Shut Fox Down

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Transcript byNewsy: http://www.youtube.com/user/NewsyTech?feature=guide BY DAVID EARL Online video providers have joined the upfront. It's an annual event in NYC where cable and networks pitch their shows to advertisers in pursuit of the almighty dollar. Here's Fox Business with the headline that's not gonna make the old guard happy. "This year, Yahoo!, Google, YouTube, are among the websites mimicking the old TV pitch and staging upfront presentations of their own. It's a battle of the screens." It's been called the most organized push ever from the online crowd. They're actually calling it Newfront. And, well, why don't you judge it for yourself. Here's the pitch: And online providers are even using broadcasting pros to add original content to their websites. Katie Couric goes to Yahoo! ... Heidi Klum is building playlists for AOL. Here's the WSJ. "It's a way to pull big advertising dollars away from TV and onto the web. FLASH They're all saying this is the year TV and ad buying people that you gotta put your money on the web." And CNBC says ad buyers are gonna want to follow the lead, because YouTube just handed up info on a prized demo. "Men 18-35, saying that they spend more time streaming video than watching TV and that one third of that demographic visits YouTube multiple times a day." But will this push to the web turn out to be all talk? AdWeek interviewed ad buyer Rino Scanzoni. "While he doesn't doubt that Web video will eventually grab more dollars, he doesn't see the urgency right now for an upfront. 'It's kind of absurd,' he said. 'With TV, there's scarcity, and you can wrap your arms around the market.' That's tough to do on the Web where the choices are infinite and audiences aren't predictable." Other online video services offering upfront presentations include music site Vevo and Microsoft.