Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

NBC figured the gods wouldn’t present a better opportunity to unveil the initial results of its new cross platform TAMi (Total Audience Measurement Index) than the first 5 days of the Summer Olympics. A total of 113 million people viewed Olympic programming on Sunday on television, online, mobile and VOD. Traffic to NBCOlympics.com reached its highest level by far on Monday at 2 million uniques (a workday, of course); The site has delivered 17.7 million video streams so far. Visits to NBC’s mobile WAP site doubled from Friday (210,000) to Monday (476,000). Best of all for NBC these eyeballs are additive not cannibalistic – some 40% are returning to digital platforms to view events they already saw on TV. The message (to television advertisers) was clear: increased availability of content is unleashing a tide of interest in which all boat are rising. And multiplatform coverage is actually helping to increase TV viewership. (Cynopsis 8/14)

There’s nothing like a price cut to spark interest in new technologies. Broadband-delivered video set top service Vudu is running a summer sale offering 99 different movie rentals for 99 cents each, including box office hits Spider Man, Sweeney Todd and Cloverfield. The company also recently announced a new program extending the rental period for an additional 7 days for 99 cents ($1.99 for HD titles.) (Cynopsis 8/14)

Apple, the computer maker turned mobile-phone innovator, is surpassing Google‘s market value for the first time as investors await proof the Internet giant can turn new projects into money-makers. Google’s stock is feeling the impact of investor doubts about the health of Web advertising. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ael35zlvO4Uc 8/14)

In an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC’s Mad Money Google CEO Eric Schmidt promised never to sell ads on the Google homepage (the #2 most visited page on the net after Yahoo.com.) He also vowed to keep trying to monetize YouTube’s 1.3 million uploads made every 10 minutes. (Cynopsis 8/14)

YouTube has decided not to get into the live streaming or “lifecasting” business after all, according to Alley Insider, deciding the cash overlay is too prohibitive at a time when the company is trying to become cash flow positive (and justify its $1.65 million price tag.) (Cynopsis 8/14)

Web sites aimed primarily at women, from “mommy blogs” to makeup and fashion sites, are growing faster than every other category on the Internet except politics, according to comScore. Major advertisers — J.C. Penney, Crate & Barrel, Walgreens — are following the crowd. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/technology/14women.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 8/14)

Online video mashup tool creator GorillaSpot and Blockade Entertainment launched Mashade.com, a video game mashup site allowing fans to create their own reels from official video game trailers. (Cynopsis 8/14)

Demo Video

Online syndication marketplace Mochila is offering free ad-supported Olympic news and featured content to interested publishers, sourced from partners including The AP, The Guardian, Kyodo News International, Thomson Reuters, Getty Images and Zuma Press. Bloggers and larger publishers alike can syndicate Mochila’s sports content through a full suite of ad-supported publishing widgets, including interactive video and photo slideshow players. (Cynopsis 8/14)

¡Sorpresa! has secured the exclusive Spanish-language distribution rights to Hispanic virtual world Club Time Machine from vWorld Corporation Ltd. for the United States and its territories as well as the non-exclusive rights to the English version. For $5.95/month, $29.50/6 months or $56.50/year kids can join Club Time Machine and create their own “Hoover” avatars who fly around, earn gold to trick out their rockets with, play games and socialize with other kids. (Cynopsis 8/14)

A federal appeals court has ruled that open-source developers are entitled to certain ownership rights, even if their work is available for free. Legal experts say the ruling, which involved software used by model train collectors, has implications for the Creative Commons license used by many open-source programmers. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (8/14) , The New York Times (8/13)

An In-Stat report foresees rapid growth in the online video market as broadband access increases and consumers turn to streaming video from providers like Netflix. Nevertheless, more than half of survey respondents said they still prefer to buy hard copies of movies and TV shows rather than downloads. InformationWeek (8/13)

Live in-flight video services and in-flight broadband may help the airline industry cope with high fuel costs and other challenges, according to a report from MultiMedia Intelligence. In-Flight Broadband services are poised to grow to $936 million in 2012, up from initial revenue of $6.6 million worldwide in passenger revenues in 2008. The market for in-flight live direct broadcast video is projected to grow from $87 million in 2007 to $913 million in 2012. (Cynopsis 8/14)