Cynopsis: DIGITAL

06/30/10

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, June 30, 2010, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.  If you would like to read this or any other Cynopsis edition online, click here.

In what will no doubt be hailed as the turning point from the free to the paid internet TV model, Hulu officially unveiled its long-rumored Hulu Plus subscription service that will provide deeper access to the portal’s current and back catalog shows. Subscribers who pay $9.99/mo. will be able to go online to watch the full current seasons of many NBC, FOX and ABC shows in HD quality as well as view the entire libraries of current and past hits such as Law & Order: SVU, Grey’s Anatomy, The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The content will also soon be viewable on the iPad, the iPhone 3GS or later, the 3G iPod Touch or television sets via integrations with Sony’s PS3, connected Samsung and Vizio Internet Apps TVs. To manage initial demand, Hulu is rolling out the service using invites and promo codes; go to the site to request an invite.
 

 
Starz signed a new multiplatform carriage deal with Comcast which includes plans to launch an authentication-required broadband movie service later this summer. The carriage deal covers an agreement to offer 16 linear Starz movie channels and related HD fare. The Starz Online and Encore Online offerings will include 80% and 50% of the titles in HD quality, respectively.
 
Comcast‘s social TV site Tunerfish, which allows you to share what you’re currently watching with friends via Facebook and Twitter, completed a redesign to simply the interface and help direct users toward upward trending shows and events.
 

 
Location-based social network Foursquare checked in for $20 million in additional funding with Andreessen Horowitz leading the round and previous investors Union Square Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures participating. The 27-member company will use the funding to hire additional engineers, roll out new products and open a new office in New York City.
 
Portland, OR-based music themed technology company Rumblefish has launched a new service for YouTube users that allows video creators to browse through and grab pre-licensed tracks for use in their online creations. FriendlyMusic.com acts as a clearing house of pre-cleared tracks, which can be sampled then plugged into a variety of popular video editing suites. Each track costs $1.99/video.
 
Digital music service MOG completed its first consumer electronics integration, launching on the Roku set-top platform. MOG offers on demand streaming access to a catalog of 7.5 million songs for $4.99/month for online or Roku-only users. If you pay $9.99/mo. (the increasingly popular price point), you can access MOG tracks through multiple platforms, including via soon-to-be-released iPhone and Android apps.
 

 
Although Apple‘s new much-anticipated iAd platform is set to go live for the iPhone and iPod Touch with a variety of top brands on July 1, the ad solution for the iPad has been pushed back until Nov. when the iOS 4 iPad operating system gets released, reports AdAge. Apple is telling agencies it will take 6-8 weeks to put together an ad after the creative is produced.
 
JPEG-formatted display ads still enjoy a lion’s share of the display ad market powering 42% of impressions in the U.S., according to ComScore, which launched a new Creative Summary Report to track ad formats. Leaderboard-style banner ads (728 x 90 in dimension) were the most commonly viewed display ad by size.
 
Display Advertising Creative by Format – May 2010
                     Total Display Ad     Share of Publisher
                     Impressions (000)      Ad Impressions
Total Internet            408,621,155            100.0
Standard GIF/JPEG    243,560,459             59.6
    JPEG                    173,318,428             42.4
    GIF/Animated GIF   57,729,402             14.1
    PNG                       12,512,629               3.1
Flash + Rich Media*  164,546,498             40.3
Other Types                 4,364,312               1.1
Source: comScore Ad Metrix
 
Display Advertising Creative by Size – May 2010
                         Total Display Ad      Share of Publisher
                         Impressions (000)       Ad Impressions
Total Internet                408,621,155             100.0
Banners                          94,296,399               23.1
Rectangles                      92,646,426               22.7
Non-Standard                  90,466,905               22.1
Buttons                            84,667,578              20.7
Skyscrapers                      43,475,848              10.6
Pop-Ups and Pop-Unders      2,810,584               0.7
OPA Ad Formats                     257,415                0.1
Source: comScore Ad Metrix
 

 
Google says it will no longer redirect mainland Chinese users to its Hong Kong-based Google.com.hk search page. Instead, users will have to click on a link on the Google.con page to get there. The company began the workaround 3 months ago to avoid censorship from Chinese authorities.
 
Electronics retailer Best Buy is rolling out its own mobile broadband internet service in a partnership with Sprint, per Engadget. Dubbed Best Buy Connect (not to be confused with Best Buy’s Twitter Q&A service, will offer data plans of 250 MB for $30/mo. and 5 GB for $60/mo, accessible through laptops that run on Qualcomm’s Gobi chipset.
 

 
Researcher In-Stat is increasingly bullish about the prospects of the Over-the-Top video marketplace, enabled by the proliferation of devices that allow broadband video to be seen on a flat-screen TVs. Broadband households that view OTT video will grow from 38 million in 2009 to 81 million by 2014, predicts In-Stat, with revenue from OTT video more than quadrupling by 2014 to nearly $20 billion. Unique, first-run TV and movie content will drive much of the revenue as Netflix, Blockbuster, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, YouTube and now Hulu begin to charge for content. Much of the adoption is being driven by the younger crowd. A new report found that over one-third of 18-24 year old adult households stream full-length OTT video on a regular basis, compared to less than 10% of adult households in the over 45 year-old age brackets.
 
Live streaming of the U.S./Ghana match propelled Univision.com to records last week, as the site garnered 4.9 million unique visits. There were over 3.4 million total hours of live match streaming during the week. Fans have streamed 6.7 million hours of live video on UnivisionFutbol.com during the tournament thus far.
 

 
The WorldCup continues to be huge on mobile platforms as well, with MobiTV reporting that the event has driven 1 million total downloads of its iPhone app, pushing it up to the #2 on Apple’s top grossing app list. (The app, launched in April 2010, is “free” to download but all but 1 channel costs $9.99/mo.) MobiTV reports a 47% increase in downloads since the kick off of the World Cup, a 250% increase in paid subscriptions and a doubling of the ave. session viewed to 30 minutes.
 
Turner Entertainment Asia/Outblaze Investments joint venture TurnOut Ventures, creators of the “Ben 10 Omniverse: Rise of Heroes” online game, announced it is rolling out a new free-to-play, massively multi-player online game (MMOG) called FusionFall this fall. The game will place anime-styled Cartoon Network characters in a 3D action environment. TurnOut also announced it will partner with Omedia in Singapore and Malaysia and c2vision in Thailand to add new operating territories for “Ben 10.”
 

 
Former DirecTV CEO Mitchell Stern has stepped in at Freedom Communications to become CEO, replacing intern topper Burl Osborne.
 
Sabri Sansoy has joined social gaming start-up Worlize as Chief Technology Officer, based in the company’s Los Angeles headquarters. The former CTO for Animax has also served as VP/Interactive Entertainment Technology at GSN.
 
Ascent Media’s B2B video marketplace Global Media Exchange (GMX) has upped Mara Sternthal from SVP/Business Development to GM.
 
Buzzmedia hired Mike Hess, former Managing Editor of PopEater, and former TMZ.com producer Gillian Sheldon to oversee a new celebrity project to be unveiled in fall 2010. Their teams will be based in Los Angeles and New York and they will report to Mike Porath, SVP of Programming.
 
Video ad network Smartclip has hired Max Beeh as Director of West Coast Sales, Sara Goold as Director of Sales Planning, and Michael Leidenfrost as Ad Operations Manager. They will work in the company’s new New York City headquarters on West 25th Street.
 
Liz Herbert and Mike Suozzi have joined TidalTV as Senior Account Executives, effective immediately. Liz will report to VP/ Publisher Services John Rogers while Mike will report to VP/ National Sales Brian Danzis. Both are new positions at the company and will be based in TidalTV’s New York office.
 
Rick Ernst, Tim Hernandez and James Chung will join gaming company Ogmento as Lead Game Designer, Director of Production, and Art Director, respectively. All three will report directly to President and Chief Creative Officer, Brian Selzer.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM InteractiveOne

 
Hulu isn’t the only company trying to squeeze subscription revenue out of their subscribers. A new start-up has joined the fray in the streaming music space, offering access to music “in the cloud.” One of the more elegant solutions to come along, Rdio has an illustrious pedigree, backed by Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. (No, we didn’t leave out the “o”.) Rdio offers access to a 5 million song catalog online for $4.99/mo. or via mobile (iPhone, BlackBerry and soon Android) for $9.99/mo., with some intelligent software to go with it. You can discovery new music by browsing other people’s playlists, build and prioritize your own playlists full of streamed songs or purchased MP3s and access your online collection from your mobile device. The service could give birth to whole new generation of influencers, as the social networking component is organically built into the fabric of the service. And you don’t have to start from scratch to build up your contacts; the software allows you to import from Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AOL, Facebook or Twitter. There’s even an Adobe Air-based Rdio Desktop app that allows you to integrate your existing music collection with your Rdio playlists. There are so many licensed digital music service out there that have similar sized catalogues. The one with the best interface should rise to the top, and Rdio has set the bar higher with this release.
 
Correction: There are two Andrews who just joined Kantar Video to launch its Videolytics product. Digital media entrepreneur Andrew Chang comes aboard as a Business Development executive while Andrew Cheng, former Director of Advanced Analytics for Kantar Media Audiences, joins as Platform Manager.

Later – Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
[email protected]
06.30.10

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