Filed under: MISC
No edition on Monday due to the Labor Day holiday. Happy weekending all.
I leave you with what I deem one of the classic online videos of all time. This commercial originally premiered during the 2003 Superbowl thereafter becoming the darling of the internet. Love that Terry Tate.
Terry Tate Office LineBacker
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
TNT gave the OK to the production of a pilot titled “Leverage,” a story of sophisticated thieves who target evildoers around the world. Meanwhile, the network pulled the plug on “Heartland” after nine episodes. (Variety 8/30)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Unable to come to terms on pricing, NBC Universal will not renew its digital download deal with iTunes. NBC Universal digital downloads on iTunes account for approximately 40% of the video downloads. NBC U also wants to bundle its downloads on iTunes, positioning it for higher revenues, and is looking for iTunes to set better piracy controls. The non-renewal of NBC content on iTunes won’t have a consumer effect until December when the current contract expires. Other deals soon looking for renewal include NewsCorp, CBS and Discovery. This is the second major content provider to iTunes to not renew its contract – Vivendi did the same last month. (The New York Times 8/31)
NBC began streaming full-length episodes of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the first late night talk show host to officially stream on the web. Episodes will be made available on NBC.com at 9 am ET/ 12 noon PT the morning after each telecast. Conan has been one of TV’s more web-savvy comedians; his animated series Pale Force was one of the first original series featured on NBC.com.
MTV’s 2007 Music Awards in Las Vegas will offer unprecedented interactivity this year with an extensive array of digital initiatives geared toward the web, mobile devices, virtual worlds and on demand environments:
- Sprint TV will simulcast the awards live for the first time
- Viewers can go to VMA.MTV.com to shop for music and vote for their favorite show elements. “Viewers’ choice remixes” will air on MTV based on viewer submissions
- MTV’s virtual world will host the first Virtual VMA at the virtual Palms Casino & Resort
- Comcast and Time Warner Cable will offer highlights of the show and user generated content nearly instantaneously on September 9, the day of the event.
Joost, VeohTV and other new Web sites in development are out to make the experience of watching video online more like watching television. The Internet and TV are increasingly being portrayed as destined to fuse within 10 to 20 years, with TV just another form of high-speed data. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070830/ap_on_hi_te/bigger_online_video 8/30)
Joost Full Screen (From VH1′s I Hate My 30′s)
ESPN President George Bodenheimer says the channel’s online video service, ESPN 360, is closing in on signing one or two cable carriage deals. ESPN 360 recently switched its content focus to include more live events. (Multichannel News 8/30)
Sony will phase out its Connect music service, which offered downloads in a proprietary ATRAC format, and open up its music players to other formats, the company announced on Thursday. Sony also said it would offer software to convert ATRAC files to MP3s. (Yahoo!/Associated Press 8/30)
Blinkx announced 28 new partnerships with small “long tail” publishers adding to its index of more than 14 million hours of searchable video content. Internet broadcasters Cycling TV, Wedding TV and Eye Music Network are among the new content providers.
Roxio has released Popcorn 3 for the Mac, the latest version of its video-transfer software. Popcorn allows users to convert video to and from a variety of formats and sources, and includes TivoToGo, which allows recorded programs to be transferred to a portable device. (Macworld 8/29)
U.S.-based GekTV Entertainment is launching a new IPTV service on September 16 offering several Asian channels and on-demand television shows and films. With content from Tai Seng Entertainment and its President, Bernard Soo, GekTV will have Cantonese, Mandarin, and English-language programming with Vietnamese and Cambodian shows coming on board by the end of 2007.
This may surprise some. A new study of 500 random users by Advertising.com and InsightExpress found that a majority of streaming video fans are over 35, favor news clips over other genres and are willing to tolerate short video ads. In the first half of 2007, 62% of consumers viewed news clips online, followed by movie trailers at 38%. Music videos came in third at 36%, decreasing from 47% in the second half of 2006.
Despite enormous hype and popularity social networks such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube are just beginning to monetize their services, according to IDC Digital Marketplace. However, the research firm predicts new advertising models and tools should help quickly correct the imbalance, increasing social networking ad revenue from $400 million in 2006 to as much as $1 billion this year.
Americans are spending more time with blogs, according to a new survey from Synovate/Marketing Daily. Still, only 13% of blog readers say they spend less time with newspapers, television and radio since they started following blogs. However, “this could certainly change.” (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/08/30/americans-blogging-habits 8/30)
Startup Zayo Bandwidth is looking to team up with top broadband providers to bring higher bandwidths to B- and C-level metropolitan areas such as Memphis, Tenn., and Harrisburg, Pa. The company owns more than 8,000 miles of fiber lines and several collocation facilities in relatively rural areas. (Light Reading 8/30)
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Sharp has announced plans to begin shipping a new touch screen with scanner capabilities for mobile electronic devices. The screens will be able to respond to multiple simultaneous touches and will be thinner and clearer than previous models, according to Sharp. (International Herald Tribune/Associated Press 8/31)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Consumer adoption of high-definition DVDs is moving slower than the industry has anticipated, according to Philip Consumer Electronics chief executive Rudy Provoost, who also says more studio releases are necessary for the format to truly catch on with home audiences. (International Herald Tribune 8/29)
The CEOs of Apple and Volkswagen met recently to discuss creating an “iCar,” a high-tech vehicle which could conceivably contain a variety of Apple computing products. (The Boston Globe/Associated Press 8/29)
Pioneer introduced the new AVIC-N4 car navigation system, which stores map data on a DVD and supports 12 million points of interest. The device also plays CDs, DVDs, DivX video and MP3s, and it can be connected to a satellite radio tuner, which will give XM subscribers access to live traffic updates. (Electronista 8/29)
Kodak has unveiled several new products, including three high-definition digital cameras. Besides the cameras, which range from eight to 12 megapixels, Kodak also released a new HD dock for viewing photos on HDTVs and a high-resolution photo frame. (TWICE 8/30)
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
ABC’s fifth installment of Dancing with the Stars, produced by BBC Productions, premieres over three nights: September 24 at 8p with the female contestants showing off their moves; September 25 at 8p giving the guys a chance to strut their stuff; and on September 26 at 8p the first Dancing with the Stars Results Show will air. Hosts Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris return along with the same judges: Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba. Dancing with the Stars also introduces the most contestants for this new season, twelve altogether.
E! Entertainment TV has picked up three theatricals from NBC Universal Domestic TV Distribution for their first basic cable premieres — Knocked Up, Evan Almighty and Man of the Year, reports Variety. The deal also includes secondary basic cable windows for Miami Vice, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Pride & Prejudice, Georgia Rule and Because I Said So. Total cost of the package – approx $40 million. Knocked Up will go to E! in October 2009 for a four year exclusive deal. The other titles are non exclusive, and USA has picked up a window for Man of the Year. USA also has the premiere windows of Chuck and Larry and Miami Vice; Oxygen has the first window for Pride & Prejudice and Georgia Rule.
With a boost from the credit crisis and a rollercoaster stock market, CNBC is posting its best August numbers in five years. During the month, CNBC’s business day, which runs from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., averaged 87,000 viewers in the channel’s target audience of adults age 25 to 54. (http://www.crainsny.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070829/FREE/70829008/1084 8/29)
TiVo reported a widening net loss of $17.7 million for Q2, up from $6 million during the same period last year. However, revenues increased by 5.1% to $62 million on the strength of HD DVR sales and its partnership with Amazon that allows TiVo users to download Amazon movies directly to the unit. TiVo closed the quarter with 1.71 million subscribers. (http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/earnings/2007-08-29-tivo_N.htm 8/30)
Comcast and TiVo are moving ahead with plans to allow TiVo DVRs to operate on Scientific Atlanta set-top boxes. The companies are expected to debut the TiVo service commercially in Comcast’s New England division shortly. (Multichannel News 8/29)
New York-based ImaginAsian Entertainment, Korea-based Sidus Corp. and CJ Group affiliate M-net Media signed a new multiplatform content deal that will give ImagineAsian U.S. distribution rights to popular Korean dramas, music and variety shows including Thrilling Blind Date, Jaeyong’s Chaste 19 and M Countdown. M-net Media will serve as content aggregator for CJ Group’s catalog of shows in the U.S.DirecTV is beta testing its upcoming VOD service, called DirecTV On Demand. The system, slated to be launched in the fall, is expected to download content to an HR20 receiver outfitted with an Internet-enabled DVR. (Light Reading 8/29) Borrowing a page from Best Buy’s Geek Squad, Cox is launching a new service that will bring its technicians to a subscriber’s front door. The service, called Tech Solutions, features white-shirted Cox agents making house calls in hybrid Honda Fit cars. (The Arizona Republic (Phoenix) 8/30)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
MTV will run Sept. 9 a live simulcast of its Video Music Awards on Sprint TV and offer viewers a number of new wireless and online ways to interact with the program. The channel will offer instant updates through its MTV On Demand and will create an online “virtual world” based on the show. (The Hollywood Reporter 8/30)
AOL Latino announces the top 3 finalists of Fashionista today, the online reality design contest sponsored by Mercury Milan. As part of the finale, AOL Latino will debut three webisodes on Friday showcasing the finalists as they design outfits for a runway show. The winner will then be announced Friday at aollatino.com. Meanwhile AOL Music Live! premieres an exclusive live concert with platinum artist Daughtry, also on Friday night.
National Lampoon launched its own video channel on Yahoo! Video, featuring clips from classic comedies, webisodes of made-for-internet shows from nationallampoon.com.
Google is turning to new attention to its often-ignored social networking site, Orkut.com, with a redesign intended to prettify the site’s Spartan look. Despite its low profile, Orkut now draws 38.2 billion page views a month worldwide — 7.8 billion more than Facebook. (http://www.forbes.com/business/media/2007/08/28/google-brazil-network-tech-cx_ag_0828orkut.html 8/28)
Netflix doubled the amount of viewing via PCs during the past 6 weeks. As of August 22, Netflix users watched 10 million movies and TV episodes as more subscribers became aware of the feature rolled out slowly from January.
The theft of contact data for job seekers in the database of Monster.com may be much greater than the 1.3 million individuals reported earlier, admits CEO Sal Iannuzzi. While investigating the recent theft, the company learned that its Web site had previously been hacked. (http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSWEN072620070829 8/29)
YouTube signed an agreement with the MCPS-PRS Alliance of 50,000 UK-based music writers, composers and publishers to license 10 million tracks of music for a flat fee, reports The Financial Times. After YouTube hands over the funds the alliance will decide how to distribute it among its members based on online usage. This is the first such deal struck by YouTube outside of the U.S. (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2355094.ece 8/30)
The U.S. is lagging behind in terms of speed and affordability of broadband access, according to a report in the Washington Post. For instance Japan, once a laggard in the race, offers speeds 8-30 times faster than U.S. broadband services for half the price, in some cases. Competition among DSL providers has pushed the rates down to around $22 for a speeds that exceed what Comcast and Cox offer in the U.S.
Using “powerboost” technology, Comcast has begun increasing its upload speed to 2 megabits per second. By comparison the typical speed of AT&T’s DSL service is between 384 kilobits and 512 kilobits per second. The service is available to Comcast cable-modem customers who subscribe to services with 6- or 8-megabit download speeds. (The Sacramento Bee (Calif.) 8/30)
Many assume the growth in online video consumption is driven by teens and twenty-somethings watching amateur content. But according to a survey conducted by Advertising.com and InsightExpress, streaming video fans are mostly over-35 news junkies. (http://www.clickz.com/3626896 8/30)
U.S. Internet advertising spending is poised to overtake radio advertising for the first time, says a report from eMarketer. Radio ad spending will inch up to $20.4 billion, short of online’s of $21.7 billion. Radio station Web sites will become a “principal driver” of radio ad growth. (http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/29/advertising-radio-internet-cx_lh_0829radio.html 8/29)
