Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: CBS, EQAL, KateModern, Lonelygirl15, Myspace, NBC Universal, Social network service, Television
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
NBC Universal has agreed to provide downloads of movies and TV shows for purchase or rental via Sony Computer Entertainment America‘s PlayStation Network. TV episodes will become available for downloads 24 hours after their original network airings. Reuters (3/11) , Variety (3/10)
New media studio EQAL has launched HarpersGlobe.com, the social companion site to CBS‘s new who’s-gong-to-die-next mystery series Harper’s Island premiering April 9. Hoping to stoke the interest of fans of other successful EQAL franchises like LonelyGirl15 and Kate Modern (Harpers Globe stars LG15′s Melanie Merkosky,) the 17-episode web show begins on Mar. 18 and will incorporate videos, photos, and blogs from its accompanying social network – enabling users to speak directly with the characters, solve puzzles and feel as the rush of participating in the characters’ lives. (Cynopsis 3/11)
It reminds me a bit of the Saw series complete with creepy childlike mask. I’ll have to see an episode to make any decisions on this one.
The rap-rock band Hollywood Undead could have been MySpace Records’ breakthrough act, but the record label arm of the social-networking site missed out after trying to censor the group’s music. News Corp. officials “made a stink” about the group’s controversial lyrics. (Iwantmedia 3/11, http://www.nypost.com/seven/03112009/business/myspace_gets_scared_off_by_the_undead_158966.htm 3/11)
See…this is what happens when Murdoch owns you. Snarky? I know.
Disney is launching a Web site billed as the “premier online destination for Disney fans.” The new site, called D23, offers breaking Disney news and video clips from classic Disney films. A $75 membership fee gives subscribers an online magazine and other perks. (Iwantmedia 3/11, http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090310/tc_afp/entertainmentuscompanyinternetdisney 3/10)
AOL is executing its second major round of layoffs in two years amid a weakening online advertising market. The company says it plans to reduce its domestic headcount by 700. AOL is no longer leading-edge, say analysts. AOL is “saddled with an old business.” (Iwantmedia 3/11, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031003307.html 3/11)
Google is wading into behavioral ad targeting
in a big way today. It will start placing cookies on consumer’s browsers to collect information about their interests whenever they visit sites that show AdSense contextual ads. Then it will show ads targeted to those interests to the same person as he or she browses the Web on other sites that also serve AdSense ads (which is a large portion of all commercial sites). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/11/google-now-lets-you-target-ads-at-yourself 3/11)
Facebook is launching in Arabic, tapping into a potentially huge market in the Middle East and beyond. The world’s most successful social network already has many users in the Arab world. In Egypt, the site boasts 900,000 users. Some 60 more languages are in development. (Iwantmedia 3/11, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/mar/10/facebook-launches-arabic-version 3/10)
The dispute between YouTube and the U.K.’s Performing Rights Society for Music that prompted the site to remove music videos could spread to MySpace, say industry sources. MySpace U.K. and other sites are struggling to renegotiate their own licenses with the agency. (Iwantmedia 3/11, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/10/youtube-performing-rights-society-music 3/10)
Despite shuttering its TimesSelect option in 2007 – a premium service that attracted some 200,000 subscribers and $10 million in annual revenue – NYTimes.com continues to mull over a variety of paid content options including subscriptions, micro-payments and membership tiers, says Martin Nisenholtz, SVP/Digital Operations in the site’s interactive Talk to the Times feature. (Cynopsis 3/11)
The U.S. should be cut some slack for not keeping up with denser countries such as Japan and South Korea in the areas of broadband speed, availability and affordability according to an analysis piece in The NYTimes. Nations with large concentrations of apartment buildings or other multi-dwelling units have been able to roll out high-speed DSL services with relatively little capital investment. (Cynopsis 3/11)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Boxee, Hulu, Joost, Podcast, Social network service, TechCrunch, TV.com, YouTube
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Techcrunch recently wrote that Joost still had a heartbeat despite the fact they made the wrong bet years ago by underestimating the power of the web for watching videos. They finally switched to Flash late last year, giving up on P2P, and introduced some social networking features around the video viewing experience to battle established players like Hulu, TV.com and YouTube. Now it’s taking a step beyond that by forming an alliance with Europe’s leading social networking service, Belgium-based Netlog
, theoretically expanding its reach to 40 million people. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/05/joost-continues-fight-for-relevancy-teams-up-with-social-network-netlog 3/5)
It’s still hard for me to take Joost seriously. A clusterf@#$ck of content that no one is really interested in now that we have Hulu…
Hulu really seems to be drawing a line in the sand for third-party developers. After pulling its content from the popular Boxee content portal, Hulu as now disabled video playback on the open source client-based desktop app MyMediaPlayer2, according to an open letter from developer Paul Yanez, who claims Hulu was disabled just 4 hours after the app was profiled in TechCrunch. The Adobe Air-based application, which utilized Hulu’s RSS feeds to pull a selection of movies and TV shows from Hulu with the ads attached, set out to expand Hulu’s availability to multiple OS’s, media players and devices while added increased functionality such as an integration with Twitter enabling micro-blogging during full-episode streaming. (Cynopsis 3/5)
The podcasting audience continues to grow at a healthy clip according to the latest eMarketer figures. As a percentage of internet users, podcast downloaders will grow from 9% in 2008 to 17% in 2013 to 37.6 million users. The number goes up significantly when cross-referenced with users who make purchases on the internet according to a PriceGrabber survey, which found that 50% of online buyers also listened to podcasts. (Cynopsis 3/5)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: CNN, Facebook, Kirkland & Ellis, Mark Zuckerberg, Myspace, Netflix, Social network service, Twitter
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Here’s a clean look at the upcoming Facebook homepage redesign that will go live next week. The new design will give users the ability to easily feed the news stream by friend type and network, and gives users a much easier way to post links, photos and videos. The news feed will also begin updating in real time without page refreshes. See more here
. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also wrote a blog post summarizing the changes here. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/04/screen-shots-the-new-facebook-home-page 3/4)
I love the real-time update on the news feed. Now I won’t need to refresh Facebook 5.000 times a day. This will convince me that I don’t in fact have a social networking addition. Sigh. Dodged that bullet!
(Below) The only one I don’t really like is that company pages will become profiles much like MySpace enabled companies to have their own profiles. Why would I want to be friends with CNN? That feels wrong… I mean. I like CNN but I don’t like like CNN. I can’t exactly see what it looks like from the photos but I guess I’ll wait till next week.
Facebook made a number of announcements today about changes to its home page, profile pages, and activity streams. Taken together, these represent a concerted response to the rise of Twitter as a real-time message broadcasting system that goes beyond members’ personal circle of friends. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/04/facebooks-response-to-twitter 3/4)
DVD-rental icon Blockbuster, which has faced a competitive onslaught from companies like Netflix, has hired a law firm to analyze a possible restructuring. The company said it brought on Kirkland & Ellis to aid in “ongoing finance and capital raising initiatives,” but that it was not planning on seeking bankruptcy protection. 
ClipSyndicate (3/3) , The Wall Street Journal (3/4) , Reuters (3/3) , The New York Times (3/3)
Following the larger open access distribution trend, CBS Sports is looking to expand traffic to their NCAA March Madness on demand product by again offering third-party sites access to free applications that feed live scores and other info from the games. CBS has exclusive rights to video of NCAA tourney games (offered in HD this year via Microsoft’s Silverlight platform) but rivals sites including ESPN.com and Yahoo! Sports will have access to the apps, along with the extended CBS Interactive family. The NCAA March Madness on Demand Developer Platform‘s selection of widgets are more sophisticated this year, including applications dedicated solely to brackets, live scoring, news or each of the Division I Men’s Basketball programs. CBS drew 4.8 million unique visitors on its March Madness On Demand site last year, delivering 4.9 million total hours of live streaming video. Video consumption jumped an astounding 81% compared to the 2007 tournament. (Cynopsis 3/4)
After months of rumors, Google Health finally launched last May, promising to store our medical records in a secure way that is more accessible, easier to understand, and useful than traditional paper records. Since there hasn’t been too much news about the service, which isn’t particularly surprising given the sensitive nature of the information involved. Today, Google has announced that it has launched a significant new feature, giving users the ability to share their medical records with designated family or close friends. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/04/google-health-now-lets-you-share-your-medical-history-with-loved-ones 3/4)
MySpace may be in deep trouble, but that isn’t stopping them from capitalizing on middle America (and Los Angeles), which still rampantly loves the site. You can now get a MySpace branded credit card and rack up points to download free music on the site. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/04/will-a-credit-card-solve-myspaces-woes-who-cares-get-free-music 3/4)
Proving that Myspace can figure out how to become just a bit more lame. As someone who used to work in credit card marketing, I can tell you that co-branded cards usually don’t work. Remember the Sony Citi card? Yah, I didn’t think so…
The highly publicized Pirate Bay copyright infringement trial concluded yesterday in Stockholm with the site’s young defendants claiming that the P2P portal is simply an innocuous piece of internet infrastructure – a tool used to search for content uploaded by others. In closing statements on Monday, prosecutors asked the judge to issue one-year prison sentences to each defendant for enabling illegal copyright infringement. Industry lawyers weren’t that generous, pushing for the maximum penalty of 2 years. The final verdict is scheduled to be handed down on April 17. (Cynopsis 3/4)
Philippe Dauman, the chief executive officer of Viacom, has pronounced his company “very open” to initiatives such as TV Everywhere, Time Warner’s plan to make cable content available online to multichannel subscribers. “We think it has to be seamless to the consumer, and we’re working (with the distributors) on the consumer and technology side,” he said. Advertising Age (3/3)
(Below) Comcast and free Wi-Fi? Never thought I’d live to see the day…
Comcast has begun testing free Wi-Fi hot spots at commuter rail stations in New Jersey. Separately, the country’s largest cable provider launched DOCSIS 3.0-powered broadband service in the San Francisco Bay area with download speeds of up to 50 Mbps. CED Magazine (3/2009) , Light Reading (3/3)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Facebook, iTunes, Nick Verreos, On the Web, Social network, Social network service, Television, Verizon FiOS
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Disney-ABC’s Oscar.com unveiled a new original web series “Road to the Oscars,” featuring Bachelor and Bachelorette host Chris Harrison. The series, which will feature Oscar news, exclusive interviews and behind the scenes footage, consists of nine episodes with a new show premiering everyday through Monday, February 23. The site also launched its “Oscars Designer Challenge: Behind the Dress” competition hosted by “Project Runway” alum/ fashion designer Nick Verreos. (Cynopsis 2/19)
Facebook has just launched
its first widget for Facebook Connect, its recently-introduced platform that allows users to authenticate themselves using their Facebook logins. Dubbed ‘Comments Box’, the new widget allows site owners to integrate a comments section into their webpage. But unlike normal commenting systems, comments left in Comments Box will be relayed back to the users’ Facebook profiles, where the conversation can continue (users can also choose to receive notifications through Facebook whenever someone responds to their comments on other websites). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/19/facebook-connect-gets-easy-with-new-comments-widget 2/19)
Online TV firm Next New Networks and Verizon FiOS are launching an online network called $99 Music Videos to showcase the talents of emerging musicians and filmmakers. The companies say they are looking to create an “MTV for the digital and iTunes age.” (Iwantmedia 2/19, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3iee816b19c15d56f1b3e2b5da7f3676cb 2/19)
A new interactive site dubbed Fashionology.com launched yesterday as a web extension to a hands-on shop in Beverly Hills that allows tweens to design and make their own clothing. Building on tools popularized by dress up sites, Fashionology uses animated avatars to allow young users to play around with designs, share and borrow ideas with others and order finished products. (Cynopsis 2/19)
Despite the well publicized failure of Bud.tv, sneaker maker Adidas is rolling out its own video portal this week to promote its brands the viral video way, per Adweek. The portal began with basketball page featuring celebrity endorsements from NBA stars such as Dwight Howard, but plans are to ramp up content to include hundreds of embeddable videos, photos and integrations with social networking sites. The portal is the brainchild of EVB, San Francisco. (Cynopsis 2/19)
Nickelodeon‘s portfolio of sites claimed the top spot in comScore’s Family & Lifestyle category in Jan., posting a 13% gain in unique visitors (28.7 million) over a year ago. The group, which includes Nick.com; NickJr.com; The-N.com; Neopets; Shockwave; AddictingGames; ParentsConnect and NOGGIN.com; also ranked first in video streams among kids brands according to Nielsen’s VideoCensus. Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group was fifth among the top brands overall by video streams, behind only YouTube, Yahoo, Hulu and Fox Interactive Media. It delivered 204 million streams and 6.3 million unique video viewers. (Cynopsis 2/19)
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Filed under: Feature, ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, Facebook, Matt Held, New York City, Painting, Social network, Social network service, Website
YOUR FACEBOOK PORTRAIT: BY MATT HELD
“Caroline” Copyright 2009 Matt Held and Held Studios. All rights reserved.
Here’s the painting.
And here’s the original. Original Facebook profile pic that is. Brooklyn artist Matt Held has been painting Facebook profile pics with the objective of collecting paintings that mirror individual self-portraits. These paintings are a statement on how we choose to represent ourselves in public and I think a really interesting one.
Social networking sites have given us the ability to create a virtual representation of ourselves filled with our favorite bands, books, and friends. The most visual representation of this re-creation lies in the profile picture which is carried throughout every conversation on every profile page throughout the social networking universe (i.e. the most important visual in many respects).
This one is my favorite. Click on the image above to see more of Matt’s work on his web site.
To get your own Matt Held original, sign up for the Facebook group and cross your fingers. Matt wants to paint 200 portraits when he finishes with this project and over 500 people have already joined his Facebook group.
He has no plans to exhibit his work just yet but will be speaking at the Brooklyn Museum of Art Saturday March 7th about the project if you’re in the NYC area. He will also be selling these so if you’re interested in purchasing one, contact Matt on his web site.
Daily Marauder has been granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the copyrighted image for personal use only. Any other use of the image or derivations thereof, including any commercial use, without explicit written consent from the copyright owner is strictly prohibited.
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Discovery Channel, Facebook, Facebook Connect, Google, New York Times, Social network, Social network service, Twitter
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Twitter has become a central channel for eyewitness accounts and news updates on the terrorist attacks in India, amid a local coverage black out. The service has been flooded with thousands of “tweets,” some from people trapped in the hotels where the attacks were taking place. (Iwantmedia 12/1, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/192cc2ae-bdb6-11dd-bba1-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1 11/29)
I for one was glued to twitter for hours, watching the attacks unfold in real time on a monitor in front of me. It brought me back to the dark place I felt after 9/11 in my upper west side apartment as I sat glued to CNN for hours on end.
The terrorists who attacked various locations in south Mumbai last week used digital maps from Google Earth to learn their way around, according to officials investigating the attacks. The terrorists are said to have used satellite phones and global positioning systems. (Iwantmedia 12/1, http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9121819&intsrc=news_ts_head 12/1)
Yesterday was the day that Facebook made their big press push for their Facebook Connect service, which was first announced last May. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/30/facebook-google-myspace-data 11/30)
The Web sites of Discovery Channel and several other content creators are preparing to join Facebook Connect, a new service from the social-networking site that allows users to let their friends know where they’re going on the Internet. Connect hopes to create pools of users who can, for instance, watch the same online video stream and discuss the content among themselves. The New York Times (11/30)
New research from NBC Universal suggests advertisers should continue spending while the economy is down and target women who do most of the purchasing. In previous downturns, companies that continued spending increased their market share, and it took years for companies that dropped ads to recover, says Susan Malfa, vice president of ad sales at Bravo and Oxygen. TVWeek.com (11/30)
What is fascination with Britney Spears? Maybe it’s a train-wreck kind of thing. Once again she tops Yahoo’s list of overall searches for 2008
, just like she did last year. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/01/yahoos-top-searches-for-2008-are-the-same-as-they-were-for-2007 12/1)
U.S. cable and telecommunications companies are forging ahead with plans to radically change their familiar flat-rate monthly Internet plans, even as new options for watching movies and television online proliferate. “Usage caps” will penalize those who send and receive too much data. (http://www.smartmoney.com/Spending/Rip-offs/Get-Ready-to-Pay-More-for-the-Web 12/1)
Hulu.com performed an internal study offering users the option of viewing one two-minute ad or four 30-second spots, reports AdAge. An amazing 88% of Hulu visitors preferred the long form ads, which are opt in – allowing viewers to select from a variety of 2 minute commercials. Participating sponsors included Columbia TriStar, American Express, Hyatt, Paramount Pictures, Sprint and Capital One. (Cynopsis 12/1)
Pownce, the media-rich Twitter competitor once labeled by the New York Times as “the hottest startup in Silicon Valley”, is headed to the deadpool after being acquired by Six Apart. The service, which was co-founded by Digg’s Kevin Rose along with Leah Culver and Daniel Burka, will be closing its doors on December 15. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/01/pownce-deadpooled-team-moves-to-six-apart 12/1)
Parents hit with pre-holiday pleas for “Grand Theft Auto IV” have a new source for sorting out which video games are appropriate with the launch of AOL’s PlaySavvy.com. The new site offers parents a guide to games, from ratings and reviews to connecting with other parents. (Iwantmedia 12/1, http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=95495 12/1)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Bryan Singer, Facebook, Google, Market share, Search, Search Engines, Social network service, Television
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ComScore released its October search-engine market share figures for the U.S. last night. Overall search volume grew 20.1 percent year-over-year to 12.6 billion queries, a decline in growth from the 25.5 percent pace we saw in September, but still quite healthy. Correspondingly, the annual growth in Google’s U.S. search volume slowed from 38.6 percent in September to 29.6 percent in October. Google still managed to eke out an overall market share gain of 0.2 point to 63.1 percent. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/25/google-gains-us-search-market-share-in-october-but-growth-slows 11/25)
Blockbuster has started offering customers a small box made by 2Wire that, when attached to a TV set, can play the company’s videos once they’ve been downloaded over a broadband line. The move, according to this report, is an attempt to blunt the success of competitors such as cable companies, with their vast on-demand offerings, and Netflix. The Washington Post/The Associated Press (11/25) , Reuters (11/25)
The production arm of Warner Home Video – Warner Premiere – will produce a series of original live action webisodes with top-shelf Hollywood director Bryan Singer, reports THR. The two parties are in talks to develop the cyberpunk sci-fi thriller “H+,” which picks up after a terrorist fries the brains of a segment of the population “jacking” into the net. (Cynopsis 11/25)
Facebook sees a bleak economy as all the more reason to press ahead with growth plans. The social-networking site is said to be gearing up to make acquisitions. Options could include sites in Brazil, Germany, India or Japan, where Facebook is yet to have a strong presence. (Iwantmedia 11/25, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_48/b4110084423202.htm 11/20)
YouTube has apparently changed all videos on its site to play in widescreen format. Because most videos on the site were originally uploaded in a ratio closer to 4:3 (the standard size used on non-HD televisions), most videos are playing with horizontal black bars on the side. Some videos (like this one
) are taking advantage of the full space, but are shrunk down to the normal size when they’re embedded elsewhere. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/24/youtube-goes-wide 11/24)
Online entertainment portal No Good TV christened its own new television production arm with the 8-part VH1 Classic One Hit Wonders. Hosted by NGTV’s own Carrie Keagan, the show re-imagines the well-worn countdown format with irreverent touches, high-end animation and innovative visual effects. VH1 Classic will premiere two new episodes each night beginning Dec. 1. (Cynopsis 11/25)
Fox Interactive Media’s gaming-themed IGN.com announced a series of production and distribution agreements with nearly a dozen publishers to distribute original IGN video productions across their sites including Black20 Digital Studios, Machinima.com, CollegeHumor, ScrewAttack.com, g-NET and Comedy.com. (Cynopsis 11/25)
Video online and on mobile devices remain additive to the overall pie as total viewing hours continue to rise across all available platforms, according to Nielsen‘s Q3 A2/M2 report. Television remained the dominant choice for video consumption as viewers watched more than 142 hours/month – 5 hours more than last year. The amount of hours audiences spent watching timeshifted TV rose by 34% year-over-year as DVR penetration increased to 27%. Major online events such as the Olympics, Major League baseball and political conventions contributed dramatically to the growth of online video usage. (Cynopsis 11/25)
Monthly Time Spent in Hours: Minutes – 3Q 2008
K2-11 T12-17 A18-24 A25-34 A35-44 A45-54 A55-64 A65+
Watching TV in the home* 108:34 110:59 108:36 133:00 134:51 159:23 175:18 196:23
Watching Timeshifted TV* 5:25 4:55 4:36 10:04 8:15 7:19 6:32 3:44
Using the Internet** 5:38 12:48 12:59 28:40 37:56 35:24 35:05 26:39
Watching Video on Internet** 2:05 2:55 3:57 3:21 2:44 2:17 1:37 1:07
Mobile Video Subscribers n/a 4:20 3:15 4:20 3:37 2:10 2:53 n/a
Watching Video on a
Mobile Phone
Video Audience Composition by Age – 3Q 2008
K2-11 T12-17 A18-24 A25-34 A35-44 A45-54 A55-64 A65+
On TV* 11% 7% 7% 13% 14% 17% 14% 17%
On the Internet** 7% 9% 8% 15% 19% 20% 6% 7%
On Mobile Phones n/a 18% 15% 32% 20% 10% 6% 1%
Video Audience Composition by Gender – 3Q 2008
F2+ M2+
On TV* 54% 46%
On the Internet** 55% 45%
On Mobile Phones 40% 60%
FOOTNOTES FOR ALL CHARTS:
Source for all charts: The Nielsen Company Check the Nielsen blog for footnote references
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