In recent months, YouTube has set off some jangled nerves among several of its more popular content producers. The company issued written notifications to several producers who have inked branded integration deals directly with advertisers, gently reminding them that according to its Terms of Service, users are not to post commercial videos on YouTube without permission.

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More than half the country actively uses social-networking sites, but so far advertising on these properties is nothing short of anemic, says a new report issued by market research firm IDC. In fact, IDC calls advertisers’ attempts to tap into these sites’ unique social nature “stillborn.”

According to IDC’s report (U.S. Consumer Online Attitudes Survey Results Part III), more than three quarters of social-networking site users log on at least once a week, and 57 percent do so daily. And these folks are logging an increasingly large amount of time on these properties, as more than 61 percent of users spend more than a half hour on these sites per session, with 38 percent staying at least an hour.

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Top Web publishers are planning a revolt. Even as more prominent sites experiment with selling remnant inventory through online ad networks, and in some cases ad exchanges, ESPN.com is saying thanks, but no thanks. The site recently cut ties with Specific Media and several other unnamed ad networks, and is taking the bold stand that ad selling that relies heavily on arbitrage and algorithms is not for them.

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Since CNN embraced the citizen journalist movement back in August 2006 with the launch of its iReport initiative, the news organization has received nearly 100,000 news-related photos and videos from viewers, including nearly 10,000 this past January alone. Yet less than 10% of those submissions have appeared on CNN.com or the cable channel. That’s all about to change. Time Warner’s CNN this week will enter YouTube territory with the launch of iReport.com, a new Web site built entirely on user-produced news.

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