Cynopsis: DIGITAL
05/03/10

Good morning, it’s Monday, May 3, 2010, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

London-based online music streaming service Lala.com announced it is shutting down its servers at the end of May after 4 years of operation. Apple acquired Lala in Dec. for an undisclosed amount, amid rumors that it is looking to launch a subscription, cloud-based music service of its own to complement the iTunes store. Lala’s model allows users to create playlists of songs they upload or purchase or pay 10 cents to stream individual songs for an unlimited amount of times. Subscription music services have been around for years with little success of attracting a critical mass of users. Lala launched in March 2006 and claims a catalog of 8 million licensed songs.
 

 
The Washington Post is launching a new online video program asking hundreds of its reporters to host live interactive video news reports from their desktop webcams, reports Beet.TV. Financial Reporter Frank Ahrens is the first to participate. 
 

 
Venture Capital fund Google Ventures unveiled its full roster of new staff members. The fund has invested in a handful of start-ups during its first year including OpenCandy, Silver Spring Networks and V-Vehicle.
 

 
Yahoo! launched a new ad format for its celebrity/entertainment site omg!, the top entertainment news site according to ComScore.  The new ad unit will allow advertisers to embed video and create user interaction within the execution. HP has signed on as the inaugural marketer to utilize the unit, with an ad promoting its tie-in with New Line Cinema‘s “Sex and the City” sequel.
 
Los Angeles was the top mobile advertising DMA while Portals and Directories remained the top vertical spending category, according to Millennial Media’s S.M.A.R.T. scorecard, which tracks usage across a network of 3,200 advertisers, agencies, analysts and publishers. Interestingly, the BlackBerry Curve was the top smartphone by ad requests in all but three of the top DMAs with the iPhone gaining that honor only in the N. California cities of Sacramento, SF and Fresno, CA. Significant shifts in mobile advertising verticals included the rise of travel, currently #4 among mobile advertisers, the entry of pharmaceuticals for the first time and drop off of Automotive from the Top 10. Entertainment rose from #4 to #2 in terms of mobile ad spending over the last quarter.
 
Top Mobile Advertising Verticals – Ranked by Spend
Rank   Q1 2010 Verticals        Rank   Q4 2009 Verticals
   1     Portals & Directories        1      Portals & Directories
   2     Entertainment                 2      Telecommunications
   3     Telecommunications        3      Finance
   4     Travel                            4      Entertainment
   5     Finance                          5      Dating
   6     Education                       6      Retail & Restaurants
   7     Dating                            7     Consumer Package Goods (CPG)
   8     CPG                               8     Travel
   9     Pharmaceuticals              9     Education
  10    Retail & Restaurants       10    Automotive
Source: Millennial Media’s March ’10 S.M.A.R.T. report, excluding mobile apps, ringtones or downloads
 

 
In the first public investigation into blogger-company relations since the release of its newly revised Endorsement Guidelines in Oct., The FTC told woman’s retailer Ann Taylor that it will not take action against it for an incident related to coverage of an event hosted by its LOFT brand in Jan., per Ad Age. Ann Taylor helped encourage bloggers to post about the event by giving away gift cards for mystery amounts and the commission worried that participants failed to disclose the incentive. 
 

“Avatar” sold more Blu-ray disc units in its first week of release than any other movie in history, according to Nielsen‘s VideoScan, (which doesn’t track Walmart sales.) Fox’s decision to package the Blu-ray with a DVD version of the movie was a success as 49% of its sales were generated by the Blu-ray/DVD combo disc with the remaining sales coming from the DVD.
 
RANK   Title                       Release Year    Sales Index % of Sales that are Blu-ray
1     Avatar                         2010                   100              49%*
2     The Dark Knight           2008                     62              22%
3     The Hangover              2009                     40              24%
4     Star Trek (2009)          2009                     34              37%
5     Harry Potter and the     2009                     33              24%*
       Half-Blood Prince
6     Transformers: Revenge  2009                     33               26%
7     Iron Man                      2008                     28              17%
8     Up                              2009                     24              24%*
9     Inglorious Basterds        2009                     23              33%
10   Snow White                 2009                     23             100%**
Source: The Nielsen Company – Walmart, Sam’s Club, grocery and drug retailers excluded * Indicates that some or all Blu-ray unit sales came from Blu-ray/DVD combo discs. ** Snow White was released on Blu-ray/DVD combo disc. There was no DVD item available during Week 1 of this release.
 
The number videos viewed on top sites YouTube and Hulu increased month-to-month in March with Google Sites racking up 13.05 billion views compared to 11.9 billion last month, according to ComScore‘s Video Metrix rankings. More than 180 million viewers watched an average of 173 videos per viewer during the month, also up from a month ago. Unique viewers of video on YouTube, Facebook, Hulu, Viacom Digital and AOL all increased.
 
Top U.S. Online Video Content Properties by Videos Viewed ­- ­March 2010
Property                              Videos (000)    Share of Videos (%)
Google Sites                           13,056,042           41.8
Hulu                                        1,070,460             3.4
Microsoft Sites                            655,068              2.1
Yahoo! Sites                               477,887              1.5
CBS Interactive                           457,261             1.5
Viacom Digital                            370,179              1.2
Vevo                                          331,144              1.1
Turner Network                            302,626             1.0
Fox Interactive Media                   300,392             1.0
AOL LLC                                      280,328             0.9
Total Internet : Total Audience     31,241,101       100.0
Source: comScore Video Metrix
 
Top U.S. Online Video Content Properties* by Unique Viewers – March 2010
Property                        Unique Viewers     Average Videos
                                            (000)              per viewer___
Google Sites                       136,002                   96.0
Yahoo! Sites                         56,245                    8.5
CBS Interactive                     46,747                   9.8
Microsoft Sites                       42,724                 15.3
Fox Interactive Media             42,487                   7.1
FACEBOOK.COM                    40,639                    5.5
Hulu                                     40,017                  26.7
Vevo                                     37,527                   8.8
Viacom Digital                        37,524                   9.9
AOL LLC                                 32,405                  8.7
Total Internet : Total Aud.     180,241               173.3
Source: comScore Video Metrix

 
After acquiring Tweetie to own an official iPhone app for the service and launching a BlackBerry app, Twitter unveiled its first official application for Google’s Android platform. The app allows users to access their timelines from the home screen widget, view a tweet location on a geolocation-powered map or view friend’s latest tweets via your phonebook, GoogleTalk list or any other application that uses Android’s QuickContact bar.
 
Microsoft has officially shelved the folding, two-screen Courier tablet device first uncovered by Gizmodo last Sept. The Courier planned to deploy a combination pen and touch interface.
 

 
Tribune Broadcasting President Ed Wilson announced he is stepping down but he will continue to help the company as a consultant as it navigates through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Ed has been President of Tribune Broadcasting since 2008 and took on the role of Chief Revenue and Sales Officer of parent company Tribune Co. last year.
 
New York Times Co. subsidiary The About Group has hired Mitchell Kreuch as SVP/Sales. Mitchell, former VP of Sales for MySpace, will manage and oversee all online sales efforts including strategy, programming and after-sale account support.
 

 
The newly independent Rhapsody music service (spun off from parent co. RealNetworks) has updated its iPhone app, hoping it will be a major touch point for its now cheaper subscription music service. Users can pay $10/month (down from $15) to listen to any of 9.5 million songs and the new version allows you to store a number of tracks to listen to when you don’t have a data connection. The company is offering a 14-day free trial of the service and even running some commercials to attract the uninitiated. The software, which also runs on the iPad, is much improved as well; the interface makes it easy to compile playlists and browse by artist and genre. The concept of a pay-for-play subscription music service has always made sense for music lovers who are willing to support the industry, but having to buy a separate device like the Zune has always been a barrier to entry. The new price point and take-anywhere distribution model could finally make Rhapsody a mainstream winner, particularly when it launches on the fast growing Android platform. If Apple does indeed launch a similar service (see above), Rhapsody should have a significant head start (currently 700k subs and counting.)
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Later – Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
wayne@cynopsis.com
05.03.10

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