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Cynopsis: DIGITAL
01/28/10

Good morning, it’s Thursday, January 28, 2010, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Apple finally unveiled the iPad, an intuitive tablet device for browsing the web, watching TV shows and movies, reading e-books and periodicals, sending e-mails and accessing the 140k or so apps now available on the App store. Of course, it also ships with a dozen apps developed for the device and Apple is hoping developers will immediately get busy creating unique apps optimized for the larger screen iPad. It sports a beautiful 9.7-inch, 1,000 sensor multi-touch display that looks much like the iPhone or iPod Touch screen, is super thin (.5 inches) and weighs just a pound and a half. It can playback 720p HD video, although video output to external sources is limited to 480p. The user interface for watching videos looks very cool, as does the “iBooks” application. The UI allows you to flip pages like a real book, or tap the screen to rotate into a virtual book store that presents a visual representation of your local Barnes and Noble. Now for the best part: despite a rumored $900 price tag, Apple is managing to deliver the entry level 16 GB WiFi-only model for just $499, which begins shipping within 60 days. iPad users who want 3G access from AT&T must wait an additional month and pay from $629. 3G plans will run $15/month for up to 250MB of data, or unlimited data for $29.99/month.

 
To deliver material to the iPad’s build in e-reader application, Apple has constructed its own iBookstore built on the iPUb format and has approached Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan Publishers to supply it. The company, which will retain 30% of e-book sale prices, envisions price points of $12.99 and $14.99 for new releases with select best sellers offered at $9.99, according to the WSJ. As Amazon has played hardball with publishers to keep best sellers priced at under $9.99, Apple should have an easier time winning over publishers.
 
Sundance Channel‘s Full Frontal Fashion site will premiere two new series – “Catwalk Countdown” and “Douglas Keeve’s “Dirty Denim” during New York’s Fashion Week starting Feb. 8.
 
Multiplatform content brand ExerciseTV, founded by “Body By Jake” Steinfeld, has signed a deal with LodgeNet’s The Hotel Networks to bring a library of on demand workout videos to more than 1.1 million hotel rooms across the U.S.
 
CBS College Sports Network and sister site MaxPreps.com will feature all day coverage of College Football National Signing Day on Feb. 3 including in-depth analysis of elite recruits and recruiting classes and live cut-ins to player commitment press conferences.
 
Music-themed VOD service Music Choice says it filled more than 1 billion orders in 2009 making it the #1 Video on Demand network, citing Rentrak.
 

 
Shovio.com is new two way online-based broadcasting network that enables anyone with a webcam to participate in live shows. Founded by New York radio veteran Leslie Gold, who also hosts “The Radiochick” show on the platform, Shovio is having early success by attracting some big name personalities from the New York radio scene including sports talk icon Sid Rosenberg, Goumba Johnny and Buc Wild.
 
Spanish language cable network Mexico 22 has rebranded itself Canal 22 Internacional and has launched a new bilingual website to go with the move. The site caters to Spanish speaking residents as well as to US-born Latino and Mexican communities.
 

 
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz identified television as its biggest competitor in its battle to attract ad dollars in a conference call with analysts on Tuesday. “That’s where advertisers spend most of their money, and where we’re taking share,” she said. Ms. Bartz also mentioned that video content like Yahoo’s “Prime Time in No Time” TV recap show is attracting larger audiences; the show peaked one day in Nov. capturing 12 million viewers. Premium brand display ad revenue is also on the upswing, she said, and offering advertisers the ability to buy “specific targeted audience” at scale will be the company’s focus this year.
 

 
The FCC is pressing wireless carriers such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA and Google, maker of the new Nexus One, to justify exorbitant early termination fees. Not convinced they’re needed at all, The FCC asked the companies to detail how each discloses early termination fee information to consumers in ads, in statements on corporate websites, in brochures, in sales scripts and in monthly bills.
 
Chinese search leader Baidu struck a deal with Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten to build a $50 million online ‘B2B2C’ online shopping mall for Chinese Internet users Under the terms of the agreement, Rakuten will become majority shareholder of the venture holding a 51% stake with Baidu owning the remaining 49%.
 

 
About 65% of the apps built for Google’s Android platform originate in the U.S. despite the fact that European publishers typically get 50% more for their apps than American publishers, according to Distimo‘s Dec. mobile application findings. Publishers located in Europe price their applications at an average of $4.42. Applications in Apple App Store, Google Android Market and Nokia Ovi Store are priced at around $3.50 in the U.S. Windows Marketplace for Mobile and BlackBerry App World are more expensive, averaging $6.99 and $8.26 respectively.
 
Highest ranked paid applications – Apple App Store (US)
Rank Application       Publisher          Price
1  RedLaser             Occipital           $1.99
2  Live Cams            Barry Egerter    $0.99
3  Doodle Jump         Lima Sky          $0.99
4  Where’s Waldo?
The Fantastic Journey Ludia            $2.99
5  Skee-Ball             Freeverse        $0.99
6  Bejeweled 2         PopCap Games $2.99
7  Voices                 tap tap tap       $0.99
8  Cartoon Wars       Blue GNC         $0.99
9 Pocket Girlfriend    Atrium Designs $0.99
10 Monopoly            Electronic Arts  $4.99
Source: Distimo
 
Highest ranked free applications – Apple App Store (US)
Rank Application         Publisher        
1 Traffic Rush            Donut Games
2 Bouncedown           Jagex Games Studio
3 Finger Physics Free  PressOK Entertainment
4 IMDb                     IMDb
5 Facebook               Facebook
6 Beautiful Boobs       S*xy Girls …
7 Dragon Dictation     Nuance Communications
8 Tap Tap Revenge 3 Tapulous
9 Mad Libs                Penguin Group USA
10 Paper Toss           Backflip Studios
Source: Distimo
 

 
After much hoopla was made of the medium at CES, Samsung announced that his has begun mass producing 3D LED and LCD TV screens, probably the best evidence yet that CE manufacturers are committing to 3D Television. The company began producing 3D-compatible LED and LCD screens for 40-inch, 46-inch and 55-inch full-HD 3D TVs this month.
 
MvixUSA has launched its latest PVR-capable media player, the “ULTIO Pro MX-880HD” coming to stores the first week of Feb. The new set-top box, meant to compliment a cable or satellite box and also stream internet video, supports Full HD 1080p via HDMI and can play back H.264, MKV, DivX HD, MPEG 2-TS, VC-1 and WMV video formats. The premium $348 version ships with a 2TB hard drive that can be used for local playback, stand alone Torrent downloading or time-shifting. That’s a lot of YouTube videos.
 
Autograph is a new iPhone/iPod touch app selling for $3.99 from Ten One Design that allows users to create digital signatures directly on the touch screen then automatically insert them into electronic documents on their Mac or PC via a Wi-Fi connection. It works with the free Autograph Helper app required to receive signed docs.
 

 
Hamid Younessi has joined Bravo Digital as Director of Technology, reporting to Mari Ghuneim, Bravo’s VP/Digital Media.   Hamid most recently served as the Chief Technology Officer for music site Babulous.com and prior to that, managed technology groups for news at CBS, e-commerce at MTV, and platform at Sony Online Entertainment.
 
Online video ad firm Scan Scout has hired Dan Drescher as VP/West Coast Sales, based in Los Angeles. He joins from competitor VideoEgg, where he also started the west coast sales division. The company also named several other sales managers in various regions. Jake C. Dolce joins as Senior Eastern Sales Manager; J.G. Fink was hired as Senior Eastern Sales Manager; John M. McShea comes aboard as Senior Eastern Sales Manager; and Kelly McEttrick joins as Sales Planning and Development Manager.
 
Chicago-based multimedia group Towers Holdings has launched an advertiser-led video content business, Towers Branded Content and Entertainment. The unit, led by Jonathan Towers, Chief Creative Officer of Towers Productions, Inc, will develop and produce original content for television and for the web that integrates brands, products and services.
 
Media Rights Capital announced the promotion of television executive Joe Hipps to VP/Production and Creative Affairs, MRC Television. Joe will report to MRC Co-CEOs Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu.
 

 
Traditional media companies like cable networks may be valuable partners in helping to bring niche digital properties to the mainstream. Atari and SyFy are teaming up to produce a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) based the Star Trek franchise. Build a Starfleet officer avatar, interact with other players and participate in missions that take you where no one has gone before. Star Trek Online, launching Feb. 2 as a $50 download for the PC, will feature a micro-transaction currency players can use to purchase weapons, beef up the shields of the Enterprise or unlock bonuses that will give you an edge on other players. A “SyFy Bundle” will include bonus offers not available elsewhere. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft currently owns the MMOG space with over 11 million paying subscribers worldwide, but Star Trek Online should benefit greatly from both TV and digital promotion and a huge built in audience of Trekkies.
 
Later – Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
01.28.10

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