Broadcast Graphic Designer, KGO-TV

San Francisco

Read the full post November 9th, 2006

‘Gears of War’ the next Halo?

A new Xbox 360 game called Gears of War hit store shelves this week, and it’s generating monster buzz. In fact, it’s sold out everywhere in Seattle, and there were long lines outside of Best Buy stores on Tuesday morning. (I made the tactical error of not signing up on a waiting list, so now I’m going to have to wait for my Amazon.com shipment. Arggh.) Anyway, so what’s the big deal? Gamers are giving it Halo-sized reviews with such praises as “Xbox 360’s killer app” and the “most gorgeous looking game” ever for the Xbox. Unbelievable high-definition graphics, living physics, frightening surround sound and realistic AI. And of course, Xbox Live compatible. Games like these have the potential of becoming cultural phenomenons, huge revenue generators and the reason why people go buy bigger HDTV sets. Screen grab…

Yikes!

5 comments November 9th, 2006

‘Studio 60′ gets full season

Despite all that cancelation talk, NBC has ordered up a full season of Studio 60. Personally, I still think the show has to step up to survive, given the hefty price tag to produce it. (Via Fimoculous)

2 comments November 9th, 2006

Election night busy for Textcaster news alerts

Textcaster tells us its affiliates had a busy night sending out text messages regarding the election. According Laura Lombardi, Sr. VP, Media Division, Textcaster pumped out 205,000 text messages to subscribers from across 55 media properties. Writes Laura to LR: “Some stations had created special “Decision 2006″ type message categories, but most sent the information to their “Breaking News” subscribers.” Information on demand is what it’s all about. If your station is the one providing that text alert, you can bet you’ve built more loyalty - and more viewership.

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People actually use their DVRs

And for some reason, they love NBC’s The Office. The national, live rating for the show is a 3.7, but in homes with DVRs it jumps to an 8.7 rating, counting all viewing in the week that followed the show’s airing. If you take these DVR homes and factor that time-shifted viewing into the national sample, that 3.7 rating moves up to a 4.4. I get a kick out how this news is so surprising for many TV execs. We’ve known for years that DVRs would fundamentally change how people watch TV, and now for the first time it’s beginning to reflect solidly in the ratings. But here’s an interesting factoid from Nielsen: 78 percent of all viewers in DVR households who watch recorded broadcast primetime shows play them back within two days and 84 percent in three days.

NBC to launch 10 web series

NBC’s DotComedy will soon launch a full slate of original programming, some of which will incorporate user-created content. On the list: “Hot Tub in Space,” about a group of four twentysomethings who are launched into space while sitting in their… hot tub; “Untitled Comedy News Show,” a news parody that will pay users for jokes and “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: Live in Las Vegas.” DotComedy’s current site…

1 comment November 9th, 2006

Follow up on our election night webcast

I promised a report back on our live webcast we produced on KING5.com on election night. Again, the idea was to not just graft TV on the web, but to produce an election webcast that was informal, unscripted and interactive — a live feed that would complement the robust results coverage on the site (in fact, we built a custom embedded player with links to the results around it.) Carolyn Douglas, one of our anchors who boldly took part in the experiment, introduced live speeches as they occurred, both nationally and locally. In between, she interviewed folks in the newsroom — including news director Pat Costello — about the process behind our coverage and read comments from the blog. Carolyn hosted it from a desk we set up in the web area of the newsroom, and I sat behind her punching up various feeds as they came in. Decidedly low tech (I had flashbacks to my small-market days), yet we did our best to play off it as part of the experience. When the TV folks were off the air, we would occasionally toss to the main anchor team for a “whip-around” with reporters in the field, produced out of the control room. Those moments were a little too TVish for my taste, but they delivered good information and analysis that wasn’t available on air. And that was the goal. So all in all, a success, notwithstanding some technical issues with the streaming that was out of our control. One big lesson learned: we’re going to find a way to Chyron live feeds so people know what they’re watching when they join in progress.

Photos and a few more details follow below…

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Ed Bradley dies of leukemia at age 65

Veteran CBS News journalist Ed Bradley has died of leukemia at age 65. Bradley won a remarkable 19 Emmy awards for his work. The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz calls Bradley “one of the pioneering black journalists of his generation.” Bradley was in the midst of marking his 25th season on “60 Minutes” this year. The stories he covered read like a history of modern America. His often charming interviews never masked the seriousness with which he practiced journalism. CBS News links to his bio, a photo essay and some of the many highlights from the career of this distinguished journalist. VIDEO: CBS News RAW has pulled together some clips in its “Best of Bradley” video. An excellent tribute: no voice overs, no comments from today, just highlights of the man’s work. It speaks for itself.

2 comments November 9th, 2006

Local online ad spending to double by 2010… on verticals

The Kelsey Group, a market research group, expects spending on local search and classifieds to hit $31 billion in 2010, about twice the buy we saw in 2005. But here’s the thing: the trend is moving away from “broad-based” sites (read: big traditional news sites) and toward targeted niche sites. Go vertical and win. Listen up and take note: The group’s advice to advertisers? “If you have the opportunity to advertise with someone that has a really robust vertical, that can discuss your industry’s specific needs, then you have a good chance of capturing some of those dollars.” Expand your thinking beyond your “core” site and start building out niche sites.

2 comments November 9th, 2006

Sen. Stevens likely down the Tubes as committee chair

Should the control of the Senate indeed switch to the Democrats, that means that everyone’s favorite Commerce Committee Chair, Sen. Ted “Tubes” Stevens would lose his gig. Democrat Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii would be the logical replacement to head the committee. Still, it may not mean The End for ol’ Tubes. He and Inouye have co-chaired the committee, and it doesn’t sound like Inouye would exactly shake things up. From the Honolulu Advertiser: “I had a chat with Sen. Stevens before the election and we pledged to each other that no matter what happens, we will continue with our tested system of bipartisanship and we’ve been doing this for the past 25 years and it’s worked,” Inouye said. Stay tubed…

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‘iVillage Live’ coming to NBC stations

NBCU released more details about its iVillage show which is coming to NBC owned-and-operated stations on December 4th. “iVillage Live” will simulcast in a live stream on iVillageLive.com as it airs. Calling it “daytime’s first interactive talk show,” NBCU says the show will explore topics familiar to iVillage.com users, ranging from parenting and pregnancy, to health and beauty, to style and lifestyle. “This is a new model we developed for daytime programming in terms of its concept, content, interactivity and brand,” said Jay Ireland, President of the NBCU Television Stations. “The 360-degree premise allows our viewers to interact with the show in the way that best suits them; a true programming first for today’s digital age. We believe in this show’s potential and look forward to building its audience.” In addition to the live show stream, iVillageLive.com will host a daily live chat which will be discussed frequently during the show while a ticker scrolls along the bottom of the screen. And viewers can text their comments via their mobile phones, as well. Lots more details, including the product integration planned for the show, in the press release…

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MSNBC.com’s election night traffic

Overall traffic to MSNBC.com on election day reached 6.5 million uniques and 58 million page views, three times the 2004 election total. Couple interesting factoids: Traffic to the “First Read” blog was 25-times average. And visitors watched more than 400,000 live streams of MSNBC TV, the third highest live video event of the year.

Omniture chart of traffic to MSNBC.com’s politics section on election day.

Press release…

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IB sites announce traffic records

Internet Broadcasting announced its network of TV sites logged 3.5 million unique visitors on election day, a record for the company. The sites saw 24.8 million page views, nearly 50 percent higher than the 2004 election. Press release with more details…

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ABC wins night for broadcast

Here are the Nielsen numbers for the broadcast networks on Tuesday:

ABC (9:30-11 p.m.)
9.67 million viewers

NBC (10-11 p.m.)
7 million viewers

CBS (10-11 p.m.)
6.3 million viewers

Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes calls ABC’s victory an upset over NBC News.

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CNN wins demos, Fox News in total viewers

The ratings are in for election night, and CNN comes away with a victory in the core 25-54 demographic. FNC, however, won in total viewers, but not by much. And MSNBC experienced tremendous growth over 2002:

Fox News Channel
3,060,000 total viewers (+12%)
1,253,000 in 25-54 (+22%)

CNN
2,971,000 total viewers (+21%)
1,330,000 in 25-54 (+34%)

MSNBC
1,949,000 total viewers (+107%)
893,000 in 25-54 (+111%)

Looks like MSNBC is on to something with political news programming.

4 comments November 9th, 2006