Archive for January 15th, 2007
Coming in the next six months, full-service Netflix subscribers will get 18 free hours a month to watch — but not download — movies online. “Because DVD is not a hundred-year format, people wonder what will Netflix’s second act be,” said Netflix’s chief executive, Reed Hastings. Netflix also believes users will sample more movies via the streaming video, which will improve their customer experience in selecting DVDs they want to watch.
January 15th, 2007
Coming next fall, CBS says it plans to premiere “most or all” of its shows online before airing on TV. The network said 53% of people who watched the network’s rookie shows online prior to their fall 2006 launch are still viewers of the show. “You could argue that any number of them would have watched the show anyway, but maybe it would be three or four episodes in with all the clutter in the fall,” said network research chief David Poltrack. “Partly because so many shows these days are serialized, it is more important than ever to get them in there early.”
January 15th, 2007
Nearly two years ago, I wrote a lengthy column on Lost Remote urging TV stations and the networks to make online video a top priority. I consider this column to be just as important and perhaps even more critical for local television. In the next 2 to 4 years, if local TV doesn’t aggressively launch innovative new products into key online niches, its interactive revenue will plateau at a shockingly small share. Click below to read why…
Read the full post January 15th, 2007
When TMZ.com launched on AOL little over a year ago, it was virtually unknown. A few months later, the blog’s traffic syrocketed to the most popular entertainment news site on the web after breaking big-time stories like Mel Gibson’s tirade. And TMZ.com has done it with tons of video — shot by a small army of young videographers — which sets it apart from its competitors. Now in a natural progression for a successful video site, TMZ.com is getting its own TV show. The Fox O&Os have picked up TMZ, a new daily entertainment show, along with an integrated “entertainment news destination” on the stations’ websites and a daily video feed for use in the Fox stations’ newscasts. Just wait folks, this will become a regular occurence — popular video blogs turning into TV shows. Press release with more details…
Read the full post January 15th, 2007
Over the last year, 11 p.m. newscasts in the largest markets dropped 10 percent in ratings. Some markets have even dropped as much as 20 percent. Why? People are getting up earlier and getting more of their news and weather from the internet. “We all know the news by 11 p.m., so we’re not going to stay up to watch it,” says Steve Safran, who’s quoted in the piece. According to a study by Magid, while nearly half of people 35-54 years old turn to the Internet first for weather information or sports scores, only 10 percent turn to the web first for local news. All this information is compelling many local TV stations to get serious about the web in covering — not just repurposing — the news. As we say here at Lost Remote, better late than never.
January 15th, 2007
I reported with disbelief earlier today that KCPQ’s website, Q13.com, had only briefly posted video of that satellite media tour interview with an intoxicated Paula Abdul. It appeared for a few hours after the interview on the Fox affiliate’s morning show, then mysteriously disappeared. Now a few days later, it’s approaching 2 million views on YouTube, and it’s making the rounds all over the place. So why wouldn’t Q13.com take advantage of a golden opportunity and post the video front and center? I’m hearing that Fox asked KCPQ to pull the clip off Q13.com. This makes much more sense, especially when you consider Fox’s statement out today in support of Abdul:
“Last week, during a satellite press tour there were intermittent technical difficulties, including severe audio issues in which multiple stations were speaking to her at once. Rather than getting angry about these difficulties, or stopping the tour, Paula forged ahead and decided to have fun with the increasingly challenging situation. Unfortunately, because reporters and viewers were unaware of the situation, her humor was misconstrued.”
While there were some initial audio problems, she was clearly intoxicated. Come on, Fox, we’re not stupid. (Full disclosure: I work for KING5.com, a competitor, and I used to oversee Q13.com when I was assistant news director at KCPQ six years ago.)
January 15th, 2007
Market research analyst Screen Digest predicts that 55 percent of all video traffic in 2010 will be created by users, but the video will only account for 15 percent of total online video revenues. Currently, 45 percent of all video traffic is user created.
January 15th, 2007
