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Europe Approves USD152m French Funding for Google Rival - Twenty-three European private firms led by Thomson will receive EUR99m (USD152m) from the French government to develop the next European rival to Google. The European Commission approved the funding after finding that the research and cultural benefits of the project - called Quaero - will offset any market dominance gained by Thomson. The investment, however, only covers half of the estimated costs of Quaero - the project is estimated to cost EUR199m (USD306m) over the five first years.

Global IPTV subscribers grow 117% in 2007 - Global IPTV subscriptions grew 117% last year, reaching 12.34m viewers, says research firm Informa Telecoms and Media. Western Europe accounted for the highest number of subscriptions, with 6.9m or 57% of the overall total, but registered the slowest annual growth rate at 96%. Subscriptions in the US and Canada increased by a combined 306% to more than 1.3m from 326,093 in 2006. In a comparison, Asia Pacific subscribers grew by 121% to 3.3m, from 1.5m the year before.

EU Clears Google/DoubleClick Deal - Google completed its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Tuesday, just hours after the European authorities gave the company the final clearance it needed for the deal. With the merger, first announced almost one year ago, Google appears poised to claim a much bigger stake of the growing online display ad market.

Google: Travel Advertisers Experiment With TV, Radio, YouTube -Travel advertisers, including major brands like Hyatt, Avis and Priceline, are increasingly turning to Google for more than just search ads. They’re leveraging the giant’s online video, social media and offline products–including Google Audio and TV Ads–not only for branding, but also message testing.

Ubiquitous YouTube - YouTube on Wednesday announced that it will offer Web developers tools that will help them create their own YouTubes on other sites. The Google video unit is now providing access to its content library, its audience and its video hosting and streaming network. The move significantly expands upon the current means of distribution that involves copying and then embedding selected videos onto another Web page. Allowing users to create their own YouTube means they can upload videos straight to YouTube from their site, as well as fetch video feeds, comments, responses or playlists from the company. The move parallels Yahoo’s decision to open up Flickr to outside developers so that they could embed Flickr features in other sites.

Google Seeks “Significant” Display Position - Hours before Google’s DoubleClick acquisition passed the European Union’s antitrust sniff test, Tim Armstrong, the search giant’s North American president for advertising and commerce, said the company would be “disappointed” if it didn’t have “a very significant position” in display advertising by 2008-2009. Speaking at the Bear Sterns Media Conference, Armstrong described online video sharing site YouTube as “the brightest light” for Google’s display advertising potential, adding that the company’s ad platform would evolve over time to the point where it wouldn’t distinguish between search and display ads. The acquisition of DoubleClick gives Google the ability to make a significant push beyond search into the market for graphical ads, an area where Google has yet to compete effectively with Yahoo and Microsoft.

Time Warner Exploring AOL Options - AOL is now officially on the table for a deal, after Time Warner CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes revealed that he was open to combining the beleaguered Web giant with another company in “whatever configuration makes it the strongest and the most valuable.” Meanwhile, sources tell The Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget that Bewkes isn’t merely “open” to a deal, but is actively talking to Yahoo and possibly others about making one. We may be nearing the end of Time Warner’s AOL hell. It’s an unhappy situation, especially after the abrupt sacking of Curtis G. Viebranz, head of AOL’s Platform A advertising division. Platform A is about expanding AOL’s ad network business first by integrating its various advertising and technology properties (seven separate entities in all, including Advertising.com, Tacoda and Quigo), but the company claims that Viebranz failed to accomplish this fast enough.

Iger: Disney to Reap $1 Billion Online — The Walt Disney Co. expects to collect $1 billion in revenue from online content this fiscal year, a significant rise from estimates for fiscal 2007, CEO Robert Iger said Monday. Iger told analysts the company has been “fairly aggressive” in expanding onto the Internet to extend consumer contact with its most popular franchises and create new revenue streams.Online sources account for less than 3 percent of company revenue. Disney posted total net income of $4.7 billion on $35.5 billion in revenue last year.The last time the company estimated digital revenue was in June 2007, when chief financial officer Tom Staggs said he expected the company to post more than $700 million for fiscal 2007, which ended in September.

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