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MyToons.com, the online animationcommunity, has announced that it has inked a deal with video site YouTube to showcase the creative work of thousands of animators on the new MyToons branded YouTube channel.

Launched last March at the prestigious SouthXSouthwest Festival in Austin,Texas, MyToons.com provides a global platform for animators to design and sharetheir original animated videos, cartoons, and other content with animators andanimation enthusiasts throughout the world.

“We have thousands of animators utilizing our free upload and streamingsystem to broadcast their work to the world,” said Paul Ford, co-founder and president of MyToons.com. “Our new channel with YouTube provides tremendous
new exposure for our artists and enhances our ability to extend the MyToonsbrand, as well as to reach a broader consumer base with which to share highquality original animations.”

MyToons.com, dedicated to “everything animated,” offers both professional and amateur animators a platform to reach a world-wide web of talented animators, industry specialists and fans alike.

“YouTube is an important step on the road to much wider distribution for MyToons and our animation community members”,” said Ford. “We’re always focused on providing additional enhancements to give our animators even greater
exposure.”

MyToons further supports the animation community through contests and events, as well as sponsorships. This week MyToons is a Silver Sponsor of the International Animated Film Society’s (ASIFA) 35th Annual Annie Awards, which
will take place on Friday, February 8, at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles. The Annual Annie Awards recognizes the highest honors awarded for excellence in animation. ASIFA was founded by a group of professional animators in 1957
and encourages the preservation and extension of the art of animation, which mirrors MyToons’ philosophy and mission.

Based in San Antonio, MyToons.com was established in 2006 as an online resource and entertainment destination for professional and student animators, industry executives, artists and fans. Founded by industry leaders Paul Ford, Dan Kraus and Stacey Ford, MyToons.com is currently aligning with content creators and well-known industry personalities to provide the highest quality and best variety of online content and services for MyToons.com.

Tags: MyToons, YouTube

There are reports that Revver, the YouTube clone that pays the video producers, is on the market for $300,000 to $500,000. Any would-be buyer would also have to assume the company’s debts, thought to be around the $1million mark. Could be a bargain when you consider they raised over $12million in two stages across 2005 and 2006. Most web based businesses are solely about eyeballs and if you fail to attract them you need to find deep pockets in order to buy time.

Investors in Revver include Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper-Richards, Comcast Interactive Capital, Turner Broadcasting.

Tags: Bessemer Venture Partners, Comcast Interactive Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper-Richards, Revver, Turner Broadcasting, YouTube

A two year old company first established to connect wine bloggers to merchants is branching out. Triggit is a toolbar that makes it easier for website owners/bloggers to grab content such as images, videos and links, and place it on their pages. It also makes it easier to link a particular product mentioned on a site to a particular merchant who can suppl it - great for affiliates. The Toolbar edit options are very basic, enabling users to add images (Flickr), videos (YouTube), and a bunch of affiliate links to your site (Amazon, Commision Junction, Shopping.com, Snooth, Wine Searcher, and Wine Zap). No doubt this functionality will extend with time.

It remains to be seen just how Triggit will make any money as a business though. Other than the standard Web2.0 model of relying on vastly inflated valuations and hence an exit, getting users to part with hard earned cash will be difficult. One to watch though.

www.triggit.com

Tags: Amazon, Commision Junction, Flickr, Shopping.com, Snooth, Triggit, Wine Searcher, Wine Zap, YouTube

The New York Times reports that Seesmic, a video social networking site founded by Loic Le Meur, a successful French tech entrepreneur and one of Europe’s most widely read bloggers, expects to seal agreements for more than $5 million in financing in the next few weeks from investors including AOL founder Stephen Case, Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and leading Internet business angels such as Ron Conway of Angel Investors, according to BusinessWeek.

Seesmic is something like a cross between Facebook and YouTube, where users can post videos of themselves talking, then other users can pick up the conversational thread by posting videos of themselves responding.

But what really sets Seesmic apart, BusinessWeek says, is its business model, which gives a whole new meaning to “building a company online.” Every day since setting the company up in October, Mr. Le Meur has filmed himself talking about what he needs to do next. He posts the videos on a site, www.loic.tv, whose 5,000 viewers serve as an ad hoc advisory board.

www.seesmic.com

Original story from BusinessWeek.

Tags: Angel Investors, AOL, Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, The New York Times, YouTube

KushTV, the high definition broadband and lifestyle network, announced a partnership with Contrafilm to help distribute and develop the best content on KushTV.com and the KushTV syndication network. The partnership will allow KushTV to distribute original content from the production company and in the same token provide Contrafilm with a medium to break new actors, directors and writers.

In the wake of the recent writers’ strike, the world of television and original programming has been threatened in an instant. With late night shows being immediately affected and network primetime programs looking to be affected in January and February, there is little left to the imagination of whom else may be sucked into the downward spiral; Contrafilm is not taking any chances.

Contrafilm’s Beau Flynn will be admitted to KushTV’s advisory board. This will allow KushTV to move forward from their highly trafficked webisodic content into producing original shorts and features for the online network and then possibly extend that content into more traditional Hollywood formats.

www.kushtv.com

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Tags: Akimbo, Contrafilm, Helio, imeem, KushTv, MySpace TV, Veoh, YouTube