Cynopsis: DIGITAL

07/16/08

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, July 16, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

The gaming and entertainment worlds continue to converge. The fruits of a new culture of collaboration among divisions at Sony became evident as the company kicked off a video downloading service for the PlayStation3 yesterday. The store will offer an initial 300 movies and 1,200 TV show episodes, some in HD, from at least 7 major studios including Sony, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., MGM and Lionsgate. Meanwhile Microsoft announced a partnership with Netflix to stream movies and TV episodes to the TV via the Xbox Live store, offering access to more than 10,000 downloadable “Watch Now” titles. The company also cut deals with NBC Universal and Endemol to bring more than 700 Universal films and NBC, USA and Sci Fi episodes to the platform for purchase, along with an interactive version of the gameshow 1 vs. 100. What is interesting about all of this is that the studios are known to be notoriously stingy in sharing revenue on digital platforms (Apple keeps little of the revenue generated from iTunes content sales.) Gaming platforms are being forced to do whatever they can to keep players in front of their consoles, even if it means taking time away from playing $50 games.
 

 
The exclusivity that game platforms have enjoyed from certain game studios are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Two announcements stirred up the crowds at E3 this week: The latest edition of Sony’s perennial favorite Final Fantasy XIII will come out simultaneously for the Xbox 360 as well as the PS3 when it launches later this year. Equally surprising was the news that Rockstar is developing a version of its Grand Theft Auto game for Nintendo’s handheld DS platform for release next year as Nintendo is trying hard to woo more of the traditional gaming demo. GTA should help – more than 8.5 million units of Grand Theft Auto IV have already sold this year.
 
More details on the Sony announcement:   Download-to-own titles will run from $9.99-$14.99, including an occasional Sony Computer Entertainment exclusive such as the anime series Xam’d: Lost Memories. Movies will be available for rent for $2.99-$5.99 and TV shows for the industry standard $1.99 per episode. They will remain on the PS3 hard drive for up to 14 days until playback begins. Sony adopted Marlin DRM technology for the titles, which allow users play the content on other Sony devices such as the PSP. The company also announced it will double the storage space on the $399 PS3 to 80 GB. It is on target to sell 10 million PS3s worldwide by the end of its current fiscal year (3/09).
 
More Microsoft News from E3:
The Xbox Live environment is taking on more of a social role. The platform’s 12 million registered members will now be able to create their own avatar (a la the Wii,) and host virtual parties to jointly play games, watch movies and chat with friends. Hardcore gamers need not fear; The Xbox will have a number of exclusive titles shipping later this year including Resident Evil 5, Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3, each with more online play emphasized.
 
ABC’s 10 O&Os have added short form ESPN content to their websites via a branded embedded player. Featured content includes SportsCenter Right Now, a twice-daily capsule of top sports stories, highlights and breaking news as well as clips from Mike and Mike in the Morning, Pardon the Interruption, and Around the Horn.
 
Call to Action: Scott Stone, executive producer of ABC’s The Mole reality show, is asking viewers to rally support for the show’s final 5 episodes this summer. This open letter calls for viewers to join the Mole fan club on Facebook, post on the ABC message boards or upload “Save The Mole” videos to YouTube. Hey, why not? Such efforts brought back Jericho for one more season.
 
And a reminder — Cynopsis editorial staff are all on vacation all next week which means no editions for the week.  We will be returning on Monday, July 28.  With that said, however, our Sales and Marketing staff will be available to you all week long, as usual!

 
The storyline of long enduring web show LonelyGirl15 will come to an end on August 1 more than two years after Bree first peaked online viewers curiosity. Creators Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, who also wrote KateModern, are working on a new story and cast of characters and felt the need to put the original yarn to bed once and for all.
 
Online video vendor Move Networks unveiled a newly upgraded analytics and reporting tool in time for the fall 2008-2009 season designed to improve network intelligence in terms of measuring the reach, audience demographics and engagement of online audiences. New features to “Move Monetize” include information on drop-out points, rewind activity and clickthroughs as well as detailed viewership details broken down by program, episode or segment.
 
Online film portal Jaman signed its first major studio deal with Paramount per Variety, offering new and library titles such as Cloverfield and The Hours for rental at $2.99-$3.99 per movie.
 
Digital entertainment studio Deca launched a new website and online show dedicated to massive multiplayer gaming beginning with World of Warcraft, dubbed Project Lore. Alex Albrecht will host the daily show, clueing in fans to tips, cheats and tricks.
 

 
On the hardware side of things, Nintendo announced a major new addition to its Wii family of controllers with the Wii MotionPlus coming out spring 2009. The device promises to enable more accurate motion responses in 3D space. The Wii Sports Resort, a sequel to Wii Sports, will be the first game to take advantage of the gizmo. Animal Crossing City Folk, scheduled for a Nov. 16 launch, will invite players to move into a community and chat with resident animals using the new WiiSpeak microphone.
 

 
Millions of YouTube video watchers can rest assured – their private viewing habits will remain private for now. Google and Viacom finally reached an agreement to protect the privacy of users’ identity during the evidential discovery process. As for the viewership data of Google and partners’ employees, attorneys agreed to work on a way to share this data separately.
 
Mumbai, India-based The Valuable Group completed its acquisition of online VOD service MovieBeam, launched by Disney back in 2005 to deliver movies to televisions through a broadband-connected set-top-box.
 

 
Attorneys from Google and Yahoo defended their proposed search partnership at a Congressional hearing yesterday, promising the agreement wouldn’t violate antitrust laws. Microsoft counsel disagreed, saying the deal would give Google “unprecedented” control over advertising for search on the net by serving up to 90% of all search ads.
 
Samsung is sponsoring a new 3-part web series on Break.com called Ballpark Invasion, featuring insider tours of Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and San Francisco’s Giants Park. The gist is to demonstrate how useful Samsung’s multimedia Instinct phone is at capturing memorable moments at the ballpark.
 
Mobile marketing solutions provider Proteus is changing its brand name to 2ergo, the name of the group’s UK-based parent company.  This change is part of the company’s plan to scale their business globally.
 

 
Microsoft’s estimate that a combined Google and Yahoo search engine would control 90% of the search market is pretty spot on, according to the latest Hitwise search market share analysis. Google and Yahoo combined for 88.79% of the search market last month.
 
Percentage of U.S. Searches Among Leading Search Engine Providers
Domain       June-08        May-08        June-07
Google        69.17%        68.29%       63.92%
Yahoo         19.62%        19.95%       21.31%
MSN             5.46%*        5.89%*       9.85%*
Ask.com        4.17%         4.23%         3.42%
Note: Data is based on four week rolling periods (ending 6/28/08, 5/31/08, 6/30/07 from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users.  * – includes executed searches on Live.com and MSN Search but does not include searches on Club.Live.com.
Source: Hitwise
 
Top 10 Parent Companies/Divisions for June 2008 (U.S., Home and Work)
Parent             Unique Audience (000)    Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1. Google                   128,029                   1:50:16
2. Microsoft                123,021                   2:12:38
3. Yahoo!                   113,439                   3:07:47
4. Time Warner*           99,494                  3:23:24
5. News Corp. Online     80,606                  1:55:40
6. InterActiveCorp         63,935                  0:20:22
7. eBay                        62,767                  1:47:53
8. Wikimedia                52,836                   0:21:09
9. Amazon                   52,060                   0:28:03
10.Apple Computer       49,911                   1:08:33
*Time Warner division excludes Turner Network’s audience
Source: Nielsen Online
 
Average U.S. Internet Usage, Combined Home & Work, Month of June 2008
                                         Home & Work,June   Home & Work,May   % Change
Sessions/Visits per Person              58                           59                   -1.7
Domains Visited per Person            107                         105                    1.9
Web Pages per Person                 2,373                     2,335                    1.6
Duration of a Web Page Viewed   0:00:53                 0:00:53                   -1.1
PC Time per Person                   65:58:23               66:02:45                  -0.1
Active Digital Media Universe     164 million           166.5 million                 -1.5
Current Digital Media Universe   223.1 million          222.3 million                 0.4
Source: Nielsen Online
 

 
Web and interactive television company ActiveVideo Networks hired interactive advertising veteran Todd M. Nisbet to head a new advertising division as SVP/Strategic Relations. He will work with marketers, agencies, programming customers and network partners to launch targeted, actionable advertising and sponsorship opportunities that leverage the capabilities of the ActiveVideo platform.
 
Josh Denberg and Paul Hirsch were appointed as SVPs and Group Creative Directors of McCann Worldgroup San Francisco.
 

 
Microblogging site Twitter acquired online search engine Summize for a mixture of cash and stock and simultaneously launched its own search engine, search.twitter.com, powered by the start-up. By combining the Summize and Twitter APIs curious parties are able to sift through the volumes of “tweets” pulsing through the service in real time to detect what people are talking about on a larger scale. The site identifies “trending topics” such as “Phone” or “MLB” to point you in the direction of hot topics. You may also select to view tweets in a variety of languages. Sociologists will dig this, although the noise factor is substantial.
 
Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
07.16.08

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