Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner’s new CEO, says the media giant may separate its struggling AOL access business from the division’s online advertising business. Time Warner also may spin-off more of Time Warner Cable. Plus, magazine publisher Time Inc. is set to become “a growth business.” (http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/06/news/companies/time_warner/index.htm?postversion=2008020611 2/6)

News Corp. division Fox Interactive Media reported $223 million in total revenues for FYQ2 2008, (including guaranteed revenues for MySpace of $62 million from Google,) an increase of 87% from the previous year. News Corp. COO Peter Chernin named FIM’s targeted advertising initiatives as a contributing factor and said he looked forward to the ability of MySpace’s involvement with the Open Social initiative to drive increased sales and innovation. MySpace accounts for “most” of FIM’s revenues, according to CFO David F. DeVoe, with domestic revenue accounting for about 85%.

Analysts say they believe the marriage of Microsoft and Yahoo will likely be consummated. “Given the significant premium, [Yahoo] shareholders would be apt to take advantage of this offer.” However, a rival bid for Yahoo from a private equity consortium “is also possible.” (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsoft-yahoo-deal-likely-go-through/story.aspx?guid=%7B5CDC0119%2D0858%2D4722%2DA849%2D7AE0706BF61F%7D 2/5)

A Microsoft link-up with Yahoo may slam a door in Google’s attempt to expand beyond the four-line text advertisements that run alongside Internet search results. That is because Microsoft and Yahoo would control more than a quarter of the market for animated ads and display banners. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aZo0dQCyzxfM 2/6)

Microsoft is announcing new video content deals with MTV and Sony BMG to give MSN Video viewers access to MTV shows such as “Pimp My Ride” as well as videos from Sony’s collection of music artists. “Online video has exploded in the last year,” says MSN exec Rob Crossen. (http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2208913/microsoft-inks-content-mtv-sony 2/5)

Super Tuesday proved to be another watershed event in New Media with news outlets pulling out all the stops to outdo each other in the digital space. MTV’s Choose or Lose site harnessed citizen journalists, deploying “Street Teams” of bloggers who posted video clips throughout the night by using Flixwagon.com software and Nokia N95 multimedia mobile devices. WashingtonPost.com teamed with Newsweek to stream live video coverage, trying to beat the TV networks at their own game. MSNBC.com offered bloggers embeddable political widgets. YouTube borrowed tools from Google Maps. And Barack Obama got a last minute boost from “Yes We Can,’ a music video featuring an all-star cast putting the Senator’s can-do rhetoric to song.

As I stood in a room of my peers at the DL21C Super Tuesday party last night in NYC, I was mesmerized by the passion generated by a generally indifferent demographic. The Obama and Clinton chanting was deafening. Live it loud.

Revver, a struggling YouTube competitor that made a name for itself by paying video producers, is said to be putting itself up for sale. Revver’s asking price is believed to be between $300,000 and $500,000, as well as the assumption of the company’s debt, which is in the $1 million range. (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9865731-7.html 2/6)

NBC Digital Entertainment has developed a new online property around the latest Candace Bushnell TV adaptation Lipstick Jungle, premiering tomorrow night at 10 pm ET/PT. Bonfire Magazine, produced with NBCU subsidiary iVillage.com and sponsored by Maybelline NY, presents exclusive content from the show in the context of a fashion magazine – offering users practical tips and advice updated weekly.

To promote the network’s newest primetime series, for the first time HBO will stream the first 15 episodes of In Treatment on its website, HBO.com as well as on HBO On Demand. And if your an iTunes podcast downloader, you’ll find them there as well. The show debuted on January 28 and stars Gabriel Byrne as a therapist, meeting with four different clients – each episode focused on a single client. The fifth night, the therapist visits with his own therapist, played by Dianne Wiest. All together, HBO has ordered 43 episodes.

Facebook has quietly added the ability for users to recommend friends to other friends, a social networking feature that comes straight from LinkedIn. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/05/facebook-now-supports-linkedin-style-friend-suggestions 2/5)

Yet another online comedic video site is launching today called The Independent Comedy Network, developing original improvisational comedy series to stream with ads and syndicate to other entertainment portals including MySpace.tv, YouTube, Joost, Vuze, Blip.tv and iTunes. CEO Marc Campbell developed the site with his cohorts at The Westside Eclectic comedy theater in Santa Monica, which he founded in 2005.

Do we really need yet another online comedy site? Seriously. . . I need more consolidation in my life.

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