Cynopsis: DIGITAL

07/09/09

Good morning, it’s Thursday, July 9, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. 

After launching a web browser and browser-based productivity software, Google is now taking aim at Microsoft‘s bread and butter. Google announced plans to launch its own open source operating system slated for release to consumers during the second half of 2010. The Google Chrome OS, designed to work with the Chrome web browser, will be optimized for the hot netbook category of laptops that Microsoft hopes to serve with a stripped down version of Windows 7. Speed, simplicity, security and interoperability with other Google products such as its Android mobile operating system will be the Chrome OS’ selling points. (Oh, and did we mention that it will likely be free?)
 

 
Lifetime Digital, Roiworld.com and Merscom unveiled their newest casual gaming release Create-A-Mall, now available for download at the Lifetime-owned Roiworld.com and myLifetime.com. Players assume the role of Kelly, a rising star in a mall development company.
 

                                                                                
YouTube will continue plugging away at signing premium partners as part of a new strategy to attract long-form program viewing, according to Jordan Hoffner, who gave the keynote address at NATPE’s LATV Fest yesterday. YouTube hopes that its huge online community, search functionality and direct sales opportunities around the content will convince programmers to jump on board.
 
Interactive video technology start-up Veeple, which recently announced a partnership with video platform provider BitGravity, is increasing its distribution capabilities integrating with the popular TubeMogul platform.
 

 
Slide, one of the top application creators for Facebook and other social networks, is shifting its focus from selling standard ad units to promoting premium, sponsor-based brand advertising, per GigaOM. The move, designed to address the increasing glut of social networking-themed inventory, will result in a significant reduction in Slide’s current sales force.
 
Ziff Davis Enterprise has teamed with IDG TechNetwork to join ZD’s Developer Shed Network of Web sites and online resources with IDG’s TechNetwork – an ad and media network of more than 200 online publishers.
 
NetShelter Technology Media announced that its IT and Mobile ad networks have reached record size. With the addition of TechSpot.com and Petri.co.il, the IT Channel now reaches 13 million unique visitors. With the addition of phonedog.com, NetShelter’s Mobile Channel now reaches 21 million unique visitors, according to comScore.
 

 
The Senate Commerce Committee passed Senator John Kerry’s spectrum inventory bill yesterday, which sets out to provide guidelines regarding how unlicensed spectrum is allocated, per Multichannel. The bill now goes to the full Senate for a vote.
 
West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw has filed suit against Comcast for forcing customers to pay set-top box rental fee in order to receive premium services. The suit alleges that Comcast violates the West Virginia Antitrust Act and the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act.
 
Viva Vision has partnered with mobile content firm Handango to expand distribution of its mobile entertainment slideshows through Handango’s online retail site and on device client, “Handango InHand.” Slideshows available at launch include Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, Walt Disney Presents, Car and Driver and Bikini CAM.
 
Britain’s The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday has signed up ITN On, the multimedia video production arm of ITN, to deliver daily video content to its websites. Mail Online users will have access to news, celebrity and lifestyle clips from ITN On, one of the UK’s leading content providers to digital platforms.
 

 
Evidence continues to trickle in that the Michael Jackson Memorial was a monumental event, both in terms of video streaming and increased media integration and for the most part news sites and microblogging services (that means you, Twitter,) held up to the onslaught. The Obama inauguration generated more live streams in some cases, but in terms of generating traffic and interaction, the MJ Memorial proved to be a bigger catalyst.

• Yesterday was CNN.com‘s second largest live video streaming day ever with 10.5 million live streams served for the total day. (Inauguration Day was CNN.com’s biggest live streaming day on record with 26.9 million live streams for the total day) CNN.com served 4.4 million live video streams during the hours of Memorial (Source: Omniture, global.) Facebook updates via CNN.com Live video player resulted in 733,000 status updates, with 6,000 status updates/minute at the peak
• MSNBC.com recorded nearly 19 million video streams, a new record, as viewers averaged 12.1 minutes per visit. The site’s Twitter widget, powered by Tinker.com, attracted more than 75,000 MJ-themed tweets
• ABC News Digital delivered a total of nearly 6 million live video streams on ABCNews.com and across its partner sites including Yahoo, Verizon, Charter, AT&T and RCN. Nearly 100,000 Facebook members joined the conversation about the memorial on the site
• CBS News says its live coverage of the Michael Jackson Memorial with Ustream delivered nearly 6 million streams across the CBSNews.com and its partner sites
•  E! Online attracted 939K unique visitors per Omniture, up +45% vs. the prior day and +35% compared to the prior four week average. The site also delivered 6.9MM page views, the highest daily page views mark since the day after the 2009 Oscars
• Mobile video delivery network Transpera reported that mobile video views surged 88% above video view norms for sites that carried Jackson content. There was a 108% increase in video views on sites with Jackson content during the June 25th announcement of Michael Jackson’s death
• Buzz surrounding Jackson’s July 7 public memorial (which drew 31.1 million TV viewers according to Nielsen) ranked as the third most-discussed topic online ever at more than 3 percent of conversations, per Nielsen. Nearly 15% of all online discussions about Jackson referenced either a broadcast or social network.

 
Content owners and service providers need to shift their focus from content protection to a two-pronged content monetization strategy, consisting of digital rights information management (DRM) and offering a better user experience than illegal P2P services, according to a new report from In-Stat. US broadband households download 14 billion videos each year and, according to the researcher, 85% are still illegal. Yet assuming that better DRM technology and a superior user interface can be introduced, legal video services would generate $1.4 billion in subscription revenue and $1.1 billion in advertising revenue.
 

 
Folks who are waiting for e-book readers to drop, note that Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle 2 by about 17% to $299. (Breaking the $300 threshold is a start – but it’s is not likely big enough of a price cut to attract a broad swath of buyers.)
 

 
Greg Ballard is stepping down as President and CEO of Glu Mobile, the company announced yesterday. Glu’s board of directors has retained Martha Josephson of Egon Zehnder, an executive recruiting firm, to help identify new candidates to lead the company. Mr. Ballard will remain in his role until his successor is in place.
 

 
Like them or not, reality shows are probably enhanced by web integrations more than any other television genre. Why? Because they provide a more interactive and intimate (O.K., voyeuristic) experience for the viewer, which is what the reality genre is all about. One of the first home runs hit by the networks online was when CBS began placing webcams inside the Big Brother house, attracting huge visits and engagement numbers at a time when many shows had nothing more than cast info. to offer. The network continues to fuel the fire this year adding two new Twitter pages, Big Brother Scoop and Big Brother Hoh and launching a redesigned minisite on CBS.com featuring a bigger, faster video player and a new Big Brother Fantasy League. Live streaming will again be offered from within the house via RealNetwork’ SuperPass and full length episodes and highlights will again be delivered across the CBS Audience network. Mobile will also play a larger role this year. Viewers can interact via SMS to influence the outcome of the show and FloTV subscribers can view live simulcasts episodes or try a new mobile game via the CBS Mobile Channel. After all, inquiring minds want to know.
 
Correction: It is the lovely Nichelle Nichols, the original Lt. Uhura, who is joining the cast of Hayden Black’s Sci-Fi romp The Cabonauts. Zoe Saldana is the actress who reprised the role for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
07.09.09

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