Veoh Networks gets $12.5 M from Eisner, Spark, Time Warner

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner is making his first post-Disney investment in Veoh Networks, a video-sharing service, according to the NY Times. Laura Holson writes:

Unlike many other services these days, it allows viewers to download programs of any length with the quality of high-definition television.



"Anybody, now, can have their own network," Mr. Eisner said. "There are no borders. No gatekeepers. No restrictions on creativity of any kind."

The Wall Street Journal serves up a slightly different Eisner quote:

"I've spent my entire career in a world of gatekeepers," Mr. Eisner said in an interview. "First there were motion-picture theaters, then the three broadcast networks, then cable and satellite. And now we have this ubiquitous ability to distribute content in a very efficient way. I think in a decade everyone will be surrounded by this Veoh type of technology." Mr. Eisner said Veoh is one of five or six media investments he has made since setting up a limited liability company, or LLC, called Tornante Co. He said Veoh is the only investment he has disclosed to the public.

Incidentally, someone representing Blip.tv, another video-sharing site, recently called my attention to a controversy involving Veoh pulling videos from other sites and republishing them on its own site.