Video site Guba, one of the most interesting players in the space, has released an affiliate program that will pay you 25 cents for every new free (US based) account resulting from a clickthrough of an embedded video on your site. The video doesn’t have to be your own, it just has to be embedded on your web page or blog. Registering for an account lets users upload video, leave comments and subscribe to videos by tag. It’s an intriguing move because account signups themselves make Guba no money. The free video pages don’t have ads on them but are set up to drive people to the low cost premium videos for download to rent or buy. Guba previously made the news for offering video downloads at a much lower price than competitors, creating a product that hunts copyrighted video online and landing some of the first online distribution deals with major movie studios. Other startups paying users in the online video space include Revvr and Flixya, though both of those companies are offering 50/50 revenue splits of the AdSense revenue generated from their video pages. That model has its charm and could work well for sites with big stars (like some of the users on YouTube) but seems less appealing for most users and in Flixya it could encourage people to upload video they don’t own so they can profit from AdSense around it. In one sense I’m not sure how different this is than paying people for referrals via embedded video they don’t own (Guba), but that seems more legitimate than wrapping AdSense around someone else’s YouTube video on Flixya. Guba’s move is a real gamble though. As long as there is no advertising on the video pages, free accounts will not directly generate any money. The site’s business model seems to be based on driving people to the premium downloads section of the site. One day rentals cost between 49 and 99 cents, purchase from five dollars to ten. Will the revenue generated from sales and rentals alone make up for the free accounts that Guba pays affiliates for? Is it a desperate move to generate publicity in the face of YouTube’s huge mindshare in the market? I think it might work. I think people will display Guba videos and their viewers will sign up for free accounts. I think people want video on demand and a → Read More

Guba, who recently added professional content from Warner and Sony to its user generated lineup, announced today that it’s dropping prices on rentals and purchases. View-On-Demand (VOD), a 24 hour rental priced from $1.79 to $2.99 will drop to $.49 for catalog titles to $.99 for new titles. Download-To-Own (DTO) will go from a range of $9.99 to $19.99 to $4.99 for catalog titles and $9.99 for new releases. Guba’s CEO Tom McInerney said Guba is making this decision to test the demand impact and build the brand: “I think what’s interesting here is actually trying to get at what prices for a digital download make sense for consumers. No one has done a reasonable test here. We’re losing money but the data will be very valuable to bring back to the studios. I’m quite curious myself.” McInerney further indicated that demand has been higher for ownership than rental which is contrary to previous consumer research, so it will be interesting to see if these prices tilt the mix towards rental. $.49-$.99 is pretty darn cheap. DRM still limits the number of devices and copies, the content still plays on a Windows Media Player on a 640 * 480 screen, so the overall offering has not changed save the price. But more titles continue to come online and MCInerney indicated it will reach 1,000 within 3 months, so at least there’s a broader selection than when first previewed here. Was it a sign of desperation? “Things are selling well,” McInerney said. Whatever ‘well’ is, they could be higher. Obviously, you don’t drop prices if product is flying off the virtual shelves and it’s a lot harder to go back up. So it’s a gamble on Guba’s part that it will drive some serious demand and help goose the studios to lower their wholesale prices. At least, it’s further evidence that Guba has the trust of the studios, which will help its potential exit opportunities somewhere down the road. Comments on the initial post here indicated TechCrunch readers were unimpressed with the initial offer for the price. Is it more attractive now? → Read More

Online video service Guba, fresh from distribution deals with several major movie studios, has launched a new technology that it claims will automatically detect and flag copyrighted video footage, even if that video has been altered. The company says it intends to license the technology, nicknamed “Johnny” (after Johnny Mnemonic), to other video sharing sites. “Johnny” was developed in partnership with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). This could really change the online video landscape, if it works. Goodbye Animal Planet clips on YouTube, for one thing. Guba says that more than one million TV shows and movies are already included in its filter. That filter was an essential part of the deals the company has made recently with movie studios. The technology itself is a proprietary implementation of artificial intelligence four years in the making. It could be applied in any context including crawling the web, Guba co-founder Tom McInerney told me. Johnny finds and flags copyrighted video content, the business rules used to respond to that content can be determined by whoever licences it. Guba says they are already talking with other video sharing sites about Johnny. McInerney says the technology also makes Guba much more viable as acquisition bait, especially since the 8 year old company hasn’t taken any outside funding it would need to multiply. If other online video services have an effective, automatic way to monitor copyright made available to them – will they choose to use it? Or are many of these sites in reality made possible by the availability of copyrighted materials? Guba’s McInerney told me that in a perfect world Guba would be full of South Park clips, but given the lawsuits he’s sure are coming it only made sense to dedicate resources to creating the technology behind Johnny. It may be time to start working on making better home movies and video blogs. If Guba works then a lot of theoretical questions about copyright could be faced with a technological answer. Neil Kjeldsen helped with this story. → Read More

Online video site Guba is clearly in the good graces of Hollywood these days. Fresh on the heels of last week’s deal with Warner, Guba announced a second internet film distribution deal with Sony this evening. Favorites like Spider Man 2 headline the content. In the short-term the experience will mirror the Warner deal, so many of the limitations/issues raised by TechCrunch readers after the last post remain. Still, the deal is good for Guba – any distinction is a plus in the crowded online video space. One of the more interesting aspects to the deal is the fact that it’s Sony. It’s a toe in the water; not a dramatic move, but at least it’s something. With hardware and gaming and limited internet success to date, will this deal be one of many that signal a change in Sony’s digital and internet strategy? → Read More

Guba, a pioneer in the user-generated video content space, became a pioneer of another sort today, when Warner Brothers’ film and television content went on sale on Guba.com at 2 PM PST. Through its deal with Warner, Guba will initially sell almost 200 movie and television titles (quickly expanding shortly thereafter), ranging from new releases like “Good Night and Good Luck” to ‘classic’ television content like “The Jetsons”. Guba will offer two services to users. View-On-Demand (VOD) is priced from $1.79 to $2.99 and affords the user a 24 hour rental. Download-To-Own (DTO) will range from $9.99 to $19.99 for newer titles and allows unlimited viewing on 2 computers and 1 portable device, while allowing a single DVD burn for backup. The service will play content through Windows Media Player on a 640X480 screen. Downloads are progressive and will run up to 1.3MB/second. The deal sounds similar to the Warner/BitTorrent deal, but Guba is out to consumers first, so kudos to them. To be honest, my money was on Apple to get there first since the Pixar/Disney merger. But Apple’s power probably worked against them here. Having a broader online distribution network in place will give the studios more leverage in negotiations. As to Guba being one of the chosen few, CEO Tom McInerney offered: “We treated the studios with respect, we listened and were responsive to their needs. Our proprietary technology gave the studios confidence that we could protect their copyrighted material and that our user-generated content could exist side by side with their premium content.” I can’t think of any negatives for Guba in this deal. I don’t know how long it will last, but a lead is a lead and any differentiation in this space is a plus. Good buzz, extra traffic, and the goodwill of at least one major Hollywood studio, which might help them soon add another, will be a nice shot in the arm. On the studio side, I like the concomitant release through web and DVD. It shows Warner is starting to get it. But what I don’t like in the deal is the pricing. While the VOD pricing seems reasonable when compared to a video rental, DTO is too high. Equivalent pricing through the two channels will hurt web uptake. These are savvy consumers. Distribution costs through the web are lower and, while I haven’t reviewed the experience yet, I doubt the → Read More