A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM NATPE

Cynopsis: DIGITAL

06/29/09

Good morning, it’s Monday, June 29, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. 

The death of Michael Jackson proved to be both a boon and a bane in the world of digital media over the weekend. As news spread of the King of Pop’s death – celebrity gossip site TMZ.com broke the story on Thursday – traffic to news and social networking sites erupted to record levels, causing problems the likes of which had not been seen since the presidential election. News sites slowed to a crawl as their traffic increased by 20% on average, according to Akamai’s news net usage index. Wikipedia administrators were forced to lock down the Michael Jackson page after it was accessed more than 1 million times in less than an hour. Twitter crashed after activity more than doubled. Search volume increased so quickly on Google that Google News initially mistook the event as an automated attack. Fortunately for the troubled Jackson estate, sales of singer’s albums on popular digital outlets such as iTunes and Amazon.com also went through the roof. As late as Sunday afternoon 8 of the top 10 selling songs on iTunes and 7 of the top 10 albums (including #s 1-6) were Michael Jackson works.
 

 
Movie and television show producers rushed to amend taped segments after news of Jackson’s death spread on Thursday. One of the clips that ended up on the cutting room floor was a scene from Universal‘s latest Sacha Baron Cohen picture Bruno – just hours before its premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. (In it, Bruno enters the apartment of LaToya Jackson to steal her cellphone, only to find her eating sushi off the hairy body of a naked man, according to the official Bruno site.) The red carpet premiere also prevented fans from reaching Jackson’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
 
Paramount‘s special effects-laden Transformers sequel smashed box office records for films opening on a Wednesday, surpassing $200 million during its first five days. It fell just short of The Dark Knight‘s all-time 5-day record of $203.7 million.
 
Several more networks have agreed to participate in Comcast’s walled garden programming trial, per Multichannel. Joining Turner’s TNT and TBS will be Rainbow Media‘s AMC, Sundance Channel, WEtv; A&E Networks‘ A&E, History and Bio; Comcast Networks‘ E!, Style, Golf Channel, Versus, G4, PBS Kids Sprout and TV One as well as a selection of Scripps programming services.
 
Nickelodeon announced that it received more than 5 million votes for its prime-time televised Addicting Games Showdown on Saturday night staged to promote its casual gaming site. The microsite drew 16 million game plays and over 26 million page views since launching on June 3. The “Most Addicting Game” award went to Worlds Hardest Game from Snubby Land.
 

                                                                                
AOL’s video search site Truveo relaunched localized versions of its service in 17 countries and also integrated leading U.S.-based Spanish web portal Univision.com into its search platform. New features include a broader video index, a cleaner design, quicker loading times and more personalization features.
 
Onlive video infrastructure provider Nokeena raised $6.5 million in second round financing led by Mayfield Fund, with participation by existing and strategic investors. Nokeena’s Media Flow Director helps streamline web video streaming and distribution efforts. The company says it will leverage the new funding to increase sales and marketing efforts of its new media infrastructure to content publishers and distributors.
 
Web video portal MyDamn Channel is doing its part to support the spread of democracy in Iran with this viral music video rendition of “Stand By Me,” sung partly in Farsi by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and others from producer/director Don Was.
 

 
The Senate aims to introduce legislation next month to help web outlets, newspapers and televisions stations spread word about the election protests in Iran despite the government’s media crackdown, per B&C. The bill, announced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) would increase funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Farsi radio stations and VOA’s Persian News Network as well as provide Iranians with access to online social networking services.
 
Digitalsmiths will unveil a studio grade asset management system and a new search technology this morning that integrates video indexing, distribution, rights-management, optimization, playing and analytics functions into a single box. The company says its VideoSense product indexes video by utilizing proprietary algorithms such as facial recognition, scene classification and object identification to build a unique time-based, metadata framework.
 
RealNetworks released an update to the RealPlayer for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome. Once only a music player, the New RealPlayer SP adds the ability to playback internet video from a plethora of devices including Nokia smartphones, iTunes, the Xbox, the iPhone and the Palm Pre. RealNetworks hopes the application will become the go between for users when uploading user generated content to social media sites, offering easy sharing links to Facebook and Twitter.
 
Sony is also working on a new web-based software platform that will serve as the backbone of the PlayStation Network and help connect content to Sony’s array of digital devices, reports Fortune. After proprietary strategies have failed the electronics giant, the new platform will strive for more openness.
 

 
In case you’re wondering how the iPhone 3G, which enables video recording and instant posting to YouTube, is effecting mobile traffic to the video sharing site, wonder no more. YouTube reports that the volume of mobile uploads has increased by 400%/day since the release of the device last weekend. Here’s a video primer walking users through the simple process of posting a video from the phone.
 
Seeking to measure the effects of new media on the spread of information in Iran, Nielsen compared a number of online trends from June 18 and June 24.
On June 18, the day Google announced it would launch a Farsi/English translation service:

• CNN rarely shows up in the top five search results for select Iran Election terms, mirroring criticism from consumers that the global news network’s coverage of the Iran Election was lacking
• Wikipedia emerges within the top two search results for 4/5 of the leading topics
• At least one social media source emerges within the top 10 search results for every term, in many cases above traditional media news sources

By June 24 it is clear that a watershed moment has occurred:

• YouTube emerges within the top 10 search results for all search terms in the 2nd week
• Wikipedia remains within the top 3 search results for 4 out 5 search terms
• Twitter emerges within the top 20 search results in week two

 
The Senate confirmed Julius Genachowski as the next Chairman of the FCC, who is expected to begin his term today. Acting FCC Chair Michael Copps will return to the role of Commissioner.
 
Skinny Little Things CEO J. Heidi Roizen was elected to the TiVo Board of Directors effective June 24, 2009.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

 
Any number of online research resources can spot obvious trends like the massive outpouring of search data related to the death of Michael Jackson. What marketers and entertainment executives really need in today’s interconnected media world are tools to help them understand what moves the online needle for their own shows and products – where the results are tracked in thousands of responses rather than millions. Web tracking service Trendrr will help fill a niche with the launch of a professional service today that tracks social media activity across multiple sites and services. Trendrr, which began as tool that digital ad agency Wiredset offered to its clients, has become a popular resource to measure what’s hot on the web by mining server data on several tell-tale sites. Trendrr’s new B to B version allows users to track sales data on Amazon, search results on Google, mentions on blogs, video views on YouTube, references on Google News and photo posts on Flickr, for instance, by tracking quantitative research (impressions, engagement, sales, etc.) on an hour-by-hour basis. Subscribers can set the service to alert them when activity spikes and a handy Twitter tool tracks keyword mentions. A major TV network, movie studio and ad agency have already subscribed to the service, according to the company’s founder and CEO Mark Ghuneim. “Evaluating the streams of activity around brands is increasingly important – tracking ratings, sales, mentions and buzz together helps marketers maximize ROI and allocate resources where they’re needed,” he said.
 
Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
06.29.09

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