A video podcast hosted by a balaclava-wearing geek has become “the best-paid online video show in the business” after scoring a $300,000 advertising deal.
Ask A Ninja, a regular online piece-to-camera comedy sketch which debuted in November 2005 and is currently pulling in 154,000 unique visitors a month, signed to have its ads handled by Federated Media.
NewTeeVee says the John Battelle-owned blog advertising network is stumping up at least $300,000 this year, with most of the cash “floated up” straight to Kent Nichols, Douglas Sarine and David Peck, the comedy-and-production trio behind the series.
Off-beat vidcast Rocketboom, which last year claimed a high of 300,000 daily downloads, recently said it made $210,000 in advertising for 2006, putting Ask A Ninja firmly at the head of an increasingly lucrative online video pack.
Carefully picking its destination sites, Federated Media handles advertising for some of the web’s most popular tech blogs, including BoingBoing and Digg.