Tubefilter News

Deals kept flowing this week in web series as the Auto-Tune the News clan (The Gregory Brothers) signed an ad deal with Sony Electronics. Their new sponsored episode will hit YouTube in the next few weeks and feature fellow web huckster Julia Allison.

Yahoo rolled out another TV recap series—these things are really popular on Yahoo—with What’s So Funny debuting Monday. ConAgra Foods signed on to sponsor the series, so hosts Shira Lazar and Mike Bachman end up mixing in some sponsor love in their daily duels. And we took a deeper dive into the made-for-mobile and mobile web series world with a feature on the state of the mobisodes.

Revision3 made news twice this week—first with the launch of their second scripted comedy series INST MSGS, which acts out real life internet chatter (and secret confessions). Following that, the online network debuted a partnership with its sister site Digg.com to launch DiggTV which will serve as a distribution hub for Rev3’s Diggnation, The Digg Reel and Digg Dialogg.

Comedy Central’s Atom.com isn’t the cable network’s only source for web series to snatch up, as this week it announced it was calling up one of The Onion’s hit online shows, Onion Sports Network for a test run. And east coast hipster favorite The Burg returned to the internet this week with its first full-length episode since 2007(!). Indie web shop Dinosaur Diorama is also busy cranking out more All’s Faire, which prances out 15 new episodes later this month.

Bro-tastic Break.com had its own sports web series debut this week with Social Sportz Net, with lead sponsor Southern Comfort on board. And speaking of guys, the issue of male circumcision is apparently a landmine for new parents, and DECA’s new Parents Ask series entered the game this week adding fuel to the fire.

Yesterday came another update on the Fred web-series-turned-movie, with more casting notices coming out. Speculation over which “cameo name” actor will play the high-pitched star’s fictional dad is brewing. (Our bet is now on Jon Cryer after hearing Jim Carrey is previously booked.)

Remember last Halloween when master horror-thriller director (and Tubefilter reader) Wes Craven took over the main page of YouTube? He featured a number of spooky themed web series like Aussie thriller The 21 Conspiracy, 2009: A True Story and Luke 11:17. This year, it looks like a smattering of snoozer vampires vids. But luckily we served up a Halloween specials sampler from the web series this week, including The Guild’s Halloween special.

View counts are still hot button issue, with Revision3’s CEO Jim Louderback venting his frustrations this week. We too are frustrated with unverifiable view count claims, and so we requested to audit the backend analytics of IKEA-backed Easy to Assemble’s nearly 2 million views in just three weeks. Our breakdown looked at how they engaged the IKEA faithful who hav rallied behind the cult series.

Chiller Circle of Ei8ht debuted on MySpace, giving the site a much needed return to scripted web series.We asked readers what they thought, and so far the verdicts are mostly positive. And TheWB.com snuck out a little treat for web drama-thriller fans with all 18 episodes of Blood Cell released this week.

What a week! Monday kicked off another installment of Web Television Week out here in Los Angeles, a full week of web television and digital entertainment related events like the IAWTV Prospective Member Meeting, Digital Hollywood Fall, and of course, Going LIVE! presented by the Hollywood Web Television Meetup. We made a little announcement as well about our friends over at Tilzy.tv.

And speaking of going live, Sandeep Parikh’s comedy The Legend of Neil followed up its Season 2 finale with a live chat on UStream with the cast.

The big news of the week was the breaking story of Rob Corddry’s Streamys-nominated comedy web series Childrens’ Hospital heading to able network Adult Swim after negotiations broke down between Warner Brothers and Comedy Central.

And Roku might be pulling off a sneak-around with its next rollout bringing on a whole new crop of streaming original web content.

We’re live streaming, right now, from the October Tubefilter Hollywood Web TV Meetup from Busby’s East! Time to get down and dirty about the future of live streaming web television. Watch as we talk to our panel of live streaming experts, cut through the hype, and drill down on what could be next big trend in web series. We’ll cover:

Tools, tech and platforms – which one is best?
Engaging and interacting with a live audience
What content is best for live streaming
Making money on live streaming shows
Production tips from the pros
Going LIVE! Panel:

Hailey Bright, Co-Host, Coin-Op TV Live
Drew Baldwin, Producer, The Streamy Awards (and Tubefilter co-founder)
Brian Gramo, Founder, theStream.tv
Tyler Crowley, Executive Producer, Mahalo Daily, This Week in Startups
Bismarck Lepe, Founder, Ooyala
Moderator: Marc Hustvedt, Editor-in-Chief, Tubefilter News

Fall Web TV Week is finally here! It kicks off tonight with the October edition of the Tubefilter Hollywood Web Television Meetup in Los Angeles at 7:00 PM. The night gets under way with a special sold-out “Going LIVE!” panel all about live streaming web series streamed LIVE at 7:20 on Stickam and right here on Tubefilter.

Going LIVE! Panel:

Hailey Bright, Co-Host, Coin-Op TV Live
Drew Baldwin, Producer, The Streamy Awards (and Tubefilter co-founder)
Brian Gramo, Founder, theStream.tv
Tyler Crowley, Exec. Producer, Mahalo Daily, This Week in Startups, Kevin Pollack’s Chat Show
Bismarck Lepe, Founder, Ooyala
Moderator: Marc Hustvedt, Editor-in-Chief, Tubefilter News

Spotted on the Meetup RSVP list…

Private High Musical’s Taryn Southern..The Guild’s Felicia Day, Jeff Lewis, Sandeep Parikh, Sean Becker and Kim Evey…The Bannen Way creators Mark Gantt and Jesse Warren….Blip.tv founders Mike Hudack and Dina Kaplan…lonelygirl15’s Jessica Rose and Yousef Abu-Taleb…Legend of Neil’s Tony Janning…The Crew’s Brett Register, Craig Frank, Angie Cole and Cathy Baron…EPIC-FU’s Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf….Prom Queen creators Chris McCaleb, Ryan Wise and Douglas Cheney…Saftey Geeks’ Dave Beeler and Tom Konkle…Coin-Op TV’s Robert Welkner and Hailey Bright…EQAL co-founders Greg Goodfried and Miles Beckett…A Comicbook Orange’s Casey McKinnon and Rudy Jahchan…The Fine Brothers…This Week in YouTube’s Lon Harris..Next New Networks’ co-founder Tim Shey…The Burg’s Matt Yaeger…Elevator’s Woody Tondorf…Harper’s Globe’s Melanie Merkosky…With the Angels’ Carly Jones….and many, many more!

The week started off with news that web network Revision3 is dipping its foot in the scripted side of the web series pool, snatching up Web Zeroes as its first scripted web series. PG Porn creator James Gunn returned with his latest web series, Humanzee, one that no doubt riles up the Jane Goodall set. It’s offensive, sure, a little too offensive for its original patrons XBox Live and Spike.com. But as web video evangelist Tim Street would say, it succeeds in stirring up those multiple emotions.

Sony’s zombie-com web series Woke Up Dead came out with early numbers yesterday, announcing that it had 1.4 million streams on Crackle.com in just ten days since its premiere. And yet-to-be-released Mercury Men is already getting people worked up in anticipation, releasing a behind the scenes look at the sci-fi series’ production design. It even had us speculating that it might be an early Streamy Awards favorite in that category.

Next week kicks off the fall version of Web Television Week, headlined by the Tubefilter Hollywood Web TV Meetup on Monday. We have been graciously thanking our sponsors—AMD, Ooyala, Sony Creative Software and Blip.tv—who really support the creative web series community that gets bigger every day.

Hey there web television fans—there’s a lot going on next week! Last Spring, before the Streamy Awards, we brought you a full week of web television events. This coming week, in celebration of the tremendous growth our industry has seen in the last six months, Tubefilter is proud to announce four days full of web television and digital entertainment related events from right here in Los Angeles.