Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
MySpace founders Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe are signing a new contract to stay with News Corp. Also: Anderson and DeWolfe are said to be getting equity in MySpace China and will be the highest paid employees at News Corp. after Roger Ailes. (http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2007/10/17/myspace-founders-re-up-at-news-corp 10/17, http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/news-corp-re-signs-myspace-founders/ 10/17)
Facebook plans to more than double employees to 700 in the next year to develop new features and sell more advertising, says CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The No. 2 social-networking site has “almost wrapped up” its financing. Also: A Facebook IPO is “definitely years out.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahjCtte6CMdY 10/17, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahjCtte6CMdY 10/17)
Good news for Hulu.com? Video-sharing Web sites took a small hit in traffic in September, as television networks pressed hard to promote streamed episodes of fall premieres on their own Web sites. YouTube saw its unique audience dip for the first time in more than a year. (http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/10/videosharing_sites_take_hit_fr.php 10/17)
Time Warner’s AOL, which is cutting 1,200 jobs in a restructuring, now envisions itself as a network of Web sites, blogs and services, including TMZ, MapQuest and Engadget. “AOL is like Procter & Gamble,” explains boss Randy Falco. “P&G has a number of brands underneath it.” (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/randy-falco-looks-to-soap-to-clean-up-aols-web-business/ 10/17)
Viacom’s Comedy Central is opening a Web site for “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” offering about 13,000 video clips from every minute of the show since its 1999 inception. TheDailyShow.com, which will be free and supported by advertising, is seen as a response to YouTube. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mtv18oct18,1,810516.story 10/18)
I heart the Daily Show. Here’s to your Moment of Zen.
Viacom’s MTV is quietly deploying a Hot or Not competitor called NextorNot.com. The new site allows users to peruse profiles and photos of other users and rate who they think is most attractive. The “hottest” guys and girls will be featured on MTV dating shows. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/17/mtv-launches-hot-or-not-competitor-nextornot/ 10/17)
When you find youself ‘nexting’ everyone that crosses your path on this site, you know you’re too old to play. Ideally, this site is built for the 16 – 24 age range set in my approximation.
Fans of Sony’s “Seinfeld” can go online at tv.yahoo.com and vote for their favorite episode. Yahoo will count the votes, then the top 10 will air in syndication Nov. 12 to 26. Yahoo will give all 197 local TV stations carrying “Seinfeld” access to a video player featuring show clips. (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/randy-falco-looks-to-soap-to-clean-up-aols-web-business/ 10/18)
News Corp. will probably make WSJ.com subscription-free and will open the MySpace social-networking site to developers to add online readers and advertisers. “We want a bigger presence on the Internet,” says chief Rupert Murdoch at the Web 2.0 Summit. “Things are changing so fast.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aI4qrVB3XTHw 10/18)
Yet another major station group is seeing the Friday-night lights, as Gannett acquires HighSchoolSports.net, covering all things high-school-sports-related. Gannett’s purchase follows moves by Hearst-Argyle, Belo, Fox and CBS to launch or buy Web sites about high-school sports. (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6492308.html 10/17)
Weather.com introduced a new geo-targeted tool allowing users to wave their mouse over 200,000 points of interest and pull up weather information for that area. The interactive map includes such locales as schools, parks, golf courses and beaches.
Social community sites such as Wikipedia are good places to reach online communities but are not the place for marketing, says Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales at the DMA 07 conference. Marketers should “do good work,” he says. “Somebody will eventually notice.” (http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/internet-marketing/42742.html 10/18)
DoubleClick has partnered with TV-focused ad-technology firm Visible World to develop a new platform that will combine DoubleClick’s DART and Visible World’s intelliSpot system to create location-specific online video ads. (ClickZ 10/18)
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Show Websites (Week ending October 13, 2007)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 NBC Deal or No Deal 16.78%
2 ABC Dancing With The Stars 9.49%
3 NBC Heroes 5.80%
4 NBC The Office 3.34%
5 FOX America’s Most Wanted 2.98%
6 ABC Women’s Murder Club 2.78%
7 ABC Grey’s Anatomy 2.69%
8 ABC The Bachelor 2.33%
9 The CW America’s Next Top Model 2.19%
10 FOX Prison Break 2.16%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
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