Google has filed for a patent for a digital billboard system that’s brilliant. Displays inside local malls would be connected to a new Google ad engine. Retailers would create and schedule ads for actual products in their stores that would run on nearby displays with Adwords-like targeting. When the product in question is sold out, the retailer’s inventory system would automatically notify Google, and the ad would disappear from the displays. Pretty cool, eh?
The online video platform and network Brightcove has landed a massive $59.5 million round of investment. Wow. Among the investors, The New York Times. “This investment in Brightcove will enable us to grow our business at a critical juncture in the adoption of Internet TV,” said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove founder and chief executive officer. “With the new funds we will be expanding internationally, deepening our service offering to give media partners better tools to distribute and monetize video online, and empowering consumers to interact with that content in exciting new ways.” Allaire says he’ll continue to partner “aggressively” with both major and emerging media companies. “Stay tuned for a steady stream of new partners,” he writes, adding that he expects media companies to make “more bets” this year over last. Press release below…
Earlier this week, I begged for someone to figure out the long, tangled and possibly evil history that led up to Cingular’s rebranding as AT&T. Leave it to Stephen Colbert.
Through a deal with Single Touch Interactive, Fox News will offer a live audio feed via cell phones. Just dial “#FOXN” and you’ll be connected. But of course, it’ll cost ya. The service will roll out initially on Cingular and cost $2.99 per month. Press release…
MSNBC.com’s World Blog is an expansion of the “Blogging Baghdad” blog with a broader international approach. “Just as the war in Iraq reaches beyond the borders, I think the way we cover the war in Iraq must think beyond the confines of the borders of this country,” writes NBC’s Middle East correspondent Richard Engel. And what does the war correspondent think of blogging? “One of the most exciting things about blogging is that you get interaction directly from viewers and readers - sometimes angry, sometimes complimentary, usually no holds-barred. I’ve enjoyed that instant feedback.” By broadening the blog, MSNBC.com will tap into original reporting from the full slate of NBC’s foreign correspondents, some of whom may not appear on the air for long stretches of time. And for the correspondents, it gives them a way to report on stories they can’t sell to on-air. Press release link under the screen grab…
What, people actually read blogs? New stats from Nielsen-Netratings shows that blog pages on the top 10 newspaper sites drew around 3.8 million unique visitors last month, more than triple from December 2005’s 1.2 million. Over that same period, total online readership at those same newspaper sites grew by 9 percent to 29.9 million uniques. One more interesting stat: 12 percent of total visitors visited a newpaper site’s blog last month.
MTVN is making another acquisition, picking up RateMyProfessors.com, a site that allows college students to rate their professors to help others plan their class schedules. RateMyProfessors.com has rankings on 900,000 profs, and it pulled in 10 million uniques last year. “This acquisition reflects MTV’s strategy of being everywhere our audience is and harnessing its creative firepower,” said Christina Norman, President, MTV. The site will be integrated with MTVu, and it’s the latest in a string of recent MTVN acquisitions: Y2M, Atom Entertainment, GameTrailers, Harmonix, IFILM, Neopets and Xfire. The selling price was not disclosed. Press release link under the grab…
On December 20th, ABC announced it was canceling the excellent serial Daybreak and would stream the remaining episodes online. Great, but nearly a month later, the shows are nowhere to be found. “You search ABC.com for Daybreak and there are no results found. It’s like the show never existed,” writes one of many disappointed fans. “What’s this lie that ABC pulled about Daybreak being released online? What a bunch of LIARS!!!” writes another. Turns out, ABC was held up with a music rights issue. But instead of posting something on ABC.com’s Daybreak page explaining the hold-up, they pulled the page off the site altogether. “Its pathetic to leave the fans in the dark,” writes another fan. ABC now says the streaming will begin on Jan. 29th, but I imagine most fans have moved on with a bad taste in their mouths.
Congrats to longtime LR pal Sree Sreenivasan, who joins WNBC in New York City as the station’s tech reporter. Sree’s a longtime Poynter guy and Columbia J-School prof. So he’s, you know, kinda qualified. According to the NY Daily News, Sree will be reporting both on-air and online and will head up a bunch of the station’s new media projects. This is a vital job for local stations, and one that doesn’t even exist at most of them. Tech is an under-reported beat. It’s especially essential in the big cities like New York, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco. Having a smart tech reporter who can be platform-independent and help with the station’s digital media projects simply makes sense.
Google has filed for a patent for a digital billboard system that’s brilliant. Displays inside local malls would be connected to a new Google ad engine. Retailers would create and schedule ads for actual products in their stores that would run on nearby displays with Adwords-like targeting. When the product in question is sold out, the retailer’s inventory system would automatically notify Google, and the ad would disappear from the displays. Pretty cool, eh?
Congrats to longtime LR pal 
