Filed under: Feature | Tags: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, President, United States President, Visible Measures
ONLINE VIDEO OF THE WEEK: BUSH’S BOB AND WEAVE
On Sunday at a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, an Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at President Bush. President Bush pulled a fantastic bob and weave and was not injured. As of yesterday (12/16), this video has been seen over 10.7 million times over a collection of 900 video clips. Viewers have commented over 83,000 times. This beats the 48 hour view count of the Obama victory speech in Chicago after winning the election. That video tallied 6.8 million views within the same 48 hour window over a collection of 500 video clips.
Not an astounding defeat based on the human desire for dramatic quasi violent events in comparison to rousing heartfelt speeches. In addition, the length plays a role as well. One video clip is 17 minutes long whereas the Bush shoe event of the year is only 29 seconds. Bite sized shoe hurling wins.
This data was captured by Visible Measures
, which tracks video views across YouTube and more than 150 other video-sharing sites.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Disney Channel, ESPN, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Oprah Winfrey, Russia, United States, Walt Disney Company
With its venerable “WWE Raw” fightfest, USA attracted an average 3.11 million viewers during the week ended Dec. 14, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures. It was the first weekly ratings race that ESPN did not win since the beginning of the 2008 football season. Mediaweek (12/16)
Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films has made final a programming-collaboration deal with HBO that will give the cable network known for cutting-edge content access to series, movies and documentaries. The deal came together after Harpo executives, citing the need for greater creative freedom, ended a 15-year relationship with ABC. Los Angeles Times (12/17) , The Wall Street Journal (free content) (12/16)
The Walt Disney Co. sometime in 2009 will purchase a 49% stake in a new joint venture with Russian TV station operator Media-One Holdings and begin offering the broadcast equivalent of the Disney Channel in the country. Russia, according to these articles, is considered to be one of the last great untapped regions of the globe for the media industry. The Wall Street Journal (12/16) , The New York Times (12/16)
A&E Network’s sixth season debut of Intervention last Monday night at 9p attracted 1.6 million A25-54 viewers, 1.7 million A18-49 viewers and 2.2 million total viewers. GRB produces the series for A&E. (Cynopsis 12/17)
CBS Corporation is the latest entertainment company to eliminate staff as employees of CBS Entertainment and CBS Paramount Network Television were laid off Monday. A few high-level CBS Paramount TV executives were also let go: EVP Maria Crenna who served under President David Stapf; SVP/Head of Comedy Brian Banks; and VP/Current Programming Jocelyn Freid. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Viacom‘s BET, with popular shows such as “106 & Park” and “College Hill,” now is available in nearly 30 African countries. The recent move puts the network, which serves up African-American-centric content, in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean and the U.K. MediaPost Communications (12/16)
FOX approved a 13-episode order for Glee, a musical comedy series from Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Popular). The 60m series, featuring a soundtrack of popular songs, is about an energetic high school teacher, Will Schuester (played by Matthew Morrison) who is charged with bringing back the McKinley High School Glee Club to its winning glory days by encouraging a group of misfit students to compete in the Nationals. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Fox Business Network has inked a new digital-carriage deal with Charter Communications that will add about 200,000 homes in the Midwest and Northeast to FBN’s subscriber total. The network recently completed a similar deal with Cox, and the two new agreements mean the FBN soon will be available to 45 million homes. TVWeek.com (12/16)
CBS Paramount Network Television signed a first-look deal with actor Laurence Fishburne and his Cinema Gypsy Productions, reports Variety. Fishburne recently joined as star of CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation also produced by CBS Paramount Network TV. (Cynopsis 12/17)
MTV introduces a diverse slate of new reality series set to debut in first quarter 2009. Also new for the network next year will be a two-hour primetime block on Sundays starting at 9p. (Cynopsis 12/17)
AT&T’s U-Verse IPTV service reached a milestone, signing its 1 millionth subscriber across 79 markets in 16 states. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Fox Cable Networks made a deal with DIRECTV and Verizon FiOS to make FUEL TV On Demand available to viewers, with 10 original hours of action sports programming each month. (Cynopsis 12/17)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: comScore, Facebook, Google, Hulu, Joost, Myspace, Television network, Yahoo
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
HBO this week will serve up a preview of its season-opening episode of “Flight of the Conchords” on the Web site FunnyorDie.com before its TV premiere. It will be the first full-length TV episode for the site, in which HBO owns a stake. TVWeek.com (12/14)
MTV Networks’ Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group proclaimed its dominance in the kids and family digital space claiming a monthly average of 131 million visits and an aggregate 2.4 billion minutes spent at the close of 2008, sourcing comScore numbers. Several of the group’s sites set traffic records this year including Nick.com, Neopets, NickJr.com, iCarly.com, Addicting Games, Shockwave and The-N sites (The-N.com and Quizilla.) (Cynopsis 12/17)
The race is on between sites like Hulu and Joost to bring video content to the web, but as this content becomes more ubiquitous it will be the sites that go beyond basic video streaming that will ultimately be able to differentiate themselves. Watercooler
, a development house behind several hundred community-based social network applications, is one company that is positioning itself well for this upcoming face-off. The startup has built up a community of 16 million registered users spanning its TV-centric applications on MySpace, Facebook, and other popular social networks, and has now signed deals with Hulu and Joost that make it one of the first sites on the web to offer content from every major TV network. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/watercooler-brings-content-from-every-major-television-network-to-its-16mm-tv-fans 12/17)
Intel is developing a new way to meld content from the Internet and the TV by using so-called widgets, or tiny content-bearing Web sites, to enhance the living-room viewing experience. The system, a co-venture between Yahoo! and Intel, is called The Widget Channel and is expected to be introduced at the CES. PCWorld/IDG News Service (12/15)
When it comes to stats for Facebook apps, there aren’t that many places to go. You can click around Facebook itself, but it almost seems like they are trying to hide the stats and make it hard to compare different apps. Adonomics was the first to offer rankings and even made-up valuations for each app. They were followed by Developer Analytics, which covers apps across all social networks and gives monetization estimates (but charges for its best data). And now the AllFacebook blog is getting into the game with a pretty decent set of free stats for Facebook apps. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/allfacebook-is-giving-adonomics-a-run-for-its-money 12/17)
Vudu will begin offering free Web video through its set-top boxes as it focuses on providing more movies and HD titles. The new Vudu RIA software will let users select the free Web material with their remote controls. Broadcasting & Cable (12/16)
Yahoo is definitely on a cutting spree: after shutting down both Y!Live and Jumpcut, as well as selling off Kelkoo, it’s now time for Yahoo Kickstart to pay a visit to the deadpool. Kickstart was launched in April this year and aimed to connect students and alumni at specific colleges and universities and also help them connect on a professional level. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/another-one-bites-the-dust-yahoo-kickstart-shutters 12/17)
CBS College Sports Network, MaxPreps and CBS Sports will team to offer multiplatform coverage of the T-Mobile Invitational High School Basketball Tournament to be held at Ball State Univ. Dec. 29-30. CBS Interactive’s high school sports site Max Preps will offer replays of the full broadcast of all tournament games, available on-demand 48 hours after the conclusion of each contest. CBS Interactive is reporting significant traffic gains across many of its sites, citing Nielsen Online and comScore census data for November. CBS says CBS.com and CBSSports.com both led competitors in engagement, for instance, registering 11.9 minutes/user and 62.8/user respectively for the month. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Action sports lifestyle network Fuel TV launched a new full episode HD-quality streaming video player on Fuel.tv, powered by Move Networks. (Brightcove continues to manage the standard def video on the site.)
(Cynopsis 12/17)
Online video sharing site Dailymotion says it audience has doubled this year, citing metrics from comScore. Dailymotion is averaged 7.3 million U.S. uniques as of Oct. and 36 monthly unique visitors worldwide – each of whom average 10.8 minutes per session. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Google remained the top internet parent company and brand for November, according to Nielsen online attracting an overall unique audience of 135.2 million. AOL remained tops in terms of time spent per person, averaging 3 hours and 43 min. per user for the month. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Top 10 Parent Companies/Divisions for November 2008
Parent Unique Audience (000) Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1. Google 135,267 2:02:03
2. Microsoft 126,027 2:25:02
3. Yahoo! 119,142 3:16:44
4. AOL LLC 86,308 3:43:45
5 News Corp. 82,388 1:36:50
6. InterActiveCorp 66,767 0:16:26
7. Amazon 65,550 0:27:33
8. eBay 65,302 1:42:14
9. Wikimedia 58,917 0:18:37
10. NY Times Co. 55,021 0:19:47
Source: Nielsen Online
Top 10 Web Brands for November 2008 (U.S., Home and Work)
Brand Unique Audience (000) Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1. Google 127,656 1:23:40
2. Yahoo! 117,656 3:17:36
3. MSN/Windows Live 104,090 2:13:19
4. Microsoft 95,543 0:45:44
5. AOL Media Network 86,308 3:43:45
6. YouTube 81,882 1:01:33
7. Fox Interactive Media 69,838 1:39:31
8. Wikipedia 58,335 0:18:39
9. Amazon 57,682 0:25:33
10. eBay 55,438 1:43:41
Source: Nielsen Online
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: AppStore, BlackBerry Bold, Handhelds, iPhone, iPod Touch, Smartphones, South Korea, Warner Bros.
In what could be the first in a wave of foreign smartphones to enter South Korea, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Bold will launch this month on SK Telecom, the country’s largest carrier, the companies announced Tuesday. RIM won a special waiver from regulatory authorities to circumvent software mandates that has made it difficult for non-Korean companies to compete in the country, but that could change in April when a government move to abolish such a rule takes effect. 
ClipSyndicate/New York Financial Press (12/16) , The Washington Post/The Associated Press (12/16)
Prolific mobile games producer Glu Mobile launched a pair of new games for the iPhone and iPod Touch: The Dark Knight: Batmobile Game, co-published with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, and Bonsai Blast, an original Glu title. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Return to cookie mountain indeed, because a new program called Television for iPhone is now available and offers “50 shows from 30 channels” on demand. It’s not live TV – that would be hard – but it’s basically rehashed content CNN, CBS, and Comedy Central. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/12/17/tv-on-the-radioiphone 12/17)
Taxi applications on the App Store are a dime a dozen, but for the most part they’re just glorified phone directories that don’t really make it any easier to call a cab. Taxi Magic, a new app that recently went live on the App Store, is doing what the others can’t: on-demand cab service from your iPhone at the push of a button. The application connects directly into Taxi routing systems, allowing users to book cabs without ever needing to speak to an operator. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/16/taxi-magic-hail-a-cab-from-your-iphone-at-the-push-of-a-button 12/16)
Seattle-based outdoor gear coop REI launched a new iPhone app powered by Zumboi geared toward skiers and snowboarders. It provides up to date temperatures, snow conditions and the number of open lifts at over 1800 GPS accesses ski resorts worldwide. There’s also an e-commerce component. (Cynopsis 12/17)
AT&T has begun selling refurbished iPhone 3G handsets for $150, compared with its usual $199 price tag — with a two-year contract — for the 8GB models and $250 for smartphones with 16GB of memory. The discount is part of AT&T’s previously announced move to expand iPhone sales to its Web site for first-time customers. InformationWeek (12/16)
Vodafone and Last.fm will bring the music service’s social-networking features to selected Nokia handsets under a new partnership they announced, adding that the new application will include a function that automatically builds an online music profile for users based on their listening habits. cellular-news (U.K.) (12/17)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Best Buy, CableLabs, Consumer electronics, Consumer Electronics Show, Financial Times, Global Positioning System, Las Vegas Nevada, Wall Street Journal
TECHNOLOGY
Despite the good news that it has gained market share on big-ticket CE items such as home-theater systems and GPS devices, Best Buy on Tuesday reported a sharp drop in net profit as well as some cost-cutting measures. For its fiscal quarter that ended Nov. 29, the retailer’s net profit fell 77%, to $52 million, as opposed to $228 million during the comparable period in 2007. ClipSyndicate/New York Financial Press (12/16) , The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (12/17) , Financial Times (12/16)
Funai Electric Co. soon will introduce a tru2way dual-tuner combined DVR/set-top box. The device, expected to be introduced at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will make its debut date of third quarter 2009 provided it receives CableLabs certification in time. Light Reading (12/16)
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