Online TV on TV

So Channel Five has become the first broadcaster to buy the rights to an online TV show, explicitly Sofia's Diary, Bebo's successor to the popular KateModern show.

Bebo says it 'represents a milestone for television broadcasting' and Five wants to 'play a role pioneering the next stage of entertainment.'

Interestingly, Sofia's Diary, like KateModern before it, is not funded by ads but by in-video brand placement from companies including Microsoft, Orange, Proctor and Gamble and Disney.

Viewing figures are around the 5 million mark on bebo and Five will be hoping to capture back some of the audience it has lost to online media over the past two years and it will be interesting to see if other broadcasters follow suit....

LeWeb3

So...We had three clients over at LeWeb3 this week...

• Wellington Partners chaired an 'engaging' debate between Emily Bell from The Guardian and Andrew Keen entitled 'Social Media: Is it killing our society?'. Read a blow by blow account here by Kevin Anderson

• Netvibes released the follow-up to Coriander, titled 'Ginger', to much fanfare. The private beta is so private not even the PRs get to try it. Hi Tariq?
  

• Charlie Muirhead, founder of t5m.com, was busy meeting and greeting various bloggers and journalists at the conference following the website's launch earlier this month.

The biggest announcement of the conference arguably comes from Bebo and its 'Open Application Platform'. Meaning brands can now build apps for deployment across the two platforms. More bang for your buck!