Cynopsis: DIGITAL
11/10/08
Good morning, it’s Monday, November 10, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.
Yahoo‘s share price took a beating on Friday closing under $12/share after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spurned advances made earlier in the week by Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang. After initially rejecting an offer of $33/share from Microsoft, Yahoo’s CEO made it clear he was now open to an acquisition. Mr. Yang made the comments on the same day Google walked away from its planned search alliance with Yahoo, that was expected to have generated hundreds of millions in new revenue for the company.
UK-based multimedia production company HMC Interactive, part of Twofour (Are Your Smarter Than A Ten Year Old?), announced the launch of MediaLab, an experiential center for digital innovation and creation with a focus on multiplatform content and convergent media. MediaLab will officially open today at Twofour’s studio in Plymouth.
Call for Submissions: The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is calling for submissions for its 4th annual International Digital Emmy Awards. Emmys will be awarded in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, children’s and young people’s programming at MIP TV 2009 for original content created and initially distributed outside of the U.S.
Gene Simmons’ male-targeted online video portal No Good TV signed a long-term production deal with Survivor creator Mark Burnett Productions to co-develop a number shows for cable television and additional platforms. Genres in development include game shows, unscripted entertainment series, scripted comedies, movies and specials. Carrie Keegan, easily the most recognizable face on the site, will host a late night talk show pilot in the partnership’s first announced project. Mark Burnett Prods. will also contribute an equity stake in No Good as part of the deal.
Endemol’s Deal or No Deal launched a new play at home version for the iPhone and iPod Touch from game publisher Oberon Media’s I-play division. The game, which sells for $4.99 at the App Store, simulates the drama of the game show allowing players to stick or select new suitcases as they vie for up to $1 million in (fictional) cash. Meanwhile the popular Flash-based Beat the Banker game is back on NBC.com. Send a premium $1 text message when prompted during the show for a chance to win $10,000. Note: if you want to save a buck or ten you can enter up to 10 times per episode online for free.
Video production outfit Revision3 is working on an iPhone application that will allow users to watch shows like DiggNation and Tekzilla on the go, according to a blog post by developer Jake Marsh, who says he is working on the app.
Panasonic is set to become an even bigger giant in consumer electronics agreeing to buy smaller rival Sanyo Electric for a projected $4.5 billion. Sanyo, purchased by Goldman Sachs, Daiwa Securities SMBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking in 2006 for $2.5 billion, is valued for its expertise in rechargeable batteries and solar panels – two of the biggest growth areas in the electronics industry.
The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), an industry group made up of major studios and electronics firms, launched a $25 million “Tru Blue” marketing campaign to promote and educate consumers about the Blu-ray disc format heading into the holiday season. Blu-ray players are expected to dip below the $200 range in promotional pricing beginning on Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving.
DirecTV reported slowing subscriber growth during Q3 adding 156,000 net households compared to 240,000 a year earlier when the company’s reselling arrangement with AT&T was still in place. DirecTV’s total subscribers reached 17.32 million overall. U.S. revenues increased 11% to $4.32 billion due to strong Ave. Revenue Per Unit (ARPU) growth and the larger subscriber base as more subscribers took advanced services.
Glam Media launched a new multifaceted campaign to promote Levi’s jeans among women. The centerpiece of the campaign is new microsite to be distributed across the ad network’s vertical alignment of sites featuring tips, interactive quizzes and an online video series.
Traffic, time spent and video views all increased dramatically on all four broadcast network websites during Sept. as the new fall season got underway, according to Nielsen Online. The combination of season premiers, SNL political skits and increased reliance on the web as a tool to catch up on missed episodes created a perfect storm of interest that may become a regular online phenomenon each fall. Interestingly TV show sites weren’t the only ones to get a boost; total streams of games, events, books and music were also up in Sept. compared to the previous month – each by more than 50%.
Online Video Metrics for Television Network Web Properties, September 2008
Name Unique Viewers (000) Unique Viewer % Change from Aug.
NBC.com 5,557 312
ABC.COM 5,246 105
CBS Television 3,296 38
FOX Broadcasting 1,371 165
Source: Nielsen Online
September’s Top 5 Fastest Growing Entertainment Categories – Total Streams (000)
Name Aug-08 Sep-08 % Change
Online Games 30,267 50,814 68
Events 3,132 5,094 63
Books 1,179 1,902 61
Music 107,461 161,369 50
Broadcast Media 180,171 269,798 50
Source: Nielsen Online
Overall Online Video Usage (U.S.)
Aug-08 Sep-08 % Change
Unique Viewers (000) 117,916 125,061 6
Total Streams (000) 8,061,706 8,885,068 10
Streams per Viewer 68.4 71.1 4
Time per Viewer (min) 183.9 197.2 7
Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus, incl. progressive downloads, excludes video advertising
Hitwise also had NBC as the #1 ad supported broadcast network site for the fourth straight week with Deal or No Deal and Heroes as the top two ranked show sites. NBC’s 30 Rock also cracked the top ten for the first time. Meanwhile SciFi’s Ghost Hunters, which recently launched its own YouTube page, was the #1 ranked TV show website among adult oriented cable networks this past week, followed by Comedy Central’s South Park and The Daily Show. Five of the top 10 cable show sites were politically focused.
Top Visited US Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Sites (Week ending Nov. 1, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 NBC www.nbc.com 30.65%
2 ABC www.abc.com 25.93%
3 CBS www.cbs.com 20.39%
4 FOX* www.fox.com 14.22%
5 The CW www.cwtv.com 8.38%
6 MNTV www.mynetworktv.com .42%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise, *includes traffic aggregated from stand alone websites americanidol.com, amw.com, familyguy.com, thelot.com and thesimpsons.com.
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Show Sites (Week ending Nov. 1, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 NBC Deal or No Deal 7.65%
2 NBC Heroes 5.90%
3 ABC Dancing With The Stars 5.71%
4 FOX America’s Most Wanted 5.40%
5 NBC The Office 4.36%
6 CBS Survivor 3.71%
7 FOX American Idol 3.21%
8 NBC The Biggest Loser 3.08%
9 NBC America’s Toughest Jobs 2.73%
10 NBC 30 Rock 2.56%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
Top Visited US Cable Network TV Show Sites -Excluding Children’s Programming (Week ending Nov.1, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 SciFi Ghost Hunters 8.85%
2 Comedy Central South Park 7.42%
3 Comedy Central The Daily Show 5.54%
4 Fox News O’Reilly Factor 4.87%
5 Fox News Hannity & Colmes 3.41%
6 BET 106 & Park 3.06%
7 MTV The Hills 2.87%
8 CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight 2.65%
9 MSNBC Countdown with Keith O. 1.99%
10 SciFi Eureka 1.80%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
On Demand and DVRs are acting as media discovery platforms ultimately driving viewers back to linear television, according to a new survey from CTAM. The survey found that 34% of On Demand-only homes and 47% of households with On Demand and a DVR found a program on On Demand then sought it out on its regular channel. Nearly 60% of households with both On Demand and a DVR, and 49% of On Demand-only households report they are more likely to try new programs because of On Demand. Two-thirds of DVR users also found new programming by recording it on their DVR first.
Amid a wave of layoffs (which affected 18 employees or half its staff according to the NY Times) Content delivery network BitTorrent appointed former CTO Eric Klinker as its new CEO. Prior to joining BitTorrent in 2007, Eric served as CTO and VP/Engineering for network optimization and CDN firm Internap. He replaces Doug Walker who had been with the company for a little more than a year.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CNBC’s Jim Cramer he would not accept the position of technology czar on Barack Obama’s cabinet if asked. Eric was one of the 17 economic advisors who met in Chicago on Friday to discuss Obama’s economic transition plans.
There’s a bird flapping its wings on the horizon of the web that may finally challenge iTunes’ dominance. Songbird is an open source media player currently in beta development that will be far more customizable by adding tools from some of the real innovators in the social music space. The interface allows you to create smart playlists that automatically update based on user preferences you set beforehand. Last.fm‘s “scrobble” feature is now integrated, allowing you to easily add songs or artists you really like to your profile. SHOUTcast provides hundreds of live radio streams to the interface. And like iTunes you can subscribe to RSS feeds, download album art and import a variety of media from your existing music library. What’s really exciting about all of this, however, is that the sky will be the limit in terms of functionality if it takes off as Songbird is a completely open platform. The current beta version runs on Windows, Linux and Intel Mac OS X and supports Apple iPod and MTP devices. Take a peek at Songbird’s Roadmap wiki to see what’s coming for the platform.
Later — Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
11.10.08
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