Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, CBS Evening News, CBS News, CNN, Daily Show, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Television
President Obama’s second primetime press conference Tuesday night culminated a week-long whirlwind of media appearances. The one-hour event at 8p aired live on 11 networks including ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC and mun2 with a combined audience of 40.4 million viewers and a combined HH rating of 25.9. (Cynopsis 3/26)
Nearly a third of young Americans believe Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are taking the place of traditional news sources like CNN, according to a new Rasmussen poll. The “CBS Evening News” is being “replaced” by “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show.” (Iwantmedia 3/26, http://www.popeater.com/television/article/stewart-colbert-replacing-old-news-guys/397294 3/25)
Discovery CEO David Zaslav is seen as cable television’s “fastest rising star,” with a media empire across 173 countries. Zaslav’s boldest move may be the new Oprah Winfrey Network, a channel he will launch by early next year. Oprah is expected to be Discovery’s “biggest brand.” (Iwantmedia 3/26, http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/23/david-zaslav-discovery-communications-business-media-zaslav.html 3/24)
Fox Broadcasting’s move to offer the new drama “Fringe” with limited commercial interruption is finding success, with audiences showing better-than-average ad recall, according to Magna Global. Viewer ad recall is “enhanced” by fewer, shorter breaks. (Iwantmedia 3/26, http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Fringe-limited-ad-experiment-shows/story.aspx?guid=%7B7560BA2F%2DE1E8%2D40F6%2D9E2D%2DAA9A2553410A%7D 3/25)
Tuesday night’s season finale of Bad Girls Club on Oxygen was the top telecast for the day with W18-34 among all cable networks and became the series’most watched telecast among total viewers. Bad Girls Club’s final episode also generated a lot of online activity as it was one of the top ten topics on Twitter. (Cynopsis 3/26)
Cable and telephone providers are thinking local, with programming under way or in the works that spotlights community news, traffic updates and weather reports. “Hyperlocal content is a big draw because people really care about what happens right around them,” said Neal Polachek, chief executive of research firm Kelsey Group. The Wall Street Journal (3/25)
Turner Networks’research indicates that the top 35 ad-supported cable networks gained 7% in total viewers in prime time during the first quarter. According to Turner, which based its findings on Nielsen data, cable networks such as Fox News, MSNBC, ESPN, Cartoon Network and Food Network showed some of the biggest gains. Variety (3/25)
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is hiring Time Warner exec Kelli Turner as CFO. She succeeds Howard Hochhauser, who left at year’s end for the parent firm of Ancestry.com. At Time Warner, Turner held the position of senior VP of operations in the office of the chairman and CEO. (Iwantmedia 3/26, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Martha-Stewart-Living-names-apf-14752821.html 3/26)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Biz Stone, iTunes, Los Angeles Times, Record label, Social network, Television, Twitter, ZeeVee
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says that the company is hiring a manager to develop accounts for businesses that will have more features but cost a fee to use. Stone did not disclose a launch date. Twitter is growing rapidly, but is yet to specify how it will make money. (Iwantmedia 3/26, http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/23/daily52.html 3/23)
The rise of “feisty online alternatives” is helping speed up the decline of celebrity magazines, says a report by media bankers DeSilva + Phillips. Even powerhouse People magazine is vulnerable. Web sites like Perez Hilton “should be acquisition targets.” (Iwantmedia 3/26, http://www.foliomag.com/2009/outlook-celebrity-magazines-may-never-recover-recession 3/25)
The new iTunes pricing scheme is set for an April 7 launch, says the Los Angeles Times. They do good work over there. Apple hasn’t revealed this date publicly, but April 7 is supposedly what Cupertino is telling record labels. Remember: prices now top out at $1.29 for popular songs. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/03/26/popular-songs-on-itunes-go-to-129-on-april-7 3/26)
AT&T and Comcast are announcing their initiatives to work with the music industry to combat online piracy. The Internet service providers are sending letters to identified customers informing them that infringement has taken place on their account — but with no action outlined. (Iwantmedia 3/26, http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ic48b7a3a3eb3111d72b05ffcdd8d793b 3/25)
ZeeVee has updated its Zinc online video browser, which includes an on-demand library as well as content from Netflix and CBS. The browser’s new Beta 3 iteration organizes Internet-based content with a user-friendly interface that can be accessed via TV or other video screen. ElectronicHouse.com (3/24)
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Android, Blackberry, Google, iPhone, Search Engines, Searching, T-Mobile G1, Voice Search
Google has followed through on an earlier promise and released its Voice Search application for BlackBerry devices as a free download, the company said. The feature, which Google had previously offered for iPhones and its Android-powered T-Mobile G1, also includes the My Location tracking app. CNET (3/25)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Blu-ray Disc, Google, IBM, Liquid crystal display television, Sharp Display Products, Sharp Electronics, Sony, United States
With the end of the first quarter of the 2009 almost here, even the strongest companies companies are making last-minute layoffs to shave costs. Today, layoffs were announced across the tech sector, from IBM to Google to Amazon. The biggest layoffs came from IBM, where 5,000 people
are losing their jobs in the U.S.. Amazon cut 210 people at three distribution centers in Nevada, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Google also announced layoffs of 200 people from sales and marketing (so far, engineers have been spared). In all three cases, the job cuts amounted to roughly one percent of each company’s global workforce. The New York Times also announced a 5 percent cut of its newsroom, or 100 people. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/26/end-of-quarter-layoffs-hit-amazon-ibm-google-and-the-new-york-times 3/26)
“Ambivalent Networkers” — primarily males in their late 20s — admit to being glued to their mobile devices. Still, they would like to “take a break” from all the new technologies, says a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Technology “feels like an obligation.” (Iwantmedia 3/26, http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090325/ap_on_hi_te/tec_techbit_digitally_ambivalent 3/25)
Revenue from mobile-broadband services will reach $137 billion by 2014, a more than 400% rise from current levels, according to a report from Ovum, a consultancy and research firm. The report also predicts that average revenue per user will decline as the number of users will outpace the growth in sales. InformationWeek (3/25)
Sharp Electronics and Sony on Wednesday will christen Sharp Display Products Corp., a new joint-venture company to produce LCD TV panels. The firm, which will be two-thirds owned by Sharp and one-third owned by Sony, will be based in a new facility in Sakai, Japan. Dealerscope (3/25) , TWICE (3/24) , CEPro.com (3/24
Hewlett-Packard has debuted the new Pavilion Elite m9600 desktop, which is powered by Core i7 processors and has up to 1TB of hard drive storage and Blu-ray options. The company also introduced a suite of new LCD monitors featuring HDMI connectivity. Digital Trends (3/25)
The first-quarter 2009 reliability rankings by computer-service chain Rescuecom do not hold good news for Apple’s Mac. For the first time, Mac dropped out of first place and fell to third, where it now must look up at Asian computer makers Asustek Computer and Lenovo Group. Computerworld (3/25)
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