Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

The CW’s reality show Beauty and the Geek is back for a fifth season starting March 11 at 8p. Nine intellectually-challenged beauties compete against nine smart but socially-bereft guys in various tests to win the $250,000 grand prize. The series is from fox21 and produced by Katalyst Films and 3 Ball Productions with executive producers Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg. 

Preview of the New Season

In the aftermath of the Hollywood writers strike, advertisers are counting on television-starved viewers to make Sunday’s Academy Awards show on ABC a ratings winner. Marketers are paying an average of $1.8 million for a 30-second spot, up from $1.7 million last year. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/02212008/business/award_waiting_98658.htm  2/21)

To new pilots have been ordered by CBS - Splitsville from exec producer Jamie Kennedy is a game show where divorcing couples negotiate for possessions via a variety of challenges.  The second pilot is a reality series focused on a team of law enforcement people who are all assisting people who have been victimized by crime. This latter project is from Tom Forman, the exec producer behind CBS’ Kid Nation.

Viacom’s BET Networks will launch in the United Kingdom next week as the black entertainment and culture network expands its global reach. BET was founded in 1979 by businessman Robert Johnson. In Britain, no direct rival of BET’s size exists, execs say. (http://www.reuters.com/article/televisionNews/idUSN2035152620080220  2/20)

TBS has unveiled plans to stage The Comedy Festival in Las Vegas in 2008 for the fourth straight year and launch a new five-day comedy fest in Chicago in the summer of 2009. “After three successful years of serving as the presenting sponsor of the Comedy Festival in Las Vegas, we’re ready to dive into the festival arena full force,” said Turner Entertainment Networks President Steve Koonin, who believes the festival helps extend TBS’ brand. (The Hollywood Reporter 2/21)

The second season of The Style Network’s “Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane” will begin April 20. The series, which averaged 300,000 viewers last summer, revolves around fashionista Kimora Lee. (Multichannel News 2/20)

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected to take indecency enforcement action against News Corp. over a 2003 episode of the reality show “Married by America.” It must act by April 7, the five-year anniversary of the program’s airing, in order to collect the fine. (http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20080220-000879-1950  2/20)

Sixty-two percent of marketers believe TV advertising has become less effective in the past two years and close to half of advertisers surveyed admitted to experimenting with new formats to adapt to DVR and VOD platforms, according to a new study from the Association of National Advertisers. More than 65% of advertisers said they were eager to try online TV ads, followed by VOD ads (55%), interactive TV ads (43%) and set top menu ads (32%).

Comcast shares have been on the upswing since last week when the firm unveiled a dividend, but Credit Suisse analyst Bryan Kraft thinks the run-up has gone too far. He argues that the company led by CEO Brian Roberts remains challenged given instability “in the core video business.” (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3i4c30b133022e19a34f8ee849f03aa3d4  2/21)

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

After years in denial, Redmond has finally decided to stop trying to fight open-source software. In a series of moves announced today aimed at making its products more interoperable with other software and the Web in general, Microsoft is releasing 30,000 pages of documentation for Windows (both desktop and server products) that were previously available to partners only through a trade secret license. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/21/microsoft-sings-a-new-tune%e2%80%94wants-to-play-nice-with-open-source 2/21)

Google is planning to announce the details of its AdSense video ad solution this morning, which serves contextual InVideo overlay ads dynamically to a group of trial programming partners, including entertainment portals Revver, blip.tv and My Damn Channel as well as how-to-video sites BobVila.com and ExpertVillage.com. The system searches metadata embedded within each clip, then serves an appropriate overlay relating to the subject matter or theme. While this may not be the killer application for online video advertising, it should go a long way in helping to monetize goofy user generated video that spreads like wildfire around the web before a sponsor can be premeditatedly attached to it. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120356348207882167.html  2/21, http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120356207523882041.html  2/21)

Click the logo below for examples of video ad solutions from the Google Adsense product.

News Corp. is said to be continuing its discussions to combine its Internet assets with Yahoo. News Corp. and Yahoo are “still hung up on how to make the merger work without getting Google involved. … It’s possible that at the end of this ordeal we’ll see a combined Yahoo/MySpace.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/21/news-corp-yahoo-discussion-continue  2/21)

Facebook is suffering its first ever drop in unique users after 17 months of growth. New figures from Nielsen Online reveal a 5% drop in U.K. numbers between December 2007 and January 2008. Rival social network MySpace also saw a drop, which some blame on the holiday season. (http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/36983/Facebook+users+fall+over+Christmas.html  2/21)

(Below) Welcome to the con of all that open source.  The environment is fun and interesting to all until one finds themselves subject to tons of unnecessary spam and application requests.  For more on my take on the application burden, click here.

Facebook announced a number of steps today to battle the growing problem of application spam - stuff that is sent from your Facebook friends asking you to try out new services. Generally, applications force users to send these invitations in order to get access to the more interesting features. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/20/friend-spam-is-the-worst-kind-of-all  2/20)

Bebo’s interactive social networking series Kate Modern will go on the road this week shooting 7 episodes from 3 different locations in the UK as part of a brand integration with Toyota’s Aygo Platinum. The show has attracted over 5 million views during the first two weeks of its second season, according to Bebo.

Viacom’s MTV is allowing the boys of “Jackass” to take over the network for 24 hours straight, starting Saturday at noon ET. The special is intended to drum up interest in the launch of Jackassworld.com, where the “Jackass” gang will take the act full-time with “uncensored” video clips. (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2008/02/21/2008-02-21_jackass_dislocating_mtv_sked_for_a_day.html  2/21)

Break.com reports that its new action oriented original series What Would Kimbo Do? starring Mixed Martial Artist Kimbo Slice had close to 900,000 views in its first week.

Notice that the end of the video promotes a former Showtime fight featuring Kimbo.  Nice marketing Showtime.  Very well done.

Here’s another alternative to the CPM (cost per thousand impression) model. Video ad network VideoEgg is launching the AdFrames Brand Response Network that charges marketers only if users initiate an ad and spend a set amount of time with it. The AdFrames system distributes video or rich media overlay ads dynamically to a page, widget or online game then considers it activated only after users literally engage with the optional overlay. Meebo and Flixster have already signed on to participate, along with Microsoft in a long-form MS Office commercial starring Amy Sedaris.

Click below for a demo.

Since launching four and half years ago, Skype users have talked to each other for 100 billion minutes, and that is just counting free Skype-to-Skype phone calls. Of course, many of those calls would never have been made if Skype didn’t exists, so you cannot count the entire 100 billion minutes as a loss for the phone companies. But a significant chunk of that has got to be eating away at phone company profits. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/20/skype-100-billion-free-phone-calls-and-counting  2/20)png

WIRELESS

The ability to customize features and accessories has garnered a lot of attention for the new Zzzphone from China, but actual phones are slow in coming to the U.S. Users of the Zzzphone can opt in or out of a camera, Skype, GPS and other features and pay accordingly. Starting cost is $149. (The New York Times 2/21)

If Apple hopes to significantly leverage the iPhone in the gaming marketplace, it needs to develop a great game people want to play, says Tom Hubina, head of Amplified Games. In a conference presentation called “IPhone and Beyond: A New Hope for Mobile Gaming,” Hubina said building a community with leader boards, tournaments and user-generated content would keep customers coming back. (BusinessWeek/GameDailyBIZ 2/20)

Mobile content company Flycell is partnering with the Island Def Jam Music Group to create a label-centric subscription content service called IDF Mobile, offering ringtones, graphics, games and text services, as well as label news, artist mobile blogs and sweepstakes.

Competition over heavy mobile users is heating up. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all rolled out new all-you-can gab plans priced at $99.99 a month.

GAMING

(Below) Open source comes to gaming consoles. 

Nintendo will launch new online service called WiiWare from mid-May that will allow third-party game developers to build games for the popular Wii platform. Users will be able to download games directly to their consoles, and titles will be available at a variety of price points, via cash or Wii Points.

Microsoft also announced its 10 million user - strong Xbox 360 platform will also accommodate player-developed games beginning this spring. User/Developers must joint the XNA Creators Club for $99/year with the online community itself deciding which games are worthy. New creations are expected to double the size of its Xbox 360 game library to 1,000 titles before its first year anniversary rolls around this Christmastime.

Top computer-technology companies are joining forces to promote the PC-gaming platform, support development and set standards. Microsoft, Dell, Intel, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices are among the companies that formed the new PC Gaming Alliance announced this week. (The Washington Post/PCWorld 2/20, Seattle Post-Intelligencer/San Francisco Chronicle 2/20)