Archive for November 18th, 2006
At the end a Pontiac TV commercial, the announcer says, “Google Pontiac and check it out for yourself” under a shot of Google’s home page with “Pontiac” in the search bar. Turns out, Pontiac did the same thing earlier this year on another ad campaign. Now, I’m a little stumped why Pontiac wouldn’t just plug Pontiac.com instead (Google was never asked if it wanted to be involved), but perhaps it’s because the local Pontiac dealers have a paid search position in the results? Any ideas?
November 18th, 2006
Yahoo has purchased the polling/contest site bix, a company all of nine months old. A quick trawl through bix (which, I admit, I had never even heard of) finds it offers users the opportunity to set up contests and competitions. The company’s founder says these are “user-generated contests, not just user-generated content.” Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. Still — nine months… (WaPo free sub. req.)
November 18th, 2006
Fox has always demonstrated its understanding of the power of controversy to drive ratings. Hence the Fox Network, which has often been associated with trashy television. And hence Fox News, which thrives on debate. The cynical brilliance of the O.J. Simpson to-do is that Fox is once again manufacturing a controversy that it can then attack on Fox News. Bill O’Reilly gets to hold court on how the Simpson interview is the worst television ever, and he gets excellent ratings. Meantime, he’s giving tons of PR to the very show he rails against. This is not a first for the Fox Machine. They put T&A on display on the network, and then on Fox News cry out “Is there too much sex on TV?” Cynical brilliance.
November 18th, 2006
Universal is suing MySpace for copyright infringement, demanding up to $150,000 for each unauthorized music video or song posted on the site. In the suit, Universal calls MySpace a “willing partner” in theft. “Our music and videos play a key role in building the communities that have created hundreds of millions of dollars of value for the owners of MySpace,” the company said in a statement. MySpace responded and said it is in full complaince with copyright laws and is confident it will prevail in court. Last month, MySpace began using a fingerprinting technology to block copyrighted material from being uploaded to the site. And MySpace plans to allow content owners to be able to remove their copyrighted material on their own. (YouTube already has a similar technology in place.) In my humble opinion, I think Universal needs to take a chill pill. MySpace began as a music site and has gone a long ways to promote Universal Music artists, among others. Yet Universal’s suit continues the recording industry’s track record of suing instead of innovating. As history has shown, that’s not a sustainable business model.
November 18th, 2006
Got a call from Anne Becker at B&C last week, asking for a quote about HBO’s online strategy. Couldn’t recall that HBO had much of an online strategy. And they don’t. Turns out, they’re even proud of that. “There’s not a business model presenting itself today that will replicate the existing subscription model we have,” says HBO COO Bill Nelson, entirely missing the point. And HBO Chairman/CEO Chris Albrecht is downright condescending, saying “you won’t be seeing HBO throwing new episodes up on iPod,” apparently confusing the hardware with the online store. So it’s time for a Lost Remote ATTENTION HBO: It’s not about replicating your existing subscription model or “throwing” episodes onto iPods. It’s about new channels of distribution for your programming. You mostly show old movies. How long do you think there will be a demand for that? Your original shows are Bittorrented as soon as they are shown and are “thrown” onto iPods whether you want it or not. It’s fine if you can’t sort out a digital strategy. Just don’t be so proud about it.
November 18th, 2006
Police broke out pepperspray to contain mobs rushing stores to buy the white-hot Sony Playstation 3 on the the day it debuted. Sony shipped 400,000 units for the U.S. debut, but it wasn’t enough to meet the demand.
November 18th, 2006
