The Entertainment Development & Programming Weekly - December 20th Edition

The EDP Weekly is a bit early this week as we get ready for the holidays. We’ll return in 2008. Happy Holidays everyone!

Here are the most interesting articles that came across this week…

The Year of Them

So if 2006 was the year of You, 2007 was the year of Them. Big media companies (like this one) stuffed their sites with blogs, podcasts and video.

Celebrities became Web entrepreneurs. Hillary Clinton made a Sopranos-parody viral video. In 2006 the Web was a proving ground where new musicians could take their art directly to the public. And maybe it still is, but what band struck it big selling its new album online this year? A little undiscovered combo called Radiohead. Meanwhile, Will Ferrell launched funnyordie.com, where he posted comedy videos starring himself and celebrities like Bill Murray. Because, You know, Ferrell's comic vision is just too avant-garde for mainstream Hollywood.

The list goes on. Last year You gave us lonelygirl15, the cult-hit, independent online video series. In 2007, NBC bought an original online series and made it the first of its kind to air on broadcast television — but the show, quarterlife, was created by a couple of Them: Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, producers of classic TV shows thirtysomething and My So-Called Life. It debuts on NBC in February. I hope You're getting a piece of that action.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/article/0,28804,1690753_1695417_1695397,00.html

The Web Celeb 25

hings change fast on the internet --and fame is no exception. Nearly half of the online celebrities identified in the inaugural edition of the Forbes.com Web Celeb 25 failed to place on the list in this second edition. Among the casualties: YouTube star LonelyGirl15, who held last year's top spot, but has been usurped by a controversial gossip blogger. Other new faces include gadget gurus, video hosts and a boy genius CEO.

Complete List: The Web Celeb 25

Competition was steep for this year's list. We collected data on 200 Internet personalities, and ranked their popularity in six categories. The final list of 25 names shows how the Web has leveled the playing field --so that now, even the unlikeliest character can become a star.

http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/18/internet-fame-celebrity-tech-cx_de_07webceleb_1218land.html

The Online Video Implications of Microsoft-Viacom Deal

Microsoft & Viacom announced a wide-ranging agreement this morning that’s valued at about $500 million. It’s essentially a way to thwart Google’s growing influence in the online video and advertising markets. Here are the online video implications: (We will follow up with more details later.)

• Viacom will provide Microsoft with content for distribution by Microsoft on properties such as MSN.com and Xbox 360. Much of it is already distributed to Xbox 360 users through Xbox LIVE Marketplace and this deal adds popular content from BET Networks.
• Microsoft will serve graphical and video ads on Viacom properties.
• They will develop a new, co-branded site that will feature exclusive content from at least four MTV Networks and BET Networks events, such as the MTV Video Music Awards and BET Awards, and will share certain advertising revenue generated by the site.

http://newteevee.com/2007/12/19/the-online-video-implications-of-microsoft-viacom-deal/

Trends to Watch in 2008

INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY RULE

Marketers' ingenuity will continue to expand as the competitive marketplace challenges brands to devise ways to reach their audiences online and via other "out-of-the-box" avenues. Targeting consumers using unconventional methods in creative places will be the gold standard for outstanding creative. Marketers won't run away from traditional media -- but will leverage technology and new media to accentuate message delivery to consumers and customers. There is no turning back -- and creativity will rule.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=122609

Stories of the Year

THE DIGITAL TIPPING POINT

This will be remembered as the year everybody quit kvetching about digital and started doing something about it. Serious marketing budgets were directed online; agencies desperately tried to ramp up their digital capabilities (and even when they couldn't still claimed to be digital); and holding companies and the digital-media giants paid silly multiples for digital additions; media companies sang the digital refrain in an effort to sound like they had a future.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=122633

THE BIG PICTURE: In the strike, the studios are playing to win

For the writers, their best defense now is a good offense. As I've argued before, their future lies in becoming more entrepreneurial. This would also be good strategy for future strike negotiations. With the studios stuck churning out reality sludge, the barriers for entry for an outsider are lower than ever. What's to stop Google, Yahoo or Mark Cuban from striking a deal with a top TV show runner who has a proven ability to create characters and stories that would bring eyeballs to the Internet?
I suspect the guild is already in the process of setting up interim deals that would allow writers to work with companies not represented by the studios. It would be a way to show the WGA rank and file that other opportunities exist outside of the traditional studio model while sending a message to the other side that, when it comes to negotiating, the guild has other arrows in its quiver.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-goldstein11dec11,1,2828748.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews&track=crosspromo

US writers out to break studio rule

Silicon Valley investors have historically been averse to backing entertainment start-ups, believing that such efforts were far less likely to generate huge paydays than technology companies.

But they began considering a broader range of entertainment investments after the enormous sums paid for popular web video companies, including the $US1.65 billion ($A1.92 billion) Google Inc put down a year ago for YouTube, the site where users post their own clips.

They have also been emboldened by major advertisers, who prefer to support professionally created web entertainment to user-generated content, on sites such as MySpace, that can be racy or in poor taste.

"I'm 100% confident that you will see some companies get formed," said Todd Dagres, a Boston-based venture capitalist who has been flying to Los Angeles and meeting top writers for weeks. "People have made up their minds."

http://www.theage.com.au/handheld/articles/2007/12/17/1197740180281.html

MTV Exec Talks Bruckheimer, Future Of MTV Games - ‘We’re making some big bets’

Over at MTVNews.com and on this very blog, we’re reporting on the just-announced deal between MTV Games and “CSI”/”Pirates of the Caribbean” producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

The multi-year partnership has been established to create some original video games.

But what in the world is MTV Games doing with Jerry Bruckheimer?

I was given a chance to interview Bruckheimer and the main guy behind the deal at MTV, Jeff Yapp, to find out more.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2007/12/19/mtv-exec-talks-bruckheimer-future-of-mtv-games-were-making-some-big-bets/

Facebook climbs the social scale

Never mind websites. Forget page views. They're so 2006. This was the year of Facebook. The social site, started in 2004 to organise college communities, was finally opened to the rest of us, and in the spring, it was discovered en masse by media wonks (like me), who forced acquaintances into joining, using the evangelistic fervour of recent cult converts. Then, in May, Facebook opened up to developers, who now were able to add applications to the service; already, they've built 5,000. And in October, Microsoft beat Google to invest in the company at a valuation of $15bn.

Worth it? I'd say yes. Facebook has 50 million active users (each worth $300, according to Microsoft, as opposed to $500 a year for a newspaper reader, according to Deutsche Bank). They are joined by 200,000 more daily, all of whom spend an average of 20 minutes every day inside.

But far more valuable than that is the realisation of Facebook as a platform, on top of which we users organise our communities, and on top of which those developers are building venture-backed companies. Facebook analytics firm Adanomics tracks the supposed value of these applications, pegging the most popular, Top Friends, with 20m installations, at $28m.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/17/facebook.yahoo

The shape of things to come

Trend-spotters and futurologists have become the evangelists of the modern business world. Spend more than 10 minutes listening to their breezy uplift about what is around the corner, however, and two questions begin to well up inside you - how come they know this stuff, and how does one go about separating the wheat from the chaff? Built into the discipline, after all, is a tendency to exaggerate the shock of the new: it helps to drum up business. And by the time their prognostications have failed to materialise, it is safe to predict that most of them will have scarpered.

No matter. The business of short-range futurology - that hybrid of science and intuition that reads the runes of business and consumer trends in an effort to predict what will whistle its way into the mainstream within the next 12 to 18 months - is now in high demand. So what do the crystal-ball gazers reckon will be the top 10 trends of 2008?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2229074,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=technology

Will Ferrell and the End of Media as We Know It

Funny or Die is now part of a rapidly changing media landscape where more viewers—and more dollars—are moving online every day. Ad revenue for Web videos has swelled to $775 million, nearly double what it was in 2006; that figure is expected to double again in 2008. In its first three weeks, Funny or Die—patched together with just $17,000 in seed money from Sequoia—drew almost 3 million unique visitors, a figure that exceeded the monthly averages for the websites of such established smart-alecky competitors as Comedy Central, the Onion, and CollegeHumor, which hosts a “Girls on the Toilet” photo contest. “Running porn or party jokes or female nudity would clearly bring a lot of eyeballs our way,” says Chris Henchy, Funny or Die’s creative director. “But we’re into observational humor, not cheap laughs.” Not that he’s opposed to laughing cheaply. After all, an early name for Funny or Die was WetMyPants, and its well-stocked library includes the titles “Masturbation” and “The Vagina Whisperer.”

Part of what separates the site from other YouTube-like portals is a merit system that allows voters to banish unfunny videos to the “crypt” section of the site. Also, there’s an aspirational quality that comes from associating with Ferrell and McKay, who critique clips and pick their favorites. Pitch your gags on YouTube, and it’s as if you’re one of a million comic wannabes on some public-access channel; at Funny or Die, you feel like you’re auditioning for Saturday Night Live. “In the old days, to get the public to see your act you had to be in a sitcom,” says Zach Galifianakis, a club comic for whom the site has been a springboard to TV and movie appearances. “Now I can upload my most daring routines on Funny or Die and the whole country sees them. It’s become the premier site for professional stand-up comics, a comedy community.”

http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/arts/2007/12/17/Will-Ferrell-Comedy-Portal

MTV ratings turnaround gives Viacom a 'Shot'

Wall Street doesn't always pay close attention to TV ratings trends, but in the case of Viacom's cable networks, viewership is a key factor of financial performance, and resurgent U.S. ratings trends have been in particular focus this year.
As 2007 comes to a close, more analysts have stopped wondering whether MTV Networks has still got it and are increasingly confident that the company has started turning ratings at key channels around thanks to such new shows as "Pageant Place" and "Shot at Love With Tila Tequila," as well as strong returns from "The Hills" and "The Real World."
"Ratings are definitely a key driver of revenue performance for companies like Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp.," Stanford Group analyst Frederick Moran said. "Other broader-based media conglomerates have other businesses overshadowing ratings."
For Viacom, ratings trends -- and in turn, advertising revenue -- have been looking up as of late, even though programming investments have somewhat held back the bottom line of the networks unit.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3i396ec42a7743c503416869f13a7245c6

6 Predictions for 2008

With 2007 wrapping up, it's time to look ahead to the new year and make 6 predictions about what's ahead for broadband video in 2008. In general, I'm extremely optimistic about broadband's potential in the new year. To be sure, there are lots of challenges ahead, but much to look forward to.

Here's what my crystal ball is telling me:

http://www.videonuze.com/blogs/details.php?id=308

Teens and Social Media

Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004.

Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation. Some 35% of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of wired girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. Boys, however, do dominate one area - posting of video content online. Online teen boys are nearly twice as likely as online girls (19% vs. 10%) to have posted a video online somewhere where someone else could see it.

The survey found that content creation is not just about sharing creative output; it is also about participating in conversations fueled by that content. Nearly half (47%) of online teens have posted photos where others can see them, and 89% of those teens who post photos say that people comment on the images at least "some of the time."

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp

Widgets are the new ad kid on the block

These widget ads aren't commonplace yet, but they are cropping up more and more, further blurring the line between advertising and content. For some it will come as an improvement over flashing emoticons, dancing silhouettes, and expandable text boxes that cover up the item you want to read on a page.

Many people are already using desktop widgets, which are small applications that update dynamically and offer a limited function for things like calendar, clock, weather, and news or RSS feeds. Yahoo offers them, as do Microsoft and Google, who call them "gadgets."

Then there are the thousands of widgets on Facebook, things like Slide for photo slide shows and iLike for music recommendations, which have boosted the popularity of the social-networking site.

The interactivity and viral nature of widgets make them attractive to marketers looking for new ways to expand their audience. Brand advertisers are jumping on the widget ad bandwagon at a rapid clip.

http://www.news.com/Widgets-are-the-new-ad-kid-on-the-block/2100-1024_3-6223229.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

The Entertainment Development & Programming Weekly - December 16th Edition

Here are the most interesting articles that came across this week…

TiVo Shifts to Help Companies It Once Threatened

During the last two weeks, there were several promising developments for TiVo, which accounts for about 4 million of the more than 20 million digital video recorders in American homes.

On Nov. 28, the company reported a smaller quarterly loss than anticipated ($8.2 million, down from $11.1 million a year ago) and the next day, the Patent and Trademark Office recognized TiVo’s patent on time-warp technology, which lets users record one program while watching another. Shares of TiVo, which started the two-week period at $5.60 on Nov. 26, hit a 52-week high of $8.53 a share on Friday, before closing at $8.20.

TiVo recently announced partnerships with NBC Universal and Carat, a media-buying agency, to provide second-by-second viewership data and demographic ratings information collected from a sample of 20,000 TiVo subscribers. Those deals underscored TiVo’s new emphasis on subscriptions and media services rather than hardware.

Tom Rogers, the chief executive of TiVo, said in an interview that its information services would be supplementing, but not replacing, its equipment business.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/technology/10tivo.html?ref=media

The New LinkedIn Platform Shows Facebook How It's Done

A social network showdown is coming. LinkedIn, which aims to track your business and professional connections, has rolled out a new developer platform and already the majority of the web press is comparing LinkedIn's efforts Facebook's platform. It's a fair comparison, but there's one key difference between the two — LinkedIn's platform is actually useful.

Where Facebook’s platform provides a proprietary programming language for developers to build applications that run inside the site (so you can send you friends a fresh pair of virtual diapers or whatever), LinkedIn has created a platform in the sense of what the word used to mean — a way of mixing, mashing, repurposing and sharing your data. Think Flickr, not Facebook.

The LinkedIn platform, known as the LinkedIn Intelligent Application Platform, consists of two parts, a way for developers to build application that run inside your LinkedIn account (via OpenSocial) and the far more useful and interesting part — ways to pull your LinkedIn data out and use it elsewhere.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/12/the-new-linkedi.html

The directors' cut

Any hopes that the strike of the Writers' Guild of America might end quickly are gone, baby, gone. Friday night, having promised a counter to the latest Writers' Guild proposal on new media, negotiators for the companies - the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) - returned with an ultimatum that the writers withdraw a number of their proposals unilaterally, and then walked out before the writers could formulate a reply.

To anyone other than a company publicist - and in this category one would have to include virtually all of the entertainment industry press - it has become clear that any and all indications that a reasonable and early settlement might be possible were Machiavellian good cop/bad cop charades enacted by the companies to break the writers' resolve by raising and then dashing hopes, as well as providing cover for their refusal to engage in serious negotiations.

The first month of the strike has been something of a surprise in a couple of ways. Very few people thought, in the months leading up to the strike, that the writers would have any success. Most, I think, expected them to fold quickly. Why?

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jeremy_pikser/2007/12/the_directors_cut.html

Hollywood's Quest for Innovation

If past is prologue, innovation will change how we live, work, and play—in ways we can't even imagine today. This will happen with or without the Hollywood studios. The center of the entertainment industry today is unquestionably Los Angeles, with more than 250,000 local employees and countless others depending on the industry in other ways for their business. There's no reason it shouldn't stay that way, but if we're not vigilant, it could just as easily move somewhere else.

There are already plenty of places ready to claim production as their own (Vancouver, anyone?), but L.A. without the entertainment industry would be like L.A. without the mountain views from the palm-lined beaches. It has the talent, diversity, entrepreneurial spirit, creative culture, and growing high-tech industry needed to maintain the lead. So it may benefit studio executives to consider a few guidelines for innovation, as they continue negotiations.

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2007/id20071212_217169.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories

‘Jackass’ to shake up film distribution

“Most of the content being consumed on the web has been short form,” said Mr Lesinski. “The fact that this is long form, and it’s free, makes this compelling.”

Paramount has struck a deal with Facebook, the social networking site, to promote Jackass 2.5 to the millions of people using the site. Microsoft’s Silverlight video technology will be used to stream the film.

“Most people online get their stuff for free,” said David Gale, executive vice-president of new media for MTV Networks’ Music Group. “The record companies and the TV companies have figured that out. We weren’t going to buck the trend.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4708fed4-a8f6-11dc-ad9e-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html

China: the future of free?

Nothing terribly lucrative there, but that's not too surprising: China represents rock bottom for the music industry, especially on the economics of the creative side. The CD business has evaporated, and the businesses that have risen it its wake don't help artists. Yet China Mobile and Baidu are making something like $2 billion a year indirectly from music, so there's clearly a business in there somewhere. It just doesn't extend to many musicians at the moment.

Nevertheless, people are experimenting with new models to change that, not by fighting piracy but by building businesses around free music. Among the smart people who are innovating in new music models, from sponsored music sites for up-and-coming bands to aggregators that are much more music-centric than the generic Baidu, is Ed Peto. This British former A&R guy, now based in Beijing, has written the best piece on the future of the Chinese music industry in an age of free that I've seen. If you're interested in this subject, stop reading this post and start reading his impressive Register opus. He knows of what he speaks.

http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/12/china-the-futur.html

Writers Propose Independent Negotiations

Faced with the indefinite suspension of negotiations, the union representing striking Hollywood writers told its members Saturday it would try to deal directly with Hollywood studios and production companies, bypassing the umbrella organization that has been representing them.

The news was welcomed by the company that produces David Letterman's "Late Show," which said it hoped to broker a deal that would put the talk show host and his writers back to work.

Talks broke off Dec. 7 after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, insisted it would not bargain further unless the Writers Guild of America dropped proposals that included the authority to unionize writers on reality shows and animation projects.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/12/16/ap4445040.html

Embrace the Edge -- or Perish

For now, we'll leave you with some bottom-line guidelines for venturing out on the edge:

• Engage. Too often, executives get intrigued with the edge and arrange field visits to explore this strange terrain. Insight rarely comes from such casual visits. Instead, executives need to identify and focus on challenging business issues to engage edge participants productively and drive real insight.

• Sustain relationships on the edge. A lot of the current effort in open innovation focuses on short-term transactions to gain access to existing resources. To get the full value of the learning that's occurring on the edge, executives need to find ways to build long-term, trust-based relationships with edge participants.

• Bring the edge to the core. In too many cases, companies set up remote outposts on the edge that become isolated and alienated from the core of the business. Senior executives need to identify challenges confronted by the core where insights from the edge can be helpful and sponsor initiatives to bring participants from both domains together around these issues.

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/nov2007/id20071128_162890.htm?campaign_id=innovate_Dec6&link_position=link9

Marketers Focus More On Global 'Tribes Than on Nationalities

Executives seeking to expand their companies' global reach long have focused on tailoring products to fit the local tastes of consumers in different countries. Increasingly, however, they also have a strong sense of the commonality of their global consumers. As the world shrinks, especially for young, Internet-savvy consumers, they must now also cater to particular subcultures of customers who share very similar outlooks, styles and aspirations despite their different nationalities and languages.

"We're seeing global tribes forming around the world that are more and more interconnected through technology," says Melanie Healey, president, Global Health and Feminine Care at Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati.

Among these tribes: teenagers from every continent who socialize on the Internet and like the same music and fashions, working women trying to juggle careers and families, and baby boomers. "If you focus on the similarities instead of the differences [in these tribes], key business opportunities emerge," says Ms. Healey.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119723914006118687.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

The Internet. The TV.

What's the holdup? Generally speaking, the video players are just too complicated to hook up, too expensive and too limited in what they can do. There are skeptics, too, who think Internet video players are trying to solve a problem that simply doesn't exist -- especially as cable companies enhance on-demand video services.

"The issue with these next-generation set-top boxes is they're hard to use, hard to install and the return on investment isn't particularly large because the content is available elsewhere," says Mike Volpi, CEO of Joost NV, a London-based Internet television service available through PCs.

Still, tech companies can't stay away from the idea, because of the booming popularity of Internet video. In August, Internet users in the U.S. viewed 9.13 billion online videos, up 26% from 7.24 billion in January, estimates research firm comScore Inc.

Users watched more than a quarter of those videos on Google Inc.'s YouTube, but online video from traditional entertainment companies is exploding, too. Over the past two years, broadcasters have begun streaming nearly all of their most popular shows free with advertisements on their Web sites. (A stream doesn't allow users to keep a permanent copy of the show.) NBC alone says it streamed 50 million shows from its site during October.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119706406734417529.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

The Entertainment Development & Programming Weekly - December 9th Edition

Here are the most interesting articles that came across this week…

Movie Viewing Meets MMOs

Earlier this year, the managers of popular MMO Gaia Online tried an experiment: they streamed George Romero’s horror classic (and public domain) Night of the Living Dead in one of Gaia’s virtual theaters, to see if anyone would watch. Within two weeks, CEO Craig Sherman told me recently, a million Gaians had shown up to see the four-decades-old, black-and-white zombie thriller. The attendance, he said, “Totally blew us away.”

Not only did Gaia learn something about the movie-viewing tastes of its 2.5 million monthly active users, most of whom are in their teens, but it suggested a new source of revenue, which goes into effect now: Gaia is partnering with both Sony and Warner Brothers to stream their content into the world, reports Variety, screening movies and TV shows for the Gaia Cash equivalent of $1.99 per viewer. (The company earns part of its revenue through virtual currency that users buy for real dollars.)

With tens of millions of people already active MMO users, and that number expected to grow to 80 percent of all active Internet users by 2011, this is a potentially revolutionary deal.

http://newteevee.com/2007/12/03/movie-viewing-meets-mmos/

Writers' strike: As reruns take over television, eyes shift to new media

"We have a situation in which millions of people have an extra one to two hours on their hands with no new TV shows, and so they are saying, 'What do I do with that time?' " says Russell Zack, vice president of products for Anystream, a company with 700 media clients in 40 countries, including CNN, ESPN, Fox News, MTV Networks, and The Reuters Group. "So they are checking out this world of podcasts, social networks, webisodes, video blogs, and all the rest. Just like they did with episodic TV, many will get hooked by new options they never knew about."

The role of new media is at the heart of the strikers' demands, many observers note.

"It is quite ironic that the biggest beneficiary of the strike right now is the very thing they're striking over," says Jen Grogono, cofounder and chief content officer of ON Networks, an online video site based in Austin, Texas.

The strike has provided a window of opportunity for writers, a number of whom have approached her, looking for more satisfying creative work than writing quippy picket signs, she says. More than just another writing job, the site offers people a new creative challenge, she says.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1203/p01s01-ussc.html?page=2

Should Game Consoles Offer Video?

Video game consoles sell best when the hardware company’s main focus is video games. A quick snapshot of the industry bears this out: Sony (SNE) has been lagging due to its belief that impressive hardware specs and Blu-ray can carry the day; a focus on innovative gameplay, meanwhile, has put Nintendo out in front.

But as a source of additional revenue, getting into the video downloading business may not be a bad idea. As one report pointed out, Microsoft expects to make $726 million from its Xbox Live Video Marketplace by 2011.

That alone may have been enough to bring Sony — a company losing money on each sale of the PS3 — into the market video download market. But why isn’t Sony focusing on bringing gamers to its console? In an industry where hardware manufacturers usually sell consoles at a loss and rely on fees from software developers to turn a profit, focusing on the strength of its video game offerings should come first. After all, no one buys a video game console because it will let them download movies — they have Apple TVs for that.

http://newteevee.com/2007/12/09/should-game-consoles-offer-video/

More People Watching Full TV Shows Online

More people are watching full episodes of TV shows online, according to two studies released this week. According to Horowitz and Associates, 16 percent of high-speed* Internet users watched full episodes of TV online each week, double the number from last year, while The Nielsen Company, in a recent survey of 1,599 Americans, found that 25 percent had watched full episodes of TV programs online in the past three months.

ABC and NBC were listed as the most-watched networks online in both studies.

The data shows that networks are on the right path by offering up their full episodic content online, and it bodes well for Hulu, with its full episodes from multiple sources. This should also embolden the striking writers, since the crux of their argument centers around their work being shown on the Internet. The more people watch TV online, the more the networks will monetize it.

http://newteevee.com/2007/12/06/more-people-watching-full-tv-shows-online/

KateModern, a Web Video Success Story?

KateModern may just be the best example so far of integrating original content and a social network. Created and owned by the Lonelygirl15 team, it was conceived to be a part of Bebo, the social network that’s especially popular in the UK (see our preview article from June; a plot summary video is below). Now approaching its first season finale, the show has been seen some 30 million times.

Not only that, but the London-based series is profitable, with some £200,000 ($405,000) in revenue from sponsors Microsoft, Orange, Proctor & Gamble, Disney and Paramount Films. Most if not all of the sponsors are coming back for the second season, according to Joanna Shields, Bebo’s international president. Shields said she engineered the deal for KateModern with the Lonelygirl15 folks after seeing the tremendous traffic they drove on YouTube while she was at her previous gig, at Google.

http://newteevee.com/2007/12/05/katemodern-a-web-video-success-story/

MySpace Re-Ups Roommates

MySpace is greenlighting a second season of its hit series Roommates. Looks like the saga of the eight bikini-clad babes could not be completely told in just one season.

Roommates is the first original series co-produced by MySpace, with the first 45 episodes running exclusively on the social networking giant’s site. The show has reportedly received more than five million plays, but as we’ve seen in our hotly debated quarterlife story, actual numbers can be a tricky thing.

Moving forward with a second season of the show is a no-brainer for MySpace. Roommates is cheap to produce, and as long as it features scantily clad women, will always find an audience. Heck, even Amit Kapur, vice president of business development at MySpace, admitted he was a fan of the show.

http://newteevee.com/2007/12/05/myspace-re-ups-roommates/

Google Confident in Future of TV Advertising

Smaller networks and more niche programming is “where there is a big difference in CPMs [cost per thousand homes],” noted Armstrong, who briefly discussed Google’s use of set-top data from satellite operator EchoStar Communications in selling commercials through its Google TV Ads online-delivery platform. Google also has a deal to grab set-top data from measurement giant Nielsen.

Second-by-second set-top data should allow “advertisers to really see value of the programming,” Armstrong said, much as Google has been able to monetize niche Web sites online. Such data should be particularly vital for small digital networks that aren’t currently rated by Nielsen.

“It’s going to give a different way of looking into these channels,” he added.

When asked whether TV networks and cable operators should be scared of Google stealing advertising revenues from them, Armstrong portrayed Google as a partner, not competitor, to existing TV players -- much as Google CEO Eric Schmidt did in a keynote address at the National Association of Broadcasters' show last spring.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6509300.html

NBC to Pay Outsiders for Blocks of Programs

NBC has made an ambitious deal, apparently the first of its kind, to buy a two-hour — or perhaps even three-hour — block of prime-time programming from outside producers, including Thom Beers, the creator of adventure documentary series like “Deadliest Catch” and “Ice Road Truckers.”

Under the plan, NBC has agreed to broadcast at least two new hours produced by Mr. Beers back to back on a single night, with many more hours possible. The terms guarantee Mr. Beers and his partners 30 hours of programs on NBC — three separate 10-episode series.

These 30 hours would come at a fraction of the cost of standard network scripted or reality programming, a factor that made the deal attractive to NBC.

The project is not related to the current strike by Hollywood writers but the background forces are somewhat similar as networks struggle to revise their financial formulas to face a future of diminishing ratings and growing uncertainties about how the Internet will figure in viewers’ choices. The programs, which are all documentary in style, would not have staff writers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/business/media/03nbc.html?_r=1&ex=1354424400&en=46dead17892df1bc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

You Will Control 25% of Entertainment by 2012

Nokia’s latest study, ‘A Glimpse of the Next Episode’, predicts that within five years a quarter of all entertainment will be created, edited and shared within peer groups rather than coming out of traditional media groups. Trend-setting consumers from 17 countries were asked about their digital behaviors and lifestyles. Nokia also used information gathered from its 900 million customers and views of leading industry figures to reach the conclusion that you will control 25% of the world’s entertainment by 2012.

“From our research we predict that up to a quarter of the entertainment being consumed in five years will be what we call ‘Circular’. The trends we are seeing show us that people will have a genuine desire not only to create and share their own content, but also to remix it, mash it up and pass it on within their peer groups - a form of collaborative social
media,” said Mark Selby, Vice President, Multimedia, Nokia.

Nokia also looked at four emerging trends that will make entertainment more collaborative and creative as we move towards Circular Entertainment. These trends are listed as, Immersive Living; Geek Culture; G Tech and Localism.

http://mobilecrunch.com/2007/12/03/you-will-control-25-of-entertainment-by-2012/

Beta Survey: Discovery Channel is Favorite Network

The Discovery Channel is cable subscribers’ favorite channel, but the channel with the highest perceived value by consumers is ESPN2, according to a Beta Research study released Dec. 4.

The Discovery ranking was based on the percentage of consumers who, unaided, named the channel when asked their five favorite basic channels in the research firm’s fall subscriber evaluation survey. 33% named Discovery, with ESPN second (30%); History Channel (24%), Food Network (18%) and Fox News Channel (17%) rounding out the top 5.

In the news channels wars, CNN came in eighth on this list, with 15% of the mentions.

Consumers placed a value of $2.46 on ESPN2, topping its sibling ESPN, which was second with a perceived value of $2.40. Also in the top five: ESPN Classic at $2.26; Nickelodeon at $2.20 and Cartoon Network at $2.11.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6509604.html

Viacom Looks to Mimic Disney in Entertainment Branding

Viacom is also hardly short on digital entertainment, with more than 300 websites in its portfolio and recent acquisitions such as iFilm.com, Atom Entertainment and Harmonix. The latter has spawned two huge video-game hits with "Guitar Hero" and this year's "Rock Band," which Mr. Dauman expects to sell 1.3 million units by year's end.
One investor questioned Mr. Dauman's strategy of acquiring small and medium-size properties rather than going after a MySpace or YouTube. Mr. Daumann said the strategy he prefers is "organic growth," driving traffic through on-air content and vice versa. Virtual worlds, for example, have become a preferred way to link the two, with recent communities created for Nickelodeon's "iCarly" and "Avatar" as well as "The Hills" on MTV. Up next is social networking, with Chief Digital Officer Mika Salmi's Flux platform looked at as the next way to aggregate impressions and users across MTV's portfolio of websites and beyond.

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=122371

User-Centric Networks

You don't have to have been in the digital media business for a very long time to realize that we are in a period of extraordinary change. Over the past two years, there have been tectonic shifts in everything from enabling technologies to user behavior to business models to regulatory scrutiny. Two years ago, social networks were emerging ideas. Today they are dominating all others in user growth and engagement. Two years ago Google was an exciting, fast-growing search company that was just starting to really crank up a text ad network. Today, it is a dominating digital media company -- with a capital "D" -- with a $16 billion annualized revenue run rate and regulators in the U.S. and abroad scrutinizing many of its moves. Two years ago, a widget was what companies in business school case studies made. Today, consumers interact with Web widgets to the tune of billions a day, and they're starting to show up on mobile devices as well.

What is driving these changes? Here are some of the drivers:

http://blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1187

Brands: Become A Part Of The Content Or Become A Part Of History

What brands need to understand is that they not only can, but must, play the same role in the online world that they have historically played in the offline world. People will be more than willing to help by bringing brands and branded content with them into social media. Marketers just need to focus on how they can make it easier.

How can their brand become relevant to and support social media conversations? How can a brand ask consumers to share its brand message? How can a brand build goodwill and brand equity in the social media generation? The secret is that there is no secret: It's not that different from how brands have done all of the above prior to the social media generation. The difference might simply reside in scaling successful offline practices and adapting to social media environments (the social networks will play the largest role in supporting this).

http://blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1185

Hasbro hires studio exec to transform toys into movies

Hasbro did not invest money in "Transformers," which was directed by Michael Bay. However, it received an undisclosed percentage of the box-office profit as well as a licensing fee upfront.
"We looked at 'Transformers' as a way to contemporize the brand," Goldner said. "The great thing about a good story and a good movie is that it travels all over the world."
The toy company is now working with Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks SKG on "Transformers 2" and a "G.I. Joe" film, both due out in the summer of 2009. In addition, the company has signed a TV syndication deal for a Trivial Pursuit game show. Goldner said the company had its sights on a Monopoly movie or TV show.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/la-fi-hasbro6dec06,1,228019.story?coll=la-headlines-business-enter&ctrack=1&cset=true

The Entertainment Development & Programming Weekly - December 2nd Edition

Here are the most interesting articles that came across this week…

Smiles, Everyone

But MySpace's user growth is slowing, those who go there are spending less time per visit, and rival networks such as Facebook are rising fast. And try as MySpace might to dominate Internet video, YouTube has pretty much walked off with the business (see chart).

"Everyone thinks YouTube is taking over TV on the Internet, but we had 51 million unique streamers [in June]," says MySpace Chief Christopher DeWolfe. But by September, that figure fell to 38 million. With growth slowing, DeWolfe is having to get creative--and that means going Hollywood and making his own content. "We have done dozens of new deals with Sony, Fox, NBC, the NBA and the NHL, and now we have our own content," he says. He sees Internet video becoming one of MySpace's primary revenue streams.

Social networks were supposed to be anti-Big Media, created by and for other members. And while most of what's on MySpace continues to be of the babies-eating-dog-food genre, it turns out that this isn't worth much to advertisers, nor are the couple hundred million member-profile pages plastered with photos of people showing off their abs. "Brands like P&G do not want to advertise on Web pages that have 14-year-old girls kissing each other," says Jared Pobre of Ideal Exposure, an ad firm in Irvine, Calif.

http://www.forbes.com/business/media/forbes/2007/1210/066.html

There will never be another Star Wars Kid

Online video is obviously not the first medium to balloon and diversify. TV did the same thing over the last half-century. The total audience for TV grew every decade. Audiences for single shows, however, peaked in the 50s. The 2004 series finale of Friends and the 2000 finale of Survivor earned about the same audience as the 1983 finale of M*A*S*H. The viewers went from millions to more millions, but the channels went from three to hundreds, so the most-watched show still shared an audience with hundreds of concurrent shows. The competitive effect may be why only one film from the last ten years has entered the top 20 box office hits of all time (adjusted for inflation). The new Internet star faces the same effect on a vast scale, competing with the millions of videos past and present.

That isn't to say no one's getting famous. The most obvious example is Andy Samberg and his comedy group, The Lonely Island. The group posted videos on their site and at a video competition site, Channel 101. Their videos stayed pretty underground, but they got the team hired by Saturday Night Live. Lonely Island then made the immortal "Lazy Sunday" and "Dick in a Box" for SNL, then released the feature film "Hot Rod," establishing themselves as mainstream stars.

http://valleywag.com/tech/online-video/there-will-never-be-another-star-wars-kid-326696.php

8 important consumer trends for 2008

We're talking STATUS SPHERES, ECO-ICONIC, SNACK CULTURE, PREMIUMIZATION, CROWD MINING and more.

Sure, there's much, much more in 2008 that's worthy of your attention. But for now, take any of the eight trends above, sit down with your colleagues and/or clients, and figure out how, in 2008, to come up with at least one new premium product, one 'snack' version of an existing product, two or three major tweaks to your ecommerce presence, one eco-iconic innovation, two or three marketing campaigns that are about aiding consumers, not stalking them, introducing one MIY concept, and asking the rest of the world for help with at least one of your company's major opportunities or challenges.

For some help, don't forget our 'How to Apply Trends' checklist:

1. Vision—Do these trends have the potential to influence or shape your company's vision?
2. New business concepts—Can these trends point you to new business concepts, or entirely new ventures?
3. New products, services, experiences—Can these trends inspire you to add 'something' new for a certain customer segment?
4. Marketing, advertising, PR—Will these trends help you speak the language of those consumers that are already 'living' a trend?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/business/media/13adco.html

The Google Enigma

That’s heady stuff, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the hype. But business executives have at least two reasons to think twice before leaping aboard the Google bandwagon. First, for all its success, Google is still a young company, and it has yet to be tested by adversity. We don’t even know whether its approach to management, and in particular its approach to innovation, is a cause of its success or a product of its success — a crucial distinction. Second, we don’t know how well Google’s example applies to other businesses. Google is certainly a different sort of company, but is it so different as to be anomalous? Is the company an exemplar or a freak?

It’s probably too early to answer such questions definitively. But by taking a close look at Google’s business model and innovation program, we can discover important clues. And we may even gain a few insights into how our ideas about business innovation are shaped.

http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/07404?pg=0

Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking

Faced with its second mass protest by members in its short life span, Facebook, the enormously popular social networking Web site, is reining in some aspects of a controversial new advertising program.

Within the last 10 days, more than 50,000 Facebook members have signed a petition objecting to the new program, which sends messages to users’ friends about what they are buying on Web sites like Travelocity.com, TheKnot.com and Fandango. The members want to be able to opt out of the program completely with one click, but Facebook won’t let them.

Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users’ Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time.

MoveOn.org Civic Action, the political group that set up the online petition, said the move was a positive one.

“Before, if you ignored their warning, they assumed they had your permission” to share information, said Adam Green, a spokesman for the group. “If Facebook were to implement a policy whereby no private purchases on other Web sites were displayed publicly on Facebook without a user’s explicit permission, that would be a step in the right direction.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/technology/30face.html?_r=1&ref=media&oref=slogin

Google Wants a Slice of the Wireless Pie

In the event that Google does win the spectrum, it won't have entirely free reign over it. One of the provisions attached to the C block of spectrum is an "open access" stipulation that prohibits the winning bidder from imposing limitations on the mobile devices or the applications used to access the network -- so users can download any software they want on any wireless device.

"Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world," said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, in a prepared statement. "No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet," Schmidt went on to say in the statement.

Increased consumer choice isn't entirely guaranteed, though. There's a convenient escape clause attached to the auction order which says that if the $4.6 billion reserve is not met, the block of spectrum could be auctioned off without the open access rules attached.

"[Our] contacts feel Google will not build and operate the network. Our contacts feel Google is very serious to win the auction as these frequencies can help create Internet Wireless vs. Wireless Internet that is being stifled by carriers," Chowdhry wrote in a note.

http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/11/google-wants-a.html

Break It Down: $120M for Streamed TV

U.S. television networks will generate $120 million from online advertising shown on streamed episodes in 2007, said an executive from a major media buyer. Tracey Scheppach, senior vice-president and video innovation director for Starcom, told the Financial Times that number was based on extrapolating her company’s purchases across the web sites of the four major TV networks.

That’s a nice meaty number to throw into your PowerPoint decks, but let’s get some context. By contrast, network television is supposed to account for $23.4 billion in U.S. advertising spending this year, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Some 16 percent of American households stream TV broadcasts online, according to TNS and the Conference Board. Forrester recently estimated that total U.S. online video advertising spending would amount to $471 million in 2007 (The FT quotes a much bigger estimate, but strangely ignores the fact that the number doesn’t break out audio revenues).

http://newteevee.com/2007/11/29/break-it-down-120m-for-streamed-tv/

Facebook: What Would Google Do?

Back to What Would Google Do? Google is as smug and as arrogant as they come. But its smugness manifests itself in the confidence that it will win in the long term so it doesn’t need to rush. After Google botched the road show and wacky auction structure for its initial public offering, the company simply decided to raise less money at a lower value. So what if the IPO went out at $85 instead o f$135. Who has the last laugh now?

As for privacy, Google has ruffled more than a few feathers over the years. For example, It didn’t understand the reaction to the way ads are keyed off content in Gmail. But Google generally dribbles out new features very slowly and doesn’t impose them on users all at once. Gmail, after all, was invitation only for something like a year. Maybe that’s why the service is growing, with the creepy ad system still in place.

There is something astoundingly tone deaf about how Facebook has handled its recent advertising initiatives. Mr. Zuckerberg is right: there are lots of people who would find it cool to tell the world what movies they just rented and even what color socks they just bought. But they’ve got to know that others would find this intrusive.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/facebook-what-would-google-do/

Why You Should See Spencer Halpin's Moral Kombat (Part One)

Let me start with a simple and straight forward statement: Spencer Halpin's Moral Kombat is perhaps the most important film ever made about video games and you should see it if you get a chance. The film will force people on all sides of the debate about games and violence to re-examine their own positions and ask harder questions.

Spencer Halpin had no idea what he was getting himself into when he decided to produce a documentary about the debates surrounding video games violence. First, because his brother is Entertainment Consumers Association founder Hal Halpin, many reformers assumed that he was producing a blatant propaganda piece for the video games industry and he began to receive death threats from opponents of media violence (Kinda ironic, huh?). Then, he released a trailer for his film, Spencer Halpin's Moral Kombat, which was widely perceived as taking a strongly anti-video game stance and was on the receiving end of angry correspondence from game defenders, many of whom wanted to censor his work because of what they perceived as its pro-censorship bias (also kinda ironic when you think about it). Now, the film is beginning to be previewed around the country and we are at last given a chance to judge the work for ourselves. Halprin is understandably skittish, not sure whose going to come railing against him next.

http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/11/moral_kombat.html

Talks hit pause button

On the fourth day of closed-door negotiations both sides lifted the news blackout as the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers unveiled its proposal that would deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation to scribes over three years.

The WGA rejected the math and dubbed the proposal both a "massive rollback" and a "bad deal."

Both sides have agreed to continue negotiations on Tuesday. They agreed that a four-day moratorium was needed for the WGA to mull the offer, but the guild issued its terse, point-by-point deconstruction of the deal points only hours after adjourning.

The guild's reaction will undoubtedly add to the town's pessimism that time's running out for the WGA to make a deal and that the AMPTP may turn soon to negotiations with the DGA instead. AMPTP insiders were irked that the WGA initially showed scant interest in the sweetened package of new-media proposals with one noting, "The WGA is not budging."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117976776.html?categoryid=2821&cs=1

Back to the Animated Future, This Time on DVD

“It’s interesting that a studio now sees it as viable to release a show with a prime-time budget directly to DVD and expects to make their money back,” Mr. Cohen said. He and Mr. Groening have been walking picket lines in the writers’ strike, in which a central issue is the amount of compensation writers will receive from material released exclusively on DVDs or distributed through the Internet.

Steven Melnick, senior vice president of marketing for Fox Television, said his studio began to consider a “Futurama” resurrection after the successful direct-to-DVD release of new episodes of “Family Guy” in 2005. That Fox animated show had been canceled but found new life in Cartoon Network reruns and compilation DVD sales. The series rejoined the Fox prime-time roster in May 2005.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/arts/television/27futu.html?_r=1&ex=1353992400&en=551a371c320b0ac3&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood

Power Lists are so over. Magazines, including EW, have done them for decades, but as way of digging deep into Hollywood's DNA, "power" has become sort of beside the point. "Power" just tells you who's in charge. It doesn't tell you who's shaking things up. So EW decided to go in search of the people who are rocking the industry's world this year, the people with ideas – innovative, creative, dangerous, renegade ideas – who are changing the way movies are made. We went looking for the 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.

Below are the results of three months of constant research, hundreds of hours of conversations with the brightest minds in the industry, and weeks of heated debate. We started with a list of more than 300 contenders, and it proved surprisingly hard to chop them down to a trim 50. We had to establish strict criteria to determine who would – and who would not – make the cut. Here were our rules:

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2007/11/smart-list-intr.html

The Customer Connection: The Global ­­­Innovation 1000

We also compiled a list of high-leverage innovators, as we did last year. These were the companies that, compared to other companies in 2006, got a significantly bigger performance bang for their R&D buck. The high-leverage innovators consistently achieve better sustained financial performance than their industry peers while spending less on R&D. We’ve spoken to executives at a number of these companies, including Black & Decker. When listing the reasons for their success, they all mention two key factors. The first is strategic alignment: They work hard to align their innovation strategies closely to overall corporate strategy. The second is customer focus: They all have processes in place to pay close attention to their customers in every phase of the innovation value chain, from idea generation to product development to marketing.

http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/07407?pg=all

Make a Case for Your Brand

The implications of this mind-set shift can be significant. How will our brand architectures change if we consider brand extension and co-branding decisions as mechanisms for controlling investment risk? How does brand risk affect brand portfolio size? Is the corporation exposed to more risk with a Branded House strategy or one that supports a House of Brands? Does brand repositioning increase or decrease the company's exposure to risk? How should our brands be repositioned if risk serves as the optimization criterion at hand?
Our findings support a value-based view of branding that refocuses the entire marketing organization toward more comprehensive concerns about the processes that create (and destroy) equity for the company as a whole. Let the presentations to CFOs begin!

http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=122149

Verizon Wireless' Grand Opening

For starters, Verizon Wireless will need to test any new device model before letting it connect to its network. The degree of openness will hinge on how difficult Verizon Wireless makes it for products to get a green light. Columbia University law professor Tim Wu, a leading proponent of wireless open access, points out that the old Ma Bell-era phone companies often used testing requirements as a way to control their networks. "There's testing requirements and there's testing requirements," says Wu. "One is routine—and there's another thing of deciding what products they don't want on their network. It can become a black hole from which products never emerge."

Although Verizon stresses the business opportunities posed by open access, the company's move is also a shrewd defensive maneuver. Verizon had lobbied ferociously to prevent the federal government from applying open-access requirements to an upcoming auction of valuable radio spectrum. But now that Verizon Wireless has joined the open-access camp, it's free to invest billions in those radio waves—while blocking out potential rivals. "They have removed any economic incentive for an upstart wireless provider to build a new network," says David Barden, an analyst at Banc of America Securities (BAC). An added benefit: With fewer bidders, the move "could lower the price of the spectrum," says Barden. Google, of course, is unlikely to be deterred (BusinessWeek.com, 11/16/07). "It doesn't change our thinking on the auction one bit," says Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071127_446181.htm?chan=search