Archive for March 22nd, 2007
On the same day that NBCU and News Corp. announced a video deal that included MSN as a distribution partner, Microsoft’s user video site Soapbox stopped accepting new users to address the growing problem of pirated video appearing on the site. The move is temporary — up to two months — as Soapbox develops new approaches to filtering out copyrighted content. Microsoft said it wasn’t a condition of the NBCU-News Corp. deal, but the copyrighted video appearing on the site was clearly under scrutiny. It will be interesting to see what happens with YouTube in the next few months.
March 22nd, 2007
Wow, even more troubles for the LA Times and Tribune. Andres Martinez, the paper’s editorial page editor, quit and then announced his departure on a LATimes.com blog.
March 22nd, 2007
NBC.com has launched a ton of fresh features ranging from social networking to better video functionality. Users can invite their friends for online viewing parties and chat while they watch. They can build their own fan groups around their favorite shows, share video with friends and embed clips on their blogs. In a new personalization feature, users can select their favorite shows so every time they log on they’ll be updated with the latest related video. Also, NBC.com now allows users to upload and share their own video and photos. Meanwhile, the NBC.com player has been expanded to a full-screen experience with a companion window that can display relevant facts about the show, live group polling or fan trivia. In some cases, users who watch a show can even select their choice of a pre-roll ad from a single advertiser. Meanwhile, NBC.com announced the results of an eight-week “Heroes360″ experiment that aimed to provide a circular TV-web experience for Heroes fans. The Heroes section saw over 48 million page views and delivered over 27 million video streams in that two month period alone. And here’s an interesting factoid: NBC said a study of user behavior found that some were watching shows online at work instead of watching them on their DVRs.
March 22nd, 2007
NBC’s Middle East correspondent Richard Engel is one of the most qualified journalists in the world to describe the complicated regional dynamic in Iraq. So MSNBC.com recorded video of him on location and married it with an interactive Flash application. The result is a nifty multimedia presentation that combines text, mapping, video and user interaction.
Adds John in comments: “Wow. This is outstanding. Certainly this was no simple collaboration, but this is the standard and methinks everyone should/will be packaging routinely like this by the end of the year. Very navigable, great presentation and extremely useful content. Too, Engels pulls off raw and smooth simultaneously. He’s not suited up like a network pretty, but not looking like a press-box-coffee addicted sportswriter either. Quite impressive top to bottom.”
March 22nd, 2007
NBC’s owned-and-operated stations division has shown interest in becoming a distribution partner for the new NBCU-News Corp. video site, a NBCU exec tells Lost Remote. As we’ve reported below, NBC and Fox affiliates currently aren’t partners in the new joint venture, but the exec said “there’s no reason why any of the affiliates can’t be distribution partners,” which would involve a revenue share of the advertising. “We want to talk to them.” So what’s this mean for NBBC? It’s a separate service that’s more of a business-to-business syndication play, and part of its technology is being licensed to create the new site. “We continue to be committed to it,” the exec said. As for the new venture, they’re may be expanded affiliate opportunities down the road. “If this model works, it would be natural to extend it to news and other local content and to give our affiliates an incredible distribution mechanism outside their markets.”
Also, the exec offered a few more details on the user-generated content component of the new venture. They expect the video uploaded by users will be mostly related to the premium content on the site — fake episodes, mockumentaries, fan clips, etc. If someone watches a spoof on a show, the theory is the user will be more inclined to watch the show itself and vice-versa. Advertisers can buy pre-roll ads on the user clips, but at a lower CPM than the premium clips. (Full disclosure: I work for KING TV, which is an NBC affiliate, but not an owned-and-operated station.)
March 22nd, 2007
I haven’t had a chance to plug it in yet, but CNET has put it through its paces, and you can watch a video demo. “Apple TV gets big points for ease of setup, its superslick on-screen interface, and its impressive features — specifically, supporting up to 720p HD video output and superfast 802.11n wireless networking,” writes CNET’s John Falcone. The downsides are the fact it only works inside the iTunes world, only connects to TVs with component or HDMI ports, and the hard drive is just 40GB. “At this early stage, the fact that Apple TV brings iPod-like convenience and ease of use to the network-streaming media market is really its trump card,” Falcone concludes.
March 22nd, 2007
MoveOn and Brave New Films are suing Viacom for issuing a takedown order to YouTube to remove a parody of The Colbert Report. The video contained clips of the actual show, but Moveon and Brave New Films argued that it’s covered under fair use provisions. “People just shoot off a takedown notice without really giving a second thought to the material being taken down and whether it’s really proper to be taken down,” said Corynne McSherry, a staff attorney with the EFF, who helped file the lawsuit. “A lot of people cave in because they don’t realize they can push back or they can’t afford to push back.” The lawsuit seeks unspecified legal costs and damages.
March 22nd, 2007
News Corp. President and COO Peter Chernin revealed on the call announcing the new NBCU-News Corp. video venture that they are in discussions with Google about distribution. “(We) had a conversation with (Google CEO) Eric Schmidt this morning and they are considering this,” said Chernin. “This is obviously not a YouTube killer…. we’re trying to be as open as possible with distribution.” Chernin also said they’re in conversations with more content companies about joining the new venture. What about affiliates? “Potentially they could be distribution partners,” NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker said. “We’ll be looking at that in coming days.” But currently, no profit sharing for affiliates. “It’s a real positive for the traditional businesses,” Chernin said, pointing out NBCU’s success with The Office in increasing on-air ratings from increased online distribution. “We do not believe this cannibalizes in any way traditional distribution,” Zucker added. Both also said they believe the new venture is a different experience than their current core sites, NBC.com and Fox.com, due in large part from value in aggregation. (The core sites will still stream the same content, and all sites will still stream shows after they air on the networks.) Most of the shows will be available for free, but they do plan to charge for some content. On the advertising front, Chernin has this quote: “On launch, we believe this will be the largest advertising platform on earth.” Zucker said five charter advertisers signed on within four hours, and two more after the announcement this morning. The ad revenue will be split between the venture, copyright holders and the distribution partners. And despite the focus on premium content, Zucker said users will be able to upload video as well.
The best question on the press call came from Bill Briggs of MSNBC.com. “Hi boss,” he said to laughs on the call, and then he asked what NBC and News Corp. plan to do with YouTube before launching the new venture. Zucker said NBCU is continuing discussions with Google-YouTube to ensure pirated content does not exist there. “We look forward to coming to a resolution before this launches.” Stay tuned…
March 22nd, 2007
After months of negotiation, today NBCU and News Corp. announced they’ve reached a deal to create a video site with thousands of hours of clips and “unprecedented reach.” MySpace, Yahoo, MSN and AOL have signed on as distribution partners, and each site will carry embedded video players customized to their look. “This is a game changer for Internet video,” said Peter Chernin, President and COO of News Corporation. “We’ll have access to just about the entire U.S. Internet audience at launch. And for the first time, consumers will get what they want — professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live.” Content will include free, full-length, ad-supported TV shows and movies with personalized playlists and mashups. Charter advertisers include Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel Corporation and General Motors. No name has been announced for the new site as of yet, but NBCU and News Corp. say they’re committing significant resources to promote its summer launch. The site was born out of frustration that YouTube and other video sites were stealing the spotlight as well as revenue. Initially, Viacom was part of the conversations, but it pulled out. This is a very aggressive play by NBCU and News Corp., and its wide distribution should tap into new audiences that don’t normally watch their content on NBC.com or Fox.com.
Read the full post March 22nd, 2007
There are a few more details on ABC’s plans to try to seamlessly integrate commercials into programming to help counter DVR-skipping. In one example that ABC is considering, viewers watching According to Jim would see a commercial playing in a TV in the living room of the set. Then the commercial would pop full-screen. The same idea would be applied to computer screens, cell phones and even magazines integrated into various ABC shows. Because you love pop ups on the web.
Adds Rocker in comments: “It’s not a totally bad concept but I suspect that the truly organic opportunities to do it without being too intrusive/offensive will be quite limited. It’s going to be hard for them to resist the temptation to start forcing it more to ‘expand the inventory,’ which will not only make it a bad advertising idea, it also has the potential to negatively impact the viewing experience… and probably creative processes… of the shows themselves.”
March 22nd, 2007
When it comes to web ads, the “play” button is a great call to action. ClickZ has the results of a new DoubleClick report that demonstrates how much more effective video ads are compared to their display counterparts. There is a lot of good information in the article. Some of the highlights: Clickthrough rates for videos range from 0.4% to 0.74%, compared to the 0.1% - 0.2% for static ads; viewers stick with the ads for two-thirds of their duration - so get your message in early; and the size of the video ad didn’t seem to play much of a role in its effectiveness. The sample for this study: 2.7 billion ad impressions.
March 22nd, 2007
