A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE CYNOPSIS FOUNDATION, INC.
August 21st Charity Dinner & Auction in NYC
in support of Kids In Need and EarthEcho International: qubo, A&E, Retirement Living TV, Hallmark Channel, Rainbow Media,
BBC America/BBC Worldwide Americas, HT Capital Advisors,
Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution, HBO, Fox Broadcasting, Certainly Studio,
Sony, NBC Universal, The Dovetail Group, Sir Groovy, FEARnet
And thanks to those unable to attend, but have sent in donations. Greatly appreciated!
See you on the 21st ! — Cyn
Cynopsis: DIGITAL
08/13/08
Good morning, it’s Wednesday, August 13, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.
Promising not to give up on the digital subscription model, Starz confirmed it is shuttering its Vongo download service on Sept. 30, refusing any more new subscribers and promising to refund the subscriptions of any current customers. The site has offered unlimited downloads of Starz-licensed movies and TV shows for a flat fee of $10, allowing customers to save titles to their hard drive for later viewing. Instead the company will continue to offer the service as a (branded) white label option for other distributors such as Verizon, which launched the Starz Play broadband video service to its FiOS TV subscribers this past May. What went wrong? Take your pick. Getting people to pay for online video is difficult. Porting digital downloads to other devices continues to be challenge for all but the nerd class. What’s more Apple expressed no interest in adopting the SVOD service for the iTunes platform, despite several overtures from Starz.
Coming to a screen near you on Aug. 18 is Gemini Division, that Sci Fi mystery thriller from NBC Universal Digital Entertainment starring Rosario Dawson (Lost) as a NYPD vice cop searching for her fiancee’s murderer. The studio announced plans to distribute the 50-episode weekly series on the web via NBC.com, Sci-Fi.com and other online video portals; on VOD via Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS and Dish Network; and on electronic sell through via Amazon Unbox, NBC Mobile and Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Zune platform. Intel, Cisco, Microsoft, Acura and UPS have climbed on board as sponsors.
Seasons one and two of HBO‘s popular Hollywood insider comedy Entourage popped up for purchase on the iTunes store, joining past seasons of several more of the network’s Emmy-winning shows. Season three will arrive on Aug. 18 and season four will be available on Aug. 26, building up to the premiere of season 5 on HBO Sept. 7. (The new episodes won’t be available on iTunes until they’re released on DVD.)
Kirkland, WA-based 1Cast announced an initial round funding led by Craig McCaw’s Eagle River Holdings. The company plans to fill the void left when blogging news clip service RedLasso went dark, this time working with broadcast partners directly to create a real-time aggregation and delivery platform. Veterans from Avid, Broadstream Communications, Clearwire, EDS, Fisher Communications, Fox Interactive Media and NeXT Computing are part of the 1Cast team, led by CEO Anthony Bontrager.
Butaca.tv (Spanish for “movie theater seat”) launched as an online portal for Latin cinema featuring downloadable Spanish language features and shorts from Mexico, South America, the Caribbean, Spain and the U.S. The site, operated by L.A.-based Veranda Entertainment, is beginning with a limited-window download model (mostly priced between $2-$4 for a 3 day rental) but plans to introduce free ad-supported titles in the near future.
Video search engine Blinkx announced a new partnership with a voice-enabled audio toolmaker ConvoCast. ConvoCast will utilize Blinkx’s speech recognition technology to provide transcription, discovery and intelligent tagging of user-generated content for ConvoCast’s AudienceVox application developed for radio and television, in addition to their ReaderVox application for newspapers and print publishers.
Mobile content company Thumbplay is powering a host of new mobile interactive features for MTV Mobile, allowing subscribers to buy MTV-branded content including ringtones, applications, games and wallpapers.
The new release of BlueWhaleMail from Blue Whale Systems Ltd adds mobile integration to your Facebook account. BlueWhaleMail notifies you of your friends’ Facebook status updates, wall posts and news items, and allows you to send them a message, poke them or write on their wall in response.
If you’ve visited the iPhone App store you’ll notice most apps cost between $5-$10. Not the silly I Am Rich app. Until Apple removed it from the site, creator Armin Heinrich charged $999.99 (the interface’s limit) for an app that simply illuminates a glowing red gem on the phone when activated, reported The LA Times. Eight curious souls purchased it before it was removed.
CBS Sports Mobile launched a new AT&T wireless mobile application giving fans access to scores, stats, headlines, streaming videos as well as complete control of CBSSports.com fantasy teams. The app has cross platform capabilities, so any changes you make on your phone will show up on your online account. It is currently available for 18 different AT&T phones for $4.99/month.
If you’re bored with your iPhone wallpaper check out the selection on iPhonetoolbox.com – they’re free and refreshed every day. Note: you must be running the iPhone 2.0 operating system.
Content delivery network Limelight Networks posted revenue of $30.3 million for Q2 2008, a 22% increase from a year ago, but warned of tightening profit margins due to required infrastructure build out and increased pricing pressure. Limelight, which won Microsoft’s business to be the primary deliverer of video for NBCOlympics.com on MSN, also recently renewed its contracts with Disney, Netflix and Veoh.
While the Department of Justice performs its due diligence on whether or not to approve the Google/Yahoo search advertising deal, a number of ad agency executives expressed concern to Adweek the tie-up would drive prices higher hamper competition in the industry.
As if on cue, Hitwise released its search engine market share for July pegging Google with over 70% of the search market for the first time (an increase of 10% over the same month last year.) Combined with Yahoo, Google would control nearly 90% of the search market.
ComScore announced it will introduce improved measurement of Online Ad Networks beginning in September. The new reporting structure will provide two sets of measures the “potential reach” for each network and an “actual reach” reading. Potential reach will measure unduplicated visitors to all sites with which each ad network has contracted to deliver advertising, based on written documentation and confirmation provided by the networks. Actual reach will represent the reach of the ads that are actually served by the network during a given reporting period. In order to report actual reach, networks must participate by providing comScore with the appropriate identification protocols for rendered ads.
The social networking phenomenon continues to grow like gangbusters abroad even as it levels off in the U.S. according to a new ComScore study. During the past year the total North American audience of social networkers grew by just 9% compared to 25% growth for the world at large. The Middle East-Africa region (up 66%), Europe (up 35%) and Latin America (up 33 %) all showed impressive growth. Among the individual sites Facebook and Hi5 showed the highest international growth rates. Facebook grew its user base from 8,751 to 35,263 in Europe and from 3,7112 to 20,712 in Asia during the past year.
Worldwide Growth among Selected Social Networking Sites – June 2008 vs. June 2007
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Jun-2007 Jun-2008 % Change
Total Internet: Total Audience 778,310 860,514 11%
Social Networking 464,437 580,510 25%
FACEBOOK.COM 52,167 132,105 153%
MYSPACE.COM 114,147 117,582 3%
HI5.COM 28,174 56,367 100%
FRIENDSTER.COM 24,675 37,080 50%
Orkut 24,120 34,028 41%
BEBO.COM 18,200 24,017 32%
Skyrock Network 17,638 21,041 19%
Source: comScore World Metrix
Broadcast sales veteran Charles Taylor has been named VP/Broadcast and Production Sales, U.S., for Samma Systems. He will be based in the company’s global headquarters in midtown Manhattan, reporting to Mark Gray, President.
How often have you heard about a cool new movie, book or gadget from a friend and intended to pick it up later for yourself, only to completely forget the recommendation? (Jotting little notes down on scraps of paper never works.) A new service called kwiry.com (tagline: text it before you forget it) has come to the rescue with a simple mobile phone-web interface that allows you to text reminders to yourself, then have kwiry follow up later with an email reminder of what you wrote. It was thought up as simple reminder tool but has evolved into a recommendation engine. The beta site just added direct shortcut interfaces to Netflix and Amazon, allowing you to add movies to your Netflix cue or items to your Amazon wishlist eliminating one more step in the process of getting your hands on what you want. Here’s another tagline for kwiry: because not only seniors have senior moments.
Later — Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
08.13.08
Cynopsis Digital Ad Sales:
Jason Cesare – 732-718-0629 / jason@cynopsis.com
Classifieds – Trish Pihonak- 203-926-9878 / trish@cynopsis.com
Cynopsis website – Video Resumes, Extended Classified Ads, Archives, and the Cynopsis Daily Video
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A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CYNOPSIS MEDIA: TOP TIER
Cynopsis Media: Top Tier
Executive Search Division
High level executive search, candidates fully screened and vetted, meeting precisely your criteria.
For more information, call Trish Pihonak 203.926.9878
if you’re looking to make an executive change, or are looking for a change of scenery yourself.
Trish@cynopsis.com
www.cynopsis.com/toptier .
Cyn opsis CLASSIFIEDS – For More classifieds, visit the Cynopsis.com classifieds page here .
JOB OPENING: ASST TO PRESIDENT/THE HOTEL NETWORKS NY: Key position w/ growing co. Strong verbal/written comm & PC skills. Creative &/or Prgrmng a +. Detailed & orgnzd, self starter, multi-tasker; Res to: jobs@thehotelnetworks.com (8/20)
JOB OPENING: RESEARCH MGR/MUSIC CHOICE/NY: Support sales, mktg& prgmg across multiple platforms w/accurate & actionable research. BA/BS 6-8 yrs media rsrch exp req/2 yrs consumer/online rsrch strongly pref. jobs@musicchoice.com (8/20)
JOB OPENING: DIR, AD SALES/THE HOTEL NETWORKS (CHI): Strong leader; 8+ yrs natl media sales; OOH, VOD & Promo a +; Exc verbal & written skills; Proven sales leader w/ client & agency contacts; Res to: gdolce@thehotelnetworks.com (8/20)
JOB OPENING: MGR SALES PLANNING NAT’L TV GROUP: 2-4 yrs exp nat’l sales planning or nat’l TV buying. MS PP & Excel a +. Media math skills & excellent communication skills needed. Email Res: Jwatson@execsearchinc.net (8/20)
JOB OPENING: EXEC PROD, History TV Prods/History/CT:Editorial/exec oversight for prod of History branded films for museums/historic sites/long form doc& series.Strong editorial, sprvsry, orgnz’l skills req’d.Apply www.aetn.com (8/19)
JOB OPENING: DIR, DVLPMNT/2C MEDIA/LA or NYC: Creative, aggressive idea generator to oversee dev. 3 yrs exp creative side of prod/prog in prod co, net, or web. Dev exp a +.. Res: carla.kaufmansloan@2cmedia.com. Visit 2Cmedia.com (8/19)
JOB OPENING: DIR VIDEO PROD/Films Media Group/Hamilton NJ: Dvlp/prod educ’l video prgrms & ancillary materials for mktg brands: Humanities & Sciences/Cambridge Edu/Meridian Edu/Shopware. Res/sal req’s: LCLARKE@FACTSONFILE.COM EOE (8/16)
JOB OPENING: LICENSING MGR/Sesame Workshop/NYC: Mng all aspects of licensing for HBA/pckgd goods/Seasonal. Resp. incl. negotiations,budgets, oversee product dvlp.; 5+ yrs licensing exp req’d. human.resources@sesameworkshop.org (8/15)
JOB OPENING: ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE/NEW YORK/REELZCHANNEL: 4+ yrs cable media ad sales exp incl online & strategic integrated mktg solutions. Resp for ad sales of East Coast region. Send res: careers@reelzchannel.com (8/15)
JOB OPENING: PROMO WRITER/PRODUCER/EDITOR/2C Media/Miami Beach: Develop promo campaigns for major nat’l networks. Strong writing and conceptual a must, editorial a plus! Co info @ 2cmedia.com. Contact: spencer.condon@2cmedia.com (8/15)
JOB OPENING: DIR-AFF MKTG/MGM/LA: Dev/exec MGM HD’s mktg & promo strategs/object/tactics supporting netwk’s bus model incl all aff & consumer mktg campgns & initiatvs. 8-10 yrs exp w/prov track record in mktg. www.MGM.com #6570 (8/14)
JOB OPENING: DIR BUS AFF, DEV/Fuse/NY 7-10 yrs bus, legal, rights, lic, neg terms/deal for series,dev, tal & prod. Rez: msghr@thegarden.com “DBZ” in sub (8/14)
JOB OPENING: MANAGER, OPERATIONS, MTV Games. MTV/NYC: 4+ yrs Ops exp w/n the toy/videogame/DVD field. Prvn financial/analytical /mgment skills. Ability to speak Chinese A+, MBA A+. EOE/M/F/D/AAP. Apply: www.mtvncareers.com (8/14)
JOB OPENING: DIR, OPERATIONS, MTV Games/MTV/NYC: 5+ yrs exp in Ops w/n the toy/videogame/DVD industries. Prvn ability to manage an ops org. Prvn knwlge of project tracking tools. MBA A+ EOE/M/F/D/AAP. Apply: www.mtvncareers.com (8/14)
JOB OPENING: COORD, OPERATIONS, MTV Games/MTV/NYC: 3+ yrs Ops exp w/n toy/videogame/DVD industries. Exclnt verbal/written skills. Prvn exp w/ MRP systems. Ability to speak Chinese A+EOE/M/F/D/AAP. Apply: www.mtvncareers.com (8/14)
JOB OPENING: DIRECTOR STATION RELATIONS: Present, neg & distrib Network programg & other initiatives through daily interaction with key TV station personnel in NE/Central U.S. region. Apply: www.disneycareers.com Req 173136 EOE (8/14)
JOB OPENING: EXEC ASST TO PRES. of NY Media Consulting Firm: exp. req’d/strong comm., PC& phone skills/media knowledge a plus/handle pressure/detail oriented/self-starter/flexible/BA/email: apply.NYmedia@gmail.com (8/14)
JOB OPENING: SALES PLNR/The Hotel Networks/Chicago: BA pref. 1+ yrs exp nat’l advrtsng/buying/plan’g. Exp brdcst/cbl/natl o-o-h companies a +. MS knwlg. Exc media math, verbal/written comm skills. Res/cvr: mhershey@thehotelnetworks.com (8/14)
JOB OPENING: ACCT EXEC/WTIC/WTXX/Hartford: Seeking AE’s (all levels) w/ at least 1+ yrs media sales exp; broadcast TV, cable, or radio exp. preferred; excellent negotiation skills; strong work ethic; Resume: resumes@fox61.com (8/14)
JOB OPENING: LOCAL INTERACTIVE SALES MGR/WTIC/WTXX/Hartford: Exp’d ISM to grow interactive products & service advertisers, dvlp new biz, coach local AE’s. 3+ yrs exp, self-motivated, energetic. Res: resumes@fox61.com (8/14)
JOB OPENING: PROGRAMMING SCHEDULING ASSOCIATE/DIRECTV/El Segundo, CA: Schedule PPV Programming and create reports. Requires 1+ yrs related experience in broadcast/programming. Apply www.directv.com/careers job 0800495 (8/14)
SUMMER/FALL INTERNSHIPS – These positions are for credit only – nobody gets paid here. These ads are always posted for free , and students work for school credit only. For more information on the specs for posting an Internship ad, email Trish at trish@cynopsis.com .
FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: Discovery/NY: Discovery is looking for fall interns in Ad Sales, Communications, Finance, Marketing, Prog. Dev., and Marketing depts. Sept-Dec, unpaid/for credit internship. Apply www.discovery.com #8153 (8/19)
FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: LeadDog Marketing Group/NYC an event mktg and brand promotion agency seeks ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT INTERNS. Must be passionate, proactive and possess a can-do attitude. Submit resume to sheka@leaddogmarketing.com (8/16)
FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: Campfire Internship (campfirenyc.com): Responsibilities incl office admin, design, prod assistance, making runs & assisting staff. Submit intro email and/or cover letter & res. Contact Lisa: lerwood@campfirenyc.com (8/16)
FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: Razor & Tie Entertainment: Independent music label is looking for qualified interns for Fall 2008. Internships available in marketing, press, A&R and Music Publishing.Please-mail fnull@razorandtie.com (8/15)
FALL INTERNSHIP CREDIT ONLY: The Chamber Group is a full service PR firm seeking passionate interns! Internship is for credit only, w/compensation for travel/meals (min of 15 hrs/wk). Contact: Damali Elliott 212.366.5801/ info@thechambergroup.com (8/14)
FALL INTERNSHIP CREDIT ONLY: Judy Twersky PR, Inc/Forest Hills NY: for creative, media-savvy students with strong interest in publicizing documentaries, books & ent clients.Min 15hrs/wk. Email cover letter/resume to Judy: TwerskyPR@aol.com (8/14)
SITUATION WANTED ADS, POSTED BY THOSE LOOKING TO BE HIRED … Interested in posting your Video Resume? Contact Trish@cynopsis.com for more information ….
SITUATION WANTED: PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE Award winning producer/prod. man. seeks perm. placement in NYC or LA. 10 yrs exp. Extensive exp. w/ budgets, tech. process, unions, & all facets of motion picture supervision. kris@rustik.net (8/16)
E-mail Trish@cynopsis.com for rates and specs for Job Openings.
Interested in posting your Video Resume? Contact Trish@cynopsis.com for more information ….
Are you looking for a job? Post your Situation Wanted Ad here — Email Trish@cynopsis.com for specs.
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