Cynopsis: DIGITAL

06/25/08

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, June 25, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.
 
Nokia offered to buy the 52% of mobile software firm Symbian it doesn’t already own for about $410 million. The company plans to create a consortium with Sony Ericsson, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo and others to release Symbian’s software to manufactures royalty-free in an attempt to simplify the fragmented mobile software marketplace for developers. Nokia is fighting for its life as Apple gears up for the subsidized launch of the 3G iPhone in more than 70 countries and Research in Motion works with manufactures on more refined BlackBerry devices. Symbian is one of the leading operating system creators for smartphones worldwide with about 60% of the installed market (most of it in Europe and Asia.)
 

 
NBC will utilize Wavexpress‘ TVTonic IPTV service to broadcast live action from the 2008 Beijing Olympics to Windows Media Center users, free of charge. (Media Center comes bundled with Windows Vista Ultimate and is also available as an add-on.) The video will also be available on demand in up to HD quality.
 
Disney/ABC Domestic Television penned an agreement with Capcom Interactive to extend Capcom’s North American mobile rights for the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire franchise through 2010. To date, more than 3 million Millionaire mobile games have been sold in North America.
 
Bravo‘s TelevisionWithoutPity.com has taken a page from Letterman with a weekly series of ignoble top 10 lists. This week’s posting looks back on the worst 10 shows of the new millennium.
 

 
Facebook launched a new application with Visa to help small businesses market to community members. The Visa Business Network provides tools and tips for attracting attention on the social network and targeting groups that might be most interested in your product. Geared for local services, bands, personalities or individual brands, the service provides a template to create Facebook ads targeted by age, location, gender and other specifics. The site is giving $100 credit for the first 20,000 U.S. businesses who already have profiles to try out the service. 

Break Media is unveiling a new male-targeted video syndication platform today allowing advertisers and content producers to pull individual clips or series from Break.com and affiliated sites. The customizable system allows publishers to embed and monetize Break.com and select third party videos on their sites for use on blogs, profiles and other destinations. Break has been expanding its focus into new key verticals such as music, action sports, animation, gadgets, college sports and celebrity gossip this year and has signed a slew of content deals with popular online outlets including FEARnet, Hulu, NextNewNetworks and Revision 3. The company says ad revenue has increased 200% from Q2 ’07 to Q2 ’08 thanks to the additions of new brands such as Hershey’s, T-Mobile, Schick and Full-Throttle.
 
Online video network Blip.tv signed a new agreement with CDN Edgecast to power the delivery of its web shows including Alive in Baghdad, Break a Leg, Unleashed and Cockpit. Edgecast, which raised $6 million from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures last December, also counts Imax and Jaman.com among its customers.    

GoTV Networks announced a syndication and distribution agreement with Destroy Entertainment to bring Destroy’s programming to broadband and mobile audiences through GoTV’s mobile platform. Destroy content will be featured on the GoTV service available to Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, Boost Mobile and Verizon Wireless subscribers.
 
Call for Content: HD-quality animation site MyToons.com is accepting original HD animations for a new contest open to animators from around the world. The grand prize winner gets a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 3, a two-night trip to New York City and dinner at a strategically placed Chinese restaurant in Times Square where they can see their creation played once an hour over Clear Channel’s Spectacolor monitor. The contest runs through Sept 4.
 

 
To go along with its grandiose open source plans, Nokia also introduced a new wave of pricey advanced multimedia phones for the U.S. market. The N78 ($560 retail), one of the new Nseries of phones, features:

• a 3.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens
• advanced GPS geomappping capabilities using Nokia Maps (a 3-month trial of the service comes with the phone)
• horizontal-aspect web surfing and RSS feed notifications
• image sharing through Nokia’s social networking platform Share on Ovi
• a digital music player & integrated FM radio with up to 8 GB of storage on an optional Micro SD memory card
• support of Mosh widgets enabled by a provider named Web Runtime

 
For golfers out there check out the N93 model. It gives you mobile access to video tutorials and swing analysis tools right from the course.
 

 
AT&T made a bold move into the competitive Content Delivery Network business, competing head to head with the likes of Akamai, Limelight and others. AT&T’s Digital Media Solutions will provide content distribution, management, broadcast video and digital signage services to midsize to multinational businesses, helping to monetize its recent $70 million investment in global digital media network infrastructure. Cathy Martine will lead the new division as EVP/Content Distribution.
 
Microsoft and Yahoo are reportedly in talks once again as Yahoo’s stock price approaches the $20 threshold. But this time another Search deal, and not a full buyout, may be the in the works.
 
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin found himself on the losing end of a 4-1 vote for the first time this week as his fellow commissioners unanimously ruled against Verizon in a beef raised by cable companies over a phone marketing campaign. Democrats would like to take it as a vote of no confidence for the chairman.
 

 
Google revealed details about its new AdPlanner web measurement service, positioned as a competitor to services such as comScore, Nielsen Online or more specifically, Quantcast. The interface allows media planners to enter in demographic targets then the system culls server data to determine which sites reach their target audience. The tool allows media plans to be created then exported as a .csv file (compatible with Excel and most other spreadsheet applications.) Google is expected to roll out an additional tool this week that will measure how users respond and engage with online ads, taking into account of past search and site visitation activity. 

Viral marketing efforts designed to reach the youth demo sometime clash with a brand’s traditional image, a fact J.C. Penney learned the hard way this month. The retailer is mad at its ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi for creating a fake YouTube ad named Speed Dressing, complaining it promotes promiscuity among teens, reports the WSJ. The spot was created by New York’s Epoch Films.
 
After facing a barrage of consumer and regulatory complaints Charter Communications promised to delay use of the controversial NebuAd tracking tool. NebuAd anonymously observes consumer web activity to help advertisers carefully craft their pitches to individual customers.
 

 
Interactive advertising has been on a tear for the past 4 years, points out a new GroupM study, rising to make up 11% of overall global ad spending in 2007 and expected to hit a 15% market share by 2009. Despite the weak U.S. economy, growth in other countries and favorable demographic trends (ie the aging of young, web-savvy users) should insure continued growth into the foreseeable future. Paid search (38% of the pie in 2007) is expected to grow while display ads (45% in ’07) are likely to wane.
 
Tivo signed a deal with scalable advertising research system TRA Inc. to enable TRA to license its Audience Research Metrics data. The company plans to launch a new service to measure consumer purchasing behavior based on exposure to viewed and skipped advertising.
 

 
Jacqueline Jourdain Hayes has been upped to SVP/Business and Legal Affairs for Warner Bros. Digital Distribution (WBDD), reporting to Clarissa Weirick, General Counsel, WBDD. She will be responsible for providing legal counsel to the company’s senior management on the acquisition, distribution and protection of content for digital platforms and other digital initiatives on a worldwide basis.
 
Charles R. Armstrong transitioned into his role as Assistant Commissioner and CIO for the Office of Information and Technology for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Charles is responsible for managing and integrating CBP’s information technology and the functional responsibilities that include software development, infrastructure services and support, tactical communications, and IT modernization initiatives.
 

 
Google Trends is a fun tool for gauging and identifying online trends. You can use it to view the fastest rising search queries or enter up to 5 terms to see how search activity plays out for the word. The new Google Trends for Websites feature provides traffic insights into favorite sites broken down by geographic region. A Florida attorney plans to present a list of Google Trends searches for racy terms as evidence in a court case to demonstrate that his client – who runs an adult content site – is offering material that should be considered mainstream, according to a report in the New York Times. George Carlin would have had fun with this.
 
New Entry for the Cynopsis Digital Glossary:

Crowdsourcing: The web 2.0 practice of leveraging communities of fans, users or members of the general public to help achieve a stated business goal. Online crowds are tapped to solve complex issues, develop or test new products or in the realm of entertainment, point development executives in the right direction. The term was coined by writer Jeff Howe in a 2006 magazine article for Wired.

Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
06.25.08

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JOB OPENING: PROJECT COORD/Discovery/MD: Assist Marketing Mgrs in developing and executing marketing campaigns. 1-3 yrs mark/adv exp. Bachelor degree required. No relo assistance available. www.discovery.com Req#8014 (7/2)

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JOB OPENING: PRODUCER /HISTORY/A&ETV Networks/Stamford, CT:Seeking exp’d producers w/ both long form prgrmng & promo experience. Strong background in graphics production. Apply [email protected] (7/2)

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JOB OPENING: SVP VIDEO & INTERACTIVE ADV/E-commerce CABLEVISION/NY: Drive growth by leading prod. management & dev.process from concept to launch.Need 10+ yrs.in high-profile / high-scale projs. Res: [email protected] (6/27)

JOB OPENING: EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/Scripps/Knoxville TN: Manages all aspect of original commissioned productions/writing, casting, acquisition and post-production/4+ yrs exp/Apply: www.scrippsnetworks.com (6/27)

JOB OPENING: ASST TV BUYERS (2) & ASST MEDIA PLANNERS (2)/NYC: Established media services company. Recent college grads pref’d. F/T & benefits. Resumes to: [email protected] (6/27)

JOB OPENING: PROD. TECHNICIAN/Cablevision/Fishkill, NY: Min. 2 yrs exp in TV prod. Shoot/edit video for commercials/promos. Must know AVID/ Final Cut Pro. See full posting and apply to www.cablevision.jobs req id 6339BR (6/27)

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SPRING AND SUMMER INTERNSHIPS – These positions are for credit only – nobody gets paid here. They are posted for free, and students work for school credit only. For more information on the specs for posting an Internship ad, email Trish at [email protected] .

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SITUATION WANTED: Experienced Music Production Team, specializing in Children’s Media, looking for freelance work. Song writing, Music for video, sound FX, VO etc. Visit www.32central.com or Contact Dan at [email protected] (7/2)

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