Intel Sponsors Rocketboom

Update April 17: It appears Rocketboom will be getting a new host for its main show. Today’s episode brings the news that it is host Joanne Colan’s last.

Rocketboom, one of the original episodic video series, has livened itself up recently with some new initiatives. Today creator Andrew Baron blogged that the show’s ongoing series of episodes about tech have been sponsored by Intel. He did not disclose terms of the deal, but said Intel is participating in the creative process in a non-dictatorial way, and will also help to promote episodes.

Sony licenses and distributes Rocketboom through a “seven-figure” guaranteed revenue share deal signed last summer. Despite that funding, Rocketboom has not made the kind of viewer numbers or had the kind of crossover success to keep it at the fore as online video has exploded. That’s due at least in part to its preoccupation with legal battles involving original host Amanda Congdon.

Regarding Rocketboom view counts, Baron said Sony would not release aggregate measures from Crackle, YouTube, and other syndication partners. Our survey of the series’ YouTube channel shows it getting hundreds of thousands of views for some top episodes, and tens of thousands of views for many others.

Baron also pointed to growing interest around the show’s “Know Your Meme” project (see our write-up), saying it’s seeing more views per episode than a typical Rocketboom show, as well as more discussion on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Though Rocketboom is hosted by Joanne Colan, the breakout bits are hosted by other Rocketboom faces like Kenyatta Cheese, Ellie Rountree and Jamie Wilkinson.