Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
NBC.com kicked off its NBC Direct download service offering free ad-supported episodes of shows such as The Office, Heroes, Life, Bionic Woman, 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights. The NBC Direct player can be set to schedule weekly downloads of shows, but the videos can only be viewed on the computer that downloaded them. So far the service supports only Windows PCs running the latest Internet Explorer browser. (http://mashable.com/2007/11/10/nbc-direct-launches 11/10)
Nice quality viewing experience but with one huge flaw for me: I can’t watch the videos that I download on my iPod. To recap for a moment, here’s the story: NBC decides to pull their shows off iTunes by the end of the year, sell through amazon.com, stream free ad-supported content on Hulu.com and allow free ad-supported downloads of shows via NBC Direct. That’s a whole lot of digital distribution kids. Apparently, NBC decided they would test all avenues simultaneously and to be honest, I respect them for taking so many risks. At the same time, I wonder what the value is to the advertiser if the content is segmented and distributed via so many avenues. I suppose the numbers will prove me right or wrong.
More than any media sector, the Internet “will hold up” in these uncertain times, says IAC/InterActiveCorp Barry Diller. The new slimmer, trimmer IAC has a lot of cash for possible acquisitions, such as AOL. “When and if Warner doesn’t want it, I’ll certainly be at the door.” (http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=121930 11/12)
AOL is acquiring Yedda.com, a social search question and answer service. Yedda automatically matches questions to other related questions and topics, while selecting the best available users to answer the question. AOL plans to integrate the service into certain areas of AOL.com. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071112/aol_acquisition.html 11/12)
ABC.com will start streaming mini 2-3 minute webisodes of Lost this week originally intended to debut on Verizon Wireless, according to EW.com. The “Missing Pieces,” penned by Lost writers under a separate arrangement before the strike began, will reveal previously unknown backstories of the survivors of flight 815. The bigger screen version of Lost is still scheduled to begin its fourth season in February. ABC.com users have started 160 million full-length episodes since the site began offering them for free last year while a total of 33 million ABC shows have been downloaded via iTunes so far, per Disney CEO Bob Iger’s conference call to analysts last week.
Warner Bros. Television is in negotiations to offer a range of its library content to the News Corp./NBC Universal Hulu joint venture, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
MySpace‘s first original series Quarterlife debuted yesterday, the first of 36 8-minute episodes that will premiere every Sunday and Thursday night on its profile page as well as on MySpaceTV. The series, about a group of twentysomethings trying to figure out what to do with their lives a few years out of college, has its roots as an ABC TV pilot co-written and directed by Marshall Herkovitz called “1/4life” that failed to get picked up in 2005. MySpace has pledged to serve banner ads for the show on more than 500 million MySpace pages. (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2007/11/11/2007-11-11_television_vets_make_move_to_online_ente-1.html 11/11)
I’ve only watched Part 1 so far but at this point, I don’t get it. It’s sad and not in that My So-Called Life-teen-angst kind of way but in an oh-my-god-that-girl-is-pretending-to-chat-on-her-cellphone-because-she’s-so-lonely kind of way.
A new service called BlinkBox launched in beta format offering movies and TV shows for viewing, rental and download to own. The service allows users to clip “blinks” or snippets of content to share with others, typing comments directly in the clip. Sounds perfect for snarky remarks.
Intro Video
Fun but being a UK-based site, there isn’t a wide variety of US TV shows to choose from. There are, however, a fair number of movies but I really see this best utilized as a Facebook application and not the type of functionality which warrants its own site.
Marauder-Produced Blink
Facebook’s new ad network could run into legal troubles in New York State according to a New York Times report. A 104-year old statute prohibits advertisers from using photos, drawings or other likenesses of people without their express written consent. So the question becomes, does opting in when registering count as giving permission?
News Corp.’s MySpace, facing rising competition from Facebook, will start to let advertisers target users as they go through college, marriage and other stages of life. The new service will expand on an ad program begun in July. By year-end, MySpace plans to offer 1,000 ad categories.
(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=a9AeehorxQAg 11/9)
Google is said to be in talks with Simon Fuller, the British entrepreneur behind “American Idol,” about a joint venture that could “change the way TV is watched over the Internet.” A possible deal could “change television in much the way iTunes changed the way music is disseminated.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/11/mediabusiness.google 11/11)
Google shares may surpass $1,000 over the next year as the Internet giant trounces competitors, says Ryan Jacob, manager of Jacob Internet Fund, the best-performing tech fund. Google is “taking share from smaller players and consolidating their lead among larger competitors.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aXnEmYphrM0A 11/9)
Microsoft head Steve Ballmer, who describes Google as “no real threat,” is emerging as a star on Google’s YouTube video-sharing site. Clips of Ballmer, including one at him “going crazy” a Microsoft conference, are racking up millions of viewers and thousands of comments. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/11/10/cnmsoft110.xml 11/9)
Oh, I could just watch this over and over again. Either Ballmer is a head football coach or he’s at a Microsoft conference. You make the call.
Radiohead and Warner Bros. Records are disputing comScore‘s research that determines less than 40% of users who downloaded the In Rainbows album actually paid for it, calling it “purely speculative” as it was based on only a couple of hundred users. comScore defended its methodology on its blog, saying it observed the activity of nearly 1,000 visitors to the In Rainbows site, a “significant percentage of whom” downloaded the album.
Comcast-owned FearNet, a Web site and VOD service serving up horror content, has struck a carriage deal with Cox that will expand the channel’s universe to 16 million homes. The one-year-old service also celebrated its anniversary by announcing deals with 19 new advertisers. (Multichannel News 11/12)
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