Look, there are a lot of places to find online video these days. And in many ways, Clicker is just another one of these sites. But the service, which launched in private beta at TechCrunch 50 this week certainly has a lot going for it.

First off, in terms of content, it's hard to find a site with a better list of web video including network TV shows, webisodes, and high quality content from professional and amateur sources. The site is also extraordinarily easy to navigate. You can search for shows by title, genre, or media type (TV, movies, web shows, or music). Or you can just start typing in a search box to see what pops up. And results, with thumbnail images, will start to appear once you've entered a few letters.

One thing that's nice about Clicker is that right at the top of each show page is a link that tells you how many episodes are available online. Clicker doesn't host the videos, but rather scours the web for videos that are already online. If a video can be embedded in Clicker's site, it is, so you can watch without leaving the web page. If not, Clicker provides a link to the site where you can watch the video.

The site lets you subscribe to videos by creating playlists, and you have a nice array of options for each video. For instance, say you're watching one of the latest episodes of The Guild and decide you'd like to subscribe to the show. You can add all episodes to your playlist, just new episodes, or just the latest season. Then when you click your Playlist link, you can see a list of episodes you've watched or have yet to watch. There's also a "Season Pass" section that lets you see the shows you've subscribed to, although I'm guessing TiVo isn't going to be happy with Clicker co-opting its phrase for a series subscription.

You can request an invite for Clicker by visiting the service's homepage.

Broadcast television is full of reruns. No surprise there. And the truth is, plenty of people will watch rebroadcasts of television programs. In fact, it was recently reported that The Late Show with David Letterman was beating The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in the ratings -- even though Letterman was in reruns while Conan was producing new episodes.

But generally reruns aren't as exciting as first-run broadcasts, and fewer people tune in. So it's interesting to see Fox take a new media approach to an old media problem. The network is introducing "tweet-peats" for two of its shows, Fringe and Glee.

The idea is that you'll be able to watch the show and see a scroll across the bottom of messages from Twitter. Of course, you're not going to see every message that some schlub posts with the proper #hashtag. Most of the messages will come from the show's producers and cast members. For example, Joshua Jackson and John Noble will be tweeting during Thursday night's rerun of Fringe.

But some fans wll be able to get their messages through as well. Fans can sign up to follow Fringe and Glee on Twitter and ask questions or leave comments and the producers may include some of those comments during the show.

[via Mashable]

Pretty much every time we publish an article about Hulu or other web sites that let visitors watch full length streaming television episodes, someone leaves a comment pointing out that the service only works in the US. That's generally because these web sites don't have the distribution rights (and advertising deals) needed to stream these programs in other countries -- even countries that are as geographically close to the US as Canada.

But Canada's CTV Network has now launched its own streaming TV section. The selection of videos isn't nearly as rich as what you'll find from Hulu. But CTV does air a number of popular programs in Canada and many of them are available online including Mad Men, Fringe, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.

Videos are shown with limited advertisements, and you can watch in full screen. As you'd expect, the site only works if you're in Canada (or using a proxy network to make it appear as if you are). But blogger Dale Dietrech took the service for a spin and assures us that it works.

[via Zatz Not Funny]

Last month TV.com relaunched its web site as a video portal with full length streaming episodes of TV shows, social features, and IMDB-like info about TV show casts, episodes info, and other information. TV.com is owned by CBS, so obviously CBS content was available, but the bulk of the full length episodes were provided by Hulu -- until today.

It appears Hulu has removed its content from TV.com. And it looks like the move happened on short notice, because when you go to the page for a show that was provided by Hulu, there are still links to play the episodes. You just wind up staring at an unpleasant "Video unavailable" message once you click the link.

It's possible that CBS is planning to broker its own deals with the studios in order to increase the amount of ad revenue it receives (instead of splitting it with Hulu). But that wouldn't explain the whole Video unavailable fiasco.

Update: Hulu has released a brief statement that doesn't really say anything. But Hulu is also asking Boxee to remove its video content due to a request from Hulu's content partners.

NBC has relaunched its NBC Direct video download service. Honestly, ever since Hulu launched, I haven't thought much about NBC Direct, which I first covered back in 2007. There aren't any videos available from NBC Direct that you can't find on Hulu, and the clunky DRM and download application make NBC Direct much more difficult to use than the web based player.

Still, NBC Direct has two advantages over Hulu or other online video sites:

1. You can watch videos while you're not connected to the internet
2. Videos are available in high definition

There are a few caveats: The NBC Direct player is Windows only. Question number 1 in the FAQ is whether there are plans for a Mac version. NBC's answer? Use Boot Camp to install WIndows on your Mac. And while the videos you download look like normal FLV Flash video files, NBC uses DRM which means that videos will stop playing at some date in the future. And you can only watch videos on the computer you used to download them.

The downloads are pretty speedy. NBC uses peer to peer technology which you can off if you're willing to deal with "standard quality" videos instead of the "high quality" versions that are available to P2P users.
[via NewTeeVee]

First came pirated copies of TV shows being traded over the internet by fans the BBC iPlayer service which lets UK residents watch any TV program that's aired in the last seven days. Now the BBC plans to stream BBC1 content live over the internet.

The new streaming service will go live sometime int he next few months. The BBC already streams content from several of its news channels live, but this will be the first time you'll be able to watch live TV from the BBC's flagship channel on the web.

You'll need a broadband internet connection to watch. And you'll also also need to pay the same £139.50 annual license fee that you pay to watch television in the UK. Critics complain that it could be tricky for the BBC to enforce that policy, which means that television owners could wind up subsidizing the content watched by people who own a computer but no television set. But officials charged with enforcing the TV licensing policy say they have ways to catch moochers. All of which means that we probably won't be tuning into BBC1 over the internet in the US any time soon.

thanks Omar!

Apple's iTunes customers have the option of buying TV shows for $1.99 per episode, or paying a flat fee for a full season. Now, most of the time, you save a few bucks by paying for the whole season at once. But there was this little writer's strike thingamajig this year, which kind of threw a monkey wrench into that equation. Some television series, like NBC's Heroes had just a handful of new episodes this season, which means iTunes season pass holders got the short end of the stick.

But Apple is apparently trying to remedy the situation. The company is sending emails to customers who have purchased season passes to shows with abbreviated seasons. In a nutshell, Apple says that any show that's still producing episodes for this season even after the season would normally have ended will be sent along to customers. Additionally, if there are fewer episodes of the show at the end of the season than you'd been expecting when you bought the season pass, you'll get a refund for the difference.

Apple is also giving at least some customers free credits that can be used to download 2 TV shows, music videos, or short films from the iTunes store.

NewsClipper is a news aggregation service that brings together videos from popular news sites like CNN, the BBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, MSNBC, and ESPN. You can sort videos by network, category, most recent, or most viewed. Future upgrades will include a search box and the ability to rate the videos you watch.

You can also add videos to a playlist and create your own virtual news channel with videos from various sources. Overall, it's an extraordinarily useful little site. But if it catches on, something tells us some of the TV networks providing its source material aren't going to be too happy. That's because CNN, for example doesn't offer users the ability to embed videos on their own sites. It's not clear how NewsClipper funnels the video stream, but you can grab embed code from any video on NewsClipper and add the video to your own site.

On the one hand, most videos feature plenty of branding so you always know where the video came from. So you could view each short clip as a commercial for a TV network. On the other hand, if you viewed the video on its original page, you'd actually be viewing other ads as well, which you don't see if you stream a video from NewsClipper. And that means that we expect the site to start getting cease and desist letters any day now. But we kind of hope it happens later, rather than sooner. In a perfect world, the TV news networks would partner with a site like NewsClipper and share any advertising revenue.

[via TechCrunch]

Livestation is a new streaming television service from Skinkers, a British startup with support from Microsoft. While the service is still an invite-only beta, the company widened its beta this week with a promise to send out invites to pretty much anybody who signs up for one at the Livestation web site.

So what exactly does Livestation offer? Unlike streaming video services such as Joost and Babelgum, which offer on-demand videos, Livestation serves up live streams from channels you've heard of, like the BBC. While that might sound pretty exciting, keep in mind, the software is in beta and there aren't a ton of content partners just yet. While we often poke fun at Joost for its lack of content, you're much more likely to find something worth watching on Joost than Livestation right now.

Currently Livestation offers up just a handful of television and radio news channels. What you get is based on where you live. For example, if you're in the UK you can watch BBC News 24, but if you're in the US you'll have to make due with the BBC World Service and Channel 4 radio streams, Al-Jazeera in English, and France 24.

But what Livestation lacks in content it makes up for with efficiency. The video quality is fairly decent, and there's virtually no buffering if you've got a high speed internet connection. There are no fancy controls like you find in Joost or Babelgum. Livestation isn't meant to replace your television set. It's just a simple way to watch streaming TV content without a web browser.

If you're a news junkie or if you're interested in checking out the player, you might want to pop on over to the LiveStation web site. If not, you might want to wait until the company signs a few more content deals.

Currently Livestation is available for Windows XP and Vista only, but a mac version is in the works as is support for "other platforms."

Like the idea of a single application that lets you find streaming television channels, but don't like having to watch them on your PC screen? MiraWorldTV is a plugin for Windows Vista Media Center that lets you find and watch dozens of television streams using a 10-foot interface. That means you can sit on your couch while you survive the writer's strike by watching brainless TV shows from around the globe instead of brainless TV shows from New York and LA.

Once you install MiraWorldTV, you'll notice a new button open up next time you run Windows Media Center. Click on it and up will pop a screen filled with tiles representing television stations with online streams. You can click on a tile for more information or to start playing the video stream in the background or in fullscreen mode. You can sort channels by category, country, or you can save your favorites for easy access later.

The only problem is that the content is pretty bland for the most part. This isn't the developer's fault. MiraWebTV doesn't host any content. It just provides links to freely available internet streams. The most exciting channels we've found so far are the BBC World News, some Japanese pop music videos, and nature documentaries from the Discovery Channel. But if you're the sort of person who likes to complain that there's nothing worth watching on TV, MiraWorldTV can give you a few more things to watch... or complain about.

[via Missing Remote]

At some point we're going to stop calling all of these internet TV platforms "IPTV" and just start calling them TV. Of course, one of the main differences between live TV and Joost is that Joost isn't well... live. But it looks like that could change early next year.

PaidContent:UK reports that Joost will start offering live streaming television programs to US customers during the first quarter of 2008. While most of the content available through the peer-to-peer software right now is on-demand, Joost officials say the platform can also transmit streams at the same time as they are broadcast on television. Once the program is finished, users will be able to watch an on-demand version.

If Joost can pull this off, and if the company can sign enough content partnerships with networks and sports associations like MLB, Joost could eventually provide the ability to watch TV on any computer without first installing a TV tuner. Better yet, since you're not limited to local broadcasts, you'll be able to watch television programs from around the world.

On the other hand, something tells us most networks are still going to want you to watch their programming live on television or via their own websites where they have more control over the advertising.

LiveStation is designed to bring live radio and television to your computer by using a peer-to-peer network. Think of it as a Slingbox, except without the box or Joost except live, or maybe a hybrid of the two. The LiveStation player is a free download. All the player needs to work is a broadband connection. There are several different broadcast channels available in the player and web streaming is live so you can catch a basketball game or news event as its happening rather than the delayed video streams that many other websites offer.

Currently LiveStation offers limited channel options with more planned to be added as they are able work out deals with broadcasting companies. While some channels are offered for free others require a subscription (although that subscription may be included in your current television package) and some other video may be available on a pay per view basis. LiveStation is currently available as a free trial before its public launch. If you're interested in giving it a try you have to sign up on the site with admission tickets being given out periodically in phases.

[via EmilyChang]

If you want to rent a video, you can go to pretty much any video store and walk out with a movie of your choice. It doesn't matter what studio produced that film.

But if you want to watch streaming video of network television programs, you either need to visit the network's website or find a site that streams pirated copies.

It looks like that could be changing. Increasingly we're seeing networks offer up programming on sites like MySpace, Yahoo!, and AOL. You know, pretty much anywhere but YouTube.

Today ABC and this blog's parent company AOL have announced an agreement to stream ABC programs through AOL's video portal. You'll still be able to watch recent episodes at ABC.com, but if you want to watch free, advertising-supported videos from ABC, CBS, and several other channels, you can visit AOL. While we work for AOL here at Download Squad, our dream is that one day streaming video will be more like video rental stores. You'll be able to visit the portal of your choice and watch all the video you want.

ABC will offer about four episodes of popular programs at a time on AOL's video site. AOL and ABC will split the advertising revenue. Meanwhile, NBC and News Corp are preparing to launch their own video portal, possibly within the next few weeks. NBC also plans to launch a service that lets users download free programs that can be watched within one week of their original broadcast date.

Pretty much every TV network and its sister offers up a way to watch popular shows for free online. Just hop on over to a network website and you'll find a way to watch recent episodes of everything from Heroes to Girlfriends. The episodes are typically free, but include advertising. And not an assortment of commercials like you get on broadcast TV. No, we're talking about a single ad which plays about 8 times per episode. Not that we have a problem with the repeated redundant repetition of a sponsor's message.

You can also download many of the same shows for a fee from services like iTunes and Amazon Unbox. But NBC is preparing to launch a new service that's a combination of the two. NBC Direct will let you download videos to your computer for free. They'll include advertising, and you'll only be able to watch for up to a week after a program's original air date. But you can download a video and watch it on the go when you don't have an active internet connection. No buffering needed. It actually sounds a bit like the BBC's iPlayer.

The move is a little surprising. Or at least the timing is. NBC recently announced that it was terminating its contract to sell movies through Apple's iTunes service. But the company struck a deal to offer shows through Amazon Unbox. The new download service could eat into revenue from Unbox video sales. Perhaps the network is hoping that advertising can be more profitable than video sales.

NBC is also working with News Corp to launch a new online video service called Hulu. While it's not entirely clear whether Hulu will feature full length episodes or just video clips and exclusive content, it now seems like NBC is a bit all over the place when it comes to its streaming/downloadable media strategy. But since nobody quite knows what the future holds for the medium, maybe it's not a bad idea to have all the bases covered.