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ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Optimedia U.S. has released a new survey that attempts to measure not only how many people watched a show across multiple platforms but also how engaged viewers are in it and how much buzz it gets. “American Idol” on Fox was at the top of the Content Power Ratings, AMC’s “Mad Men” was the highest-ranked prime-time cable show and Showtime’s “Dexter” was the highest-ranked pay-cable program. The New York Times/TV Decoder blog (5/14) , TVWeek.com (5/14)

YouTube remains the largest online-video brand site, but Hulu has grown from 63.2 million total streams in April 2008 to 373.3 million in April 2009 — a 490% increase, according to Nielsen Online. Other online-video brands on the list were Yahoo!, Fox Interactive Media, Nickelodeon Kids & Family Network, MSN/Windows Live, ABC.com, MTV Networks Music, and Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital. TVWeek.com (5/14) , Mediaweek (5/14)

While Nielsen says Hulu received 8.9 million visitors in March, comScore claims the video site received 42 million. The wildly divergent numbers demonstrate the nascency of the market for online video measurement. Advertising execs complain: It’s “still the wild wild West.” (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/business/media/15nielsen.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1242417777-hPCG7aRJ6N313TbLNTrCjg 5/15)

How many Twitter followers do you have? Chances are it’s nowhere near 1 million — only seven users have that many. Oprah just joined the club as the 8th member. But what’s crazy is that she gained her millionth follower just 28 days after signing up for the service. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/14/28-days-later-oprah-races-past-a-million-twitter-followers 5/14)

The New York Times is said to be nearing a decision on how to charge for some of its content on the Internet. One proposal will allow a reader to roam freely on the Web site until hitting a predetermined limit of word-count or pageviews, after which a meter will start running. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.observer.com/2009/media/new-york-times-considering-two-plans-charge-content-web 4/15)

Google has rolled out a new recommendations gadget that allows sites that use Google Friend Connect to see which parts of their websites their visitors like best. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/15/google-friend-connect-adds-recommendations-gadget 5/15)

RealNetworks, which is waging a court battle against Hollywood studios over its DVD-copying software, is now filing antitrust claims against them, saying they are trying to prevent other companies from building products that let consumers legally copy DVDs for personal use. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/drm/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217500225 5/14)

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia will test a paid download model for access to some of its vast library of online video content next month. The test will make the lifestyle media company the latest media operation to try charging for content online. “It has to happen,” says Stewart. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.smartmoney.com/news/ON/?story=ON-20090514-000657-1426 5/14)

A new screen-sharing app launched today from drop.io, which keeps adding features to its private file-sharing service. The new product is called present.io and it lets you set up a screen-sharing presentation with multiple participants in just a few clicks. Present.io has a lot in common with drop.io’s chat feature which it added last month, except that it looks like this scales to hundreds of participants and is designed specifically for webinars and group presentations. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/14/dropio-adds-seamless-screen-sharing-app-with-presentio 5/14)

Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners, which bought a big stake in Forbes Media in 2006, is resigning from the Forbes board. The investment firm’s bet that Forbes.com would come to offset the company’s declining print business “proved to be wrong,” he admits. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.nypost.com/seven/05152009/business/at_forbes_media__the_knives_are_coming_169342.htm 5/15)

Cablevision, the New York-area cable-television provider, is in talks to offer an interactive travel service to subscribers in competition with Web sites such as Expedia and Orbitz. The service would allow Cablevision customers to book trips through their TV sets. (Iwantmedia 5/15, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a.qDlgdX26JA 5/15)

Cablevision Systems Corp., which has set up thousands of Wi-Fi hot spots in the Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester-Dutchess, N.Y., areas, has announced that it has expanded its high-speed wireless Web access in New Jersey to include areas such as Shore Points and Morris, Ocean and Monmouth counties. Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision also said that it was now offering Wi-Fi speeds up to 3 Mbps, which is double its previous offering. Forbes/The Associated Press (5/14)

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