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Cynopsis: DIGITAL

04/23/09

Good morning, it’s Thursday, April 23, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. 

New News Corp. CEO of Digital Media Jonathan Miller is wasting no time in shaking things up at MySpace. He has decided to fire CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe and has retained the services of a headhunting organization to find a replacement, reports TechCrunch. MySpace President Tom Anderson (everyone’s first “friend” on the platform) and CTO Aber Whitcomb may also be on the way out. News Corp. has been under pressure to return some of the luster to MySpace, which has been overtaken by Facebook as the world’s leading social destination. Money could also have something to do with it: Chris and Tom are making an aggregate $30 million through 2009, according to Julia Angwin’s tell-all book Stealing MySpace published in March.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM KCET

 
Amazon finally upgraded its Video on Demand download rental service to offer more than 500 TV shows and movie titles in HD quality. Prices are $3.99 or $4.99 for movies and $2.99 for TV shows. Integrations with several devices make it easy to watch movies like Frost/Nixon and Twilight instantly on your television, including the Roku digital video player, Tivo Series3, HD, and HD XL DVRs, Sony Bravia internet video link set ups and Panasonic’s line of Viera Cast HDTVs. There are more than 40,000 standard def titles now available on the Amazon Video on Demand library.
 
This will only ad to the claim that the BBC is clogging up the broadband pipes of Britain. BBC’s hugely successful iPlayer will begin to offer a selection of programs in HD from the BBC HD channel. Featured shows include Doctor Who and Dragon’s Den. The new HD format will initially appear on the online version of iPlayer but will soon be available to Virgin Media cable customers and on the PlayStation 3.
 
Tivo introduced a new (and somewhat controversial) “More about” feature to its interface this month originally announced in December. Pause select time-shifted programs such as Rescue Me to gain access to ads or a new informational menu which includes DVD purchase options, cast info.,etc.
 
Cablevision announced the successful launch of a mobile version of Optimum.net, its consumer web portal providing some 2.5 million Optimum Online customers with access to email, traffic, weather, news and TV listings. Optimum has created the site with Usablenet.  
 
ABC Family is encouraging families to go green with a new eco-themed microsite sponsored by Almay Pure Blends. It featured green living tips, stories and blog entries from the network’s talent.
 

 
Qualcomm has licensed Amanda Congdon’s latest news show Sometimes Daily to run on the mobile Flo TV service indicating a possible newfound interest in web shows, per THR.  Unfortunately Flo TV has struggled to gain much traction because it costs an extra $15/month and it’s only available on a handful of phones. (However that may soon change – Qualcomm is working on a module you could plug into the next generation iPhone, says Alley Insider.)
 
There are two big high-brow premiers today:

• Web show Mocap LLC makes its debut on Spike TV tonight at midnight
• Howard Stern’s Howard TV’s latest gem Strip Beer Pong also debuts

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USA Today publisher Gannet Co. formed a new ad network comprised of 100+ sites including USAToday.com, MomsLikeMe.com and HighSchoolSports.com. Gannett will leverage rich media ad company PointRoll, online retail shopping price compare service ShopLocal and social media platform Ripple6 as part of the network.
 
Microsoft opened its pubCenter advertising service up for public beta testing, providing one more alternative to Google’s AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network for advertisers to place targeted ads on the web.
 

 
Apple posted better-than-expected FYQ2 net income of $1.2 billion thanks to strong sales of iPhones and iPods. iPhone sales more than doubled to 3.79 million units for the quarter ending March 31. Apple also sold 11 million iPods, an increase of 3%.
 
AT&T‘s results were also aided by iPhone customers, who are expensive to acquire but who contribute to the bottom line through high data fees. AT&T activated 1.6 million new iPhones during Q1, 640,000 of whom were new to the network. Data revenue grew by 38.6% to $3.2 billion. The company also added 284,000 new U-verse IPTV customers, bringing its total TV subs to 1.3 million.
 
After refinancing debt to avoid a power play from corporate raider Carl Icahn, Lions Gate Entertainment is now in talks to sell its minority stake in TV Guide Channel and TVGuide.com, per Bloomberg.
 
Content delivery network Move Networks acquired UK-based IPTV and virtual set-top box provider Inuk Networks in a move to add a broadcast component to Move’s adaptive streaming and video publishing platform. Move had contracted with Inuk to help power its Freeware IPTV service launched on a number of college campuses last year.
 
The NAB Show has put together a useful video web portal this year that does a nice job at editing lengthier keynote addresses, interviews and presentations into bite-sized clips. The site also features video blog entries, Twitter updates and a mobile site, powered by HipCricket.
 
SeaChange’s On Demand Group signed a 4-year rights management, editorial service management, promo production, and content operations contract with Virgin Media to power its TV On Demand service in the UK.
 

 
Cutbacks in Auto, Financial Services and Retail sectors are adversely impacting internet ad sales but other sectors including Consumer Packaged Goods and Pharma are increasing their spending and should be a renewed focus for publishers, according to a new comprehensive report from Nielsen Online. Further, video and social networking sites are reshaping the web landscape and should inform advertisers about where to put place their ad dollars. The trends are unmistakable:

• The number of American users frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339% since 2003
• Time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000 percent over the same period
• In the last year alone, unique viewers of online video grew 10%, the number of streams grew 41%, streams per user grew 27% and total minutes engaged with online video grew 71%
• In the last year alone, time spent on social networking sites has surged 73%
• In February, social network usage exceeded Web-based e-mail usage for the first time

 
One of the more interesting trends is the rapid growth of longer form online video. Although YouTube’s snackable clips still dominate, the growth of viewership in 2009 is firmly focused on sites like Hulu, TV.com and Fancast. Total minutes spent watching long-form (average of six-to-eight minutes) is considerably more than minutes spent on short-form, and has grown about 20% in the first two months of 2009.
 
Twitter ranked as the fasted-growing website in terms of % change of unique visitors in March according to ComScore, more than doubling its base of users from 4 to 9.3 million during the month. What’s amazing about is that it measures Twitter’s traffic before the whole Oprah thing. The site’s share of US internet visits jumped 24% last Friday – the day Oprah began Twittering, according to Hitwise. And clickstream data reveals that 37% of the users who came that day were new to the site.
 
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by % Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.) March 2009 vs. February 2009
                                                       Total Unique Visitors (000)
                                        Feb-09     Mar-09     % Change     Rank by
                                                                                     Unique Visitors
Twitter.com                         4,033      9,313        131           78
Grisoft                                4,260      7,764          82          114
Oprah.com                          2,814      4,505          60          234
Usmagazine.com                  3,863     5,943           54           47
Technorati Media               11,692     16,021          37             2
MLB.com                            5,069       6,860          35           75
Groupe Lagardere                4,253      5,705          34         122
Limewire.com                      7,861     10,414         32           71
Universal Music Group          5,626       7,421         32           49
Nestle                                 3,269       4,278         31         201
Total Internet: Total Audience 192,187    192,173        0          N/A
Source: comScore Media Metrix
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2009
 
 

                                                                                    
If you’re one of those folks holding out until Amazon lowers the price for the Kindle, this may give you hope. Research firm iSuppli performed a “teardown analysis” of the e-reader and found that it costs the company about $185 to manufacturer one, about half of what it sells for ($359.) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has tried to stifle rumors that a price cut may be coming but if this is accurate than the margins could certainly support it.
 
Cable networks continue to launch iPhone apps to promote their shows:

• AMC teamed Rhthm NewMedia to launch an ad supported app offering supporting video content of shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men and the upcoming miniseries The Prisoner including cast interviews and “making of” footage. It features a picture-in-picture mode and sharing functionality
• Following the launch its Paranormal State app (85,000 downloads) A&E Networks’ History tries its luck with a free photo app for Life After People, the new weekly series that imagines a post-apocalyptic future. It enables you to upload your own photos then digitally “age” them as well as ad personalized messages for friends.

 
Seattle-based digital ad agency Razorfish has promoted Bob Lord to CEO, replacing Clark Kokich, who will move into the new role of Chairman.
 
Rainbow Media’s Sundance Channel has tapped Sarah Barnett to head the network as EVP and General Manager, overseeing the Sundance brand on multiple platforms. Sarah had been SVP of Marketing for the network since she joined the network in late 2005. She reports to Evan Shapiro, President, IFC and Sundance Channel.
 
Priya Bandisode has been upped to VP/Strategic Development & Operations for National Geographic Digital Media. She will be responsible for business strategy and partnerships, charged with maximizing revenues, audience and reach for the division.
 
starMedia appointed Manuel Mazzanti as Regional Marketing Director. She joins the Miami-based free-to-web portal from Yahoo! where he was responsible for marketing and public relations for Yahoo! Hispanic Americas.
 

 
Following an ongoing trend in the digital media space, National Geographic Channel has relaunched its website removing much of the clutter to put the spotlight on tune-in video promotions teasing what’s being featured on the network that day. Cable networks find themselves in the uncomfortable position of wanting to utilize video assets to make their sites compelling without giving away the farm, so to speak. Nat Geo does a good job here of presenting interactive content like a minisite built to promote next Sunday’s Baby Mammoth special to fuel interest in the core product. A flash-based lab program allows users to access endoscopic footage and CT scans imagining what the not-so-little guy looked like. The site’s video portal, which offers mostly clips and few full episodes, could use some sprucing up though. The menu looks like a multiple choice exam and returning to it after watching something requires you to reload the video player each time.
 
Date check: Time to reset your DVRs. That special YouTube edition of Mythbusters is airing on Discovery Channel next Wednesday, April 29. Sorry about the confusion.

Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
04.23.09

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