Cynopsis: DIGITAL

01/21/09

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, January 21, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. 

Combining live television with the interactivity of the web proved to be a powerful lure for two major media and web brands yesterday. CNN.com’s live streaming application, which was accompanied by a Facebook widget that allowed members to view comments from their peanut gallery of friends, set web traffic records yesterday serving a total of 18.8 million total online viewers as of 1 pm ET. (This shattered CNN’s previous record of 5.3 million streams set on Election Day.) CNN served more than 1.3 million concurrent live streams just as President Obama began his address. This nearly doubled the streaming output of YouTube Live back in November of approximately 700,000 concurrent viewers as measured by Akamai, believed to be the previous industry high water mark. Facebook averaged more than 4,000 status updates per hour Tuesday morning, peaking at 8,500 updates/minute during the President’s speech. Meanwhile Twitter, which survived without any major outages, saw 5x its normal tweet rate.
 

 
Riding the popularity of Tina Fey and her spot-on Sarah Palin impersonations, NBC.com reported record traffic numbers for 2008, according to data provided by Omniture, comScore, and Nielsen NetRatings. NBC.com posted highs in terms of page views, unique visitors, visits and video streams, each of which showed double-digit, year-over-year growth:

• Saturday Night Live and The Office were the site’s top performers in page views, followed by Heroes, The Biggest Loser, and Deal or No Deal
• The SNL clip starring Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton scored as the most viewed SNL video ever with more than 11 million streams
• The show sites with the highest full episode streaming were The Office, Heroes, Lipstick Jungle, Chuck and 30 Rock
• NBC.com’s widgets increased the overall reach of the brand online by an average of 43% per month in Q4. Widget views increased almost ten-fold in Q4 (22 million views) versus Q1 (2.3 million) and totaled 35 million views in 2008

 
ABC is calling for real-life Moms to pitch in on the development process of In The Motherhood, a midseason comedy series based the popular web series developed by MindShare Entertainment that launched on MSN in 2007. The midseason show, which stars Cheryl Hines, Jessica St. Clair and Megan Mullally, vows to mine the real life experiences of viewers shared through inthemotherhood.com (now part of ABC’s GO network of sites.)
 
ESPN.com launched a collection of local-market basketball blogs intended to represent a local voice for each of the 30 professional teams in the NBA.  The TrueHoop Blog Network, which also includes 4 general interest hoops blogs, is anchored and hosted by ESPN.com’s TrueHoop blog, written by Henry Abbott.
 

Live mobile streaming provider RandomTV deployed its Vomodo “SplitSolid” Technology at the Inauguration yesterday to deliver live online video streams from camera operators who carried the uplink gear on their backs in a 12-pound backpack. Live footage was broadcast on the RandomTV site as well as on Ustream.com. Users were invited to interact with reporters or interview subjects by texting or emailing questions in real time. A GPS link tracked the exact location of the broadcast via Google maps.
 
Former SNL star Jimmy Fallon continues to take an active interest in technology. After promising at TCA that his new late-night show will be loaded with tech talk and gadgets, he dropped in for beers with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht on Revision3’s Diggnaton last Friday. The question is, will NBC let Jimmy drink on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon? 
 
White label online video service Fliqz received $6 million in Series C funding, led by Triangle Peak Partners, LP and joined by existing investor Mohr Davidow Ventures. Fliqz, which claims that more than 35,000 online video publishers are using its platform, plans to use the funds to increase its sales force and turn toward international expansion.
 
Automattic, the company that operates the popular easy-to-use blogging platform WordPress, unveiled WordPress TV as a visual resource for the site. Over 100 Presentations, interviews, tutorials or other supporting videos are available.
 
Canadian mobile video application creator Metranome raised additional funding with Tech Capital Partners, bringing its total raised to more than $2 million. The company developed the Poptiq video sharing app for the iPhone.
 

CYNOPSIS EVENTS AT NATPE 2009

 
Google announced its first major advertising reversal yesterday in a corporate blog entry. The company will shutter its Print Ads program on Feb. 28, which attempted to sell print ads to more than 800 newspaper partners across the country.
 

 
The New York Times Co. received a cash investment of $250 million from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, one of the world’s wealthiest individuals who controls Telefonos de Mexico and America Movil, the largest mobile provider in Latin America. Mr. Slim, who already owns 6.4% of the Times Co., will invest $250 million in the form of 10-year notes with warrants that are convertible into common shares.
 
White-label video management company thePlatform struck a deal with News Digital Media, the online business of News Corp.’s Australian subsidiary News Limited, to publish and manage online video across 50 News Digital Media properties, including news.com.au. The agreement also calls for thePlatform to provide broadband video publishing services to News Limited’s major magazine properties including Vogue.com.au and NotebookMagazine.com.au.
 
MSNBC.com signed on to utilize Nexidia to power rich media search and other applications across its news sites. Nexidia helps make archived video content more accessible and searchable by improving metadata, tagging and cataloging functionality.
 

 
Last week’s miraculous US Airways plane landing on the Hudson helped push Twitter past Digg for the first time on Hitwise‘s Computers and Internet category. Twitter came in ranked #84 for the week – one above Digg – thanks to a huge uptick in usage among 25-34 year old users, according to Hitwise.
 
Although awareness of the switchover has steadily increased not all consumers are prepared for next month’s digital transition, according to the latest Mindshare Online Research study. About 9% of consumers are completely unready and will need to make preparations prior to the transition, according to the survey. While almost all adults in all basic demographic categories including age, gender and income said they were aware of the transition, older adults (55+ year olds, who watch far more television) actually proved to be more aware than younger adults (18-34).
 

                                                                                    
Live streaming provider Ustream.tv launched a new free iPhone app, just in time for viewing the inauguration with a Wi-Fi connection via multiple sources including CNN. The application allows users to log in to their Ustream account, view live and archived video and send/view chat messages during broadcasts.
 
AOL released a new version of the excellent Truveo Video Search app for the iPhone indexing more than 145 million videos with new categories. The latest features include a query completion tool that suggests key words and advanced sorting functionality.
 
Dilithium Networks has added support for the Blackberry to the Dilithium Content Adapter (DCA) network side software that enables standard smartphone players and browsers to view live video and video on demand content. Dilithium says DCA supports live and VOD streaming for a wide range of mobile devices, including Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.
 

 
Mobile transaction network mBlox hired Andrew Dark as its new global CEO. Andrew, who takes over from Jeff Clark, most recently served as CEO for London-based DataCash Group. He starts at mBlox in March 2009.
 
Chris Pollack and Will Lowery are joining the management division of independent production studio and management company Generate, which recently expanded to include 8 managers in its New York and LA offices. Chris previously ran his own independent management firm after spending five years in original programming at Showtime. Will served as a creative executive and literary manager at Underground Films.
 
Collegiate Images named Dana Stites as Director of Consumer Media. Dana was formerly Director of Programming at Sun Sports/Fox Sports Florida and most recently Senior Manager of Streaming Services & Programming at JumpTV.
 
XOS Digital, the joint venture between XOS Technologies and Collegiate Images, named Todd Foster and Brian Liebler Directors of Digital Sales for the Midwest and Northeast territories. Brian was formerly Senior Account Executive at FoxSports.com and Brian was Director of Interactive Ad Sales & Branded Entertainment at Alloy Media + Marketing. XOS Digital also named Sebastian Quinn as Director of Advertising. He was formerly Manager of Client Services at JumpTV.
 
ContextWeb. Inc., operator of the ADSDAQ Exchange, has upped Joshua Perkiel to Sales Manager, Northeast Region, based in New York.
 

 
At exactly 12 noon ET yesterday an important transfer of power also took place on the web: Whitehouse.gov, the official web address of the President, launched a new design to reflect the aims of the White House’s new tech-savvy resident. Macon Phillips, Director of New Media for the White House, promises the site will be the educational hub where Americans can turn to for the latest information issued from the oval office. The briefing room will house executive orders, proclamations, video addresses and blog entries. The agenda page details the administration’s positions on everything from Civil Rights to Technology. The site also promises to foster citizen interaction: Whitehouse.gov will post non-emergency legislation 5 days before the President signs it to give users a chance to peruse and comment upon it before it becomes law. There’s not much up here yet. Let’s hope the administration is genuinely serious about fostering web 2.0 interactivity. Whitehouse.gov could become a place to incubate some cool new apps, such as crowdsourcing tools to efficiently put the power of the people to work in the democratic process.
 
Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
01.21.09

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JOB OPENING: Hallmark Channel/Studio City/FREELANCE PRODUCER & HOST: Create hosted entertainment pieces. Must write/produce/host See full posting and apply @ www.hallmarkchannel.com (1/28)

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SITUATION WANTED: TV PROGRAM EXECUTIVE 15 + yrs exp, Creative, great work ethic, knwldgbl, sense of humor, can relocate. See www.linkedin.com/in/joepauly. Looking for next great opp in cable or brdcst TV. Contact [email protected] (1/28)

SITUATION WANTED: DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, WRITER in L.A. Credits include National Geographic, PBS, Discovery, History Channel, TLC and MSNBC. Contact email: [email protected] (1/28)

SITUATION WANTED: NON-FICTION DEVELOPMENT PRODUCER. I will write and develop your pitch & produce and direct a winning sales tape. 3 Emmy noms; unscripted or narrative formats; LA based, will travel. [email protected] (1/27)

SITUATION WANTED: INNOVATIVE PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:Award winning and highly creative. Major network experience, across all genres: Childrens, Youth, Reality, Lifestyle. In NY but will travel. View reel & CV: www.kirstynordal.com (1/27)

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SITUATION WANTED: ADMIN OR ASST POSITION WANTED/NYC: 3+ yrs admin exp at well-known companies in exec assistance, licensing, prod development, marketing, with specialization in children’s TV. Creative & professional. [email protected] (1/23)

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SITUATION WANTED: SR. H.R. PRO/NYC:19+ yrs exp seeking short/long-term/perm oppty in media field. Bkgrd incl: Employee Relations, O.D., Recruitment, Training. Call Ray Palen at (631)732-2926 or via email at: [email protected] (1/23)

SITUATION WANTED: Top-tier agency ACCOUNT MANAGER/SUPERVISOR seeks full-time employment in LA area. If your agency needs a professional w/ multi-platform technology, entertainment or interactive experience, e-mail [email protected] (1/22)

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