Cynopsis: DIGITAL

06/11/08

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, June 11, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing, reporting live from the On Hollywood conference in West Hollywood, CA.
 
The George Lucas-funded Entertainment Technology Center at USC chose the forward looking OnHollywood show to unveil a new gen Y-focused lab designed to bring together movie studio decision makers with Silicon Valley tech executives. The Anytime Anywhere Content Lab (AACL) is a high tech, hardware-rich test environment built to explore solutions for accelerating the creation, distribution and consumption of digital entertainment. A common cry at the conference is: Where are the next generation formats that take advantage of what digital has to offer? Involving both sides of the business in the equation from the beginning could hasten the development of the next great entertainment vehicle.
 

 
Disney.com will stream full-length movies from its family friendly archive of Wonderful World of Disney movies for the first time this summer, for free. Titles such as Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., Haunted Mansion, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Princess Diaries 2 and Peter Pan will be offered for week after they air on ABC, with only one pre-roll ad.
 
Meanwhile Disney’s Interactive Studios arm is gearing up for the holiday release of High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance! for the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation2 and Windows-based PCs. Players will be able to “dance” along with favorite characters to familiar High School Musical numbers from all three movies.
 
Voom HD Networks announced the launch of two VOD offerings developed as a companion service to its 24/7 linear Voom HD and Rush HD channels distributed internationally. The new VOD service will provide cable and satellite operators who carry the channels with five monthly hours of VOD programming for each channel.
 

 
LA-based Virtual Greats announced it is launching an online virtual goods business. Its proximity to Hollywood should help with the launch of its first product line – a celebrity themed avatar product giving users a chance to take on the likeness of their favorite singer, actor or superhero in virtual environments such as Gaia, Second Life and Habbo. The site is structured to be artist friendly, according to CEO Dan Jensen, giving celebrities incremental revenue opportunities as they grow their virtual fame.
 
Web-savvy comedian Tom Green is utilizing the Live Broadcast solution of CDN provider BitGravity to distribute his sporadically-scheduled live web show to broadcast outlets. BitGravity utilizes proprietary network improvement tools affordable to amateur producers to optimize live streaming to the point that it is ready for primetime, according to CEO and co-founder Perry Wu. The Canadian Comedy network is the first broadcaster to pick up the show for on air.
 
Laugh Factory founder and CEO Jamie Masada told moderator Jon Lovitz and the OnHollywood audience that Dane Cook should get a piece of MySpace (in addition to his 3 million + friends). He says the social networking site didn’t take off until Dane started promoting the site on his college campus comedy tours, directing fans to his profile. The community building exercise inspired Masada to expand the club’s online presence, which has helped attract a global audience for the club’s live performances.  
 

 
Logitech‘s Squeezebox network music systems completed an integration allowing U.S., UK and German users to access Last.fm‘s personalized streaming music service from anywhere in their home, for free. Last.fm is the first free music service offered through the Squeezebox system in Europe. The arrangement builds on the existing relationship between Last.fm and Logitech, announced earlier this year, which brought Last.fm’s “scrobbling” capability to the Logitech Squeezebox systems.
 
Check out this collection of gadgets put together for Father’s Day by MojoHD.com, sourced from high-tech retail site Uncrated. Adams’ Dixx putter and Heineken’s BeerTender bring Rodney Dangerfield’s’ Caddyshack gear to mind.
 
Photo and video sharing service Phanfare announced a camera application for the new iPhone store allowing users to share iPhone photos on the web with a single click. The photos are uploaded and immediately visible to friends and family then archivally stored.
 

 
NextNewNetworks signed a deal with video search engine blinkx to help monetize its online video channels. blinkx will place contextually relevant advertising against NextNewNetwork content and will share resulting ad revenue with the popular platform.
 
Marketer MediaTides launched a “Digital TV Celebration” marketing campaign for local TV stations to help them promote the digital TV transition to their communities, draw attention to the virtues of over-the-air viewing, and get viewers converted to digital viewing this year. 
 
Online ad rep firm Gorilla Nation was selected to exclusively represent the international online ad inventory for GGL, the gaming-themed social network dedicated to expanding video game culture to international audiences. GGL signed a deal in Feb. to make video gaming an official welcome event of this summer’s Beijing Olympics.

 
comScore announced the addition of Acxiom‘s PersonicX segments to the comScore Segment Metrix service for the U.S. market. PersonicX is a household-level segmentation system developed by Acxiom and used by marketers that groups consumers into 70 different lifestage-based segments based on several demographic variables.
 
Top 10 Parent Companies for May 2008 (U.S., Home and Work)
Parent              Unique Audience (000)             Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
Google                    127,636                              1:48:41
Microsoft                  123,333                              2:16:00
Yahoo!                     115,605                              3:13:23
Time Warner              107,778                             3:24:16
News Corp. Online        79,058                             1:45:31
eBay                            66,240                             1:46:12
InterActiveCorp             64,627                             0:20:33
Wikimedia Foundation    57,343                             0:17:18
Amazon                        55,365                             0:27:45
New York Times Co.       51,148                             0:17:27
Source: Nielsen Online
 
Google accounted for 68.29 % of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending May 31 according to Hitwise, increasing its market share by 5% over the previous year. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 19.95%, 5.89% and 4.23% respectively.
 

 
Outgoing CEO of Aegis Media Americas David Verklin will head cable’s new ad targeting unit Canoe Ventures as widely expected, reports the WSJ. The Canoe Project, backed by 6 MSOs, will deploy audience targeting tools to help prevent the defection of further ad dollars from cable to the web.
 
MTV Networks’ Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products (NVCP) realigned senior management roles and responsibilities to provide strategic focus on maximizing the position of MTVN’s portfolio of brands in key markets. The announcement was made by Leigh Anne Brodsky, President, Nickelodeon Viacom Consumer Products, to whom the team reports.

• Indra Suharjono has been promoted to SVP & Managing Director for licensing operations in Asia & Middle East and oversight of NVCP’s global publishing business 
• Jean Philippe Randisi has been upped to SVP & Managing Director for NVCP in Europe, Canada and Latin America  
• Manuel Torres will now oversee NVCP’s global toy, interactive and consumer electronics business as SVP/Toys, Interactive and Consumer Electronics 
• Sherice Torres is shifting to oversee NVCP’s global music and home entertainment business as the new SVP/Global Entertainment 
• Hal Snik will now direct all of NVCP’s U.S. licensing businesses

 
Newly appointed Chairman of The Tennis Company Dave Morgan has hired sports and digital veteran Dominic Schmitt as GM of Tennis.com.
 

 
Cenk Uygur is one of the bright Young Turks of the online video world. (He happens to be of Turkish decent, but that’s not what we mean.) He is the founder and host of one of the faster-growing online shows on the web, ranking among the top 25 Directors and Partners on YouTube. Falling somewhere between Jon Stewart and Keith Obermann, Cenk and his team pull political and entertainment-themed videos creating buzz online then comment on what they see in a no-holds-barred manner. Interestingly Cenk’s distribution strategy has evolved with the emergence of new ad models and platforms. The show originally launched in 2002 occupying a daily 3-hour slot on Air America and Sirius Satellite Radio. He now earns more ad revenue from voluntary subscriptions and from his YouTube channel – via shared banner and overlays – than he did through the traditional partnerships. Video views of The Young Turks on YouTube climbed from 2 million views in April to 3 million in May. It will be interesting to see if Cenk’s venture can turn profitable in the coming months, as YouTube refines its ad targeting capabilities and seeks higher CPMs. A $15 CPM for an overlay ad is not bad. CNET-type $45-$50 CPMs are better.      
 
Correction: The name of yesterday’s WOTD is Re:Frame not Red-Frame. We regret the typo.

Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
06.11.08

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JOB OPENING: DIR, DIGITAL AD OPS/Discovery/NY: Direct ad operations and staff for How Stuff Works sites, manage inventory mapping integrity, targeting capabilities, etc. Apply: www.discovery.com , Req#8005 (6/18)

JOB OPENING: SERIES PRODUCERS & EDITORS/Toronto: Major ntwrk background wanted for one of the world’s leading non-fiction prod companies. Proven track record in factual, adventure, reality formats. Resume to [email protected] (6/18)

JOB OPENING: SR. MARKETING MGR/HISTORY/A&E Television, NY: Manage Consumer Mktg. creative & budgets  implement strategies. BA/BS & 5+ yrs entertainment marketing. Resume w/salary: www.aetn.com/careers.html (6/18)

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SITUATION WANTED: Recent college graduate with BS in Electronic Media and Film. Efficient in audio and video productions. Email: [email protected] Phone: 908-268-2078 (6/18)

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