Daily Marauder

Recon Photos for Jump!! Part 2

In preparation for this Saturday’s second edition of Jump!!, I headed out for some test shots and discovered the most beautiful graffiti I have ever seen.

Video from Jump!! Part 1

Mobile post sent by Marauder using Utterz. Replies.

BROADCAST/CABLE

Shares of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. fell the most in five years after Bernstein Research and UBS cut their outlook, citing growth concerns. “We are wary of News Corp.’s positioning in this intensely competitive business that features established players including Google and Yahoo.” (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wrap15apr15,1,1861426.story 4/15)

A couple of true war horses are finally making the jump to HD. The Oprah Winfrey Show will be produced in HD beginning with the 2008-09 fall premiere, becoming the first daytime production from Harpo to be broadcast in HD. CBS‘ granddaddy of competition reality shows (well this generation anyway) Survivor will also shoot using Sony’s XDCAM cameras, beginning with the start of its 17th season scheduled to premiere in the fall. Survivor joins American Idol, American Gladiators and Dancing with the Stars among primetime HD reality shows. (Cynopsis 4/15)

Before Tim Robbins appealed to their compassion and human spirit, NAB President David Rehr urged broadcasters to embrace the challenges before them as they execute the DTV transition. He spoke of an “explosion of possibilities” that will result from the switchover in his last NAB conference keynote address before D-day on February 17, 2009. He said the NAB is working toward getting digital TV on multiple platforms and devices (345 million of them in all), which could result in an additional $2 billion a year in revenues by 2012 in mobile video alone. He touted NAB initiatives such as the Fastroad technology advocacy program and the Open Mobile Video Coalition. And he advised that broadcasters look to make the internet “part of our DNA.” To reassure those who feel like the digital world is passing them by, Rehr pointed to YouTube’s motto - “Broadcast Yourself.” “They use the word ‘broadcast.’ They obviously don’t think the word is outdated, or tired, or irrelevant. But the question is, do we?,” he asked. (Cynopsis 4/15)

ABC is set to announce shortly that its late-night “Jimmy Kimmel Live” broadcast will integrate live commercials into each episode of the program subject to interest on the part of advertisers. The first live commercials are expected to begin in May. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/media/e3ie7fe42fc9f2f03b81c071d7d85ad8f51 4/14)

Lifetime introduced an aggressive slate of original programming Monday at its upfront meeting in New York with ad agencies, including three new comedies and a soap opera titled “Trump Tower,” which will be executive produced and narrated by The Donald. The network also announced several new reality projects that will go along with its controversial acquisition of “Project Runway,” including “The Big Match,” in which 100 men try to break through the clutter for the affections of one woman. (The Hollywood Reporter 4/14)

While most of the news media is focused on the future of “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric, CBS CEO Les Moonves also faces pressure to improve profits and make a digital acquisition. Plus, CBS’ interactive division will open a Menlo Park, Calif., office to foster development. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/business/media/14cbs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 4/14)

Leslie Moonves, the CBS chief, faces a decision on whether to retain Katie Couric as evening news anchor. Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

After being held hostage for two months in Iraq, a British freelance journalist, Richard Butler, was rescued yesterday and appeared in good condition. Richard was working for CBS’ 60 Minutes and was grabbed with a translator in Basra on February 10. CBS News did not release any further information. (Cynopsis 4/15)

NBC Universal parent General Electric is predicting 2008 profit will increase no more than 5%, calling CEO Jeff Immelt’s forecasting and strategy into question. Portfolio manager Peter Sorrentino says: “The board needs to ask, ‘Are we really headed in the right direction?’ ” (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aCRRYe5brU3w 4/14)

Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive officer of General Electric Co., speaks at the 20th World Energy Congress in Rome, Nov. 14, 2007. Photographer: Chris Warde-Jones/Bloomberg News

Fox News is launching an initiative called Fox Fusion that will offer advertisers a streamlined system for buying space on the flagship channel and newcomer Fox Business News, as well as the Wall Street Journal and News Corp.’s various digital properties. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003788894 4/14)

ESPN Films has partnered with Robert Redford to produce a theatrical about Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson. Redford will help produce the film and play Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey, whose signing of Robinson broke the sport’s color barrier. (The Hollywood Reporter 4/14)

Cablevision will carry 25 New York Mets home games in Spanish this year on its iO en espanol service. The games — offered at no extra charge — will be announced by Max Perez Jiminez and Juan Alicea. (Multichannel News 4/14)

With the February 2009 transition to all-digital TV signals looming, cable and broadcast providers are coming up with novel ways to work together to promote awareness. Raycom Media and Comcast have found common ground, as have Time Warner Cable and Advance/Newhouse Communications. “Without being hostile, it takes two to tango,” said Robert Miron, chief executive officer of Advance/Newhouse. “It takes a willing recipient.” (Multichannel News 4/14)

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Today (4/15), AOL will announce the acquisition of San Francisco-based Sphere, a blog content engine that launched in 2006. The price is not being disclosed, but sources are suggesting it’s in the $25 million range, or possibly a little more. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/14/aol-buys-sphere-content-engine 4/14)

Microsoft is said to be wanting to stick with its original takeover offer for Yahoo, but is not ruling out News Corp. joining its bid or other options. Separately, a source familiar with the matter says News Corp. continues to talk directly with Yahoo on reaching a deal without Microsoft. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1142716320080413 4/13)

Google has long been using Google Maps as a way to show local business listings. When you search for hotels in a given city, for instance, each digital pushpin that appears on the map can be clicked on to reveal more information, including photos, reviews, and Web links. Now YouTube videos associated with each listing will also appear. For instance here is a video that is embedded in the Google Map listing of a San Francisco bakery called I Dream of Cake (screen shot below). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/14/google-maps-youtube-videos-local-video-white-pages 4/14)

Peter Gabriel, the musician, is a partner in TheFilter.com, a new “recommendation engine” for music, movies and Web videos. The site plans to combine purchase, consumption and browsing data to create an “experience map.” The next level will be to meld user profiles. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/interactive/la-et-filterapr15,1,3508364.story 4/15)

The site is still in beta but here’s a sample screen grab to whet the appetite.

A study by In-Stat reveals that high-speed Internet and digital players are driving online music sales to new highs. The research firm says digital sales should account for 40% of all music sales by 2012. (TheRetailBRIDGE.com 4/10, Electronista 4/9)

Bertelsmann book publisher Random House plans to offer users a widget to browse its titles. The widget will let users flick through pages of over 500 books as they would in a real life bookstore, reading parts of text and browsing images. Users can then click through to buy. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/37623/Random+House+launches+book+browsing+widget.html 4/14)

New York blog czar Nick Denton, founder and publisher of Gawker Media, is selling three of the new-media company’s properties: Idolator, Gridskipper, and Wonkette. In an internal e-mail, Denton explains: “Someone else will have better luck selling the advertising than we did.” (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9917959-36.html 4/14)

After turning down a $100 million buyout offer, Federated Media Publishing has opted instead to raise $50 million in a C round led by Oak Investment Partners. As was reported two weeks ago, the rumored valuation is $200 million. While the company is not confirming that number, publisher Chas Edwards quips, “We have to be worth at least $101 million.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/15/federated-medias-50-million-c-round-confirmed%e2%80%94no-plans-to-buy-up-blog-partners 4/15)

No wonder Rupert Murdoch is in no hurry to do away with the Wall Street Journal’s online pay wall. Even with it still in place around much of the site, traffic is growing. According to internal numbers, WSJ.com hosted 15 million unique visitors in March, a 175% increase over March 2007. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/04/11/whoah-wsjcom-quietly-makes-big-traffic-strides 4/11)

Blurb, the on-demand print service with a specialization in photographic layouts, is expanding its “crowd sourcing” strategy onto, where else, but Facebook with a new app that brings people together to create professional quality books. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/15/build-a-book-on-facebook-with-blurb 4/15)

A wave of additional content companies announced support for Microsoft’s Silverlight video platform including Madison Square Garden Interactive, Tencent, Abertis Telecom, Terra Networks Operations, SBSi, MNet and Yahoo! JAPAN. Microsoft also unveiled the specs of Silverlight’s DRM solution PlayReady, supporting live and on-demand streaming and progressive video downloads. (Cynopsis 4/15)

Online media company CNET Networks is digging deeper into business coverage with plans to debut in-depth news and information on 11 industry sectors on its business manager Web site BNET.com. BNET will cover subjects such as health care, financial services, food, and media. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN1439881220080415 4/15)

A federal judge in Illinois has dismissed a $21.6 million lawsuit against Comcast that was filed by an e-marketing company called e360Insight. At issue was whether Comcast unfairly blocked online sales pitches, which attorneys for e360Insight said were legitimate, but Comcast — and Judge James Zagel — viewed as spam. (Multichannel News 4/14)

Users are visiting online video sites slightly less often but are spending more time on them once they get there, Hitwise’s latest panel results suggest. The Hitwise Online Video category accounted for 1.09% of U.S. internet visits in March 2008, a decline of 7% compared to March of 2007, with YouTube increasing its share to over 73% of all online video traffic. Yet time spent on video sites increased 7% for the week ending April 5, 2008 from a year earlier. Hulu ranked #22 on this list, despite being available to the public for only half the month. (Cynopsis 4/15)

Top 5 Online Video Websites ranked by Market Share of U.S. Visits
Rank Site Mar. 08 Mar. 07 % Change
1 YouTube 73.18% 55.28% 32%
2 MySpaceTV 9.21% 17.18% -48%
3 Google Video 4.06% 8.42% -52%
4 Yahoo! Video 2.16% 2.63% -18%
5 Break.com 1.82% 1.57% 16%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise

Top 5 Independent Online Video Websites ranked by Market Share of U.S. Visits
Rank Site Mar. 08 Mar. 07 % Change
1 Break.com 1.82% 1.57% 16%
2 MetaCafe .98% 1.13% -13%
3 Daily Motion .96% 1.03% -7%
4 Veoh .93% .38% 145%
5 Blinkx .58% .08% 625%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise

Top 10 Online Brands, Combined Home & Work (U.S.). March 2008
Brand Unique Audience (000) Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
Google 119,674 1:15:40
Yahoo! 114,551 3:12:38
Microsoft 99,672 0:44:46
MSN/Windows Live 96,993 2:13:44
AOL Media Network 90,644 3:59:59
YouTube 71,273 0:50:34
Fox Interactive Media 70,389 2:07:30
eBay 57,220 1:58:31
Wikipedia 54,301 0:18:36
Apple 47,516 1:13:23
Source: Nielsen Online

New figures released by comScore show that AOL’s Platform A advertising network is the top advertising network in the United States by reach (unique visitors). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/14/not-a-misprint-aols-platform-a-is-the-top-advertising-network-by-reach 4/14)

WIRELESS

As Techcrunch reported earlier today, Fring is launching a downloadable app for the iPhone that will allow people to make Skype and other VoIP calls over the data connection instead of using up talk minutes. Fring supports Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo and AIM services. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/15/update-frings-jailbroken-iphone-app-now-live 4/15)

Fring Demo

With 89% of U.S. adults signed up for cellphone service, carriers are trying to boost revenue by getting customers to receive more data on their phones — and nothing contains as much data as video. Sales of video subscription services jumped to $308 million in the last quarter of 2007. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mobiletv15apr15,1,5994888.story 4/15)

Samsung’s video-enabled Instinct mobile phone will be distributed by Sprint Nextel. Content companies hope wireless customers know such services are available.

Owners of more than 800 local U.S. television stations are forming a group, the Open Mobile Video Coalition, to test standards for sending local digital TV signals to cell phones, laptops and other mobile devices, aiming to tap into the booming market for mobile advertising. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080414/mobile_tv.html 4/14)

The Associated Press is testing a mobile news platform for a possible summer deployment that would feed national and local news to smart phone users. The Mobile News Network, made up so far of Advance, Hearst, Lee, McClatchy, MediaNews and Rust Communications, is designed to distribute multimedia news to iPhone users along with local and national advertising, split 50/50 between content providers and sellers. (Cynopsis 4/15, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080414/ap_on_bi_ge/ap_annual_meeting 4/14)

Describing it as an evolutionary step forward in delivering downloadable content over broadband networks, MobiTV introduced its new Optimized Delivery Server. “MobiTV allows carriers and operators access to this next-generation media distribution solution on their terms,” said Charlie Nooney, the company’s chief executive officer. “Whether they want a fully managed, end-to-end hosted network solution or the ability to license components of our system that can interoperate with their existing infrastructure, the choice is now theirs.” (CED Magazine 4/14)

MTV and French telecom SFR have announced that on April 23 they will begin offering 3G MTV 3.3, a mobile network aimed at young French users. The service will include access to MTV’s four French channels as well as two channels being developed for 3G MTV 3.3, “MTV Scan” and “MTV Shake ton booty.” (The Hollywood Reporter 4/14)