Vidize Blog

ITV has started blogging recently. You can find the individual blogs here.
Here’s a sample of the video blogging from Afghanistan:

With the writers’ strike over, a real question emerges – how much did the strike cost?
According to an article on E!, the strike cost an amazing 2.5 billion USD.
A report released Wednesday by Jack Kyser, the chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., has revealed that the three-month walkout by film and [...]

Another special delivery from Ask a Ninja:

According to Associated Press (as of a few hours ago):
Hollywood directors (DGA) reached a tentative contract deal Thursday with studios, a development that could turn up the pressure on striking writers to settle their 2-month-old walkout that has crippled the entertainment industry.
“Two words describe this agreement — groundbreaking and substantial,” said Gil Cates, chair of [...]

With the deal between News Corp and Dow Jones finally over, Rupert Murdoch is focusing on the Wall Street Journal. To this end, he has already “outsourced” the European and Asian operations to his son and heir.
In addition to all the changes to the Journal’s print edition, Murdoch plans to make the online edition free. [...]

Finally, Adobe has realized that the high price of the Flash Media Server was hindering its more wide adoption. I hope the open source alternative, Red 5, will still keep its momentum.
Here’s the summary:
The latest version of Flash Media Sever, which will ship in January 2008, will be come in three versions, ranging from free [...]

If you’ve expected ANY bad news from Paris, you can relax for at least a day. The Paris bureau of Reuters voted yesterday in favor of a 24-hour strike.
The strike is in protest at a ‘deliberate policy’ of staff reductions (see also BBC staff reduction).
‘The decision (to strike) demonstrates the concern of the [...]

Here’s a few tips from Cinetech on how to get better results from Youtube’s encoder.
1. Learn to shoot better quality videos for the Web.
2. Your source video needs to be ideally high resolution. For instance: MOV or AVI file, NTSC 720×480 or VGA 640×480.
3. You need to get a high quality video encoder. Keep in [...]

When the BBC announced they’ll cut their 1,800 of their workforce, they probably expected the unions to strike back. They did – as Guardian reports – with a threat for a strike unless BBC talk to them first.
As a result, BBC will delay the lay offs with two weeks (i.e. till November 5) while they [...]

“The killer of dissident reporter Anna Politkovskaya is known to Russian authorities but has not yet been charged…”. That’s the statement of the chief investigator on the case that appeared in an interview on Monday. Here’s a bit more from Reuters:
“We have so far not charged the killer but we know who he is,” [...]