Type of site Video chat, Webcasting Area served Worldwide | Available in 14 languages | |
Founded June 2004; 12 years ago (2004-06) Headquarters Tel-Aviv, Israel (2004 -2013),
Mission Viejo, California
United States (2016 -Present) Founder(s) Guy Eliav
Nir Ofir
Oren Levy | ||
BlogTV is a live-streaming video blog service which was reintroduced by MadCow Media LLC, in January 2016. The new site is currently in development and has no set launch date. BlogTV was first formed in Tel-Aviv, Israel in June 2004 by founders Guy Eliav, Nir Ofir and Oren Levy as a webcasting company. Its then goals were to supply anyone with internet access a way to express their talents and ideas to the world. In 2006 BlogTV opened its Canadian equivalent, BlogTV.ca. BlogTV.com was officially launched in June 2007 to America and the rest of the world. Users could create live video shows, interact with their audiences or invite co-hosts (adults only) to join their show over the internet or by using WAP. The broadcaster can broadcast to its audience with a webcam. The platform also included a chat system. The site had a promotional partnership with ICQ which is an IM type platform. BlogTV.com was acquired by YouNow on March 13, 2013 and on March 27, 2013, BlogTV.com closed down, to make way for YouNow.
Contents
BlogTV.com and merger with YouNow (2004 - 2013)
In February 2008, BlogTV.com launched the first live User-generated content for mobile phones. Handset owners can watch live content that is being produced and broadcast on BlogTV.com.
In July 2008, blogTV launched its Russian sister site. Worldwide BlogTV has a partnership with ICQ, ICQ also established a promotional partnership with the BlogTV Russian sister site. ICQ is an IM platform widely used in Europe, Israel and in Russia. The sister site, has its own personal community manager much the same as worldwide BlogTV.
In December 2008, BlogTV began its Video Ad Revenue Share Program. With certain criteria to apply, only certain people may be able to be a part of this program but it could still produce 50% of the ad revenue generated from live shows, videos and embedded shows.
In February 2009, BlogTV introduced a new type of account, Pro. This allows users to host private shows, generate new emoticons, more recording space: up to 30 minutes per recording (500 minutes total).
On March 4, 2009 BlogTV released the junior channel type. This is for users aged between 13 and 15 years of age. The junior members can only broadcast to other junior users (13- to 15-year-olds), junior members can only view junior member's profiles, guests are not allowed to enter the chat room, and no co-hosting or inviting a co-host is allowed. Other features for the junior members include no private message options, there will be no way to change the age of a junior member to change their age into a regular member account type. For the regular members they are also not given the right to change their age to a junior member profile (to watch other junior members).
On September 16, 2009 BlogTV launched their 1.0 version of their toolbar. On June 29, 2010 the site released its 2.0 version of the toolbar, with many more features. Initially the toolbar was only available for Internet Explorer, Firefox and the Firefox related browsers with the ability to use Firefox Add-ons Epic Browser and Wyzo.
On March 13, 2013, it was announced that BlogTV would be merging with the live streaming company YouNow. Those with BlogTV accounts were able to merge with YouNow and keep their username, recordings, social connections and registration date. Those with Pro BlogTV accounts could claim more YouNow benefits, such as a higher level or extra coins, or could claim a refund on the remaining months of the Pro account. In addition, all BlogTV staff continue to work with YouNow. As of March 2013, BlogTV.com ceased to exist and redirected to YouNow.
BlogTV.ca (2016 - present)
On January 26, 2016, it was announced that BlogTV would become active again under BlogTV.ca, by new owners, Madcow Media, LLC. BlogTV.ca is currently active with a status bar, showing potential progress on a new platform.
In August 2016, BlogTV.ca announced on Facebook that they would be hosting an Open House event taking place September 23, 2016 at 6:00 PM EST and September 24, 2016 at 12:00 PM EST. The Open House event allows users to sign up to the site and watch a test stream before BlogTV.ca goes into a closed beta for further testing.
In January 2017 the new BlogTV team introduced a pre-registration page.