Filed under: Feature
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM DAILY MARAUDER
From of all of us at Daily Marauder, we wish you a very happy holiday and a wonderful New Year. We’ll be back on the flip side, January 5th. Click the above image for a jazzy take on a Christmas classic from Hoops & Yo Yo.
As a special gift, I bring you a holiday classic care of Saturday Night Live. Also, note the crafty marketing care of Hulu.com.
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BET will hold an inaugural ball Jan. 20 for President-elect Barack Obama, the first such event staged by the network. BET’s sister network at Viacom, MTV, is also holding a ball to mark the historic swearing-in celebration. TVWeek.com (12/22)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Nielsen VideoCensus data indicate that the number of unique viewers watching programming via Hulu dropped in November, although viewing time increased. According to this article, it was the first time Hulu had fewer viewers month-to-month since it went public in March. Advertising Age (12/22)
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New software allows iPhone users to print photos via an HP‘s inkjet printer linked to a Wi-Fi network. HP’s iPrint Photo application currently prints only JPEG images and may be interrupted if a phone call or text message comes in. PCWorld/IDG News Service (12/22)
Texting while driving is incredibly dangerous – perhaps moreso than driving under the influence according to some studies
– yet it is a widespread habit that is socially acceptable, especially among younger crowds. The solution may wind up coming not from the lawmakers, but from the phones themselves. Technology firm eLYK Innovation has created a $10 application called Textecution for Google’s Android mobile platform that will sit in the background and use the phone’s GPS system to detect whenever the phone is moving faster than 10 MPH, at which time the app will deactivate the phone’s SMS capabilities. Once the phone comes to a standstill (say, at a stop light) the driver will be allowed to text again within a few seconds. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/22/textecution-hopes-to-put-an-end-to-texting-while-driving 12/22)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
We already know that the Kindle, Amazon’s electronic book, is sold out for Christmas, but people are still looking for them. Searches on Google for the term “Kindle” picked up in October to nearly triple the level during the summer. It’s settled down a bit, but search volume is still at about double the previous rate. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/23/searches-for-kindle-picked-up-during-the-holidays 12/23)
Roku has announced that it soon will offer an online upgrade to its player so that users can stream high-definition movies over an average broadband connection. Roku’s player allows TV viewers to watch Netflix content on their living-room sets. InformationWeek (12/22)
The Blu-ray price index has climbed 10% since Nov. 1, after dropping in the two months prior. Blu-ray sales were more than three times higher during the week of Black Friday, with 147,000 players sold at an average price of $200. The players sold for $400 in 2007. CEPro.com (12/22)
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
Actress Kristin Chenoweth is moving on to a new network as she was signed to star in NBC’s new David E. Kelley legal drama, Legally Mad. Chenoweth will play Skippy Pylon, a smart, bubbly attorney who at times displays moments of psychosis and likes it when people mistake her for a teenager. The drama, set in Chicago, is produced by Warner Bros. Television marking the first Kelley project under his new deal with Warner. Most recently, Chenoweth starred in ABC’s Pushing Daisies. (Cynopsis 12/22)
Maria Bello, the actress who appeared in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” now is developing a series for HBO in which she also will star. The as-yet-untitled vehicle apparently is about a woman who is forced into a life of crime and then enlists the help of her three teenage sons. Variety (12/21)
HBO
In further HBO news, the premium cable network has a new drama called Cocaine Cowboys from Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, per THR. Meredith Stiehm will write the project based on Billy Corben’s 2006 documentary Cowboys about the genesis of cocaine trafficking in Miami. Warner Bros. Television will produce where Jerry Bruckheimer TV is located. (Cynopsis 12/22)
While broadcast news shows saw little to no growth in 2008, cable news networks, thanks to the one-two jolt of the financial morass and the presidential election, saw prime-time ratings soar. Fox News was up 41% in total viewers, while CNN and MSNBC saw ratings jump 72% and 84%, respectively. Broadcasting & Cable (12/19)
With its split from Comcast now complete and the plan to put the company up for sale on hold, top executives at Insight Communications are aggressively moving toward an all-digital distribution strategy. Insight CEO Michael Willner said the company was now experimenting with digital simulcasting as an interim step before going all-digital. Multichannel News (12/22)
The transition to digital television has slowed down as the year comes to an end, according to the latest Nielsen figures. Nearly 7% of U.S. TV households remain “completely unready” for the digital conversion in February, Nielsen said. The Hollywood Reporter (12/19)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
YouTube has just released a new feature for its analytics platform that allows content owners to see how many unique visitors are watching their videos. While YouTube videos have long displayed their view counts to the public, until this point it hasn’t been possible to tell if the hits were coming from a wide audience or just a few devout fans who repeatedly watched the same clips. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/19/youtube-unveils-unique-view-counts-now-you-can-tell-if-your-mom-is-your-only-fan 12/19)
MySpace is getting back into the business of blocking third party widgets, it seems – today they’ve banned embedded music widgets from the fast growing Project Playlist
. But unlike previous 2006 and 2007 blocks of iMeem, Photobucket and many others, this time MySpace is doing it under threat of litigation from the major labels. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/19/myspace-puts-the-hammer-down-on-project-playlist 12/19)
Comedy Central has ordered six episodes of Secret Girlfriend, a comedy series from FremantleMedia North America based on a the online dating-themed web series featured on Atomicwedgietv.com . The show consists of various girls vying for the attention of the male viewer on the other end of the webcast – i.e. the viewer. The series is expected to premiere on Comedy Central in the latter part of 2009, containing two back-to-back 11-minute scripted minisodes. (Cynopsis 12/22)
So Business Week gets their hands on Digg’s financials and reports that the company had 2007 revenues of $4.8 million and losses of $2.8 million. The first three quarters of 2008 Digg had revenues of $6.4 million and losses of $4 million. That implies total 2008 revenue of $8.5 million, with $5.3 million in losses. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/20/diggs-sorry-revenue-stream-and-rumors-of-an-experimental-ad-product 12/20)
The NPD Group came out with an interesting report that says 15% of online users purchased music from the internet in 2008, up 2% from last year, and that legal music download volumes increased 29% during Q3 vs. the same period last year. Positive numbers were seen for all age groups except the 50-and-older segment, which represents a small portion of buyers. At the same time the percentage of users who pirate music has remained steady at 14%, which means legit music downloaders are growing at a faster rate than pirates. (Cynopsis 12/22)
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