Yahoo buying rest of Right Media

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 1 comment April 29th, 2007

Dallas tops DVR markets

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.

Add comment April 29th, 2007

Yahoo News adds video to search results

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.

Add comment April 29th, 2007

News sites quick to buy search keywords

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.)

3 comments April 29th, 2007

‘The Blotter’ celebrates first year

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.

Add comment April 29th, 2007

Joost lands 32 advertisers for launch

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.)

Add comment April 29th, 2007

Briefs: A&E, NBC Universal, Google

  - A&E prepares to launch two new broadband sites
  - NBC Universal acquires RSS email startup Rmail
  - Google beats Microsoft as world’s most visited site

Add comment April 29th, 2007

‘My Name is Earl’ in smell-a-vision

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.

Add comment April 29th, 2007

ABCNews.com relaunches with clean look

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.

8 comments April 29th, 2007

MSNBC.com tweaks its font style

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…

6 comments April 29th, 2007