Saturday, July 14, 2007

The Boat Is About to Rock (Again) in Internet Video

From The New York Times - DMITRY SHAPIRO brings an unlikely gadget into meetings these days: a TV remote control.

As chief executive of Veoh Networks, an Internet video company based in San Diego, Mr. Shapiro uses the remote to navigate the company’s new software program, VeohTV, on his laptop. The software acts like a Web browser but displays only Internet video, presenting full-length television shows and popular clips from the Web’s largest video sites, like NBC.com and YouTube. It lists those videos in a program guide and plays them in a small window or across the entire screen.

The product, now in a private testing phase, will be available to the public later this year. It has the potential to be a popular and practical way to watch online video. But like a long line of other innovative high-tech tools, VeohTV could also threaten and alienate traditional media companies and even cause some of Veoh’s Internet rivals to consider legal remedies. | Read full article

Friday, July 13, 2007

What's facebook worth?

Facebook was rumoured to have rejected being bought out for around $1 billion in order to stay independent. But what is it really worth? Valuations vary wildly depending on who you talk to. Reports indicate the company generated $100 million in revenue last year, and it's experienced huge growth this year, but monetization efforts haven't been blowing people away -- yet...

Read Facebook is worth (fill in the blank)

Nintendo Says Its Wii Game Will Remain in Short Supply


From The New York Times - Nintendo expects its popular Wii game machine will continue to be in short supply, while Sony said it is already seeing increased sales of its PlayStation 3 after announcing a price cut Monday.

The two Japanese video-game console makers presented an outlook of their business to game developers and industry executives at the E3 Media and Business Summit, the major video game trade show in the United States.

The Wii continues to be in short supply, according to Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America. “Wii has effectively been sold out for all 33 weeks,” he said. Nevertheless, he said, Wii “is poised to become the No. 1 platform worldwide very soon.” | Read full article

Online Movies Without a PC


From The New York Times - TiVo, the pioneer of digital video recorders, said yesterday that it had introduced a service to let customers buy movies and television shows from the Unbox service of Amazon.com without using a personal computer.

Owners of some TiVo digital video recorders that have high-speed Internet access may download Unbox movies directly to their televisions, the companies said yesterday.

Customers will be able to buy TV shows for $1.99 an episode and rent movies for $1.99 to $3.99.

The service, which started in March, previously required customers to download shows to their computers and either watch them there or transfer them to televisions.

It was available to more than 1.5 million TiVo customers. | Read full article

A New Studio Will Market Short Videos for the Web

From The New York Times - Expanding a hunt for commerce in the burgeoning art of Web video, Hollywood’s United Talent Agency and the Internet-based advertising agency Spot Runner have started a ministudio for digital entertainment from established actors, directors and others, the agencies said on Tuesday. | Read full article

Bloggers Ponder Google’s RSS Syndication Stats


From Media Post - Last week Google’s recently acquired Feedburner, one of the leaders in RSS syndication and a darling of the blogosphere, quietly announced it would begin offering a number of premium services for free. The Feedburner blog proudly touted: “One of the many benefits that FeedBurner publishers will enjoy now that FeedBurner is part of the Google family is a little something we like to call, ‘more for free!’…. We suspect this will be welcome news to the 450,000+ of you using many of our other free services.” | Read full article

Pirated Music Helps Terrestrial Radio


From The Wall Street Journal - Record labels and artists might think they're going to recoup some of the revenue lost to music piracy thanks to higher online royalty rates, but Web radio may die in the wake of a recent court decision. And piracy isn't going away, either.

It's still the music industry bugaboo, but terrestrial radio giant Clear Channel Communications has a new outlook on music piracy. The company's Premiere Radio Networks unit has begun marketing data on music piracy to help radio stations shape their playlists. It's a great idea, because it gives stations' an idea about what's popular with 18-34s, regardless of the fact that its data about illegal activity.

Premiere's data comes from the file-sharing research firm BigChampagne. Premiere takes BigChampagne's data and markets it to radio companies and stations for a fee. The market research firm would not disclose how much they charge, but they've signed up more than 100 stations so far. Joe Fleischer, BigChampagne's vice president for sales and marketing, says the legality of grabbing music is a separate issue from the insight into peoples' taste. The data is also far easier to collect than the industry standard "call-out" research, in which people are asked to listen to clips of songs and rate them. | Read full article

Promotion Is Not Just Another Brick in the Wall


ADOBE software is a well-established tool for anyone working, or even dabbling, in computer-based design. But in order to market its new Creative Suite 3 software package — which includes well-known design software like Photoshop and Illustrator — Adobe has temporarily abandoned the computer screen in favor of a busy Manhattan street.

Adobe will unveil an interactive wall of projected animation this morning in Union Square, along the 14th Street side of the Virgin Megastore. As pedestrians walk past the wall, infrared sensors will lock on to the person closest to the wall, who will then be able to control a projected slider button at the bottom of the wall. | Read full article

More Lookers Than Doers For User Generated Content

From Media Post - A recent article by eMarketer found that, even taking into account the power and ease of use of user-generated content tools like digital cameras and affordable audio/video production software, there are more content consumers than creators. | Read full article