Last week, Fox furthered this hypothesis by announcing that the online versions of its TV shows would feature just as many commercials as the broadcast versions. And dammit, I have to see what happens on “House” — you never know what kind of crazy procedure that lunatic doctor is going to order next….

With increasing amounts of long-form content available online, expect more “mid-roll” ads. In analyzing data from 5.5 billion ads served during online videos from premium content makers like Turner, ESPN and (of course) Fox, FreeWheel noted a 30% increase in mid-roll video ads, most-often placed in long-form content, between 1Q 2011 and 4Q 2010. The company attributed this hike to higher levels of long-form content online as well as increasing ad loads.

Notably, mid-roll ads have the highest completion rates — but in general video ads in long-form content have high-completion rates because consumers are more engaged and likely to finish viewing both the content and the ads tied to it. Yup, mid-roll reaches that captive audience many television programs enjoyed before the advent of TiVo.

Another interesting finding in FreeWheel’s just-released first-quarter video monetization report, mobile video views account for less than 1% of all video views, and 80% of mobile views are from Apple devices.

Using existing broadband spectrum and the ATSC-M/H, an open broadcast transmission system developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the service will allow member companies to provide content to mobile devices — anything from live and on-demand video, local and national news (print and electronic), and sports and entertainment.

The program will complement the FCC’s National Broadband Initiative by reducing wireless broadband traffic via giving consumers mobile access to video content on another channel. The system will also be rigged to deliver timely emergency information to citizens on a local or national basis.

In a statement, Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernathy called the joint venture “the first step in forging cross-industry and company partnerships to deliver content to consumers.

The problem is that Hulu’s entire operation depends on their exclusive access to these media giants. But the bottom line is, two years after it launched, Hulu and its network parents are still trying to figure out their awkward relationship.

Many have speculated this tense relationship will go the way of a hollywood marriage. But Hulu doesn’t appear to be going down without a fight. The Silicon Alley Insider source was asked if it was a simple matter of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. His reply, “The left hand is trying to chop off the right hand.”

That seems to put an end to the speculation that a group of investment bankers and top Silicon Valley executives were working on a deal to take over Yahoo with debt supplied by Microsoft. Unless, of course, he’s playing a good poker game and wants to push Yahoo’s stock price down before a final assault.

Where does that leave Yahoo, and it’s endless search (ouch) for a top executive? According Kara Swisher, former Autodesk executive Carol Bartz is now a top candidate. Despite earlier assurances that the seat would be filled by the end of last year, the hunt continues, with Bartz and Yahoo board members John Chapple and Maggie Wilderotter in the mix.

– Express your opinion, comment below.

The Fox and NBC networks seem to be tearing a page from cable’s playbook, which released the pilot of Flight of the Concords on MySpace, iFilm and iTunes before it aired on HBO. And NBCU premiered season four of the wildly popular Battlestar Galactica on SciFi.com 10 years before it hit the air.

The company’s increase in traffic – about 30% a month — outpaces that of mobile browsing worldwide. In June alone it served 52 million ads worldwide (34 million of which were in the U.S.)

The most traffic on the iPhone has come from the U.S., Philippines, U.K. and France. Jaguar, Land Rover and Fox advertise on iPhones exclusively.

Overall, AdMob said it serves more than 3 billion ads a month – and that more than 22.4% of ad requests in the AdMob network worldwide were from Smartphones.

Passenger and Fox built the community for viewers aged between 18 and 49. Passenger provides a combination of social-networking, community-building and collaboration technologies in an intuitive and scalable platform that enhances customer experiences. With its software-as-a-service technology and suite of client services, Passenger is providing FOX with the ability to collaborate, build advocacy and apply analytical technologies in one single platform, the company said.

To kick off the community, FOX is planning to use the community’s feedback for suggestions in promoting fall programming. FOX has invited subscribers from its email marketing list to join its new community. The network will be looking for feedback on everything from brand-marketing, trailers for upcoming shows, plot direction in current shows and how the audience balances TV viewing and online habits.

In other network news, ABC, is loosening its white-knuckled grip on syndicated programs. Full episodes of audience favorites like “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” will be accessible on Veoh.com, an independent video site. All shows will be free and advertising-supported.

Proteus has been around for about 12 years in the mobile space and its been involved in mobile messaging for about nine years. Guy Vidra, Proteus’ president, told ADOTAS that the new product is an extension of the company’s basic philosophy: “democratizing the mobile medium for everyone – and helping marketers and small businesses by providing them with the tools that will help them communicate with the growing mobile audience.”

The company said it hopes to help big and small companies tap into a soon-to-be gushing stream of revenue – according to eMarketer, mobile message advertising will more than triple in the next five years, ballooning from $1.4 billion this year to $4.5 billion in 2012.

Other significant changes in the industry will also help send the mobile messaging market soaring – like the recent slashing of iPhone prices, Vidra said.

“We are huge proponents of 3G phones at lower prices,” he remarked. “And Google is helping by working on opening up wireless networks in the U.S. so marketers will have an open platform.”

So what is Via exactly? It’s a simple, self-service messaging tool that allows clients to create and track SMS messaging campaigns – businesses can create alerts, auto responders, polls, trivia and sweepstakes campaigns. SMS messages are sent on Proteus’ carrier-grade message delivery platform, which supported the first interactive TV event in the United States using live-to-air SMS as well as live events such as the Super Bowl, the Olympics and American Idol.  The product can also be integrated with a client’s existing SMS connectivity.

Via is one component of the Proteus product suite, which also includes the Swift mobile site publishing platform and Merx content management and storefront solution.

Proteus’ clients include FOX, HBO, AT&T and Motorola.

The widget will be launched with movie content courtesy of Fox Home Entertainment – and using the Windows Live services will significantly increase iBloks’ reach, the company says.

“Premiering iBloks Video Messenger widget that includes access to over 300,000,000 Windows Live Messenger consumers unleashes a powerful widget that enables our fans to easily IM each other and watch videos together. By making their lives more interesting and providing convenient access to amazing content from films like Alien Versus Predator Requiem we are delivering on our commitment to entertain and delight fans,” said John Cosley, Director of Digital Marketing at Fox Home Entertainment.

The widget can be deployed on a web page, as a video ad or as a gadget on sites like Google , FaceBook and other social network sites.

The company plans to extend its new advertising platform beyond News Corp websites such as MySpace

News Corp has announced plans to enter the online advertising market, saying it will roll out a platform across its own websites – and sites belonging to other companies – in the first half of next year. Peter Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media (FIM), said the platform – known internally as FIM Serve – was initially built for MySpace, the social networking site owned by News Corp, but would ultimately have a broader reach. “We’re well down the path in terms of discussions with some of the other News Corp properties to do ad serving,” Mr Levinsohn told the Reuters Media Summit in New York. “Ultimately we’ll take the company off network and become an ad network for assets outside of the News Corporation empire.” Mr Levinsohn said that FIM was already in discussions with companies outside News Corp, the parent company of Times Online, and that the new platform could be ready by the first half of 2008. He added that the platform served only display ads – which account for the majority of the advertising revenue from sites such as MySpace, and that the new venture would not conflict with an existing arrangement with Google to serve MySpace’s search ads. FIM’s announcement comes after a wave of frenzied purchasing of ad platforms by internet companies keen to capitalise on the burgeoning online advertising market, which is predicted to grow to $48 billion globally by 2009. European anti-trust authorities are still scrutinising Google’s $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, announced in April, while Microsoft bought aQuantive, a DoubleClick competitor, for $6 billion, in August, and Yahoo! acquired the New York-based ad auction site Right Media in in July. MySpace also recently announced plans to target more closely the ads it serves 110 million users by gathering information from interests expressed on profile pages, for instance movies or sport. Facebook, MySpace’s main competitor, said earlier this month that it would let users send messages to friends with advertisements attached, advising, for instance, when they had made a purchase online – a move that has been criticised by privacy campaigners. Mr Levinsohn said that he used both MySpace and Facebook, and that he thought there was room for the two sites to co-exist. “I use them for different things…I think we’re seeing an ‘uber-user’ develop that is using both,” he said.  

Compliments of Jonathan Richards, Times Online