Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Disney Channel’s phenomenal turnout for “High School Musical 2,” which attracted 17.24 million viewers to its premiere, isn’t the first time cable has made the TV industry take notice. This look back at some of cable’s biggest milestones highlights HBO’s carrying “Sometimes a Great Notion” in 1972 and MTV’s debut of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video in 1983. (Metromix/Los Angeles Times 8/24)
Amid reports that television watching is trending downwards, Nielsen reported an increase of 1.3% in the number of U.S. TV households for the 2007-2008 season. Nielsen also estimates that the number of viewers aged 2+ increased by 1 percent to 286 million. Women 55 and over and persons 55-64 saw the biggest overall bumps, increasing by 2.4% and 3.8% respectively. Meanwhile DMA rankings shifted slightly with Dallas/Ft. Worth climbing to 5th, Atlanta moving up to 8th and Phoenix moving up for the third year in a row to 12th.
A spiffed-up The Price Is Right, in its 36th season along with new host Drew Carey will premiere October 15 at 11a on CBS. The new season will have contestants winning more expensive cars, trips to more exotic locations all on a set that has been revamped yet one that still looks familiar to its die-hard fans. The game show is produced by FremantleMedia North America.
Former Disney chief Michael Eisner is reinventing himself as a new media mogul, with hit Web dramas like “Prom Queen.” His expected takeover of baseball card maker Topps could lead to new online shows from his studio Vuguru that would run on the video site Veoh he supports. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_36/b4048046.htm 9/3)
As part of its growing international digital-cable package, Cablevision Systems will begin offering three Chinese networks. The networks — the Chinese Channel, ET Global NY and the Chinese government’s CCTV-4 — serve up programming in Mandarin, as well as Cantonese and English. (Variety 8/23)
The ratings firm estimates there will be nearly 113 million TV households totaling 286 million viewers by the beginning of the new year, a gain of 1.3% versus a year earlier. Viewers ages 55 to 64 represent the fastest-growing increase, while the viewing habits of those aged 2 to 11 and 12 to 17 are basically unchanged. (TVNEWSDAY 8/23, The Hollywood Reporter 8/24)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Fox is offering up the pilot episode of the new drama K-Ville for free across 200 popular entertainment portals including AOL.com, Yahoo! and TVGuide.com, as well as the Fox.com Fox on Demand website. The police drama, scheduled to premiere September 17 at 9 pm ET, stars Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser as two cops trying to restore order in Katrina-torn New Orleans. The first 17 minutes of the cliffhanger Prison Break will also be made available. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ic5e5748d210215482b483b4ee5298e7c 8/24)
Full pilot available through the link above. K-Ville trailer below. Looks interesting and more importantly, highlighting a situation in New Orleans that is slowly being forgotten by the US public.
(Below) GREAT idea. Let me repeat, GREAT IDEA.
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit are working with Google to provide online maps, schedules and trip planners. The transit guide would boost Google’s revenue from selling advertising to restaurants, hotels and other local businesses. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aslR2A2kKcuY 8/24)
(Below) Couldn’t agree more. It’s not simply the fact that YouTube will be heavily ad-supported. We’re not talking pre-roll here folks. We’re talking about ads laid over top of the videos that you’re trying to watch. Color me annoyed.
On the YouTube blog users mostly trashed the idea of having to watch ads with their favorite programs, confirming worries that the longer online content is made available without ads, the harder it would be to get viewers to adapt to them.
Universal Music, which started experimenting with posting its music videos on YouTube a year ago, says it now has the most viewed video channel on the video-sharing site, with 158 million views. Universal has overtaken CBS and NBC with its 4,000 videos on YouTube. (http://blogs.reuters.com/2007/08/23/universal-music-tops-youtube-chart/ 8/23)
ABC News Digital increased its unique user base by 19% year-on-year to 9.9 million in July, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Users posted more than 64,000 comments on ABCNews.com, spurred by discussions on hot topics such as the al Qaeda cell found in the U.S. and the FBI report claiming Iraqis were being smuggled across the Rio Grande.
CartoonNetwork.com says it reached an all-time high in terms of average time spent on the site per user. Nielsen/NetRatings’s July numbers reported CartoonNetwork.com users spent an average of 77 minutes per visit, placing it 26th among all U.S. domains in time spent. More than 170 casual games available for free on the site have improved stickiness, according to the network.
Tween digital doll site Stardoll announced a partnership with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and their kateandashley brand. Stardoll users can dress up their doll avatars in their original designs, interact directly with the designers and participate in a virtual fashion contest judged personally by Mary-Kate and Ashley.
Online video distribution platform Dovetail.tv launched a Facebook application allowing independent producers and distributors to embed, browse, search, rate and review Dovetail films directly from the Facebook site. The films play in the Flash format on a Mac and PC-compatible peer-to-peer client on the user’s desktop. The Dovetail widget also supports HD-quality streams.
Video navigation site WeShow rolled out a widget of its own designed to help users play and manage videos without opening a web browser. WeShow is also launching widgets designed to play videos on popular social networking sites including MySpace, Facebook, Hi5 and Ning. The widget can be configured to visually match the look and feel of the user’s page
Social network profiles are starting to have an effect on how people will vote in the upcoming elections, according to a new poll from Global Market Insite. About 17% of those surveyed said they had checked out a candidate’s profile on MySpace, Facebook or other sites, with 53% claiming they are more likely to vote for that candidate after seeing the profile. Interestingly, 62% of the candidate profile visitors were over 30 years old.
Time Warner Cable and Cisco Systems have joined forces on a new Web site that touts the benefits of the Scientific Atlanta high-definition DVRs that the cable company leases. The site, www.twcinhd.com, is called HD Clear & Simple, and it gives consumers step-by-step advice on which HDTV would be best for them. (Multichannel News 8/23)
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Google is reporting a spike in the usage of its mobile services after the iPhone went on sale. Usage for the mobile versions of Gmail, Google Maps and Google Search, all featured on the iPhone, increased by 40%-50% at a time when traffic usually drops due to vacations. Now what will happen with Google Stars where a user can zoom into various galaxies and stars?
Some 84% of the U.S. population, including both consumer and business users, will have mobile phones by the end of 2007, with this percentage surging past 100% by 2013, says a study by SNL Kagan. New multimedia services will be partially subsidized by advertising. (http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=139017 8/22)
Video games for the new Apple iPhone are off to a slow start as the company concentrates instead on making sure the device’s primary features of voice, music and Web browsing run smoothly. Apple is rumored to be working on developing games of its own. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP-A/idUSN2139798020070823 8/23)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
Sony Computer Entertainment unveiled a digital terrestrial TV tuner and PVR named PlayTV for the PlayStation3 game console, scheduled for release in Europe in early 2008. The device will contain two HD tuners for watching and recording TV and enable content to be transferred to PSP handhelds via USB.
July sales of video games and hardware increased 37% in the U.S., thanks to a large boost provided by Sony’s recent price cuts to its PlayStation 3 console. Market-research firm The NPD Group reports the gaming industry has accrued $7 billion in sales through July, outpacing 2006 figures by 42.6%. (CNET/Reuters 8/23, GameDaily BIZ 8/23)
