Hearst to buy shopping site Kaboodle

Hearst is expected to announce it’s acquiring the shopping recommendation site Kaboodle for an undisclosed sum, reports the Wall Street Journal. (Sub. req.)

Add comment August 7th, 2007

ESPN360 to relaunch with live focus

Coming next month, ESPN will relaunch its video site ESPN360 with plans to stream 2,000 live events over 12 months — up from 200 last year. “You cannot underestimate the value of putting live sports on the Internet,” said Dan Flagler, manager of online video content and programming for Verizon Communications, which is partnered with ESPN360. But the big question remains: does ESPN360’s cable-like ISP strategy — only Verizon and AT&T broadband subscribers can access the site, limiting ESPN360’s audience to 16 million — limit its ultimate potential? (WSJ sub. req.)

The current ESPN360, as viewed on my Verizon broadband service.

4 comments August 7th, 2007

Web to surpass TV, newspapers in ad revenue

Calling it a “watershed moment,” the annual Veronis Suhler Stevenson study predicts that online advertising will surpass TV and newspapers by 2011. The study also concludes that Americans this year will spend more time online than reading newspapers (yet advertisers still spend more on newspapers, but not for long). And for the first time in a decade, the study says consumers spent less time with media than the previous year. One theory is as people spend more time consuming digital media than traditional media, they’re consuming more on-demand and short-format content, which “net net” results in less time spent consuming media overall. Or, perhaps it’s just a blip.

3 comments August 7th, 2007

NBCOlympics.com to stream 2,200 hours live

Calling it “the most ambitious single media project in history,” NBC Universal announced its plans for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Over the 17 days of Games, NBC Universal properties will air 3,600 hours of coverage — and in a big first, NBCOlympics.com will stream 2,200 hours of live coverage with 6,600 hours ultimately available on demand. Wow, that’s a lot of online video.

It goes without saying that such blanket online coverage raises some interesting issues/questions at the affiliate level, but kudos to NBCU for blowing it out online. Press release below with more details…

Read the full post 5 comments August 7th, 2007

Report: NY Times to axe Times Select

NY Post is reporting that NYTimes.com is poised to shut down its Times Select subscription service and move the premium content back to free. NYTimes.com won’t confirm/deny. The number of web-only subscribers (from $7.95 to $49.95) in June was 221,000, down from 224,000 in April. Of course, the newspaper industry has watched the Times Select effort very closely. Is there room for premium content on a newspaper site?

9 comments August 7th, 2007