Cynopsis: DIGITAL

12/10/09

Good morning, it’s Thursday, December 10, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Following its purchase of iLike, News Corp.’s MySpace has acquired what’s left of cash-strapped online music sharing site Imeem, which served a community of some 16 million users worldwide until the site was folded into MySpace Music. One of the web’s first music sharing sites that acquired licenses from major music labels, Imeem allowed users to stream music and create and share playlists, but was never able to earn much revenue from ads, ringtones and music downloads. MySpace, which launched a UK version of MySpace Music last week, also introduced a new set of open application programming interfaces (APIs) yesterday, hoping to encourage developers to create apps that leverage MySpace status updates, music, photos and video. A Facebook-style Real-Time Stream API allows the full MySpace activity stream to be pushed to third party sites in real-time. A Developer’s Challenge will provide a $50,000 incentive to try and bring out the best and brightest.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM DIRECTV
Take 5 minutes to goof off, courtesy of DIRECTV.

Hey, the media business has us all feeling like a Bobble Head sometimes, might as well look like one. Play Perfect Match and score your own Bobble Head.

And we know you sometimes sneak in a little Facebook during work. Visit the DIRECTV Ad Sales Fan Page and for guilt-free surfing. We’ve got some hot relationships of our own to talk about and we’ll match you up. Well, at least our new app will match your brand to our ad offerings. Plus, Meet the Family. Neurotic? Maybe. Nice? Definitely.
 

 
Amid the rampant price cutting of digital book editions (Amazon sells most best sellers for about $10), both Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group have decided to delay publishing e-book editions of their upcoming best sellers – establishing a windowing structure similar to Hollywood movies, per the WSJ. A vast majority of S&S and Hachette’s new releases will be put out in electronic format some 3-4 months after the hard copy is released.
 
Beginning today Variety.com will place much of its content behind a paywall limiting access to subscribers as part of an overall revamp of its subscription structure. A single $248/year introductory subscription rate will give subscribers access to all Variety products, including the print editions of Daily Variety and weekly Variety, as well as Variety.com and Digital Variety.
 
Sony Pictures Television has acquired the Video Game Awards 2009 (VGAs) for its Animax channels.  The event will broadcast on Animax channels across Asia, Central Europe, Latin America, Brazil, Africa, Spain and Portugal beginning in Jan. 2010.
 

 
Privacy-concerned Facebook launched a series of new (previously announced) tools designed to give its now 350 million users greater control over how they share information. Users will now be able to choose from three basic privacy setting, Friends, Friends of Friends or Everyone (kind of how wiseguys delineates members; “he’s a friend of mine” or “he’s a friend of ours.”) That means you can now better limit exposure to your profile info., contact info., applications you use or text, photos and videos you post to your profile. If you’re in a verified network, you’ll continue to have a “Friends and Networks” option. You’ll also be able to customize your settings based on certain friends and friend lists. A simple walk through on the site will allow you to update the new settings.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE TELEVISION ACADEMY HONORS TM

 
Tremor Media, purveyor of the Acudeo video monetization platform, has launched Rx In-Stream, an in-stream advertising solution designed exclusively for the pharmaceutical industry. The solution synchronizes video and companion banner ads creative to display the information needed to meet the FDA’s fair balance requirements while utilizing shorter-form, pre-roll video creative to focus on branding and product benefits.
 

 
AOL officially separates from Time Warner this morning to begin trading as its own public company on the New York stock exchange, ending what is widely considered to be one the most disastrous mergers in media history. Going forward the company has said it will focus on premium content, including news and local information; communications such as IM and email; and providing more advanced targeting opportunities for advertisers.
 
NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow took direct aim at the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules in an address to the Media Institute on Wednesday. He complained that codifying existing guidelines could have the adverse affect intended, resulting in less openness, poorer content and fewer innovative applications.
 
AT&T’s U-verse IPTV service reached the 2 million subscriber mark on Wednesday as the telco rolled out its fastest ($95/month) DSL service yet to the Austin, San Antonio and St. Louis markets, claiming download speeds of up to 24 Mbps. U-verse TV is now available in all 22 states of AT&T’s traditional footprint and the company is counting on aggressive bundling offers to add more customers. As of the end of Q3, more than 90% of U-verse TV customers also take the DSL service, more than 60% of new U-verse TV customers bundle U-verse Voice, and more than 75% of U-verse TV customers order triple or quad-play services (the fourth being wireless.)
 

 
Younger viewers are one group that may not be happy if the FCC takes back mobile spectrum from the broadcasters. This demo is particularly interested in watching local TV on their handsets, netbooks and other mobile devices, according to a new study conducted by Magid Media Labs and commissioned by the Open Mobile Video Coalition. Some 30 OMVC member stations have already begun introducing Mobile DTV to their viewers after a standard was approved in October by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSCC). The coalition has been working with CE manufacturers to develop mobile devices capable of receiving Mobile DTV signals including laptops, netbooks, cell phones, PDAs, portable DVD players, and in-car viewing systems. The survey found that:

• About 78% said they would be most likely to watch live TV on a laptop, netbook, cell phone, or smartphone
• 51% said they wanted live TV to be part of the experience, compared to just 18% who prefer an on-demand model
• 49% said they would be willing to watch commercials on their mobile device
• 36% expressed interest in purchasing recent movies, premium sporting events, and other programming on a subscription or pay-per-view basis
• Among those with children in the household, 31% would give the mobile device to their child to watch in the car

 
The number of mobile internet users will more than double from 450 million today to over 1 billion by 2013, according to research firm IDC‘s Worldwide Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast. More than 1.6 billion people – a little over a quarter of the world’s population – used the internet in 2009, and by 2013, over 2.2 billion people – more than one third of the world’s population – is expected to be online. More than 1.6 billion devices worldwide were used to access the internet in 2009, including PCs, mobile phones, and online videogame consoles. By 2013, the total number of devices accessing the Internet will increase to more than 2.7 billion.
 
Bing’s run of steady gains came to an end in Nov. as Microsoft’s new search engine lost market share to Google and Ask.com, according to data from Experian’s panel based Hitwise service.
 
Percentage of U.S. Searches Among Leading Search Engine Provider
Domain       October 2000  November 2009 Month-over-month % change
Google             70.60%            71.57%                 1%
Yahoo              16.14%            15.39%                -5%
Bing*                9.57%              9.34%                -2%
Ask.com            2.62%              2.65%                 1%
Source: Hitwise, Data is based on four-week rolling periods (ending Nov. 28, 2009, and Oct. 31, 2009) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. *includes executed searches on Bing.com, Live.com and MSN Search but does not include searches on Club.Live.com
 

 
Now you can broadcast yourself from anywhere. Live webcasting service UStream has launched a free iPhone app that allows iPhone 3GS users to stream live video from their handsets over both WiFi and AT&T’s 3G network. (Ustream’s previous Recorder app only enabled upload to the Ustream site for later viewing.) One-touch sharing features allow you to post videos to YouTube and Facebook, or send notices to your Twitter faithful when a live stream begins. 
 
Popular PC game Where’s Waldo has made it the iPhone with a new multi-level app that takes the user in search of Waldo and friends Wizard Whitebeard, Wenda, and Woof and foe, Odlaw. “Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey” retails for $4.99.
 

 
New York-based Carat has appointed former Discovery Networks digital sales executive Walt Cheruk as EVP, Head of Digital. Prior to Discovery, Walt served as SVP/Global Media Services at Modem Media.
 
Veteran Beantown sports journalist Peter Gammons his jumping from ESPN to the MLB Network to offer analysis and commentary on MLB Network and MLB.com. He’ll be serving an on-air personality, columnist and analyst during his multi-year deal with the league.
 
Digital marketer MediaTrust has hired Microsoft veteran David Coburn for the new position of Head of Product. His responsibilities include implementing best practices for web services and platform development, and playing a key role in customer satisfaction. David will be based in MediaTrust’s Santa Barbara office.
 
Social marketing firm Media6Degrees announced that Alice Curran, Brian Hersholt and Tom O’Neil have joined the company as Sales Executives, while Tiffany Sumner has joined the company as Marketing Manager.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM NATPE

 
As the first generation of independent social music sites begin to shuffle off this mortal coil (see above) the major labels’ own Vevo takes their place, marrying music with the proven power and appeal of online video. (The site launched with some outtages late Tuesday at a star-studded affair in New York attended by the likes of Bono, Mariah Carey, and Lady Gaga.) Backed by YouTube with content partnerships with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, AT&T and the CBS Interactive Music Group, Vevo has big aspirations for getting users hooked once again on music videos, convincing advertisers to pay high CPMs to sponsor them and marrying next generation social features with additional content to get users to stick around and engage on the site. An initial perusal of Vevo leaves the user with a very organized experience – almost overly so. Browse for videos by artist, genre or channel in a grid style with lots of Hulu-preferred white space. The playlist functionality is nice and easy to figure out; simply click on the “+” symbol to add up to 75 videos to your roster. Videos can be shared, embedded, linked to and a one-click button will connect you to Amazon.com or iTunes to purchase an MP3 of the track. But the overall organization is dull. There is no simple way to export your playlist to mobile devices. And where is the music discovery element? Recommendation engines are the secret sauce that make online music and video services fun and provide content companies with a tremendous opportunity to get to know their audience.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
12.10.09

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