Enterprises, her partnership with Demand Media for TypeF.com, and her platonic ideal of beauty (which is that she doesn’t have one).

The model and television personality was poised and articulate on stage as she explained how she hates hegemonic commercial beauty norms (“I was put on earth to expand the definition of beauty,” she said. “The definition of beauty is very narrow and it angers me.”) and was courted by the same guys behind Livestrong and Cracked (“The other companies just wanted to use my name…but Demand Media wanted to build something with me.”), all while maintaining an unbelievably good-looking posture that would make even Alexander feel a little scoliotic.

That’s the reason why I was taken aback when she screened the latest installment from her original web series, Fa-Fa-Fa-Fashion. The Tyra on stage was calm and cool, but the Tyra on screen invoked a caricature of Oprah. The pitch and volume of her voice resembled a cardiogram more than a media superstar, though I guess that’s the way Tyra emotes.

Hulu’s been the premiere and exclusive distribution point for a growing number of online original series.

Jon M. Chu’s The LXD was the first web series to make its Hulu debut. Mattel’s Genuine Ken inked a deal with the premium on demand streaming video service late last year. Lionsgate’s Trailer Trash appeared first on Hulu at the beginning of 2011. And Digital Broadcasting Group and Kiefer Sutherland’s The Confession enticed the eyes of movie makers after it dropped on the site back in February.

Now the online video viewing destination will be the premiere and exclusive distribution point for a growing number of foreign television shows, too.

Hulu just announced it will exclusivley premiere three popular U.K. TV series to the web watching public on this side of the pond. Those series include the teenage superhero drama Misfits (“If you think life’s tough for your average superhero, it’s even tougher when you’ve got a curfew.”), the psychological thriller The Booth at the End (“How far would you go to get what you want?”), and the workplace comedy Whites (The Office meets one of the restaurants Gordon Ramsey visits in Kitchen Nightmares). Misfits is set to debut on June 20, Booth on July 11, and Whites on July 20.

While blip.tv signs sweeping distribution deals with entertainment management, media, and content production companies representing handfuls of YouTube talent, male oriented and technology leaning new media studio Revision3 is signing niche and uber popular YouTube stars one by one. Dan Brown aka pogobat aka Dan3.0 inked a deal with Rev3 last August, which put the San [...]

The 15th Annual Webby Awards ceremony streams live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City starting with the Red Carpet Show at 8PM EST. The main awards show event commences a half hour later at 8:30PM EST.

Lisa Kudrow will play host (a role I’m guessing she’ll split with Fiona Wallace, the former Friends’ star’s character from the original web series Web Therapy) and welcome a variety of special guests, including LCD Soundsystem, Dan Savage, IBM’s Watson, Adrian Grenier, Daniel Radcliffe, Anna Wintour, Zach Galifianakis, and more. Norah Jones and the Gregory Brothers will also provide a portion of the musical entertainment.

Hosting the live stream behind the camera is Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the division of the MLB that streams at least 4,860 Major League Baseball games per season and runs the websites MLB.com and all 30 Major Leage Baseball organizations.

If the partnership between the Webby Awards and MLB Advanced Media sounds odd at first, it won’t after this explanation. Streaming all those games and hosting all those websites (which garner millions of viewers per day) and executing both with the level of user experience you’d expect from Major League Baseball requires a helluva technological infrastructure and even more expertise at live streaming events. This is MLBAM’s business, one that it’s been perfecting for the last decade. Now that the organization feels totally comfortable with its technology and ability to stream live events, it’s branching out of the wide world of sports and into entertainment.