Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
While Barack Obama had a lot of success spreading his message virally on the Web before he was elected president, his victory speech is on its way to becoming one of the fastest-spreading viral videos of all time. The official campaign version of the video on YouTube (embedded below) alone has been watched 1.9 million times in the past two days. But more than 500 different versions and clips of the speech have spread across the Web and been watched more than 6.8 million times. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/06/how-to-make-your-video-go-viral-become-president 11/6)

With new online resources, visitors flocked to news sites in droves for U.S. election news. But notably, the big three networks — ABC, NBC and CBS — were down 16% vs. the election four years ago. Cable networks CNN and Fox News Channel actually beat CBS Tuesday night. (Iwantmedia 11/6, http://newteevee.com/2008/11/05/historic-election-day-sets-traffic-records 11/5)

Twitter, Digg and YouTube saw huge traffic spikes during the U.S. election. Twitter’s peak messaging rate was nearly three times higher than its previous record. Digg also reported its highest traffic ever on Election Day. YouTube’s Video Your Vote project netted close to 1,500 videos. (Iwantmedia 11/6, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/11/times-twitter-d.html 11/5)

YouTube will begin offering feature films produced by at least one of the biggest Hollywood movie studios possibly as early as next month, sources say. YouTube owner Google is in talks with the major film companies about launching an ad-supported, streaming movie service. (Iwantmedia 11/6, http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10083481-93.html 11/6)

On Monday, George Kliavkoff, the chief digital officer at NBC Universal, announced he would leave NBC to start, run or invest in digital media companies. Digital media is now a part of every unit of NBC and there is no longer a need for a distinct digital media head, he claims. (Iwantmedia 11/6, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/departing-chief-says-nbc-has-become-fully-digital 11/5)

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will probably have to go back to the negotiating table with Microsoft, observers say. Yang’s options are dwindling after Google scrapped its proposed advertising agreement. “The market does not believe that the company can turn around the business organically.” (Iwantmedia 11/6, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aOd0Xo1cnRWc 11/5)

National Lampoon announced it has acquired humor blog BarackObamaJokes.com for an undisclosed amount. (Cynopsis 11/6)

MySpace’s self service display ad product, called MyAds, officially launched on October 12, less than a month ago. Advertisers can bypass the normal sales routine, use a Flash tool to create their own display ads, and run them on a cost-per-click basis. The minimum CPC rate is $0.25.  Demand for the product was immediate and significant, we’ve heard from multiple sources close to the company. Average daily revenue, say Techcrunch’s sources, is $140,000 – $180,000, which means MyAds is at least a $50 million/year business for MySpace already. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/05/myspace-myads-product-a-50-million-business-a-month-after-launch 11/5)

In a Q3 earnings call Barry Diller announced IAC would sell off and shut down a number of sites in its digital media-focused Emerging Business Unit next month. The company was hit last quarter by costs associated with splitting the company into 5 units, reporting an operating net loss of $14.8 million. IAC’s Emerging Business unit includes video sharing sites Vimeo and College Humor as well as Tina Brown’s editorial site The Daily Beast. (Cynopsis 11/6)

The U.S. might be lagging other countries in broadband penetration and speeds, but we are slowly catching up. AT&T is announcing today that its fiber-to-the-curb/fiber-to-the-home broadband service U-verse is increasing its maximum download speeds from 10 Mbps to 18 Mbps. (Upload speeds are 1.5 Mbps). The cost will be about $65 a month, or can be bundled with TV and voice plans for more. That comes with free WiFi at AT&T hotspots, including the 3,000 it just added with its Wayport acquisition. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/06/att-pushes-broadband-download-speeds-to-18-mbps-on-u-verse 11/6)