With the television rerun season kicking into full gear, kids breaking out of school for summer and Hollywood's dream factory potentially weeks away from a labour shutdown, it's a perfect storm for launching our FanTrust video contest, "I Know What TV Did This Summer." We're encouraging television fans from around the world to riff on their favorite TV shows, by submitting videos that creatively interpret shows past and present -- and answer that age-old fan question: "What the %&*! did these characters do all summer?" Here fans can celebrate TV, make great stuff that other fans want ...

YouTube. Google. Facebook. All of these channels are seriously underexploited by many entertainment companies, given that there are a number of simple things that content creators can do right now to capitalize on each. With YouTube it is important that producers don’t just upload content and wait for hits. YouTube provides a number of strategies and tactics to drive traffic to your content; it is baffling that most producers don’t follow these guidelines. Google ads generate real dollars with targeted advertising; it is amazing how many high traffic sites don’t host Google ads and leave these dollars on the table. In fact, ...

Here’s a shout-out to our friends at Capcom, an entertainment company that functions at the cross-roads where “Fans” and “Trust” meet. This weekend, Capcom did a stealth relaunch of Capcom Unity’s community destination. Talking exclusively to FanTrust, Capcom Corporate Officer/ Vice-President - Strategic Planning & Business Development Christian Svensson said, “The feedback is largely positive. No other video game publisher has gone this far synching up fan activity.” Designed to let fans take their Capcom ID on the road, play across multiple devices and communicate across multiple user accounts, the new community hub has been in the ...

After a whirlwind month of speaking on the future of digital entertainment and online video at the Vancouver International Game Summit, VIDFEST, Cossette Convergence Day, and nextMEDIA - I've decided to take a break and let someone else do the pontificating. Ninja, of viral video "Ask a Ninja" fame, shares his thoughts on online video audiences, content and monetization below. Enjoy! [youtube bSZg927QP_0]

As we’ve seen, the digital world lets you reach audiences directly, eliminate the middle man and disintermediates the big boys. But for many producers, that is a very big leap. Most producers operate as business-to-business companies. Whether you sell TV to broadcasters, secure distribution for film or get game publishing deals, you can still create compelling sales tools that take advantage of fan activity. This fan activity may be your own, for example, if you have a website with respectable traffic stats; but you can also get great, relevant stats by pilfering fan data from show, film or game ...