MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski decided to have a little fun with the Paris Hilton story on Morning Joe Tuesday morning. After refusing to read the story - she (at various times) tore up the script, threatened to burn the script, wadded up the script - and shredded the script. MSNBC.com gave the video big play - and it is still lingering at #2 on the site’s list of most viewed video. With more than 9700 diggs, the video is also one of the ten most dugg stories ever to appear on Digg (based on numbers from May 27, 2007) - no doubt helping the video views.
June 27th, 2007
In case you hadn’t noticed, online video is kind of a big deal. Mashable put together an exhaustive list of applications and websites centered on video - from editing, to sharing, to organization and hosting. There are a few tools you’ve seen - and dozens more you haven’t. Check out Moguls - a site that promises a live broadcasting solution. Plus - have you heard of GodTube - a Christian version of YouTube? There’s even RealPeopleRealStuff - what craigslist and YouTube would be if they mated.
June 27th, 2007
Get ready to fire up that cell phone and watch the (really, really) tiny ball bounce back and forth on centre court at the All England Tennis Club. NBC2Go will pump out live coverage on Verizon’ V Cast service over a span of ten days - starting this Saturday. Press release after the jump
NBC2GO TO AIR LIVE MOBILE STREAMING OF NBC SPORTS’ COVERAGE OF THE CHAMPIONSHIPS, WIMBLEDON BEGINNING SATURDAY, JUNE 30
Verizon Wireless V CAST Mobile TV Viewers Will Have On-The-Go Access To The World’s Most Prestigious Tournament Including Live Coverage of Men’s and Women’s Finals
New York, New York – June 27, 2007 - For the first time ever tennis fans can feel like they are centre court whether they’re at home or on the go as NBC2Go provides live mobile coverage of The Championships, Wimbledon. Starting Saturday, June 30 (12:00-3:00 p.m., ET) and extending until the end of the tournament, subscribers to mobile channel NBC2Go, offered by Verizon Wireless V CAST Mobile TV, along with thousands live at the All England Club and millions watching on NBC, will be able to catch NBC Sports’ live mobile coverage Wimbledon including every exciting point of the Men’s and Ladies Finals.
“NBC Sports is committed to delivering the tradition and excitement of Wimbledon to our audience on all of our platforms,” said Perkins Miller, Senior VP, Digital Media, NBC Sports & Olympics. “Now tennis fans will be able to watch Wimbledon wherever they are with our live broadcasts on NBC2Go.”
“V CAST Mobile TV is the best of television programmed specifically for the mobile customer, and that includes great live coverage that NBC Sports brings to tennis fans across the country,” said Ryan Hughes, vice president of digital media programming for Verizon. “Customers who are at the beach or a barbecue this holiday week can still see every serve, volley or break point from the best tennis players in the world – live on V CAST Mobile TV.”
“Nothing compares to the excitement of a tense fifth set at Wimbledon. Now tennis fans can watch every point live on their cell phones even when they’re out and about,” said Dan Novak, senior vice president of programming and advertising, MediaFLO USA. “We are thrilled to deliver this exciting sports programming on FLO TV, our revolutionary new mobile TV service currently available through Verizon Wireless.”
NBC2Go, part of the FLO TV TM service from MediaFLO USA, Inc., is currently available to Verizon Wireless V CAST Mobile TV customers in 30 markets, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Atlanta. For a complete market map, check out www.verizonwireless.com/mobiletv. With FLO TV TM, MediaFLO USA delivers high-quality, full-length television programming on V CAST Mobile TV capable cell phones.
Coverage of the The Championships at Wimbledon is scheduled on NBC2Go as a live network simulcast as follows:
Sat, June 30 12:00p-3:00 pm ET / 9a - 12n PT
Sun, July 1 12:00p-3:00 pm ET / 9a - 12n PT
Mon, July 2 11:00a-2:00pm ET & 10:00a-1:00 pm PT
Tue, July 3 11:00a-2:00pm ET & 10:00a-1:00 pm PT
Wed, July 4 11:00a-2:00pm ET & 10:00a-1:00 pm PT
Thu, July 5 1:00p-6:00pm ET & 12:00p-5:00 pm PT
Fri, July 6 1:00p-6:00pm ET & 12:00p-5:00 pm PT
Sat, July 7 9:00a-2:00 pm ET / 6a - 11a PT
Sun, July 8 9:00a-3:00 pm ET / 6a - 11a PT
About NBC Sports Digital:
NBC Sports Digital drives NBC Sports’ development of digital content including NBCSports.com and NBC Sports Mobile.
NBCSports.com is one of the fastest growing sports content websites on the Internet. It provides comprehensive sports coverage, including scores, stats and analysis for all the major sports. With live pre-game programming for Notre Dame Football and the NHL combined with live streaming webcasts including the U.S. Open, FIS World Ski Championships and the NYC Marathon and the daily sports issues show Sidelines, has placed NBCSports.com at the forefront of original broadband sports programming. The site’s fantasy sports are powered by AllStarStats and Rotoworld. Rotoworld.com is the highest-trafficked, fantasy sports content site on the Internet.
NBC Sports Mobile provides mobile users with on-the-go access to top NBC Sports and NBCSports.com content, including news, scores, and video. News offerings are available on the NBC Sports Mobile Web site and NBCSports.com/mobile. NBC Sports on NBC2Go provided users with live NBC Sports broadcasts from the Preakness Stakes, the NHL Stanley Cup Final, and the U.S. Open. The NBC Sports Mobile channel on MobiTV provides mobile users with news, scores, live coverage, and highlights from NBC Sports broadcasts, including the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and the NFL, among others.
About NBC Universal Digital Distribution
NBC Universal Digital Distribution, a division of NBC Universal, drives the company’s development of digital content and distribution in the areas of digital sales, digital platforms and wireless products. NBC Universal Digital Distribution manages product strategy and development for NBCU’s content efforts by deploying it across multiple digital platforms including mobile, Internet portals, wireless carriers, emerging digital companies and nontraditional customers. In addition, NBCU Digital Distribution spearheads the company’s development of industry leading technologies such as interactive television, on demand, electronic sell-through and IPTV. NBCU Digital Distribution also directs and manages the company’s cable investments including A&E, The History Channel, History Channel International, The Biography Channel and the Sundance Channel.
June 27th, 2007
Nielsen has long been the gold standard in TV advertising. In recent years, the company has expanded in to music sales (SoundScan), box office (EDI) and Internet usage (NetRatings) among other things. Now the company has snapped up Telephia, which tracks cell phone usage. Founded in ‘98, Telephia primarily targeted wireless companies - but has recently broadened its scope to media companies and advertisers.
June 27th, 2007
WGN-AM morning host Spike O’Dell suddenly found his voice booming across more than just the powerhouse signal he usually originates on. A strange glitch in the Emergency Alert System triggered the Emergency Action Notification. The EAN is the highest level alert - indicating a message is incoming from the White House. The EAS readout told stations not to cut away under penalty of law. “The system is set up so that if there is an emergency, the president or the governor or someone else in authority can take control of the airwaves. And no one did,” Patti Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency told the Chicago Tribune. Instead, O’Dell’s mic was hot all over the dial, since WGN is the hub for EAS in the area. A VP for CBS Radio in the market joked that if this happened next year, when Portable People Meters will be in place in the market - WGN would have seen quite the ratings spike.
June 27th, 2007
Update: In a bid to take on YouTube, MySpace has launched a standalone site called MySpaceTV.com. The site features professional video “front and center,” and it aims to integrate video more seamlessly with social networking. “When you go to MySpace video now, what you see is far less appealing to the eye than what you get from other video sites,” said Jeff Berman, a MySpace executive who took over the video effort in March. By focusing primarily on professional and original content, MySpaceTV also hopes to attract advertisers who are concerned about associating with user-generated fare.
June 27th, 2007
There have been two national news stories this week involving sports. One is the death of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife and son in an apparent double-murder/suicide. The other is the House hearings into the NFL’s disability plans for retired football players. And although both those stories are getting airtime, Andrew Tyndall keenly observes that you’re hard-pressed to find the video versions of those stories online:
The explanation for their presence on television but their absence as video has nothing to do with journalism, and everything to do with copyright. The rights to use sports footage do not transfer from one medium to another so the footage at a correspondent’s disposal to cover a sports story varies medium by medium. The same is true for journalism about show business.
Consider these examples: since the start of May, there have been 18 news stories that aired on ABC World News that have not been posted online; fully half of those (six sports stories, three show business stories) have been on subjects where video rights are difficult to clear. On CBS the same holds true: of the 13 CBS Evening News stories that have not been posted online, four were sports and three were show business.
Amen, Andrew. We have been warning about this for years now. I would argue fair use in these cases, but it’s not hard to see why networks would back off putting the stories online, given the onerous way the NFL and others enforce their online rights. You can bet any use of sports video, even in a news story, would result in a cease-and-desist letter, followed by more back-and-forth letters and lawsuit threats. Who needs that? The risk adds up to the potential for networks losing real money, and they are understandably shy about getting into expensive fights these days.
June 27th, 2007
The folks at Slate have launched SlateV.com, a companion video site to the online magazine. The site combines original features hosted by Slate writers with some user-created components. Multiple Emmy winner Bill Smee, formerly of Discovery Times Channel, and Andy Bowers, long-time NPR correspondent and creator of Slate’s video programs are running the site. Like many video sites these days, it’s all powered by Brightcove.
June 27th, 2007
Good news for those in the UK waiting anxiously for the launch of the new BBC iPlayer. It’s set to launch on July 27th. Director General Mark Thompson said: “This July we are going to launch the iPlayer and in our view, the iPlayer is at least as big a redefinition of what TV can be, what radio can be, what broadcasting can be, as what colour television was 40 years ago.” There is a good promotional video available online which previews the features of the player.
June 27th, 2007
