Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

The annual “upfront” week is reserved for the broadcast networks to sell their ad time. But this year Time Warner’s Turner cable channels are positioning their upfront ad sales in the middle of the action. Ratings for TNT’s “The Closer” often beat out the broadcast networks. (hIwantmedia 5/15, ttp://www.cnbc.com/id/24624935/site/14081545 5/14)

Turner Broadcasting is introducing an advertising system, “TVinContext,” designed to match commercial messages with program content. For example, a movie running on Turner featuring a wedding scene could air an ad for wedding rings during the next commercial break. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/05/turner_to_put_ads_in_context.php 5/14)

A decline in upfront adverting sales is probable, “given ratings declines, the disruption in the development cycle due to the writers’ strike and economic woes,” says Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen. Broadcast networks could see spending drop 14% from 2007 to $7.73 billion. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2008-05-14-upfront-ad-sales-tv_N.htm 5/14)

MTV Tr3s, the Viacom channel aimed at young Latinos in this country, has announced that it will add a new reality series about the hunt for the best unsigned Latino singer and a programming block called Fresh Music Mondays. The channel, which launched two years ago, is available to more than 6.3 million Hispanic TV households, according to Nielsen, and is watched by 67.5% of Latinos aged 12 to 34. (C21 Media 5/14)

Cox Communications has announced that it scored double-digit growth in all major service areas during the first quarter of this year. The private company said that telephony subscribers were up 15.9%, broadband customers rose 10.3%, digital-cable users increased 10% and those who opted for the company’s triple-play bundle jumped almost 20%. (OneTRAK 5/14, CED Magazine 5/14)

Lifetime Networks reached a wide-ranging agreement with Cox Communications, which agreed to launch all of the network’s new services beginning in June. Cox will carry Lifetime Television HD, Lifetime Movie Network HD, Lifetime On Demand and Lifetime Movie Network Espanol On Demand. Cox will begin rolling out Lifetime HD to its customers in June, it time for the second season of its signature original series Army Wives. (Cynopsis 5/15)

Dish Network dropped 10 of the 15 Voom HD networks this week to make room for those new HD network additions just announced. The satellite provider also plans to drop the remaining 5 “as soon as possible” in response to an ongoing dispute over the companies’ carriage agreement. Rainbow Media’s Voom suite is now only available on its parent company’s Cablevision systems. (Cynopsis 5/15)

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Google, long dominant in the Internet search market, is surpassing rival Yahoo for the first time as the most popular Web destination in the United States, according to research firm comScore. Google’s U.S. audience is up to 141.1 million; Yahoo’s comes in at 140.6 million. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_hi_te/google_comscore 5/14)

CBS has struck a partnership with viral web drama studio EQAL to create a slate of multiplatform programming for existing and future CBS television productions. The creators of lonelygirl15 and KateModern - Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried - will consult with CBS to help create social experiences around traditional shows, working with CBS writers at the script level to tie online narratives in directly with TV plot lines. (Cynopsis 5/15, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ibb27093a4c288ae2ac6928ec8c1f3ae5 5/14)

CBS is signing an agreement to acquire CNET Networks in a deal valued at $1.8 billion. The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month and about 200 million users worldwide. (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9944882-7.html 5/15)

Amazon has taken a special interest in one of its web service customers: Animoto, the machine-driven music video creator that launched last August and now has over 160,000 users. The online retail giant has decided to fund the startup with an undisclosed amount of money. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/15/amazon-funds-animoto-music-video-creator 5/15)

Love Animoto.  First got acquainted with them at SXSW earlier this year and have made several stunning videos since.  Great service and one that I continue to pay $3 per video for.  That amount of monetization is pretty interesting.

For an undisclosed sum, Comcast will buy Mountain View, Calif.-based Plaxo, a social-networking Web site that allows users to share contact information and photos. The country’s largest cable company is expected to integrate Plaxo services into its Comcast.net, Fancast.com and Fandango.com sites. (The Wall Street Journal 5/15, Google/Associated Press 5/14)

Twitter, the fledgling microblogging service, is evolving into a social media powerhouse to rival giants like Facebook. The San Francisco-based Twitter, which appears to be aiming for a new round of funding, is starting an “experimental” advertising program on its site in Japan. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080514_269697.htm 5/15)

Carl Icahn is said to be moving ahead with plans to run a dissident board slate at Yahoo in a bid to force the Internet company to be sold to Microsoft. The billionaire investor is reportedly lining up at least 12 potential board candidates, including former Viacom head Frank Biondi. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1429522020080514 5/14)

Investor Carl Icahn speaks at the Wall Street Journal Deals & Deal Makers conference, held at the New York Stock Exchange, June 27, 2007.  REUTERS/Chip East

Jaman, the San Mateo-based P2P Web movie service, is about to announce that it will be streaming selected movies for free. The movies play immediately in the browser and are supported by pre/post-roll ads. (The usual download-to-rent option remains available). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/14/jaman-launches-free-streamed-movies-in-browser 5/14)

Ask.com, owned by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp, is acquiring Lexico, the owner of Dictionary.com, as well as Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. Ask.com, the No. 4 search engine, and Dictionary.com will attempt to cycle traffic between each other. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/askcom-tries-again-and-not-just-with-women 5/15)

President Bush is the first U.S. president to conduct a video interview for an online audience. In the interview with Politico.com political correspondent Mike Allen, Bush warns that a fast withdrawal of troops from Iraq could “eventually lead to another attack on the United States.” (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.prweekus.com/First-online-on-camera-interview-of-US-president/article/110087 5/14)

Advertising on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace is getting better, but is still not perfect, says Google co-founder Sergey Brin. “People are expecting overnight to wake up to a miracle. But these things take time. It’s hard to predict where social networking will come out.” (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL1572456720080515 5/15)

Evidence is piling up that Facebook has lost some of its luster among developers. Competition from dominant players such as Slide and Rock You and the influence of Google’s open API program OpenSocial has dampened some of the enthusiasm to create applications for the platform. Data culled from Facebook developer/blogger Jesse Farmer, who developed the Adonomics Facebook analytics and developer services system, breaks down some compelling tracking numbers. (Cynopsis 5/15)

Monthly Statistics for the Facebook Developer Forum
Month                          Jan. 2008       April 2008     % change
Posts per day                 461                 225               -51%
Signups per day               38                   27               -29%
Threads per day               80                   44               -44%
Active users                 1,606              1,168               -27%
Highly active users          461                 225              -47%
Source: 20bits.com, from data provided by Adonomics

GAMING

With a one-year head start in hand, Microsoft’s Xbox has surpassed the 10-million milestone, the company said Wednesday, but NPD Group reported that Nintendo’s Wii is closing fast with 8.8 million units sold while Sony’s PlayStation 3 trails at 4.1 million. Microsoft executives used the occasion to boast that the eventual top-seller of each generation of consoles has generally been the one that first reaches the 10-million mark. (Reuters 5/14, CNET 5/14)

Sony’s profit tripled for its year ended March 31, boosted by strong comeback sales from its PlayStation 3, which outsold Microsoft’s Xbox in the first quarter of 2008, as well as strong flat-panel TV and digital-camera sales, the company reported Wednesday. Sony — which predicted revenue at its video game division would rise just 1% this year because of the strong yen — cited a stronger lineup of titles, a 20% price cut on PlayStations late last year and the emergence of the integrated Blu-ray DVD player as reasons for the gaming resurgence. (ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg 5/14, The Wall Street Journal 5/15, The Washington Post/Associated Press 5/15)

Disney today will begin offering DGamer, a Web-based service that allows gamers across North America to communicate with one another. The company says that it will incorporate the DGamer application into all of its future Nintendo DS-based games and that the service will be available worldwide next year. (The New York Times 5/15)

A scene from Disney’s DGamer service. Players can choose outfits for their characters and interact with others using the service.

TECHNOLOGY

The Kindle, Amazon’s ugly but useful ebook reader that launched in November 2007, may be a burgeoning hit, says Citigroup Analyst Mark Mahaney. Citi expects Amazon to generate between $400 million and $750 million in revenue from the Kindle by 2010, or 1% - 3% of Amazon’s total revenue. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/14/amazon-may-sell-750-million-in-kindles-by-2010-thats-a-lot-of-kindles 5/14)

Fewer than 10% of consumers who do not own a Blu-ray DVD player plan to buy one in the next 12 months, even though most people are keenly aware that Blu-ray has won the format war for viewing DVD discs in HD, according to a new study from Harris Interactive. The Harris survey supports research released last month by ABI that suggested Blu-ray players remain too expensive for most consumers who are waiting for prices to drop below $200 before buying them. (InformationWeek 5/14)

Samsung said it would demonstrate this month the first “Blue Phase” LCD display, an innovation that the company boasts will double the panel’s existing image-driving speeds and provide more natural-moving images. The panel, which Samsung does not expect to introduce commercially until 2011, will be less expensive to produce because the new technology does away with any mechanical alignment and rubbing processes, Samsung said. (Pocket-lint.co.uk 5/14)

Apple signaled its aggressive plans to expand its retail presence domestically and abroad when it opened its largest U.S. store to date Wednesday, a 20,000-square-foot, minimalist tri-level outlet on Boston’s historic Boylston Street. Observers consider the store a potential model for Apple’s brick-and-mortar direction with its strong accent on customer-service specialists, each sporting images and slogans designed to define employees’ roles more clearly to customers as well as project a strong retail brand. (The Boston Globe 5/15, Scientific American/Reuters 5/14)

A Tour of the New Boston Jumbo-Sized Store

Techcrunch had a chance yesterday to try out the new Microsoft TouchWall, which debuted at the CEO Summit. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/14/hands-on-with-the-microsoft-touchwall/ 5/14)

Michael Arrington Tests the Microsoft Touch Wall