NYTimes.com announced this week the launch of a new video platform that introduces video into more sections of the site and provides enhanced user functionality. This new platform emphasizes The Times’s strong commitment to video as an important journalistic medium. Players, now using a high-definition format, are available on the home page, article pages, in blogs and in the video library, making video an even more integral component of the NYTimes.com experience.

The video platform also introduces:

• Widescreen format – high-definition videos are now displayed in a 16×9 widescreen frame;

• Redesigned video library – library offers a clean layout and a black background for optimal viewing comfort;

• Individual video pages – an individual playback page for each video that provides a better viewing experience and enhanced searchability;

• “Most Viewed” – a continually updated list of the most viewed videos across the site; and

• Share tools – the ability to share videos to social sites such as Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mixx and Yahoo! Buzz.

“Demand for high-quality video is on the rise across the Web from both our users and our advertisers,” said Nicholas Ascheim, vice president, product management, NYTimes.com. “To meet this need, we have upgraded our technology, increased our production values and given video even more prominence across the site.”

“As our online audience continues to grow, video is an increasingly useful tool for Times journalists,” said Ann Derry, editorial director, video and television, The New York Times. “By further integrating video throughout the site, we can bring to life the rich stories and characters that are best experienced visually.”

The Times produces over 100 original videos per month, featuring breaking news and analysis, as well as enterprise and investigative reporting by Times journalists around the world, many of whom are shooting video themselves. The Times also continues to develop video series by well-known journalists such as David Pogue, Mark Bittman (The Minimalist), David Carr (The Carpetbagger) and A.O. Scott (Critics’ Picks). NYTimes.com/video currently houses over 3,000 videos. NYTimes.com also offers select videos from CNBC, MSNBC, Reuters and Bloggingheads.tv, as well as more than 15,000 movie trailers and clips. In recent weeks, NYTimes.com has begun hosting video at the top of the homepage, including live streaming video of the presidential and vice presidential debates.

The new video experience uses Brightcove 3, the latest version of Brightcove’s online video platform; The New York Times Company is an investor in Brightcove Inc.

According to Nielsen Online, NYTimes.com had 20.1 million unique visitors in September 2008, and was the No. 1 newspaper Web site in United States, a position it has long held.

Today at its Socialize Customer Conference, Pluck announced the launch of their Pluck Partner Program. The program was developed to expand collaboration and points of integration with complementary companies in order to enhance the utility, delivery, and performance of social media. The program has two categories, Service Partners and Technology Partners, and is launching with charter members that include Avenue A | Razorfish, Brightcove, Clickability, Endeca, IBM, iCrossing, Interwoven, Resource Interactive, and Saxotech.

“Our Partner Program, like our social media platform, is 100% customer-driven,” said Steve Semelsberger, senior vice president of Global Sales and Business Development for Pluck. “Pluck customers now have a distributed network of resources from which to draw when addressing their social media initiatives, while our partners gain increased visibility and opportunity.”

Pluck Service Partners include interactive and digital agencies, consultancies, web development firms, systems integrators, community moderation providers, and other professional services firms who contribute to the successful deployment and usage of Pluck SiteLife™, the leading social media platform for publishers, retailers and brands.

“Avenue A | Razorfish is happy to partner with Pluck to help leading brands employ social media and social influencers to meet their marketing and business objectives in the realm of Social Influence Marketing,” said Shiv Singh, VP and Global Social Media Lead for Avenue A | Razorfish.

“The two most significant trends in digital marketing over the past 10 years have been the growing importance of search and social media,” said Adam Lavelle, chief strategy officer, iCrossing. “By partnering with Pluck, we can integrate search and social to create greater connections for consumers and marketers.”

Pluck Technology Partners include content management systems, e-commerce platforms, search systems, and complementary utilities. Technology Partners work closely with Pluck on software integration and complementary usage strategies that best serve mutual customers.

Venture funds have always had the mindset of high growth potential + early stage = infinite investment return, all within the knowledge that the majority of their ventures will fail due to their high risk nature.  However these VC funds (one of which I used to work for), have gone above and beyond the normal risk/reward ration when it comes to online video.  And for those not 100% familiar with the industry, please note that the funding for online video properties dates back years before Youtube’s $1.6 billion dollar acquisition by Google (GOOG).

The early stage online video play was actually a start up called, FasTV, founded by Blair Harrison (who later founded iFilm which sold to Viacom, which is a tale for another day).  FasTV raised over $25 million dollars and created the first true premium destination for online video on the web.  The only problem was that they were around a decade early and they closed their doors in the late 90’s.

Since then there has been numerous start ups, all with their own niches in the industry:

Destinations: Youtube, Hulu, Metacafe, Veoh, Crackle (formerly Grouper).

Platforms: Brightcove, Maven Networks, The Platform, VideoEgg.

Video Ad networks: Tremor Media, BBE, Yume.

These companies have all raised from $15 million to $100 million each, and they are raising more seemingly on a daily basis.  The one’s listed above are the “successful” online video companies.  Which doesn’t mean they are profitable by any means, it just means that VC’s continue to fund them.  It would take up too much blogspace to begin naming the companies in the online video space that have gone under.

And what did last year look like for VC funding in the online video space?  NewTeeVee gave these stats for 2007:

“Profits may not have arrived for online video, but venture capitalists are still happy to pick up the bill. More and more U.S.-based, venture-backed online video companies are attracting more and more financing each year, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Some $460.5 million was invested in such startups in 2007, up from $266.9 million in 2006. And already, in the first quarter of 2008, another $217.3 million rained down on the category.”

Venture firms are some of the more intelligent and forward thinking funding execs out there, so why would they keep putting money into an industry that has seen so little of a return (please don’t bring up Youtube’s acquisition), on the whole the industry is wrought with an exceedingly high failure rate.  The main reason why they continue to invest is due to analyst reports.  Forrester expects online video advertising spending to roughly double this year to $989 million, then roughly double again to $1.86 billion in 2009. It puts the compound annual growth rate at 72 percent from 2007-2012, far exceeding any other type of interactive marketing growth.

Online video is here to stay, and there will be business models that evolve into fully profitable enterprises.  In my opinion this will be due to increasing the number of in-stream ad units users are willing to put up combined with decreasing bandwidth fees.  There is also the belief in the industry that relevant CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) campaigns could drive up the RPM (Revenue Per Thousand Impressions).