A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM HISTORY

Cynopsis: DIGITAL

08/14/09

Good morning, it’s Friday, August 14, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.
 
Sony took an important step toward opening up the proprietary world of digital books. By the end of the year, the e-Reader maker will convert its eBook store to the industry standard EPUB format, an open standard created by a group of large publishers including HarperCollins and Random House. Sony also announced it will get rid of its proprietary anticopying software, replacing it with an Adobe solution that restricts sharing and copying. Following the change, books bought on the Sony store can be read on a variety of devices – rather than just Sony products.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE WESTDOC

 
The red hot Bronx bombers are expanding their broadband presence. The Yankees’ YES Network reached an agreement with Verizon’s FiOS TV and broadband service, offering access to games on television or online for $29.95 for the rest of the season or $19.95 for a 30-day span. New York became the first MLB team to offer live streaming of its games within its home market last month when YES partnered with Cablevision’s Optimum online service.
 
The AP is planning to restrict the distribution of some of its online news content to its partners in an effort to stem the flow of “hypersyndication” thought to drive down its value, reports Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab. The lab published a document via Scribd yesterday detailing the AP’s plans.
 
Gannett Digital Media Network struck a partnership with history website Footnote.com to launch HistoryBeat.com, a site combining social networking with archival photos and original newspaper coverage of historical events. The moon landing and Woodstock kick off the project.
 
ABC has discovered a new way to package its reruns. The network is rerunning the last 5 episodes of Ugly Betty enhanced with on-screen facts – text snippets on the lower third of the screen that clue viewers in to the backstory. The enhanced episodes begin tonight with a re-airing of Rabbit Test.
 
If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s a must. South Park Digital Studios, a joint venture between Matt Stone,Trey Parker and Comedy Central, is featuring the crudely cut, alien-themed original pilot episode of South Park with bonus crew commentary. (For the record, this is the first episode Matt & Trey put together for the network; the show was actually born when the two Univ. of Colorado students made the Spirit of Christmas video Christmas card for a Fox executive, featuring a death match between Jesus and Santa.)
 

 
Seesmic Desktop, one of the leading Twitter desktop client interfaces with over 2 million downloads, released a series of updates to its interface this week, including:

• Inline previews for select links including YouTube and Google Maps displays, allowing users to review picture links via twitpic and other tools
• International launches in French and Chinese
• New “favorites” section added to the timeline column

 
Perez Hilton is making hay out of the splash he made at the Miss USA pageant. The celebrity blogger has launched a new site Coco Perez, focusing on gossip of the fashion world. Gap is a charter sponsor.
 
The interactive Kyte video platform is being used to power ESPN’s Elite 11 video series and virtual gaming contest.
 

 
Advertising on premium websites, as apposed to web portals, is a more effective tool for advertisers, according to a new study released by the Online Publishers Association. Ads on content sites scored higher in raising brand awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent by large margins. Online ad awareness, measuring whether or not consumers remember seeing a brand seen online during the past 30 days, was 21% greater on content sites than on portals, and a full 50% greater than on ad networks. Video ads on content sites represented by OPA members had the greatest impact: Purchase intent was 163% higher than overall MarketNorms and 93% more than portals.
 

 
Shareholders of video compression software company On2 have filed suit against Google, complaining that the $106.5 million purchase price Google has agreed to pay undervalues the company. 
 
After attempts to reach an agreement failed, Coinstar’s Redbox DVD kiosk retailer filed suit against 20th Century Fox Films over the right to offer the studio’s movies upon initial release. The studio had asked Redbox to wait at least 30 days after a movie’s release before distributing them via some 15,000 outlets. Universal Pictures has set a 45-day delay for its releases before making them available to Redbox. The chain says it is on pace to rent its 500,000^th DVD this weekend.
 

 
Michael Jackson’s death has solidified his dominance on Nielsen SoundScan‘s annual top download chart spanning the decades of the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s. Jackson the solo artist or The Jackson 5 accounted for 5 of the top 6 downloaded tracks of the 70’s, while Michael himself had 7 hits in the top 10 downloads of the 1980’s, through July 26. (Journey’ “Don’t Stop Believin,” was actually the top 80’s download this year.)
 
Overall Online Video Usage (U.S.)
                                         Jul-09     Y over Y  M over M
Unique Viewers (000)       135,977      14.2%     1.2%   
Total Streams (000)     11,200,093     31.4%     11.1%   
Streams per Viewer                82.4     15.1%      9.7%   
Time per Viewer (min)          211.6      42.2%    12.1%   
Source: Nielsen VideoCensus, includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising
 
Top Online Brands ranked by Video Streams for July 2009 (U.S.)
Video Brand                                      Total      Unique 
                                                     Streams   Viewers
                                                       (000)        (000) 
YouTube                                        7,010,772  104,541
Hulu                                                 383,779   10,299 
Yahoo!                                              265,570   29,948 
MSN/WindowsLive/Bing                      187,994   17,790 
Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network  179,666     7,251 
Turner Sports and Entertainment         155,075     7,930 
Fox Interactive Media                         151,622    14,692 
MTV Networks Music                           119,101     6,887 
CNN Digital Network                           109,221   11,680 
Blinkx                                                 86,398        268  
Source: Nielsen VideoCensus, Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising
 

 
Microsoft set a street date of Sept. 15 for the release of the much-anticipated Zune HD gadget (currently available at Amazon.com for pre-order.) The player, complete with a touchscreen and full web browsing capabilities, will synch with users’ Xbox LIVE accounts to stream HD video content including movies, TV shows, podcasts, games and purchased music tracks. The 16GB model is priced at $220 and the 32GB model costs $290.
 
TVGuide.com is burnishing its social credentials with a new iGoogle gadget that leverages Google’s OpenSocial program. The mini app, for use on the customizable iGoogle start-up page, provides localized TV listings and breaking celebrity news. It is just the first of a series of planned social integrations for the site.
 

 
Cablevision Systems Corp. hired former Reed Business CEO Tad Smith as President of Local Media, a new division that will oversee Newsday, News 12 Networks and other interactive divisions currently in the works. He reports to COO Tom Rutledge.
 
Crown Media Holdings, Inc., owner and operator of Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, has named Mark J. Kern to the position of SVP, Communications & Media Relations. Mark reports to William J. Abbott, President and CEO of the group.
 
Wayne Kinch has joined the Euro RSCG Discovery North American agency network as Affiliate Sales Leader for American Student List, a new position. He will be based in Mineola, N.Y., and will oversee ASL new business efforts and strategic partnerships, reporting to Bruce Wilkinson, SVP of Euro RSCG Discovery.
 

 
Those who don’t frequent virtual worlds may scoff at the whole avatar thing. (They may want to scream, “get a first life before you start spending so much energy on your second one.”) Yet some of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley have been anticipating the rise of an entire economy around virtual goods and services. Revenues are expected to reach $621 million in the U.S. this year, according to a Piper Jaffray report cited by eMarketer yesterday. By 2013, the category will generate a cool $2.46 billion. Even Facebook is getting into the act. The social network is testing its own universal currency and celebrity Britney Spears is out in front of the trend, hawking virtual gifts on her Facebook page. For 20 credits, the equivalent of $2, you can send one of 5 limited edition icons to a friend including a birthday cake or a gay rights balloon. (Supposedly there will only be 500,000 of each sold.) Meanwhile, Second Life reports a healthy virtual economy of its own; during Q2 virtual trading activity reached an all time high, generating $29 million while overall transactions reached a total of $144 million. Second Life is doing its best legitimize its fake economy. The site began clamping down on the use of automated “bots” on the site, used to artificially inflate inworld traffic figures. (Click here for more details.) In short, there’s gold in those zeros and ones if users and advertisers can be convinced all this is real.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
08.14.09

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