NBCU looks to sell more stations
NBC Universal continues to refocus its Local Media division — announcing its intent to unload WTVJ/Miami and WVIT/Hartford, CT. NBCU says it will primarily focus on the top ten markets – though it will hold on to KNSD/San Diego out in market 27. Miami is market 16 and Hartford is 28. Even though NBCU will [...]
Online advertisers to spend through turbulence
What recession? The research company eMarketer released an updated online advertising forecast, predicting that spending will increase 23% this year. As PaidContent points out, that’s a downward revision from eMarketer’s forecast in November of 28.5%. But still, considering the economy right now, that’s an amazing growth number. Through 2012, eMarketer predicts the most growth will [...]
FCC airwaves auction is over
After 261 rounds of bidding, the FCC auction of TV’s analog airwaves is over, bringing in $19.6 billion. But the winners won’t be known for another few days or weeks. The big question, of course, is whether Google won enough bids to build its own wireless network. While the $19.6 billion is a record, some [...]
WKRN switches to WorldNow
You’ll remember WKRN.com offered many features that were innovative when they launched. The site has now relaunched as a WorldNow site. Adds Cory: They also recently relaunched NashvilleisTalking, ditching the blog and turning it into a user-generated blog aggregator. Nashville blogs, by and large, are giving it a big thumbs-down. “What the heck is going [...]
ABC approves changes in circulation rules
Subtle but significant changes to how the Audit Bureau of Circulation measures newspapers have been initially approved and will go into effect in 2009. Under the new rules, newspapers will be able to count circulation as “paid” regardless of the price at which the paper is sold, bringing newspaper rules in line with those for [...]
Yahoo projects $8.8 billion in revenue in 2010
Forecasters in Sunnyvale say that Yahoo’s three-year outlook is flush, with billions in revenue and double the cashflow after costs, and that Microsoft’s unwelcome takeover bid vastly undervalues the company. Google has gone on record to say that the potential takeover will hurt the Internet, as Microsoft’s corporate record isn’t exactly the picture of openness. [...]
More on CBS stations’ local ad network
Jeff Jarvis has a few more details on CBS’ announcement yesterday that it’s creating a local ad network in each of its O&O markets.
WLEX capitalizes on web weather coverage
Lexington’s WLEX drove 455,000 pageviews in a single day — in a market with around 1 million people — due to it’s aggressive coverage of a big snowstorm. “We’re coming to the point where the online is as important as on air,” said Bruce Carter, director of news and marketing.
YouTube boosts video quality
YouTube is now offering many videos in a higher quality format — and letting users decide if they want the higher quality versions, or the original faster playing files. They aren’t just limiting the higher quality to partner content, but videos coming in from the greater Interwebs as well. The offering is dependent on the [...]
Critics, leagues, advertisers malign ESPN
SportsBusiness Journal has a fascinating look at the many criticisms that are thrown at ESPN – including weak ratings, arrogance, a heavy reliance on its multi-platform strategy, the news/programming dividing line and more. A PowerPoint presentation has apparently been floating around that lodges many of those complaints – and the SportsBusiness Journal looked at each [...]
Political blogger laid off at WKRN
WKRN was digitally aggressive under the leadership of former station management, but it would appear the recent Young layoffs have now hit Web staff. Blogger A.C. Kleinheider managed VolunteerVoters.com, a site launched nearly two years ago to cover a local Senate race. He was laid off last week. His final post offered very kind words [...]
CBS stations debut local ad network
CBS stations in five markets (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and San Francisco) have launched the CBS Local Ad Network, with more markets coming soon. Partners embed a widget on their sites, which combines content with an ad unit. CBS stations sell the ads (for $5 to $10 CPMs) and give the partners a revenue share [...]
NBCU buys one-third of DriverTV
NBCU is paying about $6 million for a 35% stake in DriverTV, reports the WSJ (sub. req.) Car manufacturers pay DriverTV to produce three-minute promotional videos for prospective buyers researching new cars. “This is a more niche way to replicate the cable model we built in the online world,” says George Kliavkoff, NBCU’s chief digital [...]
State of the media ‘more troubled’ this year
The Project for Excellence in Journalism annual “State of the Media” report has been released, and as always, it’s a must read (set aside a good hour to go through it.) Of all the years I’ve read this report, this year is the most intriguing — many great points and a couple, well, that are [...]
Storm hits CNN Atlanta HQ
The tornado that hit downtown Atlanta shattered windows in the CNN.com newsroom and even sucked a computer out the window.
IB sites debut new video player
Internet Broadcasting has rolled out a new video player for Hearst-Argyle, Meredith and McGraw-Hill sites, and I have to say, it’s the best I’ve seen so far for local TV sites. The player is both Flash and Silverlight for on demand, and Silverlight for live. And at 640 pixels wide as the standard 16×9 display, [...]
Inline search in Google results
Has anyone seen this before? Search within search. Pretty cool feature. Anyone know how to add this? Update: The feature is about a week old, according to this Google post, which explains it’s fully automated: “This feature will now occur when we detect a high probability that a user wants more refined search results within [...]
Enterprise journalism is not a commodity
ABC News President David Westin hits the nail on the head with his remarks (watch video from Blip.TV here) at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit when talking about the commoditization of news. “There’s a certain amount of news information that’s a commodity. It just is,” he said, explaining that many stories are available everywhere on the [...]
Drag racing TV news vans
Speaking of competition in TV news, here’s something you don’t see every day. Broadcasting & Cable’s Mike Malone explains what happened next.
AOL acquires Bebo for $850 million
The third-most visited social networking site, Bebo, which has a large UK audience, has been acquired by AOL for $850 million. (For reference, News Corp. bought MySpace back in 2005 for $580 million.) AOL CEO Randy Falco calls the acquisition a “game-changing move,” especially when you consider the applications when Bebo merges with AOL instant [...]
