Filed under: MISC
I regret to inform you that there will be no Daily Marauder tomorrow because of the July 4th holiday. Sad. . .I know. In the spirit of all things digital, I bring you my favorite E-card character, Hoops. Happy July 4th all!
If that’s not enough for you, check out some Dave Chapelle in a video about something American. . .American Indian that is.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
TV Guide will sponsor the American Idols Live! Tour 2007, taking this year’s ten top Idol finalists to over 50 venues this summer. TV Guide will publish a tour guide in this week’s issue and invite concert attendees to snap photos of the stars on the Idol Tour red carpet. Photos can be submitted to the accompanying website then retrieved and emailed to friends. The concert tour is produced by 19 Entertainment.
Networks had a hard time bundling digital ad sales with TV upfront packages, according to a USA Today report. While upfront TV prices turned out strong – up 5% from last year to a cumulative $9.3 billion, relatively few deals included online and mobile components, despite lots of pre-event hype about integrated buys.
NBC hopes preliminary test results showing viewers are just as engaged when they fast-forward past TV spots as when they watch a program will prove an eventual boon to ad rates. However, Jason Maltby, president and co-executive director for national broadcast at WPP Group’s MindShare North America, said it “wouldn’t work” to pay for compressed airtime with no video. (International Herald Tribune 7/3)
Turner Sports and TNT will introduce the Wide Open Coverage concept at NASCAR’s Pepsi 400 on Saturday. The concept includes no commercial breaks; instead there will be onscreen commercials that were created exclusively for nine advertisers by Turner. (InsideBrandedEntertainment.com/Mediaweek 7/1)
On Monday, Cox dded HD movies to its on-demand service. Initially, Cox digital-TV customers in San Diego will have access to the new HD movie offerings, but rollouts in Northern Virginia, Oklahoma City and other yet-to-be-named locations are set to follow. (Broadcasting & Cable 7/2)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
NBC Universal has decided to fold its online video content syndication service NBBC into its broadband video joint-venture with News Corp., according to an email sent out to partners yesterday. NBBC had signed about 150 large and small distribution partners to date, including CNET Networks, A&E and Access Hollywood.
Vivendi’s Universal Music Group told Apple it will not renew its annual contract to sell tracks and albums via iTunes, according to reports. The world’s largest music label is working on a short-term sales agreement instead that would give it more flexibility on pricing and exclusivity. Universal’s reluctance to maintain the status quo is indicative of the music industry’s discomfort with Apple’s dominance in the digital retail space, according to sources. Everyone loves what Apple has done in creating a new online revenue stream, but no one wants iTunes to be the only game in town.
The new CNN.com is up and running boasting a much cleaner look and a spiffy new Flash video player. A bar across the top keeps readers up to date with “Hot Topics” such as the communion of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence and, of course, the iPhone. (75 stories are featured on the device.)
Senator John McCain outspent his rivals in terms of paid online advertising in April but came in 4th in traffic generated to his site, according to Nielsen BuzzMetrics. Democratic Senator Barack Obama led in that category with 647,000 unique visitors to his official site during the month. Hillary Clinton attracted the second most unique visitors with 498,000, generating a “buzz share” of 32.0, compared to Obama’s 45.5 share and John McCain’s 37.9 share.
And check out what I found on my visit to the Obama Store. Who DOESN’T want Obama’s face on their tank top?!
Yahoo! announced it will launch a new behavioral ad targeting service called SmartAds, allowing advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on users’location, recent product searches and household income or age, in some cases. The system is being tested on Yahoo’s network of sites and in partnerships with eBay, major papers and Comcast by two major airlines. The technology will be applied for ads purchased through online ad exchange Right Media according to The New York Times, a still-pending acquisition made by Yahoo this spring.
The internet is trailing television by only 3 percentage points in a recent Edison Media Research study conducted by Arbitron that asked consumers what media was “most essential” to their lives. One third of consumers queried named the net the most essential, compared to 36% for television. The results represented a significant shift from when the question was asked in 2002, when the split was 39%/20% in favor of TV.
ABC will provide additional coverage of this year’s CMA Music Festival by posting video clips and backstage interviews online at ABC.com. The online coverage will build toward ABC’s July 23 two-hour show that features the festival. (Mediaweek 7/2)
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Officials at LG Electronics report that they have signed an agreement with YouTube for a branded mobile device capable of playing YouTube content. “LG Electronics will unveil the mobile handset that fully supports the YouTube service for the first time in Europe in the second half of this year,” officials said. (Yahoo!/Agence France-Presse 7/3)
Freemantle Media and Mobliss will launch a new mobile channel available for Helio mobile phone users this month, repurposing hours of short-form entertainment and comedic programming sourced from the Freemantle’s library. “Atomic Wedgie” will offer 12 categories of more than 150 shorts including “Baywatch Babes”, “Bush Bites” and the all-new “White People Dancing”. M80 will launch an online marketing campaign this summer to promote the channel.
Nokia has teamed up with RedLynx to develop a cross-platform game, code named “Project White Rock,” for both PC and N-Gage systems. The game will feature identical play on both platforms and will feature more than 1,000 lines of recorded dialogue. (The Register (U.K.) 7/2)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
A new partnership between Sony and Nielsen will track media usage and advertising performance in games played on Sony’s PlayStation 3. The deal will benefit both companies as Nielsen can expand its GamePlay Metrics initiative and Sony will be able to work on possibly developing its own in-game advertising system. (Mediaweek 7/2)
A director at Sega told Reuters that Sony may need to cut the price of its PS3 to stimulate demand. Nintendo’s Wii sells for half the price of the PS3 in Japan and maintains a 6-to-1 market lead. (Reuters 7/2)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
More consumers are choosing LCD flat-panel TVs in the coveted 37-inch-and-over category, a Sharp executive says. Advances in efficiency in LCD-panel manufacturing and improvements in picture quality have helped LCD gain a competitive edge over plasma technology, which analysts had predicted would dominate the larger-screen marketplace. (Financial Times 7/2)
