Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, CBS College Sports Network, Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO, Sex and the City, Television, USA Network, Viacom
USA Network‘s “Burn Notice” pulled in a whopping 6 million viewers for the finale of its second season, coming in third in its time slot behind new episodes of “E.R.” on NBC and “Eleventh Hour” on CBS. “Burn Notice” also scored big with the 18-to-49 demographic group, amassing 2.74 million in the advertiser-coveted segment. TVWeek.com (3/6)
America’s Best Dance Crew finale on MTV Thursday night delivered a 2.97 rating among the 12-34 set, the highest delivery for this series, season to date, out delivering it season to date average of 2.2 rating by 22%. For the whole of the season, America’s Best Dance Crew reached 70.7 million total viewers, and 32.9 million in its sweetspot, persons 12-34. (Cynopsis 3/9)
Scott Carlin, HBO‘s president of domestic distribution, and his team will meet with potential buyers this month about syndication sales of three of the network’s iconic hits: “Entourage,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Sex and the City.” And, despite the economic conditions, Carlin is optimistic about chances for the shows: “Everything has its own life and time. We think now is a pretty interesting time to begin having some conversations with people about these shows.” Broadcasting & Cable (3/9)
Epix, the forthcoming Viacom-Lions Gate-MGM movie channel, is having trouble securing distribution with cable and satellite TV companies. Carriers are skittish about adding a pricey new network during a recession. In response, Epix could turn to online pathways into the home. (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/03/studios-epix-ve.html 3/6)
If it’s March, it must be madness. That’s what CBS College Sports Network and the NCAA are hoping, at any rate, as they begin offering multichannel providers the sophomore season of “NCAA VOD: The Best of March Madness.” “March Madness is a huge event and VOD is an asset that MSOs and other distributors can use to differentiate their products and drive their business,” said Bob Rose, executive vice president of distribution for CBS College Sports. Multichannel News (3/8)
The new AT&T-sponsored Music Vault will enable users to unlock a virtual portal that offers access to music videos from MTV Networks that have never before been released on the Internet. Fans access the videos via an online trivia game and can share their access with friends. (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://www.worldscreen.com/articles/display/19998 3/6)
CBS and NBC, looking to cut costs as advertising shrinks, are turning to Canadian television producers for new shows. Both networks will debut shows that are filmed and set in Toronto. Canada is “palatable” to U.S. audiences; Canadians “drive on the same side of the street.” (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=afYDvToAWJks 3/9)
Bravo’s luxurious mix of shopaholic housewives, millionaire matchmakers and fancy chefs is displaying a good amount of resiliency against hard financial times. In February, the NBC Universal network reported a 16% increase in young-adult viewers over the comparable period in 2008. Variety (3/6)
Fox’s lucrative “American Idol,” the most-watched U.S. television series, is “the last of its breed,” says Fox exec Mike Darnell. “I don’t believe there will ever be another show like this,” as the consumer pool is increasingly splintered by broadcast, cable, DVRs and the Internet. (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090308/ap_en_mu/american_idol_empire 3/8)
Tosh.0 is a new weekly series ordered by Comedy Central with host and comedian Daniel Tosh. The series will include ten episodes, airing weekly, and set to premiere in June. The mission of Tosh.0 is to change the way people think about the internet, with a closer look at blogs, vlogs, tweets and pokes. (Cynopsis 3/9)
ABC has ordered a new single camera pilot called Pulling, from ABC Studios. Based on the 2006 British series, the story is about three women who decide to live together after one of them breaks off her engagement just 24 hours before the wedding. (Cynopsis 3/9)
Disney-owned SoapNet, the cable channel that, so far, has featured reruns of daytime soaps in prime time, is getting into the business of original, scripted programming. Brian Frons, who oversees the network, said SoapNet was investing in two original series — “Julia’s Tango” and “Santa Monica” — and would present them to ad buyers during the upfront selling season. TVWeek.com (3/8)
As the economic tailspin continues, advertisers increasingly are considering the value of the 10-second commercial. These quick-hitting spots, according to Kal Liebowitz of KSL Media, typically cost less than half the price of a 15-second spot and often run in relatively clutter-free environments that are outside of commercial pods. TVWeek.com (3/8)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Digg, Evan Williams, On the Web, Social network, Soul Asylum, TechCrunch, Twitter, William Fitzsimmons
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
The concept of building a Digg for music has been tried before (see Contrastream
or iJigg), but a music streaming site called thesixtyone is the closest Techcrunch has seen so far to getting the formula right. It features only about 50,000 tracks self-uploaded by indie artists and music labels, but visitors can listen to the full stream of each track and vote their favorites up the rankings by hitting the “heart” button. The results are highly listenable playlists by genre, tag, or just what’s hot right now. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/09/thesixtyone-is-building-a-digg-for-indie-music 3/9)
I just listened to a great track by William Fitzsimmons and a very odd cover of Soul Asylum’s Runaway Train. I approve. Very interesting but listenable selections.
With Yelp still responding to charges by San Francisco businesses that it manipulates the prominence of positive and negative reviews, some Chicago merchants are adding to the heat. They allege that the user-review site is offering to rearrange reviews for companies that advertise. (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/chi-0309-yelpmar09,0,3536868.story 3/9)
I don’t know if this is true or not but if so, way to destroy some major credibility overnight.
Twitter CEO Evan Williams says that the microblogging site could add an extension that would notify users of events taking place in their immediate vicinities. For example, he says, Twitter could ping users, in real-time, to a tweet about a fire burning in their neighborhood. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/07/twitter-to-start-serving-local-news-to-users 3/7)
YouTube, New York Times, BBC News and CNN top the list of mainstream media Web sites with the highest number of blogs linking to them in the past 30 days, according to a survey by blog search site Technorati. Other top sites include MSN, Guardian and Washington Post. (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://technorati.com/weblog/2009/03/482.html 3/9)
Even as Google is cancelling its experiment with newspaper advertising, Yahoo is expanding its newspaper consortium. Today, Yahoo is announcing that it is adding two new members: The Boston Globe and the St. Petersburg Times. That brings the consortium up to 38 media companies, representing 793 total newspapers, up from 635 newspaper partners a year ago, and 176 at launch in November, 2006. Yahoo’s newspaper strategy has seen success because, unlike Google, it never tried to get into the business of selling print ads. Instead, Yahoo focused on helping newspapers get more traffic to their Websites. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/09/yahoos-newspaper-consortium-keeps-growing 3/9)
Yahoo is getting a judge’s approval of a settlement mandating changes to the Internet company’s severance plan that investors contend will make it easier for Microsoft or other potential suitors to buy it. The settlement amounts to “an extraordinary victory” for investors. (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a.DE9DltWO7w 3/7)
In a privacy error that underscores some of the biggest problems surrounding cloud-based services, Google has sent a notice to a number of users of its Document and Spreadsheets products stating that it may have inadvertently shared some of their documents with contacts who were never granted access to them. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/07/huge-google-privacy-blunder-shares-your-docs-without-permission 3/7)
A federal jury says that Universal Music doesn’t have to pay Mark and Jeff Bass, the producers behind rapper Eminem, royalties for songs sold online, upholding the music industry’s business model. The decision could have greatly damaged the record industry. (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cotown-eminem7-2009mar07,0,5160214.story 3/7)
Microsoft, Google and eBay are among the “10 great stocks to stash away for five years or longer,” according to Barron’s. The News Corp. financial newspaper cites Google for its growth opportunities of advertising on the Internet and the company’s lack of debt. (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123639063818058979.html 3/9)
The mass media may be enamored of the rags-to-riches stories of developers on Apple’s App Store, but it isn’t the only game in town for indie developers to strike it rich. Techcrunch has gotten word from SocialMedia, a popular ad platform for social network applications, that one of the company’s clients pulled in over $700,000 in advertising revenues from their Facebook apps in December alone. Granted, this was spread over 30+ of the client’s applications, but the company only consists of a handful of (very prolific) developers. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/06/some-indie-facebook-developers-pulling-in-over-700000-a-month 3/6)
When it comes to promoting new music, pay-for-play schemes are generally frowned upon. The practice, which involves music labels or artists paying radio stations to play their songs in heavy rotation, dates back to the beginnings of terrestrial radio. It got so bad in the 1950s that Congress had to intervene, but it keeps rearing its head in new forms. Now, pay-for-play has hit online radio. Jango, a music streaming service which claims 6 million monthly listeners, is selling paid placement to labels and artists through a program it launched last week called Jango Airplay. For as little as $30, a band can buy 1,000 plays on Jango. Each song has links to buy the song at Amazon or iTunes. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/08/pay-for-play-comes-to-online-radio-is-that-a-bad-thing 3/8)
Following up on a comment made last week by Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz about the central importance of Yahoo! Mail, Hitwise identified the Mail product as the portal’s most trafficked property receiving more than a third (36.71%) of visits to a custom category of 80 leading Yahoo! properties in February. Yahoo! held 56.46% market share of US visits among Email Services websites. MSN’s Windows Live Mail was #2 with 19.14% and Gmail was #3 with 10.82%. Yahoo Maps, which Bartz admitted she didn’t use, failed to make the top 10. (Cynopsis 3/9)
Top 10 Yahoo! Properties in Feb. as % of overall visits to the portal’s sites
Website (80 returned) Visits
- Yahoo! Mail 36.71%
- Yahoo! 25.48%
- Yahoo! Search 11.75%
- My Yahoo! 3.08%
- Yahoo! News 2.61%
- Yahoo! Address Book 2.16%
- Yahoo! Finance 2.10%
- Yahoo! Games 1.04%
- Yahoo! Answers 1.03%
- Yahoo Groups .76%
Source: Hitwise
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: App Store, Apple, CNET Networks, iPhone, Mobile phone, Nokia, TheStreet.com, Verizon Wireless and Nokia
A new site distributing unauthorized applications for the iPhone called the Cydia Store is due to launch this week, per the WSJ. Founded by 27-year-old doctoral student Jay Freeman, the store is named after the developer’s Cycorder app rejected by Apple’s App Store that turns the iPhone into a camcorder. Disclaimer: running such apps requires users to unlock or “jailbreak” their phones, thus voiding the warranty. (Cynopsis 3/9)
Nokia and Verizon Wireless have started to collaborate to produce a touch-screen handset designed to work on the carrier’s planned 4G Long-Term Evolution network, according to a report from TheStreet.com. Both Verizon Wireless and Nokia declined comment. cellular-news (U.K.) (3/8) , The Street.com (3/5) , CNET (3/6)
The cell phone is the third-most important invention of the past 30 years, according to a panel of eight experts from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, which voted the Internet and computers above wireless devices. The New York Times (3/7)
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Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Games, Media Create, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi, Veronica Mars, Video Games
Nintendo is in a wait-and-see mode if the DSi takes off before making any firm future plans concerning the Nintendo DS Lite, which could see its production discontinued if the new DS takes off. “We’ll let the market decide,” said Nintendo U.K. General Manager David Yarnton. “We expect some people will upgrade, but we also anticipate that we’ll win over people who were still undecided on DS — the extra features will help convince them. There’s an extra incentive.” Electronista (3/6)
WildTangent and AddictingGames.com are among the casual-game providers reporting strong ad demand, despite the shaky economy. WildTangent is estimating a 56% jump in ad sales for the first quarter, while AddictingGames.com now ranks as MTV Network’s most popular site, with more than 11 million unique monthly users. Mediaweek (3/8)
Starz Media and game publisher Merscom are teaming up to try and generate interest in the new Starz comedy series Party Down and Merscom’s sequel to its “Righteous Kill: The Game” title. DirecTV‘s 101 interactive channel and 5 cable MSO On Demand and online portals are providing sneak peaks to the show as well as a free trial to the Sims-style Party Down causal game beginning March 13. Party Down from creator Rob Thomas (“Veronica Mars,” “Cupid”) premiers on Starz March 20. (Cynopsis 3/9)
Amazon.com is offering shoppers credit for used games they opt to trade in by mail. Consumers who then use that credit to buy games at Amazon.com will receive a 10% purchase discount. The move by the online retailer is already putting pressure on GameStop. Digital Trends (3/6) , CNET (3/6)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Flip Video, High-definition television, Pure Digital, Pure Digital Technologies, San Francisco California, Super Bowl, Television, Video camera
San Francisco based Pure Digital Technologies, the seven year old company behind the Flip Video line of video cameras, is considering a sale of the company, multiple sources have confirmed. One interested buyer is rumored to be Cisco. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/06/pure-digital-flip-video-in-acquisition-discussions-cisco-may-be-buying 3/6)
The average price of an HDTV had been falling since May 2008, but not so in February, when price tags jumped 10%, according to an analysis by Retrevo. The company said that retailers discounted HDTVs during the holidays and around the Super Bowl — two big sales periods for TVs — but that stores now are looking for higher, more sustainable price points. CEPro.com (3/6)
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Filed under: MISC | Tags: Arts, Box Office, Comic book, Dark Knight, Movies, Warner Bros., Watchmen, Zack Snyder
The Warner Bros. brooding, superhero thriller “Watchmen” took in more than $50 million at the box office this weekend, but the R-rated, comic-book adaptation fell short of hitting the kind of numbers that the studio hoped would turn it into the next “Dark Knight.” (Iwantmedia 3/9, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123653679431864173.html 3/9)
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