Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
The premiere of 30 Rock last Thursday on NBC seems to indicate a similar win/win relationship between online and on air views. Following the viral explosion of Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin impersonations on SNL, the show was watched by a record 8.5 million viewers (4.1 rating/10 share in 18-49 demo)  – a huge boost from last season’s average audience of 6 million. (Cynopsis 11/3)

Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” for Macs is now live. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/11/02/netflix-mac-beta-now-open-better-hurry 11/2)

Techcrunch has received a couple of anonymous tips that DirectTV, a $24 billion satellite TV provider, may be entering the online TV wars with a new site called DirectTV Web On Demand. The site would compete with startups like Hulu, Joost, Fancast, Sling.com, etc. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/01/directtv-may-enter-online-tv-war-with-web-on-demand-service 11/1)

MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign enters the home stretch today as the network plans to utilize the latest interactive social tools the cover the election on Nov. 4 & 5:

• ChooseorLose.com, MTV.com and MTVNews.com will feature a real-time TwitterVision map of the U.S. including Twitter messages from young people, SMS messages from viewers and messages and videos from the campaign’s crew of 51 citizen journalists
• MTV News will have teams on the ground in New York, Chicago, and Phoenix providing man on the street interviews
• MTV/Knight Street Team 08 reporters from 15 battleground states will broadcast live
• mobile-to-web coverage including in-depth videos, blogs and Twitter updates
• Two MTV citizen journalists will take part in the first-ever AP continuous live video stream, “Big Issue: Election Results,” available to some 2,000 Web sites of newspapers via AP’s Online Video Network (Cynopsis 11/3)

Looking for novel ways to monetize online video, MTV Networks today was expected to announce a plan to link advertising to the segments of shows such as “Punk’d” and “The Daily Show” that are uploaded by MySpace users. MTVN will partner with a high-tech startup called Auditude to make the effort work seamlessly. Los Angeles Times (11/3) , The Wall Street Journal (11/3)

Win or Lose John McCain scored high ranks among viral video fans for his comic timing and depreciating sense of humor. The Presidential hopeful appeared live with Tina Fey (as Sarah Palin) on SNL over the weekend in a mock QVC infomercial. (Cynopsis 11/3)

Eh.  I thought it was actually painful to watch.  The highlight of McCain’s appearance over the weekend was really his wife Cindy’s Vanna White-like vibe.

Professionally-themed social network LinkedIn launched a number of new applications to help members customize their profiles, share information and create project-based entries. Box on LinkedIn shares files within your network. Amazon on LinkedIn allows you to discover what your network is reading. TripIt on LinkedIn allows you see where your network is traveling. SixApart on LinkedIn updates members’ blog posts. (Cynopsis 11/3)

Instant messaging and chat provider Meebo will integrate embeddable Meebo chat rooms into Comedy Central’s Indecision2008.com to host live user commentary during election and post-election television coverage. The network will promote Meebo on-air on Nov. 4 directing amateur pundits to the site to weigh in with their opinions. (Cynopsis 11/3)

People-search engine Wink has joined forces with Reunion.com, a hybrid people-search/social networking site, to create one giant hub for finding people you once knew but forgot to keep in touch with. The two companies have merged and will be launching a new website (and brandname) in early 2009, which the sites say will feature a total of 700 million user profiles. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/03/old-friends-wink-and-reunioncom-reconnect-merge 11/3)