Are Twitter photos free to use? Not so fast
Here’s a big development in a legal case that TV newsrooms should watch carefully. A judge has refused to dismiss copyright claims against AFP, which used Twitpic photos of the Haiti earthquake without permission from the originating photographer. AFP had claimed that the “broad re-use” of photos on Twitter gave it the right, but a [...]
Local TV’s challenge to create shareable video
Updated: TVNewsCheck’s Harry Jessel wrote a column today that jokingly (?) calls on media companies everywhere to stop innovating for three years. “We need a breather,” he writes, “so we can figure out one thing before being forced to move on to the next.”
Jessel has a good point in there — it’s hard enough for national media companies to keep up, let alone local TV stations faced with a growing array of possibilities, from social media to apps on just about everything — iPhone, iPad, Android, Samsung TV…. Where to prioritize with limited resources?
And then there’s the old battle between TV and everything else. “If [local TV execs] actually tried to grasp the new media,” he writes, “they wouldn’t have much time for the old media. They have stations to run and that’s not as easy as it used to be, what with the new media shattering audiences into a million pieces.”
That argument always makes me shake my head. It’s the classic “either-or” trap heard daily in local TV hallways. But media fragmentation is precisely why local TV must experiment at a higher velocity, not take a breather. As Gordon Borrell says in Jessel’s piece, it’s about picking your battles and making hard decisions to abandon stuff that’s not working.
So what are those battles?
Twitter ticker among Samsung’s TV app finalists
A Twitter ticker, social TV guides and a drawing game are among the finalists announced today in a $500,000 contest to create the best new apps for Samsung TVs. A couple of our favorites, TV Twicker (above) and Guroo TV, made the cut in the “Free the TV Challenge” contest. TV Twicker displays tweets as [...]
Facebook: referrals to media sites up 100%
In a blog post today, Facebook’s Justin Osofsky says the average media site over the last year has experienced a jump of 100% or more in Facebook referrals. “From social plugins to deeper Graph API implementations, we have worked with digital content providers who are focused on driving traffic and deepening engagement with their content,” [...]
Everybody’s a journalist on Basetrack’s Facebook page
Three photojournalists embedded with the First Battalion in Afghanistan are posting dispatches on Basetrack.org, a cool map-based site funded by a Knight Foundation Grant. While the site is terrific, the project’s Facebook page has turned into a unique experience of its own — a sort of collaborative journalism crossed with a support group. “This is [...]
How one small station gets big results from social media
KAIT-TV, the ABC affiliate in Jonesboro, Ark., is having great success with its full press into social media. The station, which is in market 180, is kicking butt with its considerable number of Facebook and Twitter followers. That alone would be impressive. But what makes the KAIT effort really interesting is that it is truly [...]
Check in with GetGlue for CNN, MTV stickers
GetGlue is one of a few companies battling it out in the Foursquare-for-TV space, and coming this New Years Eve, you can “check in” for CNN and MTV stickers. Just check into CNN’s “New Years Eve Live” or MTV’s “New Years Bash” live broadcasts on New Years night — from your GetGlue app on your [...]
Ten newsroom New Year’s resolutions for 2011
It’s time for our annual list of things your newsroom needs to do online. Some of these are repeats – and that’s because they’re still relevant to many newsrooms. There’s no “pie in the sky” stuff here; just steps you should take that are relatively cheap and painless. Happy New Year from Lost Remote. 1. [...]
Yule log TV tradition now in 3D, on iPads
Back in 1966, WPIX-TV in New York began the tradition of airing a loop of a yule log burning in a fireplace on Christmas Eve, accompanied by Christmas music. Years later, other Tribune TV stations picked up the popular tradition, as well. It even has it’s own fan site. Fast-forward to 2010, and the yule [...]
Skype outage good reminder for TV newsrooms
As Skype said itself in a blog post in October, its video calling service has become “pervasive” among TV news organizations, from the networks to cable channels and local affiliates. Skype even set up a registration page for broadcasters who want to use the service for live shots. But yesterday, Skype crashed for most of [...]
PR folks pitching more stories via Twitter
If you’re a news reporter or anchor on Twitter, you’ve probably just begun to see them: story pitches from PR and other communications folks. And you can bet you’ll see a lot more of them in the months to come. Evidence: The widely-read Ragan.com just published this handy list of tactics for PR professionals pitching [...]
NBC, NHL launch contest linking Facebook and TV
Coming up on January 1st, while many people will be watching football games, hockey fans will watch the annual Winter Classic. NBC and the National Hockey League have just launched a Facebook contest tied to on-air. Like many Facebook contests, you’re required to “like” a page to enter, which drives new fans – value that [...]
Social media driving more video referrals than ever
Facebook is now second to Google as the biggest traffic referrer to online video, according to a new report (.pdf) released by Brightcove and TubeMogul. Facebook drove 9.7% of video referrals in the study, beating out Yahoo for the first time. While Twitter sends significantly fewer referrals than search engines and Facebook, “(it) was the [...]
Gunman sparks WSOC evacuation, anchors tweet updates
With a woman with a gun in his TV station’s lobby and a building-wide evacuation underway, WSOC-TV anchor Blair Miller didn’t have a newscast. But he had his iPhone and a Twitter account, which he used to update an ongoing story at his own workplace. Shortly before the Charlotte station’s 5 p.m. newscast got underway, [...]
Local TV making comeback, not so much with newspapers
Everyone is writing about the demise of newspapers these days, but not many journalists are writing about the resurgence of local TV from the recession. Fueling by cyclical political spending, local TV revenues jumped 32% in the third quarter — up 27% for the first three quarters of the year. And the biggest local TV [...]
Google TV pulls back on CES plans
While Google TV has already launched on Sony TV sets, it was planning to make a big debut with Toshiba, LG and Sharp TV sets at CES next month. But the NY Times is reporting that Google has asked the TV manufacturers to delay the rollout as it updates the software. Samsung, however, will go [...]
Tweet briefs: Hulu, Twitter, Google TV, YouTube
More headlines we posted over the last few hours on @lostremote on Twitter: – Hulu boosts revenue forecast by $20 million over strong Hulu Plus growth – Twitter can’t keep up with advertiser demand, is ramping up sales staff – CBS and Fox say they’re in no hurry to unblock shows from Google TV – [...]
Compare Twitter, Facebook accounts in new tool
A new tool called Wildfire allows you to compare social media accounts on a single graph, trended against time. In essence, Compete for social media. For example, I plugged in three Seattle TV station Twitter accounts: TwitterCounter already does this, as well as AllFacebook for Facebook pages. But Wildfire puts both under one tent. One [...]
