Business booming for former Rocketboom host

Amanda Congdon, the Katie Couric of the Internet, continues to branch out with a new weekly Web TV show.

Amanda Congdon, one of the Web's most recognizable video bloggers, is launching a new weekly Web TV show Friday.

The show, called Starring Amanda Congdon, hits the Web a month after the former host of popular video blog Rocketboom announced that she had agreed to do a weekly online show for ABC News Digital Entertainment. She also has a production deal with HBO.

"The Internet is like a smoothly paved road. I can go anywhere I want," Congdon said in her last appearance on Rocketboom. She wasn't referring to her career, but she may as well have been.

Congdon, who announced her new Web show in a statement Thursday, has rebounded nicely after her acrimonious split from Rocketboom last summer. Indeed, it arguably was her bitter feud with Andrew Baron, the blog's owner, which raised her profile.

Up to that point, Rocketboom's audience was mostly composed of techies and New York hipsters drawn to Congdon's quick quips and photogenic looks. But the public spat drew the attention of The New York Times and other national publications and Congdon found herself developing a more mainstream following.

Besides media companies, Congdon's fame has attracted advertisers to her new show, such as Dove soap and social-networking site Paltalk.

Few Web TV shows are lucky enough to find deep-pocketed sponsors before they prove themselves.

The publicity has been helpful for the burgeoning video-blogging sector. Online video has taken off, thanks in large part to the popularity of video-sharing site YouTube. Now, thousands take to their Web cams on a daily basis to wax about everything from their personal lives to current events.

The show, which will also be available on iTunes and MySpace.com is being hosted by blip.tv, which hosts video blogs.

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