Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

You won’t have to wait until January 2009 for your next Jack Bauer fix - rather a 2 hour prequel is being developed to air in the fall, reports THR.  The prequel will bridge the previous season with the new upcoming season.  24 is produced by Imagine TV and 20th Century Fox TV.

CBS will premiere its two new dramas this summer: Swingtown on May 29 at 10p and Flashpoint will debut in July with a specific date announced later.

In the new VH1 series I Know My Kid’s A Star, Danny Bonaduce and Hollywood casting director and manager Marki Costello will find the next big child star. I Know My Kid’s A Star will premiere March 20 at 9p with a sneak peak of the first episode available via VH1.com on March 13. The eight, one-hour episodes will feature ten parent/child teams who will live together in a Los Angeles house, willing to do whatever it takes for the child to become famous.

VH1 also opens a new season of Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp on March 13 at 9p with several former Fit Club veterans returning to lose the last 10-20 pounds along with new recruits.

NBC is reportedly planning to renew the critically acclaimed but low-rated “Friday Night Lights” for a third season by partnering with Liberty Media’s DirecTV to share costs. Both NBC and DirecTV will air “Friday Night Lights” across multipurpose platforms.  (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/nbc-picking-up-friday-night-lights-after-partnering-on-it-with-directv/ 3/5)

Monday night’s season opener of Little People, Big World on TLC (8p) drew in 2.7 million total viewers and 1.3 million A25-54 viewers. In addition, the second new episode at 830p delivered even higher numbers as 3.5 million total viewers and 1.8 million A25-54 viewers tuned in.

Preview of Little People, Big World

TLC and Real Simple are teaming to develop multi-media lifestyle content for various platforms including television, print, radio, online and in-store events. Set to launch this August, TLC ordered 15 episodes of a primetime TV series based on the Real Simple brand and at the same time Real Simple will begin interactive digital content personalized for the consumer in addition to content in the magazine.   Mediaweek (3/5)

FX’s second season debut of Dirt starring Courteney Cox on Sunday (10p) averaged 1.7 million total viewers which is 54% less than the 3.7 million viewers who watched the series opener in January 2007. Production of the show was affected by the writer’s strike, as FX did not extend its order beyond the seven already completed episodes.

The final episode of The Millionaire Matchmaker on Bravo (10p) had 679,000 A18-49 viewers along with 938,000 total viewers. Afterward, the premiere of The Real Housewives of New York City (11p) attracted 659,000 A18-49 viewers and 824,000 total viewers.

Tivo reported a narrower net loss for Q4 on revenue of $74.1 million, down 3.5% from Q4 2006. The DVR maker is counting on partnerships with MSOs such as Cox and Comcast to increase its subscriber base. (No word on ad revenue, or whether or not DirecTV’s new owners are interested in renewing its past relationship with Tivo.) The company also added 109,000 Tivo-owned subscribers, bringing the total owned base to 1.75 million. Meanwhile Omnicon Media Group became the latest subscriber to the Stop||Watch DVR research service. 

North American cable companies saw revenues rise more than 13%, to $17.3 billion, in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to a new report from market-research company Ovum. Comcast, the largest cable provider in the U.S., led all cable MSOs in capex spending, the study added. (CED Magazine 3/5)

NFL  Commissioner Roger Goodell, locked in a bitter dispute with cable companies over the placement of his league’s NFL Network, told lawmakers that the FCC should crack down on cable companies. But a  Comcast spokesman, John Demming, said that putting the channel on its specialized sports tier was “the best and fairest way to provide their expensive programming to customers.”  (Yahoo!/Reuters  3/5)   

Verizon has acknowledged that a number of customers who signed up for a FiOS TV promotion to get a free Sharp HD set have not yet received them because of higher demand than expected for the offer. Verizon sent letters to consumers saying they would receive their gifts in 10 to 15 weeks. Alternatively, they could accept one of two offers: take a similar-model set from Magnavox or a $200 gift card from Best Buy. (The Wall Street Journal (free content)/Dow Jones Newswires 3/5, WCVB-TV (Boston) 3/5)

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Indie music web competition site OurStage.com announced a new partnership with AOL Music to provide content to the portal, including new music, interviews, streaming audio and videos for distribution. In addition, AOL’s Platform A will become the exclusive ad-serving network for OurStage.com, working to help monetize the site through ad creation and placement.

Yahoo officially extended the deadline for nominating directors to its board from March 14 to 10 days after the date of the annual stockholders’ meeting is announced (which could be pushed back as far as July. The move should buy the company more time to engineer an alternative to Microsoft’s $31/share offer. Time Warner is the latest potential suitor, which would merge its AOL unit with Yahoo. 

Time Warner shareholders and analysts say the media giant might benefit from merging AOL with Yahoo because it would increase advertising revenue and free management to focus on film and television businesses. The union “would make some sense,” says one large shareholder. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aYnf_B1DUzFg  3/5)

Time Warner’s AOL Internet unit is taking down another wall. The company is launching Open AIM 2.0, a product that allows developers to access the AIM instant messaging network faster and integrate AIM into their sites and applications in customizable ways. (http://www.adotas.com/2008/03/aol-unveils-open-aim-20  3/5)

Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old CEO of Facebook, is the youngest self-made billionaire to crack Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s richest people, at No. 785. Investor Warren Buffett comes in at No. 1 this year, passing last year’s richest man, Microsoft boss Bill Gates. (http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_8472580?nclick_check=1  3/6)

Advertising in programs streamed online is better liked and more recalled than advertising in programs on conventional television, according to a survey by NBC. Viewers say that ads streamed online are “less disruptive.” Viewers also have a “strong desire” to interact with them. ( http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/03/nbc_says_online_ads_are_recall.php  3/5)

Microsoft signed a deal with full episode online content delivery specialist Move Networks to put new video steaming solution Silverlight to work delivering interactive, rich media navigation and integrating advertising within online TV content. Move Networks currently delivers HD video online for ABC, FOX, ESPN, the CW, Warner Bros, Televisa and others.   (Broadcasting & Cable  3/5)

Finally, Microsoft unveiled new beta releases of Internet Explorer 8, Silverlight 2 and Expression Studio 2 at its MIX08 developer’s conference. The new IE comes with “Activities,” contextual services enabling quick access from any web page and “WebSlices,” helping web sites connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a page. 

Microsoft Research announced the new Microsoft Blews news aggregator today.  It’s a news aggregator (see Techmeme and about 45 others, including this gem), but it goes beyond mere clustering of stories to show what’s important right now based on who’s linking to what in near real time. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/06/microsoft-blews-brings-back-memories-of-rocket-pops-at-the-beach/ 3/6)

Yahoo released an update to Yahoo Maps with more data at the neighborhood level. The Yahoo Maps team added 12,000 new neighborhoods in 300 cities. The maps now denote neighborhood boundaries with subtle changes in the background color. And points of interest such as schools and subway stops are marked. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/06/yahoo-maps-get-more-local/ 3/6)

European regulators are set to clear Google’s acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick, setting the stage for the search giant’s push into the broader online advertising market. The proposed $3.1 billion deal was approved by U.S. antitrust regulators late last year. (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4dce55ee-eafe-11dc-a5f4-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 3/5)

NBC Digital Entertainment released a new survey querying 5,000 NBC Rewind users suggesting most who sampled the video player watched full-length episodes through until the end and retained higher brand recall for ad content created specifically for the net. 77% of users streamed video as a compliment to TV viewing. Over 25% said they used the service to sample new shows and a majority said they continued watching what they sampled both on air and online.

Bebo will begin showcasing the rushes today from a documentary about extreme snowboarding, currently in the works from Italian filmmaker Carlo Mancini. Bebo users will be able view footage from Conquering Demons as its shot each day, send email to the snowboarders and the filmmakers and interact with other fans during the filming process.

Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl, Peggy Noonan, Mary Wells and Joni Evans are spending $1 million of their own money to launch Wowowow.com, a Web site aimed at women 40 and older. The site, launching Saturday, is described as a “smarter” iVillage, offering original content and blogs.  (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/fashion/06WOW.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 3/6)

More than 500,000 viewers attempted to watch a Webcast of Oprah Winfrey interviewing author Eckhart Tolle, but after the first few minutes many of the servers powering the site crashed. Winfrey’s Harpo Productions notes that Internet broadcasting “is still an emerging medium.”  ( http://www.informationweek.com/internet/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=206901847 3/5)

Craigslist traffic just keeps climbing. Year on year last week, share of U.S. visits to Craigslist.org were up 93%. The growth of traffic to the mostly free classifieds site is said to be “steady and fairly constant,” fueled by an “increasing popularity” in newer markets. (http://weblogs.hitwise.com/us-heather-hopkins/2008/03/craigslist_traffic_nearly_doub.html  3/5)

Smaller, niche Web sites are seen as one of the fastest growing categories for generating advertising revenue. “We are increasingly supporting these sites,” says David Friedman, with online marketer Avenue A/Razorfish. The Web portals, on the other hand, could be vulnerable to a slowdown. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu-online-advertisingmar06,0,7617587.story 3/6)

Most Americans with high-speed broadband service in their homes will use it to stream high-definition video and other services, according to a research report. The report, from Parks Associates, predicts that nearly 33 million U.S. homes will have broadband connections with speeds of 10 Mbps or more by 2012, compared with 5.7 million in 2007. TheRetailBRIDGE.com (3/5)

Nielsen Online released its second month of VideoCensus numbers, ranking top online video destinations by total streams and unique visitors. A total of 116.7 million visitors viewed a total of almost 6 billion streams in January, with each user averaging 51.3 streams and 124.4 minutes viewing online video. Daypart viewing varied by brand; Yahoo video viewing spiked during the morning hours, for instance, while Nickelodeon viewers watched most often from 5-8pm.

Top Brands by Video Streams for January 2008 (U.S., Home and Work)
Brand                                   Total Streams (000)  Unique Viewers (000)
YouTube                                  2,570,182                  66,167
Fox Interactive Media                 376,859                    18,955
Yahoo!                                     299,044                    22,119
Nickelodeon Kids & Family sites     172,567                     7,014
MSN/Windows Live                     132,769                     7,659
Disney Online                            102,914                     8,977
Turner Ent. New Media Network     98,162                     5,056
ESPN                                         90,212                    4,709
Google                                       79,395                  12,949
Veoh                                         72,832                    2,385
Source: Nielsen Online VideoCensus

WIRELESS

Apple made a number of major announcements today around the iPhone. Techcrunch live blogged the event if you want to see all of the details. But if you want a summary of the important parts, read on. Two things happened worth noting. First, the iPhone is no longer just a really fun phone/Internet device.  It now supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, meaning it can hold its own against any other business device out there (more on that below). Second, Apple gave more details on its previously announced software development kit that will allow third parties to get their software onto the iPhone. From the demo’s shown today, developers by the thousands will be clamoring to jump on board. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/06/iphone-20-enterprise-ready-developer-ready/ 3/6) 

Click below to watch the full event

Viewers of Comedy Central’s “Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil,” which debuts March 12, will be able to participate in the show’s debates on evil-mongering, thanks to a text-messaging deal with  Alltel Wireless. It’s the first deal for Comedy Central involving text-message voting and, according to David Sacks, the show’s co-creator, the innovation will give the audience “a personal stake in the series.”  (The Hollywood Reporter  3/5) 

GAMING

Five million copies of “Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games” have sold since Sega released it three months ago, exceeding expectations and raising hopes for a long buildup to the Olympics. While games like “Halo 3″ for hard-core players usually see strong sales on release, games like “Mario & Sonic” for casual players tend to see steady sales. The success is a boon for Sega, now the sixth-biggest game maker in the U.S., and that’s all right with executive Simon Jeffrey, who says: “You can be number six very happily.” The Globe and Mail (Toronto)/Reuters (3/5)

Consumers have been able to download video games for several years, yet the activity is just starting to catch on, with only 14% of video games being bought via download versus 86% purchased on disc in the last three months, according to The NPD Group. There is not much incentive for gamers to opt for downloads given the price is usually on par with the physical disc. (The New York Times  3/6)

Online casual TV game show site Uproar.com, once a place to play Family Feud and Jeopardy, relaunched as a review and directory site for casual online games throughout the internet. The site has cataloged more than 300 games, offering community ratings and advice on how to play.

TECHNOLOGY

While pixels are important when buying a digital camera, no more than six megapixels are needed for snapshots, Web sites and most newspapers, says columnist Jack Schofield at The Guardian. What makes a difference in a digital camera is having a bigger sensor, just as film makes a difference in standard SLRs. The Guardian (London) (3/6) 

MISC

IFC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC made a two-year pact with Blockbuster Inc., giving Blockbuster the exclusive U.S. rental rights for IFC movie titles through its stores, by mail subscription services and its digital downloading service, Movielink.com. Designed to make independent films available to a wider audience, the agreement will allow IFC and Blockbuster to share rental proceeds from IFC titles.