Study: Linear TV on its way out for many

People in the 18-39 age group will consume 80 percent of their television/video via the internet, VOD, DVR, IPTV or other on-demand platforms in 7 years time, predicts a study by Solutions Research Group. “Networks have to think about a future where everything is nonlinear, more or less, and everything is picked out to watch on any and all platforms,” said Kaan Yigit, an analyst with the company.

3 comments March 4th, 2007

New USAToday.com has launched

As we’ve previewed, USAToday.com has launched a bold new design that takes user participation and social networking in a newspaper website to a new level. Digg-style voting, user profiles, comments, tagging and aggregation — it’s all here. “The real change is in the approach, not the appearance,” write USAToday’s editors. “While we’ve refined the design, we’ve also expanded the journalistic mission: Our ambition is to help readers quickly and easily make sense of the world around them by giving them a wider view of the news of the day and connecting them with other readers who can contribute to their understanding of events.” Home page grab…

Update: Out of the gate, USAToday.com is struggling to manage user comments. The story on the NAACP president was “full of unmoderated hate speech,” writes Rex below. At last check, the objectionable comments are gone, but one user writes, “Judging by the lack of class and command of the English language in many of the comments, it is its own best argument for taking USAToday back to the way it was. The comment section, when too closely juxtaposed to the actual news leaves the undesirable impression that the comments are somehow on a par with the news.” Personally, I’m a big believer in user comments, but the struggle has always been how to keep the conversation constructive without tying up a ton of resources to moderate it.

What does everyone think of the redesign…?

6 comments March 4th, 2007

TV sites to launch ‘YouNewsTV’

Stations owned by Fisher Communications, Journal Broadcast Group and Granite Broadcasting will soon launch a user video initiative powered by Broadcast Interactive Media. Called YouNewsTV, it will allow users to upload their own video, which will be vetted before it appears online. Users can share the video or embed it on their own blogs. As part of the revenue-sharing deal with Broadcast Interactive, the clips will have pre-roll ads, both on the TV sites and in the embedded experience. “If the video is not suitable to have advertising or is copyrighted material, it is not going up,” says Timur Yarnall, president/CEO of Broadcast Interactive. YouNewsTV is cleared to launch in more than 30 markets by midyear, with the first coming later this month.

2 comments March 4th, 2007

Cisco buys Tribe.net technology

Update: A clarification of a NYTimes story that we posted here earlier. Cisco announced today that it’s buying Tribe.net’s software, not the site itself. The idea is Cisco will help large corporate clients connect their customers through social networking. “(It) highlights a significant shift in the way companies and entrepreneurs are thinking about social networks,” explains the NYTimes.

Add comment March 4th, 2007

TV networks launch big campus push

Now that Nielsen is including college students in its ratings sample, TV networks are ramping up marketing campaigns on college campuses. Imagine that. The CW network, for example, is throwing custom parties themed to TV shows, staging events at fraternity houses and marketing to kids at spring break hot spots. “The ‘Animal House’ crowd now has a voice,” says Rick Haskins, EVP of marketing and brand strategy for the CW, in a quote that puts him back a few years. (WSJ sub. req.)

Add comment March 4th, 2007

Things you’d likely hear in a discussion over a station’s web sign

Liz Foreman has only been back at Lost Remote for a day, and she has already inspired me. Smart people do that. The terrific sign that KUSA has put up on their building promoting 9News.com got me to thinking what the objections would be at less enlightened stations. After all, this is a web expenditure. And web expenditures are automatic losses, right? So, after the jump, things you’d likely hear in a discussion at a station considering putting up a sign on its building promoting its website.

Read the full post 10 comments March 4th, 2007

Clearly ashamed of their website

Are you jealous, too? I still meet people whose station business cards don’t have their web addresses and KUSA has a big, honkin’ web sign.

3 comments March 4th, 2007

‘Hi Def’ is the new ‘Extreme’

The Ad Wizards have discovered the term “High Definition” and are now applying it to, well, whatever they feel like. CNET has put together a great slideshow to illustrate this point. Witness such wonders as “high definition” fireplace logs, patches, model cars, mascara and even “High Definition Vintage Clothing.” They have high definition in three dimensional objects now? Awesome! Note to Cory: Is it time to take Lost Remote Hi-Def?

5 comments March 4th, 2007

Yep, that’s Liz Foreman blogging below. She’s back!

We welcome back Liz Foreman to the LR fold after a too-long hiatus. Liz’s official bio ain’t kidding when it says she is a pioneer of web TV sites. She goes back to 1998 - when we were all trying to figure out what the heck to do and when Cory was passing around an email to friends who working toiling in backrooms of TV stations trying to hand-knit websites, one bit at a time. Liz is the Internet Site Director at WCPO.com in Cincinnati. (And among the many reasons I admire her is my inability to spell “Cincinnati” without looking it up.) Welcome home, Liz.

12 comments March 4th, 2007