Cynopsis: DIGITAL

12/03/09

Good morning, it’s Thursday, December 3, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Yahoo made a new best friend. The aging portal announced an extended partnership with Facebook that will allow the social network and the portal’s users to combine their activity streams. Beginning in the first half of 2010, Facebook will be integrated on multiple Yahoo properties including Mail, News, Answers and Sports, enabling you to see your Facebook friends’ activities on Yahoo and to share Yahoo content – ratings, photos, articles comments, etc. – directly on your Facebook stream. Yahoo says the deal is part of its new Yahoo Open strategy, a plan to transition from a closed, members-only environment to a broader architecture that allows users to skip around and mix and match between services.      
 

                                                               
Comcast has apparently come up with a name for its authentication-based online video initiative, according to B&C, citing promotional material it obtained: “Fancast Xfinity TV”. (Fancast is the name of Comcast’s Hulu-like video on demand portal.) Comcast has secured the rights for several URL’s related to the name including Xfinity.com and Twitter.com/Xfinity. Comcast, which is widely expected to announce the acquisition of NBC Universal early this morning, announced last month that the subscriber only video streaming service was expected to launch in early Dec.
 
ABCFamily.com is counting down the “25 Days of Christmas” with a variety of content and interactive applications. Once again this year the “Snowglobe” app allows users to upload photos and choose holiday-themed backgrounds to create their own “shakable” snowglobe, which can be e-mailed to friends and embedded on social networking pages. A new short-form video series, “What’s Next,” features stars from 10 Things I Hate About You and Make It or Break It guessing the lyrics of classic holiday carols. The site also teamed with music streaming site Pandora to put together a 25-song collection of holiday tunes.
 

 
Social commerce site Groupon has raised an additional $30 million in financing led by Accel Partners with participation from Groupon’s initial investor, New Enterprise Associates. The site, which launched in Nov. 2008, aggregates offers and deals on activities in 26 cities and takes a share of what businesses charge for their services. The company says customers have purchased over 800,000 “Groupons” to date on deals ranging from spa treatments and golf outings to fine dining and skydiving.
 

 
YouTube has devoted considerable energy to coming up with innovations in the digital video ad space, but a lot of its revenue still comes from banner ads, reports Ad Age. And rather than limit the size and interactivity of placements on the homepage, Google allows pop-ups, expandable banners, video ads and other interactive products that other publishers have been moving away from. The strategy seems to be working; YouTube’s home page was sold out 90% of the time during Q3, despite its pricey rate card – a home page takeover runs $175k with a commitment to spend at least $50k more on additional products.
 

 
In its quest to open up more spectrum for wireless broadband services, the FCC served notice to local television broadcasters to outline their plans to use licensed spectrum and justify the need to continue broadcasting over the air. The commission issued a 5-page document seeking detailed data on the use of the spectrum as well as suggestions on how it should go about reallocating spectrum if an exchange were to take place. The inquiry is part of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan initiative, and it follows on the heels of a recent proposal from the FCC’s Blair Levin, which suggests that stations trade some or all of their existing spectrum for a share of the revenue generated by wireless operators.
 
As promised earlier this year, Comcast is making available bandwidth meters that will allow subscribers to measure how much bandwidth they consume each month. The MSO, which announced a 250GB monthly cap in October of this year, will be offering customers the usage tracking tool starting Jan. 5. (Comcast fields several FAQ’s about the program here.) The meters are currently being trialed in Portland, OR.
 
Thomson Reuters completed its acquisition of Breakingviews, publisher of financial news and analysis. The newly combined Reuters Breakingviews will staff about 30 columnists based in London, New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Washington, Moscow and Madrid, with plans to expand coverage in the Gulf, Japan, Germany and India.
 

 
Holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 30 days of the November – December 2009 holiday season totaled $12.26 billion season-to-date, up 3% from last year, according to ComScore. Cyber Monday spending reached $887 million, up 5% versus year ago, matching the heaviest online spending day on record – Dec. 9, 2008.
 
This may not come as a shock: three times as many females as males name hanging around on social networks as their “favorite leisure activity,” according to a survey from Crowd Science. One-third (34%) of females vs. one-tenth (10%) of males who use social media said it was their favorite leisure activity. But they’re not necessarily happy about it. Over one-half (54%) of female study participants over age 21 who use social media vs. four-in-ten (38%) of males of the same age believe they spend far too much time on online social media. In addition to females who use social media, younger participants also felt they use social media too much – 46% of teens (17 and under) and 38% of 18-29 year-olds. The figure drops dramatically to 23% for the 30-39 demographic, and 12% for those 40+.
 

 
The first known approved iPhone app that enables live streaming from one phone to another launched on the app store yesterday from the folks at Pointy Heads Software. The “Knocking Live Video” app, so named because you “knock” on someone else’s phone when you send them a video, can stream videos live via 3G or WiFi, and is available on the App Store for free. (Note: the person you send a video to must also have the Knocking Live video app installed.) The app was initially rejected because it employs a proprietary, non-sanctioned API but was subsequently personally approved by Steve Jobs after the developer emailed Jobs directly, per Ars Technica.
 
Cisco’s Flip Video, makers of the popular USB-ready Flip line of portable camcorders, introduced a new gadget to wirelessly connect your video and photo library to your television. The FlipShare TV box contains a wireless router that connects to your TV, a remote and USB stick that allows videos to be streamed to the box. The $150 device ships with the company’s “FlipShare 5.0” software that allows you to organize your creations into separate channels by user or subject matter.
 
Turner’s NBA Digital rolled out customized NBA Team Game Time apps for all 30 NBA teams simultaneously for the Android Market, the App Store, and the Blackberry App World. The apps, which retail for $3.99 for each platform, is the company’s fourth NBA-themed app release and feature live scores, stats, game highlights and exclusive team-produced videos.
 

 
Former FIM and IGN executive Mark Jung is joining the Metacafe Board of Directors. Mark is the former COO of Fox Interactive Media, where he oversaw properties including MySpace. He joined the company when IGN Entertainment, a company he founded, was sold to News Corp. in 2005.
 
Austin Fonacier has joined LA-based marketing firm 72andSunny as Sr. Digital Developer, charged with developing software for the group. He previously worked as a software engineer for AT&T working on its mobile API.
 

 
Music-themed social networking site The Banded launched yesterday with a new twist on encouraging hardcore usage. Join the site using Facebook Connect as a Band or a Fan. Fans can sample tracks, create profiles, add songs to their playlists and build a rep as an “influencer” by becoming an expert in certain genres and “banding together” friends who respect your opinion enough to vote for songs you like. Bands can post original digital tracks (all rights are retained by the artist) and try to get fans to vote up their songs. The most influential fans get prizes and the two top bands each month get a share of the site’s revenue stream. (The Banded currently makes money through ads and is working on a software solution to help artists develop and sell merchandise using images uploaded to the site, says founder Andy Volanakis, former CEO of Zingy.com. “It’s hard for bands to make a living – fans just aren’t buying music,” said Andy. “We’re building an economic model based on advertising, merchandising and things that don’t depend on selling music.” Standing out in an incredibly crowded field will be the challenge. The Banded hopes its Facebook integration, which automatically posts site activity to users’ walls, will ignite interest. It’s not alone – Yahoo is hoping the same thing.
 
Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
12.03.09

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