Archive for May, 2008
“On average, the networks are off the mark by 10% from last year in total viewers and off 17% in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic,” reports TV Week. Some speculate that viewers who got out of the habit of watching broadcast TV during the writers strike are taking longer than expected to gravitate back to the tube. Others might say it’s due to the explosion of media options. Or the lack of “must-see” network TV programming. Or it’s just a fluke. Whatever the theory, the drop is dramatic and the timing (upfronts) couldn’t be worse.
May 18th, 2008
The show is several million dollars short, and it may reflect a larger issue for PBS. Explains Elizabeth Jensen in the NY Times: “Public television’s model — soliciting long-term commitments — is also increasingly out of step with the changing needs of corporations, which no longer sponsor public television programs for purely philanthropic reasons.”
May 18th, 2008
But this time, Microsoft says it’s open to collaboration that would “involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo.” Explains the Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req):
“According to people familiar with the matter, Microsoft has proposed to Yahoo a deal related to advertisements that run next to Internet search results, a large business that is dominated by Google Inc. The move by Microsoft appears to be an attempt to stop Google from entering a search-related deal with Yahoo that’s now under discussion and could be announced in coming days.”
Adds the NY Times, “Microsoft’s hastily revived effort to reach some kind of deal with Yahoo seems to suggest that the software giant has doubts about whether it can achieve those goals on its own.” Microsoft’s statement, by the way, makes it clear it reserves the right to make a new offer to acquire Yahoo.
May 18th, 2008
CBS will get a “first look” at projects from EQAL, the production house behind LonelyGirl15 and KateModern. They’ll also work with CBS writers to create series tie-ins, reports Broadcasting & Cable. EQAL recently landed $5 million in funding which includes an investment from Marc Andreessen.
May 18th, 2008
In the wake of difficult layoffs at the Seattle Times, the newspaper’s executive editor has published a column to respond to readers’ concerns. Interesting.
May 18th, 2008
PrayingForPapers combines newspaper layoff updates with sincere prayers for the well-being of the industry and its employees. Webmaster Mike Koehler, whose day job is deputy sports editor at the Oklahoman, told me, “I can’t get the picture out of my head of some guy and his family at the kitchen table trying to figure out what to do next. If you work at a paper, there’s general few options for you in a city. That said, I felt like the least I could do was encourage everyone to be intentional about remembering their colleagues, pray for them, think about them, know that we are all in this together.”
May 16th, 2008
Fox is debuting two new shows next season with dramatically fewer commercials. Calling it “Remote-Free TV,” the shows “Fringe” and “Dollhouse” will run about only five minutes of commercials an hour. “It’s a simple concept and potentially revolutionary,” Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori said. “We’re going to have less commercials, less promotional time, and less reason for viewers to use the remote. We’re going to redefine the viewing experience.” To counter the loss in inventory, Fox plans to charge higher rates for the ads. Ad buyers were “generally upbeat” about the announcement, says the Hollywood Reporter. So, what do you think? Is this a new paradigm for network TV or will you just skip the shorter/fewer breaks with your fast-forward button anyway?
May 16th, 2008
The layoffs across the local TV industry continue. Gannett Broadcasting is cutting many master control and graphics positions at its stations as it centralizes its operations. For example, 7 people have been let go at KTHV in Little Rock. Master control will now be hubbed and more complex graphics will be handled by a centralized group, Gannett Graphics Group, in Colorado. Gannett TV stations suffered a 7 percent decline in revenue in Q1.
May 16th, 2008
While local media companies across the country have aggressively ramped up their high school sports initiatives with new sites and products, ESPN announced that it’s planning to launch a social networking site built around high school sports. ESPN Rise, which is the brand dedicated to the new effort, will also include a good deal of television coverage of high school sports — even in SportsCenter. ESPNRise.com will launch in August.
Press release below…
Read the full post May 16th, 2008
The annual EPpy Awards, put on by Editor & Publisher and MediaWeek, were just announced in Las Vegas. NYTimes.com and LJWorld.com won in the best news site categories. KING5.com took the best overall TV-affiliated site award (woo hoo!), edging out our friends at WRAL and Fox Chicago. MSNBC.com and DenverPost.com won in the best community site categories. And CNN.com (with iReport) won the Knight News innovation award. Full list of winners here. Congrats, everyone!
May 15th, 2008
Congratulations to the sixteen winners who split $5.5. million on various projects that advance communicating news and information in the public interest using open-source digital technology focused on geographic community. The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, received a grant to address issues surrounding sourcing and accuracy online. The 2008 awards were smaller than the inaugural round last year, and many projects were internationally focused.
Now that the news is official, I can break the silence. Yes, I had a proposal that made the top 25 finalists. Of course it is disappointing to show and not place, but the winners and other finalists who didn’t get funded have amazing ideas and it is an honor to be in this company. There were 3,000 applicants this year.
May 15th, 2008
CBS Interactive is making its largest digital acquisition ever, buying CNET Networks for $1.8 billion, according to the NY Times. This price tops the $1.6 billion that YouTube sold for to Google.
“There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNET Networks,” he said in a press release Thursday. “Together, CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest-growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, promotion and advertising initiatives.”
CNET Networks includes cnet.com, bnet.com, news.com, tv.com, gamespot.com, mp3.com and search.com, among others.
Update: The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the U.S. Says Les Moonves in an interview with PaidContent, “You see what we can do with integration, we can do with TV.com, News.com, the local things we can do with UrbanBaby and Chow, where we have a great deal of local presence on the CBS side, and the integration of CBS Sports with CNET and GameSport, the male-oriented sites.” So it looks like the local CBS O&Os will benefit from some content as well as some exposure.
Plus: Why the deal makes sense for CBS, and conversely, why it’s the “worst M&A deal of the year.” Let us know what you think in comments…
May 15th, 2008
Comcast is adding Plaxo to its internet stable in a deal worth $170 million.
May 15th, 2008
Just take a look at this post on WestSeattleBlog.com and the subsequent comments after a shooting broke out in the neighborhood. While police searched for suspects — a chopper swirling overhead — readers in the area posted comments with observations and questions, which the West Seattle Blog (WSB) worked to answer. “Thanks for the late night work WSB. My wife and I aren’t able to sleep,” says one commenter. “I live so close, info like this is invaluable,” says another. A new level of interactive journalism, folks. (We wrote about the West Seattle Blog earlier, right here.)
May 14th, 2008
If you work in local TV news, what percentage of your interns in the last couple years have said they want to become anchors? In my experience, the number is 50 percent or greater. But let’s look at the trends. News consumption is shifting fast to the “anchorless” internet. Stations are negotiating anchor salaries down and even moving some shows to a single news anchor format. Layoffs are growing increasingly common, and some TV stations are dropping news altogether. While I don’t like to shatter an intern’s anchor dreams, it’s time for a dose of reality. Journalism schools, as a public service, should strongly discourage students from pursuing an anchoring career. The emphasis should be on the “do-it-all” multimedia journalist who can produce, report, write, shoot and edit both on TV and the web. Flexibility is key. As we saw from NBC Local’s announcement a few days ago, even the definition of “producer” is changing, and who knows what we’ll see five years down the road. Don’t get me wrong — anchors are important — but I can venture this prediction: we’ll see fewer anchors in the years to come.
May 14th, 2008
Diana Marszalek in TVNewsday does a great job wrapping up many of the niche sites that local TV stations across the country have recently launched. One that we haven’t mentioned here on Lost Remote is GoLo.com, a local social forum produced by WRAL.com.
The site (actually a subsection of WRAL.com) is less than a year old but has nearly 7,000 registered users. “GoLo.com grew out of WRAL.com [the station site],” says WRAL.com General Manager John Clark. “So many of the site’s viewers naturally went to GoLo to carry on community dialogue, post blogs and pictures. It was and still is a good fit.”
Also in the TVNewsday story, Fisher says it plans to launch a hyperlocal site in Bakersfield next month and Belo released a few stats on HSGametime.com (Full disclosure: I work for KING5.com, which is a Belo Corp. property.)
May 14th, 2008
So by now, you’ve probably heard about veteran WNBC anchor Sue Simmons and her unfortunate F-bomb drop on live TV. Of course, in the market the size of New York, this sort of thing spreads like wildfire… on YouTube, especially. As of this count there are 17 clips. Wait, make that 13, as two have been removed “by the user” and two more “due to a copyright claim by a third party.” By any definition, this isn’t good publicity, but trying to stop it in today’s viral society is a near impossibility.
Meanwhile, there are 600 comments and counting on WNBC.com.
Update: Even the New York Times did the story today.
May 13th, 2008
I’ve always wanted to do something like this for years (proof right here), and now MyFoxChicago.com is the first to make it happen. On AirFoxLive.com, not only do they stream their chopper live whenever it’s flying, but they also track it in real-time on an interactive Google Map.
As you can see, a bubble gives the current speed, altitude and heading. The player in the upper right displays one of the chopper’s three live cameras. “This also plugs right into Google Earth for on-air use,” says MyFoxChicago.com’s Steve Baron (who also runs LiveNewsCameras.com). How cool is that? I think this is a natural extension for a TV site, and the primary reason why nobody’s done this to date is the age-old concern that you’re tipping off your competition. But as Lost Remote readers know, that old-model, TV-driven thinking should not restrict innovation online.
May 13th, 2008
The NAA has released this big ol’ report today: Zooming In on Online Video - Newspaper Association of America: Advancing Newspaper Media for the 21st Century Video viewing numbers are on the major upswing, with comscore reporting 11.5 billion viewed in March. So everyone needs to jump on, right? With the pack mentality, does this mean everyone is going to be a broadcaster now? Does every story have to have the writer re-reading the copy in front of a camera, wearing of funny hat optional? And why DO men have nipples?
May 13th, 2008
An ad optimization company called PubMatic analyzed data from over 3,000 online publishers and came away with some interesting results. Display ad prices for large sites (more than 100M page views a month) dropped 52 percent. Medium sites were flat, and smaller sites actually increased. “Among the verticals, social networking led the plunge with monetization dropping 47 percent,” explains PubMatic. In many respects, this shouldn’t be that big of a surprise, as the social network sites have had the most difficult time monetizing their inventory. But it illustrates the growing commoditization effect of vast amounts of ad inventory. (Via PaidContent)
May 13th, 2008
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