Friday, July 11th, 2008

Cynopsis: DIGITAL

07/11/08

Good morning, it’s Friday, July 11, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

The general consensus among reviewers is that there are not many differences between the first IPhone and the new 3G model coming out today at 8 a.m. But it’s a lot faster (up to 6 times faster depending on where you live,) enabling higher quality video, richer media and better audio. Developers are ready with more than 500 native applications available at the App Store, some for free, most going for between $1-$10. And it’s quite a bit easier on the pocket book ($199 for 8GB model with a 2 year contract) for new customers and existing AT&T customers who qualify for an upgrade. And don’t forget MobileMe, new software enabling the IPhone to sync with corporate email and calendar systems such as Microsoft Exchange 2007 and ActiveSync. O.K. – so there’s a lot that’s new. If you plan to buy one don’t underestimate the demand for these suckers. Go early to your neighborhood Apple Store or directly-owned AT&T outlet (authorized resellers don’t have them.) Apple has put together a nice primer on what to bring and how to get your data ready to sync. Oh, and good news for the 6 million folks out there who already own an iPhone (2.3 million in the U.S.):  many of the new (non GPS-enabled) apps as well as the “iPhone 2.0” operating system will work just fine on the older models. 
 

~ MULTIPLATFORM CONTENT NEWS ~

 
Top online gaming portal Yahoo! Games has put together a huge collection of free ad-supported online games from many of the top casual game publishers, aiming to offer more than 400 titles by year end. Start ups Double Fusion and NeoEdge, led by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, will sell pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll video ads to the games. NeoEdge allows ads to be embedded within games without invading the source code, simplifying the ad insertion process significantly.
 
Endemol USA is getting ready to launch a new branded entertainment division focusing on television and digital media, per THR. It will be run by Jon Vlassopulos who is newly promoted to SVP/Digital Media and Branded Entertainment.
 
Heroes
fanboys (and girls) who are missing the show can get wet their whistle beginning Monday on NBC.com with a new trilogy of webisodes introducing a brand new character: ordinary mailman with super powers Echo De Mille. New webisodes premiere each Monday this month.
 
Bravo has an iPhone app ready to provide recipes sourced from Top Chef. Users can browse by key ingredients or by specific episodes to find the recipes they want, bookmark them for a later date then access shopping lists at the supermarket.
 

~ INNOVATORS & START-UPS ~

 
Call for Auditions: People.com is a holding a contest on YouTube sponsored by Revlon in search of a cub Red Carpet reporter to cover the Emmy Awards for the site. Interview your friends or family on camera to demonstrate if you have what it takes. Limit your promo reels to 2-4 minutes and get them in by July 21.
 

~ GADGETS & APPS ~

 
iTunes version 7.7, a.k.a. the App Store, is now operational, containing about 500 new iPhone Apps in the areas of Business, Education, Entertainment, Finance, Games, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Music, Navigation, News, Photography, Productivity, Reference, Social Networking, Sports, Travel, Utilities and Weather. Here’s a little preview of some of the ones that are generating buzz. Many utilize the iPhone 3G’s GPS capabilities. Look back here in the coming weeks for more in depth analysis of what’s being developed for the platform.

  • Social networking app Loopt lets you know where in the world your friends are this minute
  • Limbo also tracks and finds friends, based on what activity they’re engaged in
  • Photobucket enables one-click photo sharing
  • Twitterrific also integrates geo targeting to integrate location with “tweets”
  • Remote allows you to use your iPhone or IPod touch as remote control for iTunes & AppleTV
  • Both MySpace and Facebook are ready with free apps to help users keep their profiles up to date
  • Sega‘s Super Monkey Ball game looks like a gas

 

~ TECHNOLOGY DEALS, MERGERS AND SKIRMISHES ~

 
Comcast announced it is working together with Vonage, archrival in its Voice-over-IP phone business, to address network management practices, hopefully improving data flow and voice quality for Vonage users connecting to the net using Comcast’s high-speed internet product.
 
Viacom
issued a statement this week claiming it never asked for nor does it have any intention of obtaining personally identifiable information of YouTube users. It says all the personal info will be scrubbed from the data before being transferred to Viacom.
 

~ DIGITAL ADVERTISING ~

 
Turner and Yahoo have struck a broad online advertising alliance ceding management of the NBA, Golf and Nascar pages of Yahoo! Sports to Turner Interactive. Additionally, Yahoo! Sports will gain access to basketball, golf and NASCAR content from NBA.com, PGATOUR.com, PGA.com and NASCAR.com, league sites managed by Turner. Turner will also gain access to some of Yahoo’s latest targeting technologies for use on its sites.


~ TRENDS, RESEARCH, ETC.  ~

 
iPhone relevant data points, courtesy of Nielsen Mobile:
Demographics:

67% of US iPhone users are male (compared to 48% of all mobile subs)
55% of iPhone owners are under 35 (compared to 34% of all mobile subs)
63% of iPhone users earn above $75k (compared to 38% of all mobile subscribers)
24% of iPhone owners are Hispanic
9.7% of streaming video users and 4.9% of mobile internet users own an iPhone

Popular Features/Media Consumption Habits:

75% use the phones MP3 player
68% use the Wi-Fi functionality of the phone
76% send e-mails over their phone
37% of iPhone users watch video on their phone (10X more than ave. mobile sub)
82% access the internet (5X more than ave. mobile sub)
17% stream music over their phone (7X more than ave. mobile sub)
20% play online games on their phone (9X more than ave. mobile sub)

Smartphone Market Share:
      HTC                         25.2%
      Research in Motion    23.4%
      Palm                        19.3%
      Apple                       11.6%
Source: Nielsen Mobile
 

~ EXECUTIVE MOVES ~

 
Former NBCU marketing executive Kenneth R. Gaffeo joined Gannett’s rich media technology solutions company PointRoll subsidiary as COO. He will oversee all marketing and communications, reporting Jason Tafler, CEO.
 
SN Digital
, the interactive division of Scripps Networks, hired Jillian St. Charles as VP & Site Director for FineLiving.com. Jillian was most recently Online Director of Redbookmag.com.
 
The Consumer Electronics Association lined up Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel and John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco to speak at the 2009 International CEA conference as a part of the second annual Technology and Emerging Countries Program.
 
Rynda Laurel
was upped to VP/Operations for online marketing agency Jetset Studios. She will be based in Los Angeles and continue to report to CEO Russell Scott and Patrick Young, co-founder and President.
 
Out-of-home ad agency Titan Worldwide appointed former Daily News Publisher Shareef Dajani to serve as Sales Manager in its Chicago office, which serves the Chicago Transit Authority.
 


~ WEBSITE OF THE DAY ~

 
Watercooler is a pure web 2.0 application creator focused on forming social networking communities around fans of TV shows and sports teams. The Mountain View, CA-based start-up has developed hundreds of apps reaching fans of over 200 shows on Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, MySpace and hi5, offering discussion threads, trivia and now video through a new partnership with Hulu. Watercooler users have streamed more than 50,000 full-length episodes since the feature launched 2 weeks ago, according to CEO Kevin Chou. (Past episodes of some 25 NBC & Fox shows are available.) The company has been hovering around profitability, he says, by integrating sponsorships into games or other features as well as offering transactional features such as selling tickets to events or DVD box sets of entire seasons of shows. As the widget economy develops the ability to tap into these communities forming around shows should prove to be invaluable to networks, as they develop new shows and try to find appropriate audiences for them. So far Watercooler’s users skew quite young and female. (90% of the Grey’s Anatomy app community is female, averaging 22 years of age.) Cognizant of the fact that older users don’t hang out on Facebook, the company is working on launching a web portal to allow communities to build around the site itself.

Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
07.11.08

Cynopsis Digital Ad Sales:
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Classifieds – Trish Pihonak- 203-926-9878 / [email protected]

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A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CYNOPSIS MEDIA: TOP TIER



What would a year be without something new from Cyn opsis? Introducing …

Cynopsis Media: Top Tier
Executive Search Division

High level executive search, candidates fully screened and vetted, meeting precisely your criteria.

For more information, call Trish Pihonak 203.926.9878
if you’re looking to make an executive change, or are looking for a change of scenery yourself.
[email protected]
www.cynopsis.com/toptier .



Cyn opsis CLASSIFIEDSFor More classifieds, visit the Cynopsis.com classifieds page here    .


JOB OPENING: MGR SALES SRVCS/Fuse/NY: Resp for managing Nat’l inventory for Sales. Oversee Stewardship process. Create Sales selling schedules, Inv reporting and analysis. Gabriel, a plus. Rez to: [email protected] “MSS” in sub (7/18)

JOB OPENING: RESEARCH MGR/NYC/GSN, the Network for Games: Resp incl. recurring & ad hoc TV & online reports for ad sales. 5 yrs research exp in cable TV. BA/BS. Resume/Cover: [email protected] (7/18)

JOB OPENING: MEDIA BUSINESS ANALYSTS/(2)/ NYC: Exp. w/Digital Asset Mgmt. systems required. Process modeling exp. required. Use case exp. a plus. Apply to: [email protected] (7/18)

JOB OPENING: DIR PRINT DESIGN/Fuse/NY: Lead dev & design for all print needs. Must be prof in Mac OSX, Avid, Final Cut Pro, Combustion, HD Camera, Green screen shooting and Flash. Rez to: [email protected] “DPS” in sub (7/18)

JOB OPENING: ASST TO PRESIDENT/THE HOTEL NETWORKS NY: Key position w/ growing co. Strong verbal/written comm & PC skills. Word, Excel, PPT. Detailed & orgnzd, self starter, multi tasker; Resume to: [email protected] (7/17)

JOB OPENING: BOOKKEEPER (PT)/New York TV Production Company: Knowledge of QuickBooks for MAC. Accounts payable, receivable, Payroll. Please have references and good attitude. Resume to [email protected] (7/17)

JOB OPENING: INTERNATIONAL CORD/CBS TV Network/NY: Maintain & track programs thru video facility. 2+ yrs customer service exper at a TV Distribution/Post Prod/Editing facility. Apply: www.CBSCorporation.com/careers (Req #2526) (7/17)

JOB OPENING: VIDEO PRODUCER (Freelance)/Lifetime Networks (LA): Produce web videos from existing and original content. 5+ yrs producing exp., including web content. Apply to: [email protected] (7/17)

JOB OPENING: ADMIN AFFIL MARKETING/SANTA MONICA/GSN, The Network for Games: Report to VP Affil Mark. 2+ yrs. exp in Cable TV. BA/BS degree in related field. Send Res/Cov Letter: [email protected] (7/16)

JOB OPENING: FREELANCE COORD/AETN/NY: Post-Prod material, rsrch, maint. asset dbase. Create comp. reels and digi files for int’l dist. using FCP. Dub/ship/track. Process deliverables. On-air supp. Apply: [email protected] (7/16)

JOB OPENING: DIR PROMO MKTG/NY/AETN: Develop & execute ad sales & mktg partnership in digital media, strong project mgt needed, exp in promo mktg req’d. Apply: www.aetn.com (7/16)

JOB OPENING: VP, RESEARCH/NBC UNIVERSAL/NY: Oversee daily operations of NY sales research office. Manage team in analyses, reporting and sales presentations. 8 yrs TV research exp req. www.nbcjobs.com job# 831379 (7/16)

JOB OPENING: AD SALES RSCH MGR, NAT’L TV NTWRK: 4-5 yrs exp brdcst or cable media rsrch. Exp w/ Galaxy/NPower/Mkt Brks. Knwlg of MRIs, AdViews, Star Trak a +. Strong comm. skills & team player a must. Res: [email protected] (7/16)

JOB OPENING: MANAGER, LISTINGS EDITOR/ABC Burbank: BA/BS, 3yrs Publicity listings, traffic, strong attention to detail, Word, Excel, apply at www.disneycareers.com (req 169058) (7/15)

JOB OPENING: SR RESEARCH ANALYST/Scripps/Knox TN/in support of interactive 4 all Scripps sites. to apply: Direct Link or www.scrippsnetworks.com (7/15)

JOB OPENING: MGR, AD SALES RSCH/DISCOVERY/NY: Disc./Military: Monitor demographic performance, manage Nielsen analyses, write sales suppt materials/presentations. 7+yrs exp media research. Apply: www.discovery.com #8108 (7/12)

JOB OPENING: MGR, MKTG/PROMOTIONS/ABC Daytime/SOAPnet/LA: Manage consumer mktg initiatives; conceive promotions/pitch, manage events; multi-platform thinker; BA/BS, 3+ yrs exp. Apply www.disneycareers.com Req #168002 (7/12)

JOB OPENING: MGR, PRICING & PLANNING/G4, Comcast Ntwrks/NY: 4+ yrs exp, Resp for managing sales processes, stewardship, rev analysis and overseeing inventory, DealMaker exp a plus. EEO/AA/Drug Free Apply www.comcast.com 69371BR (7/12)

JOB OPENING: PUBLICIST/MANAGER/GSN SM:Energetic & creative a must with digital media design exp for our fast-paced, high-pressured ent publicity department. Email resume and salary requirements to [email protected] (7/12)

SPRING AND SUMMER INTERNSHIPS – These positions are for credit only – nobody gets paid here. They are posted for free, and students work for school credit only. For more information on the specs for posting an Internship ad, email Trish at [email protected] .

SITUATION WANTED ADS, POSTED BY THOSE LOOKING TO BE HIRED … Interested in posting your Video Resume? Contact [email protected] for more information ….

SITUATION WANTED: STORY/FIELD PROD: Non-fiction magician. Reality, Docusoap, docs, ent., talk; 3 Emmy Noms; 12+ years; LA Based; Will travel. [email protected] (7/12)

E-mail [email protected] for rates and specs for Job Openings.

Interested in posting your Video Resume? Contact [email protected] for more information ….

Are you looking for a job? Post your Situation Wanted Ad here — Email [email protected] for specs.

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