A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE WESTDOC

Cynopsis: DIGITAL

07/31/09

Good morning, it’s Friday, July 31, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.
 
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called a meeting with analysts on Thursday to begin to sell the Yahoo search partnership to Wall Street. He claimed that the market was undervaluing the deal and that Yahoo’s profits would likely expand by 70% due to improved relevance. However investors weren’t impressed, as the sell off of Yahoo shared continued. Yahoo shares dropped another 3% in value after Wednesday’s 12% decline.

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Michael Gladis, the pipe-smoking bohemian ad man on Mad Men, is starring in the new sci-fi/thriller web series “The Captive,” premiering Aug. 1 as part of Sundance Channel‘s new Asia Extreme minisite. Created by Stuart Hynson Culpepper and Karin Diann Williams, the 12-episode series is a wrong man yarn in which the young protagonist attempts to escape captivity with the help of a seductive Trustee. (The show won the 2008 New York Television Festival Award for Best Web Series Pilot.) Sundance Channel is also offering a sneak peak its late night Asia Extreme programming block next month, presenting genre pics such as Johnnie To’s Triad Election and Benny Chan’s Divergence on free VOD throughout August. Ten of the 12 films will be U.S. television premieres.
 
Discovery’s environmentally themed Planet Green brand will launch four short-form series to premiere this fall on PlanetGreen.com with subsequent airings on its linear 24-hour television channel:

• City Shorts (13 x :90 sec.) from Kontentreal explores how large urban centers utilize technology to improve lives
• Fun Little Movies’ Bea Wildered (6 x :90 sec.) is a fish out of water tale about sustainable living
• Twigsy (10 x :90 sec.) is an animated series about doing the right thing from Ann Marie Fleming
• The Elementalists (13 x :90 sec.) also from Kontentreal, profiles folks doing their part to make a difference in preservation

 
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced a deal with Montreal-based game studio Ludia to create and distribute videogames based on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, the reality hits from Warner Horizon Television created by Mike Fleiss. The worldwide licensing and distribution arrangement will launch the videogames across multiple platforms following the conclusion of The Bachelor’s 14th season in 2010 on ABC.
 

 
London-based web content platform Babelgum announced an exclusive deal with comedic web portal Funny or Die to syndicate Funny or Die videos to multiple mobile platforms. Plans include integrating Funny or Die videos in current and future Babelgum applications and developing a new stand alone iPhone app. Babelgum is also making room on its site for Funny or Die videos within its comedy channel.
 
Call for Content: Comedians – it’s time once again to put a DVD together of your best original stuff to be considered for the 5th annual Andy Kaufman Award Competition. This year’s Nov. 3 ceremony at Caroline’s on Broadway in New York City celebrates the 25th anniversary of Andy’s death. Entries will be qualified and evaluated by a panel of industry professionals. The deadline for entries is October 2, 2009.
 

 
Tivo, which told a federal judge this week it seeking nearly $1 billion in damages in its long running tussle with Dish, released a look at its Pure Program Ratings for the month of May – an analysis of Tivo subscriber viewership combining live and timeshifted ratings without the commercials. (The idea is to subtract the viewing seconds that occurred during FF, thereby arriving at the true rating of a show for commercial purposes. The sample comes from Tivo’s 250,000 Stop||Watch rated homes.) Tivo says that traditionally top rated shows are not necessarily the ones that the have the most commercials viewed. May’s highest rated program for total viewing – the episode of Grey’s Anatomy which aired on May 14, only placed one commercial in the Top 10 Viewed Commercials (Total Viewing) and three in the Top 10 Viewed Commercials (Timeshifted).
 
Top Commercials – Time Shifted Viewing
Brand                              Program                               Date     Rating
Night at the Museum     House (Fox)                             Apr 27    6.3
Subway                       Desperate Housewives (ABC)    May 3     6.3
Taking of Pelham 123     Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)              May 14   6.3
Kohl’s                          Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)              May 14   6.1
Shick Quattro               House (Fox)                            Apr 27     6.0
Land of the Lost           House (Fox)                            May 11    5.8
Taken – Series             House (Fox)                            May 11    5.8
The Hangover              House (Fox)                            May 11    5.8
The Proposal               Desperate Housewives (ABC)    May 17    5.8
Sprint PCS                  30 Rock (NBC)                         May 14    5.7
Source: Tivo Stop||Watch
 

 
Sony‘s earnings fell precipitously but the company made out better than expected last quarter, posting a net loss of 37 billion yen ($390 million), beating out projections that were expecting over 100 billion yen in losses. Sony blamed a lack of compelling PS3 titles for the poor performance of its video gaming unit, which saw sales decline by 48%. The company began a program to slash 16,000 jobs and shutter about 10% of its manufacturing plants earlier this year.
 
Even Nintendo, maker of the incredibly popular Wii game console, is getting squeezed by the recession, reporting a 61% decline in quarterly profit from a year ago. The company sold 2.23 million Wii’s during the quarter vs. 5.17 million during the same period last year.
 
Reed Elsevier announced plans to sell nearly all of its U.S. trade magazines and websites, including Broadcasting & Cable and Publishers Weekly (although it will keep Variety.) U.S. CEO Tad Smith resigned his post on the news.
 

 
Some 12% of the overall population surveyed bought virtual goods in the last 12 months and spent an average of $30 each on digital weapons, outfits and other trifles, according to new report from Frank N. Magid Associates. Revenue from virtual goods now stands between $200-$250 million in the U.S. alone, according to multiple estimates. Strategy Analytics reported in May that microtransactions are expected to grow from slightly over $1 billion today worldwide to $17.3 billion in 2015.
 
Mobile Media consumers are a multitasking, digitally savvy breed that relies on its handset for a variety of needs, according to a new study commissioned by Transpera and conducted by InsightExpress. Power mobile video users not only rely on their device but they spend more time on their mobile than they do on their computer. In fact 62% of mobile video users surveyed (60% of whom are male) said they use their mobile phone more than they use a computer to browse the internet, vs. just 9% of the non-mobile video viewers. Mobile users who watch mobile video at least once a week report their media preferences and behaviors, as follows:

• 78% rely on their mobile phone for up-to-the-minute information, vs. only 19% of those who never viewed mobile video. Favorite genres include news, sports and information services
• 71% prefer to receive information via mobile internet, vs. just 13% of those who don’t view mobile video 
• 58% get more of their news from the mobile phone than any other source, vs. only 10% of those who have never viewed mobile video
• 50% spend more time away from computers than in front of them, vs. the reported 21% of those not watching mobile video

 
Ever the tech savvy league, MLB Advanced Media is baking in Twitter streams into its MLB.tv live streaming video product. The stream, which appears to the left of the video player, picks up tweets from fans who use MLB team names in their hash tags.
 
TechPad launched a Twitter contest to give away a bunch of free gear to promote its creepy new iMEvil iPhone app. (Goodies include the Vuzix AV310 Widescreen movie goggles that work with all iPhones and iTouch and multiple packs of iPhone games.
 

 
Andrew Bradway has joined video entertainment portal Metacafe as Regional Sales Manager reaching out to ad agencies and Fortune 1000 companies, to be based in the company’s New York City office. Andrew most recently served as the sales director for AOL Video.
 
Publishers Clearing House Online Network announced the appointment of Andrew Zucker as the company’s new Chief Revenue Officer responsible for advertising and sponsorship opportunities. He will be based in Port Washington, NY.
 

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When LG15 creators Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried launched their social entertainment company EQAL they looked around for an audience management software template on which to could build their interactive shows. But sometime when you want something done you’ve got to do it yourself. EQAL ended up building a system from scratch for shows like Harper’s Globe and Level 26 and now they’re offering it up as a white label solution to web producers and personalities looking to cobble together audiences on the web. (There are already hosted solutions like Ning out there, but this seems to be the first aimed at web series creators.) Miles describes Umbrella, now in private beta, as a hosted software app that does all the heavy lifting for producers trying to gain ownership of their audience online. Even folks who have been lucky enough to hook up with a production outfit (the ones that have not folded, that is) would do well to develop their own branded site, he says. The customizable template offers a variety of layouts and looks, works with standard media players and handles integration with the leading social networking platforms – the lighter fluid when trying to spark an audience online. Producers who are accepted for the beta trial will get to use the platform for free and build a single hosted site but EQAL plans to charge a monthly subscription fee for the service upon launch.

Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
07.31.09

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A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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JOB OPENING: PR MGR/ SR.MGR /Classic Media/NYC: 5-7 yrs exp in PR, esp. ent/media w/consumer focus; Develop publicity strategies, Generate positive brand visibility, Execute PR plans, Liase w/creators; apply to: [email protected] (8/5)

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FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: TV One has internship opportunities for undergraduate school credit only- locations in NY, MD, LA and IL. Visit us at www.tvoneonline.com for details (8/4)

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SITUATION WANTED: PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/NYC BASED: 10yrs. EXP in films and reality TV. Available immediately. Contact: [email protected]. … LINKS: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/289517/A-Miami-Tail/overview (8/4)

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SITUATION WANTED: Seasoned MARKETING RSRCH PROFESSIONAL seeks freelance or PT/FT opportunities. Specialized in syndicated and primary research. Experience in working with multicultural and kids’ markets. [email protected] (8/1)

SITUATION WANTED: 5 PRIME TIME EMMYS/ DOC. PROD, DIR., WRITER in L.A. Credits: National Geo, PBS, Discovery, History CH, TLC and MSNBC. Contact email: [email protected] (8/1)

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