Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Yahoo’s deal talks with AOL and Google haven’t changed Wall Street’s view that Microsoft will eventually win the takeover battle. “The best option is to accept the Microsoft deal,” according to Mike Binger of Thrivent Financial. AOL-Yahoo makes no sense since AOL is “a declining brand.” (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0942900520080411 4/11)

Yahoo’s Jerry Yang and Microsoft’s Bill Gates (R) in a combination image.

Frank Quattrone is said to be advising Google CEO Eric Schmidt as the Internet giant figures out its next step in the takeover struggle between Yahoo and Microsoft. Quattrone, a former Credit Suisse banker, was cleared of obstruction of justice charges last year. (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/google-ceo-taps-quattrone-as-adviser-in-yahoo-battle/ 4/11)

With all of the excitement surrounding Yahoo, it may be easy to forget that Google is still the king of online advertising, writes Paul La Monica. Also: “There is no indication that any of the prospective partners or acquirers of Yahoo have any plan to make Yahoo any more competitive.” (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/10/markets/thebuzz/?postversion=2008041011 4/10)

Amidst all the hullaballoo, Yahoo found time to complete a distribution deal with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to feature a co-branded MLB.TV player on the Yahoo Sports portal in exchange for a share of the advertising and subscription revenue it generates. MLB.TV, which runs $119.95/year or $19.95/month, will continue to offer video subscriptions and manage ad sales on its own this season. Then Yahoo will take over subs and ad sales exclusively in 2009 and 2010, utilizing its Clickable format and new AMP management platform.  (Cynopsis 4/11)

Starz is rolling out a new service called Starz Play that is targeted to broadband customers. Subscribers get access to 2,500 films and videos via corporate cousin Vongo as well as a live stream of the Starz channel. (Light Reading/Cable Digital News 4/10)

YouTube is introducing a feature for its video creators that will help them better understand where viewers are coming from. The feature shows creators whether viewers discovered their videos by search, through an e-mail or Web-site link, or watched it on another site. (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/04/youtube_now_tracks_viewer_orig.php, http://youtube.com/blog?entry=P1y1CU54Fhg 4/9)

I decided to take a look at the new Insight features available by checking out one of my own most popular videos, Bill Gates describing his last day at Microsoft.  While YouTube had previously added the ability to see where people were coming from on a map of the world (very cool), users can now investigate how those viewers found the video.

Video

Pie Chart of Viewer Origins

Top Sources

We all know by now that if you could vote on the Internet, Barack Obama would already be president. His Website has always attracted more traffic than those of other candidates. Unaffiliated video-endorsement site YouBama popped up spontaneously to collect video endorsements from supporters. MoveOn.org is getting its constituents across the Web to rally behind him. Even Silicon Valley digerati like Marc Andreessen love him. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/11/stats-obama-still-winning-on-the-web/ 4/11)

MySpace signed a deal to give exclusive international TV and DVD distribution rights to some of its original content such as Roommates and Special Delivery to ShineReveille, a distribution arm of the London-based Shine Group. No user generated content or branded channel content is included and MySpace will retain the rights to sell its shows online in international markets. (Cynopsis 4/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0929275920080410 4/10)

USANetwork.com is trumpeting some high growth Q1 numbers heading into the upfront, including 3.1 million average site visits and 6.5 million video streams – double and triple digit increases from last year – and an average time spent of 29 minutes/per user. Q1 was the first full quarter its Character Arcade casual gaming site was operational, which now has 211,000 registered users. (Cynopsis 4/11)

CNN is preparing unprecedented multiplatform coverage that includes TV, radio and the Internet for Pope Benedict’s first visit to the U.S. Soledad O’Brien will anchor CNN’s coverage of the pontiff’s April 15 to 20 visit, which will include stops in New York and Washington. (Multichannel News 4/10)

Charlie Rose, the thinking person’s late night talk-show host, is undertaking an ambitious plan to edit 4,000 hours of interview archives into short Web videos running less than four minutes. A library of some 800 clips will be available when CharlieRose.com re-launches this summer. (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://www.beet.tv/2008/04/charlie-rose-re.html 4/10)

Job site Monster.com will become the exclusive provider of career tools and services for MSNBC.com and TodayShow.com. The agreement is a boon for Monster, which is struggling to maintain its dominance. The site will get direct access to MSNBC.com’s 35 million unique visitors. (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080410/FREE/984090061/1057 4/10)

Newspaper sites collected 26.9% of the $7.5 billion spent in local online ad dollars in 2007, down from a 35.9% share in 2006, according to a new study from Borrell Associates. Paper sites are losing ground to pure play internet companies such as Google and Yahoo, which are beginning to set their sites more on local markets. Papers still enjoy a sizeable lead over local TV web sites which got 9.5% of the pie, an identical share that went to Yellow Pages sites in 2007. Not surprisingly video is the fastest growing local online ad component, expected to jump from $363 million in 2007 to $1.2 billion in 2008. (Cynopsis 4/11)