The NY Times has an article on the concept of blog commenters as their own shtick. It seems there are even blogs out there where people will fight to see who can come up with the most smart-assy of smart-ass comments. Imagine! (No need for that here, what with me being the Managing Editor of said responsibility.) The idea for the article is that blog commenters add to the life of the blog by becoming characters in the play. They inhabit roles - dramatis personae - in our little tragicomedies. Good idea for an article - or even a sophomore sociology paper - but the Times comes off … so… Timesy in its execution:
Since many blogs have a readership of one — or, at best, the writer, his mother and some guy he sat next to in seventh grade who found him on Google — piggybacking on a more popular site offers a wider audience for a keyboard jockey’s gripes and quips.
To paraphrase a well-worn observation: You ever notice how old people repeat themselves a lot?
Check out the new ESPN.com video beta - they’ve stopped the popup page and put the video onto an easier-to-navigate (and whitespace-aplenty) page. They’re also making videos available for embedding, a la YouTube, by proving the embed code right next to the video. Locals: you need to do this. Demand that your vendors start developing the ability for your videos to be shared this way. If they won’t do it, find someone who will. In celebration of this achievement, I’m embedding ESPN’s preview of the MNF game between the Patriots and the Bengals.
Mashable reports that iWon is about to add a social network to its site. This raises two points: 1. iWon is still around and 2. Mathematically, adding an iWon social network will officially mean that every frickin’ site now thinks it has to have one. This is getting silly. I now have more social networks than I have actual friends.
This is fascinating. Yahoo and MediaVest just released a study that found that “ads displayed out of context had roughly the same impact on brand preference as identical placements shown next to related content.” So for example, they measured consumer reaction to the gourmet coffee product Tassimo. The ads ran in Yahoo’s food section as well as in Yahoo News. Brand affinity increased 26 percent among users who saw the ads in the food section compared to 21 percent for the news section. A little higher, but not by much. (And note the study did not measure clicks, which historically have shown to be significantly higher when targeted.) Writes Brian Morrissey in MediaPost, “It suggests some softness in the long-held belief that ads shown in context are more valuable than those seen out of context… With new targeting tools, it is easier than ever to find specific audiences, such as foodies, wherever they are online, rather than only on food-related sites.”
The spot will consume an entire commercial break during 60 Minutes this Sunday. The subject is energy, which is “hard to get across in a 30-second spot,” said Chevron. Seems to me that 60 Minutes is a good venue for this kind of ad, because if it aired in Heroes, it would just make it easier for me to fast-forward over the break.
Executive One: You know that clip that person did of David Caruso saying all those dumb lines from CSI:Miami? Executive Two: I didn’t think those were dumb at all. I didn’t find it funny. Executive Three: You mean the thing I wanted pulled down from YouTube? Executive One: That’s the one. Anyway, it was a big hit. Executive Two: (Suddenly interested) Oh. Really? Executive Three: How big? Executive One: About one million views and counting.
(Executives Two and Three actually have $ light up in their eyes.) Executive One: So I was thinking, there has to be a way to capitalize on this. Either we invite viewers to do more of these like crazy or…
(Long pause as everyone looks at each other and smiles) Executives One, Two and Three all at once: Corporate Division Time!
NBCU and Veoh introduced some useful stats during the Carat Digital Exchange:
<> Most of NBC.com’s video viewing is at night, but there’s also a bump at lunchtime
<> 48% of people who used NBC Rewind on NBC.com watched Heroes
<> 35% sampled Heroes for the first time, and 96% of them continued to watch the show either on TV or online
<> Veoh said click rates for personalized recommended clips are 2.4% compared to .3% for generic clips
That last point is a biggie. Most TV sites don’t offer recommended clips that are contextually related to the clip that was just played, but the upside is clearly substantial.
It’s rare these days that you see much good news associated with newspapers, but a new report by Deutsche Bank offers some insight on the revenue upside of the Yahoo newspaper consortium. Analysts project that newspapers that have partnered with Yahoo could see a jump in year-over-year online revenue growth by as much as 20 points — going from 20 to 40 percent growth — in the second half of 2008. In fact, they anticipate the news would result in “positively surprising the market.” Deutsche Bank believes the revenue will come from increased inventory, more traffic (projected at +10 percent), better CPMs due to Yahoo’s targeting technology, and the HotJobs affiliation. (Full disclosure: I work for KING5.com, which is a Belo property, and Belo’s newspaper sites are part of the Yahoo newspaper consortium. And thanks Rex for the link!)
As of February 17, 2009, that non-digital TV of yours won’t work, at least not without a converter box. (And pray to God you’re not working at a TV station that day and taking phone calls.) The NAB is rolling out its first PSAs to educate the public about the upcoming digital deadline. It sent a 30-second spot to broadcasters. Here’s the script, via B&C:
Notice how digital’s made pretty much everything better? Especially television. Digital TV’s got better picture, better sound, more channels — in fact, digital’s so much better that, by law, ALL broadcast TV has to be digital by 2009. But there’s a catch: Some TVs need an upgrade to get digital. You could even lose your signal. Get the facts. Visit DTVAnswers.com to learn about television’s switch to digital. Or call this number to see how you can stay connected.
Very weak language. “Notice how digital’s made pretty much everything better?” That’s a lead? They need something that screams “Your TV ain’t gonna work on this date!” You can see the ad at DTVAnswers but, in another poor choice, the NAB isn’t making it embeddable. The one message that the TV industry badly needs to go viral can’t, because they haven’t included an embed code. I encourage them to change this. 2/17/09 is going to be one seriously crazy day, and we need to use every possible method of communication at our disposal to get out the word.
I was wondering when I was putting the new MSN Video through its paces why I saw so few pre-roll ads, and it turns out that MSN is limiting pre-rolls to one per three minutes users spend on the site. “It’s definitely a long term bet,” said Rob Bennett, MSN’s general manager, explaining he hopes the new limits will ultimately drive more usage. “The feedback on pre-roll is pretty mixed. We’ve definitely heard from our users that they’d prefer longer interval between ads. The general thought in the industry is that we need to evolve. This should be less intrusive and more organic.” It’s also worth noting that MSN is one of the few sites that still allow 30-second pre-rolls. The new MSN Video has now launched out of beta, and they’ve added a spotlighted video section across the top.
Placing pre-rolls on the basis of time instead of number of clips played is a very interesting proposition. What does everyone think? And how hard will it be for TV sites to wean themselves of wall-to-wall pre-rolls especially as the ads are getting more popular with clients?
Cox Communications subscribers will be able to watch five NBC fall shows for free, including 30 Rock and Bionic Woman, a day after they air on the network. But here’s the catch: fast-forward will be disabled throughout the shows so you can’t skip through the ads. So, it’s on demand — until you play it.
Blip.tv is starting to get some traction among videobloggers, signing a deal to host and distribute Rocketboom this week. Blip.tv can now dynamically insert overlay ads into Quicktime files, which is believed to be a first, reports Beet.tv.
Maven Networks’ technology will power video on FoxNews.com and the upcoming Fox Business Network site. Video will be in embedded players instead of pop-ups, and users will be able to rate and recommend clips. Also, bloggers will be able to embed players on their own sites. “If you go to FOXNews.com, it is mostly text and pictures and some video,” said Maven CEO Hilmi Ozguc. “In the future, my expectation is that you will see something that is more like interactive TV — very, very video-centric. Obviously there will be text articles and pictures and so forth, but video will be front and center, much more searchable, much faster, with more social-media capabilities built in.” The technology may also allow Fox affiliates to embed video players from Fox News and Fox Business with their own local ads.
The parent company of the Dish Network, Echostar has announced it’s buying Sling Media for $380 million. As you probably know, Sling Media makes the Slingbox, a nifty place-shifting device that allows you to watch your TV’s programming anywhere on your laptop or mobile device. Sling Media says having Echostar as a parent company won’t change the interoperability of its products with set-top boxes made by Echostar rivals.
Update: After spending six and a half hours in line — and live-blogging it all — I now have my hands on a copy of Halo 3. Bill Gates was among the surprise guests. And of course, the Master Chief. What a crazy event (1,000 people were there), and right after I finish this post I’m going to pop the game in for an hour or so. That’ll make it 2:30 a.m. and I have a 9 a.m. meeting. So, why did Microsoft release this on a Monday night?
(Oh, by the way, it was fun trying to explain “live blogging” to TV producers who teased what I was doing on the air.)
Big changes at MSNBC announced today (and rumored for weeks). MSNBC GM Dan Abrams will return to MSNBC’s air with a primetime show, “Live with Dan Abrams.” NBC News senior VP Phil Griffin will take over Abrams’ management responsibilities when MSNBC moves from Secaucus into 30 Rock next month. Press release…
This is fascinating. Yahoo and MediaVest just 
<> Most of NBC.com’s video viewing is at night, but there’s also a bump at lunchtime
Blip.tv is starting to get some traction among videobloggers, 
Maven Networks’ technology 
Update: After spending six and a half hours in line — 
