Canadians who’ve been going to American sites such as YouTube to post and view videos online now have the option of going homegrown.

Alliance Atlantis’ new BlogTV is an all-Canadian user-generated video site, which differs from most in that it offers users the opportunity to broadcast live via webcam.

‘There is no [other] significant social networking website in this country and we think Canadians should have a platform that’s operated for and by Canadians,’ says Claude Galipeau, AAC’s SVP of new media.

More than 100 videos were posted within two weeks of the Dec. 5 launch of a trial version of the site. Feedback from users will shape updated versions, with the initial round of major changes to be completed in the first quarter of 2007.

‘In the spirit of user-generated content, what could be better than to actually have the users help you design the site,’ says Galipeau.

If would-be self-broadcasters do latch on to the idea of a homegrown video forum, the site will also provide previously unavailable access for advertisers looking to reach Canadians participating in what until now have been primarily American-based social media sites. Although there were no ads running on the site as of mid-December, Galipeau says deals with advertisers are in the works.

The new site was created in partnership with GS New Media, an Israel-based entertainment distribution company with offices in Toronto. In Israel, BlogTV is part of the large social media website Tapuz, attracting an average 600,000 unique visitors, or just under 10% of Israel’s population, per month. Galipeau says he expects BlogTV to find similar success in Canada.

Over the next year, Galipeau says he hopes a number of regular shows and niche channels will develop and gain fans on the platform. AAC will also work with mobile carriers over the next year to explore how its user-generated video site could be used on mobile 3G platforms.

Ottawa-based DVD mailer zip.ca also launched a user-generated video site, zip.tv, in mid-December. Thirty new channels of video were added over one week in December, and the company has big plans for future growth, as the Internet increasingly becomes a key platform for video distribution.

‘We intend for [zip.tv] to be a complete portal for all the video that’s currently legally available over the Internet,’ says Zip president Rick Anderson.

Since it launched in February 2004, Zip has been distributing DVDs through zip.ca. Members pay a monthly fee for access to more than 54,000 video titles, which are ordered from the website and delivered via snail mail. Zip has shipped over six million videos to more than 35,000 members in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, with memberships growing by 5%, or 200 new members, each month.

While the new zip.tv does not offer the live element of Blog.TV, it does have the added advantage of access to a large community of users already established at zip.ca.

In addition to DVD rental and sales services, zip.ca also has more than 320,000 community members who go to zip.ca to write and read film reviews, or browse video titles. As of December, more than 6,000 Canadians had published more than 39,000 reviews, with approximately 800 added weekly. This leaves the company well positioned to take a significant market share of online video distribution as the platform matures – something Anderson predicts will happen over the next five to 10 years.

‘Online video distribution is in its infancy,’ says Anderson. ‘[But] we believe that, in the long term, the Internet will be the medium through which most video is delivered and we are at the forefront of that movement.’

In addition to providing a forum for user-generated videos, Zip is also in the early stages of amassing a significant online video library by securing Internet distribution rights from a variety of sources. For example, the company has signed agreements with California-based online content provider akimbo.com to distribute its content in Canada.

Winners at Telefilm, Bell

Telefilm Canada announced funding for 19 projects under the Canada New Media Fund on Dec. 7. Eleven English- and eight French-language new media projects, ranging from game consoles to DVD-ROMs and websites, were selected from 108 applications for product development and marketing funds.

Projects that received funding include Wumpa’s World: A New Mission, an edutainment website from Montreal-based NDi Media, which received product development funding. From Ontario, the Atomic Betty Mobile Game from Breakthrough New Media received marketing funding, while Vancouver’s Reel Girls Media scored development cash for its edutainment site Anash Interactive.

Applications for Telefilm’s next round of new media funding (market research and prototyping) are due Jan. 31.

Seven new media projects also received funding Dec. 1 from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, including Fred’s Head Online, a website based on Spectra Animation’s Teletoon series, and The Urban Vermin Adventure, a multiplatform interactive scavenger hunt game from Decode Entertainment.

TSN goes online

TSN has gone broadband, and has launched an online, all-sports channel similar to those of its siblings MTV Canada and CTV – offering live feeds, NHL highlights and other programming. TSN Broadband is ad-supported and ‘enhances the viewers’ ability to access key sports programming at their convenience,’ said channel president Phil King, in a statement.

Shows available include TSN originals Off the Record, SportsCentre News and live coverage of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship.

CHUM presses Play2Win

CHUM has picked up and is test-running the late-night interactive format Play2Win on its Citytv Toronto. The live game show – on which home viewers play word and number games via phone, text messaging or the Internet – started a six-week run on Dec. 21. It airs Thursdays through Sundays, for two to three hours in varying slots after midnight. Players compete for cash prizes ranging from $100 to $5,000.

The show comes from Amsterdam-based 3Circles Media, makers of interactive titles including The Soap Lovers Quiz, Super Skill and Soccer Quiz. Its programs air mainly in Europe and Asia.

-With files from Sean Davidson