Daily Marauder


ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Media companies appear to be losing the battle over illicit digital copies of television episodes and films. Illegal downloading and streaming is increasingly becoming a mainstream behavior. NBC Universal exec Richard Cotton says: “Young people conclude that if it’s so easy, it can’t be wrong.” (Iwantmedia 2/5, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/business/media/05piracy.html?_r=1 2/5)

Doesn’t this feel kind of nostalgic? Anyone remember a little Deathmatch called Napster vs. the music business? Hmmmm… The world has a funny little way of repeating itself when the snooze button is depressed.

A high-quality streaming video version of “Slumdog Millionaire” as seen on a secondary site reached through a “link farm” featuring pirated movies.

illegal1

Media CEOs say they are seeing their audiences move toward free or lost-cost Web video — both television and movies — and away from traditional delivery methods, such as cable television and DVDs. More young people are saying: “All I need is broadband.” (Iwantmedia 2/5, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123377977256648981.html 2/5)

With Time Warner reporting earnings yesterday, we now have online advertising numbers for the fourth quarter from the four largest players: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL. Tallying up their online advertising revenues provides a decent proxy for the health of the overall online advertising industry as a whole, since they represent a majority of those revenues. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/05/is-the-worst-behind-us-online-ad-revenues-pick-up-in-the-fourth-quarter 2/5)

online-ad

Things are not going well for Universal Music Group’s in its lawsuit against video-sharing site Veoh. First, the Los Angeles judge, A. Howard Matz, ruled last month that the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act do apply to the case, contrary to UMG’s request for summary judgment. On Monday, Veoh scored another point in the preliminary legal sparring that always precedes the main event. The same judge threw out the part of the complaint that named Veoh’s investors as defendants in the suit. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/04/judge-tells-umg-no-you-cannot-sue-veohs-investors-for-copyright-infringement 2/4)

v-u

Microsoft is partnering with entertainment firm BermanBraun Interactive to create a celebrity news site. The creators of the new Wonderwall say it will attempt to “decommoditize” the stream of celebrity images, with a balance of the editorial tone found on TMZ and People.com. (Iwantmedia 2/5, http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/02/05/msn_launches_new_celeb_gossip_site_wonderwall.html 2/5)

And here I thought Wonderwall was an Oasis song? Microsoft take down Perez or TMZ? Doubtful.

wonderwall

Online film site Jaman signed a deal with E1 Entertainment to add nearly 3,000 of the studio’s titles to its download service including feature films, documentaries, episodic series and classic American TV shows. E1′s library includes the works of cinema masters including Jacques Demy, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer. (Cynopsis 2/5)

The comedians at Team Tiger Awesome have come up with an imaginative spoof of their own for MTV Network’s Atom.com to celebrate Oprah Winfrey’s recent birthday. Oprah is Dead riffs on just how much the queen of daytime television has come to mean to America. (Cynopsis 2/5)

JuicyCampus, an online hangout for college students to spread anonymous rumors, is shutting down, citing a lack of advertising revenue and funding. Despite expanding to more than 500 U.S. campuses, the site was unable to “muster the resources needed to survive,” says CEO Matt Ivester. (Iwantmedia 2/5, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/02/juicy-campus.html 2/4)

U.S. Web surfers watched 14.3 billion online videos in December, a 13% increase from the month before, according to a study by comScore. YouTube had the biggest gain in viewers, a growth of 49%, and it represented about 41% of the market. TVWeek.com (2/4)

Google Sites once again ranked as the top video property in the U.S. with 5.9 billion videos viewed (a 41% online video market share), with YouTube accounting for more than 99% of all of its videos viewed, according to ComScore‘s latest Video Metrix report. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 445 million videos (3.1%), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 330 million (2.3%) and Viacom Digital with 291 million (2.0 percent). Hulu continued its impressive growth trajectory, climbing 6% versus November to 241 million videos viewed. Nearly 150 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 96 videos per viewer in December. Google Sites surpassed 100 million online video viewers during the month, representing two out of every three Internet users who watched video. (Cynopsis 2/5)

Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Videos Viewed – December 2008
Property Videos (000) Share (%) of Videos
Total Internet 14,318,722 100.0
Google Sites 5,905,854 41.2
Fox Interactive Media 444,865 3.1
Yahoo! Sites 330,025 2.3
Viacom Digital 290,558 2.0
Microsoft Sites 247,903 1.7
Hulu.com 240,585 1.7
AOL LLC 197,135 1.4
Turner Network 183,948 1.3
Disney Online 148,434 1.0
ESPN 102,542 0.7
Source: comScore Video Metrix
*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video

Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Unique Viewers – December 2008
Property Unique Viewers (000) Average Videos per Viewer
Total Internet 149,587 95.7
Google Sites 100,092 59.0
Fox Interactive Media 56,895 7.8
Yahoo! Sites 42,761 7.7
AOL LLC 31,522 6.3
Microsoft Sites 29,534 8.4
Viacom Digital 27,370 10.6
Hulu.com 24,572 9.8
Turner Network 20,499 9.0
Time Warner – Excl. AOL 17,294 2.8
CBS Corporation 14,840 3.7
Source: comScore Video Metrix

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ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Google is said to be exercising a right to force Time Warner to buy back the search giant’s stake in AOL or take the Internet unit public. Google invested $1 billion in AOL in 2005; the stake’s value is now believed to be worth about $250 million. Time Warner says it is “evaluating its options.” (Iwantmedia 2/4, http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2009/02/02/daily61.html 2/4)

aol2

President Obama may face friction from the leading U.S. cable providers on his plan to wire rural areas for high-speed Internet access. Cable giants are seen as unlikely to participate unless lawmakers provide more money for installation of costly broadband lines. (Iwantmedia 2/4, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aElDFE0IfbEc 2/3)

An audio recording of “Batman” actor Christian Bale losing his temper while working on a movie set hit the Internet this week. The tirade soon became the basis for more than one music remix on YouTube. In less than 24 hours, one remix received more than 110,000 hits. (Iwantmedia 2/4, http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2009/02/03/Bale_tirade_becomes_YouTube_sensation/UPI-90221233694011 2/3)

It’s audio only but I think this picture provides a good visual.

MySpace is in the spotlight today because it revealed that 90,000 registered sex offenders have been kicked off its site in the past two years. But where did all of those sex offenders go? Some evidence suggests that a portion of them are now on Facebook. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/03/thousands-of-myspace-sex-offender-refugees-found-on-facebook 2/3)

Strangely, I don’t think I would befriend any of these guys even if I didn’t know they were sex offenders.

fb

Google is starting a service enabling Web-site owners to integrate news headlines from the Google News aggregator into any Web page. The service could help newspapers “reach new audiences.” Participants can control the types of stories in their chosen news feed. (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/add-google-news-to-your-website.html 2/3)

Social media app creator RockYou, creator of Facebook hits like SuperWall, added a new IAB standards-compliant video ad format to its widget ad network to enable advertisers deliver video ads across its vast network of social network users. RockYou, which serves more than 130 million users worldwide across Facebook, MySpace and other social networks, will focus on creating customizable integrated ad programs that combine video with other targeted applications. (Cynopsis 2/4)

IAC/Interactive Group eked out a profit during Q4 but missed revenue projections due to the horrible decline in display advertising diminishing cost-per-click rates across many of its sites. For the full year, IAC reported a loss of $156.2 million compared with a loss of $144.1 million in 2007. The company’s revenue climbed 8%, totaling $1.45 billion in 2008. (Cynopsis 2/4)

CBS Interactive and Procter & Gamble’s Head & Shoulders shampoo brand are teaming up to produce an original Web series, “Heckle U,” starring Tom Arnold, debuting on CBS.com and TV.com. CBS sees Web originals as a “win-win for both programmers and marketers.” (http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/02/cbs_interactive_head_shoulders.php 2/3)

Four Google executives began trial in Milan yesterday facing charges of privacy violation and defamation of character, per the NYTimes. The case involves the posting of a video in 2006 in which 4 kids tease a boy with Downs Syndrome. “To our knowledge, this is the first time an individual has been criminally charged for violation of data protection laws that occurred by the company he or she works for,” Trevor Hughes, executive director of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, is quoted as saying. (Cynopsis 2/4)

HD video portal and content delivery service Vuze, one of the biggest critics of Comcast’s P2P throttling practices chastised by the FCC, is now calling for an examination of Cox Cable’s traffic management practices. In a blog entry Vuze General Counsel Jay Monahan points to Cox’s recently published Congestion Management Policy, noting that users who engage in “low priority” activities including P2P streaming may now see their connection hampered. Vuze utilized P2P architecture to delivery HD video content for its clients. (Cynopsis 2/4)

USANetwork.com reported double and triple-digit increases in key metrics in 2008 including unique visitors and time spent per user, citing internal Omniture numbers. The site’s Character Arcade casual gaming portal racked up 10 million page views per month, on average. Fans spent an average of 142 minutes/month using USA’s Character Rewind full episode and clip video player with Monk and Burn Notice registering as the two most viewed series, respectively. (Cynopsis 2/4)

Seattle-based RealNetworks released some preliminary revenue numbers and impairment charges for Q4, expecting $151-$153 million in revenue but also a write down of $185-$200 million, categorized as “impairment of goodwill and acquired intangible assets.” (Cynopsis 2/4)

User generated content consumption will continue to grow as US internet users plug into the world of blogs, social networking and UGC video, according to eMarketer. Blogs had the highest rate of engagement in 2008, with 54% of the US internet user base consuming this content. Social network users made up 41.2% of the base while user-generated video viewers represented 36% of users. (Cynopsis 2/4)

US User-Generated Content Consumers by Content Type 2008-2013 (% of internet users)
Genre                 2008    2009    2010    2011    2012    2013
UG video             36.0% 39.8% 42.5%   44.8%  47.2% 49.2%
Social networking 41.2    44.2    46.9       49.1    50.5    51.8
Blogs                   54.0    58.0    61.0       64.0    67.0    69.0
Wikis                   33.9    36.6    39.0       41.0    42.6    43.9
UGC consumers    60.0    62.0    64.0       66.0    68.0    70.0
Source: eMarketer

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ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Epix — the pay-per-view movie channel created by Viacom, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lions Gate Entertainment — initially will launch on a subscription-only broadband Web site in May, according to Mark Greenberg, chief executive officer of the joint venture. Greenberg said Epix executives were negotiating distribution deals with cable and satellite providers as well and hoped to bring the channel to television sets in October. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (1/28) , Los Angeles Times (free registration) (1/27)

The Epix channel will provide an outlet for flicks such as ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.’

Pssst.  Epix, there already is a subscription-only broadband product on the market.  It’s called Netflix and they additionally send you DVD’s if that’s the way you want to watch something.  Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone…

button

NBC is attempting to lure younger viewers to Heroes by building a presence on teen-focused virtual site Habbo.com. NBC.com will extend its popular Heroes’ Evolutions offshoot offering fans the ability to interact with a new avatar Hero through a variety of in-game activities. Habbos participating in a weeklong quest will discover their own “special powers” and will be recruited as new heroes. (Cynopsis 1/28)

AOL will cut its work force by 10 percent today, laying off approximately 700 employees, as a result of the struggling economy and a decrease in advertising revenue, we’ve confirmed with the company. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/28/aol-axing-700-employees 1/28)

aol1

17.1% of all clickthroughs on web advertising are the result of click fraud – the act of clicking on a web ad to artificially increase its click-through rate – according to the latest report from Click Forensics class=”snap_preview_icon”> , a company that specializes in monitoring and preventing internet crime. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/27/report-click-fraud-at-record-high 1/27)

In honor of Jackson Pollack’s birthday, Google changed their logo today to the artwork below.  If you click on the logo, you will search for Jackson Pollack.  Witty.

google-pollack

The preroll unit, one of five being tested by the Pool, a joint effort by marketers and online publishers to determine a standard Web video format, has been gaining currency with marketers but has its limits in terms of creativity and flexibility, according to this article. “On the one hand, you want to standardize for the simplicity of doing business and the ability to do more business,” said Randall Rothenberg, chief executive officer of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “On the other hand, you have a medium that allows for infinite customization.” BusinessWeek (1/27)

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ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

In November 2008 Facebook drew 200 million unique worldwide visitors; more than 1 in 5 people who accessed the Internet that month visited the site. When sites are that big growth generally stagnates, but in Facebook’s case it’s still skyrocketing. In December, 222 million people visited the site says newly released Comscore stats, a 10.8% month over month growth rate. 22% of the total Internet audience went to Facebook in December.  Facebook now has nearly 100 million more worldwide users than MySpace, which added 4 million new users in December to 125 million total. The page view difference is more dramatic – Facebook had 80 billion monthly page views in December v. 43 billion for MySpace. Just six months ago the sites were about the same size. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/22/facebook-now-nearly-twice-the-size-of-myspace-worldwide 1/22)

facebook-v-myspace

Google just released fourth quarter earnings. Net Income was down a whopping 68 percent to $382 million (compared to $1.2 billion a year ago), primarily because of a $1 billion impairment charge related Google’s ownership stakes in AOL (for which it took a $726 million writedown) and Clearwire ($355 million writedown). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/22/google-takes-1-billion-charge-to-write-down-aol-and-clearwire-investments-profits-take-a-68-percent-hit 1/22)

google-earnings

Amazon.com was visited by 73 million unique users last month, a 20% spike over December 2007, according to the latest figures from Compete.com. That performance put Amazon way ahead of the Web portals of brick-and-mortar retailers Target and Wal-Mart. Dealerscope (1/22)

amazon

On a day when Microsoft announced 5,000 layoffs, the 7 or so people losing their jobs at Digg may seem like a drop in the bucket. But that represents about about 10 percent of Digg’s 75-person workforce, whereas the 5,000 at Microsoft represents 5 percent. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/22/as-growth-flattens-digg-downsizes 1/22)

Google is testing a feature that automatically turns direct links to YouTube videos copied into the instant messaging application (seems to work only from within Gmail, not the desktop client) into embedded clips.( http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/22/new-in-google-talk-embedded-youtube-videos 1/22)

gmail-video

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ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

American Idol is turning to digital outlets to try and grow its (suddenly dwindling) audience. FremantleMedia Enterprises and teen virtual world Habbo are constructing a virtual Idol talent show slated to launch by the end of January, hoping to extend sponsors Coke, AT&T and others to the online environment. To help keep the 3 million U.S.-based “Habbos” engaged throughout the 20-week long program, Habbo will introduce new in-game virtual items and activities each month as the on-air American Idol season progresses. (Cynopsis 1/16)

ai

MySpace is building a fully functional webmail product, Techcrunch has learned from sources with knowledge of the product. MySpace mail will compete with services like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail and AOL Mail, and will on launch be the third largest webmail provider in the world. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/15/confirmed-myspace-building-stealth-webmail-product 1/15)

myspace-mail

MSNBC.com is launching a new feature today that will make it easier for a viewer to find a video clip online and paste it onto other sites. The launch is timed so viewers can capture their favorite parts of President-elect Barack Obama‘s inaugural address. The Wall Street Journal (1/16)

msnbc

As part of its Open Strategy, Yahoo starting today is letting users add updates from their friends based on their activities on 20 other services across the Web. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/16/yahoo-becomes-more-friendfeedlike-adds-updates-from-20-outside-sites 1/16)

open

Tonight Hulu will stream outgoing President George W. Bush’s farewell address live. The speech will begin at 5PM PST/8PM EST.   On Tuesday, the site will also be streaming President-Elect Obama’s inauguration speech. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/15/hulu-streams-bushs-goodbye-and-obamas-hello 1/15)

Vik Singh of Yahoo’s BOSS team has just launched a new search engine called TweetNews that mashes up Yahoo News stories with some of the hottest topics on Twitter. The result is a news engine that is significantly more timely than common news aggregators like Google News and Yahoo’s standard news site. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/15/boss-developer-fuses-yahoo-news-with-twitter-to-create-tweetnews 1/15)

boss-twitter

Google TV Ads officially launched the SpotMixer do-it-yourself video ad creation tool from One True Media, enabling small companies to put together and distribute their own measurable spot ads on participating Dish Network channels. (Cynopsis 1/16)

US online video viewing continued to rise in 2008, encompassing more than three-quarters of all US internet users according to eMarketer. And low and behold, the percentage of video viewers who consume video (in-stream, in-banner or in-text) ads is also increasing as users begin to grow accustomed to the necessary evil. Video ads are expected to reach over 80% of all internet users by 2012. (Cynopsis 1/16)

US Online Video Viewers and Online Video Advertising Viewers 2007-2012
Year    Online Video Viewers  % Internet   Online Video Ad   % Internet
(millions)                 Users       Viewers (millions)     Users
2007         137.5                    73.6%             111.4                 59.6%
2008         154.2                    80.0%             129.5                 67.2%
2009         167.5                    84.1%             144.1                 72.3%
2010         176.0                    85.7%             154.9                 75.5%
2011         183.0                    86.8%             164.7                 78.1%
2012         190.0                    88.0%             174.8                 80.9%
source: eMarketer, Nov. 2008

Video sharing site Metacafe gained market share in December attracting more than 11 million U.S. viewers according to ComScore Media Metrix figures. The total represents a 60% increase since Jan. 2008 and an impressive 20% increase from November.

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ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Blockbuster today is expected to announce that it will serve up its inventory of films and TV shows via a wide array of digital platforms, including the Internet, mobile phones, Web-connected TVs and Blu-ray players. “We want it to be ubiquitous,” said Kevin Lewis, senior vice president of digital entertainment for Blockbuster, which is in a competitive battle with Netflix. The Wall Street Journal (1/14) , The Hollywood Reporter (1/14)

blockbuster

The Golden Globes telecast may have taken it on the chin on Sunday night (recording its second-worst ratings since ’95) but at least one online venue saw an increase in eyeballs. AOL‘s Moviefone.com site notched 81 million page views on Monday, with close to 67 million views coming directly from the site’s Golden Globe’s hub, according to internal Omniture numbers. (Cynopsis 1/14)

moviefone

It might be too late for Time Warner to sell its battered AOL unit, analysts say. “I just don’t see bidders out there.” Time Warner is still looking at whether AOL has the “right ownership structure,” says CFO John Martin. Also, the company is “reviewing” some of its smaller magazines. (Iwantmedia 1/14, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=asCgPLoBQD7g 1/14)

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes

bewkes

Google launched Gmail only four years ago, and it is now the fourth most popular e-mail service on the Web after Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and Windows Live Hotmail. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/14/gmail-grew-43-percent-last-year-aol-mail-and-hotmail-need-to-start-worrying 1/14)

gmail

Today Google added a new feature to its extremely useful Maps service, allowing users to quickly view the layout of public transportation systems in more than 50 cities. While Google’s Transit site has offered automatic trip-planning for a number of areas for some time, the new feature makes it easy to determine at a glance if public transportation is even a viable option. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/13/scope-out-public-transportation-at-a-glance-with-googles-transit-layer 1/13)

As someone who has been using Hopstop for quick some time, it’s a neat feature but one that I have been used to using elsewhere.  That said, my iPhone always appreciates added features packed into its lovely little Google map.

gmaps

MTV.com earlier this week launched “MTV Detox,” an online series about one of the portal’s best-known topics: itself. The Sunday-through-Thursday series, which also is available for mobile streaming, is composed of clips from MTV shows such as “The Real World: Brooklyn” and “The City.” Mediaweek (1/13)

I don’t quite understand the need for yet another series which pokes fun at on-air reality shows.  I mean, this one only covers what happens on one MTV series per night.  Give me some InfoMania with a side of Talk Soup and I’m happy.  I don’t need the MTV-specific version.  I don’t have quite that much MTV love to give…

detox

Adobe’s experiment with allowing publishers to place contextual ads directly inside PDF documents is coming to an end. The Adobe Labs project was launched just over a year ago in November, 2007. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/14/dept-of-bad-ideas-those-adobe-ads-in-pdf-documents-just-werent-working 1/14)

adobe

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ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

AOL’s programming sites (Money & Finance, News, Sports, Health, Food, Music, Games, and Moviefone, among others) have been on a tear for the last year and a half and now attract 70 million monthly visitors, says AOL. Page views have grown 40% year over year. The NYTimes reports that the group controls 75 sites and will add 30 more this year. Many of these sites, as we’ve previously reported, have little or no AOL branding at all. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/12/aol-continues-to-splinter-content-into-anti-portals 1/12)

aol

Can’t get enough speechifying from politicians on C-SPAN? Now you can catch them on YouTube. Many elected representatives in Congress already have their own YouTube channels, but YouTube has just launched two central hubs to make it easier to find videos from your Senator or Congressman. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/12/is-your-senator-on-youtube 1/12)

Holy crap. Sen Schumer (NY state) even has his own YT channel. Thank you Techcrunch. Now I finally have something to do on a Friday night…

us-yt

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