A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM WE tv

Cynopsis: DIGITAL

04/22/09

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, April 22, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. 

Times are tough in the online advertising space. Yahoo reported a 78% drop in net income, which totaled $118 million for Q1 compared to $537 million a year earlier. Revenue dropped 13% to $1.58 billion, down from $1.8 billion Q1 2008. Double digit declines in display advertising and revenues from affiliated sites didn’t help. Even search revenue on the company’s owned-and-operated sites dropped by 3% year-over-year to $399 million. As expected the company announced another wave of job cuts that will shed an additional 5% of its workforce in order to, in the words of new CEO Carol Bartz, “streamline our structure globally.”
 

 
Lifetime unveiled a number of digital projects as part of its upfront presentation yesterday as the network plans to redouble its efforts in the online space. In addition to beefing up the Project Runway minisite with more than 500 exclusive video clips, Lifetime announced:

• The planned relaunch of recent acquired community site Mothersclick.com
• A redux of dress-up casual gaming site DressUpChallenge
• The rollout of a new version of UGC feature Total Beauty Makeover this summer
• New applications and a downloadable game for dress up gaming portal Roiworld
• The launch of 4 new iPhone apps including one geared toward the new season of Army Wives

 
Comcast’s G4 Network has secured the multiplatform broadcast rights to cover the E3 gaming confab once again from LA beginning June 1. The network has over 22 hours of live coverage scheduled including live press conferences, gaming challenges and from-the-floor demos. G4tv.com will also offer comprehensive coverage of the convention, which is once again open to the general game-obsessed public. The site will feature live streaming video and liveblog coverage from every E3 media briefing as well as Steve Wiebe’s much-anticipated World Record Donkey Kong attempt. (How High Can You Go, Steve?)
 
Discovery‘s infectious Mythbusters show, which kicked off its 7th season earlier this month, airs a special YouTube-sourced episode tonight, choosing tests suggested from over 200 videos submitted on MythBuster’s Viewer Challenge page.
 
Production company Authentic Entertainment (Flipping Out, My First Home) has launched a new digital media division that will focus on syndicating its library titles and generating new revenues in the digital and branded entertainment content markets worldwide.
 

 
Ireland-based music video sharing site Muzu.tv signed a licensing deal with Universal Music to feature ad supported videos of its artists in Britain and Ireland including U2 and Amy Winehouse per Reuters. Muzu, which has signed similar deals with EMI, Sony BMG, and other indie labels, compensates artists by sharing revenue and also distributes music video through a popular Bebo app.
 
Digital studio and distribution shop RedLever, producer of Shop Girls of Madison Lane, will announce today it has acquired exclusive rights to the shows “Bunco Moms,” about the Bunco dice game craze, and interview show “One-on-One with John Salley”. RedLever is shopping for partnerships and integrations and will lead production and distribution of the two series.
 
Social opinion site SodaHead struck a partnership with Technorati that will feature crowdsourced “polls of the day” on 8 sections of the technology-themed blogging platform.
 
Internet broadcasting site uBroadcast announced an agreement to provide exclusive online coverage of the San Diego Celebrity Golf Classic scheduled for April 24-26th at Morgan Run Resort & Club in Rancho Santa Fe, CA.  The broadcast is sponsored by Sport Specific Performance.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM KCET

 
Publicis’ aggregated VivaKi digital unit (containing assets from Starcom MediaVest, ZenithOptimedia and Denuo) will begin testing two types of online video ad units this summer with plans to present the industry with a single recommended unit by Feb. 2010, reports Mediaweek. The plan, unveiled on Monday at IAB’s digital video forum, is part of The Pool industry digital ad initiative – headed up by Curt Hecht, President, VivaKi Nerve Center and Tracey Scheppach, SVP, Video Innovation Director, Starcom USA.
 
Mobile search company Getfugu signed a marketing deal with Hollywood production outfit CP Productions agreeing to be Getfugu’s agent in the entertainment sector for its “hot spotting” advertising service, set to launch in fall of 2009. In addition to offering image and voice recognition interfaces, Getfugu allows you to watch a video on a touchscreen phone then touch an item featured in the video in order to purchase it.
 
Fuel pump-based video platform provider Outcast announced that its SMS-based coupon delivery system has gained traction among advertisers and users, delivering more than 25 million SMS coupons to date.
 

 
Microsoft announced a slew of new social media partnerships to create a more vibrant interface for Windows Live messaging platform. New content and data feeds from sites such as MySpace, hi5, Tagged Last.fm, Pandora, Twitter and Yelp will enable users to use the platform to manage a broad array of their online activity. Integrations will also enable users to integrate contact lists. Furthermore Hotmail users will finally be able to IM their messenger contacts from within Hotmail.
 
Comcast is expanding its super high-speed “wideband” DOCSIS 3.0 broadband offering to the San Francisco Bay Area this month, offering speeds of up to 50 Mbps down/10 Mbps up for a $139.95 with cable TV services. The MSO’s Ultra service, offering up to 22 Mbps of down and 5 Mbps of up, is priced at $62.95/month.
 
A 5.6% decline in online revenues at NYTimes.com, About.com, Boston.com and other sites contributed to a $74.4 million net loss at The New York Times Co. as total ad revenues dropped 27% overall to $45.4 million.
 
Amazon is involved in legal fisticuffs with Swiss-based social collaboration start-up Amazee complaining the names are too similar.
 
CDN Delve Networks signed a deal to manage video for financial market intelligence firm Standard & Poors.
 
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein unveiled a newly revamped dtv.gov site at NAB yesterday providing local TV digital mapping and Q&A’s regarding equipment purchasing and installation.
 

 
Must be the cold weather. The world’s leading consumer of online video is Canada according to a new ComScore report tracking February viewing figures. The average online video viewer in the Great White North watched 10 hours of video online in Feb., an increase of 53% from the previous year. Nearly 88% of the total Canadian web population viewed online video in February, the highest penetration of the five countries currently reported by comScore Video Metrix, followed by France and Germany at 82%, the U.K. at 81% and the U.S. at 76%. As in the U.S., Google sites (namely YouTube) attracted the most viewers with 18.2 million watching an average of 89 videos per viewer during the month. Google accounted for 52% of all videos viewed (1.6 billion). 
 
Top Canadian Online Video Properties* by Videos Viewed – February 2009
Property                               Videos        Share (%) of
                                            (000)           Videos    
Google Sites                        1,625,244           52.3
Microsoft Sites                          55,645            1.8
Yahoo! Sites                              45,697            1.5
Megavideo.com                         36,828            1.2
CTVglobemedia                         25,200            0.8
Dailymotion.com                       20,930            0.7
Facebook.com                           19,470            0.6
Viacom Digital                           18,190            0.6
Turner Network                         12,368            0.4
Fox Interactive Media                 11,694            0.4
Total Internet: Total Aud.       3,107,826        100.0
Source: comScore Video Metrix
 

 
Music Choice announced the expansion of its ShowOff iTV feature powered by Atrinsic. The text and photo submission tool that integrates with mobile phones, email and AOL’s IM is now being offered on six Music Choice channels including MC MixTape, Rock, Hit List, Today’s Country, Musica Urbana, and Hip-Hop and R&B. The app has garnered nearly 4 million text and photo submissions since launch, according to Atrinsic.
 

 
Wenda Harris Millard is leaving her post as President of Media and co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omimedia to become the new President of strategic advisory firm MediaLink, working with Chief Executive and Founder, Michael E. Kassan. Wenda served as Chief Sales Officer for Yahoo before she joined MSLO in 2007.
 
Paris-based video sharing site Dailymotion hired telecom and media veteran Ian Brotherston as its new CEO, replacing Mark Zaleski who has resigned to pursue other opportunities. Ian, whose last position was Commercial Director of BBC division Red Bee Media, will be based in Dailymotion’s Paris headquarters.
 
Scott Ard has been named Editor-in-Chief of CBS’ CNET, adding CNET News.com to his current responsibilities, which include all content on Reviews, Downloads, and CNET TV. 
Dan Farber, who was formerly the Editor-in-Chief of CNET News.com, is now Editor-in-Chief of CBSNews.com.
 
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

 
The evolution of PBS.org as a major digital media destination takes a giant step forward today as the public broadcaster relaunches its dedicated video portal enabling users to search and browse for content from a comprehensive full episode library that features just-aired shows and typically goes back 2-3 years from the current schedule. (News Hour fans will also be happy to know full episodes of the daily show are now available for the first time.) An amazing resource for educators and researchers, the interface allows you to browse and filter results by program and topic including History, Performing Arts, Science and Technology. The bit rate has also been improved to feature near-DVD quality. A crucial component of the relaunch coming in May, according to Jason Seiken, SVP/Interactive for PBS, is the integration of locally-produced PBS video content with the national archive, providing stations with the opportunity to reach PBS.org’s 12-13 million monthly audience. Local PBS station sites will also be able offer links to the content from their own site. Digitally savvy moves are helping PBS to greatly expand its audience among 18-34 year olds who are typically tough for the pubcaster to reach, says Mr. Seiken. PBS.org’s audience skews much younger than the network’s on air average age of 62; in fact 2/3 of PBS.org’s users are under 45 per comScore. Not bogged down by revenue cannibalization concerns, PBS stands to attract a huge new audience of users as more last-ten-feet solutions like Boxee gain traction in the marketplace. 

Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
04.22.09

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