ABC O&O’s launch free wireless video

All 10 ABC owned stations today launched free video on their wireless sites, according to a press release. The ad-supported video is powered by Local Wireless, who maintains the WAP sites for the stations. Check out WABC’s wireless site on your phone at 7togo.com. I pulled it up on my Motorola Q. It worked, but even on the Verizon EVDO it was very choppy. It also takes 4 clicks to get the video to play, so have time to wait for each of those pages to load before the buffering even starts. Hopefully these are just Day 1 issues that will be resolved, but having free local news video from the top markets is a great step forward for mobile users. (Thanks Peter for the tip!) Press release after the jump.

Show gets poor ratings, Internet earns it second run

ABC’s “National Bingo Night” has wrapped up its run – but the Nielsen numbers weren’t exactly stellar. But the show will come back for a week-long run this December. Why? The show had HUGE downloads for its online bingo cards – that allowed folks to play along at home. The donwloads helped fuel a [...]

Fallout over WKRN, NashvilleisTalking

Yesterday we linked an article about WKRN’s uncertain digital strategy now that most of the station’s key executives have left. We’ve discovered a barrage of new reaction that includes former GM Mike Sechrist, NashvilleIsTalking’s former blogger Brittney Gilbert, architect Terry Heaton and some of the Nashville blogosphere. NashvilleisTalking itself does a great job [...]

Digg, Fark bring traffic – but is it good?

At KTVB, we recently ran the story of a man who was sitting on a small medical plane when the window next to him blew out at 20,000 feet, and he found himself half in and half out of the plane (he survived). We posted the story and the man’s uncut interview, and immediately [...]

Sony, Nielsen team for game ratings

Sony and Nielsen will work together to increase the effectiveness of Nielsen’s video game advertisement monitoring, the companies announced today. Aggregate user data from the Playstation Network will be combined with Nielsen’s People Meter panel to better measure how well-viewed ads inside video games are viewed. Full release after the jump.

Google Maps add new features, customization

When Google added traffic to their maps, they became a direct competitor to TV websites, as we have always tried to be the news, weather and traffic source. Well, Google has now added another nail in the coffin for anyone trying to compete. You know when you map a route and you turn [...]

Wimbeldon live on your cell phone

Get ready to fire up that cell phone and watch the (really, really) tiny ball bounce back and forth on centre court at the All England Tennis Club. NBC2Go will pump out live coverage on Verizon’ V Cast service over a span of ten days – starting this Saturday. Press release after the jump

YouTube responsible for 10% of Internet traffic

And you thought YouTube was big before: A new report (PDF) by Ellacoya Networks shows that the Google-owned video site comprises a monster ten percent of all traffic on the Internet. Thanks to the video boom – HTTP traffic outpaced peer to peer traffic for the first time in four years. Granted, video [...]

Slingbox trumpets ‘on-the-go broadcasts’ for TV stations

When we posted a blurb in May about KPIX using Slingbox for live video transmission, we thought it would get people’s attention. “We’ve had tons of interest and many questions regarding our collaboration with the Bay Area CBS affiliate,” writes Sling Media’s Dave Katz in an email to Lost Remote today. So the company has sent out a press release (click below to read). Also, Katz points out that NBC Weather Plus is using Slingbox to incorporate live video from WESH, KUSA, KPRC and WDIV. A write-up in Broadcasting and Cable explains how it works:

WESH, for example, plugged a coax cable right into the Slingbox, which lets NBC Weather Plus look at the station’s beauty cam at Universal Studios, as well as at two other tower cameras, says WESH Chief Engineer Richard Monn. To be placed on-air, the Sling video has to run through a scan converter, to change it from progressive-scan VGA to the interlace format, before it can be fed as a live source into a production switcher and displayed in NBC Weather Plus’s upper-right corner box. Running the picture small minimizes the hit in picture quality the picture suffers when it is compressed by the Slingbox for Internet delivery.

The Slingbox press release on KPIX follows below…

Uproar after newspaper site posts salaries

The state of Michigan is going through somewhat of a budget crisis. In an effort to shed light on the subject, the Lansing State Journal posted the salary information for all 53,000 of Michigan’s state employees online. Shocker: The paper is taking some serious heat. Public employees and unions are of course steamed [...]

Tribune paper websites start launching redesigns

The Tribune websites are launching redesigns (except the latimes.com), and the first to launch was OrlandoSentinel.com. Why is this news for us? Well, many TV stations compete against a Tribune paper. Although, I’m challenged to call this a newspaper website, as I see plenty of video, weather and traffic. Even their [...]

Mkt. Research Analyst, Internet Broadcasting

Minneapolis

Ad Sales Ops. Coord., CBS Stations Digital

New York, NY

ABCNews.com up 21 percent in last year

ABCNews.com says its traffic has grown 21 percent year-over-year — 10.2 unique visitors and 132.5 million page views in May, the first full month after launching a new design that emphasizes user participation. Also in that same month, ABCNews.com said user registrations jumped 328 percent from the previous month with users posted more than 70,000 comments. Press release below…

Internet Broadcasting names new CEO

David Lebow has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of Internet Broadcasting, the nation’s largest network of TV station Web sites. Mr. Lebow was previously Executive Vice President and General Manager of AOL Media Networks.

(Disclosure: My employer, Hearst-Argyle, owns a portion of Internet Broadcasting, and I work at the IB headquarters.)

Warnings of ‘internet overload’

Prophets of doom have a good business, there is always something awful lurking around the corner and as our populations and cultures expand, things like greenhouse gasses, weather, and Web traffic get more complicated. Today’s sandwich board from the BBC has warnings of ‘internet overload’ scrawled on it. Many of us in the business are [...]

AT&T to scour its network for bootlegged material

AT&T announced this week that it would start working with studios and recording companies to keep illegal content off its network. The company told the LA Times that recent efforts to offer pay TV services brought it in to the Hollywood camp. The initiative would only target “frequent offenders,” through yet-to-be-chosen technology. Ars [...]

Crafty ‘Challengers’ outwit CNBC game

CNBC has been pumping up its online “Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge” for the past several months. BusinessWeek notes that the gambit paid off for CNBC.com – with site traffic tripling over the course of the game. But, there’s a hiccup: BusinessWeek says a flaw allowed contestants to start the process of making a [...]

Hearst-IB site launches social news tools

Hearst-Argyle’s WXII12.com is the first Internet Broadcasting site to debut comments, ratings, recommendations, user blogs and profiles powered by Pluck’s SiteLife Social Media Suite. Other sites will launch the technology soon. “Content becomes more relevant when the audience has a voice in creating it,” said IB EVP Clayton Rose. “Pluck’s SiteLife will go a long way in allowing visitors to share and discuss local news and topics that matter–in a way that complements a TV station’s news coverage.” Press release…

CompUSA empty box story linked everywhere

UPDATE: CompUSA has sent a $300 gift certificate to Terry. Read more.
A couple days ago, Steve Safran posted Terry Heaton’s horror story of buying an empty box at CompUSA only to learn the company refused to refund him his money. As of this writing, the story is on Digg’s home page and BoingBoing’s home [...]