Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
The broadcast networks will feature fewer than 20 half-hour sitcoms for the fall season, about half as many as five seasons ago. The decrease could reflect the loss of viewers. Some viewers “would rather see real people” than fictional characters, says sitcom producer James Burrows. (http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-08-22-fall-sitcoms_N.htm 11/23)
From telenovelas to football … MyNetworkTV will soon be the broadcast home to new and original episodes of NFL Network: Total Access, the weekly 60m show that previews the upcoming weekend’s games along with segments from NFL Network’s top shows. Hosted by Rich Eisen, Marshall Faulk and Rod Woodson, twenty original episodes will air on Saturdays at 9p starting September 8 through February 23 (with the exception of a handful of dates in December and January due to NFL live games). NBC has ordered up American Gladiators from MGM-TV and Reveille, and it’s still a competition series and it still has a stable of gladiators (four men and four women) who are competing in a variety of physical trials with regular folks. The differences will be the regular folks will have some time to train before entering the ring, and there will be more back stories included.
Joining the lineup for the upcoming season of 24 on Fox will be Colm Feore who will play the role of the President’s husband – the President will be played by Cherry Jones.
Ad-supported cable networks are together averaging a 52.4 share in the all-important 18-49 demographic this summer, while the six broadcast nets are just eking out a 24.2 share, according to Turner Research. The more than 2-1 split is the largest ever and has been fueled by new cable hits such as TNT’s “Saving Grace,” USA Network’s “Burn Notice” and Lifetime’s “Army Wives.” (The Hollywood Reporter 8/23)
Cablevision, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable are experimenting with new technology that will deliver HD programming to viewers only when they are tuned in. The system, dubbed switched digital video, will allow cable companies to offer far more high-definition content. (Reuters 8/23)Verizon has received the first of three approvals from Rhode Island regulators that would allow the company to expand its fiber-optic video service in the state. The ruling brings Verizon one step closer to offering FiOS to an additional 158,000 Rhode Island households. (The Providence Journal (R.I.) 8/23)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
HBO on Demand has given its web site a bit of a creative overhaul. Added video functionality and a more creative user interface.
Google unveiled Sky, providing images of the heavens from several third party science organizations here on Earth. Google Earth users will be able to see as many as 100 million individual stars and 200 million different galaxies through high-resolution cameras pointed into space. Like Google Earth, the user interface allows dragging, zooming and scanning. To try it out, download the latest version of Google Earth.
A user can check out images from the Hubble Telescope of animate the orbits of the planets. Oh yeah, I was one of those kids that watched Space Camp, thereafter convinced of my future as an astronaut. Now at least, I can pretend on Google Earth. Nicely done Google. Very nice indeed.
(Below) This sure sounds like it would be annoying and intrusive to me the viewer. Monetization good. Frustrating the viewer bad.
YouTube finally unveiled its plans to use in stream overlay ads on its video sharing site. The semi-transparent ads, which appear on the bottom fifth of the video player, begin to appear 15 seconds into a clip and last up to 10 seconds. User can click on an ad to pull up a separate video trailer. Advertisers can use the system to target viewers by age, s#x, geography, daypart and even video genre. Google will sell the InVideo ads at a rate staring at $20 per thousand impressions, initially only to partner video makers. Also, the ads will only come up when the videos are played on YouTube.com. (Computerworld/IDG News Service 8/23)
Vloggers on YouTube are increasingly meeting offline in informal gatherings across the country. Members are curious to get a real-life look at many of the faces they know only through webcams. A YouTube meet-up held in New York on July 7 drew several hundred attendees. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070822/on_the_net.html 8/22)
Facebook is quietly working on a new advertising system that will let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves. The ad plan is said to be the company’s top priority. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118783296519606151.html 8/23) MySpace and MTV are partnering to launch the first ever interactive, real-time Presidential dialogue series. The inaugural dialogue will begin with former Senator John Edwards in New Hampshire on Thursday, September 27, webcast live on MySpaceTV and MTV.com. (Sen. Edwards is the first of 11 candidates confirmed to participate.) Viewers can participate by uploading videos, participating in real-time polling and chatting via instant messaging. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/tc_afp/lifestyleinternettelevisionpoliticscompanymyspacemtv 8/23)
“Afterworld,” an online animated series debuting today on MySpace, marks one of the most ambitious Internet shows to date, with a budget of some $3 million. The production spans 130 episodes, each lasting two to three minutes. The show is free and supported by advertising. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-afterworld23aug23,1,1291316.story?ctrack=1&cset=true 8/23)
All of these episodes are currently available on YouTube. Not exactly exclusive.
Playboy is getting into the social networking craze with PlayboyU.com, a new attempt to market to the student body in the language it is most comfortable with. It’s free to join, but enrollment is by invite only and limited to college students with .edu email address. Not unlike Facebook, it is all about letting your friends know how much of a party animal you are, allowing users to upload photos, videos and messages visible to only those within your group. Playboy says it will keep nudity off the site but not necessarily scantily clad women and will do its best to bar non-student campus personnel from joining. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070822/playboy_college_students.html 8/22)
Social video networking site Broadcaster.com debuted new “remote video” embeddable tags allowing users to integrate live video streams into their personal profile pages.
Goldstone Technologies entered into an agreement with US-based Echelon Studios to boost its video library content for its Video-on-Demand subscribers. The revenue-sharing arrangement will add more than 3,500 Echelon titles to the IPTV service, available in several Asia Pacific countries.
PBS Kids Sprout relaunched its website adding preschooler generated content, parent blogs, new casual games and other web 2.0 features. For instance, “My Refrigerator” allows preschoolers and their families to create a virtual refrigerator displaying their photos and artwork, which can be sent via email to their friends and other family members.
Robert Greenwald, the director of the documentary “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism,” is joining with independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders to start an online viral video campaign calling on television news outlets not to follow Fox News Channel “down the road to war again.” (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_en_tv/tv_fox_iran 8/22)
Ticketmaster, the largest U.S. ticket seller, says it is not able to reach a new agreement with its largest client, concert promoter Live Nation, which generates much of its revenue. Ticketmaster is a key driver of profit growth at IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet firm controlled by Barry Diller. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSN2220150020070823 8/23)
A new global survey of consumer digital media habits by the IBM Institute for Business Value found that the internet is severely cutting into TV-watching time. Among respondents, 19 percent stated spending six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage versus 9 percent who reported the same levels of TV viewing. One to four hours of TV usage was reported by 66%, compared with 60% for the Web. Online and mobile video adoption is on the rise. Eighty-one percent surveyed said they’ve watched or want to watch PC video; 42 percent indicated they’ve watched or want to watch mobile video. Social networking usage is also increasing rapidly across the world.
Top Ten Visited U.S. Broadcast Network TV Show Websites (week ending Aug. 18, 2007)
Rank Network Website Mkt. Share of Visits
1 CBS Big Brother 8 29.84%
2 NBC America’s Got Talent 12.63%
3 FOX So You Think You Can Dance 8.83%
4 FOX American Idol 3.50%
5 FOX Hell’s Kitchen 3.28%
6 FOX America’s Most Wanted 3.06%
7 CBS Pirate Master 2.99%
8 FOX The Simpsons 2.11%
9 NBC Deal or No Deal 1.60%
10 ABC Grey’s Anatomy 1.58%
Source: Hitwise
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Virgin Mobile USA partnered with Intercasting Corp. to launch a series of mobile social networking sites targeting niche audiences and specific demographic groups. The WAP-based sites include AsianAmerican.com, BlackPlanet.com, LGBT site GLEE.com, Hispanic-focused MiGentre.com and the popular community site LiveJournal.com. Intercasting’s Anthem platform specializes in optimizing social networks for mobile use. Pricing options vary based on usage, letting users pay by the day, by month or by volume.
Yahoo is buying Actionality, a German mobile advertising tech firm, for an undisclosed sum. Actionality provides software technology that inserts ads in content for mobile devices. The deal is “part of Yahoo’s focus on becoming No. 1 in mobile advertising,” says a Yahoo spokesperson. (http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=201801866 8/22)
Nokia has teamed up with Microsoft to preload Windows Live! features to Nokia mobile handsets. Select handsets available in Europe and the Middle East now feature access to Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Contacts and Windows Live Spaces programs. (The Washington Post/PC World 8/22, The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires 8/23)
India overtook the U.S. in the second quarter to become Nokia’s second-largest market, reflecting the rapid growth of mobile phone use in the country. China remained Nokia’s biggest market worldwide. (http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/23/India-passes-US-as-Nokia-no.-2-mobile-market_1.html?source=NLC-WIR&cgd=2007-08-23 8/23)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
Owners of Sony’s popular PSP gaming device will now have access to the system’s download capability, as Sony officials announced the launch of the company’s Go! video-download service scheduled begin in early 2008. (Financial Times 8/23, Reuters 8/22)
New gamers, casual gamers and the creation of new revenue streams will help grow the global video game industry 50% in the next four years, says Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. Guillemot revealed that casual gaming had had a strong impact on his company’s profits and operations, with sales doubling in the most recent quarter and the revenue being funneled back into game development. (USA TODAY/Reuters 8/22, GameDaily BIZ 8/22)
With video game consoles offering more connectivity, advertisers are taking advantage of games as a way to direct consumers to the Web. Sales of video game-to-Internet advertisements will grow to more than $850 million by 2011, according to a new report. (The Hollywood Reporter 8/23)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Tivo’s recently-reduced $300 HD DVR hit stores. It features the latest Tivo upgrades including a function than enables movie and TV downloads from Amazon.com and Home Movie Sharing with other Tivo users. DirecTV, which no longer offers Tivo DVRs to its customers, is also out with new DirecTV-branded HD DVR for about the same price.
Click the image below to watch David Pogue’s video review of the new TiVo Series 3 HD DVR. This proves 2 things: 1) David Pogue is a weirdo. & 2) The Tivo Series 3 is one sweet piece of. . .technology. One thing to note here. This TiVo REPLACES the cable box. That’s right. I said replaces. Customers replace their cable box with a cable card which stores your account information but costs less to rent than the cable box.
Blog ubergizmo.com reports that Vizio is now the leading seller of HDTV flat-panels in the U.S. The low-cost HDTV maker has released details for four new LCD models, including a 54-inch offering that will sell for $1,199.99. (Ubergizmo.com 8/23)
