Why aren’t more web videos captioned?

Aaron Barnhart at TVBarn points out that networks (and — ahem — others) should do a better job of providing captions for online video. He makes the case that many already pay to caption video (thanks, FCC) - but don’t pass along the data to their online video streams, even though the FLV format makes that entirely possible. He points to a site from accessibility expert Joe Clark that has links, rants and resources on the topic.

6 comments March 26th, 2008

Did newspapers ignore housing bubble?

The real estate industry in most of this country is a mess — just don’t ask your neighborhood real estate agent — who will bury you in stats and figures that make it look “not that bad” or “better than you think.” Many newspapers across the country had very little coverage of the housing bubble and fallout as Dan Gillmor points out. A recent E&P piece has editors pointing to a smattering of stories on the now-crisis - but Gillmor calls that story “tripe:”

Newspapers and broadcasters were raking in billions in advertising from the real estate and banking industries as this bubble inflated. I do not believe this is a coincidence. I also don’t believe it was deliberate malfeasance; but you just don’t see lots of tough coverage in media of the people and companies paying the bills.

(Disclosure: My father, aunt, grandfather and greatgrandfather all served in the family business… selling real estate. And yes, we get along just fine.)

9 comments March 26th, 2008

NBC to present fall schedule… next week

So we’ve got Daylight Saving Time early… Easter early… why not present the fall sked early? NBC will get a big jump start on the traditional upfronts set for late May — and will roll out the slate of shows next week at a news conference. NBC says its ongoing effort to move to a 52 week season - with new stuff hitting the air year-round.

1 comment March 26th, 2008

Baby put up for sale on TV site’s classifieds

Speaking of classifieds offerings in the Salt Lake City market — KUTV.com is working with police in the Utah capital in an attempt to track down the person who posted the ad — complete with picture. The ad was posted March 22 — and KUTV says it was up for a short time before administrators removed it. The site’s news account says the listing put forth a six-month-old for $6,560 “listed as ‘used,’ but ‘beautifule [sic] and affectionate with so much love to offer.’” Right now police don’t know if the listing was real - or a hoax.

3 comments March 26th, 2008

The coolest social music site anywhere

Have you seen Muxtape.com? Super mega coolness. Potential legal problems, you say? Um, yeeeeah. But that’s what makes it cool, right? (Thanks to Rex/Fimoculous for the linkage.)

1 comment March 26th, 2008

The nation’s most popular local TV site is…

A TV site in the nation’s 35th largest market has a secret, and it will astonish you. Every month, Salt Lake’s KSL.com serves up 130 million… yes MILLION… page views from 1.4 million unique users. From a page view perspective, that puts KSL.com squarely at the top of the heap of local TV sites in the country. So how is this possible? KSL.com launched free classifieds using an off-the-shelf product in 2000, well before Craigslist gained a foothold. In 2006, they upgraded to their own technology — a clean, quick and user-friendly classifieds platform. Today, 75% of those 130 million page views are generated by free classifieds, and KSL.com ranks #8 in Nielsen-Netratings’ list of top news sites ranked by “sessions per person.” Just about everyone in Salt Lake goes to KSL.com to buy or sell just about anything.

Stephan Bergen, KSL.com’s director of online content, answered a few of our questions via email, which follow below…

Read the full post 26 comments March 26th, 2008

Comcast, Time Warner mull WiMax network

The two cable giants may help fund a national wireless network that would be run by Sprint and Clearwire, reports the WSJ (free AP version here). Google could also provide some funding. Sprint and Clearwire have been working for months in an effort to build a national WiMax network, and they’re trying to raise $3 billion to fund the venture. But what would the cable companies do with the network? “The companies are likely to try to distinguish themselves with advanced mobile data and video services that take advantage of the stockpiles of content they are already adept at licensing,” reports the Journal.

1 comment March 26th, 2008