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Cynopsis: DIGITAL

12/02/09

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, December 2, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

GE and Vivendi have finally agreed on a price for Vivendi’s 20% share of NBC Universal, clearing the way for GE to sell a majority stake in the media giant to Comcast, the largest MSO in the U.S. The current deal values NBCU at about $30 billion and establishes a framework to credit a portion of the company’s cash flow back to Comcast if and when the deal closes. Vivendi has been playing hardball over the valuation of its stake since it realized GE’s sale of the company hinged upon it buying back the French media conglomerate’s portion. The merger, which would create a vertically integrated entertainment giant, is expected by some to meet more than a little resistance at the regulatory level.
 

 
Amid the hemming and hawing over the distribution of free content online, Google announced it has updated a little-known program it calls First Click Free, which allows publishers to index their subscription-based content then enable users to see the first page of the paid content for free. Publishers can now limit users to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing, limiting poaching by entering a paid site through several different searches. Users who click on more than five articles from a publisher in the program may now see a registration page, requiring the user to subscribe.
 
CNN.com introduced a new multimedia blog aggregating myriad Afghanistan coverage, pulling text, photos, videos, iReports and podcasts from across its global network. The blog also streamed President Obama’s address last night on the crisis, which was also available on CNN’s popular iPhone News app.
 
Verizon’s FiOS TV is expanding its line up of international channels, adding three new channels from World TV featuring Korean, Mandarin and Greek programming. South Korean’s YTN news channel joins a Korean package; Phoenix North America offers news and entertainment in Mandarin; and Antenna, FiOS’s first Greek channel, will be offered a la carte for $14.99/month.
 
GospelMusicChannel.com is ringing in the holidays with a ‘Christmas of Compassion’ editorial campaign, highlighting a featured artist of the week, celebrity wish lists and an all-expenses-paid trip giveaway to Central America, offered with Compassion International.
 

 
YouTube is considering extending its movie rental service to the television space and is currently in talks with studios to share revenue from such offerings, per AllThingsD. The site already offers a selection of ad-supported shows for free.
 
Premium multiplatform movie service EPIX is teaming with video sharing platform ClipSync to introduce interactive features around the viewing experience on EpixHD.com. ClipSync’s technology will enable user commenting during viewing parties and live events.
 

 
NBC Universal Digital Studio and the makers of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing began pre-production on a new branded entertainment series for iVillage, slated for distribution online, and via mobile and VOD. The hosted “Garden Party,” co-developed and produced in association with Hidden Valley’s MATTER marketing agency, will serve to promote eating veggies and balanced foods, taping on location from gardens, farms, markets and kitchens.
 

                                                           
No, this isn’t a plotline for 30 Rock. A labor dispute between NBC and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA) Local 11 – which represents nearly 3,000 of NBC’s producers, writers, and technicians – is threatening to derail the network’s star-studded “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” special, scheduled to air tonight at 8p. The union’s contract doesn’t expire until next March but officials claim the network is being particularly “Grinch” like in ignoring its concerns. The union even launched a website, nbcstolechristmas.com, to solicit support. NBC could not be reached for comment.
 
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski unveiled a plan to divert funds from the Universal Service Fund federal phone subsidy program to fund the addition of new broadband internet lines in rural areas. He also announced plans to encourage more efficient uses of mobile spectrum and devices through forward-looking spectrum policies. The FCC, which has already authorized a three-fold increase in commercial spectrum, will look at increasing flexibility, opening secondary markets for licensed use and look into opening up unlicensed spectrum.
 
4G mobile broadband service Clearwire has launched its “Clear” true WiMax service in an additional ten markets: Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Antonio and Austin, Texas; Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, N.C.; Chicago; Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii; and its hometown of Seattle/Puget Sound. The expansion brings its total footprint to 27 markets serving more than 30 million people.
 
Trade magazine publisher NewBay Media, an affiliate of the Wicks Group of Companies, LLC, has acquired Reed Business Information‘s U.S. trade books Multichannel News, B&C and TWICE. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The magazines will be added to NewBay’s current stable of consumer publications covering Pro Audio, Broadcast and Video, Musical Instruments, AV / Consumer Electronics and K-12 Education.
 
Bloomberg completed the acquisition of BusinessWeek from The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
 

 
Nielsen sent out a letter to clients yesterday outlining further plans to roll out a unified measurement system to measure TV and online program viewing using its National People Meter sample. The “TVandPC” initiative, first discussed in an Oct. 16 meeting with clients and tested with a sample of 375 households, will roll out to a national sample beginning Dec. 23, 2009 – moving the date up considerably from what was previously announced. “Single source” measurement has become a holy grail of sorts for the industry, pursed by several in house and independent companies, as a way to better monetize online viewing.
 
Amazon ranked the top visited retail website on “Cyber Monday” seeing a 44% increase in visits compared to 2008 among the top 500 retail sites, according to Hitwise. The percentage of U.S. online visits were down 9% overall on Cyber Monday compared to last year. Amazon received 15.5% of U.S. visits among the top retail sites, followed by Wal-Mart (9.54%), Target (5.16%), BestBuy (3.56%) and JC Penny (2.58%).
 
San Mateo, CA-based Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI) also announced it has launched a next generation media measurement platform to monitor consumer behavior across televisions, PCs and mobile phones. The company announced that it has been issued a U.S. patent for its proprietary mobile media monitoring and measurement platform, which uses an audio matching technology to passively gather data about panelists’ media consumption. IMMI is banking on trends in current consumption to attract the deep-pocketed studios as clients: The average amount of time consumers are spending per day on a PC is almost twice as much as they are spending viewing TV programming, says the company. During the month of Nov. 2009, respondents spent an average of 2 hours/day watching TV vs. an average of 4 hours/day online.
 

 
On demand talk radio app Stitcher, already available for the iPhone, Palm Pre and numerous BlackBerrys, has released a version for Google’s Android platform.
 

 
NetShelter Technology Media tapped Mike Farrow as Chief Financial Officer, reporting to Peyman Nilforoush, NetShelter’s co-founder and CEO. Mike, former CFO for Jumpstart Automotive Media, will be responsible for scaling up financial operations and analyzing future growth opportunities.
 
New York-based mobile-to-mobile video sharing solution Thwapr, Inc. hired Eric Hoffert and Duncan Kennedy, two former leaders of Apple’s QuickTime product team, as CTO and COO, respectively.
 
New York-based Lexent Metro Connect has named Walter Cannon as Director of Enterprise Sales.
 

 
ESPN has launched the first phase of its global online destination for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, ESPNsoccernet.com/WorldCup. The microsite is designed to aggregate content, news and analysis to complement the company’s broadcast coverage of the matches. Live digital coverage starts this Friday, Dec. 4 with the 2010 World Cup Draw in Cape Town, airing live from 12-2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com. In preparation for the Draw, ESPN Mobile will also launch a free ESPN World Cup iPhone App, featuring live draw results, player profiles, social media tools and a countdown to the cup on June 11, 2010. With the 15-team Major League Soccer League just wrapping its most successful season to date in the U.S., soccer is definitely on the rise in the U.S. It will be interesting to see if ESPN can utilize its multiplatform prowess to grow the audience for the World Cup this time around. The Disney-owned network has paid big bucks to sew up broadcast rights for the tournament through 2014 and John Skipper, ESPN’s EVP/Content has even joined the committee to try and bring the Cup to the U.S. in 2018 or 2022.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

 
Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
12.02.09

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JOB OPENING: NEWS SERVICES SALES:  National distributor seeking experienced station sales representative to sell news services. Candidate must have local news and syndication sales experience. [email protected] (12/3)

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JOB OPENING:  ADV PLATFORM SALES MGR/NY/Cablevision: Exp’d Sales Prof to drive ad rev. & new biz.Excel rels w/ media clients & proven sales record. www.cablevision.jobs ref#9563BR (12/3)

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SITUATION WANTED: MARKETING POSITION: 10+ years of account management experience. Trustworthy, intelligent and hardworking. Email me for a resume: [email protected] (12/5)

SITUATION WANTED: Available LOGGER seeking transcription work. Can transcribe interviews, B-roll and various types of footage. Onsite or Virtual. Email: [email protected] (12/3)

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