A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM WE tv

Cynopsis: DIGITAL

04/08/09

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, April 8, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. 

A day after the AP unveiled its intentions to take firmer control of its content online, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt advised newspaper publishers to embrace digital platforms as a way to serve the needs of today’s readers in a carefully scripted closing keynote address at the Newspaper Assn. of America‘s annual confab. His recommendations included taking advantage of mobile devices as a reading platform. Regarding the AP flap, Mr. Schmidt warned publishers to heed what the reader wants: “These are ultimately consumer businesses. If you piss off enough of them you will not have any more, or if you make them happy, you will grow them quickly.” An attorney for Google also responded to the AP’s vow to track down illegal content aggregators in its public policy blog yesterday, claiming that the new stance doesn’t pertain to Google’s longtime partnership with the news service. 

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Apple put an end to uniform pricing at the iTunes store yesterday, introducing three pricing tiers (.69, .99, $1.29) that boosts the price of many of the store’s most popular tracks by 30%. The shift comes after music labels pushed for years for the right to try and squeeze more money out of their hit songs. To help surgarcoat the price increase, Apple offered to upgrade all tracks purchased to its highest quality 256 kbps AAC encoding standard, including songs previously purchased.
 
Meanwhile Epic Records band The Fray – which currently has the #8 track on the iTunes Top Songs chart – became the latest to offer a $16.99 iTunes pass packaging extra content and new singles before they’re widely released. The Fray also launched a $1.99 “Live” App for the iPhone/iPod Touch, delivering interviews, videos and exclusive live video performances. There’s even a light show tool that responds to sounds picked up by the iPhone mike as well as some social functionality, enabling fans to upload pictures directly to thefray.net.
 
CBS Interactive unveiled the beta launch of CBS MoneyWatch.com, a new video-powered, consumer-focused financial news portal edited by financial planning expert Jill Schlesinger, who will serve as an advisor to many of the site’s video shows including Real People, Behind the Curtain and Tip of the Week. Video content is easily navigated accessing thematic tabs across the top of the site including Big Picture, Human Capital, Investing and Money Library.
 
Msnbc.com has launched The Elkhart Project, an ambitious editorial initiative that will tell the story of the nation’s economic crisis through the residents of Elkhart, Ind. Content includes text and video blog entries and social integrations via Newsvine, Twitter and Facebook.
 
ABC Family‘s Lincoln Heights will partner with Boys & Girls Clubs of America on a new social campaign to be integrated across all network platforms including on-air through a series storyline and PSAs, as well as on ABCFamily.com.
 

 
Online entertainment hub Boxee released a fresh update for Mac and Apple TV users incorporating recent test releases including Pandora and RadioTime, along with access (once again) to the Hulu homepage. Boxee also released a full API to the public allowing developers to build open source apps for the fast-growing platform.
 
Worldwide Biggies‘ motion capture mockumentary MoCap LLC will make its debut on Spike TV on April 24. Creator Chris DeLuca has cobbled together 6 30-minute episodes to air exclusively on Spike.
 
Anime distributor Viz Media has teamed up with Makena Technologies to launch a media store within its PC-only 3D social virtual world There.com. The store carries a variety of virtual apparel inspired by hit anime Bleach, which members can purchase to further customize the appearance of their avatars. Viz is holding a grand opening party on the site on April 9.

 
Interactive classified software provider Adicio signed a content syndication agreement with High Gear Media and its network of owned-and-operated websites targeting car-buying audiences. Adicio Motors clients will be able to access editorial content from car buying advice site TheCarConnection.com.
 

 
Skype‘s new iPhone app continues to spark debate over net neutrality issues and restrictive telco policies. In an open letter from to the FCC, consumer group Free Press argues that app, which attracted more than 1 million App Store downloads during its first two days in the U.S., is being unfairly discriminated against by AT&T, which has blocked the apps’ access to its 3G network making it useless without a WiFi connection.
 
Blockbuster warned in an SEC filing that the refinancing agreement it reached with its lenders last week contains certain conditions it may have trouble meeting. The company also reiterated that its fy 2009 forecast is lower for worldwide same-store revenues compared with Q4 2009 revenues.
 
A group of Kindle users are up in arms about exorbitant pricing from publishers at the Kindle store, reports Wired. The $9.99 boycott forum is trying to convince the e-book’s users to not buy any books priced at over $10, tagging more expensive books with a label until the price drops.
 

 
In the wake of the rumors that Google is making a pass to acquire Twitter, Hitwise dug in to determine what the top search terms are on the microblogging site. For the week ending March 21, searches for the vampire series “Twilight” were the most popular for the week overall fueled by the US release of the DVD, followed by ‘redco’ and ‘parkersburg’. Among the top 75 search terms on search.twitter.com, entertainment-related searches were among the most popular representing 29% of the share of searches. Celebrity personalities were the biggest sub-category within Entertainment being searched, with Paris Hilton and Oprah Winfrey topping the list.
 

                                                                                    
Leading iPhone audio new app Stitcher announced a group of new content partners who will provide free ad supported podcasts for the network. New content providers include Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal Radio Network, Fox News Radio, Air America Media,  POLITICO, IGN.com, TechCrunch, Quick & Dirty Tips and AOL Weblogs including Engadget, Switched, The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Joystiq. Stitcher also plans to release a BlackBerry version of the app in the coming weeks.
 
Yahoo Messenger released a free app for the iPhone enabling IMs, photo sharing, conversation archives and additional settings.
 
This one will be a terrific time suck for some: social gaming developer Zynga, maker of top iPhone game Scramble, has released a version of the Facebook game Mafia Wars for the iPhone. Build your nest egg by pulling off crimes and settling scores with rival gangs.
 
Trekkies looking for a bit of fun can try the new Star Trek Phaser app from Paramount Pictures just released to promote the premiere of the new Star Trek feature on May 8 (directed by Lost producer J.J. Abrams and featuring Heroes baddie Zachary Quinto as a young Spock.) Tap the screen to shoot at moving targets in either stun or kill modes or tilt the phone for a better look at the Phaser featured in the movie. Tap “about” to access a trio of widescreen trailers.
 
Capcom Mobile and Classic Media, Inc. announced that they will be bringing the popular “Where’s Waldo?” franchise to mobile devices in North America and Europe, beginning with a brain-training puzzle game launching this May.
 

 
Comcast Spotlight is integrating its sales and marketing teams placing its corporate marketing team under the oversight of VP/Marketing Kellie Grutko. Kellie reports to Hank Oster, Spotlight’s SVP and GM, and will now oversee strategic marketing, branding, promotions, communications and corporate creative services operations strategies.
 
NetShelter Technology Media has hired Michele Sweeney to the newly created position of Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. She will be based in NetShelter’s San Francisco office and oversee all aspects of company’s sales, marketing and client services operations, reporting to NetShelter’s Co-Founder and CEO Peyman Nilforoush.
 
Digital ad services firm AdGent 007 named Bill Blummer as VP of U.S. Sales. Bill joins AdGent 007 from CBS Digital Media, where he directed national online advertising sales. He will be based in AdGent 007’s New York office.
 
Monetization software firm Equilibrium appointed VP Engineering and Operations at IMVU Brett G. Durrett to its Board of Directors.
 

 
Yahoo unveiled a new socially-oriented Yahoo Music portal yesterday designed to add more personalization features as well as take advantage of new partnerships with a slew of online content distributors. An internal recommendation engine suggests videos, songs, albums and artists you might like. Pull up the artist page for jam band Phish, for instance, and you’ll see aggregated photos, videos and Rhapsody-powered music tracks as well as widgets that link to Phish channels on Last.fm, Pandora, Flickr, etc. The modules can be added and subtracted like the widgets on personal web browser site Netvibes. All in all, it’s a good first effort but there needs to be more done to keep the user within an operable environment; many of the widgets link to a service outside of Yahoo, which defeats the purpose of aggregating content from a stickiness (an ad revenue) perspective. Online Radio continues to be a hot category as visits increased by 27% in March to 61.8 million visitors according to ComScore. Yahoo Music was the #2 online music site in March, with 20.8 million unique visitors, behind only AOL Music with 21.9 million visitors.
 
Clarification: International Media & Entertainment Partners, LLC mentioned in yesterday’s Executive Moves section is not owned or associated with Discovery Communications.  It is an independent consultancy that happens to be comprised of former Discovery executives.
 
Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
04.08.09

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A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE