Okay, guys, it’s time to call it a day on yet another genre of online video — joining Roommate Comedies and iPhone App Reviews in the Online Video Vault of Overdoneness are shows about Craigslist. The only reason I feel comfortable putting this genre away, though, is that the reality series Craigslist TV might be as good as it’s going to get.

Two previous series that have explored the strange tales to emerge from the bulletin board service — INST MSGS and Missed Connections Live — did so by taking anonymously posted ads and projecting characters upon them. But Craigslist TV actually follows real Craigslist users from the moment of posting their ads to the end result, whether that’s meeting a cute stranger spotted at Subway or performing chores for free dressed as a ninja.

The production values are great — including the sound, which is always tricky in a documentary/reality format — and the choice of stories told. The key to any reality show is casting, and the producers here have a talent for finding outgoing and camera-friendly people. Sometimes, they’re almost a little too enthusiastic — 28-year-old Charity isn’t exactly “vivacious” about her open casting call for a husband. The more accurate word would be “crazed.”

But Megan, who’s looking for a futon subletter, manages to be energetic and relatable at the same time.

Beyond the fully-produced documentary episodes, there are also installments sent in by the adventurous Nikki, who’s using Craigslist to travel around the country — she promises to be a strong recurring character over the show’s life.

However, the episode length is an issue — while they’ve found great characters to showcase, there tends to be a little too much chatter with the subject and the middle section has an unfortunate habit of dragging. The worst offender is the four-part episode which documents aspiring fashion designer Michael Mullen’s efforts to get Sandra Bullock to wear a dress he designed for her to wear at the Oscars. Combined together, the installment is over 20 minutes in length, contains a lot of dead weight and doesn’t have a very satisfying conclusion. Other episodes are under ten minutes, but they could all use some slightly tighter editing.

With the exception of the length, though, it’s a great package, one that’s racked up consistent five-figure viewcounts since launching in May 2010 and may have me continuing to tune in.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Can Online Video Show Us the Future of Newspapers?

Monsoon Multimedia is soon coming to market with a new box called the Vulkano that incorporates place-shifting, time-shifting, web video and personal video sharing all in a single platform, eliminating the need to own multiple devices.

Monsoon is maker of the HAVA place-shifting device, a lesser-known competitor to Slingbox. The company is now making the same place-shifting technology available as part of its new product, enabling users to take live television, stream it over the Internet and watch it on other computers or a number of other devices. But it is adding a ton of other features, such as DVR capabilities and connectivity with various mobile devices.

The box enables viewers to have an integrated programming guide through which they can access broadcast TV content, time-shifted or DVRed content, and broadband video content from sites like YouTube and others all in one place. They can then view any of that content directly through their TV, as well as through their PCs and Android, Blackberry, iPhone or iPad devices on WiFi and 3G networks. Users can also schedule recordings and view those recordings by streaming to their preferred device, or easily transfer files of those recording to PCs or other devices.

Currently Vulkano only supports viewing YouTube content through the TV, using the YouTube API. But soon it will also support other services, according to Monsoon EVP of Sales and Marketing Colin Stiles. The company is looking to add content providers such as Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand and Sonic’s RoxioNow to the platform. In the meantime, users can view personal media via Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP).

The Vulkano has multiple configurations, including units with 8GB or 16GB of SD storage, as well as units with 500GB or 1TB of hard disk storage. Prices range from $259 for the 8GB SD-powered device to $379 for the version with a 1TB hard drive. Monsoon is taking pre-orders for the device at www.myvulkano.com for shipment in early August. The product will also soon be available through various online retailers and in select brick and mortar stores.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: Apple’s Path to the Living Room (subscription required)

Redbox has started to offer Blu-ray discs at 13,300 of its 23,000 its rental kiosks, the company announced today. Customers have to pay a slight premium for the discs, with rentals costing $1.50 a night, as opposed to the $1 rental price that Redbox is famous for. The company has announced that is going to expand the availability of Blu-ray discs to all of its kiosks by this fall.

Redbox hasn’t said yet how many Blu-ray titles it offers, and consumers can use the Redbox website to check which kiosks in their neighborhoods have Blu-ray rentals, but the site currently doesn’t offer any option to specifically search for or reserve Blu-ray titles. That means consumers will have to decide on the spot whether they’re willing to spend an extra $0.50 for the Blu-ray version of a movie.

Another challenge for Redbox could be that its kiosks can only offer limited inventory, with each kiosk storing up to 630 disks of up to 200 different movie titles. Introduce different formats to chose from, and the number of available titles will inevitably go down. Redbox seems to bank on the fact that eventually enough consumers will have Blu-ray players to make the choice between the formats obsolete. The company’s press release quoted numbers from the Digital Entertainment Group, estimating that there have been 19.4 million Blu-ray players sold in the U.S. so far.

Redbox also wants to extend its kiosk offering with an online streaming service will reportedly be unveiled this fall.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: Slow and Steady, Netflix Pulls Ahead in Streaming Video (subscription required)

Google TV-related products will eventually be as profitable for Logitech as its entire lineup or PC peripherals, CEO Jerry Quindlen said during an earnings call for the company’s first fiscal quarter today.

Logitech saw better than expected earnings during the quarter and in turn raised its sales outlook moderately (up from $2.3 billion to a range of $2.3 to $2.35 billion). Missing from that outlook is any increased revenue from Logitech’s Google TV set-top box dubbed Revue, which is scheduled to go on sale this fall. The company announced that Revue won’t contribute to its bottom line because it plans to reinvest any gross profit straight back into consumer marketing.

Asked about the motivation behind this arrangement during the company’s earnings call, Quindlen said that these investments reflect Logitech’s view that this is “a great opportunity” for the company to sell peripheral devices. He also hinted at the fact that the marketing investments may be part of Logitech’s deal with Google to be part of the initial launch lineup for the new platform by saying the spending was “not our discretion.”

Logitech has long said that it views its set-top box as an opportunity for add-on sales, with Quindlen telling me in an interview in May that Logitech is looking at video calling in the living room as an opportunity to sell some of its webcams (see the complete interview embedded below). Quindlen said during the earnings call that gaming on Google TV devices, for example with Flash games, would offer additional opportunities.

However, it looks like Logitech is going to expand its product line to actually sell apps as well. Quindlen didn’t want to share details about the company’s app monetization strategy during the earnings call, but the slides for today’s earnings (PDF) list apps as part of the company’s fall line of products. Quindlen said that there will be Logitech apps available at launch, and that the company is working on additional apps to be published down the line. These could include both apps for Android smart phones to remotely control Google TV devices, as well as apps residing on the device itself.

One question unanswered today was the pricing of the Logitech Revue set-top box. Google and Logitech are exclusively cooperating with Intel on the chip sets for Google TV devices, and TV manufacturers like Panasonic have in the past lamented the high price point of Google TV hardware. Logitech could decide to aggressively price its companion box to capture the market and then make money down the line with add-on sales.

Quindlen said today that the Logitech Revue is part of the company’s strategy to get Google TV in consumers’ hands, but not anything that will generate huge revenue by itself. In fact, he’d even be open to ditching the box altogether at some point and solely providing peripherals. From the earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha:

“(W)e may not be in the box business in the future. We haven’t made that strategic decision at this point. What we’re trying to do is, we want to see the box out there, the companion box is what I’m referring to, so that a standard consumer experience is established in the marketplace. And so we have a vested interest to see that happen.”

Related content on GigaOm Pro: TV Apps: Evolution from Novelty to Mainstream (subscription required)

Cable, Telco Execs Meet With FCC Again Over Possible Broadband Bill; talks over the FCC’s authority to regulate net neutrality issues continued this week. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Libraries Top Netflix, Redbox When It Comes to Loaning DVDs; your local library may not have online streaming, but U.S. libraries loan more DVDs each day than Netflix. (Yahoo News)

ESPN 3D Lines Up First Three College Football Games; network will present Boise State-Va.Tech, OSU-Miami and Clemson-Auburn contests in the enhanced format. (MultiChannel News)

Lovefilm, the Netflix-of-Europe, Signs Deal With Widevine; DRM should help Lovefilm to expand its presence on connected devices. (TechCrunch Europe)

YouTube’s Playlist Bar; video site is experimenting with a persistent playlist bar to display users’ video queue. (Google Operating System)

FCC Extends Comcast/NBCU Comment Period; opponents of the deal now have until August 19 to respond to Comcast’s latest filing. (MultiChannel News)

Lost In Val Sinestra: A Mesmerizing Movie Trailer Featuring Your Facebook Friends; Swisscom promotes its TV offerings with trailer that incorporates of your social graph. (TechCrunch)

Ex-Publicis Exec David Kenny Joins Akamai As President; Kenny will run Akamai’s general business operations, including global sales, marketing, engineering and networks. (paidcontent)

Good news for all those YouTubers who have a lot to say — everyone’s favorite online video site is now giving you more time to say it in. Five whole minutes more.

On the YouTube blog, the company announced today that all users can now upload video files that are up to 15 minutes long, up from the site’s previous (and long-running) limit of 10 minutes for non-partner videos.

Product manager Joshua Siegel wrote that the increase was due to adoption and confidence in its Content ID system, a fingerprinting technology that enables rights holders to take over or take down videos that have been uploaded by YouTube users without their permission. YouTube says that now, nearly three years after launch, “all of the major U.S. movie studios, music labels and over 1,000 other global partners use Content ID to manage their content on YouTube.”

YouTube might also just figure it has the network capacity to handle longer videos. The site has gradually added features and functionality that has boosted the quality of videos and potential file sizes that users can upload. In late 2008, YouTube started accepting HD videos and a few months later doubled the maximum file size limit. Last November it added support for 1080p video, and then a few weeks ago extended support for users to watch some especially large videos in their native 4096p resolution. With the capability to process all that HD video passing through its pipes, YouTube no doubt believed it could handle video uploads that were 50 percent longer.

To encourage users to take advantage of the new upload limit, YouTube is asking users to make videos detailing their “15 minutes of fame” and uploading them by August 4. YouTube will review videos tagged “yt15minutes” and will select a few of the more interesting to be highlighted on the YouTube homepage.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: Why Viacom’s Fight With YouTube Threatens Web Innovation (subscription required)

Everyone knows that Netflix’s future is in streaming, and as a result, the company is investing heavily in titles for its Watch Instantly service. But a closer look at Netflix’s financials underscore how the Internet has changed the movie distribution business, and how it is capitalizing on that trend. Netflix is spending its more money than ever on streaming video, in part because it costs less to deliver that content online than by mail.

According to its 10-K filing, Netflix spent $66 million in the second quarter 2010 to license streaming titles for its Watch Instantly service, compared with just $9 million that was spent in the prior-year period. (Hat tip to CNET) The acquisition of new and better content has helped drive its subscriber numbers up 42 percent over the past year, with 15 million subscribers at the end of the second quarter, compared with 10.6 million a year earlier. In addition, those subscribers are watching more streaming content than ever, with 61 percent using the service, compared to just 37 percent a year earlier.

But despite a huge increase in the amount of video streams it’s serving up through Watch Instantly, Netflix’s streaming costs haven’t increased proportionally. In the second quarter, the company said costs associated with delivery over third-party CDN networks only increased by $1 million versus the previous quarter. Netflix is benefiting from bandwidth costs continuing to fall exponentially as it grows its streaming business.

So the real cost of running its streaming business is in acquiring the content, not delivering it.

On the DVD side of the business, just the opposite is true. Netflix spent $24 million on DVDs last quarter, compared to $43 million during the previous year’s second quarter. For the first six months of 2010, the company shelled out $61 million on DVDs, which is down from $89 million during the first half of 2009.

But expenses associated with DVD delivery offset its reduction in purchase costs. According to Netflix, the costs of its DVD-by-mail business increased by $23.1 million in the second quarter. Due to the vast increase in its subscriber base, the number of discs shipped grew 9.3 percent, despite a 20 percent decrease in the number of DVDs per sub. Those costs could increase even further next year, as the U.S. Postal Service has announced plans to increase postage rates (again).

The good news is that Netflix’s streaming strategy appears to be working. It seems to have entered into a virtuous cycle in which it is able to sign up subscribers who are attracted to its streaming service, which enables it to reduce its spend on DVDs and put more cash toward acquiring streaming content, which will pull in even more subscribers.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: Three Reasons Hulu Plus is No Threat to Netflix (subscription required)

Barcelona-based video streaming startup Flumotion is celebrating the world’s first WebM live stream this week with a live feed from the GUADEC conference in The Hague. The conference, dedicated to the open source GNOME desktop, is a fitting coming-out for the codec, which was open sourced at Google’s I/O developers conference in May, and it seems to generate some significant interest: Early reports mention more than 100 concurrent viewers.

That doesn’t sound that much — until you realize that this is not only a niche audience event, but that most users aren’t actually able to watch the stream without installing a new browser. Opera is the only browser maker to have integrated WebM into its regular releases. Chrome users still have to install an early access release usually reserved for developers, and Firefox users will have to resort to the most recent beta version of the browser.

I asked Flumotion’s co-founder and CTO Thomas Vander Stichele when WebM will matter to the rest of us, and when it’s going to reach its tipping point, and he sent me the following reply via email:

“WebM will be important for the mass audience when Firefox and Chrome start supporting it natively outside of non-beta releases. The tipping point will be when either Microsoft or Apple ship WebM by default in Internet Explorer or Safari.”

Safari users may be out of luck for the foreseeable future: Apple CEO Steve Jobs has slammed WebM for potentially violating patents. Microsoft on the other hand has said that it will hold out until the format is more mainstream.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: What Does the Future Hold For Browsers? (subscription required)

The hypothetical I’ve heard posed frequently over the last year or two is this: When is online video going to get its Lost — a creative, well-produced, buzzworthy series that offers enough intrigue to keep audiences engaged? I’ve heard some people answer that question with “Never,” saying that web series budgets and talents aren’t up to the challenge. But that was before Ark premiered on Hulu last Friday.

Developed and financed by the now-defunct 60 Frames, directed by Trey Stokes and created and written by Robbie Thompson, Ark is a sci-fi thriller that doesn’t give its secrets away easily.

The first episode is largely dialogue-free, opening with Connie (Xena the Warrior Princess‘s Renee O’Connor) finding herself in an forest in space, and subsequent episodes push closer and closer to the audience understanding who Connie is and what she’s doing there.

Ark pulls off a high-quality project, including overall top-of-the-line visual effects (minus some awkward green-screening in episode 1), on a extremely limited budget: $50,000, which is about a fifth of what was spent on the Stage 9/Crackle sci-fi series Trenches. (Your sci-fi trivia of the day: Ark was shot partially on a standing set that devoted Firefly fans might recognize from the episode “Bushwhacked.”)

There have been sci-fi series with great production values. There have been sci-fi series with great writing. But Ark is the rare combination of the two.

When I say that Ark has great writing, what I mean is that the drawn-out reveal of the show’s central mystery is so compelling that it kept me enthralled for nine episodes. Of course, because Ark‘s main draw is that mystery, I’m going to advise that you don’t read the below unless you mind spoilers.

Seriously, spoilers below.

Are you ready?

Okay, spoilers start…

Right…

NOW.

HAH. Gotcha. I lied. There are no spoilers here. Why? Because the first season of Ark concludes with no firm answers, but instead a teasing cliffhanger on par with “the hatch is open.” I suppose that’s a spoiler, the fact that there are no answers to the show’s major mysteries, and to write it here might dissuade some of you from checking it out. But Stokes, via phone, does promise that they do know the rest of the story, and they hope to continue it.

Stokes put the likelihood of there being a new season of Ark at 50 percent. “Everyone wants to do one, and we owe people an ending. It’s just a matter of funding and how it does [on Hulu],” he said.

Executive producer Gabe Sachs, on the other hand, puts the odds at 85 percent, though according to him, “That’s to do with confidence — we’re going to do whatever it takes to sell the story, and would love to do a second season.” Some of that confidence comes from the fact that as of today, he and partner Jeff Judah control the rights to Ark, which means that they’re free to pursue other opportunities for the series.

That may include transferring the series to television as opposed to remaining a web series, though both options have their drawbacks according to Sachs. “If we did it for TV, we’d hopefully partner with someone who has the same vision for [the show], and there wouldn’t be as many budget constraints. But with the web, we’d have total control.”

Ark is currently geo-blocked on Hulu, though Stokes says that they plan to release the episodes for international audiences on YouTube at some point down the line (there’s no specific time frame for that plan). According to Stokes, the show’s performance on Hulu “is doing very well so far — Hulu is very interested in it, asking us what else we’d like to do and what other projects we have in mind.”

Whether Ark becomes another successful web-to-television transfer or a web series powerhouse is thus yet to be determined. But as much as I feel that the web video world needs to support great content like this, as a viewer I have to admit that I’m having a hard time caring where the next episodes come from. Because, ultimately, I just really want to know how the story ends.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Should You Super-Syndicate Your Web Series?

Rumors that Apple is cooperating with TiVo on the next generation of its Apple TV device caused TiVo’s shares to spike earlier this week, going up as high as $9.24, only to fall back down to $8.51 in after-hours trading today. The rumors were prominently picked up by the Barron’s blog Tech Trader Daily, but short on details, and there’s a lot to be skeptical about:

• Apple’s upcoming TV device is supposedly all about streaming, foregoing a hard drive for very little Flash memory, but TiVo DVRs are still local content devices at heart. The whole notion of DVR time-shifting is built around the idea that you save shows and movies on your local hard drive.
• Steve Jobs doesn’t like broadcasting. The iPod was initially built on chips that made it possible to receive FM radio, but Apple never embraced this functionality.
• Apple would have to support CableCARD to make it possible for its users to record cable TV programming – which could turn the Apple user experience into the same nightmare that everyone else is facing. Not going to happen.

However, there’s still hope for TiVo fans: From everything we know so far, it looks like the next-generation Apple TV device will be based on iOS, essentially bringing iOS apps to the TV screen. Now what if TiVo was working with Apple on an app that made it possible to stream content from your DVR straight to your TV? This would enable TiVo users to easily enable multi-room DVR capability by just popping an Apple TV next to every other set they own. Want to watch TiVo in your entire house? There’s an app for that.

The idea isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem. TiVo is already in the business of selling software that allows you to watch your recordings on your computer, so adding the Apple TV to the mix would make sense — and it could bring in some additional revenue, provided that the app isn’t given away for free. It could also help the company to stay relevant in an age where over-the-top devices and cheap no-name DVRs provided by pay TV operators are eating its lunch.

So why should Apple do this? After all, isn’t the company planing to make money with $0.99 streams of TV shows? Again, it’s helpful to take a look at the iPod. 99-cent pricing helped to popularize the iPod, but it’s not paying the bills for Apple, which only keeps only a few cents on the dollar. And the iPod wouldn’t have been a huge success if it weren’t for the availability of free content. I’m not even talking about piracy for once, but about consumers ripping their own CDs. Well, the same can’t legally be done with DVDs, which is why it doesn’t hurt Apple to have another legal avenue to get content on its device.

Apple is betting that people will eventually buy all their media à la carte. But so far, some 90 percent of all U.S. TV viewers still subscribe to pay TV. The company needs to offer those 90 percent some way to ease into the Apple TV ecosystem. An app strategy might just be the right way to do so.

Related content on GigaOm Pro: Connected Consumer Market Overview, Q2 2010 (subscription required)

A local court in far east Russia has banned YouTube as well as four other sites, according to multiple reports. The court, which is in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, ruled that local Internet service provider Rosnet could block its users from accessing the world’s largest video sharing site due to extremist videos that had been uploaded by some of its users.

Despite the fact that YouTube has tools in place to allow Internet service providers to request the site to block access to individual videos, the court ruled that the entire site be blocked. In particular, YouTube came under fire for hosting “Russia for Russians,” a video that was found to contain extremist elements and, according to the Moscow Times, had been placed on the Justice Ministry’s federal list of banned extremist materials.

When asked for comment, a YouTube spokesperson responded with the following statement: “We have received reports that a district court in Russia has ordered a local ISP to block access to YouTube. We are looking into the matter and are working to ensure that service is not interrupted.”

The four other sites that the court ordered Rosnet to block included three online libraries — Lib.rus.ec, Thelib.ru and Zhurnal.ru — as well as Web.archive.org, all of which were found to contain Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The Hitler memoir had been blacklisted by a local court in March.

YouTube is no stranger to web censorship, as it has been blocked in a number of countries. Thailand, Turkey, Brazil, China and most recently, Pakistan, have all acted to cut off access to YouTube over the past several years.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: Why Viacom’s Fight With YouTube Threatens Web Innovation (subscription required)

Lee Takes Over As President Of ABC Entertainment Group; ABC Family President Paul Lee will take over as president of ABC Entertainment Group for Steve McPherson, who resigned. (Deadline Hollywood)

Comcast’s Burke: ‘With NBC, Our Ad Business Will Be Worth $10 Billion’; advertising is only a $2 billion business for the cable operator annually, but that will change, as Comcast expects the NBCU deal to result in roughly $10 billion in advertising revenue. (paidContent)

Old Spice Sales Double With YouTube Campaign; body wash sales have increased 107% in the past month in part thanks to that social media marketing campaign. (Mashable)

‘Social TV’ Startup Philo Announces Funding, Apps; the privately held company’s investors include North Bridge Venture Partners, DFJ Gotham Ventures, ENIAC Ventures and television producer Stephen Lambert. (Multichannel News)

Virgin Media Posts Record Growth, TiVo Box Coming Q4; Virgin Media added a net total of 9,100 new households to its cable subscription base, with revenue growing 7 percent to £964 million. (paidContent)

Turner Sports To Drive 3-D Coverage At PGA Championship; the cable rights-holder to the 92nd PGA championship will make the 3-D coverage available to Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable. (Multichannel News)

Online Video Use Set to Soar; by 2014, the number of U.S. online video viewers will represent 77 percent of Internet users, or 193.1 million people, according to eMarketer’s forecasts. (AdWeek)

Netflix users can now search the entire Watch Instantly catalog through their Sony PlayStation 3, the company’s VP of product development Greg Peters just announced in a blog post. Peters said that search is the first of a number of upgrades coming to devices like the PS3. From the post:

“(I)f you’re a PS3 user, you can now search for a movie or TV episode on your TV via your PS3. No need to go back to your computer to add it to your Queue. We have more cool features in store with this continuous improvement architecture so stay tuned.”

Of course, the big feature that everyone is waiting for is the ability to access Watch Instantly without a disc. Currently, PS3 users have insert a special Netflix disc into their system every time they want to access the streaming service.

Netflix said that this would be the case until late 2010 when the company first launched Watch Instantly on the PS3, and there have been reports recently that users will be able to ditch the disc as early as this fall. Netflix didn’t respond in time for this article to comment on the specific timing of this shift.

Update: A Netflix spokesperson told us that this update is definitely coming, but didn’t have a specific date to share.

Related content on GigaOm Pro: Infrastructure Overview, Q2 2010

3-D TV may be the most-hyped consumer electronics trend of 2010, but it’s not actually where the money is: That’s the gist of a new report from iSuppli, which estimates that only around 4.2 million 3-D TV sets will ship worldwide this year. Internet-enabled TV sets, on the other hand, will ship at a rate of 27.7 million this year, representing 124.9 percent growth.

iSuppli doesn’t doubt that 3-D TV will eventually become more mainstream, but the limited availability of 3-D content, expensive glasses and interoperability issues are causing many people to hold out on the new trend. Oh, and I guess those warnings that you shouldn’t watch 3-D when you’re drunk, pregnant or elderly don’t really help either…

On the other hand, Internet-enabled TV sets are quickly becoming mainstream, with iSuppli estimating that global shipments will reach 148.3 million units by 2014, representing 54 percent of the total flat-panel TV market. 3-D TV shipments will reach 60.5 million units that year.

This rate of growth is also good news for the semiconductor business: Revenue from chips used for Internet-enabled TV sets will reach $2 billion by 2014, up from $222 million in2009, iSuppli estimates.

Of course, these numbers also show that strategies to enter the living room could soon shift: This year, many companies are still betting on separate boxes to bring platforms like Google TV or Boxee to consumers. However, those boxes may have a very limited shelf life if every second TV sold is going to directly connect to the Internet in a matter of years.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user bark.

Related content on GigaOm Pro: Are We Putting the 3-D Cart Before the Horse? (subscription required)

Online video curation startup Vodpod launched mobile apps on the iPhone and Android mobile platforms today. The new apps, which are live in the Apple App store and Android Market, are designed to give its users a new way to discover mobile videos.

Vodpod has added social discovery to its feature set, enabling users to begin following other members and feeds on the site. By choosing to follow the accounts of others that have curated videos, Vodpod users can now get an inline feed of content relevant to their interests. It is taking the social discovery aspect one step further with apps that enable viewing of those feeds on mobile devices.

The new Vodpod apps feed in videos relevant to users that have been curated by the other accounts that they follow. The apps, which are built on the Vodpod API, show how others could use that resource to build similar apps or incorporate Vodpod data into their own existing apps. According to an email by Vodpod CEO Mark Hall, the iPhone app only took about five weeks to build, which shows how easily the Vodpod social discovery features could be integrated into other apps.

Vodpod isn’t the only company working on making sharing videos more social over mobile devices. Clicker just released new social features and mobile apps that enable users to connect with their friends to share what they’re watching and find new videos they haven’t seen before. And apps like Tunerfish, Miso and Philo enable users to check in to TV shows and web videos that they can share with other users.

(Disclosure: Vodpod is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.)

Related content on GigaOM Pro: To Ship or Not to Ship – Product Launch in the Smartphone Era (subscription required)

Envivio announced today that it has shaken up its management team, bringing in a new CFO and COO to help lead the company, while also raising an additional $15 million in new financing.

Envivio, which provides encoding and transcoding technology for media companies and large service providers, said it closed $15 million in new financing from existing venture capital investors and banking sources. The mezzanine investment is a mix of $7.5 million in venture financing and a $7.5 million line of credit.

In addition to the financing, Envivio says its Chairman of the Board, Gianluca Rattazzi, will take a closer role in the management structure, taking on the title of executive chairman and helping to lead corporate and business development. The company has also hired new senior management members, bringing in finance veteran Erik Miller as its new CFO and Kevin O’Keefe as its new COO. They replace former CFO John McAdoo and COO Rich Stanfield, who were brought on board less than two years ago when Envivio last raised capital.

The company’s last financing round came in September 2008, when it raised $25 million in a funding round led by Harbourvest, Atlantic Bridge and Samsung Ventures. Crédit Agricole Private Equity, Crescendo Ventures, Innovacom (France Telecom), Harbinger Venture Management, Intel Capital, NTT Finance, Saints Capital, Sigma Designs and Solidarity Fund QFL have also invested in the company. Altogether Envivio has raised approximately $72 million since being founded in 2000.

Despite the management shakeup, Envivio appears to be doing well; it says sales have grown more than 100 percent year-over-year, driven by increased need for multi-bit rate encoding solutions. It says it’s involved in new service offerings and trials with the five top cable providers in North America, while also expanding its business with channel partners such as Ericsson  in North America and Europe, Huawei in Asia and the Middle East, and SeaChange in the U.S. and other international markets.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: The Next Big Thing in Video: Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (subscription required)

One of the funniest and raunchiest video game web series out there, The Legend of Neil returned this week with the premiere of its third and final season. In today’s Q&A, director Sandeep Parikh (who you also saw dancing and kung fu fighting this morning in the newest Guild music video) discusses what we can look forward to in the new episodes, his upcoming blind script deal with Comedy Central and why, exactly, he might not make any money on Season 3.

NewTeeVee: So, tell me what we can look forward to in Neil Season 3.

Sandeep Parikh: We kind of threw everything but the kitchen sink at Season 3. We have seven episodes to do it in, but they’ll definitely be a little longer and a lot more epic and a lot more raunchy. Just, more fun.

I really think this season, more than any other, we had a lot more fun in the writing process. And we had a better handle on our characters and where we wanted to take the story than ever before. In a way that became really freeing. So, bigger, better, more epic and a finale that will be unforgettable.

Legend of Neil
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NewTeeVee: Why did you decide to end it on season 3?

Parikh: After the first couple of episodes of the first season, I knew this was the story of Legend of Neil was not episodic, it had a beginning, middle and end. It’s not as episodic a product as, say, The Guild or most television sitcoms — it’s more of a serial show. It’s about a guy who gets sucked into a game, so either he has to beat the game or get defeated by the game.

So I posed that question to myself very early on and I love the trilogy format, it’s sort of an ancient storytelling format. I grew up watching Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and Indiana Jones — before they made that unspeakable fourth movie. These were all trilogies that I thought were really cool, and I just wanted to emulate that.

NewTeeVee: What’s the one episode we should be looking forward this season?

Parikh: It’s hard to pick the episode I like the best, because I end up spending so much time with each of them. Because Legend of Neil has so many effects shots and we score every moment of the show — it’s all original score — I spend a lot of time with each episode in post-production. And because of that, they all kind of have a special place in my heart for different reasons.

NewTeeVee: Will you be making an appearance in the third season?

Parikh: Well, we gotta keep it a surprise, right? I don’t want to spoil that. Let’s just say that there are some Guild crossovers in Season 3.

NewTeeVee: Like the characters from the game?

Parikh: No, the actors. And I may or may not be included in that.

NewTeeVee: So with the conclusion of Neil, what’s next?

Parikh: Comedy Central has given me a blind television script deal. Comedy Central and Atom, they pushed for this — it was a part of our Neil season 3 deal — and so now I’m going to focus on making Comedy Central a kick-ass TV show. That’ll be the next thing.

But at the same time I’m going to continue to create things for the web; Tony [Janning, who co-wrote Neil] and I are going to be working together on some web stuff — nothing I can officially announce. I also still owe Atom a couple of pilots from a previous deal, so I’ll be working on those as well.

NewTeeVee: And the blind TV script deal won’t be a Legend of Neil adaptation?

Parikh: No, it’ll be a brand new concept. I can’t go into details about it because I don’t know them yet.

NewTeeVee: What’s the working relationship been like with Atom?

Parikh: It’s been phenomenal. There are folks who have been working there for all three seasons, and they all seem to genuinely love and get the show. On a personal level it’s been great. We’ve all kind of become friends.

NewTeeVee: Was there an increased budget for season 3?

Parikh: Yeah, without going into specifics we did receive an increase in budget — you’ll see that. It’s still not television money by any means, but it was a great gesture from Atom in saying that, ‘Hey, this is our flagship show, we want to help you guys in any way that we can.’ That was great.

And we threw it all on the screen. I didn’t do a really good job budgeting anything for myself. I still view it as a calling card for me, you know, and rather than pocket an extra thousand dollars here or there it’s just more important to me that I make a good show and have it be a beacon for my work.

NewTeeVee: What you’re saying is that you forwent a fair amount of your producer’s fee for the show?

Parikh: Yeah, well, we’ll see if I got one of those by the time it’s all over. This year we have double the visual effects shots — over 400 this year alone — and that’s going to soak up a lot of time and money. We just kind of threw it all on there.

Everyone was still working for those web rates that we all love, but we also found that we had a little more money this time, but we also had a lot more enthusiasm from the cast and crew, and people willing to donate their time to make the show awesome.

Picture courtesy of Flickr user vagueonthehow.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): By The Numbers: Budget Analysis of a Web Series

Hey parents — you may no longer have to shell out money for DVDs to keep your kids entertained, as long as you have a Netflix subscription. By adding a wealth of childrens’ content to its instant streaming service, the subscription video company is going after the next generation of online video viewers today, with new streaming titles from Nickelodeon, PBS and Disney.

Just by clicking on its “New TV Shows” selection, instant streaming users will see that Netflix’s addition of new streaming titles clearly meant to appeal to younger audiences. The section includes a vast collection of kid-friendly titles, including PBS’ Barney, Kipper and Thomas & Friends, as well as Nickelodeon’s Blues Clues, Wonder Pets, Dora the Explorer, Spongebob Squarepants, Fairly Odd Parents, Hey Arnold! and Drake & Josh. For slightly older kids, the new titles also include Disney’s Hannah Montana and Jonas L.A..

Adding kid-friendly titles will be a boon to parents, especially to those who have Netflix streaming content available in the living room through connected TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles or broadband set-top boxes. Those parents will no longer be subject to the whims of PBS or Nickelodeon’s scheduling, or have to purchase DVDs of their kids’ favorite TV shows to keep them happy.

The addition of kids’ content is also a coup for Netflix, which is trying to differentiate itself from a recently announced subscription service from Hulu Plus, which like Netflix, aims to make TV content availability on PCs and connected devices for a low monthly subscription fee. But while Hulu’s service is limited mostly to content from its broadcast TV parents and content partners, Netflix has been writing checks to license cable TV programming.

On the company’s earnings call, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings admitted that he saw Hulu as a direct competitor. And in his management commentary of second-quarter results, Hastings said that the company would add a mix of exclusive and non-exclusive TV content to bolster interest in the streaming service, in a move that seems to be aimed at countering the emerging threat from Hulu.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: Three Reasons Hulu Plus is No Threat to Netflix (subscription required)

Blip.tv Develops Pre-roll That Offers Free Downloads on Other Devices; developers at the online video startup have developed ads that could allow users to download material on gaming consoles remotely via a pre-roll ad. (Ad Age)

Discovery Promotes Digital Media Head Campbell; corporate development exec Bruce Campbell will gain additional responsibilities as chief development officer and general counsel, handing over his duties as president of Digital Media to Peter Liguori, Discovery’s COO. (paidContent)

UMG Tries to Undermine ‘Safe Harbor’ Rules for Online Video Sites; in an amicus brief, the EFF argues that UMG’s effort to hold Veoh responsible for infringing content uploaded by users would thwart federal law. (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Some Netflix Subscribers Might be Better Off With Redbox; nearly a third of Netflix members may be spending over a dollar a movie, according to FeedFlix. (High-Def Digest)

Ooyala Now Supports Monetization of HTML5 Video; the online video platform company’s HTML5 video player now supports dynamic ad insertion for IAB-standard ads on iPads and iPhones. (VideoNuze)

‘YouTubers’ Unite for Web-Video Contest; the Open Internet Coalition has extended the deadline for submissions to “America’s Got ’Net,” its online network-neutrality video contest, from July 31 to Aug. 15. (Multichannel News)

Steve Jobs’ Mark On ABC’s Lost; the Smartest CEO in Tech influenced one of the past decade’s most innovative TV shows. (Fortune)

NASA Streamlines Online Video With VMIX; NASA is now using the VMIX online video platform to launch and power multimedia content on their flagship www.nasa.gov website. (press release)

Celebrity-infused comedy site Funny or Die seems to be moving away from scripted content in favor of reality stunts these days. And not just reality stunts, but reality stunts invoking 90s nostalgia. First it put Jewel in a fake nose and planted her in a karaoke bar….

Undercover Karaoke with Jewel from Jewel

And now we have Joshua Jackson, who’s been setting the hearts of young ladies afire since The Mighty Ducks trilogy, descending on Comic-Con to host his own side event: Pacey-Con, a convention meant to celebrate all things Pacey Witter (his character on the teen soap phenomenon Dawson’s Creek).

Pacey-Con with Joshua Jackson from Joshua Jackson

Photos from Pacey-Con had leaked thanks to the Livejournal community Oh No They Didn’t, including the fact that Jackson was selling “fan fiction” he’d written for $10 a pop. And if I’m to be honest, the whole thing seemed a lot funnier when it was just Joshua Jackson doing it on his own, as opposed to an orchestrated FOD event.

But the above video includes some choice moments, including Jackson’s casual dismissal of his current hit series on Fox, Fringe, as being a way to fund his fan fiction habit. Also, the security guards at Comic-Con (which never pass up an opportunity to yell at a dude) are in fine form.

End result — I somehow missed Pacey-Con while I was there this weekend, but I am glad there’s video documentation of it taking place.

UPDATE: Wondering who approached who to work on this project? Well, according to a Funny or Die representative via email, “Josh wanted to work with us, and he was open to playing off Dawson’s Creek if we found the right angle. We did some brainstorming, and away we went.”

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