Media Life Web Shorts June 4, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment Jacked up: FBI nabs man accused of uploading ‘24′
Of all the villains Jack Bauer has battled over the years, online pirates could be the most potentially damaging, both to his show and to the entertainment industry in general. Now the Federal Bureau of Investigation says it’s found one of them, a man accused of uploading four episodes of “24” to LiveDigital.com more than a week before their January television premiere. The FBI says 24-year-old Chicago resident Jorge Romero violated copyright laws by posting the material. He faces a three-year federal prison sentence. The video also showed up on YouTube, which prompted Fox, the network that airs “24,” to serve the Google video sharing site and LiveDigital subpoenas requesting the disclosure of the uploader’s identity. According to reports, Romero said he did not originally place the pirated videos online. Instead he apparently found them elsewhere on the web and put them in the more widely viewed places.
China says nay to opening yet more internet cafes
In China, the government’s oppression of the internet continues. The latest: There will be no new internet cafes during 2007, according to a notice from the country’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce, as regulators inspect the roughly 120,000 internet cafes currently being used. There’s a chance that the cafes could be closed or severely curtailed in a nation that has an ambivalent relationship with the net, which allows its citizens a potentially worrisome look at the outside world. The government generally tolerates the internet when it is used for business and education, but it has voiced concern about web access to violence, sex and gambling adversely affecting Chinese children. Back in April, the government began a severe crackdown on online pornography. Yet China remains one of the world’s most wired countries. Some 137 million people are online, and the nation will surpass the United States in terms of internet users in two years.
Apple dials up June 29 release date for new iPhone
The long-rumored, very secretive iPhone finally has a launch date: It is coming out June 29. The Apple product is a combination cell phone, wireless web-surfing device and media player that will be offered by AT&T Wireless, and it will retail for $499 and $599, depending on the specs of the phone. The iPhone was first introduced back in January by CEO Steve Jobs, who said it would be released in June. Bloggers and tech boards had been buzzing with rumors over when the exact date would be, and over the weekend the company revealed the answer with a trio of TV commercials. They introduced a phone with a user interface that features a widescreen multi-touch display.
Study: One in five toting their laptops on vacation
So much for a relaxing, low-tech vacation away from the computer. According to a new poll from AP-Ipsos, 20 percent of vacationers brought along their laptops on their most recent vacation. That’s in addition to the 80 percent of travelers who bring their cell phones. Why the need for all the electronics? While some vacationers simply want to stay in the loop, a good portion are actually doing work while they’re away. Twenty percent report working on vacation, with an additional 20 percent using their cells to call the office and make sure things were all right. Roughly half continue to check office voicemail, and 40 percent download their office email. There’s definitely a generation gap in who’s packing up their electronics. A quarter of those age 40 and younger toted along a laptop, while just 15 percent of those ages 50-64 did.
Media Life Web Shorts May 31, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment Apple TV gets sweeter with new YouTube deal
Couch potatoes could soon be watching Ask A Ninja and lonelygirl15 in wide screen. Apple said yesterday it plans to stream YouTube videos from the internet through its Apple TV set-top box to home televisions starting in mid-June. Right now only movies, television shows, music and other media saved onto the wireless set can be shown. The move comes after reportedly sluggish initial sales for Apple TV, which was introduced earlier this year. However, it’s unclear how Apple will contend with a $1 billion lawsuit that Viacom has thrown at video sharing site YouTube, which is owned by Google. Viacom, which owns MTV Networks, sued after finding that thousands of Viacom-owned movies had been uploaded to the file-sharing site without permission. Apple also said yesterday it will be selling Apple TV systems with 160 gigabyte drives, four times more than the original system.
Webcasters file stay in latest e-radio rights skirmish
Internet radio is not going down without a fight. Yesterday the U.S. Digital Media Association, National Public Radio and the association of Small Commercial Webcasters filed an emergency stay in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to stop the royalty rate increases scheduled to take effect July 15 that they claim will force some webcasters offline. In March the Copyright Royalty Board retroactively increased royalty rates for webcasters in 2006 starting at $0.0008 per song and rising to $0.0019 per song by 2010. The webcasters say the rate hikes represent a 300 percent cost increase for the biggest companies and up to a 1,200 percent increase for the smallest operators. Internet radio operators hope the stay will buy time for legislation introduced to Congress in April that would reverse the CRB decision. But copyright holders say the bill would result in a windfall of more than $50 million going to webcasters instead of U.S. recording artists, according to SoundExchange, an organization that collects performance royalties for copyright owners.
Study: Movie watching via computers is growing
The big screen is, more than ever, moving to the small screen, and it’s the small screen on top of the keyboard that’s getting a major increase in cinematic play. According to a new study from Solutions Research Group, 47 percent of American PC users have watched a DVD on their computers, a jump from 29 percent who had done so back in October of 2006. The study also found that 15 percent of Americans had downloaded a full-length film in the last month, up from 11 percent in October. Moreover, 66 percent of respondents agreed with the statement “one day all movies will be available to download at the click of a mouse,” while only 15 percent disagreed. Still, a majority of consumers are either still not aware of what offerings they can find online or not ready to partake: only 30 percent said they had visited iTunes’ movie download section, 10 percent Amazon’s movie downloads, and 8 percent had been to walmart.com’s movie download area.
Ming dynasty: Yao drives foreign NBA.com traffic
He’s a big star in more ways than one. People in China and around Asia are flocking to NBA.com to follow the career of 7-foot, 6-inch Houston Rockets center Yao Ming. According to new numbers from comScore, the online measurement company, 12.4 million visitors from around the world visited the site last month, with 36.6 percent from Asia Pacific. That was second to North America at 46 percent. While Americans ranked as the top visitors at almost 4.8 million, Chinese fans accounted for the largest number of international visitors, with 2.8 million, or 22.8 percent of visits. Canada came third with 928,000 or 7.5 percent. Europe accounted for almost 1.5 million visitors, or 11.7 percent of share. “The combination of strong global marketing efforts and the influx of several highly marketable international stars – such as [German player] Dirk Nowitski and Yao Ming – has succeeded in building awareness of the NBA brand across the world,” said Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe, in a statement.
Political networking: MySpace’s fundraising tool
This time around, the internet has become far more important for presidential candidates than ever before. Now MySpace is making moves to make it even more so. The company, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., has created a viral tool that will allow candidates to raise money through MySpace, according to the Financial Times. What’s more, the tool could also be used to track how much money is being donated to each candidate through the social network. So far, despite the fact that the tool can track donations, it hasn’t been decided whether that capability will be used, according to reports. It also remains to be seen just how much money will be plonked down for the candidates through MySpace – each person will be able to donate no more than $500 through the site.
One last big push for Anheuser-Busch’s Bud.TV
Anheuser-Busch isn’t quite ready to give up on Bud.TV, contrary to prior reports. The company’s online network aimed at young men who drink beer and spend a lot of time online is being revamped with a social networking area and shorter video content. The changes come a week after the company indicated that it had given up on the site, on which it spent loads of money but saw traffic drop off quickly. “The Joe Buck Show,” for example, which showed the Fox Sports play-by-play man interviewing celebrities in taxis, will likely be scrapped in favor of one-minute shorts. The site will also draw on content from other web sites and distribute its own on video-sharing sites like YouTube. To this point, Bud.TV has featured more than 2,000 minutes of original programming and cost the brewer $15 million. But traffic to the site dropped 40 percent in March, according to comScore, and declined even further in April. A-B has blamed some of the slow traffic on a complicated admittance system designed to weed out surfers under age 21.
G-strung: Web site suspends Buddha undies sales
How does Buddha look on a G-string? To many Thais, not very good. California-based online seller CafePress.com has removed G-strings and dog T-shirts with pictures of Buddha on them after receiving protests from the mostly Buddhist nation of Thailand. “It is a good thing they understand our sensitivity,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Piriya Khempon told Reuters, which originally reported the story. CafePress’ tag line at its site is “Shop, sell or create what’s on your mind.” Other religious and potentially irreverent items there include a host of T-shirts, beer mugs and teddy bears sporting mantras like “when you get raptured I’m taking all your stuff” and “karma happens.”
Britney bares all (emotionally) in latest web posting
Ever wonder what led Britney Spears to chop off her locks and do impersonations of Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct?” She’s trying to explain. In a note posted yesterday on her web site, Spears says she was in shock following her divorce last year and “was like a bad kid running around with ADD.” The 25-year-old mother of two filed for divorce from Kevin Federline in November before hitting the party scene, shaving her head and checking into rehab, which she described as “a very humbling place.” “I truly hit rock bottom,” Spears added. The pop star goes on to say people around her were trying to control and take advantage of her. “They knew I was beginning to use my brain for a change and cut some ties, so they wanted to be in more control of my life than me,” she said. However, Spears appears to be unrepentant about her partying. “I think it is actually normal for a yo
ung girl to go out after a huge divorce.”
Media Life Web Shorts May 23, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentCNN.com following the new trend toward local news
Daily newspapers are focusing on local news in an effort to revive sagging circulation and advertising rates. Now the nation’s 24-hour television news channel is going hyperlocal on its web site in an attempt to snag some of the fast-growing online advertising market as well as market share from its two biggest competitors: MSNBC and Yahoo. While CNN typically focuses on national and international headlines, the cable channel yesterday teamed with Internet Broadcasting in a deal that will allow CNN to use local stories from the Minneapolis-based company’s 70 local TV station web sites and vice versa. CNN and Internet Broadcasting hope their content swapping will increase traffic to CNN.com as well as the local TV web sites. If that happens, each web site could potentially charge higher ad rates and allow the Internet Broadcasting affiliates to expand national ad sales. Growth in online advertising by local companies has more than doubled over the past two years to $5.7 billion in 2006. While newspaper web sites capture 36 percent of the local online ad market, TV station web sites are only getting 7 percent, but that number is growing. CNN.com’s traffic lags behind competitors MSNBC.com and Yahoo. They are affiliated with major internet portals that funnel visitors to their news sites, something that CNN has lacked until now. Internet Broadcasting’s 70 sites make it the sixth-most-viewed news property on the web, according to Nielsen//Net Ratings.
Sprint phones start streaming Pandora’s online radio
Two companies are teaming to turn your cell phone into a radio jukebox. Sprint has reached a deal with online music service Pandora, which allows its users to enter a song or artist that they like to create a personalized radio station with an ongoing stream of songs with a similar sound and style. Users can save up to 100 stations in their account and can create stations directly on their phone or online. The service is currently available on five Sprint phones but will expand by the end of June. After a no-charge 30-day trial, it will cost $2.99 per month plus any other standard Power Vision data rates.
Study: Kids are making fewer illegal downloads
Kids are doing less illegal downloading of movies and songs, but not for the reason you might think. They’re worried more about causing damage to their computers by picking up a virus or getting in trouble with mom or dad than about breaking the law. According to a survey from Business Software Alliance, 36 percent of 8-18s make illegal downloads, a 26 percent drop from a similar survey in 2004. As for the reasons behind the drop, 62 percent said that they were worried an illegal download might come with an attached computer virus, while only 52 percent worried about getting in legal trouble. Fifty-one percent were concerned about downloading spyware, while 48 percent were worried about what mom and dad would say if they found out. Music is the most often pirated by kids: 30 percent admitted getting tunes online without paying.
Hitwise: Online, it’s ‘Idol’ finalist Blake over Jordin
Jordin Sparks seemed to have the advantage over Blake Lewis based on last night’s towering “American Idol” performance, but if internet buzz is an indicator, Lewis may actually get the win. For the week ended May 19, internet searches for “Blake Lewis” outnumbered those for “Jordin Sparks” by 25 percent, according to online intelligence company Hitwise. The previous week Lewis had 270 percent more web searches. Of course, many searchers were seeking information on something other than the contestants’ musical prowess. For example, 5.9 percent of all searches for Sparks during the week ended May 19 were about her physical stature, while 4.3 percent of Lewis’ searches were for “Blake Lewis gay.” Just 2 percent of Lewis’ searches had anything to do with his music or singing style, but that’s still more than the 1 percent of Sparks’ searches that had to do with her music.
Media Life Web Shorts, May 22, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentMySpace begins sharing s#$ offenders information
Kids love it, but parents have long been wary of MySpace as an area where unchecked sex offenders could prey on unsuspecting kids. But the social networking site is doing all it can to change that reputation. MySpace said yesterday it has begun to share information it finds on its site about users who are known sex offenders, after initially holding out for legal reasons. This comes a week after several state attorneys general requested the information from the News Corp.-owned site. MySpace checks its list of members against a database provided by Sentinel Tech Holding Corp., which lists convicted sex offenders, and removes those people’s profiles. MySpace and U.S. attorneys Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Roy Cooper of North Carolina say they will share the information so it can be used for both criminal investigations and proceedings involving parole or probation. The attorneys general of eight states gave MySpace until May 29 to provide such information, but the site was reluctant to do so until it knew it would be in the clear legally.
Hitwise: Traffic to Facebook has doubled since fall
Since opening its virtual doors to non-pupils, more and more surfers have flocked to Facebook. Traffic to the popular social networking site, formally for those with only a high school or college email address, has doubled since September 2006, when the site became open to those without school affiliation. According to online intelligence agency Hitwise, 11.47 percent of social networking visits this past April were to Facebook, a 106 percent growth in market share for the site versus September 2006. But it’s still MySpace that dominates the category, according to the report issued yesterday: 79.7 percent of social networking traffic went to the News Corp.-owned site. In third place was Bebo, at 1.28 percent.
YouTube seeks ‘SNL’-style talents in video contest
YouTube is looking for the next “Lazy Sunday.” The video sharing network has launched a contest called Sketchies to find the next great sketch comedy artist, a la “Saturday Night Live” or “MADtv.” Hollywood agents, writers, producers and executives will choose 20 finalists from what’s expected to be thousands of rough video entries. The finalists will compete in a three-round elimination format, and YouTube members will decide who wins. Sketchies is being promoted by “Sunday” performer Andy Samberg’s comedy group The Lonely Island, which made their first splash with online video and who now work for “SNL.” A production budget to create a short for sierramist.com is among the prizes for the winning entries. Submissions will be accepted May 24 until May 31.
ABC moves ‘World News’ webcast earlier in the day
When ABC launched its “World News” webcast, it was used as a tool to preview that night’s broadcast TV version. But in a move that shows just how the web is evolving from a complementary media to a self-sufficient one, ABC News yesterday pushed back its webcast from 3 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. The webcast will now act as a stand-alone news program rather than a preview of what’s on that night’s newscast. It also allows ABC News to take advantage of higher internet traffic seen at lunchtime. ABC is the only Big Three network that produces an original newscast for the internet, and the program has been downloaded more than 70 million times since it launched in January 2006, according to the network. The internet version of “World News” skews more toward the web surfing crowd, with video blogs, pop cult reports, tech news and top Google searches in addition to the standard national and international news. Shortly after the webcast airs at 12:30, it will be available on demand through iTunes or RSS, as well as on mobile phones.
Media Life Web Shorts May 17, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentJudge dismisses suit against ex-Wonkette editor
A federal judge sidestepped making a decision yesterday on whether bloggers are liable for something they reprint and instead dismissed a lawsuit against the founder of a political gossip web site who reprinted sexually explicit material about two Senate aides. The lawsuit was against Ana Marie Cox, founder and former editor of Wonkette.com, who commented on and provided links to a blog created by Jessica Cutler, an aide to former Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican. Cutler used her infamous Washingtonienne blog to discuss her sex life with several men including Robert Steinbuch, who was DeWine’s counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Steinbuch left Washington after he said he was humiliated by Culter’s blog, which Cox drew attention to. The federal judge ruled that Cox, who is now the Washington editor of Time.com, was added to lawsuit after the statute of limitations had run out. The suit against Cutler continues and if it goes to trial, could help establish whether people who keep online diaries are obligated to protect the privacy of those they interact with offline.
Sweeter song: Amazon launching e-music store
The music industry could have another e-headache in the offing. Amazon.com plans to open an online music store later this year that offers songs free of copy-protection technology. Consumers would be able to play the songs on PCs and portable devices such as Apple’s iPod or Microsoft’s Zune, but not Microsoft’s Media Audio format, which doesn’t play on iPods. In fact, iPods and Zunes can’t play copy-protected music purchased from Napster or RealNetworks’s Rhapsody store. Amazon said it is steering clear of digital rights management technology because consumers want to be able to listen to their music on any device they choose. Consumers will be able to buy songs by the track or album, without a subscription option. Amazon didn’t provide prices, but Apple generally charges $0.99 per track.
Google widens its base to provide universal search
Google, the online search engine that makes finding a certain picture, video, article or ex-boyfriend easy, is about to make it even easier. The company said yesterday that it is combining its different web search services into one universal search service that will present web sites, news, video and other results on one page. As of yesterday, a standard Google search will draw results from previously separate sites covering books, local information, images, news and video. The move is a significant overhaul of Google’s most used function. The combined search will include any site indexed by Google’s services, such as YouTube, Google Video and independent sites like Metacafe.com. Google also is introducing new navigation features at the top of every Google page to let users quickly hop between different properties. Over time, Google searchers even will be able to use a translation service that converts queries into other languages, allowing users to do broader searches.
Aussie man creates game based on Tech rampage
The very idea of exploiting the Virginia Tech shootings for profit or attention is vile, but a Sydney man is doing so nonetheless. “V-Tech Rampage” creator Ryan Lambourn told the Sydney Morning Herald that he made the free online video game, which allows players to control Cho Seung-hui’s image shooting other characters in a facsimile of the campus as screams are heard on the soundtrack, “because it’s funny.” Families of Ho’s victims may not agree. Outraged consumers have demanded that Newground.com, an amateur game sharing site that carries “Rampage,” take it down. Lambourn initially asked for $2,000 to take down the game, which also appears on his personal web site. He even said he’d apologize for posting it if he was paid an additional $1,000. But now he’s changed his mind, saying that as a victim of bullying himself, he identifies with Cho. “No one listens to you unless you’ve got something sensational to do. And that’s why I feel sympathy for Cho Seung-Hui. He had to go that far,” the 21-year-old Aussie man told the Herald. Cho killed 32 people last month before killing himself in a rampage on the Blacksburg, Va., campus.
Media Life Web Shorts May 16, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentFrom small screen to smaller: ABC shows on Sprint
Sprint mobile phone users will soon be able to watch episodes of ABC’s “Lost” anywhere, even on a tropical island. ABC parent Disney finalized a deal with Sprint yesterday that will allow the mobile phone company’s users to watch full episodes of ABC shows like “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Good Morning America” on their video-enable handset, as well as Disney Channel fare like “Hannah Montana” and “Kim Possible.” The shows will be available through Sprint’s Vision TV Pack, which costs $20 a month, either on-demand or through one of three linear channels that will constantly stream the programming. The deal will go live in time for users to watch most of ABC’s season finales this week and next on their phones, and an advertising element will be added by fall. This is the first deal between a broadcast network and a mobile phone carrier to stream programming on a wide scale; CBS had a deal with Sprint as well, but that was only for episodes of the drama “Jericho.”
Warner sues Imeem over alleged copyright violations
YouTube isn’t the only file-sharing site facing a lawsuit in federal court. Warner Music Group is suing music-sharing site Imeem for copyright infringement, asking for damages totaling as much as $150,000 per alleged infringement. According to Reuters, the suit accuses Imeem of encouraging users to copy and adapt copyrighted sound recordings and music videos, then share them with others. Imeem has more than 16 million users, who are able to upload and share MP3 files. But the site says it warns users to not upload content they don’t own. Artists on the Warner label include Madonna and Green Day. Viacom sued YouTube, Google’s video sharing site, for some $1 billion earlier this year over copyright concerns.
Missing: Workers’ personal info. Please contact IBM.
In the latest case of a company losing employees’ personal information in an embarrassingly public manner, IBM has placed an advertisement in a New York state newspaper asking for the return of missing computer tapes. The tapes included information on workers there as well as on customer transactions. IBM specializes in technology, but the tapes apparently were lost in a very mundane manner: A contractor working for the company lost them while transporting them from one IBM facility to another on Feb. 23 near the company’s Armonk, N.Y., headquarters. IBM has said that there is no evidence that the info on the tapes has been exploited, and the tapes were encrypted. The ad requesting their return ran in the Westchester Journal News.
MySpace Video, starring National Geographic and NYT
More and more companies want to network with MySpace. The social networking site is continuing to expand, saying yesterday that it will begin to feature video from National Geographic, Reuters and The New York Times, as well as other smaller web studios. National Geographic, whose content will also be available at Joost, will promote an upcoming series entitled “Taboo” and will provide environmentally friendly tips to the News Corp. site’s users, while also showing content from shows like “The Dog Whisperer” and “Explorer.” The New York Times will feature election updates, wedding announcements and movie reviews. MySpace has not yet decided whether the new content will be ad-supported or not. While most content at MySpace Video runs ad-free, its popular series “Prom Queen” does run with commercials.
Media Life Web Shorts May 15, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentMedia Life Web Shorts
DirecTV: Let’s try broadband through power lines
Very soon, power grids may be used to do more than bring consumers electricity. DirecTV wants to test delivering high-speed internet service through power lines in a major U.S. city in the next year, its chief executive, Chase Carey, told Reuters yesterday. Carey said DirecTV is talking to companies that specialize in providing broadband through the electrical grid and that DirecTV would like to test delivering internet access on power lines in a top-50 population city where at least half the city is covered. Delivering service via power lines would give satellite TV operators like DirecTV and EchoStar another way to compete with cable companies that are aggressively expanding their broadband services. And while satellite companies have benefited from phone companies’ attempts to compete by packaging satellite products with their DSL and telephone offerings, analysts believe that satellite TV operators need another entrée into broadband.
Attorneys general to MySpace: Hand over the names
MySpace.com said last year that it was taking steps to rid the social networking site of sex offenders. Now top law officials in eight states want information about those offenders that MySpace has compiled with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. Attorneys general from North Carolina, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania sent a letter asking MySpace to provide information on how many registered sex offenders are using the site and where they live. Law officials also asked MySpace to describe the steps it has taken to warn users about sex offenders and remove their profiles. They want MySpace to respond by May 29. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called the site a “virtual playground” for predators and said the combination of sex offenders and children is a recipe for tragedy. MySpace didn’t say if it would comply with the request, but the site, owned by News Corp., said in a statement that it was in the initial stages of cross referencing membership against Sentinel’s registered sex offender database and removing any confirmed matches.
High-def test: ABC offering HD shows online in July
Last year, ABC pioneered offering shows for download after they aired on television. Now the network is testing another new innovation, offering high-definition programming in beta form this summer. Beginning in July, ABC will show episodes of “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ugly Betty” on an upgraded ABC.com broadband player, an industry first. When the new season launches in September, an expanded HD programming lineup will be presented, and ABC.com also will showcase national news and local content on its full-episode player. Although advertisers haven’t invested heavily in producing ads in HD, they are likely to welcome the move because the new platform will allow them to localize creative and target ads to individual users.
New on NBC.com, building your own ‘Office’ branch
Beginning next fall, NBC viewers won’t just watch their favorite shows, they can be a part of the action. Along with the network’s TV upfront presentation to advertisers yesterday, NBC Digital Entertainment also unveiled some new stuff. In addition to new interactive features for shows like “The Office,” NBC.com also will launch a new soap opera web-exclusive series called “Coastal Dreams” and team with iVillage to produce online extensions of new show “Lipstick Jungle.” NBC.com’s online “Office” will encourage users to work for Dunder-Mifflin, creating their own branches and completing weekly corporate tasks. Local branches that successfully complete tasks may be integrated into an on-air episode of the show. For “Jungle,” a show about female executives, NBC.com hopes to reach iVillage’s millions of women users with a fully editorialized online publication that offers fashion profiles, relationship advice, topical articles, quizzes and forums. Users also will get the “Bonfire Buzz” on the fictional world of the show before each episode airs.
Media Life Web Shorts May 14, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentMedia Life Web Shorts
CBS syndicating content on the web through 10 sites
If its content is going to be posted all over the web, CBS figures it might as well get paid for it. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the network plans to syndicate its entertainment, news and sports video to as much of the web as possible. Starting this week, an expanded menu of CBS’s video content will be available for free on some 10 different Web sites, including Time Warner Inc.’s AOL and Joost Inc., the Journal says. CBS also is working on agreements with social networking sites such as Facebook Inc. and Last.fm to allow users to post its video clips to their profiles. CBS also plans to sell advertising that will appear on the digital network, with upfront negotiations set to begin soon as the network presents its fall schedule this week. During an analyst call earlier this month, CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves said the network is pursuing an aggressive online strategy. “We are building our online audience at CBS.com and we are also putting our content where the audience already is; and importantly, all of these sites are ad-supported,” he said. “We will get paid for them and they will all be part of our upfront sales later this month.”
Spooking the spoofers? ‘O.J. Simpsons’ draws fire.
When it comes parody, “The Simpsons” can certainly dish it out, but can the show take it? 20th Century Fox is pressuring online video hub Broadcaster.com to remove three internet spoofs of “The Simpsons” that re-imagine the series starring former football star O.J Simpson. The parody is called “The O.J. Simpsons,” and the three clips are titled “Black and White Christmas,” “Warzone” and “If I Did It,” – a direct reference to Fox’s much-criticized and quickly nixed special about Simpson’s later canceled book about the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman. Broadcaster told Reuters Friday that it is reviewing Fox’s demands, but noted that the fair-use doctrine protects parodies. Fox, however, isn’t likely to let the issue go. The network has been aggressive about protecting perceived copyright infringements. In January, it subpoenaed Google over uploaded episodes of “24″ and “Simpsons” on YouTube. Google complied, disclosing the names of the individuals who uploaded the shows.
Social selling: Facebook adds classified advertising
The war in online classifieds is heating up, and it’s not going to be good for newspapers. The popular college social networking site Facebook on Friday said it plans to add free classified ad listings. While Facebook’s new service, called Marketplace, will compete with Craigslist, Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com, newspapers that already have seen their lucrative classified ad business migrate to other online real estate, job and car sites likely will be the most affected if the site is successful. Facebook has 22 million registered users. Its new service will allow them and newcomers to the site to create classified listings in four categories: housing, jobs, for sale, and other. Users also will be able to limit the exposure of their classifieds to individual networks such as immediate friends and coworkers. Veteran social networking site Friendster, through a partnership with Olx.com, also said Friday that it has added classifieds to its list of services.
Study: Brits outpace Americans in mobile web use
On the go or at home, Brits are turning to mobile devices to access the internet more frequently than folks in the U.S. According to a study released today by comScore Networks, 5.7 million people in the U.K., or 19 percent of the market, used a mobile device to access the web during January 2007, compared to 30 million people ages 15 or older who accessed the web from a PC at home or a work. By comparison, 17 percent of the U.S. web market accessed the web from a mobile device in January. Men 35 and under are the most frequent users in both markets, accounting for 67 percent of the entire web audience in the U.K. and 39 percent of the same age segment in the U.S. As expected, Yahoo, MSN and Google were among the leading mobile sites visited on both sides of the Atlantic.
Media Life Web Shorts May 10, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentFox kicks in MySpace promotion for Super Bowl buys
Fox Sports wants buyers who face an initial asking price of $2.7 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot to feel appreciated. The network said today it’s reached an agreement with News Corp. corporate sibling MySpace and the National Football League that will give Super Bowl TV advertisers a larger web presence. That comes just ahead of next week’s network upfront presentations, kicking off negotiations where more than $9 billion in ad money is expected to be committed for the upcoming television season. Fox will broadcast Super Bowl XLII on Feb. 3. In-game ads will be placed on a Super Bowl profile MySpace page after the game, where they’ll be available for replay. Advertisers then can offer customers coupons or links to their own sites after the ads run while film studios advertising a movie would be able to show an extended trailer. Viewers also would be able to place ads they like on their personal MySpace pages, extending the ads’ life.
PC World editor returns after rotten Apple ad scuffle
Score one for editorial independence. Harry McCracken, the PC World editor who resigned last month after then-CEO Colin Crawford killed a story called “10 Things I Hate About Apple”, is back. Robert Carrigan, president of IDG Communications, informed PC World’s staff of McCracken’s return yesterday, according to a story in the magazine today. McCracken’s resignation sparked an outpouring of media coverage and reader protest, including subscription cancellations, when he revealed that Crawford killed the story because he was concerned that the story’s publication would affect Apple’s advertising. Crawford has been reassigned to the IDG management team as executive vice president, online, and McCracken has been promised editorial autonomy.
In New Hampshire, a contest for citizen bloggers
Ever want to add your voice to the media spin on how well presidential candidates did in a debate? Good news if you live in New Hampshire. Local television station WMUR is giving voters in the state a chance to do so through a writing competition hosted by Gather.com and judged by the blogging community. The competition to cover the debates will run May 8 through May 27th on Gather.com. Potential bloggers can enter the contest by logging onto WMUR.Gather.com and submitting a 500-word blog entry on the presidential races thus far. Those with the highest ratings from the blog community will win. Fifteen citizen journalists, five each Republicans, Democrats and Independents, will be chosen to cover the June 3 Democratic and June 5th Republican debates, which also will be simulcast on WMUR, CNN and their web sites.
MySpace hosting presidential candidate town halls
In yet another sign of how important of a role the web will play in the 2008 presidential election, MySpace.com will host online “town hall” forums allowing U.S. presidential candidates to field questions from people on the internet. The forums will be held on U.S. college campuses from September through December and broadcast live on the popular social networking web site so viewers can instantly message questions. Most, if not all, of the 2008 presidential candidates already have established MySpace web pages to reach voters, especially college students who tend to get much of their information online and do more social networking. Candidates slated to participate in the forum include Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Tommy Thompson.
Media Life Web Shorts May 9, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentMedia Life Web Shorts
Yahoo Auctions goes bust opposite robust eBay
Yahoo can’t compete with eBay in online auctions, so the search engine is shutting down its U.S. and Canada auction sites, a year after the two companies entered a strategic alliance to cooperate on a range of services in their U.S. markets. The auction sites will close June 16 and Yahoo will not accept new auction lists after June 3, the company said in a blog-like statement last week. Yahoo’s auction sites in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan will remain open. The move is not surprising, given eBay’s dominance of the online auction arena. According to Hitwise, eBay accounted for 94 percent of online auction activity among U.S. web users last week, compared to Yahoo’s 0.2 percent share. It’s the second time in two weeks that Yahoo has said it will retire a service. Last week it announced plans to shut down Yahoo Photo, its photo storage site, in June. Users of that service were asked to move to Yahoo’s Web 2.0 photo sharing site Flickr.
Online petitions beg Schwarzenegger: Free Paris!
Mr. Governor, would you please pardon Paris? That’s the gist of at least two online petitions being circulated by fans, including one who is hocking “Free Paris” T-shirts for $18.99 each, requesting that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger grant clemency to jail-bound hotel heiress Paris Hilton. And Hilton is embracing the effort, posting a short note on her personal MySpace page. “My friend Joshua started his petition, please help and sihn it (sic). I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!” she wrote. Meanwhile, a competing no-pardon petition on the web is urging Schwarzenegger to ignore other petitions asking for clemency and show Californians that no one is above the law. Last week a Los Angeles judge sentenced Hilton to 45 days in jail for violating her probation by driving on a suspended license after being convicted of drunk driving. Schwarzenegger’s spokesman told Reuters that the governor had not received a formal request to consider a pardon but added, “It would be premature for the governor to become involved in any case until the individual has exhausted their judicial remedies.” Hilton must begin her prison sentence at the Los Angeles Century Regional Detention Facility on June 5 or risk seeing her sentence doubled.
YouTube KOs copyrighted Mayweather fight video
YouTube users keep adding fuel to the copyright infringement concerns about the video sharing site, this time by uploading HBO’s Saturday night fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya. The postings, a poor-quality foreign-language broadcast and a relatively high-quality copy of the 12-round fight, knocked out HBO’s plan for an exclusive rebroadcast Saturday of the pay-per-view fight. Viewers were able to watch the fight in its entirety until shortly after 4 p.m. Monday, when the footage was replaced by a notice that the video was “no longer available due to a copyright claim by Home Box Office Inc.” No word yet if HBO is seeking legal recourse, but an HBO spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that “we take our copyright issues very seriously. We consider it extremely valuable programming and we reacted quickly when we saw that it was available.” YouTube is already facing several lawsuits, including one filed last week by The Football Association Premier League Ltd. and indie music publisher Bourne for widespread copyright infringement. That suit is seeking class action status.
Call of the wild: Scientists compiling web species list
It will take a while, but everything you ever wanted to know about bugs and other critters will be available on the web. A group of the world’s leading scientists said yesterday that they have joined to document the world’s 1.8 million named species in a massive new online “Encyclopedia of Life.” The $12.5 million effort is a collaboration between Chicago’s Field Museum, Harvard University, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass., the Smithsonian Institution, the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Missouri Botanical Garden. It will produce separate web pages on every known species within a decade. That’s considerably more than the 10 percent of the world’s species Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson estimates that humans have cataloged. The entries will include written information, photos, video, sound recordings, and locator maps when possible. And it will be subject to the same kind of public editing process that is practiced on Wikipedia.
