Harper’s Island, the 13-episode “mystery event,” debuts tonight on CBS, where it will spin a gory yarn about a wedding gone wrong in a town with a bloody past.  Fans of companion web series Harper’s Globe are already four weeks ahead of the game, having familiarized themselves with the legend of John Wakefield, the madman who terrorized Harper’s Island seven years ago with a seemingly senseless killing spree. 

The Harper’s Globe site — ostensibly the newly digitized home of the local newspaper of the same name — is full of articles about the Wakefield killings and their aftermath.  (Just one example of the depth of content we loved in our NTVS review.)  And everything old is new again on Harper’s Island, where the danger is supposedly a thing of the past…until Abby Mills (Elaine Cassidy), the groom’s best friend, returns home for the first time since her mother’s murder.  Suddenly, characters are being offed left and right.

It’s a promise straight from the show’s marketing department that at least one character will be killed in every episode.  The premiere — evocatively titled “Whap” — delivers on that promise big time.  And things only get darker and gorier from there.  But for a show with 25 characters and a dense backstory, the pleasant surprise here is not just film-quality chills, but the amount of information that’s delivered in the first hour. 

Too often, pilots ladle on exposition with a heavy-handedness that grinds all action to a halt while characters remind each other of stuff they already know. On Harper’s Island, terrifying flashbacks flit by, old flames are rekindled with a few choice words, hidden betrayals are uncovered with a glance — it’s a lot of story and character bang for the buck from a show that could have been just a by-the-numbers splatterfest.  (Though the pilot does offer some delightfully squishy moments for the bloodthirsty.)  Adding to the appeal is Harper’s Island’s self-contained mystery and guaranteed payoff, which might be just what the doctor ordered in a TV landscape full of viewers frustrated by mythology-heavy and resolution-light fare like Lost and Heroes.

As hinted when the EQAL-produced Harper’s Globe launched, there will be character crossovers between the broadcast show and the web series, and Globe’s just-released fourth episode features the first such appearance, when Harper’s Globe heroine Robin has a run-in with Harper’s Island’s Ben. Ben is the cousin of Trish, the bride in the destination wedding that kicks off the TV show, and — well, we can’t tell you more, but on a show where most of the cast probably won’t survive the series, deciding whose death and whose survival to root for is probably going to be half the fun, and any extra glimpses of the characters can only enhance the experience. Ben actually figures significantly in the first 10 minutes or so of the Harper’s Island pilot, which means TV viewers coming in fresh will have no trouble following his storyline, and Harper’s Globe fans will have the fun of recognizing a familiar face. 

It’s the first example of how the two shows will integrate — the next will happen in Episode 5 of Harper’s Globe, which will include fallout from some of the carnage of this week’s Harper’s Island — and so far it seems that CBS is succeeding with its attempt to spawns a new generation of web-and-broadcast show pairing, in which each series complements and expands upon the experience of the other.

As the race heats up to crack the mystery first, no doubt fans of both shows will collide, and it will be interesting to see what happens then.   But for now, the premiere of Harper’s Island is not only a promising launch to a new TV show, but a promising glimpse at a world where new and oldteevee actually work together.

Web-television harmony.  Seems worth a small body count.

The BBC has just rolled out a new desktop version of its popular iPlayer service based on Adobe’s AIR platform. The new client is available for UK residents as part of the BBC iPlayer Labs beta test, and it will be released to the public some time next year. BBC’s iPlayer client previously only offered downloadable content for Windows PCs. The new client will also be available for Mac and Linux users.

The launch of the new client is a big blow for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based content delivery service startup Kontiki, whose P2P technology powered previous iPlayer versions. Beep Online media exec Anthony Rose cited falling broadband prices as a reason to shift away from P2P. But the move could also be part of a new approach to appease local ISPs that are increasingly voicing concerns about the growing iPlayer bandwidth footprint.

The original incarnation of the BBC’s iPlayer was based on a combination of Windows Media DRM and Kontiki’s P2P delivery technology. However, the broadcaster has been de-emphasizing this client in recent years and instead focused on its web-based iPlayer streaming platform, as well as device-specific solutions for the iPhone, the Nintendo Wii and set-top boxes. The approach seemed to pay off: The Beeb’s Richard Titus recently told Om over at GigaOM that some 300,000 people use the iPlayer every single day, and Rose revealed in a separate interview (PDF) that the iPlayer was causing 100TB of streaming traffic per day as of August of 2008.

The big loser in this is obviously Kontiki, which has already been struggling to remain relevant. Kontiki was bought by Verisign in 2006 for nearly $62 million, and was subsequently sold for a mere $1 million plus some shares this May, after booking only $6 million in revenues in 2007. Kontiki President Eric Armstrong told us back then that his company had a “very strong” relationship with the BBC, and the company continued to refer to the BBC as one of its primary customers as recently as three months ago.

Kontiki’s Director of Marketing Bill Wishon declined to comment on the impact the BBC’s decision will have on his company, but told us that Kontiki is “adding more customers each quarter”. However, the BBC’s departure leaves Kontiki with only three major broadcasting customers, and its unclear how long the company will be able to retain them. British broadcaster Sky recently launched its own Silverlight platform, and local competitor Channel 4 actually got offered a chance to adopt the BBC’s iPlayer technology, according to the Guardian.

So why did the BBC ditch Kontiki? Because its P2P technology simply wasn’t needed anymore.  “[O]ver the past year the cost of bandwidth has decreased by 90 percent, making direct HTTP downloads a viable alternative,” Rose explained in a blog post last week. He also mentioned that P2P caused problems for UK users withISP-imposed bandwidth caps, but admitted that those caps could spell trouble for users of the new client, as well.

That admission points to a bigger problem: The iPlayer’s success has caught many British ISPs by surprise. The service drove almost 20 percent of all UK broadband traffic during the Olympics, and some are already calling for the Beeb to pay ISPs to deliver its content. The broadcaster initially shrugged off such comments, but it now seems to be willing to engage with ISPs and offer them some incentives.

Rose recently stated, in an interview with a representative from the European Broadcasters Union (PDF, via), that the iPlayer could function as a way to upsell customers on tiered broadband services. The BBC is currently streaming with up to 800kpbs, but 1.5Mbit streams and downloads are planned for the future.

“(W)e could introduce a new scalable business model.  For example, the user can get a good quality iPlayer service for, say, £10 a month but for £20, a much better iPlayer quality would be available,” he explained. iPlayer users would be willing to pay higher prices to ISPs that could offer higher-quality streams. “This can lead to win-win situations, and ISPs will see video services as a profit centre rather than a cost burden,” he continued.

Rose also explained that the BBC was working on shifting downloads to off-peak hours in an effort to make the iPlayer more ISP-friendly. He did not, however, rule out that the BBC could utilize P2P for streaming in the future.

‘Tis the season of giving (and coincidentally, slow news days), so in that spirit, we thought we’d give you, the reader, the chance to tell us what’s on your holiday wish list this year.

What gadgets or gear are you hoping to find wrapped up and waiting for you? Are you pining for a new laptop? Hoping for a Flip HD? Lusting after a Roku set-top box (now with HD capabilities!)?

Personally, my fingers are crossed for a brand spankin’ new HDTV (hey, it’s a “wish” list, not a “likely to get” list), though I might be better off waiting a bit as prices might come down even further.

But this isn’t about me. What are you hoping for? If you aren’t already on vacation, or trapped in an airport, drop us a note in the comments.

Joost has announced that it will discontinue support of its P2P TV application by the end of this week, essentially admitting that distributed content delivery for video streams isn’t worth the effort. But if 2008 taught us anything, then it’s that P2P TV is alive and well — in China, at least.

Western services like Joost may have struggled to convince users to share their bandwidth with other video viewers, but Chinese online video fans don’t seem to have a problem with P2P TV at all. In fact, Chinese P2P grew so big in 2008 that it’s putting the audience numbers of Western online TV offerings to shame.

An article about online video in China in 2008 would not be complete without mentioning the Olympics, so let’s get this out of the way first: The Beijing games were something of a global coming-out party for Chinese P2P TV. Thanks to NBC’s tape delay, an untold number of Western users tried to watch the games live with P2P apps like Sopcast. And Chinese P2P TV providers were able to break some records of their own.

PPLive of Shanghai acquired a license from the Chinese TV network CCTV to broadcast the games live through its P2P service within China, and it saw anywhere between 210,000 and 500,000 users tune in for its live transmission of various Olympic competitions. An impressive 1.6 million concurrent viewers watched the opening ceremony live.  Just as a quick comparison: The BBC clocked only 200,000 concurrent viewers with its iPlayer during the games.

PPLive also made some headlines with its experimental PPVA plug-in, which distributes the Flash web videos of YouTube and other sites via P2P technology. The company told us that PPVA now sees 4 million active viewers per day, which translates to about 2-3 million concurrent viewers.

However, it’s not all rosy for PPLive. The company laid off more than 10 percent of its staff in October in anticipation of the economic slowdown in 2009. PPLive is in the process of raising a third round of funding right now. The company declined to provide further details about the C round, but a Softbank China executive recently confirmed taking part in the round, which is supposed to total $20 million.

Meanwhile, fellow Chinese P2P TV company PPStream announced its third round of financing, also totaling $20 million, earlier this fall. PPStream reached 7 million daily active users by last August and facilitates an astonishing 1 billion video viewing hours per month, according to company information.

And P2P video startup UUSee , which recently announced it was laying off 10 percent of its workforce, is hoping to break even in 2009. It thinks it might even generate some profits, despite the downturn.

It’s the holidays — a time to give, right? Right. Which is why I’m making a list of what I’d like someone to give me this year. This isn’t a gift guide (I’ve already written one of those), but more of a fantasy. I’m making a list of all the features I’d like to see in the perfect set-top box.

What does the perfect set-top box do, you ask? A little bit of everything: It’s a DVR that records my favorite shows. It’s a media extender that lets me watch the video content I have stored on my PC. In a true fantasy world, it also replaces my cable box (but still lets me access my cable provider’s On Demand library) and plays back Blu-ray Discs.

Remember, this is a fantasy. I know that it’s not possible to get everything I want; some of the technology is simply not ready. But some of these features should already be options, such as the first item on my list:

EASY SET-UP/NETWORK CONNECTIONS: It shouldn’t take four days, a box of power tools, and repeated calls to tech support to install anything — never mind a gadget that I’m going to use to watch TV.

It should connect to my network easily. I’ll take a good wireless connection, but if you’re going to make me type my passcode on the screen, use common sense. Don’t slap a virtual phone keypad up on a big TV screen (I’m talking to you, Kiwi); just give me a nice, big keyboard that I can navigate easily. If wireless doesn’t work, I’ll gladly use a powerline ethernet extender — as long as it’s included. I don’t want to pay $100 extra for it. And I don’t want to invest in an ethernet cord that’s 100 feet long.

A SOLID, SENSIBLE REMOTE:  Don’t give me a flimsy piece of plastic with hard-to-press buttons. Take a good look at the TiVo remote control. It’s comfortable in your hand and easy to figure out. Plus it has the cute peanut shape. (Hey, looks matter!)

A GOOD-LOOKING, LOGICAL INTERFACE: Speaking of TiVo, let’s talk about the user interface. Make it lively, just don’t go overboard — and don’t leave me with a DOS-like interface, either. Menus should be logically laid out. So should the search function. If I search by show title, the results should be show titles — not actor names. (Now I’m talking to you, Verizon FiOS DVR.)

Another request: Make it difficult to accidentally delete shows. (I am still talking to you, Verizon FiOS. I still haven’t forgiven you for allowing me to delete that episode of Mad Men when I meant to zap the Barney my kids had watched…repeatedly.)

INTERNET ACCESS: Luckily, I got that episode of Mad Men online, but I had to watch it on my laptop. With my new set-top box, I could stream it right to my big-screen TV — in HD — for it would let me scroll through the contents of my computer and play back any audio, video or image files. File compatibility is not an issue in my fantasy world, and HD files look just as good on my big-screen TV as they do on my itty-bitty laptop. 

Oh, and when I access these files, don’t mess with the aspect ratio. Too many media extenders shrink or expand video windows in ways that leave the content unwatchable.

I also want access to web sites that play back videos, like Hulu and ABC.com — and I want to watch their videos in HD, please. I’d also appreciate a nice interface that would help me keep these sites organized. And a scheduling guide would be great. ABC is pretty prompt about posting its recent episodes online, but the CW, not so much. That’s why I’d like an alert when they finally get around to making the last Gossip Girl episode available.

LOOKS DO MATTER: I want both a good-looking interface and remote, but don’t stop there. I want the whole device to be attractive and as small as possible. I know it has to be big enough to hold a hard drive, a fan, and the Blu-ray drive. But it should be a simple, sleek box that won’t look out of place sitting next to a big-screen TV. Talk to the people at Sling Media; they know how to design attractive set-top boxes.

WHAT I DON’T WANT: I don’t want ( or need) a full-fledged web browser; I’m not interested in seeing my Facebook page on a big-screen TV. And I don’t need any on-screen chat features to appear while I’m watching my shows.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few things, but all of these features are a pretty strong start on the perfect set-top box. I know we’re not likely to see this product anytime soon. But here’s hoping some of this fantasy will become reality in 2009.

Updated: You can say this for our current commander-in-chief: He’s got great reflexes. During a press conference on Saturday, Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi, a reporter with Cairo-based network Al Baghdadia Television, hurled his shoes at President Bush, who ducked the size-10 loafers pretty nimbly.

According to Matt Fiorentino at Visible Measures, which tracks the consumption and distribution of online video, as of today at 11 am EST there were over 550 copies of the video online with more than 3.7 million views and 38,000 comments. “It appears to be growing at a rate of more than 100 thousand views per hour,” Fiorentino says.

UPDATE: Visible Measures sent us another set of stats on the video. As of 4:30 p.m. EST, there were over 650 copies of the video that have generated more than 5.4 million views and 48,000 comments.

Al Baghdadia bureau chief Fityan Mohammed has not been able to make contact with Al-Zaidi since the shoe-hurling incident: “His phone is switched off,” Mohammed told the BBC. Al-Zaidi may have had more reason than most to be agitated by the current situation in Iraq: he was kidnapped and beaten by Shiite minutemen last year.

The press has been quick to point out that in Iraqi culture, throwing your shoes at someone is considered a grave insult. Though, as Boing Boing points out, how much danger was there of it being interpreted as a sign of friendship?

Web TV platform Joost launched its Facebook Connect integration this morning, allowing users to log into Joost using their Facebook account. Once in, users can see all of their Facebook friends that are on Joost, interact with them, find out what they are watching and watch with them, as well as receive Joost notifications through the social networking site.

Facebook Connect went live last week, and has a host of partners that have agreed to use it, including video sites Hulu and Howcast (which has implemented its Connect). According to Facebook, users who log into partner sites using Connect have a roughly 50 percent higher engagement rate when compared to non-Connect users (though Om calls this “marketing hocus-pocus”).

This continues the opening of Joost, which went to a download-free, all-Flash version of the service in October, and follows hot on the heels of its iPhone app, which launched in November.

With the global economy in tatters, what are entrepreneurs to do? Stop believing in themselves? Never! Still, we at NewTeeVee are amazed by the unwavering flow of company launches that find their way into our inboxes. Especially in light of the utter instability of the media industry, why are so many people jumping into the online video biz now?

In recent days I’ve chatted with newly launched startups Clipgarden, a portal for paid training videos; Gawkk, a video feed reader; and Hitviews, a studio that matches brands and web stars. Meanwhile, this week my colleague Chris Albrecht profiled the launches of ZDONK, an online film financing community, and First on Mars, a premium video content aggregator.

So let’s look at those five companies that all happened to poke their heads up in the middle of this nuclear winter. Interestingly, all five are execution plays rather than original ideas or breakthrough technology.

• Clipgarden: undisclosed angel funding, five employees, based in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
• Gawkk: “six figures” of funding from another project of the founder, two employees, based in New York.
• Hitviews: about $2 million in funding from private investors including Bob Weinstein, 10 employees, based in New York.
• ZDONK: $1 million in funding from private investors, three employees, based in New York but moving to Los Angeles.
• First on Mars: undisclosed private funding, 12 employees, based in San Francisco.

When I asked Hitviews CEO Walter Sabo what his funding situation was, the first words out of his mouth were, “Better than Lehman Brothers.” Maybe it’s a cheap shot, but it’s true. We’re not talking about huge companies or huge risks here; in fact, at this point it’s not even clear we’re talking about huge opportunities.

With the glut of recently launched how-to video sites weighing on my mind, I asked Clipgarden founder Chris Barbir if he and his co-conspirators thought of themselves as crazy. “We don’t,” he said. “We think if there is a solid enough value proposition it will work.” And everybody’s got a good reason (or perhaps just good spin) about how leaner times will actually help them. Barbir’s version was to contend that content creators will be attracted to his site to earn micropayments, while potential customers looking for training videos will be happier to pay 50 cents to $3 for a short clip rather than shelling out for a whole DVD or class.

And it’s true that even as market forecasts fall across the board, the only thing that’s getting cut with regards to online video is the growth rate, never the actual projected amount of revenue. eMarketer is forecasting that the U.S. online video ad spending growth rate will fall to 45 percent in 2009 from 81 percent in 2008. But in hard numbers, you’re still looking at revenue of $850 million in 2009, a nice jump from $587 million in 2008. Gawkk founder Gary Culliss’ take? “Internet usage continued to increase during the last downturn.”

But c’mon, it’s not like there are any healthy acquirers for these guys, given that nearly all the large companies in the space are busy laying off staff. The startups will have to endure for quite a while before anyone will help haul them up to the next level. So in truth, some of them would probably be better off pulling out of the game now before they lose anymore skin. But that wouldn’t be the entrepreneur’s way, now would it?

This article also appeared in Businessweek.com.

New research from Nielsen out today notes that 23.3 percent of U.S. households owned an HDTV set as of Nov. 30. According to Nielsen, that figure is more than double what it was when the company started tracking HDTV sales in July of 2007.

Nielsen’s numbers are lower than an earlier study by Leichtman Research Group, which found that 34 percent of U.S. homes had HDTVs. Nielsen shows a steady growth of HDTV sales over the past 17 months, but manufacturers who were hoping for a big jump this holiday season may find themselves disappointed.

Though retailers have been offering discounts, a Consumer Electronics Association survey taken at the beginning of November found that consumers planned on cutting their holiday spending by 14 percent. And an NPD Group survey found that one-third of people who had been thinking of buying an HDTV said they could no longer afford one.

In an effort to attract consumers, retailers have been offering deep discounts on televisions; Home Media Magazine reports that HDTVs 40 inches or bigger accounted for half of all Black Friday sales. But those price cuts might not be enough as DisplaySearch, which tracks TV shipments from manufacturers to retailers, predicts a 1-2 percent decline in sales during the fourth quarter overall.

The number of HDTV households impacts more than just manufacturers and retailers. Fewer HD homes means fewer people ordering HD services from their cable or satellite providers, or the higher-priced HD content from download stores such as iTunes.

One factor that could give HDTV adoption a boost is the upcoming national switch to digital TV transmission, which will require either a digital TV or a converter to watch over-the-air broadcasts.

Netgear threw a press event last night to show off some of the products it will be debuting at CES next month. Among them was its new set-top box, the EVA 9000 Digital Entertainer Elite, which, to my pleasant surprise, can stream HD YouTube videos to an actual HD TV.

How does it look? Awesome. Take a look for yourself. (The demo of YouTube kicks in around the 1:50 mark)

Watching YouTube HD on a big screen, you get a glimpse at YouTube’s future: premium content from networks and studios delivered straight to your TV sans any cable provider. And it makes you realize why the company reversed its position on pre-rolls as they will look just like commercials on a big screen and probably be more tolerated since people will be in their living rooms.

Beyond YouTube, the Netgear box can manage your BitTorrents as well as other video content on your network, and streams other web video like podcasts and such. It currently doesn’t stream Netflix content, but the Netgear rep didn’t rule that out as a possibility. The Digital Entertainer Elite will ship in the first quarter of next year and will be priced at $399. By Netgear’s own admission, the Digital Entertainer Elite is more for the tech-savvy, early adopter, not your average Roku user.

Let’s face it — by now, the hardcore fans of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog have watched the series more than once on Hulu, downloaded and memorized the soundtrack thanks to iTunes, and maybe even bought themselves a Captain Hammer t-shirt. Of course, that won’t stop them from buying a copy of the DVD — but what do they get for this latest show of devotion? And what about the less-fanatical, who enjoyed the series but aren’t sure about dropping $10 on something they’ve already seen for free? In short: In these tough economic times, is the Dr. Horrible DVD worth your money?

Thanks to Dr. Horrible’s minions (OK, the very nice person who sent me an advance copy), I had a chance to explore the disc this week, and I’m happy to report that, no matter who you are, the answer is yes. The devoted fan who’s already pre-ordered four copies (one for themselves, three for the loved ones who are getting it for Christmas) will be more than satisfied. The online video enthusiast, seeking to better understand this year’s undisputed king of web series, will find plenty of insight in the special features. And newcomers to the phenomenon, looking to enjoy a funny media experience, will also walk away happy — because the DVD presents Dr. Horrible in the best possible light.

The complete series comes in at approximately 42 minutes, which is equivalent to an hour-long episode of network television sans commercials — given that Joss Whedon has produced more than 200 hours of network television, that comes as little surprise. Rewatching Dr. Horrible five months after the intense experience of its release, I was surprised by how well it held up. Like any piece of media you reapproach, the flaws stand out a little more clearly on second viewing: the ballsy 4 minutes opening sequence in which Dr. Horrible updates his vlog definitely lacks the momentum that makes the rest of the series so enjoyable. But the three “acts” of the series, when cut together, don’t play like episodic installments — they play like a complete whole, and frankly, Dr. Horrible is at its best in that format.

As for special features, the centerpiece of the DVD is definitely Commentary! The Musical, a full-length commentary track that is a completely original musical in its own right. Redefining post-modernism (“I think you just broke the ninth wall” is a remark made towards the end), Commentary! is actually a fun, behind-the-scenes glimpse of the production, heavily laced with inside jokes set to music very nearly as good as that in the actual production. There is an entire ballad about the video game Ninja Ropes, which they all played on their iPhones while on set (Nathan Fillion holds the high score), and co-writer/Groupie No. 2 Maurissa Tancharoen sings a song about how she didn’t get cast as Penny because “no one’s Asian in the movies.” Commentary! gets so caught up in its own fun that it only syncs up with the action on screen a few times, but the end result is tongue-in-cheek good fun, the sort of friendly jibing that invites audiences to feel included simply by letting them in on all the jokes. Most amusingly for those in the online video world, a major running gag revolves around Felicia Day’s fanatical promotion of her series The Guild, which is worked into the lyrics of at least one song. “I have dozens of fans! Bakers’ dozens!” she protests toward the end of Act 1.

While Joss Whedon has definitely gotten the bulk of the credit for Dr. Horrible, the behind-the-scenes featurettes go out of their way to celebrate his co-writers. Jed Whedon is applauded for his visual style and musical sensibility (he claims the title “Writer/Composer”) while Zack Whedon (who’s also written for Deadwood, John From Cincinnati, and Fringe) is credited with authorship of most of the show’s best dialogue, including the most-quoted “The hammer is my penis” line. An entire featurette is devoted to the nitty-gritty details of the music recording process (which, per the traditions of classic musicals, was the first stage of production), while the final chapter, entitled What Just Happened?, covers the incredible web reaction to the series. A highlight is Jed Whedon admitting that the first two days of the show’s launch were “two days of hell,” thanks to intense demand that repeatedly crashed the web site.

Per the request of Dr. Horrible’s minions, I won’t go into details about the various Easter eggs — except to say that there are layers to the DVD well-worth exploring. For the same reason, I also won’t go into specifics about the disc’s major tribute to its fans: a compilation of fan-created applications to the Evil League of Evil. But the ELE applications are remarkable for what they reveal about those ultimately responsible for Dr. Horrible’s tremendous success. The apps selected for the DVD represent an international, creative, and surprisingly talented community who were encouraged every step of the way to, as Day puts it in What Just Happened?, “participate in the show’s success.”

Ultimately, what this disc reveals is that those behind the series are not just fans of the product, but fans of their fanbase. And that affection is not unreciprocated, which is very fortunate for all involved — especially Dr. Horrible’s DVD sales.

When Viacom sued YouTube in March 2007, it was clear the case would be hugely important. Not only was Viacom seeking damages in excess of $1 billion from Google’s newly acquired video portal, but a ruling on the lawsuit stood to change the particular reading of copyright laws on which every single user-generated site hinges: that is, hosts are not responsible for their users’ activity as long as they comply quickly with takedown requests from copyright holders.

But it’s coming up on two years later — now with 13 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute — and the Viacom-YouTube lawsuit is risking irrelevance by ceasing to move forward. And as was made all too clear to me today, the wheels won’t start turning again anytime soon. Even Viacom, which you’d think would have the most interest in pinning down its foe, doesn’t seem to be doing much of anything to speed things up.

The current setback? Sharing access to documents. Viacom is working to turn around some 650,000 requested documents by March 15th, 2009, and a further holdup in the case could mean that other documents don’t even come in by June 15th of next year. So it’s possible that depositions in the case, never mind an actual trial, could be delayed until the fall of 2009.

The suit made its way to a San Jose, Calif., court today — across the country from where it normally resides in a New York District Court — because it’s where Viacom’s copyright vendor, BayTSP, is headquartered. BayTSP polices YouTube and other sites on behalf of Viacom and clients such as Fox, HBO, and Universal. The company uses a combination of technological and human filters to find unauthorized uploads of its clients’ content. Then it files takedown requests for each one. It adds up to a whole lot of paperwork.

YouTube is requesting access to all of the paperwork — BayTSP’s methodologies, its source code, and its communication with its clients. And not just the documents related to Viacom, but rather anything that would show how BayTSP conducts its business. YouTube’s lawyers say this is necessary to hunt down evidence of things like rights holders uploading copies of their own work and telling BayTSP not to flag them, in order to let them be virally spread by users. YouTube also thinks BayTSP’s documents will show that YouTube runs a tighter copyright ship than any of its competitors. YouTube maintains that it has been asking BayTSP for the documents for the last year, and BayTSP is holding up the case. (Google, of course, thinks nothing of digitizing millions of documents.)

BayTSP’s lawyer Steve Hemminger pleaded in court today that YouTube’s request could be fatal to the business of “small little BayTSP” because it would require the company to give up records from clients who are not related to the Viacom case, creating an undue burden and alienating customers. He said gathering documents for the case have already cost “well over $1 million” (though he later admitted that Viacom is reimbursing BayTSP for its legal expenses). Hemminger further said he wasn’t willing to commit to a June 15th turnaround for the documents because he didn’t know how fast the third-party clients would comply.

Judge Patricia Trumbull said in a tentative ruling that she was planning to grant most of YouTube’s document requests, but that was before a lengthy discussion about the technical logistics of transferring quite so much information, who would have access to that information (and who would have access to information about who accessed the information), and who would pay for it all. She did not issue a final ruling at the hearing, but it’s expected soon.

For a case that could have such an effect on the web by essentially revising the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the clueless finagling over technical aspects of database access was appalling.

And regardless of Judge Trumbull’s ruling on document access, the whole proceeding seemed off-kilter. Why is Viacom letting its vendor be a stick in the mud when it would clearly like to get this case on the road? My sources say it’s not because of settlement talks (which have flared up at various times throughout the case), but it’s clear someone at Viacom’s priorities have changed. Meanwhile, Hemminger insisted, “BayTSP has no interest in the outcome of this investigation at all,” and the legal counsel for Viacom present at the hearing did little to support or prod his supposed ally.

So now the most we can do is wait for the judge’s ruling, and then the next hearing, and then the next…maybe even a trial someday. And meanwhile, the world keeps turning.

Jimmy Fallon’s time on Saturday Night Live showcased him as a good-looking guy with no real acting ability, solid comedic timing and a tendency to mug for the camera. Thank the Lord someone noticed and decided to give him a talk show.

While Fallon won’t be taking over Late Night until 2009, when Conan O’Brien officially succeeds Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show, he’s getting a head start on figuring out his show online.

Except, no. Not really. Back in July, Lorne Michaels promised that Fallon and his team would be producing 5-10 minute episodes of the new Late Night for web distribution. But in the time since that announcement the Fallon online experience has been downgraded from full-scale production to a behind-the-scenes look at the show in development: a making-of blog.

So what’s the reality of this first installment? Jimmy Fallon gives you a tour of the in-construction studio, still filled with NBC News crap, and then introduces you to his house band, the Roots. The Roots are cool, but that’s because the Roots are always cool. The rest is just Jimmy vlogging, and not particularly well, either. Because here’s the key thing: he doesn’t tell one joke. He doesn’t try and make us laugh once. And, I’m sorry, isn’t that the whole point?

Also, the Dove partnership is puzzling. Does NBC really think that women over 25 are the actual target audience for this show? I would have thought they’d aim the sponsorship at men aged 18-35 (traditionally late night’s highest demographic). Though perhaps I’m being sexist. Who’s to say men aged 18-35 aren’t passionate about skin care?

If Late Night With Jimmy Fallon were truly experimenting with online content as originally promised, we could have ended up with a show optimally tailored to web syndication, that understood what plays for Internet audiences and what doesn’t better than any other TV series. But this behind-the-scenes approach is the definition of playing it safe — it looks like when it comes to understanding the online world in late night, Spike Feresten will continue to be tops.

March 2009 is still a ways off, and perhaps before then Fallon will reapproach this web series and deliver on promises to play with the medium. But for right now, no points for the minimal effort here.

This review, along with more details about the show, can be found at NewTeeVee Station.

The Internet is abuzz this morning with news that YouTube has added “HD-quality” video to its site. Not to be confused with the “higher-quality” stuff they’ve had before, this is supposedly the real deal.

Reports had surfaced a few weeks back that YouTube was stealthily launching this higher and deffer service on select videos such as the Where the Hell is Matt world dance jam. Techcrunch writes today that to see it for yourself, instead of hunting around, just visit YouTube and do a search for “HD” and a bunch of videos will pop up. One NTV commenter gave us a link to his work that shows just how good the new HD option is. See screen grabs below.

YouTube NOT in HD

YouTube in HD

While other sites that have HD options like Vimeo and Dailymotion aren’t much of a threat to YouTube’s dominance in the online video market, the writing was on the wall. Grainy, crappy versions of clips weren’t going to cut it in a high-definition world, especially as web video starts migrating to the television.

And what a difference a year makes. At NewTeeVee Live 2007, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen said that higher-quality video was not as important as having as many people as possible watching video. Maybe YouTube feels that 344 million uniques a month is enough, because in recent months they’ve reversed that stance, offering “higher quality” at first, then widescreen.

The new, polished look goes well with the new, polished professional content YouTube’s been getting from the studios.

YouTube’s director of content partnerships, Jordan Hoffner, has been hard at work signing on premium content providers like CBS, HBO, Showtime, C-SPAN and MGM. According to reports of a speech he made this week, the company’s No. 1 priority in 2009 is to get that content in front of viewers.

“‘YouTube is a great place for premium content,” Multichannel News quoted Hoffner as saying. “But we need to do a better job of creating areas where the user can go and know what they are going to get.”

Hoffner was speaking to a nagging problem we’ve mentioned many times on NewTeeVee: YouTube’s interface is set up for video blogs and virals, not premium content. It’s flat-out impossible, for example, to find those full episodes from CBS. Recent moves such as widescreen players and tougher policies on “sexually suggestive” content are starting points, but the site needs to radically redesign how it exposes and promotes premium video — things competitor Hulu brags about obsessing over.

When Google bought YouTube, users worried that having a corporate owner would suck the soul out of the site. But two years later, YouTube continues to be a chaotic melange, only bigger and broader than ever before. The site had 344 million global unique visitors in October.

As the world’s largest user-generated content site, there’s no such thing as “the YouTube community” in any kind of monolithic sense. That was made especially clear at last month’s YouTube Live, an event ostensibly aimed at “giving back” to YouTube’s constituency. The company flew in hundreds of YouTube users to the San Francisco event to both perform on stage and film video from the audience. Tickets were free, and the whole thing was streamed live. It was a ton of fun — and also totally, utterly weird. The stage ended up being a confining and unfitting environment for many of the acts, and the mix of legit stars with indie faves felt random at best.

Nick Vitale was invited to YouTube Live by Google, part of its new effort to make YouTube accessible but still quirky for newcomers — he and former The 9 star Maria Sansone were co-hosts of Poptub, a Pepsi-sponsored variety video show highlighting YouTube content and content creators being distributed through Google’s new Google Content Network. Once he arrived in San Francisco for YouTube Live, however, Vitale was fired from the gig and told he wasn’t able to attend the event (fittingly, he made a video about the firing from just outside the premises). Meanwhile, Sansone and crew had exclusive insider access to film the entirety of the event (and her YouTube Live wrap-up video is the show’s most successful episode ever, with a nearly half a million views).

Vitale admitted in a phone interview with NewTeeVee that he gave Poptub reason to fire him. “There was definitely some times when I could have been more professional,” he said. But he contended that he was hired precisely because he wasn’t “professional” — he got into video hosting via sketch comedy, and announcing surfing contests and the Harlem Globetrotters tour. Vitale said he felt like Poptub was struggling to find its way — and changing its expectations of him in the process — partly due to corporate influence from Pepsi and Google.

But rather than get into the grumblings of a fired employee (who, it should be said, maintains he harbors no ill will and hopes the show is successful), I bring up Vitale because — much like the trouble finding CBS episodes and the awkward (but fun!) YouTube Live — the story of Poptub is emblematic of YouTube’s growing pains. Poptub is being given every resource it needs to succeed, but it’s having trouble combining high gloss and grassroots.

Which brings us back to YouTube’s to-do list: If premium content is next year’s top priority, what about this year’s stated goal?

YouTube’s highest priority for 2008, according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, was figuring out “the perfect solution of how to make money.”

Despite a flurry of recent ad product launches, we doubt the site can legitimately check that task off its list. But Schmidt may have been putting the cart ahead of the horse; before you can figure out how to make money, you need to figure out what you’re selling.

And Hoffner’s comment reveals another lapse in self-awareness: YouTube’s strength is not premium, nor should it be. Rather, YouTube has a tremendous (and surely monetizable) opportunity to show that premium and user-generated can coexist. All they need to do is figure out how.

This article also appeared on BusinessWeek.com.

Live-streaming TV on the iPhone? That’s what Livestation is promising, with a video demo of an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, though the app hasn’t yet been accepted by Apple. Livestation offers peer-to-peer enabled streams from providers such as the BBC and Al Jazeera.

However, the app, once accepted by Apple, is only going to be available for Wi-Fi, which somewhat limits its utility, unless you live in one of those lucky towns with municipal Wi-Fi or happen to commute on a Wi-Fi enabled bus, train or plane.

In other video-on-iPhone news, Joost’s newly launched iPhone — which was also initially Wi-Fi only — is coming to 3G (which means you’ll actually be able to take it on the go), Joost CEO Mike Volpi told Beet.tv. Volpi said 3G access will only apply to some of Joost’s library, but it will be coming “very very shortly.”