Cynopsis: DIGITAL

06/13/08

Good morning, it’s Friday, June 13, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.
 
Like a divorcing couple giving up after trying once last time to work things out, Yahoo announced it has ended talks with Microsoft regarding a sale, citing a meeting on June 8th in which Microsoft claimed it was no longer interested in pursuing the portal. As its share prices tumbled on the news, Yahoo announced a search partnership with Google enabling it to run ads provided by Google AdSense alongside its own search results or on non-search Yahoo web properties. Yahoo says the deal should yield $250-$450 million in the first year and as much as $800/year longer term. At that rate it will take about 15 years to make up for the $12 billion in lost value to shareholders when it first said no to Microsoft at $31/share, but who’s counting?
 

 
The Warner Bros. Television Group unveiled the next step in its digital content strategy, announcing ad-supported broadband video channels for TheWB.com and KidsWB.com to be distributed on a range of outlets from September including DailyMotion, Veoh, Joost, Sling Media and Tivo. The channels give a broader launching pad for its planned original online series beginning with Sorority Forever currently in the works.
 
Comcast’s video site Fancast.com is featuring all 29 episodes of David Lynch’s cult favorite Twin Peaks, and starting Monday Lara Flynn Boyle will write a week-long blog answering questions about her experiences on that show as well as on David E. Kelley’s The Practice. Twin Peaks has enjoyed 9 lives on various channels and platforms over the years, including ABC, Bravo, NBCU’s Chiller and CBS.com.  More Friday the 13th viewing on Fancast includes Night Gallery and The Crow: A Stairway to Heaven.
 
A wave of PBS programs are making their way to Hulu including Nova, Wired Science and Scientific American Frontiers, reports The New York Times, this time with 30-second pre-rolls.
 

 
AOL‘s video search engine site Truveo completed a major overhaul improving the interface, speeding up loading time and expanding sharing features. Truveo, which is now in 17 countries, also recently launched localized ranking algorithms that vary based on relevancy to the country’s users.
 
Seattle-based WidgetBucks, an ad network for retail and shopping related online widgets, secured $10 million in series B financing led by Draper Fisher Jurveton. WidgetBucks claims it served ad widgets to 100 million unique visitors in May 2008 across more than 20,000 publishers.
 

 
A massive new online business is scheduled to launch on July 11: Apple’s App Store – an online hub for third party iPhone and iPod Touch applications. Beginning later this month, developers will begin to upload apps to the store accessible by iPhone users or to a new section of the iTunes Store, sharing revenue from app sales with Apple in a 70/30 split. (These will be in addition to the 1,700-odd apps already developed for the iPhone’s Safari web browser. The new 3G, GPS-enabled iPhone should open up a world of possibilities for clever developers in the realms of gaming, entertainment and enterprise applications.
 
The AOL Radio app for the iPhone won for Best Entertainment Application at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference this week, providing users free access to over 350 online radio stations (including 150 local CBS radio stations) and more than 200 AOL Radio channels. Other iPhone App winners:
 
Best iPhone Game:                               Enigmo by Pangea Software
Best iPhone Social Networking App:       Twitterrific by the Icon Factory
Best iPhone Productivity App:                OmniFocus by the Omni Group 
Best iPhone Healthcare & Fitness App:   MIM from MIMVista
 

 
The SEC cleared the way for Scripps Networks Interactive to become a separate entity from The E.W. Scripps Co. The Scripps board of directors initially authorized the split back in October 2007, separating its web properties (including shopping services Shopzilla & uSwitch as well as licensing company United Media) from its cable networks, broadcast stations and newspapers.
 
Several major consumer electronics and information technology companies have signed binding memorandums of understanding on tru2way technology with the top 6 U.S. MSO’s, including Panasonic, Samsung, Sony Electronics, ADB, Digeo, and Intel. The chip maker plans to build a chip that will support a variety of tru2way devices, including DTVs, set-top-boxes and DVRs.
 
ESPN announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Student Sports, Inc., a premier high school-focused digital media and event production company based in Torrance, Calif. 

 
eBay decided to pull the plug on its Online Media Exchange, designed to help media buyers place cable and radio station buys. The online system struggled since the Cable Advertising Bureau pulled out of a trial in March of 2007, according to Adweek.
 
Catalyst:SF has launched  a media buying service to develop and execute programs with a number of online ad exchanges including AdBrite, Contextweb’s ADSDAQ and Right Media to help streamline the online buying process.
 
The IAB released a document providing digital video in-stream ad metrics definitions, specifying how impressions should be recorded around 4 formats: Linear Video Ads With or Without Companion Ads, Linear Video Interactive Ads, Non-linear Overlay Ads and Non-linear Non-Overlay Ads.
 

 
Top 10 Search Providers for April 2008, Ranked by Searches (U.S.)
Provider                     Searches (000)    YOY Growth   Share of Searches
1. Google                     5,109,444            35.4%            62.0%
2. Yahoo!                     1,446,410            -3.4%             17.5%
3. MSN/Windows Live       796,038           30.0%               9.7%
4. AOL                             352,039           -5.1%               4.3%
5. Ask.com                       171,545           35.8%              2.1%
6. My Web                          57,057          -16.0%             0.7%
7. Comcast                         46,156           31.0%             0.6%
8. AT&T Worldnet                28,059          200.9%            0.3%
9. NexTag                           21,996            25.4%            0.3%
10.My Way                          16,742          -37.6%          0.2%
Source: Nielsen Online, MegaView Search
 

New online ad firm AdGent appointed several prominent business and interactive marketing executives to its global advisory board. Members include Taek Kwon, Operating Partner of private equity firm TPG Growth; Eric Ludwig, SVP/Finance and interim CFO of mobile game publisher Glu Mobile Rob Norman, Global CEO of interactive media buyer GroupM Interaction and Greg Stuart, former CEO of the IAB.
 

 
An interesting debate this week at OnHollywood this week centered on whether or not YouTube has gotten too big for its own good. It has always been the first place to turn to when looking for a clip, but copyright issues are beginning to turn savvy users to other outlets. Seeqpod is one place some 6 million monthly uniques are turning to. It’s crawlers scour the net for newly uploaded “playable search” – that includes music, video or slide presentations, basically anything with a play button. It’s simple, elegant interface allows you to specify which medium you’d like to search, then create shareable playlists around what you find. SeeqPod founder and CEO Kasian Franks says music has driven much of the site’s early traffic and that 5 labels including Warner Music have already initiated legal proceedings against the company. But he thinks the technology will prove invaluable to content companies because it’s so good at identifying the here and now of what people are posting, sharing and talking about. SeeqPod’s next project is to develop contextually relevant ads and retail applications to help artists monetize their web traffic.
 
Correction: MojoHD’s List of gadgets and ecard for Dads initiated from a site called Uncrate not Uncrated, which is sort of a gadget blog for the man who has everything.
 
Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
06.13.08

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