Cynopsis: DIGITAL

02/25/10

Good morning, it’s Thursday, February 25, 2010, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

To address the mobile data crunch, FCC Chairman Julius Genchowski announced plans to hold a “Mobile Future Auction” to encourage local TV broadcasters to sell off spectrum or allow other providers to share existing spectrum. Careful to couch it as a “voluntary” plan, he noted in a speech to the New America Foundation that 90% of the U.S. receives broadcast TV from cable or satellite and that broadcasters would still have enough spectrum remaining to “experiment” with mobile TV. The Chairman presented some compelling data points to make the case to increase available mobile spectrum. For instance, exclusive iPhone partner AT&T has reported mobile data traffic increasing 5,000% over the past 3 years. He also noted that a typical smartphone generates 30 times the traffic of a traditional data-enabled phone and that a netbook generates 450 times more traffic. The National Broadband Plan, set to be unveiled next month, will set a goal of freeing up 500 Megahertz of spectrum over the next decade.
 

 
Cablevision unveiled a new service dubbed “PC to TV Media Relay” that will enable subscribers to move photos, documents and internet video from their PC to their television. The system will require a simple plug in on your computer to work. The functionality, now enabled by a number of third party devices that require a little technical know-how, is expected to debut during Q2 of this year and will be available only to Cablevision digital cable and internet customers. A new survey from iSuppli of 800 U.S. consumers found that 27.5% of folks who bought new TV’s in Jan. have connected them to the internet, either internally or through a set-top or game console.
 
Because Fantasy Baseball is all about stats, CBSSports.com has teamed up with analytics and data visualization software provider Tableau Software, to upgrade to its fantasy sports statistical analysis. Beginning this baseball season, fantasy players will have access to interactive data visualizations, reports and analytics around their teams. CBSSports.com’s Baseball Commissioner has also received some cool updates tracking histories from past seasons.
 
Univision unveiled its Es el Momento (“The Moment is Now” initiative,) leveraging its reach across platforms to promote academic achievement among K-12 Hispanic students. The online component, www.eselmomento.com, features a weekly interactive Q&A with motivational radio personality Dr. Isabel. A school locator widget and weekly mobile text alerts will provide relevant educational tips to kids.
 

 
Web-based VOD start-up ZillionTV has received a $10 million investment from Denver-based telco Qwest Communications, per Multichannel News. The service, planning to launch later this year, aims to offer a library of over 15,000 movies, TV episodes and other videos, licensed from partners including Disney, Fox, NBC Universal, Sony and Warner Bros.
 
Web production outfit Big Fantastic (“Prom Queen,” “Foreign Body”) has become a signatory of the Writers Guild of America West‘s basic agreement negotiated following the WGA strike in ’07-’08. Big Fantastic is the 33rd digital producer to join the guild.
 
Q&A service ChaCha.com launched new functionality providing in-depth information about more than 15 million local businesses across the country. Business listings search specialist Localeze is providing the data. 
 

 
Male-targeted video publisher Break Media unveiled a series of new video ad units that will be available to advertisers across its network of sites. The new units include:

• “Videostitial” – a full-page, 15-second, HD-quality welcome video with audio capabilities
• “Page Engage” – expandable ad units featuring multiple videos to choose from displayed in a full page
• Video Roll – a 300×250 banner ad that plays video content upon engagement
• Interactive Preroll – an interactive menu allowing viewers to seek more video content from an advertiser following a 15-second pre-roll
•  

Waterfall Mobile has struck a new strategic partnership with WaveMarket to power location-enabled mobile messaging. Waterfall will now offer GPS-style targeting based on latitude/longitude coordinates enabling marketers to target customers by location.
 

An Italian court convicted three Google executives – Chief Legal Officer David Drummond, Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer and former CFO George Reyes – of privacy violations Wednesday for not acting quickly enough to remove a video of teen youth bullying an autistic boy. In a blog post, Google Deputy General Counsel Matt Sucherman calls the decision “deeply troubling” and warns that the court’s decision attacks the foundations of the internet.
 
Adding insult to injury, EU antitrust regulators opened up a preliminary inquiry against Google investigating charges that the search giant of abusing its power in the marketplace. Complaints include that Google unfairly ranks the sites of its internet competitors, effectively lowering their rank in Google search results. U.S.-based Consumer Watchdog utilized the opportunity to call on the Justice Dept. to add search manipulation its ongoing probe of Google’s business practices.
 
4G WiMax internet provider Clearwire added 87,000 new subscribers during Q4 ending the year with 688,000 total customers – up from only 5,000 signed during Q4 of 2008. More than half of the new subs were of the wholesale variety, signed from partners Comcast, Sprint and Time Warner Cable. The Kirkland, WA-based co. reported a loss of $98.7 million, down from a $118 million loss a year ago.
 

 
Viewership of Olympics video content online at CTVOlympics.ca and RDSolympiques.ca in Canada has exploded this year, according to the Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, representing new benchmarks for online video consumption of both live and on demand events in Canada. Through the tenth day of competition, online audiences have taken in 8.4 million live events, and watched 9.2 million on demand videos, for a total of 17.6 million videos viewed – more than 3 times the consumption during the Beijing Games. On average, video viewers on the sites watch 51 minutes of online Olympic coverage daily. The CTVOlympics.ca-branded YouTube channel has also delivered more than two million video views.
 
U.S. ad spending declined during Q4, albeit at a slower rate, according to Nielsen – the sixth straight quarter of declines. Huge pull-backs from the Auto industry continued to take its toll as advertisers spent an estimated $117 billion on U.S. media in 2009, down 9% from 2008. One of the few category bright spots was spending by web-based advertisers, climbing 32% to $1.1 billion, thanks to huge campaigns from Hulu and Bing. Spanish Language Cable TV (+32.2%), Cable TV (+14.8%) and free-standing coupon inserts (+11.5%) were the only gaining media in 2009. African-American TV (a subset of network, cable, and syndicated) also enjoyed a 13.8% increase in spending year-over-year. Internet (+0.1%) remained essentially flat.
 
Year-to-Year Change in Ad Spend, by Media
Media Category      Jan-Dec 2009 vs. Jan-Dec 2008
                                             % Change
Spanish Language Cable TV           32.2%
Cable TV                                      14.8%
FSI Coupon                                  11.5%
Internet                                         0.1%
Spanish Language Network TV        -3.9%
National Sunday Supplement           -7.2%
Spot Radio                                     -8.7%
Network Radio                                -9.7%
Network TV                                    -9.9%
Local Newspaper                            -10.4%
Outdoor                                        -11.2%
National Newspaper                       -13.7%
Spot TV 101-210                           -14.2%
Syndicated TV                               -14.7%
Spot TV Top 100                            -16.1%
National Magazine                          -19.3%
Local Magazine                              -23.9%
B2B                                               -32.7%
Local Sunday Supplement               -44.9%
Grand Total                                     -9.0%
Source: The Nielsen Co.
 

 
VH1 Mobile’s new “I Love the 80s Trivia” iPhone app downloads with 50 free multiple choice, timeline and matching pop culture questions from the era of big hair and jumper pants. Additional 100-question packs, including vintage 80’s photos, can be purchased for 99 cents each.
 

 
Meredith Corporation named Frank Gallon as Chief Administrative Officer of Meredith Integrated Marketing. Frank, former COO of The Nitro Group, will report to Martin Reidy, President, Meredith Integrated Marketing and will be based in New York.
 
Duccio Donati has been upped to EVP/Comcast International Media Group. Duccio’s new duties include oversight of the international division’s properties E! Entertainment Television, The Style Network, Versus, Golf Channel and G4.
 
Matt Herrmann has been appointed EVP, Chief Strategy Officer of McCann Erickson West. He will oversee the agency’s strategic practice in San Francisco and Los Angeles whose clients include HP, Nestle and iShares.
 
Semantic advertising company Peer39 named John Lambertus as VP/Data, Optimization and Analytics. John joins Peer39 from X Plus One Solutions.
 
Marketing analysis firm LogicLab has hired Michael Lazzaro as VP/Analytics, charged with overseeing the company’s analytical capabilities and ad-matching technology platform.
 

 
Crowdsourced content is loved by all until it rains on someone’s parade. But attempting to make money off vitriolic customer reviews has got to be bad karma. Local user-generated review site Yelp.com is being dragged into Los Angeles federal court in a class-action lawsuit for unfair business practices by a Long Beach-based veterinary hospital. The plaintiff, which requested Yelp to remove a negative review from its site, says the start-up not only refused to remove it but that it demanded payments of $300/month to obscure or remove the bad review. (Yelp was accused of a similar extortion scheme last year in an investigative piece by the East Bay Express.) One of the issues for such ratings services has long been weeding out flamers and non-constructive critics. Now it appears that wounded local businesses are also going to continue to be a problem. Yelp, which claims over 26 million uniques worldwide, has repeatedly denied such charges and has made an effort to provide services to local businesses themselves. It recently launched a free suite of tools for business users along with a primer that goes over marketing and networking basics on the site.
 
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A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM BATTLE OF THE BANDS: ROCK OF THE DECADES

Later – Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
[email protected]
02.25.10

Check www.cynopsis.com for the current primetime broadcast schedule, as well as Sports, International and more general industry news … and a new discussion board – join the conversation!

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JOB OPENING: CREATIVE DIR/FOX Sports MKTG. Lead/manage LA based creative promo campaigns for multi-sports networks. Strong VFX; 5+ yrs on-air promo exp-related commercial/agency/trailer exp. Resumes to www.foxcareers.com FNG18628 (3/3)

JOB OPENING: INTERNATIONAL TV PRGRM SALES EXEC/LA:5+ yrs min w/reality,specials, series, formats. Team player, major mkt exp, salary plus incent. Send industry ref, salary to: [email protected] (3/3)

JOB OPENING: LINE PROD/ Silver Spring: Contract thru agency mng major new series. Sprvs budget, sched, legal req’s, & deliverables. Seeking a career prod mgr, pref exp at DIR/EIC level.  [email protected]    (3/2)

JOB OPENING: PR ASSOCIATE TELENEXT MEDIA, Inc/NY:- PR and promotion of several entertainment properties, including a television show & websites. 3-5 yrs exp. necessary. Full details: http://telenextmedia.com/#/career-opportunities/ (2/27)

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JOB OPENING: SALES ASST/Cablevision Norwalk, CT:   Min1 yrs exp in Ad. Mktg, Sales or Bus related field. Support Ad Sales team. Prof in Word/Excel/Ppt. See full posting and apply to www.cablevision.jobs req 10644BR (2/27)

JOB OPENING: BROADCAST PUBLICITY ADMIN/CBS Communications/NY: Work with CBS Broadcast Publicity staff promoting CBS & CW Programs to Broadcast & Online outlets. Apply to http://www.cbscorporation.com/corp_careers.php Position number 4741 (2/27)

JOB OPENING: RESEARCH ANALYST/ABC FAMILY/CA: min 1 yrs exp in TV research, apt at Nielsen, strong written & analytical skills, college degree pref. Apply at: www.disneyabcjobs.com (ID 228606 (2/26)

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JOB OPENING: DESIGN DIR/(Syfy)/NBCU/NY: Will work under VP Creative to art dir, maint & grow the “look & feel” of Syfy brand, on-air, & also extending onto new media platforms & into adjacent bus. as req’d. www.nbcjobs.com 1147114 (2/26)

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SITUATION WANTED: ADMIN OR ASST POSITION WANTED/NYC: 3+ yrs admin exp at well-known companies in exec assistance, licensing, prod development, marketing, with specialization in children’s TV. Creative & professional. [email protected] (3/4)

SITUATION WANTED:  DIRECTOR of OPERATIONS / PROD. MANAGEMENT/NYC: Skilled at budget & contract negotiation, cash flow forecasting, capital admin., staff mgmt., team-building. MBA, bilingual, perseverant, resourceful. [email protected] (3/4)

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SITUATION WANTED: EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT position film/TV (NY) 7 years experience: Interned for a President, Executive Assistant to SVP/VP/film director/celebrity [email protected]  (3/3)

SITUATION WANTED: Seeking FT position at advertising agency or TV network (3 yrs exp at children’s ad agency with responsibilities ranging from asst buying, traffic, clearance, & finalizing invoices). Plz email me: [email protected] (3/2)

SITUATION WANTED: Hard working, organized PRODUCTION MANAGER (NY) with Field Producing and Post Supervisor experience seeks challenging new position. Past companies include HBO, MTV, A&E, Thirteen & Nat Geo. [email protected] (3/2)

SITUATION WANTED: PRODUCER/WRITER/DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT: NYC based Producer with over 8 years of reality, doc, music programming, and news experience. Domestic and international Field and Post network credits – [email protected] (3/2)

SITUATION WANTED: DIGITAL MEDIA/CABLE/BUSINESS AFFAIRS ATTORNEY Broad in-house exp in content prod & distribution, new media, operations, cable affiliate & ad sales. Avail for project/consultant/FT. Contact [email protected] (2/27)

SITUATION WANTED: DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION (NYC)Highly experienced CD working concept through completion. Portfolio: www.baerdavis.com Email: [email protected] (2/27)

SITUATION WANTED: Creative COPYWRITER. Award-winning, all media, affordable. [email protected]. For FREE samples, visit https://freebeaaron.wordpress.com (2/27)

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