Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

When blogs and regional newspapers trash Jerry Yang it’s one thing. But when the New York Times does it, people really notice. Public lynchings like this are few and far between from that bastion of traditional journalism.  Yesterday’s article by Joe Nocera, titled “Oh Jerry, It’s No Longer Your Baby” was a stinging condemnation of Yang. It’s presented as a memo from Nocera to Yang, with the subject “Shafting Yahoo’s Shareholders” and outlines the many ways Yang has failed Yahoo’s shareholders and employees. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/15/nytimes-article-reverberates-through-yahoo-whos-their-next-ceo/ 6/15)

Jerry Yang

Yahoo’s new advertising deal with Google “might have some merit,” says Carl Icahn. The financier declines to comment on whether he will continue to press his proxy battle to replace Yahoo’s board. “I continue to be extremely disappointed with the Yahoo management,” he says. (Iwantmedia 6/16, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1539640520080616

Carl Icahn

Advertisers are growing suspicious of Google’s dominance of the online market, with last week’s tie-up with Yahoo adding fuel to the fire. Google is “becoming a dominant media owner,” gripes iCrossing CEO Arjo Ghosh, “but without the regulation [of] traditional owners.” (Iwantmedia 6/16, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/discontent-flares-over-googles-dominance-847920.html 6/16)

Google launched Gears last May, and for the first year of its release it was considered a minor, niche product that a few developers and users may take advantage of to allow offline access to web applications. You can probably recall the arguments at the time: who needs offline access, connectivity is everywhere anyway, not enough apps will support this etc. It wasn’t until a year later and only a few weeks ago, that Google revealed its ace card: Gears-powered messaging for MySpace that is super-accelerated. Google had entered the race to provide the new web API, and for a year almost nobody had noticed. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/13/google-drives-towards-microsoft-and-adobe-with-gears/ 6/13)

With Microsoft’s talks with Yahoo ending, the question is whether the tech giant will start shopping elsewhere. AOL might be Microsoft’s second-best option, according to Gabelli & Co. analyst Christopher Marangi. (Iwantmedia 6/16, http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2008/06/13/will-microsoft-now-buy-aol-from-time-warner 6/13)

Time Warner hopes to move swiftly to find a buyer for AOL’s dial-up business after the company completes its separation from the Platform A advertising division in the next month. The media giant is said to have held talks with rival dial-up provider EarthLink about a combination. (Iwantmedia 6/16, http://www.nypost.com/seven/06162008/business/aols_sale_is_up_next_for_time_warner_115682.htm 6/16)

MySpace attracts 118 million users, but the cash is not coming in so quickly. With an eye toward monetization, the News Corp. online social network will unveil a redesign Wednesday. “The jury’s still out on MySpace’s ability to monetize,” says Sanford Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson. (Iwantmedia 6/16, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/business/media/16myspace.html 6/16)

An ad for the new Batman film will be on the home page of MySpace on Wednesday.

Hulu, the NBC-News Corp. free video site, delivered 63 million total streams in April, its first full month of operation, making it the No. 10 online video-streaming service. CEO Jason Kilar says he sees value in developing a “department-store model” for shows. (Iwantmedia 6/16, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-channel16-2008jun16,0,6637665.story 6/16)

YouTube is holding its first-ever gathering for developers in July at the company’s San Bruno, Calif., headquarters. The event will draw attention to new partnerships — Sony, Panasonic, TiVo — as the video-sharing site increases user options to “consume YouTube on television sets.” (Iwantmedia 6/16, http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/06/13/youtube-continuing-api-push 6/13)

This morning at the OMMA Video Conference, Brian Cusack, Sales Manager of YouTube was asked about YouTube’s ability to deliver its content to the television screen.  He answer that he didn’t think that the short form content YouTube sports would be appropriate as consumed on a television screen.  Instead, he suggested that media companies should look at Youtube as more of a content farm of sorts.  Now, I’m confused.  Who to believe?

A record-breaking 46% of Americans have used the internet, email or text messaging to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others, according to a new study from Pew Internet & American Life Project. Some 35% of Americans say they have watched online political videos – nearly triple the number in the 2004 race. Another 10% say they have used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to gather information or become involved. Not surprisingly young Democrats and Obama supporters are leading the trend, with 74% of online-using Obama supporters using the net to follow the campaign, compared with Clinton’s 57% and McCain’s 56%. (Cynopsis 6/16)

Sony will launch its new show “Angel of Death” on various Web sites. After the Internet run, Sony will release a traditional DVD of the series with additional scenes. The company’s plan marks Hollywood’s latest attempt to use Internet distribution without losing revenue. (Iwantmedia 6/16, http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121357528674575987.html 6/16)

Hollywood is experimenting with a range of home-video tactics that would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago, from making films available to cable subscribers the day of their DVD release to enabling consumers to catch feature films before their DVD release date. These moves, which include finding the optimum strategy for downloading films online, are aimed at making up for declining DVD sales. (Los Angeles Times 6/16)

Some MSOs, including Time Warner Cable, are considering tactics to dissuade content providers from making some programming available on the Internet for free, while others are taking the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach, by launching online entities that, according to Comcast, “complements the content on TV.” (Advertising Age 6/16)

A new system from Boston-based Backchannel Media allows TV stations to air content with an interactive component, allowing viewers to essentially bookmark ads using their remote control. Currently, a handful of stations are experimenting with the Backchannel offering, including Hearst-Argyle Television stations WCVB in Boston and WMUR in Manchester, N.H., along with Media General station WJAR in Providence, R.I. (The New York Times 6/16)

(Below)  Thank you Google for empowering the consumer rather than monitoring, charging extra for bandwith usage (see blurb directly below this one), and providing laughable broadband speeds.  You may think you will NEVER be that top 5% of user but with video usage over the internet rising, especially on the HD side, don’t be so convinced.

Google is working to develop online tools to help broadband subscribers monitor their connections to determine whether or not their ISP is restricting access or throttling traffic to certain sites. Google Senior Policy Director Richard Whitt spoke of the need for a more informed consumer during a Net Neutrality forum last week hosted by The Media Access Project at Santa Clara University, as reported in The Register. (Cynopsis 6/16)

AT&T will be the next ISP to test a new system charging heavy users extra for surfing the net. Company analysis finds that the top 5% of users consumer about 46% of the network’s bandwidth and that bandwidth consumption is doubling every 1.5 years. Time Warner Cable began testing a metering system in Beaumont, Texas this month, and Comcast is reportedly planning to cap usage at 250 gigabytes of downloads/month then charge $15 for each 10 gigs beyond that. (Cynopsis 6/16, The Street.com 6/13, CED Magazine.com 6/13)

Comcast announced it will nearly triple upload speeds for cable modem subscribers from 384 kilobits/sec. to 1 megabit/second. Comcast is planning to roll out its 50-MB DOCSIS 3.0-based broadband service, currently being tested in Minneapolis, in several markets later this year. (Cynopsis 6/16)

The shift toward a digital media economy will continue to dampen U.S. advertising growth for some time to come, predicts TNS Media Intelligence exec Jon Swallen. The epic ad shift away from newspapers “won’t bottom out anytime soon.” Consumer magazines face “an uncertain future.” (Iwantmedia 6/16, http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=84682 6/16)

New digital music alternatives to MP3 might offer more advanced audio solutions, but they will be hard-pressed to challenge the reigning standard because — like the QWERTY keyboard — it is so entrenched in the mass culture, according to observers. This month, MPEG will review a new digital audio format from South Korea — called MT9, or Music 2.0 — that splits audio files into six channels; but despite the innovations, many in the industry foresee a host of obstacles to MT9 taking root. (Reuters/Billboard 6/15)

ABC.com resumed the top spot among Hitwise’s top visited broadcast network websites after American Idol wrapped, while NBC boosted its market share considerably from 11 to 19.77%. Summer reality shows make up most of the top 10 visited show sites. Idol remained on top but with much smaller share of visits, dropping from nearly a 40% share two weeks ago to 14% last week. (Cynopsis 6/16)

Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Websites (Week ending June 7, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 ABC www.abc.com 28.55%
2 CBS www.cbs.com 25.95%
3 FOX* www.fox.com 20.44%
4 NBC www.nbc.com 19.77%
5 The CW www.cwtv.com 5.12%
6 MyNetworkTV www.mynetworktv.com .18%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise, *includes traffic aggregated from stand alone websites americanidol.com, amw.com, familyguy.com, thelot.com and thesimpsons.com.

Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Show Sites (Week ending June 7, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 FOX American Idol                                       14.27%
2 FOX American’s Most Wanted                         6.22%
3 NBC Deal or No Deal                                      4.52%
4 ABC  The Bachelorette                                   4.50%
5 FOX  So You Think You Can Dance?                  3.97%
6 ABC Lost                                                      3.48%
7 CBS  NCIS                                                    3.45%
8 NBC  Last Comic Standing                               3.39%
9 ABC  The Mole                                              2.49%
10 NBC The Office                                            2.16%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise