Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , NEW YORK A new Beta Research survey of advertising executives suggests that clients may be spending more of their 2009 marketing dollars on cable networks like Discovery Channel and ESPN.
After polling 225 ad professionals — of which 150 were identified as agency players while the remaining 75 were culled from the client ranks — Beta found that 45 percent of respondents said they would increase their ad spending on Discovery this year, while 44 percent predicted they’d invest in more ESPN.
TBS was the third most-cited cable network in the Beta study, as 40 percent of those quizzed indicated that they would pick up more of the Turner network’s inventory in ’09. Food Network took fourth (39 percent), while top-rated USA Network finished just behind the Scripps flagship (38 percent).
Read The Rest—>Survey: Ad Execs Target Discovery, ESPN
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , In a letter to Obama, Republicans maintain that a delay would be imprudent
NEW YORK House Republicans are hoping to convince those on the other side of the aisle to keep the Feb. 17 DTV transition date.
In a Jan. 14 letter to President-elect Barack Obama, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Tex., ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, along with 14 other committee Republicans, wrote that delaying the deadline would hurt first responders and delay the public safety improvements intended by the transition.
“The transition is freeing broadcast spectrum for firefighters, police officers and other lifesavers and also providing them with $1 billion to equip themselves with the state-of-the-art communications gear that was so tragically lacking on 9/11,” lawmakers wrote. “The transition plan is freeing additional spectrum for advanced wireless broadband services and has raised almost $20 billion in spectrum auction proceeds for taxpayers.”
Read The Rest—>House GOP Defends DTV Transition Date
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Sling.com will aggregate full-length episodes of current and classic network TV series
Sling Media—makers of the innovative, though still yet-to-crack-the-mainstream Slingbox—has quietly rolled out Sling.com, an online video site which aggregates full-length episodes of current and classic network TV series.
Sling.com’s content lineup and users interface echoes similar efforts in the race to create a singular online destination for professionally produced content, such as NBC Universal/News Corp’s joint venture Hulu.com, Comcast’s Fancast and Joost.
Read The Rest—>Sling Media Launches New Video Site
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , In-game ad vendor locks spate of exclusive ad deals with publishers who produce games for Sony’s PlayStation 3
In-game advertising vendor Double Fusion has locked a spate of exclusive ad deals with several publishers who produce games for Sony’s PlayStation 3 console.
Read The Rest—> Double Fusion Toggles Exclusive Ad Pacts
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Seven print production staffers are leaving the company as a result of the closing
Nov 19, 2008
In the latest contraction of the computing magazine category, Ziff Davis Media said it would fold flagship PC Magazine with the January issue and convert the brand to an all-digital format at PCMag.com.
Seven print production staffers are leaving the company as a result of the closing.
Print subscribers will be offered a digital version of the printed magazine, the company said in an announcement.
Read The Rest–>PC Magazine Folds Monthly Print Edition
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , LONDON – Virgin Media is to axe around 15% of its workforce, cutting up to 2,200 jobs by 2012 in a restructure aimed at saving £120m a year.
The company, which operates fixed-line telephony, mobile, Internet and pay TV services, plans to restructure its entire operation, adding that most of the changes should be in place between the end of next year and the end of 2010.
Virgin Media would not reveal which departments will face job cuts, adding that a period of consultation is now underway. A spokesman said the changes would help the company to save about £120m a year by 2012.
Read The rest—>Virgin Media to axe more than 2,000 jobs – Media news – Media Week
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , In the current climate, there is limited economic support for this new measurement service,” the company said in a prepared statement.
Nov 7, 2008
-By Katy Bachman
The failing economy just took its first research casualty. Nielsen and IMMI announced late Friday (Nov. 7) they would suspend their syndicated Out-of-Home Report, which measured viewing to TV outside the home. Since launching in April, the service only managed to sign two clients, ESPN and Zenith Optimedia.
“In the current climate, there is limited economic support for this new measurement service,” the company said in a prepared statement.
The final report will cover viewing through Nov. 9, 2008.
Nielsen didn’t completely close the door on the project. “We recognize that measuring the out-of-home component of television viewing is an important need for our clients. We will continue to work on out-of-home measurement solutions, including efforts with IMMI,” the company said.
Read The Rest—>Nielsen Suspends OOH Report
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Google is so confident that its InVideo Ads product—those semi-transparent/animated overlay ads it launched on YouTube last year—are game changers that the company is turning to brain wave researchers to prove their effectiveness.
The search giant–in conjunction with MediaVest–has partnered with NeuroFocus, a researcher that specializes in biometrics, to gauge both how users respond to InVideo ads and how well those ads complement traditional banner ads. NeuroFocus specializes in measuring individuals’ brain response—by literally placing sensors on their heads—as well as other factors like pupil dilation and skin response.
“We were really interested in looking at what we think of as a pretty innovative ad unit,” explained Leah Spalding, advertising research manager, Google, who emphasized that since InVideo ads are designed to be non-intrusive, they warrant an evaluation that goes beyond traditional measures like click-through rates. “Standard metrics don’t tell the whole story. Google is an innovative company, and we want to embrace innovative technology…these ads require an approach that is more technologically sensitive.”
Thus, Google and MediaVest have collaborated to produce a research report that goes way beyond the typical online survey. The companies, which will present this study during a Webinar scheduled for Oct. 23, found that when shown to users, InVideo ads proved to more compelling than other forms of advertising (while this sort of research is fairly new for the online space, NeuroFocus has conducted similar studies on hundreds of ad campaigns).
READ THE REST—–>Google, MediaVest Tap Biometrics for InVideo Ads Play
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Nielsen Online said on Oct. 23 that the Media Rating Council has completed the first phase of its ongoing audit of the metrics firm’s various data gathering practices.
MRC began its audit of Nielsen Online back in May of 2007, following the completion of a pre-audit. Initially, the MRC focused on auditing NetSight, the patented meter technology Nielsen Online user to compile data on consumers’ real-time Internet usage habits. Now with that portion of audit completed, Nielsen said that the MRC will work quickly to evaluate nearly every aspect of its data collection processes, including its recently launched VideoCensus product.
Both Nielsen and its competitor comScore were urged publicly by the Interactive Advertising Bureau back in April of 2007 to undertake MRC audits in an effort to bring greater transparency to online audience metrics. Both companies were also invited to participate in an IAB-hosted forum on the subject in May of last year, which eventually resulted in both companies committing to the auditing process. The IAB plans to host a similar Audience Measurement Leadership Forum on Dec. 10 of this year.
Nielsen Online: MRC Completes First Phase of Audit
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , News Corp.’s IGN has quietly rolled out Greenpixels.com, a new content Web site geared for the fast growing universe of casual gamers, which includes a substantial number of women.
The site, which is currently live in beta form, is clearly aimed at the mainstream game player who is more inclined to spend time with Rock Band, the Nintendo Wii or online puzzle games like Peggle–which appeal to both men and women. As the site’s editor in chief Dana Jongewaard, puts it in her introductory note on the site, “This is no longer just a past-time for adolescent(-acting) boys and basement-dwelling social outcasts.”
READ THE REST HERE News Corp.’s IGN Rolls Out Greenpixels.com
