Daily Marauder

ONLINE/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Comedy Central, in an unusual strategic about-face, plans to move its Internet-only original programming off Comedycentral.com and onto AtomFilms.com, a Web site that Viacom acquired in 2006. Viacom plans to re-establish Atom as a comedy-oriented vertical channel. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3ie25482ef248abb4874f4d7f598c121a0 10/30)

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker lashed out at Apple at benefit hosted by Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Communications according to reports, claiming its inflexible pricing practices have destroyed the music business and are poised to do the same to online video. NBCU, which earned just $15 million in revenue during the last year of its deal with Apple, had been pushing for the right to charge more per episode for hit shows and to share in some of the revenue Apple earned from hardware sales before talks to renew its deal collapsed. He also defended the viability of the just-launched Hulu.com. Mr. Zucker noted NBC.com served up 50 million streams of TV shows during the month of October, proving there is ample demand for full-length shows on the web.

Google is said to be developing a social-networking element for all of its applications, with a project that goes by the codename “Maka-Maka.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/29/googles-response-to-facebook-maka-maka/ 10/29)

Australia’s antitrust regulator won’t intervene in Google’s proposed acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick, ruling the merger as unlikely to result in a lessening of competition. A Google spokesman says: “We are confident that other governments will approve this deal.” (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/australian-regulator-clears-google-purchase/story.aspx?guid=%7B460B1C51-F6D2-4E47-BCBB-3F9F560AD5F9%7D 10/30)

Yahoo is adding media-playing features, large file transfers, new languages and other tools to its instant messaging service. The move comes as a growing number of rivals — from incumbents like AOL to social-network sites like MySpace — boost their positions in the market. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2952520620071030 10/30)

Meebo.com, a Silicon Valley startup aiming to morph from a Web-instant-messaging company into a general-purpose media company, will open its Web site to software developers, throwing it into possible competition with the likes of Facebook and Google. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119370202753875653.html 10/30)

Hulu.com, the new NBC-News Corp. video site, is often called a “YouTube killer.” But Hulu doesn’t offer user-generated content like the Google-owned video-sharing site. Instead, it allows viewers to watch mainstream television online without the cost of a cable TV service. (http://www.thestreet.com/s/hulu-to-hurt-cable-not-google/newsanalysis/mediaentertainment/10387093.html 10/29)

The rise of Internet television will make it easier — and more important — for studios to release new TV shows simultaneously around the globe, says Jason Kilar, chief executive officer of Hulu, the joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp. The film industry has already made moves toward simultaneous release to combat piracy. (MSNBC/FT.com 10/29)

During MySpace/MTV.com’s Presidential Dialogue Barack Obama promised to make net neutrality the law of the land if he were elected president. “Facebook, MySpace, Google might not have been started if you had not had a level playing field for whoever has the best idea,” he noted. The statement was given in response to a question posed by a former AT&T network engineer, the top rated query on 10questions.com’s interactive poll. (Broadcasting & Cable 10/29)

MySpace is entering a deal with Silicon Valley startup Zazzle.com that will enable musicians with MySpace pages to create virtual stores for T-shirts, posters and other merchandise, using artwork and graphics that their fans can customize when they order it. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119370187696075639.html 10/30)

A friend turned me on to Zazzle earlier today.  I wish I would have known about this site before I ordered a bunch of Daily Marauder shirts on cafepress.com.  Cafepress.com is easy and fun to use but zazzle offers even more options and easier editing functionality.  Marauder likes it.

Some 13 months after establishing itself as a stand-alone entity, NBCSports.com is returning to former home on MSNBC.com. Company execs stop short of describing the move as an admission that NBCSports.com failed in its attempt to take on leader ESPN.com. (http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.main&articleId=56852  10/29)

Fora.tv, which aims to become the C-SPAN of the Web, is closing a $2 million seed round from investors including Hearst heir Will Hearst. The site offers about 1,500 hours of public speeches and obtains its videos through partnerships with organizations like the Aspen Institute. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/29/foratv-raises-2-million-seed-round-from-adobe-and-will-hearst/ 10/29)

Curbed.com, a popular real estate blog network, is obtaining $1.5 million in financing to expand into more cities and add staff members. Publisher Lockhart Steele is a former managing editor of the Gawker Media blog network. Gawker Media is among the investors. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/technology/30curbed.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 10/30)

Hitwise launched a new Clickstream report differentiating between new and repeat traffic a website receives in a given day, week or month. The research should help marketers better analyze spikes and drops in visits. For instance, among social networking sites 6.23% of Facebook visitors for the week ending Oct. 20, 2007 were new users.