Cynopsis: DIGITAL
11/06/08
Good morning, it’s Thursday, November 6, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. Don’t forget to vote!
Google announced it is abandoning its search advertising agreement with Yahoo after both sides attempted to pull back on the scope of the agreement to appease regulators. Yahoo released a statement saying it continues to believe in the merits of the deal and is “disappointed” in Google’s decision. Meanwhile the Justice Department issued its own statement defending its position, claiming the arrangement would have “denied consumers the benefits of competition – lower prices, better service and greater innovation.” The deal would have given Google a 90% share of the search market and provided Yahoo with a much-needed injection of additional revenue.
~ INNOVATORS & START-UPS ~
Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, creator of the star-studded Yes We Can Obama tribute video, is commemorating Barack Obama’s historic win in the U.S. presidential election by releasing his third tribute, “It’s a New Day.” Look for it on the new artist-powered social video entertainment site Dipdive.
In more timely election-themed news National Lampoon announced it has acquired humor blog BarackObamaJokes.com for an undisclosed amount.
CNN scored points for technological inventiveness during its election night coverage. Correspondent Jessica Yellin showed off a new hologram technique transmitting a 3D image of herself from Chicago to the CNN press center in New York. The space-age transmission was accomplished by uplinking data from a ring of 35 high-def cameras.
During its busy session on Tuesday the FCC also launched an investigation into the pricing policies of America’s major cable operators and Verizon Communications, reports the AP. The agency sent a letter to a multiple MSOs and Verizon, asking them if they’re using the nation’s digital transition to trick customers into paying higher fees by moving analog channels to costlier digital tiers to make room for more HD or broadband offerings.
Time Warner Cable says it benefitted from a successful bundling strategy, growth in digital video services and video price increases during Q3. Triple play subscribers approached 3 million or 20% of its total customer base, benefiting from 168,000 net additions during the third quarter. Revenues increased 8% to $4.3 billion; subscription revenues grew 9% to $4.1 billion; and video revenues rose 4% to $2.6 billion. The company added 214,000 new broadband customers during the quarter giving it a total of 8.6 million cable modem customers.
In a Q3 earnings call Barry Diller announced IAC would sell off and shut down a number of sites in its digital media-focused Emerging Business Unit next month. The company was hit last quarter by costs associated with splitting the company into 5 units, reporting an operating net loss of $14.8 million. IAC’s Emerging Business unit includes video sharing sites Vimeo and College Humor as well as Tina Brown’s editorial site The Daily Beast.
Vertical ad network Travel Ad Network (TAN), announced a partnership with geo-contextual advertising company Lat49 to offers advertisers the ability to deliver geo-contextually targeted display ads across a wide variety of online map sites such as Maps.com.
The U.S. election helped drive record traffic to news sites according to CDN Akamai‘s Net Usage Index which monitors global online news consumption in real time. As news organizations began to call the election for Obama visitors per minute to news sites peaked at more than 8.5 million users. Individual traffic reports from news sites bear the trend out:
- CNN.com attracted a record 27 million + uniques (more than 5 times its normal traffic) per TechCruch and delivered a record 4.9 million live video streams, nearly tripling its previous record
- MSNBC.com says it had more than 20 million uniques and nearly 250 million page views, also its highest traffic day. The site delivered nearly 9 million video streams and MSNBC TV’s “Decision ’08 Dashboard” users averaged 42 minutes per live stream session. MSNBC’s embeddable Decision ’08 election widget generated more than 6 million page views across the web
- ABCNews.com reported record traffic of 3.4 million uniques and 24.2 million page views – 3 times its daily average and 50% higher than the previous record set on Super Tuesday. The site delivered live video streams from 4 different sources including feeds from ABC News NOW, McCain Election Night Headquarters, Obama Election Night Headquarters as well as streams from ABC News reporters in battleground states.
One storied print publication is trying its best to survive in the digital age. In addition to building a comprehensive section of online-only blogs and videos, The New Yorker Magazine launched a digital edition this week delivered via email to existing subscribers. (Click here for a free 4-week trial.) It consists of an exact replica of the print edition (same stories, same ads) in a clickable digital format. The digital reader allows you to search, print and email individual pages of the edition. Subscribers may also choose to subscribe to the digital edition only for a price of $39.95 for 47 issues (1 year). Both print and digital subscriptions come with full access to New Yorker’s online archive dating back to 1925. Until digital E-readers become commonplace magazines must do all they can to remain relevant and this is one way to win the hearts and minds with a minimum of additional costs.
Correction: Break.com will not be distributing feature films to partner sites such as Hulu, G4 and TruTV; rather these are examples of other premium content partnerships signed by Break in 2008. Also Break will not place ads within the movies but in wraps around the video player.
Later — Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
11.06.08
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JOB OPENING: SR. MGR-HARDLINES/Cookie Jar Ent/Burbank Min.35 yrs Dom. License exp in Consumer Products industry with developed relationships. http://www.thecookiejarcompany.com (Careers). Send Res/CL: resumes@cjar.com (11/13)
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