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B&C’s Michael Malone profiles Google’s Michael Steib, who’s has the challenge of selling the Google TV Ads concept to broadcasters. Steib, as you may remember, launched Weather Plus while GM of Strategic Ventures at NBC Universal.
Comment Share this May 5th, 2008
After raising its bid to $33 a share and seeing no response, Microsoft yanked its bid and is abandoning efforts to acquire Yahoo. “After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us,” said CEO Steve Ballmer. Yahoo, meanwhile, is claiming victory. “This process has underscored our unique and valuable strategic position,” CEO Jerry Yang said. Ballmer says that Yahoo’s board wanted $38 a share, which is double Yahoo’s stock price when Microsoft first made an offer.
Nobody will be buying them at that price.
Update: Yahoo’s stock price loses 15% right off the bat
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Web streaming could be turning more into TV if ABC goes forward with adding more commercials to online show streaming. ABC will begin testing multiple commercials in the breaks of episode streams as soon as next week, according to THR.com. The executive vp digital media of Disney-ABC told the paper, “It would be premature for us to say people only want one ad.” Really? I only want one ad. Oh, and I want it to be :15 seconds or less. And, I’d like it to be relevant to me. No more ads for drugs that cure things I’ve never heard of. Would you say it’s premature to say people only want one ad?
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What, you thought Microsoft would give up? The mega deal could happen as early as this weekend.
Update: Well, it looks like Microsoft is giving up. Offer withdrawn.
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At the Drilling Down on Local conference in Seattle, media consultant and NowPublic chairman Merrill Brown said that old media needs to wake up and innovate or face extinction. Writes tech blogger John Cook: “Brown is especially skeptical about television, saying the business models for the big networks and their affiliates will make it difficult to make the transition.”
Comment Share this May 2nd, 2008
It’s now out of beta and available for all Google Adwords users to place ads on the Dish Network. If you work in TV, watching this demonstration video on how to place a Google TV ad is a must. As much as it may not be popular in the business (due to fears that it pushes down pricing), you have to agree that the Google method of advertisers buying their own ads in an auction system and letting them track their own impressions is smart. Of course, it won’t replace people-powered TV ad sales, but automated TV selling will play its own increasingly role over the years to come.
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Just clicked an ad for CNN on Mediapost and this presentation kicked in.
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Google has published a list of ten things that make a design “Googley” — and they really are universal. The problem today is that most TV sites have their own set of principles:
Google: 1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
TV: 1. Focus on promotion—our newscasts, our advertisers, our sweeps piece.
Google: 2. Every millisecond counts.
TV: 2. Can we make it flash or use a bright color?
Google: 3. Simplicity is powerful.
TV: 3. Are there enough ad units above the fold?
Google: 4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
TV: 4. People will figure it out on their own.
Google: 5. Dare to innovate.
TV: 5. Are we keeping up with the competition?
Google: 6. Design for the world.
TV: 6. Design for the boss.
Google: 7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
TV: 7. Focus on yesterday’s legacy.
Google: 8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
TV: 8. Distract the eye while cluttering the mind.
Google: 9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
TV: 9. People trust the anchors. Use big pictures of them.
Google: 10. Add a human touch.
TV: 10. Add a touch more clutter.
18 comments (+) show comments Share this May 1st, 2008
AT&T Mobile TV will launch this Sunday in 58 markets, one year after Verizon launched a similar service which also uses MediaFLO technology. Packages start at $13 per month for four channels: CBS Mobile, Fox Mobile, NBC 2Go and NBC News 2Go. Pay more to access up to 150 simulcast or time-shifted programming from CNN, ESPN, Comedy Central and others. The catch: AT&T Mobile TV will only work on two pricey phones to start.
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In an interesting announcement, Ohio’s largest newspapers will be sharing their stories with each other’s websites. The newspapers from Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown will share their best stories every day. In explaining the partnership, the Plain Dealer admits how papers keep the best stories from the AP for as long as possible:
The way that news from The Plain Dealer and other big papers used to find its way around the state was this: We would report and write our stories, wait until late in the day, and then turn them over to the Associated Press. The AP would then either rewrite them into wire service story format for general consumption; report and write its own stories later; or decide that the news was not of statewide interest and do nothing. If we had a breaking-news story all to ourselves, we would try to keep it away from the wire until the following day. So did everyone else.
So, to bypass the game of waiting, the group of papers have this new partnership (questionably named OHNO - Ohio News Organization). In the end, it seems like the readers of the sites are the winners, getting more comprehensive news coverage from across the state from the trusted reporters breaking the news on the scene. (Via Cyberjournalist)
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- Schmidt says Google still scratching head over YouTube profits
- Nielsen moves February 2009 sweeps to March because of DTV
- New York Times newsroom gets upgraded to… Microsoft Office 2003
Comment Share this April 30th, 2008
Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live and Judah Friedlander of 30 Rock. The Webby Awards will be held in New York from June 8th–10th.
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I’m still digesting the latest Borrell Associates report, “Online Promotions: The Big Shift,” but I think it’s safe to say that there are some surprising — and potentially controversial — predictions for local media. At the heart of the report is the forecast that online promotions — money that local companies spend to promote their own online initiatives, including public relations — “will nearly triple over the next five years to $22.8 billion, surpassing all other online advertising categories.” The report says “the inability of newspapers, magazines, radio and TV to prove return on advertising investment has led to a swing toward promotional spending.” As a result, Borrell predicts display ads and paid search in local markets will peak in the next year or two and begin a steady decline (while video continues to grow more share). The advice for TV stations? Create “marketing partnerships” with local companies to drive awareness/traffic to their online promotions. “Television may be the best legacy medium for driving traffic to an online promotion,” the report reads, which lists some examples, including contests and coupons.
I agree that online promotion spending will grow quickly over the next few years. And I also agree that the goal for TV stations’ sales units is not to sell advertising but to increase their clients’ sales, which begs more creative, customized marketing solutions. But I question that fact that paid search especially will decline as aggressively as Borrell suggests. Paid search has become a “must” investment for any online initiative — it’s tremendously effective (it can drive more traffic than a TV campaign) — and local advertisers are still learning how to use it (in fact, local media companies are increasingly “reselling” search in their ad packages).
Finally, this report shouldn’t create artificial confidence that local TV stations can create a bunch of contests and maximize online revenue going foward. Creating “marketing partnerships” goes well beyond a contest or two, and it will require a new approach to selling. And it doesn’t diminish the urgency for local stations to create innovative new products and partnerships to diversify their online revenue outside the standard TV website fare.
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If Fortune is right, there could be a game-changing move coming this summer that will bring the iPhone into the mainstream for many more consumers. While still tied to AT&T, Fortune says the 3G iPhone will come with a $200 discount from the wireless company that will bring the price down to $199 for the 8GB and $299 for the 16GB device. Being 3G, the higher speed data service could open up video streaming to your handset. Imagine your live newscast or VOD being viewed by consumers away from the television AND computer. Plus, if Fortune is right, the phone will also have GPS built in. That will make Google maps that much better.
Beta tests look like iPhone is opening up to sync with Microsoft Outlook servers for all of us Blackberry-bound business users who can’t let go of our e-mail for even a few minutes. With that in mind, could iPhone be the new Blackberry for business? I’d love one. Hint.
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In TV newsrooms, “it seems that adopting the culture of the web is often forbidden… until it’s compulsory,” writes Steve Safran. Which, when you think of it, is really true. I’ll add a new one to the list: linking your competition.
44 comments (+) show comments Share this April 29th, 2008
Reuters reports that NBC and CBS will submit a second bid for The Weather Channel and its digital properties. Owner Landmark Communications is trying to unload the network, and a second round of bids is due in early May. Reuters said the channel will likely fetch less than $5 billion.
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As David wrote below, Grand Theft Auto IV hits store shelves today. Some are even saying that GTA could be the best game title in history. Now, let’s put the violence discussion aside and focus on the mind-boggling media/technology aspects of the game. Just watch this trailer and review, which illustrates that GTA has taken video gaming to a new level. Unbelievable.
As I’ve written off and on over the years, video games are becoming interactive movies, and they’ll ultimately replace most of the traditional Hollywood movie industry. Why would you want to sit passively and watch a movie (or a TV show) when you can live a movie? Video games already generate more money than the movie industry, but games like GTA IV illustrate that the gaming business is just getting warmed up. Soon games will transition from interactive movies to virtual reality experiences. And the sky’s the limit.
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The predictions that the latest installment of the popular GTA franchise would break Halo 3’s first-week sales figures appear to be true based on the release-day rush. At a time when media and entertainment spending is way down, GTAIV is set to pull in $400 million. It is also getting rave reviews as a “brutal and satirical masterpiece” and mentioned in the company of films like “The Godfather” and “Scarface.”
We’ve tried to issue the wakeup call to big-ol-media for years now here at 1 LR Plaza. GTAIV and Halo 3 are proving us right. Current gaming technology offers the most powerful communications and storytelling platform ever seen. And the market is speaking, very loudly. Anyone remember the episode of HBO’s Entourage where Peter Jackson is working in his gaming studio. Or George Lucas saying that he wasn’t done with the Star Wars franchise by not making more movies, chosing to make games instead.
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