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After a long holiday week, I sat down at my local Barnes and Noble with a cup of Chai and Entertainment Weekly’s Best & Worst 2007 issue. I nearly fell over when I saw Lost Remote listed in the magazine’s “Best of the Web” section for 2007. Cory’s passion and work for nearly a decade garnered a mention under “Must Click Television.” EW dubbed LR as “A savvy blog chronicling TV happenings with a digital bent.”
19 comments December 30th, 2007
Perez Hilton, the celeb-blogger has a show called What Perez Sez on Viacom-owned VH1. Why is that the lead line? Well, the (very) anti-YouTube conglomerate issued several DMCA takedown notices for three videos over the past year and half, according to TVWeek. After the third such notice, YouTube suspended Hilton’s account. Hilton had his lawyers contacted Viacom and asked them to resicnd the notices. Hilton says the company did that - and he had his account reinstated. But the blogger doesn’t like the way he was treated by YouTube, and has entertained a flurry of offers from video services.
For now, he’s going with Twistage - a private label video service that allows Hilton to keep the revenue generated by his videos. He says he only generated $5,000 on 25 million YouTube video views.
2 comments December 29th, 2007
A girl who wrote and preformed a song about Digg has now been approached about a record contract, according to TechCrunch. Kina Grannis put her performance of “Gotta Digg” on YouTube - and not surprisingly - saw a huge number of diggs on Digg. She’s also trying to win a contest to get a music video played during the telecast of the Super Bowl.
From the lyrics - you can tell Grannis has Digg’s number:
“I always digg up Apple and I bury Microsoft. ”
“When I see those stories about Senator Ron Paul, I don’t even RTFA, I just digg them all”
“I know Digg isn’t perfect, but be thankful for what we’ve got. Just like daddy always said, at least it’s not Slashdot.”
3 comments December 29th, 2007
‘Tis that time of year, LostRemoters: The champagne is chilling, the orchestra is tuning up for Auld Lang Syne, and even though he’s not with us officially, Safran is trimming his BoSox memorial handlebar ’stache and shining up his Patriots cufflinks for the big New Years Eve. Oh, and everyone in the business is kicking out their Year In Review lists. BBC offers “The technology with impact 2007″, including the iPhone, Facebook, the launch of Vista and the XO laptop. Wired has AFI’s list of “Moments of Significance” that includes the writers strike, the iPhone, and the “hyper-tabloidization” of television news.
Ok, Faithful. You know how we do it here. The comments are open for your YIR lists. Tell us the winners, the losers, the best and the worst, and the most significant happenings in television, online and anything else for 2007.
12 comments December 28th, 2007
As the Hollywood writers strike drags toward 2008, the video game industry is hoping a lack of fresh episodes in prime-time could motivate more people to pick up video game controllers instead of remotes — especially with the millions of Wiis and copies of “Call of Duty 4″ under Christmas trees this holiday season.
Last time the writers went on the picket line, the big gaming competition came from Tetris. Now that games have powerful narrative components and blockbuster movie visual effects, gamers have other ways to spend their time than watching reruns. “Call of Duty 4″ screen grab…
1 comment December 28th, 2007
Amazon.com added Warner Music Group to the growing number of labels that sell music free of copy protections in its digital music store. In the linked article, Forbes contends that Amazon is training its guns on Apple in a music download shoot-out. Only EMI sells rights-free music on iTunes.
1 comment December 28th, 2007
The Hollywood Reporter got an early shot at the new-media survey from Deloitte & Touche, “State of the Media Democracy.” About 38 percent of U.S. consumers are watching TV shows online, 36 percent use their cell phones as entertainment devices and 45 percent are creating online content like Web sites, music, videos and blogs for others. LR faithful know Cory always says the UGC revolution has only just begun, and I’m the game and mobi guy. This one has something for both of us: In Deloitte’s first edition of the survey just eight months earlier, 24 percent of consumers used their cell phones as entertainment devices, meaning that usage has soared 50 percent. What’s your mobi and UGC strategy for 2008?
1 comment December 28th, 2007
Must be the last official news day of the year, because the story that leads my feeds is the yawner about Wal-Mart shutting down movie downloads less than a year after they tried to get into the business. Now, I don’t have a big pile of demographic data before me, but the gut check tells me that the Wal-Mart brand just doesn’t carry an online value proposition that could touch the love people have for Netflix or other online movie sources that carry that spunky, creative do-something-new vibe. Maybe it is just me.
1 comment December 28th, 2007
MTV Networks says it served up 1.2 billion video streams in ‘07 from MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com. That’s a 30 percent increase over 2006. The top clip? Britney Spears’ embarrassing return performance. Duh.
3 comments December 27th, 2007
Three months on the air, TMZ is the top-rated new show in syndication. “The website was such a breakout that a lot of people were scoffing at the notion that we would, as they put it, ‘revert back to TV,’” said Harvey Levin, the managing editor of TMZ.com and the host of the series. “I think people were almost writing it off as something that would fail, something that everyone else was doing on TV, and that it wouldn’t have the freshness of the website, and I think it does.” While it has yet to beat Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood, TMZ is drawing a younger demographic.
6 comments December 27th, 2007
This is a quote from a Hollywood Reporter story, “Ads A-OK on DVRs,” about a new study on the impact of DVRs on standard commercials: “Fewer than half of the people watching a DVR recording said they fast-forward through ads, meaning that DVR use does not significantly impact (commercial) ratings.”
Ok, let’s do a little math (please check me). They don’t disclose the actual number, but let’s assume 40 percent of DVR owners skip commercials (which equals what Nielsen has said in the past). DVR penetration is 20 percent. The average American over the age of 2 watches 272 minutes of TV a day, according to the TVB (in 2005). And overall viewing increases 16 percent among DVR owners. So when you hash out all these numbers, the average DVR viewer watches 189 minutes of TV with commercials every day. Assuming an equal distribution of commercials, that works out to a 6 percent net negative impact on commercial ratings.
Is that significant? I’d say yes, especially if you look at it from the perspective of a 6 percent drop in commercial value. No, it’s not devastating by any means, but don’t forget DVR penetration is still growing fast. I’m not diminishing the continued commercial power of television — it’s still the big game in town — but let’s be careful about how we interpret these DVR studies. It is a significant, growing number. So let’s implement innovative ways to offset (and even capitalize) on commercial skipping instead of allowing studies like these and their reporting (”Ads A-OK on DVRs”) to pull the wool over our eyes.
8 comments December 26th, 2007
Apple has inked a deal with News Corp. to offer 30-day video rentals on iTunes for around $2.99, reports TechCrunch. The deal is expected to be announced on January 14th at MacWorld. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount and Warner Bros. are also in talks. “Another interesting part is News Corp appearing to continue to hedge its bets; on one hand it joined with NBC to launch Hulu, billed as an iTunes alternative, and yet they continue to deal with Apple directly as well,” writes Duncan Riley on TechCrunch. “Certainly from the outside its says that Apple/iTunes is still the biggest and best game in town.”
By the way, have you been watching Apple’s stock? Geesh.
Add comment December 26th, 2007
This Saturday’s Patriots-Giants game was going to have the least national distribution possible: airing only on the meek NFL Network. But under pressure for political types - the league has offered up the potentially historic game to both CBS and NBC. Now the Pats may finish the season undefeated with people watching on three TV networks. CBS and NBC will air the NFL Network feed. Sen. John Kerry and others pressured the NFL to figure something out - since the league-owned NFL Network is still carried in a tiny tiny number of homes both nationally and in the Patriots and Giants’ markets.
By the way, TV Week says this is the first national NFL simulcast since 1967’s first Super Bowl, when CBS and NBC both carried the game.
3 comments December 26th, 2007
That’s right, WTFCNN describes itself as a “hilarious collection of CNN’s often ridiculous headlines.” A few of my favorites: Dismembered man’s kin explode over plea deal… Miners find kryptonite; science dudes rename it… Co-ed strips for her honors thesis, gets a B. (Via Fimoculous)
2 comments December 26th, 2007
The first prediction in this article is Google will “move into radio and television at some point,” perhaps even buy a TV network. Hmmm, doubt it.
Add comment December 26th, 2007
NBC has a new promo in rotation that fans the competitive flames and promotes its strike position.
“January First, NBC gives you exactly what you want - NEW TV. NBC will have more new stuff than anybody else - with seven new premieres in the first ten days. Celebrity Apprentice, Biggest Loser Couples, American Gladiators and One vs. 100. Plus: New episodes of Law & Order, Law & Order: CI and Medium. So whenever you hear those Peacock chimes - you’ll know there’s (bing bong bong) something new happening… on NBC.”
That promo was followed by a message promoting new episodes of ER in the new year as well.
NBC’s Vince Manze noted to Variety that the network will have more original, scripted programming during the first quarter of 2008 than it did in that period of 2007.
11 comments December 25th, 2007
Seems like everyone has a YouTube channel these days. Now Queen Elizabeth II - along with the rest of the British Monarchy - has a channel on the Google-owned online video site.
The channel features about 20 videos right now - with a plethora of archive footage, a day-in-the-life of Prince Charles and more. Front and center is the Queen’s 1957 Christmas message - the first time that message was televised - exactly 50 years ago this week.
3 comments December 24th, 2007
Talk about breaking news. A van crashed into the streetside studio of WLS/Chicago during the 10pm news last night. While you couldn’t see the impact on camera - you could certainly hear it.
UPDATE: For reasons I don’t understand, ABC put in a DMCA takedown notice on the video previously embedded here. So I searched for another version… here it is:
Witnesses and WLS’ GM says the “accident” may have been intentional.
7 comments December 24th, 2007
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