Filed under: MISC
It’s the first official day of Digital Hollywood in sunny Santa Monica, CA and things are off to a running start.
Technically, Monday’s Digital Hollywood schedule was filled with panels under the umbrella of pre-day events. I, however, spent my day heading to the P2P Media Summit to check out the Content Distribution panel. Below, I do my best to try and give you a run-down of the most important topics from yesterday’s P2P Media Summit as well as today’s Digital Hollywood. Enjoy.
P2P Media Summit: 6/11
Content Distribution
Speakers:
Derek Broes SVP Digital Entertainment Paramount Pictures
Marc Campbell: Founder & CEO The Independent Comedy Network
Daniel Harris: CEO Mediapass
Brian McCarthy: SVP Business Development Revver
Key Takeaways:
P2P has been getting quite a bit of buzz as it is the driving force behind Joost, an IPTV service based on P2P technology. Summing up the panel, the most conclusive insight came from Derek Broes, SVP Digital Entertainment from Paramount Pictures. When most of us think of peer to peer, we think of the illegal downloading structure of the original Napster. Even though peer to peer has morphed into a legal-based system whereby users can download and share content, users still see P2P as something to be feared and avoided if one wants to avoid the Paris Hilton fate. Therefore, two things need to be done:
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Re-market P2P so that the technology is no longer demonized and users feel comfortable to use it.
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Leverage P2P in the mobile space as users are most likely to access the technology on the go. Mobile service providers should embrace the technology as essentially this would be akin to a new roaming model for them.
Digital Hollywood: 6/12
Television 2.0: Cable, Telco, Satellite, Broadband, & Mobile Redefine the Future of Entertainment & Communications
Speakers:
Herve Payan: SVP Content Services Orange
Ryan O’Hara: President TV Guide Channel
Peter O. Price: President & CEO The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Rishi Malhotra: Director HBO on Demand
Martijn Lopes Cardozo: SVP Corporate Development Tandberg TV
Key Takeways:
- Overseas, consumption for new platforms is growing at light speeds.
- Orange launched its IPTV product 4 years ago and will now command 1 million subscribers by summer’s end. In the mobile space, Orange currently manages 7 million subscribers.
- On Demand, while at the mercy of the cable-developed user interface, is growing in usage.
- For example, HBO on Demand tracked 700 million orders in 2006.
- 300K orders logged for 3 short form pieces created for HBO on Demand to supplement the new season of Big Love. These 3 stories take viewers back to the beginning to see how the family came together before the start of season one. These 3 short form pieces were available on demand before the first episode of season two of Big Love (linear: 6/11, HBO on Demand: 6/12)
- Monetizing content online is the biggest question for content providers.
- A TV household represents approximately $.50 for the broadcast content provider while comparatively; the same online household represents $.10 – $.15. This signals a bit of a shift of power from distributor to the end user. Changes are required to shift the economic model to increase revenue on all other platforms to make up the lost revenue generated on the linear TV platform.
- Joost
- Pros:
- Doesn’t have all the channels linear TV has available but does have a large assortment of European and Asian channels catering to the international marketplace.
- Younger demographic may have a particular affinity for the product.
- Because the program is downloaded to the desktop, the user interface takes over the screen much like watching TV.
- Cons:
- P2P supported–> May cause quality issues.
- Pros:
Hollywood & the Digital Consumer: How Technology, Content and Services Establish the Next Level of Consumer Entertainment Experience
Speakers:
Shawn Gold: SVP Marketing & Content MySpace.com
Karin Gilford: GM Yahoo! Entertainment
Lewis Henderson: SVP William Morris
Jason Hirschhorn: President Sling Media
John Penney: SVP HBO Digital Initiatives
Key Takeways:
Cable Distribution vs. Online Distribution
- Online systems upgrade several times a year where the cable systems in comparison will upgrade once a year. The speed of the online systems produces a considerable amount of competition to the cable companies.
- Physical set-top boxes cause limitations for the cable company because technology must be replaced for system upgrades to be accessed.
Net Neutrality
- Charging the consumer based on broadband consumption creates a two tier internet structure: 1) Those who can afford it & 2) Those that cannot.
Advertising in the Internet Space
- ABC ad-supported episodes surpassing downloads of iTunes TV shows. People have acclimated to an ad-supported free content model.
- Yahoo! talking about allowing users access to their behavioral profile to change as they see fit. For example, a 35-year old male can change the affinity to sports to an affinity for financial news if he so wishes. While the profile makes an assumption based on age and gender, the user can change these assumptions.
Hollywood Re-Invented! Internet Video, Mobile, User Generated Media, IPTV and Broadband as Next Generation Mass Media Programming and Big Business.
Speakers:
Walter Delph: Director Content & Programming Verizon FiOS TV
Mark Yackanich: VP of Strategy and Development >nbbc
Rob Bennett: GM Video & Entertainment MSN
Bill Stratton: VP Business Development Turner Broadcasting
Jon Cody: VP Fox Digital Media and Acting GM NBC/News Corp. Joint Venture
Key Takeaways:
New Site (Site Name TBD)
- A Partnership between NBC and Fox to bring professionally developed content produced by a variety of content providers to the masses via an online site.
- Online destination blended with distribution.
- Distributors: MySpace, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL & Comcast
- Traffic Estimates: 50 million per month in video views
Joost· Pros:o Developed by the two co-founders of Skype. Based on the success of Skype, chances for success are high.o Interface is easy to use.· Cons:o Available content will be dependent on the relationships that Joost can form with content providerso The downloaded program with which users need to use to access Joost presents a walled garden that YouTube and New Site don’t force users to contend with. YouTube Availability on Verizon Mobile· Verizon partnered with YouTube to give its wireless users access to a large portion of YouTube content.· YouTube content accessed to a much larger degree than professionally produced contento User-gen’s preponderance on the mobile platform speaks to the platform itself and does not necessarily translate to the broadband platform Verizon’s FiOs TV
· 750K subscribers expected by the end of 2007
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
While the camps have divided between “ripped off” and “brilliant” over the season-ending episode of “The Sopranos,” creator David Chase left for France after telling executives that he wouldn’t be available to comment or take phone calls. Chase also instructed the show’s writers and producers not to comment on how the final show was written and developed. (The New York Times 6/12)
Turner and MTV view video sites such as Joost and cable systems’ on-demand offerings as tools for “building brands without borders.” Meanwhile, Cox Communications is cutting deals with broadcast networks, including ABC, to show free on-demand episodes of shows, such as “Desperate Housewives,” with ABC getting to keep all ad revenue from the airings. (Multichannel News 6/11)
Warner Bros. will release some movies directly to VOD services the same day they come out on DVD during a trial that is scheduled to start July 10. Warner Bros., which is owned by Time Warner, has worked with Time Warner Cable on similar tests to see if the same-day releases to VOD tiers have a negative impact on DVD sales. (The Wall Street Journal 6/12)
Philips reportedly is readying a set-top box that will stream both audio and video from a home network to a TV, in much the same fashion as Apple TV. Preliminary information regarding the device reveals that it will include an HDMI port and optical digital audio output to accompany a 40-gigabyte hard drive. (Ubergizmo.com 6/12)
Cablevision’s network-DVR initiative has received backing from a trade group that represents AT&T and Verizon Communications, as well as support from consumer-electronics companies and legal experts. The groups jointly filed a brief in support of Cablevision’s appeal of a ruling that blocked the launch of the service that would store content on network servers instead of home-based DVRs. (The Boston Globe/Reuters 6/11, Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) 6/11)
While switched digital video has been launched by Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, and to a lesser extent by Comcast, as a means of saving bandwidth, the technology has raised some red flags with TiVo. TiVo is concerned that its one-way DVRs won’t be able to access the two-way SDV linear channels, which would make the TiVo DVRs less attractive in the markets where SDV has been launched. A recent filing to the FCC by the NCTA said the cable industry was working to address TiVo’s concerns. (Light Reading 6/11)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
HBO just launched JohnMonad.com, a minimalist new interactive feature of the John From Cincinnati site created to support its newest original series. The site guides users through the latest David Milch experience by prompting them to explore thematically relevant content as a means to explore questions they may have after they watch each episode. (Rest assured, there’ll be plenty of questions.) HBO and Deep Focus built it with new Flash format ActionScript 3.0 and Papervision 3D, an open source 3D engine for the Flash platform currently in private beta testing. It takes some playing around with, but the interface is pretty cool. If you didn’t catch the John from Cincy premiere after The Sopranos finale, you can watch it on the main HBO site for the show.
Oh My God! – Yahoo and Access Hollywood teamed up to launch a celebrity web portal to try and compete with Time Warner’s TMZ.com, chock full of breaking news, videos, photos from paparazzi the world over. Unilever and Pepsi have signed on as exclusive sponsors. Omg! is the first major Yahoo collaboration with Hollywood since former ABC programming chief Lloyd Braun was phased out in December. The timing certainly couldn’t be better”: Paris Hilton’s stint in prison has led to a feeding frenzy on the web. Check out the music video Paris in Jail on YouTube – it’s got nearly 3 million views already!
Paris: The Music Video (Very funny stuff)
Users crashed the HBO website on Sunday night trying to leave their two bits about the climax, or as many would say, anti-climax of The Sopranos. Suppositions flew that HBO toyed with David Chase’s ending, that something went wrong with the sound, that the real ending is being held for the DVD release or that the open-ended thing was just a set-up for a feature film. Withdrawal symptoms are never pleasant.
ABCNews.com and Gannett’s USA Today.com will pool resources leading up to the 2008 elections. USA Today will provide ABCNews.com with political stories and blog entries, and ABC will offer USAToday.com video coverage of debates and candidate appearances.
The U.S. debut of Babelgum’s free, global Internet TV and VOD service will take place today during a conference in Los Angeles. Instead of replicating traditional TV on the Internet, Babelgum will offer niche fare that includes independent and short films. (BusinessWeek 6/11)
Full-length episodes and highlight clips from Big Brother 8 will be available on the CBS Audience Network allowing fans to watch the programs online and incorporate clips into their blogs, wikis, widgets and community pages. CBS and RealNetworks will again provide exclusive 24/7 live streaming video from inside the BIG BROTHER 8 house, following the July 5 premiere. A mobile subscription package will also be available at CBSmobile.com, giving fans around-the-clock access into the house.
Time Warner and Walt Disney Co. are scheduled to test YouTube’s fingerprinting tools, which were designed to help content owners identify when content is uploaded to the YouTube site without the copyright owner’s permission. The video-identification technology will be available for testing in about a month. (CNNMoney.com/Reuters 6/12)
Apple will make it easy for Developers to create Safari-based applications that will integrate with iPhone services. Steve Jobs envisions Apple’s faithful coming up with hundreds of new widgets for the device to tie the phone in with other popular web tools such as Google Maps. (More than 3,000 widgets have been written so far for Mac OS X.) Jobs also announced a new version of Safari for Windows and demoed Leopard, the newest version of OS X that boasts more than 300 new features including new email, calendar, chat and clip functions. Leopard is due to ship in October. (Silicon.com 6/12)
Cartoon Network New Media developed a new browser application at AFI’s Digital Content Lab to deliver interactive video to broadband-enabled gaming consoles. Compatible with Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo’s Wii platforms, the “Mega Series” will work while simultaneously streaming Cartoon Network and Adult Swim programming to provide a real-time immersive experience for gamers.
Google was rated the worst in privacy controls for the way it handles personal data of its users in a new report by cyber rights watchdog Privacy International. Yahoo and AOL were said to have “substantial threats” to privacy. Microsoft came in having “serious lapses.” EBay and Last.fm were found to be “generally privacy aware but in need of improvement.”
Online video ad firm Visible World and licensing automation platform Imagespan announced a new online dashboard that allows advertisers to streamline the process of getting video and photo rights cleared. The platform enables easy acquisition of rights-cleared images and videos from more than 7,000 artists to be used for creating online ads, mash-ups and original works.
Behavioral-targeted online display advertising spending will soar from $575 million this year to $1 billion next year, projects eMarketer in a new report Behavioral Targeting: Advertising Gets Personal. The market, which is served by many of the companies that have been snapped up in recent weeks including DoubleClick, Right Media and 24/7 Real Media, is expected to quadruple by the end of 2011 to $3.8 billion.
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Melodeo Inc. announced nuTsie, a new mobile music service that allows consumers to get their entire iTunes library on their mobile phone. Melodeo will pay royalties for each song streaming via the service, giving artists a chance to finally make money off songs that have been shared between friends or copied illegally.
Pretty cool. . .if it actually works.
Sony Ericsson officials are downplaying a May 31 patent filing that sparked numerous rumors regarding a possible PSP-phone from the company. “We’re continually evaluating other propositions but they have to be credible propositions. We’re not interested in sticking parts on phones that destroy the brand equity that’s been built up by Sony,” a Sony Ericsson spokeswoman said. (Reuters 6/12)
Taiwan’s HTC is readying its Touch smartphone for release to the U.S. market in the second half of 2007. The device, which combines touchscreen controls with PDA-like functions, will likely face tough competition from Apple’s iPhone. (Reuters 6/12)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
MTV is doing its part to spread awareness of the crisis in Darfur by translating the student-developed Darfur is Dying online viral video game into Chinese, Arabic and Spanish for a worldwide relaunch. MTV will promote the game across all its on-air and online properties.
This game does an excellent job of introducing viewers to the refugee’s life in Darfur. Players pick a character and then forage for water for the village. Upon capture while foraging for water, the user enters the refugee camp (screen below).
Oxygen and Glam Media partnered to create an online game around the premiere of Fight Girls, allowing participants to draft fighters from the series, who earn or lose points based on how they “perform” on the show. The game was developed by Fafarazzi.
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
The push to release more movies in HD DVD and Blu-ray will create sales booms for each format, industry executives said Monday. HD DVD movie sales reached an all-time high in May, and sales of Toshiba players doubled during the first week of a recent price promotion. Sony, meanwhile, says it expects sales of Blu-ray players to increase sixfold this year, bolstered by movies available exclusively in the format. (TWICE 6/11, Bloomberg 6/11)
Sony Electronics said Monday that it would ship a “unique series of models” of LCD TVs to Wal-Mart, Target and other retailers starting in the next two months. The models will not compete with products available through specialty electronics stores. Sony also said it would focus most of its television efforts on LCD screens. (ZDNet/CNET 6/11)
