Looks like the guys at Fora.tv got some nice seed monies.  Congrats to the Fora.tv team!  Below is a recent story published on Mashable.com:

May 7, 2008 — 09:10 AM PDT — by Paul Glazowski —

FORA.tv, a site described as a sort of “YouTube for thinkers,” has grown over many months of its relatively young life to comprise a collection of video content of political, cultural, technological, scientific, and business flavors, with heavy emphasis on intellectual depth ordinarily not found in the sound-byte-strewn medium of various other video networks on the Web. And in so doing, the company has, since its initial receipt of a $2 million seed investment, has attracted a good amount of press and attention, and even some fairly noteworthy sponsorships with companies like Pfizer and Chevron.

Now, according to Andy Plesser of Beet.TV, the startup has managed to secure another $4m in funding. The company’s Series A round, which just recently closed, was led by return investors William Randolph Hearst III, Adobe Ventures, and others.

While some may look askance as the financial connections FORA has established with demonized corporations for the purposes of sponsorship, the site seems to have been built largely with an unbiased mindset, playing host to content featuring faces ranging from Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post to Newsweek’s Howard Fineman to former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, to name just a few.

FORA, founded by Brian Gruber, who also acts as president and CEO of the company, naturally doesn’t purport itself to be a particularly popular venue for content. The YouTube-for-thinkers analogy is simply a mark of its firm focus on media delivery. But it has nonetheless shown to attract an audience of “highly-educated and influential” people, says Beet.TV, noting that its ability to procure sponsorships with multinational and multi-billion-dollar corporations of the pharmaceutical and energy sectors shows that intellectual demographic it sees is one that proves quite valuable to advertisers. Just as, say, aSmallWorld, a social network whose userbase is largely quite wealthy, offers to advertisers.

Link to story: http://mashable.com/2008/05/07/foratv-funding/

ASBN.tv is proud to announce the recent acquisition of CrankON.tv  Stay tuned….more to come!

Due to an overwhelming response of our Users we decided to add more requested features to platform and of course spice of the user interface. As we embark into 2008, our web design team has been aggressively working on the soon to be released Beta 2.0 of our proprietary GEO platform. It is our current objective to be selecting a few cities in our footprint to test our new interactive design and functionality. You still have some time to gives us your two cents so post away.

Mon Jan 7, 2008 8:02am EST

Major Consumer Electronics, Technology and Broadcast Companies Announce the Formation of dotTV Consortium dotTV(TM) to Develop Standards for Next-Generation Interactive TV Viewing Experience

SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ — A group of major consumer electronics, technology and broadcast companies today announced the formation of dotTV, an industry consortium whose mission is to build a next-generation interactive TV viewing experience leveraging social networking and online video to engage viewers. As viewers increasingly demand an anytime, anywhere, any-device viewing experience, dotTV seeks to bring the interactivity of online media and social networking to the TV and set-top box. Members of the consortium include broadcasters KBS (Korean Broadcasting System), EBS (Educational Broadcasting System), and SBS, technology providers Irdeto and VMark, Inc. and major consumer electronics makers Samsung and LG.

More…”By leveraging the confluence of digital terrestrial television tuners, DVRs and Internet access in Digital Televisions, set-top boxes and other consumer electronics devices, dotTV is developing a platform that provides viewers with a more social, interactive viewing experience,” said Won-Kun Lee, Executive Vice President of KBS. “By supplementing our broadcast content with relevant metadata, viewers will be able to search for content of interest, retrieve more information about specifics presented in the content as well as share this content with friends over any connected viewing device. Combining the power of social networking and online video with broadcast television is the next step in engaging the viewer anytime and anywhere.”

“Television viewers will be able to record content, mark individual scenes of interest by means of a video bookmark, and share these bookmarked scenes with friends and communities of interest over the internet, all while respecting the rights of copyright holders,” added Dr. David Lee, CEO of VMark, Inc. “This ability for ’scene-sharing’ enables the viral distribution of content over social networks and generates traffic to sites or locations where media and broadcast companies can once again engage their viewers. With the close proximity of CE manufacturers, content providers and broadcast studios, Korea provides the ideal test bed for dotTV.”

“Digital TV operators must innovate to stay ahead of the competition, and the dotTV initiative — which includes technology providers across the value chain working to leverage their specialties in security, interactivity, consumer electronics and the Internet — is an example of that innovation,” said Graham Kill, CEO of Irdeto.

By providing a richer, engaging entertainment experience that can be shared among friends, over multiple media channels and across heterogeneous devices, broadcasters will build audience loyalty, augment the distribution of their content, and increase the overall viewing time of content. With relevant metadata associated with content segments, advertisers will be able to deliver elevant and targeted advertising. Manufacturers of consumer electronics devices see dotTV as an opportunity to deliver enhanced functionality in their products.

Initial services based on the dotTV standard will be deployed in Korea in 2009 with expansion to other regions soon thereafter.

About the dotTV Promoters

The dotTV Consortium is comprised of major consumer electronics manufacturers (Samsung and LG), broadcast television companies (Korean Broadcasting System, Educational Broadcasting System, and SBS), and key technology providers (Irdeto — content security, and VMark, Inc. — scene-based video solutions). For more information about dotTV and the dotTV Promoters, visit www.dot-tv.org.

dotTV is a trademark of dotTV LLC. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Media Contacts:

Brett Gaines

Executive VP and GM of US Operations

VMark, Inc.

+1 (408) 483-6226

brett.gaines@vmark.tv

SOURCE dotTV Consortium

Brett Gaines, Executive VP and GM of US Operations of VMark, Inc.,
+1-408-483-6226, brett.gaines@vmark.tv, for dotTV Consortium

Why miss the 124th National Horse Show when you can watch it online. To get your tickets now, click here to purchase.

When: December 5th through December 9th

Where: Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club (Wellington, FL)