Cynopsis: DIGITAL
09/16/09
Good morning, it’s Wednesday, September 16, 2009, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.
Adobe, maker of the ubiquitous Photoshop and Flash video software suites, is acquiring web analytics company Omniture, the company that provides many media companies with their internal online usage numbers, in a deal valued at about $1.8 billion. Omniture will become a new business unit of Adobe, with Omniture CEO Josh James joining Adobe as SVP, reporting to Shantanu Narayan, CEO of San Jose-based Adobe. The deal could accelerate effective measurement of interactive online entertainment properties according to Narayen, who described the deal as a “game changer.” Both companies have been struggling to maintain revenues during the recession as companies cut back on their technology spending.
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CYNOPSIS MEDIA EVENTS
October 26th 12:45 – 2:30pm
Advanced Advertising and Interactive TV
A Panel Discussion: What’s Real – What’s Not!
How Do MSOs, Networks and Brands Make Money with ITV Today!
Receive exclusive research on the state of Advanced Advertising and ITV at the event! Sponsored by WE tv, Wedding Central, Comcast Spotlight, and Ensequence
CLICK HERE For Luncheon Registration & Information.
IMAX Corp. and Columbia Pictures announced that Spider-Man 4 will be released to IMAX theatres simultaneously with the film’s worldwide release on May 5, 2011. Spidey 4 reunites director Sam Rami with stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.
MTV Networks’ ColbertNation.com is getting into music, streaming full albums from upcoming musical guests appearing on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. The Flaming Lips will kick things off debuting their new double album “Embryonic” on the site for a limited 3-day window following their appearance on the show tonight, Sept. 16. Albums from The Mountain Goats and Embryonic will be available next month.
Discovery’s PlanetGreen.com launched an online initiative to support its social engagement Reel Impact documentary block.
Comcast’s Fancast is hosting a live chat of CBS’s Big Brother today at 1 pm ET with all 3 of the finalists participating. Fancast hosts regularly scheduled chats for dozens of shows, but says that Big Brother chats attract the biggest crowds.
Online video portal Metacafe debuted its latest vertical offering, a site devoted to video game trailers, reviews, cheats, walkthroughs and game-themed user generated content. Content partners IGN and GamePro will provide much of the content initially, with EA jumping on board as charter sponsor, promoting its new Need for Speed SHIFT game. Ad buys from entertainment-related properties (movie & TV studios, game co’s, etc.) now make up more than half of Metacafe’s ad revenue, according to CEO Erick Hachenburg.
NextNewNetworks announced that it posted its biggest 3-month period of viewing ever during the summer months with an aggregate of 90 million+ views, thanks to best-ever showings from channels such as Fast Lane Daily, Indy Mogul, ThreadBanger, and Barely Political. The latter’s Obama Girl Dies! was the biggest NNN hit episode of the summer with over 1.5 million YouTube views.
Online suspense/fantasy series Lumina, the Web Series, starring Chinese beauty queen JuJu Chan, premiered yesterday to launch Web TV portal KoldCast TV’s new International Channel. The Hong Kong production hopes to attract viewers by featuring cutting edge music popular among U.S. and international teens, including the songs from Tim Be Told, Killer Soap and The Enigmatic Army.
Sway, Inc. announced an agreement with TiVo to open up TiVo DVRs to sponsored content from Shoutlet subscribers. Shoutlet is a web-based platform that combines digital formats such as e-mail, podcasts, RSS, mobile messaging (SMS) and video syndication into a single solution for marketers.
GoDaddy for one will return to the SuperBowl next year for the 6th straight year, already reaching an agreement with CBS to secure two 30-second spots on Feb. 7. The online hosting service earned Tivo’s Most Watched SuperBowl ad reward last year.
Blockbuster revealed that it is planning some drastic measures in a series of SEC filings yesterday, in an effort to compete with newcomers such as Netflix and Redbox and remain relevant in today’s digital landscape. The companies “multi-channel” plans include closing more brick and mortar stores (as many as 960 of them,) increasing its number of kiosks from 497 to 2,500 by year end, and ramping up its Blockbuster On Demand program to include more device integrations.
Clearwire unveiled its 4G WiMax application development initiative, intended to incubate next generation mobile apps. The developer network, a precursor to the commercial mobile broadband service planned to launch in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, will cover more than 20 square miles in Santa Clara, Mountain View and parts of downtown Palo Alto, CA including the campuses of Intel and Google – two of Clearwire’s investors. Clearwire also announced that it will participate in the Sprint Open Developer Conference scheduled for Oct. 26-28 in Santa Clara.
IPTV programming provider TAG Networks launched a new version of its high-density game streaming platform, now supporting 2,000 concurrent MPEG game streams at 1.25Mbps and running on a single off-the-shelf 1RU dual quad-core server. Traditionally, streaming games technologies have only supported 30-50 sessions per server, severely limiting scalability.
Digital broadcast application provider Triton Digital Media has acquired Ando Media, purveyor of online audio audience measurement and ads management.
Just when it looked like the death of Michael Jackson would make July the biggest month of the summer in terms of online video viewing, August actually managed to top it, according to Nielsen Online. A total of 139 million U.S. users watched more than 11.3 billion videos, an amazing 41% increase from Aug. 2008. However individual brand streaming counts fell slightly from a month ago, suggesting that smaller sites are beginning to cut into the leading properties’ share.
Overall Online Video Usage (U.S.)
Metric Aug-09 Year-Over-Year Month-Over-Month
Unique Viewers (000) 139,176 18.0% 2.4%
Total Streams (000) 11,363,819 41.0% 1.5%
Streams per Viewer 81.7 19.6% -0.8%
Time per Viewer (min) 204.9 38.6% -3.2%
Source: Nielsen VideoCensus
Top Online Brands ranked by Video Streams for August 2009 (U.S.)
Video Brand Total Unique
Streams Viewers
(000) (000)
YouTube 7,188,638 107,730
Hulu 392,545 9,894
Yahoo! 226,601 28,402
MSN/WindowsLive/Bing 180,603 17,244
Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network 158,790 6,376
Turner Sports and Ent. Digital Netwo 151,606 7,826
Fox Interactive Media 149,304 14,823
Disney Online 103,992 9,524
MTV Networks Music 102,021 6,227
Source: Nielsen VideoCensus, Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising
Mobile TV continues to face an uphill battle if providers expect users to pay extra for the service, according to research aggregated by eMarketer. Only 13.5% of respondents to a MediaMark Research & Intelligence survey said they would pay a subscription fee for mobile TV, even though 46.9% expressed interest in watching TV on their handsets. Perhaps more disturbing is that more than 70% of respondents found ads on mobile phones and PDAs annoying, though some were willing to view them in exchange for lower monthly costs.
IDC forecasts that the U.S. online community software market will grow from $278.4 million in 2008 to $1.6 billion in 2013 at a compound annual growth rate of 41.8%.
Microsoft’s Zune HD hit stores yesterday, perhaps the company’s best effort yet to woo consumers away from their iPods. The multiplatform gadget features a 3.3-inch touchscreen, an HD radio tuner and a video out enabling you to plug it into a plasma TV to playback video at 720p. WiFi capabilities provide wireless access for rental or download-to-own movies and shows via the Xbox-compatible Zune Marketplace, while the $15/month Zune pass provides unlimited music streaming. Prices range from $220 for the 16GB version to $290 for the 32GB model.
Following up on its popular video-viewing app, Showtime came up with a $5.99 “killer app” for the iPhone, putting players in the shoes of the serial killer Dexter. Produced by Marc Ecko Entertainment and developed by Icarus Studios, the 3D game allows you to analyze crime scenes, uncover evidence and use stealth tactics to stalk your prey.
Starz Media launched a mobile game for Pandorum based on the Overture Films feature, for the iPhone and iPod touch platform, now up at the App Store for $3.99. It’s a 3D first person shooter/role playing game placing users in the role of Corporal Bower.
Bruce Sewell, former Intel SVP and General Counsel, will join Apple as the company’s General Counsel and SVP/Legal and Government Affairs, reporting to CEO Steve Jobs. He replaces Daniel Cooperman, who will be retiring at the end of September.
Business-oriented social network Viadeo has added several executives to its board of directors, including Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail and ApnaCircle; William (Bill) Melton, co-founder of VeriFone and early investor in AOL; Derek Ling, founder and CEO of Tianji.com; and Yogesh Bansal, co-founder and CEO of ApnaCircle.
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE NEW YORK TELEVISION FESTIVAL
Proudly Announces 2009 Primetime Events Mon 9/21: ABC Premiere of “Cougar Town” & “Modern Family”
Tues 9/22: Behind the Scenes at CBS’s “Late Show”
Weds 9/23: NYTVF Digital Day with Sneak Peek of ABC’s “FlashForward”
Thurs 9/24: ION Television’s “Durham County”
Thurs 9/24: FOX Premiere of “Cleveland”
Go to www.NYTVF.com for info on the 2009 NYTVF
Tickets and Passes Available Now!
As live webcasting grows in popularity, providers must find ways to monetize their services and hopefully in the process, improve the quality of the product for the end user. Kyte.com raised the bar a bit yesterday unveiling a professional grade service, Kyte LivePro, featuring native, HD-quality streaming capabilities when used in conjunction with the Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder. The system has the capability to stream all the way up to 1080p, says COO Gannon Hall – not practical given most users’ bandwidth constraints, but impressive nonetheless. Kyte shifted its focus about a year and a half ago from being a consumer-oriented live video portal to a multiplatform services provider and media companies such as MTV and ESPN have been turning to the start-up more often to handle video streaming, social media integration and mobile distribution. ESPN’s bass fishing site used the Kyte platform to upload “ Bass Cam” video shot from a Nokia smartphone, complete with single-click Twitter, Facebook and MySpace sharing. “We’re at a crossroads in the digital media space and media companies are trying to figure out how to upload video, drive users to their content through the social web and get content to their audiences via mobile phones without going through 7 vendors,” said Gannon. TV Guide will use Kyte Live Pro to deliver live streaming of The Emmy’s red carpet preshow event this Sunday, September 20 on tvguide.com.
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE WALTER KAITZ FOUNDATION
Those words from Muhammad Ali capture the sense of purpose that has made diversity part of the business DNA for the 2009 Walter Kaitz Foundation Diversity Champions. Congratulations to Comcast Corp. and Turner Broadcasting System. Please join us at cable’s pre-eminent fundraising event to honor them, and to unite behind our industry’s commitment to diversity. With your support, we’re all champions.
Later — Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
09.16.09
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JOB OPENING: AD SALES ACCOUNT EXEC/Cynopsis Media/NJ office. Sales Exec needed with 5+ years of ad sales/TV industry exp & record of budget beating sales success. Send cover ltr/Resume to [email protected] (9/22)
JOB OPENING: NEW MEDIA MKTG MGR/Scripps/Knox-TN: Dev VOD Promos & mktg strategies; dev processes, content package & agreements w/ On Demand affiliates. Analyze distrib models for tech reqs. To apply: www.scrippsnetworks.com (9/22)
JOB OPENING: RESEARCH ANALYST/Univision NY: Support advertising and affiliate sales. 1-2 years Nielsen ratings experience. Program tracking and analysis; create sales materials. Please e-mail resume to [email protected] (9/22)
JOB OPENING: ACCOUNT MGR/The Hotel Networks/Chicago: 3+ yrs Ad Sales Exp, OOH/Digital-Place Based+++, Creative, Aggressive, Proven Sales Pro, Excel Communication Skills A Must, Self-Motivated, Email [email protected] (9/19)
JOB OPENING: SR PRODUCER/Soapnet.com/CA. Proj manage digt’l efforts, site dev initiatives incl; mob, community & viral digt’l mktg. Min 8yrs dev, bldg online prop. PM skills and HTML req. Visit www.disneyabcjobs.com ID 203730 (9/19)
JOB OPENING: ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE/Gaia Interactive/NYC: Seeks dynamic, strategic, savvy Media Salesperson. Resp. for generation & selling online ad/sponsorship. 2-4+ yrs online media sales. Resumes to: [email protected] (9/19)
JOB OPENING: DIR MKTG/PBS KIDS SPROUT/COMCAST/PA: dev & implement mktg plans/strong work ethic & mgmt skills? Req’d 10+ yrs exp. @ TV Ntwrk Mktg, kids prod & leading/managing advertising. Apply: www.COMCAST.com (9/18)
JOB OPENING: MGR OF PROMO MKTG/PBS KIDS SPROUT/COMCAST/PA: strong leading creative concept dev & project mgmt skills? Req’d 5+ yrs exp. @ TV Ntwrk Mktg, kids prod & brand/promo mktg. Apply: www.COMCAST.com (9/18)
JOB OPENING: COORDINATOR, INTEGRATED MARKETING/Nickelodeon/NYC. 2+yrs mrktg/sales exp. in mrkting/ad agency in Ent/Media, Fast paced/Strng multitasking skills, Strng Project/Time Mgmt skills EOE/M/F/D/AAP. Apply www.mtvncareers.com (9/18)
JOB OPENING: MEDIA ANALYST/Billetts America/NYC: Analyze media plans on both a cost & quality basis. Front-line access to top clients; Be part of a great, growing team. Resume: [email protected] (9/17)
JOB OPENING: SR WRITER/PROD ON-AIR PROMOS/SOAPNet/LA: Write/prod/supervise edits/promos; develop innov strategies; strong knowledge of prod process; project mgmt. 5+ yrs exp in cable/netwk. Apply www.disneycareers.com ID #206284 (9/17)
JOB OPENING: DIRECT RESPONSE SALES PLAN/TV One/NY: Min 1-2 yrs DR/TV Sales Planner exp. Pref’d/BA required. Direct Response Agency Buying/Plan exp. a +. Familiar with rsrch tools MRI, Nielsen. Full description at tvoneonline .com (9/17)
INTERNSHIPS – These positions are for credit only – nobody gets paid here. These ads are always 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] .
F ALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: USA Network STRATEGIC MKTG INTERN: Develop presentations and creative concepts for advertising partnerships, reports, admin tasks. Excel & PPT desired. Grad/Undergrad, 3 days. Reply: [email protected] w/ res/cover (9/19)
FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: RSRCH INTERN: Research art activities, artists, events for Scribble Town community for kids, parents and teachers. Excel, Word & fast learner desired. Undergrad 2-3 days, Reply: [email protected] w/ res/cover (9/18)
SITUATION WANTED ADS, POSTED BY THOSE LOOKING TO BE HIRED … There is no charge for placing your Situation Wanted ad … for more information contact Trish Pihonak at [email protected]
SITUATION WANTED: MARKETING/PROMOTIONS/Boston: Marketing/promotions professional seeks television, web marketing, social networking focused position. Experienced in international markets. Creative + will travel. [email protected] (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: MEDIA BUYING/SALES/NY:5+ years experience media buying/mrkng Familiar with brdcst media and multimedia platforms. Results oriented, persistent. Seeking position in buying or network sales. [email protected] (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: SR FIELD PROD/DIR: 15 yrs exp: CBS, NBC, Discovery, HGTV, Fox, Style, Fine Living, Speed. Xlnt interview & story skills; great w/people, places & things; nat’l & int’l exp. [email protected] http://tinyurl.com/lrdk6u (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: BRAND STRATEGIST & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT; Ad Agency & Hollywood Studio experience; content development, distribution & licensing, account mgt, strategy, pitching, closing. [email protected] (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: SHOOTER/PRODUCTION EDITOR/Graphics-Final Cut, Premiere, CS3-4 Many skills Looking for FT/PT/Temp. in Connecticut. Contact Greg 619.708.5266 Great work ethic, team player (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: TRAFFIC MANAGER with13 years exp seeks position in Radio/TV/Online or traffic software in NY/NJ Area only. [email protected] (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: WRITER/PRODUCER/VO TALENT (LA) 15+ years experience in Creative Marketing, Trailers & On-Air Promo. Seeks Freelance or Staff Position. Reel & Contact Info: www.WormOnTheWeb.com Email: [email protected] (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: FIELD PRODUCER/DIRECTOR (NYC):8 yrs exp in reality & docs. Local & Int’l prod. Strong story teller. Exp w/ Sony Z-1U & V-1. Bi-lingual (Eng & Span) CREDITS: Bravo, History, Discovery [email protected] (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: 9 time Emmy winning CREATIVE PRODUCER-based in Atlanta seeking freelance jobs. Great with clients. 15yrs experience in promotional / creative TV. [email protected] / website: www.pack30productions.com (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: DIGITAL MEDIA/CABLE/BUSINESS AFFAIRS ATTORNEY Broad in-house exp in content prod& distribution, new media, operations, cable affiliate & ad sales. Avail for project/consultant/FT. Contact [email protected] (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: Recent grad seeking an ENTRY-LEVEL position in the entertainment industry. Experience in marketing, sales, mgt., project management. Highly organized, eager to learn and contribute. Email: [email protected] (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: RESEARCH/STRATEGY – 20+ yrs expertise in Nielsen methodology, calcs, Hisp, research, sales, & presentations. Email: [email protected] (9/22)
SITUATION WANTED: EXP’D GRAPHIC DESIGNER/ARTIST (LA) Reality-TV, Film, Commercial, Documentaries & Corp. Creative & Flexible. Seeking Freelance or Staff Position, Remote or In-House. Reel & Contact Info: www.ChaztizedMedia.com (9/19)
SITUATION WANTED: FREELANCE DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION (NYC)20 years experience working concept through completion. Portfolio: www.baerdavis.com Email: [email protected] (9/19)
SITUATION WANTED: WRITER: Children’s writer with exp at various prod co’s & Kids’ CBC. Portfolio in educational & comedic works for kids. Exp. in development, creative consulting, editing. Freelance. Contact [email protected] (9/18)
SITUATION WANTED: CHILDREN’S CONTENT SPECIALIST/NYC: 4+ Years experience representing children’s products (books and multimedia properties), specializing in creating promotional materials. [email protected] (9/18)
SITUATION WANTED: 20+ yrs. experience in TV Broadcasting & Cable ACCOUNTING/FINANCE. Seeking FT/PT or Temp-to-Perm position: [email protected] (9/18)
SITUATION WANTED: ENTERTAINMENT WRITER/REPORTER w/ 11+ yrs exp breaking news and doing celebrity Q&As – online, in print & on video. Covering TV a specialty, well-connected in industry. Seeking FT work in NYC. Contact [email protected] (9/17)
SITUATION WANTED: MEDIA/MARKETING MANAGER/LA:4+ years experience in media planning/buying, account management, online marketing. Familiar with brdcst & interactive media markets. Hardworking, dependable, diligent. [email protected] (9/17)
E-mail [email protected] or call Trish Pihonak at 203.926.9878 for rates and specs for Job Openings.
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