Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Dissident Yahoo shareholder Carl Icahn and Microsoft have been talking to each other (as has everyone else involved in a possible Yahoo deal, including Yahoo and AOL over the weekend). In a letter to shareholders, reproduced below, Icahn notes that he and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer have been discussing possible transactions over the past week, and that Ballmer ” made it clear to me that if a new board were elected, he would be interested in discussing a major transaction with Yahoo! . . . immediately.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/07/microsoft-signals-it-would-rather-talk-to-an-icahn-controlled-yahoo 7/7)

I told someone over the weekend that I’d love to put a moratorium on the Yahoo/Microsoft conversation.  It’s like chatting with a friend who is experiencing a noxious break-up.  One side wants out.  Then the other side.  Then some nosy friend [cough] Icahn [cough cough] comes in thinking they know best about the relationship.  Can someone either break-up without make-up s-x or get back together?  I’m getting tired already.

A federal judge ordered Google to turn over the personal viewing records of YouTube users to Viacom right before the holiday, kicking off a wave of concerns among users and privacy advocates that private information could be leaked and misused in the process. In its Broadcasting Ourselves blog YouTube says its lawyers have asked for permission to omit individual IP addresses and user names from the disclosure to protect the identity of its users. Viacom also released a statement claiming it “has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user.” The company goes on to claim any information obtained will be used exclusively for proving its $1 billion case against YouTube and Google. (Cynopsis 7/7)

IAC’s search engine Ask.com completed its acquisition of the Lexico Publishing Group’s reference sites Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. (Cynopsis 7/7)

Orbitz.com and ebookers.com will replace Expedia.com as the internet travel services of record on MSN in the U.S. and UK, respectively. (Cynopsis 7/7)

ABC.com online audience skews extremely female with 85% of the overall audience comprised of women, according to research conducted by Magid Associates quoted in Silicon Alley Insider. Meanwhile ABC’s single sponsor model, divided into 4 15-second commercial breaks, is leading to higher ad recall, which in turn is helping to justify higher CPM rates. ABC asks between $45-$65 per 1,000 impressions compared to a $20 CPM rate for TV. (Cynopsis 7/7)

Other findings include:

• 54% of online viewers recall the brand name of a sponsor, vs 22% for network TV
• Online audiences peak on Friday night, the day after Lost and Grey’s Anatomy air
• Online audiences peak at 10 pm on a nightly basis, in the middle of primetime
• Over 29% of ABC.com’s viewers are under 24 and nearly 50% are under 29. ABC’s on air audiences averages 50 years of age

Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Websites (Week ending June 28, 2008)
Rank                Network Website    Market Share of Visits
1 ABC             www.abc.com 26.94%
2 CBS             www.cbs.com 23.63%
3 FOX*           www.fox.com 22.37%
4 NBC            www.nbc.com 21.04%
5 The CW      www.cwtv.com 5.69%
6 MNTV   www.mynetworktv.com .32%
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 28, 2008)
Rank   Network       Website                      Market Share of Visits
1          FOX          American Idol                        9.29%
2          ABC          The Bachelorette                    8.60%
3          FOX          American’s Most Wanted         7.36%
4          NBC          Deal or No Deal                      6.62%
5          FOX          So You Think You Can Dance?  5.87%
6          FOX          Hell’s Kitchen                          5.27%
7        The CW       Farmer Wants a Wife               4.68%
8          NBC          Last Comic Standing                2.72%
9          FOX          Family Guy                              2.21%
10        ABC          The Mole                                 1.89%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise