MySpace launched a new music video portal today, aggregating licensed content from both big and independent record labels. CEO Owen Van Natta announced the news at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this afternoon.

Music videos make up a huge chunk of YouTube’s playcount, and the video site is working with Universal Music and Sony Music to launch the upcoming Vevo music video portal. It’s no wonder that MySpace is getting back to its music roots in order to regain some cultural relevance and make a little coin, as the music vids will include an option to purchase the songs through iTunes or Amazon.

MySpace is evidently now all about the “socialization of content,” a phrase that Van Natta reportedly kept bringing up during his Web 2.0 talk today.

One thing’s for sure, between Vevo, MySpace and MTV’s music portal, there are no shortage of places to find your favorite music videos.

CBS Launching Katie Couric Web Show; weekly “online conversations” with the CBS news anchor to feature big names and run for 20-30 minutes each. (Media Decoder)

Report: MySpace Plans to Launch New Vid Service; with some help from Hulu, the site will supposedly offer more feature films, TV shows and music videos. (CNET)

Study: Netflix Data Contradicts the Long Tail Theory; academic paper finds that people still mostly want to watch the hits. (The Hollywood Reporter)

12seconds Releases iPhone App; 12mail lets you send short video messages to your Facebook and Twitter contacts. (12mail iTunes link)

Republicans Mobilize to Block FCC Net Neutrality Plan; Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Tex.) introduces amendment to prohibit the FCC from spending money to create “new regulatory mandates.” (Multichannel News) But at least NBC’s Jeff Zucker Likes Genachowski’s Plan; especially the bits about distinguishing between legal and illegal content. (Multichannel News)

Comcast Kicking Off Media Blitz for Fancast; the premium content portal looking to take on Hulu with prime-time TV ads. (Ad Age)

Nokeena Changes Name to Ankeena; switch made because of unspecified trademark issues. (Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal)

When Hulu launched its first TV ad during the Super Bowl this year, it brought back dot-bomb memories for many. But that spot, along with the premium content portal’s subsequent star-studded television campaign, appears to have worked for Hulu not just in terms of viewership, but also in terms of awareness.

Data released from Ipsos MediaCT today shows that the awareness of Hulu among digital video users jumped to 41 percent in April of 2009 from just 9 percent in September of 2008. Meanwhile, reported usage of the site rose to 14 percent in April from 3 percent in September.

Of course, advertising isn’t the sole reason for Hulu’s growth. The site has made it super easy to share its content, there’s been tons of press coverage, and the growth in watching TV online has been part of an overall industry trend. Today’s findings were the latest nugget of info from Ipsos’ MOTION study, which also found that streaming full-length TV shows and movies online soared in popularity during that same September-April time frame.

Further reinforcing YouTube’s dominance in the online video world, Ipsos found that awareness of that site had grown to 87 percent from 83 percent, with usage rising to 56 percent from 49 percent. But the rising streams, as it were, didn’t lift all boats. MySpace dropped in terms of both awareness (to 46 percent from 54 percent) and usage (to 9 percent from 13 percent).

The download side saw a small uptick, with awareness of Apple’s iTunes increasing to 49 percent from 46 percent, and usage edging up to just 10 percent from 8 percent. Though we wonder how they phrased the awareness question, since anyone with an iPod should at least be aware of iTunes the music store.

News Corp head Rupert Murdoch has, via an aside to the Wall Street Journal, let it be known that his new agenda for MySpace is for it to be an “entertainment portal,” rather than “a place for friends.” But while the site has put significant resources into some forms of entertainment — for instance, through its MySpace Music subsidiary — it has let video fall by the wayside.

MySpace Video, which for a time was called MySpace TV and featured lots of original windowed programming like Prom Queen, lonelygirl15 and quarterlife as well as premium content from partners like Hulu, has reverted to its prior name. It only has one original program running at the moment: Married on MySpace. The wedding reality show seems to be doing OK, though recent views are down from over a million per episode to around 100,000. (Show creators like Marshall Herskovitz have noted the immense power of being featured on MySpace and the letdown when you are not.) And MySpace only worked out a deal to give Married social viewing capabilities partway through the season.

Murdoch still has a significant asset to work with (though personally I can only get videos to load and play properly on MySpace if I click my heels together fast enough). comScore lists MySpace as the second-most popular U.S. video site by streams (to YouTube, of course), while Nielsen ranks it fourth below YouTube, Hulu and Yahoo.

Compared with other social-networking sites, MySpace maintains an advantage in terms of number of videos viewed per month — though Facebook at this point has more total people viewing video. That’s because MySpace focuses on entertainment video while Facebook emphasizes personal sharing.

Though we thought MySpace had the best-quality stream of Michael Jackson’s memorial out there, a representative for the site declined to give viewership numbers for it — something it has readily offered for past events. It’s not clear if that’s because the numbers were bad, if the streaming itself was poorly promoted, or if things are just disorganized given recent layoffs and reshuffling.

The last two MySpace Video/TV PR contacts we’ve worked with are no longer with the company. A rep declined to comment on Murdoch’s WSJ-delivered missive.

MySpace has just launched ClipSync chat for its original program Married On MySpace. The tool allows watchers to choose to join social viewing rooms, which run linear versions of each episode. If you tune in after other people have started, you miss what they’ve already seen, but that way it’s all synchronized so you can experience the content together. Through ClipSync (click on “Watch and Share”) you can chat, mark up the video with overlays, invite other friends to join, and vote on aspects of the show (it’s a crowdsourced, heavily product-integrated wedding planning series).

This is the first ClipSync implementation of a multipart deal with Fox Interactive. The social stuff will probably be most useful during Married on MySpace’s live finale next week — the combination of a live show, interactive voting, and a social network is pretty killer — if you like the subject matter, that is! Update: The finale is actually August 6, and it won’t be live. ClipSync would not tell us how it is being paid, but it seems likely it’s ad revenue split.

ClipSync has similar functionality available on CBS.com and TV.com for their television programming. I had actually profiled ClipSync in depth for a recent longer report about the state of social TV that I wrote for GigaOM Pro, our new subscription research service (only $79 per year, you should check it out!). Here’s some more information about ClipSync from that piece, which also has case studies on Integra5’s text-to-TV chat service and Facebook’s integration of existing social relationships into video experiences:

According to ClipSync’s internal testing, when given the option of watching a program socially or alone, 80 percent of viewers prefer the company of other users, even if they don’t want to interact with them. The most participatory content seems to be daytime shows — aka soap operas — accounting for 20 percent of users and 51 percent of total in-session interaction. Dramatic plot twist overload is only part of it; a big factor in soap opera interactivity is that there’s daily fresh content, said ClipSync CEO Itzik Cohen. When CBS launched Clipsync on archival Star Trek episodes, fan interest was minimal.

ClipSync has actually been around for three years now, but spent its initial time as a destination viewing site, where visitors could use similar functionality to watch YouTube, Google Video and Metacafe videos. After that didn’t get much traction, the company turned to white-labeling its service. Now it either charges a monthly per-user license fee or splits ad revenue.

ClipSync is under pressure to show it can add value for its network partners, especially since competitors haven’t fared so well. Lycos provided a similar “viewing party” service for some ABC Family programming last year, but it has since been discontinued. We haven’t been able to get a hold of anyone to tell us what went wrong. Lycos still offers its own branded version of the service, Lycos Cinema, where users can pay to rent movies and watch them with friends in a virtual theater setting.

North Korea to Indict Current TV Journalists; state news agency says after an investigation of the two American reporters, N. Korean officials will indict them on “hostile acts,” if convicted, the two women could face five years in prison. (CBS News)

Analyst: TV Upfront Sales Could Be Down 15 Percent; impact could be felt by sites like Hulu as web ads are thrown in as sweeteners, pushing those prices down. (MediaMemo)

Former Facebook Exec to Head MySpace; Owen Van Natta to replace ousted Chris DeWolfe. (release)

Pirate Bay Retrial? Judge in the case is allegedly a member of two copyright organizations; if conflict of interest is formally found, trial could be sent back to district court. CNET)

Blu-ray’s Prospects Better Than You Think? Lower prices, the physicality of the medium and a scant number of people connecting TVs to the Internet (so far) could brighten the outlook for the high-definition format. (Gadgetwise)

CBS.com Integrates Facebook Connect; fans interacting with CSI or How I Met Your Mother can publish their actions back on the social network. (release)

GEMA and YouTube Talking Again; two parties resume negotiations to resolve royalty payment disputes. (The Hollywood Reporter)

MySpace CEO Ousted; Chris DeWolfe’s contract not being renewed, co-founder Tom Anderson’s role in the company uncertain. (release) With this announcement, Om likens MySpace to an 80s rock band whose time has come and gone.

The Guild Goes Up on Amazon; seasons 1 and 2 of Felicia Day’s web series can be pre-ordered on DVD or digital HD download. (WatchtheGuild.com)

Interactive Ads Coming to DVRs; TiVo, Cablevision and other companies rolling out ads that appear when a user pauses or fast-forwards, and can be clicked on to access further information. (The New York Times)

Report: Hulu in Talks with Record Labels; record labels Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony negotiating to bring music videos to the premium content portal. (Bloomberg) (This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this one.)

AT&T Launches Enterprise CDN; Private Content Distribution Service designed to help big companies deliver large video behind a corporate firewall. (Contentinople) (Read Stacey’s take over at GigaOM.)

$99 Blu-ray Players? Bringing the high-definition format to China could spur a low-cost entry level player. (Blu-ray.com)

TiVo to Launch Local Commercial Ratings; will provide second-by-second data for programs and ads, service will roll out in as many as 10 markets, depending on client demand. (MediaWeek)

Susan Boyle: Approaching 100 Million Views in Total; Visible Measures reports that there are 650 video placements of the British singing sensation online including the original performance, interviews, fan responses and more. (emailed release)

MySpace and FOX News Launch UReport; new section on the social network will give users the chance to share citizen journalism. (MySpace)

Metacafe Redesign Goes Pro; following YouTube, the video site create hubs around movie trailers, music videos and sports highlights. (paidContent)

Accenture Study: Consumers Willing to Pay for Programming; global survey found that 49 percent of respondents were willing to pony up for digital-service programming, and an unlimited subscription model was preferable to pay per episode. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Open Box Introduces SesameVault 2.0; platform allows businesses to publish video across web and mobile browsers. (release)

Don Henley in a Tiff Over Republican Candidate’s YouTube Vids; the Eagle filed a lawsuit over Senate candidate Charles DeVore’s use of “The Boys of Summer” and “All She Wants to Do Is Dance” in campaign videos. (CNET)

The Onion News Network and YouTube Win Peabodys; prestigious award granted to news satire show and video-sharing site. (The Peabody Awards)

Macrovision Shows Off Multiroom DVR; service will be part of new interactive programming guides and available in the fourth quarter. Company also unveils a Tru2way version of its Passport guide that features 16:9 screen ratio, parental controls, and a “View Deck” for easy access to popular functions. (Multichannel News)

QuickPlay to Launch PrimeTime2Go Mobile TV Service; subscription-based service will be available next month in the Blackberry App World store and will offer full-length episodes from NBC, CBS and the CW. (release) Elsewhere in the mobile TV world, FLO TV announced the expansion of its mobile TV service in 19 markets around the country and says it will reach more than 200 million consumers in 100 U.S. markets by year’s end. (release)

Heroes Creator Tim Kring to Produce Narrative for Nokia’s Ovi Store; codenamed TEVA, the project will be an immersive experience with individual and group elements for this mobile form of storytelling. (release)

YouTube Out Again in China; site is once again inaccessible after re-appearing on Monday. (The Wall Street Journal)

People Watching the BBC Online May Soon Have to Pay Up; new law could require people who watch their TV programming only through their computers to pay a license fee. (Daily Mail)

WE Network Debuts In Men We Trust; first online series for the network follows a group of thirtysomething women as they date. (TVWeek) In other web series news, MySpace Kicks Off BFF; new gameshow tests how well friends know each other. (Variety)

Has it really been a year since Hulu launched? Wow. They grow up so quick. To celebrate its anniversary, Hulu is getting social by inviting its much-anticipated (and delayed) friend Facebook as well as MySpace to its party. But so much has changed in the online video space since last March that we ask — does the world still need a Hulu?

Hulu calls this social network integration a “first step,” allowing you to share what you are watching with your friends, compare ratings and comments and recommend content to others. In addition to interacting with friends on Facebook and MySpace, Hulu has beefed up its own profile functionality, allowing you create your own avatar and invite others to join in your fun by pulling in your Gmail or Yahoo mail contacts.

In an attempt to get more people to participate, Hulu is also launching “the Scorecard,” which tracks how often users watch videos, how many video you rate, etc. Users can choose to keep their activities private if they want.

Sadly, what’s missing from this “first step” is any kind of communal viewing, something we are quite fond of here at NewTeeVee. So in its current incarnation, you won’t be able to watch an episode of Heroes with friends while providing running commentary at the same time.

I’ll admit that I was skeptical of a joint venture between NBC and Fox working out to anything even remotely considered a success, but for most of the past year, Hulu was the belle of the online video ball:

• Its traffic grew to more than 24 million unique viewers in January 2009, serving up more than 250 million unique streams during that same month. In May 2008, when comScore started tracking Hulu, the service had 6.7 million uniques and streamed 88.2 million videos.
• Hulu says that more than 3.9 million Hulu video players have been embedded on more than 100,000 websites, up from 400,000 embedded video players across 20,000 sites at public launch.
• It now gets content from 130 partners (up from 50), and has more than 1,100 show TV and web show titles, 550 pieces of movie content (full-length and clips).
• It won’t disclose revenues but says it has grown to 200 advertisers, up from 30 at launch.

The site was also fortunate enough to launch during the most exciting presidential election in a generation, and it received nice traffic boosts courtesy of now-President Barack Obama and a string of hits starring Tina Fey as Governor Sarah Palin. It then capped off its first year with a Super Bowl commercial and media blitz that has been the most significant traffic generator for the site, according to the company.

While most of its first year was a fairy tale, Hulu seems to already have entered its terrible twos. The Super Bowl commercial was a nice touch, but the first three months of this year have also demonstrated how tenuous Hulu’s position is. It may have 130 content partners, but it still has to link away to content from ABC and CBS. Even its corporate parent Fox pulled most of the episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — one of Hulu’s more popular shows — from the site.

Then there was Hulu removing its content off of CBS-run TV.com, and don’t get us started on the whole Boxee kerfuffle that resulted in the media platform and Hulu duking it out in public, each working around the other. Then Hulu smacked down MyMediaPlayer, a homemade desktop app that played its content.

Despite the missteps, we appreciate all that Hulu did for online video. It showed what clean, intuitive site and player designs look like. It proved that allowing embeds of full content wasn’t something to be feared. And by combining both of these elements, Hulu helped show that people were willing to watch longer-form content online.

But will Hulu be a victim of its own success? The premium online video landscape it helped usher in is a far cry from what it was a year ago. More networks are putting their content online as more people tune in to the Internet to watch video. How far will clean design get you when the networks and studios that own the content drop their exclusive with Hulu and decide to go it alone, or require you to prove you have a cable subscription in order to watch video online?

Despite all that doom and gloom, we’re not ones to count Hulu out (heck, they even made a believer out of Om). Jason Kilar spoke at our NewTeeVee Live conference last year and showed that he cares about users and obsesses over details (in a good way). He’s a smart guy who isn’t oblivious to the world around him.

As Liz wrote last year “Streaming web video is never going to be the be-all end-all, but as a happy Hulu beta tester, I would bet it’s gonna be big.” Hulu sure did get big. Now it just needs to show it can keep it that way.

We didn’t hit CES this year (we let the jkOnTheRun guys have all the fun), but thanks to magic of this wonderous thing called the Internet, all the NewTeeVee-related news we need to know is just a click away (and bursting our inboxes). Here are some notable tid-bits from the show. If you’re there and see something you like, drop us a line.

Vizio TVs Get More than Just Netflix Streaming; will also offer Amazon, Blockbuster, Pandora, Flickr, Yahoo widgets, will sport built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi and a remote with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. (Gizmodo)

Hulu Heading for SageTV Hardware; unlike other Hulu-to-TV solutions, it doesn’t require a PC in the mix. (ZatzNotFunny!)

Move Networks Optimizes Interface for Mobile Devices and Netbooks; adaptive streaming company customizes its player for Intel Atom-based mobile devices. (emailed release)

MySpace Coming to TV Sets; social network widget on their way to Toshiba and Samsung big screens, lets you interact with friends and send messages. (Wall Street Journal Blog)

Silicon Image Unveils LiquidHD; company hopes to unite various networking protocols to more easily connect PCs, consumer electronics devices, portable electronics and Internet connections. (VentureBeat)

Seagate Launches FreeAgent Theater HD Media Player; it’s a set-top box that transfers digital content via a hard drive. (Seagate)

Toshiba to Use Sony’s Cell Processor for New Set-Top Box; device will be able to record up to six HD channels at once and improve the look of any video. (The Associated Press)

Macrovision Working to Stream Web Video to TVs; the next version of the company’s interactive programming guide would include access to web video on connected TVs. (Multichannel News)

Panasonic Shows Off 1080p 3-D Set; Gizmodo says the picture looks good, but glasses are still dumb (and Stacey at GigaOM says 3-D sucks; its just a way to get you buy more gadgets). (Gizmodo)

Sling and DISH Team Up for DVR; the ViP 922 has 1TB of storage, can access five video sources (including satellite, broadband, over-the-air), and allows users to watch content from any computer or cell phone with web access. (CE Pro)

Sony Beefs Up Bravia Line; TVs to get connected directly (no external adapter) and offer Amazon VOD, YouTube and Yahoo. (CE Pro)

You know it’s a strange, finicky sign of the times when MySpace announces that it has launched a beta mobile video site that will stream video directly to handsets around the globe — but that news is almost immediately deflated by what it doesn’t include: namely iPhone support and Hulu content. That’s a bit unfair to MySpace, which must have worked hard with transcoding company RipCode to add video to the social network’s mobile site, which lets users watch their favorite community and premium content videos on the go. But since the service is streaming and not a progressive download, it won’t work on the iPhone. MySpace knew this was going to be a big deal and even included an explanation in its FAQ:

Why did MySpace choose to support RTSP-streaming at the launch rather than progressive download which would provide support for the Apple iPhone? Based on research from industry analysts, the majority of the mobile community has streaming-enabled devices, especially in the U.S. market. This is supported by MySpace’s own mobile web site traffic analysis. In addition, device manufacturers like RIM which have historically only supported progressive download, are now rolling out new BlackBerry devices supporting streaming video including the BlackBerry Bold, Palm Centro, Motorola Q9, LG Voyager, Nokia N95, and Samsung Instinct. By launching with support for mobile streaming, MySpace is reaching a wide community of subscribers.

If you have one of those aforementioned phones, you’ll be able to watch videos from the community and from the likes of MySpace’s branded channels such as TMZ, College Humor and VIMBY. But you won’t be able to watch anything from MySpace content partner Hulu (at least not at launch, according to a MySpace rep). This isn’t too surprising, as it’s highly unlikely that Hulu would let MySpace be the first to offer its content through mobile channels.

At the GigaOM Mobilize conference this past September, both MySpace and Facebook talked up their mobile initiatives, though they spoke in terms of communication rather than entertainment.

There was a time when this would have been big news, but mobile video in and of itself isn’t as impressive anymore, and there has been a lot of activity in the mobile video space lately. Joost launched an iPhone app this past weekend, MediaFLO is broadcasting the Victoria’s Secret fashion show on mobile devices tomorrow night, and Qik launched an alpha of its live-streaming service for select BlackBerries.

CBS Drops Moblogic; network stops creating new episodes; host Lindsay Campbell is still under contract with CBS, but evaluating new opportunities. (Moblogic: MediaMemo; Campbell: Beet.TV)

Netflix on Xbox Missing Sony Movies; omission not because of ill will between competing game console makers, rather Netflix didn’t get the proper licensing work done. (CNET)

Adconion Buys KTV Digital Media; acquisition will be used to create branded entertainment division to make content for advertising partners. (TVWeek)

Queen Rania of Jordan Receives YouTube Visionary Award; the queen honored for her work encouraging youth to overcome stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs. (Variety)

NBC Kicks Off “iCue” Facebook App; game challenges viewers to answer questions based on footage from real news events. (MediaWeek)

MySpace “UGC” Movie to Open Jan. 27; Faintheart gets a one-day, free-of-charge screening in UK cinemas and online. (The Hollywood Reporter) (See our previous coverage.)

GazProm Completes RuTube Acquisition; the YouTube of Russia believed to be picked up for $15 million. (TechCrunch)

Social network MySpace launched its new Primetime application today, which lets users watch full-length content from their user homepages and profile pages.

To use the new Primetime feature, users must first download the free app, but once it’s running they will have access to premium content from Hulu, Warner Bros., Sony as well as MySpace originals like Roommates. The player offers sharing through links and embeds, as well as a thumbnail links to related content and a searchable directory of additional content.

MySpace says this new PrimeTime has the potential to monetize more than 150 million pages with video content, and mathematically that is possible. The company arrived at this figure based on comScore numbers saying the site reaches 76 million people a month and assuming each of those people installed the app on both their home page and profile page. Voila! You’ve got 152 million. Of course, that’s dependent on all users installing the app in both places.

In addition to the new app, MySpace redesigned the Primetime home on the site with a more pronounced player and easier searching for content across TV shows, movies, originals and channels.

While Hulu is a joint venture between FOX and NBC, the premium content company isn’t exclusively aligning with the FOX-owned MySpace social network. Hulu is also part of Facebook Connect and was supposed to launch that aspect of its service back in August.

Remember when we gave you the scoop on that startup Auditude that’s trying to turn pirated TV clips into gold? Well, tonight it’s announcing that it’s signed its first TV network and video portal partners: MTV Networks and MySpace, respectively. Those are pretty significant pickups, considering that MTVN is owned by Viacom, which is suing YouTube for pirated clips of programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and MySpace is the second-largest U.S. video site.

Auditude’s system offers a significant opportunity to grow the overall potential of online video revenue. Here’s what happens today: Even if networks upload a official versions of their shows to the web, user uploads of the same bits will often get significantly more views because they get embedded in the right place, or they have more commonly searched keywords, or they isolate a particularly funny moment. So networks, in order to preserve the integrity of their own, pristine version, send out takedown notices and end up cutting out some of the most popular ways to view their own content. All those views, and the potential for revenue from them, go out the window.

New initiatives like YouTube’s Video ID aim to capitalize on that missed opportunity by allowing copyright holders to advertise against user uploads of their content. What separates Auditude from similar software offered by YouTube and third-party providers is that participating copyright holders don’t have to submit all the programs they want to police. Rather, Auditude uses its own analysis of TV streams to build data on everything that’s aired over the last four years.

Then, when Auditude scans a partner video site and finds an unauthorized match for that content, it overlays the user upload with a link to watch or buy an official version of the same video. It can also overlay standard video advertising.

Auditude CEO Adam Cahan formerly worked at both MTVN and Google. Auditude has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Greylock Partners that Cahan says is in the tens of millions. The previous incarnation of the company, before Cahan joined, had raised at least $1.1 million.

When we first wrote about Auditude we concluded it was pretty neat, but it really needed every network and video portal to sign on for its potential to be realized. One network and one portal is a pretty good start. And to get the one behind The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (which will both be included in the initial test on MySpace)? That’s a pretty big coup.

Did Roku Raise ‘Boku’ Bucks? Maker of the Netflix Player receives an undisclosed amount of Series C funding from Menlo Ventures. (peHUB)

Microsoft Turns to UGC Ads; new “I’m a PC” commercial features actual users from around the globe who uploaded video. (Ad Age)

Anystream and Voxant Re-Brand; recently merged companies will now be known as GrabNetworks. (Grab Networks)

Free Trial of NHL GameCenter Live; hockey fans can tune in online and watch games for free tomorrow, Oct. 30. (emailed release)

Dish Offers Multiple Viewpoints (Literally) for Election; satellite company’s mosaic interface will show six simultaneous news feeds on one screen through Nov. 7. (Broadcasting & Cable)

TidalTV Signs CNBC Content; online network to carry updates from the biz channel programming like The Hunt for Black Gold, and Saving General Motors. (TVWeek)

Study: MySpace Top Place for Moviegoers; Nielsen NRG says the social network is the top place 15 – 24 year olds look for information about new film releases. (Variety)