Posted on Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Beet.TV Establishes Global News Gathering Operation with TurnHere Deal

How cool is this: Beet.TV has established a global video news gathering operation, with hundreds of videographers, in over 50 nations, through a new association with TurnHere.

TurnHere is the Emeryville, California-based video production and distribution company that produces thousands of short Web videos for corporate customers including Williams Sonoma, Simon & Schuster and Conde Nast. In March, the company raised $7.5 million from Hearst and Venrock.

Through this new agreement, Beet.TV will have the services of a network of 3500 video shooters around the world.

Right now, I am in Hollywood, working with a TurnHere shooter. In the months ahead, I will be working with shooters in London, Tokyo and Stockholm. In some cases, I will travel abroad; in others, TurnHere shooters will gather video on assignment and send the files back to our production facility in New York.

The arrangement will allow us to immediately double the number of original clips we produce and publish. We have entered into a mutually beneficial agreement with TurnHere. We are providing the company with limited licensing to use our clips. We are also providing brand visibility on Beet.TV -- as you will see today in the overlay ads inserted into the stream.

This is a very exciting development here at Beet.TV. We are delighted to be working with TurnHere CEO Brad Inman and his organization. Above is a little bit of a "mutual admiration" chat I had with Brad last week.

-- Andy Plesser