Seth Gilbert, 09-4-2007
In July, display advertising was a noted weak spot when Yahoo reported 2nd quarter earnings. In an effort to provide an immediate boost, Yahoo today acquired internet advertiser Blue Lithium for $300m in cash.
Blue Lithium, which was founded in 2004 and was preparing for an IPO, is something of a blind-buy network. They sell a publishers advertising inventory but do not disclose to advertisers precisely what sites the ads will run on. Instead, they serve them “blind” based on various demographic and targeting criteria. Many of the Blue Lithium publisher relationships are also not exclusive.
In July Blue Lithium ranked as the 5th largest online ad network according to ComScore. Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert,
Joining a growing pool of “Content recommendation” or “content discovery” services, MyStrands, a music discovery service founded in 2003, today revealed their latest development: a free online music video service MyStrands.TV.
Similar to music services like Last.Fm (acquired by CBS), or newer entrant, the Filter, (or MyStrands own music tools), but geared toward music video, the site blends a mix of social networking features like tagging with behavioral tracking (e.g., reviewing the links generated between songs or videos) to generate recommendations. It also includes a host of tools for the creation of custom groups and pages.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert,
Is Sony giving up on digital music and instead throwing its significant resources into digital video technology and video downloading services? They have just shut down their music store; they are revealing video playing MP3 players. Could it be? Are they going to create a video store?
An article in the Wall Street Journal is indirectly suggesting as much. They say CEO Howard Stringer is quietly preparing for a big move. They hint at news to come. A competitor to Apple’s iTunes… From Sony? One wonders.
The Journal’s story is big on speculation (fueled by potentially compromised “people close to the situation”) and light on facts. Still, there are more than enough bits of innuendo and circumstantial evidence floating around to suggest the article may not be off the mark even if support is lacking.
Here is a look at a few of the reasons, arguments, and the circumstantial evidence:
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 09-1-2007
Going into the holiday weekend, two Santa Monica companies joined the ranks of the newly funded. Jacked, an interactive Internet TV-companion platform has raised $6.5m and gaming company Trilogy Studios has closed a $3.2m second round.
Trilogy Studios was founded in 2005 by gaming industry veterans. Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 08-31-2007
NBC Universal accounts for roughly forty percent of the videos downloaded on iTunes and they’re ready to walk.
Echoing a similar story with Universal Music in July (expanded on three weeks ago), unable to come to terms on a new agreement with Apple, news wires are buzzing that NBC will not renew its long term contract with Apple. Neither side has issued a public comment.
Is this negotiating brinkmanship? The end of partnership? A consequence of Hulu? Theories abound.
At issue, and often reported, are a combination of factors. For one, major media companies have been increasingly vocal about their frustration with Apple’s fixed pricing model. They want more leeway to bundle products together or premium price new releases. Apple, fearing such structures would complicate the user-experience and alienate customers has refused.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert,
Just a week ago, I wrote, half in jest that 8 figure deals were becoming increasingly common and frighteningly familiar Internet video startups. I didn’t think I’d be reiterating the point again so soon. But, turns out, another round of extreme funding has already come down the pipeline. I thought wrong.
Besting Veoh’s $25m and Metacafe’s recent $30m but shy of Joost’s $45m and Brightcove’s $59.5m, French-based video sharing site Dailymotion has raised a $34m second round. The round was led by European firms Advent Venture Partners (London) and AGF Private Equity (Paris). On top of $9.5m contributed last October, it brings the total funding raised for the site in one year to $43.5.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert,
News Corp and NBC. Conde Nast with MSNBC. CBS joins with the Washington Post. Across the media industry, partnerships to syndicate and share content are becoming the norm. CNN is bucking the trend and going the other way.
After a 27 year partnership, CNN announced yesterday that it would no longer use news feeds and content from Reuters (one of the world’s biggest news and data syndication/wire services). CNN said they would immediately stop using still, video and text from Reuters in all of their news pieces. Additionally, old stock footage from “B rolls” or in archives, or content on cnn.com, anything which includes licensed Reuters video or content will be edited to remove the material before being publicly displayed.
Coming from the P.R. machines, the spin put on the divorce was that CNN wants to focus more on its own news gathering sources. Emphasize “spin.” Click to Read More
