Archive for April, 2007
A dozen Clear Channel radio stations are launching separate social networking sites based on their respective local communities. For example, San Francisco’s KYLD is launching The Wild Space, and WKSC in Chicago is debuting The Mob (screen grab below). The technology company OneSite is handling the back-end for the sites. “The indicators are that people want to connect locally,” said Evan Harrison, executive VP of Clear Channel. (Via PaidContent)
April 30th, 2007
Just days after praising WKRN’s progress online at NAB-RTNDA, WKRN GM Mike Sechrist announced he’s leaving to go after “other opportunities he would like to pursue in this new digital world.” No word on what they may be, but in true style, Mike posted news of his departure on his own blog. (Thanks for the cryptic tip, invitedmedia!)
UPDATE: Sechrist is joining forces with Michael Rosenblum to start offering professional VJ training courses.
April 30th, 2007
In a response to Viacom’s lawsuit against YouTube, Google said the suit was unfounded and it was ready to go to court, asking for a jury trial. “We are not going to let this lawsuit distract us,” said Michael Kwun, managing counsel at Google. “We feel pretty confident about the case.” In a court filing, Google said “Viacom’s complaint threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression.” Viacom responded by saying Google does not qualify for safe harbor protection under the DMCA. The lines are drawn, and this will be a landmark case, folks.
April 30th, 2007
Called an “immersive, online extension of the TV channel,” VH1Classic.com features thousands of music videos from songs released in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s. Press release follows below…
Read the full post April 30th, 2007
That’s over a six-month period, according to new numbers from the Newspaper Association of America. Meanwhile, the NAA said the audience for newspaper sites grew 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2007.
April 30th, 2007
Just announced at MIX07 in Vegas, CBS’ owned-and-operated stations are partnering with Microsoft and its new cross-browser video technology Silverlight to power user-created content on the sites. Explains the press release:
The new local initiative will allow users of the CBS-owned stations’ sites to view, upload, share, rate, comment, sort and search video, images, audio and text submissions. A key component of the application is its full integration into the existing content publishing workflow of the CBS Television Stations’ digital media groups. It allows the community-generated content to be managed alongside the station’s professional content in a single workflow.
The video detail page. You can see more screen grabs here. The functionality is expected to launch in select markets later this year. Press release below…
Read the full post April 30th, 2007
We’ve heard that YouTube is experimenting with video ads — pre-rolls and post-rolls among them — but this is the first time we’ve seen a date. YouTube says it will begin rolling out video ads this summer. But the question has always been: will people put up with pre-rolls on user-submitted clips? Brightcove’s Jeremy Allaire suggests a new model that involves a 3-second pre-roll and a 10-second mid-roll ad. Sounds like a good approach for clips with natural interruption points — semi-professionally produced content — but jamming a 10-second ad into most user-video clips would be a big turn-off, if you ask me. So we’ll just have to wait and see how YouTube tackles it.
April 30th, 2007
MTV plans to launch a revamped Total Request Live (TRL) this summer with a hefty amount of viewer/user participation, and execs say the leading candidate for a new name for the webified show is URL. TRL has lost over half its viewers since 1999.
Earlier: MTV.com unveils ‘radical’ new strategy to attract teens
April 30th, 2007
Yahoo is buying the remaining 80 percent share of Right Media, an open advertising exchange company, for $680 million. Press release…
Read the full post April 29th, 2007
Wow, how times have changed from the old days when hardened TV execs proclaimed that DVRs were growing too slowly to take seriously. Today, DVRs households have reached an average of 17.2 percent of the U.S. population, with the Dallas-Fort Worth market topping the list at 26.5 percent (LA is second at 25.9 percent, San Francisco in third at 23.5 percent and Washington D.C. in fourth at 23.0 percent.) And all these DVRs add up, of course. Ratings for The Office jump 31 percent when you add DVR viewing. Lost skyrockets 22.8 percent. And 24 grows 19.4 percent. If these numbers were predicted four years ago, many TV execs would’ve laughed you out of the room. But they forgot to take the cable and satellite companies into account, which have accounted for the majority of DVR penetration — which is still growing fast.
April 29th, 2007
Do a story search on Yahoo News, like “mall shooting” for example, and you’ll now find photos and video clips prominently displayed at the top of the search results. This is part of Yahoo’s ongoing efforts to integrate video throughout the site.
This particular clip is from ABCNews.com, but local video clips from partner CBS owned-and-operated stations also appear when relevant.
April 29th, 2007
The WSJ has a terrific article on how national news sites are increasingly buying search keywords that relate to topical stories. For example, on the day of the Virginia Tech shootings, phrases such as “Virginia Tech” and “Virginia Tech Shooting” jumped as high as $5 per click (they’re now down to .06-.08 a click). While organic search results can take hours before a news story is linked, buying search engine placement is a quick way to get a breaking news story in front of a new audience. “These are people who probably tend not to be Fox users. They are gravitating to a search engine to find a hot topic and are finding their way over to us,” said Bert Solivan, senior vice president digital media for Fox News. “It’s an ideal way to tap into a huge audience that may not look for us immediately but may get pushed over to us.” (Paid sub. req.)
April 29th, 2007
ABCNews.com’s investigative team blog, “The Blotter,” celebrated one year on the web with an impressive list of accomplishments: “We have logged more than 36 million page views, broken dozens of important stories and won several major journalism awards.” You may remember the blog broke the Mark Foley story, which led to his resignation.
April 29th, 2007
The online video site Joost — which has yet to launch — has secured 32 advertisers including Electronic Arts, Kraft, Lionsgate, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and United Airlines. I’ve been part of the private beta, and I’ve been impressed with the interface and the video quality (as I write, my wife Kate is trying to wrestle my laptop away to watch National Geographic.)
April 29th, 2007
In a network first of sorts, viewers who snag the scratch-n-sniff card from this week’s issue of TV Guide and watch My Name is Earl will be able to experience — for better or worse — smell-a-vision. Numbers will appear throughout the “scent-sensational” episode that correspond with various odors on the card. “I did not get final sniff approval,” jokes Earl creator Greg Garcia. “I’ll be getting my card in TV Guide the same as everyone else, so if the scent is off, don’t blame me.” And if you don’t get TV Guide, NBC.com has its own way to play along, providing you have items like “cinnamon buns” laying around.
April 29th, 2007
With its 10th anniversary coming this May, ABCNews.com has relaunched with a simple, tabbed design and a short, clean home page. “We think that’s the best way to showcase the signature reporting and storytelling of the team here at ABC News. Terrific content deserves great packaging, and with the new Web site we’ve cleared up a lot of the clutter,” reads the introductory message by Senior Executive Producer Michael Clemente. The new home page features an embedded video player above the fold, but the biggest innovation here is the user feedback controls built into every story. Users can leave comments, contribute facts to the story, submit suggested polls and upload video. The best video, of course, may make it on the air. Also, as part of “Be Seen, Be Heard,” correspondents respond to selected user questions on both the site and ABCNews Now. As always, take a look around, kick the tires and tell us what you think in comments…
The entire home page, top to bottom. (Yes, there’s just one ad.) Section pages are also short and tight, but with a leaderboard ad that occasionally appears along the top.
April 29th, 2007
As we’ve been reporting, MSNBC.com is undergoing a staged relaunch. The first change was a new logo and top nav. Now today I noticed new font styles for the headlines and category headers. A snippet from the home page…
April 29th, 2007
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