Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
1 Day.
The Countdown to the launch of the iPhone continues. . . so close, I can almost taste the touch screen.
As you are all aware of by now, the iPhone goes on sale tomorrow at 6PM local time in all 164 Apple retail stores in the US. Here’s some more info:
-
All stores will close at 2PM and re-open at 6PM.
-
All stores will stay open until midnight to accomodate the extra demand.
-
Consumers will only be allowed to purchase up to 2 phones.
-
Apple’s online store will also begin taking orders at 6pm PDT on the 29th. Free shipping.
-
Beginning Saturday morning, iPhone owners can take advantage of free, in-depth workshops offered throughout the day at all Apple retail stores.
Look out for a special edition tomorrow with. . .some extra iPhone fun.
Till then, check out a video from the Conan O’Brien Show devoted to the amazing wonders of the Jesus Phone.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
On Wednesday, the NBA signed a deal with ABC and ESPN and with TNT that will pay the NBA $7.4 billion over eight years for the rights to televise the league’s games. The deal was noteworthy because it included streaming action onto the Internet and mobile devices. (Los Angeles Times 6/28)
MTV greenlighted the multiplatform reality series Meet or Delete for a second season. The show follows students as they connect with one another after being matched based on the contents of their hard drives. MTV and mtvU will air two new 30-minute specials, and mtvU, mtvU.com and mtvU mobile will follow with four short form episodes in the U.S. The show will also be distributed across multiple platforms in Asia and Europe. Meet or Delete’s relaunched website will again serve as its hub.
Love this idea as an online series but wonder how this will fare on linear TV. You can check out the first 6 episodes online now. After watching 1 min of the first episode, it reminded me of a digital dork version of Room Raiders, another MTV series.
On Wednesday, a judge issued an order for Adelphia founder John Rigas and his son Timothy to report to prison Aug. 13. The elder Rigas was sentenced to 15 years, while Timothy Rigas received 20 years for their roles in one of the largest corporate frauds in U.S. history. (Forbes/Associated Press 6/28, Broadcasting & Cable 6/27)
Comcast will be the first cable company to provide A&E’s HD content on a VOD tier. The new A&E service, which Comcast launched Wednesday, will feature five hours of HD on-demand content. (Broadcasting & Cable 6/27)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
HBO has created a series of short films with an ad agency that will debut online tonight, but the films, which focus on what takes place inside of an apartment building, aren’t a prelude to a show on HBO. HBOVoyeur.com (which launched today) is a marketing ploy that is designed to reinforce HBO’s status as the best place for storytelling, according to an HBO executive. (The Wall Street Journal 6/28)
News Corp.-owned MySpace is working on a video site that it hopes will challenge YouTube’s online dominance. MySpace unveiled an outline for its new video site Wednesday, which includes offering videos from amateurs and content from networks and studios. (Variety 6/27)
A new analysis by Hitwise shows that YouTube has increased its share of US traffic by 70% from January to May 2007 on a per visit basis. In comparison, the market share of visits to 64 other video sites measured increased by only 8% during the same period. A ranking of the top ten video sites gives YouTube a market share of 60% for the month of May.
YouTube is KILLING it right now. In the arena of online video, the tide could turn so easily but for now, this is pretty impressive.
Top 10 Video Sites by Market Share of U.S. Visits to Custom Video Category, May 2007
Rank Website Market Share
1 YouTube 60.02%
2 MySpace Videos 16.08
3 Google Video 7.81
4 Yahoo! Video 2.77
5 MSN Video 2.09
6 Break.com 1.33
7 Daily Motion 1.13
8 MetaCafe 1.07
9 AOL Media .94
10 Veoh .86
Source Hitwise US
Gemstar-TV Guide International plans to launch the TV Guide Online Video Awards, an annual awards franchise that will recognize the best professional video programming created for the Web. Consumers will be able to access the nominated clips at TVGuide.com. (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6455992.html 6/27)
Social networking sites are close to achieving full penetration of the teen and tween market, according to a new paper commissioned by Alloy Media & Marketing. The study, which found that 96% of online teens and tweens check their profiles at least once a week, suggested marketers seek to engage young consumers by offering them items of value for their pages including utilities, downloads and other exclusive content, reports Ad Age.
CNN plans to unveil an overhaul of its Web site on July 1 with an emphasis on video. The new CNN.com will add live news video feeds and feature widescreen (575×325 pixel) clips. Users will be allowed to select stories using text, video or multimedia slideshow formats. (http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=38093&c=1 6/28)
Webcam avatar service fix8 is partnering with webcam broadcaster stickam to enable users to animate live video with virtual costumes, props and their own unique avatars. Stickam’s 550,000 users will have the option to download fix8′ software for free. Fix8 also provides live video chat software used across IM services including MSN, Yahoo and Skype.
The MPAA filed suits against YouTVpc.com and Peekvide.com on behalf of several major studios for contribution and inducement of copyright infringement. The suits allege virtually all the video available on the sites link to sites that infringe copyrights and therefore should be held liable for assisting in the process. This is the first time the MPAA has gone after link sites rather than sites offering content directly.
Meanwhile Blockbuster and Netflix settled their patent dispute, which held that the brick and mortar rental chain ripped off Netflix’s online model. No word on the specifics of the settlement.
Google Group Product Manager Alex Kinnier outlined the rationale behind the acquisition of DoubleClick on the company’s blog. The goal is to provide advertisers with a more open platform equipped with performance metrics to manage ad inventory better so that publishers can sell a larger portion of their unsold inventory and to improve efficiency, speed and effectiveness of online advertising by reducing latency of ad servers.
A report prepared for the FTC by an Internet Access Task Force urged the federal government to proceed with caution on new Internet rules such as net neutrality. The report’s findings back contention by cable companies and other service providers that government intervention is unnecessary because competition is working to the benefit of consumers. (Telephony Online 6/27, Multichannel News 6/27, The New York Times/Associated Press 6/28)
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Apple’s campaign to build excitement about its iPhone may be one of the most successful marketing efforts ever. The device has generated more pre-sale media coverage than any other product, says Al Ries, chairman of marketing strategy firm Ries & Ries. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=ajgLmjh2Ukzo 6/28)
Playboy is offering a free set of 12 wallpapers featuring scantily clad Playmates to anybody who buys the new Apple iPhone. The company is offering iPhone users the suggestive but non-nude images, an episode of its radio show “The Playmate Hour” and a Playboy video. (http://blogs.reuters.com/2007/06/27/and-you-thought-iphone-was-good-looking/ 6/27)
Verizon Wireless V CAST Mobile TV customers will be able to catch the tennis action at the Wimbledon Championships via live streaming through NBC’s NBC2GO. Mobile access to the tournament starts Saturday and runs through the end of the tournament July 8. (Multichannel News 6/27)
Nielsen, the consumer research company, plans to acquire Telephia, a provider of syndicated consumer research in telecom and mobile media. The deal allows Nielsen to enter the field of mobile media content research. The mobile sector is said to be worth some $350 billion. (http://tvweek.com/news/2007/06/nielsen_mobilizes_with_telephi.php 6/27)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
Nintendo will allow independent developers to create video games for its popular Wii gaming console, according to a company statement released Wednesday. “Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit,” said the president of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer/Associated Press 6/27)
Cross platform gaming company Brash Entertainment signed new long-term deals with Lions Gate Films, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising, Universal Studios Licensing and Vanguard Animation. Game developers and Hollywood studios are redoubling efforts to create compelling game titles based on blockbuster releases, moving to share more resources and improve communications between movie producers and game developers from early on in the process.
