Newslab tracked 28 TV stations in Midwest markets for the month leading up to the election. Not surprisingly, they found the average 30-minute newscast contained 4:30 minutes of election ads and 1:43 of election-related news coverage. “[They] failed in their responsibility to provide an adequate amount of substantive election coverage” that might have balanced out the ads, said Joyce Foundation VP Larry Hansen. Meanwhile, the NAB called the study “shoddy” because it ignored other political coverage, such as debates, outside the confines of a 30-minute newscast.
It’s been a month since CBS began its partnership with YouTube, and the network has uploaded 300 videos. Since that time, the clips have racked up a total of 29.2 million views for an average of 857,000 views a day. Many of the clips are from CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show, and the network says ratings have risen 5 and 7 percent respectively since the YouTube deal began. “Although the success of these shows on YouTube is not the sole cause of the rise in television ratings, both companies believe that YouTube has brought a significant new audience of viewers to each broadcast,” reads the press release. More details below…
For the first time, Google has risen above $500 a share, which works out to a market value of $154,570,000,000. The stock’s journey began at $85 in August 2004.
The pervasiveness of video cameras is further demonstrated by the video of the bizzare, racist rant Michael Richards made this past weekend in response to hecklers while he was doing standup. An audience member recorded it with a cellphone video cam. Richards has apologized. Note: The video contains foul and racist language
As announced last summer, MSN Video has started posting full episodes of the canceled but brilliant series Arrested Development, one of my favorite shows. Five episodes are up now, with three additional episodes to be added every three weeks. (Oddly, you have to do a search to find it. Update: It’s right here.)
A new Nielsen survey, which tracked the behavior of 400 iPod users, found that 2.2 percent of content played on video iPods are TV shows, movies or video podcasts. Measured by time, it works out to 11 percent. The rest is music, or to a lesser extent, audio podcasts. While these numbers may sound low, when you consider how much people listen to music on their iPods, it’s not surprising. I routinely watch video podcasts along with the occasional TV show, and it’s in the same 11 percent range. I play all my music on my iPod (home stereo, car stereo and via headsets) which works out to a much larger chunk of time. What I do find interesting, though, is just 2 percent of time spent on iTunes is spent watching video.
As 
