While TiVo, Inc. has been dinged in the past for both non-existent and poor advertising initiatives, it looks like they’re busy making up for lost time in forging new partnerships. A few months ago, TiVo worked out an interesting cross-promotional deal with Blockbuster and recently TiVo has cozied up to various groups in promoting KidZone. During prime time television, Target ran a commercial prominently featuring TiVo with KidZone and web tie-in. Next up, my buddy forwarded an email he received from Sports Illustrated pushing TiVo and the Guru Guides feature. Last but not least, TiVo has just posted job opening for Creative Services Project Manager with the following responsibilities:

• Manages production of retail projects: Brochures, signage, packaging and all retail POP and sales collateral.
• Oversees branding on tivo.com and works with web team on projects that require visual design
• Manages design and production of online advertising and email communications

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It’s starting. Now that we’ve had full blog network saturation, it’s time to kick into gear with video log (vlog) networks. Brightcove announced Monday the launch of Brightcove Network, a free service for anyone looking to start their own commercial Internet video channel. In a nutshell, Brightcove is trying to capitalize on the phenomenon spawned by YouTube while making money off network ads.

The basics: Brightcove will host your video for free, but will take a 50% cut of any ad revenue and a 30% cut from any product sales. Several folks covered this Monday including Broadband Daily and TechCrunch.

What I find interesting is the debate about how far video networks will go. Like blogging, creating a regular video channel is a lot of work and a big time commitment. Will enough content creators get on board to sustain the video movement? Will enough people want to watch what they (we?) produce? (How many people have submitted content for TiVo’s video blog project?)

I love video, but I’m not convinced that video blogs are going to take off the way that blogs have. I see great niche uses: gadget reviews, celebrity sightings, and on-site reporting at news events. But a huge part of blogging revolves around commentary. Who wants to see another talking head?

Meantime, Brightcove is only part of the leading edge in ad-based video networks. Google has also begun sharing ad revenue with Internet video producers. Gotta love ads. We finally have DVRs to bypass them on TV, and Internet video manages an end-run around our favorite technology.

Well here’s a shocker: Jupiter Research predicts that spending on mobile advertising will more than double between now and 2011. It’s a new medium for advertisers and I can only hope they’ll be a little more creative than they’ve been with TV over the last decade. (Think about it – even most of the Super Bowl commercials aren’t that great anymore…)

The TechWeb article reporting on the Jupiter research is a little confusing, however. It cites mobile advertising stats, but then goes on to talk about mobile marketing, which is a different animal altogether. Many people believe mobile marketing is likely to be more effective, never mind less irritating. For example, Maxim Magazine has extended its brand with a whole Maxim To Go suite of content. Not my thing, but then again, I’m not a guy…

On the telemarketing side of things, FCC regulations prohibit companies from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. However, that apparently doesn’t work all the time (abuse and/or portability?) because the Do Not Call Registry now lets you register mobile numbers.

For my part, I’ve started getting text message spam. Not much, but enough to be annoying. If I didn’t have a data plan on my phone, I might even work up the effort to complain to someone…

Never enough time…

• New Sony LocationFree LF-B20 with WiFi reviewed. (CNET)
• Is that a laser in your TV, or are you just happy to see me? (Australian AP)
• Nielsen’s commercial/advertising tracking effort stumbles. (NY Times)
• Another day, another web site streaming pirated TV. (WebTVHub)

I have no idea what $1.65 billion looks like, but YouTube’s gonna find out with a ton of Google stock. Based on initial coverage, it appears Google Video and YouTube will maintain distinct identities… other than the inevitable AdWords wallpapering. This acquisition might be a good opportunity to clean up the clutter — let’s relocate user-submitted Google videos onto the YouTube platform and refocus Google Video as a purely pay service. Bloomberg reports YouTube serves up 100 million daily video clips to 34 million monthly visitors.

Google says: The acquisition combines one of the largest and fastest growing online video entertainment communities with Google’s expertise in organizing information and creating new models for advertising on the Internet. The combined companies will focus on providing a better, more comprehensive experience for users interested in uploading, watching and sharing videos, and will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work to reach a vast new audience.

When the acquisition is complete, YouTube will retain its distinct brand identity, strengthening and complementing Google’s own fast-growing video business. YouTube will continue to be based in San Bruno, CA, and all YouTube employees will remain with the company. With Google’s technology, advertiser relationships and global reach, YouTube will continue to build on its success as one of the world’s most popular services for video entertainment.

On a related note, both Google and YouTube announced distribution deals with record labels and CBS earlier today.

Part advertising, part entertainment, Showtime has launched a web destination specific to mobile devices. They’re offering up Showtime programming info and video clips. While the site (wap.sho.com/dexter) seems a bit half-baked at the moment and not all phones will play .3gp files, this is worth keeping an eye on. Hey, it’s free! (Assuming you have an all-you-can eat data plan.)

Showtime says: This is a groundbreaking arrangement where a television network will give consumers cross-carrier access to video clips from its shows. At launch, the SHOWTIME WAP portal gives mobile users access to video clips and wallpapers from the critically acclaimed new Original Series DEXTER starring Michael C. Hall, as well as video clips from the Emmy®-nominated and Golden Globe®-winning WEEDS and the new sketch comedy series THE UNDERGROUND starring Damon Wayans. Content from other Showtime programming, such as SLEEPER CELL, THE L WORD and SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING will be rolled out in the coming weeks.