Seth Gilbert, 08-29-2007
Shakespeare asked “What’s in a name.” JFK quipped “Forgive your enemies but never forget their name.” Barry Bonds said “It’s not the name that makes the player it’s the player.”
However wide the sources one looks to for wisdom, in a media world, it’s almost universal, and hard to ignore, that there is something in a name. Today, now, finally, NBC Universal and News Corporation have named their upcoming, and much hyped, Internet video site.
The most famous John Doe of the Internet video world had been known only as NewCo (or Clown Co to pundits.) Today, it was branded as Hulu.
The site, which aims to be a YouTube rival, has been generously funded with monies from Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert,
For a superstitious company, taking the same office space formerly used by YouTube isn’t a bad omen. Yesterday, Bluepulse, a provider of mobile social networking services from Australia stepped onto that four leaf clover and also announced it had closed a $6m financing.
The company, which was founded in 2002 in Australia launched a beta version of its services last year in December. They are now global. Their social networking features are functional on most Internet enabled cell phones provided a customer has an appropriate data plan.
To date the company has reported more than 2million downloads of their application. In usage, they are generating more than a 100 million monthly page views.
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Seth Gilbert, 08-28-2007
With talk about convergence, Microsoft comes up a lot. They’re into gaming (Xbox), all things computers (Windows etc.), music (Zune and Windows Media Player) and they want to get more involved in the living room (Media Center) and other environments (Surface). One area that wouldn’t have struck me for a top ten list of their target markets is my car, but turns out that is a destination already on Microsoft’s road map.
GPS or operating system related software technology would be the first guesses for where and what they’re focusing on, and that’s half right. Entertainment, however, is also a big part. Microsoft already has a Window’s Automotive Platform and they’re aiming to use it to integrate and control entertainment devices. The launch was notable enough, even, to be the subject of a Bill Gates keynote speech. Now a new patent aims to expand the vision.
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Seth Gilbert, 08-27-2007
Fans of South Park can sleep easy for a few more years. In a deal signed Friday, Comedy Central’s most lucrative and most enduring (11 seasons and counting) franchise, the irreverent comedy cartoon, will see at least three more years of new episodes. The program (and its creators) will also take the reigns of its online destiny as part of a joint venture that creates a web destination at South Park Studios.
To date, South Park and its legions of fans have languished in the absence of a legitimate, authorized, Internet distribution platform for anything and everything that is South Park. For certain, there has been availability of content – offerings on Comedy Central’s home site, legions of fan sites – but with Viacom (parent of Comedy Central) embroiled in a billion dollar suit with YouTube over copyright violations, legal video clips, outtakes and other stock haven’t been widely available. Even Joost which has a partnership deal with Viacom has not had the ability to broadcast South Park.
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Seth Gilbert,
How much money does it take to build a successful advertising network for blogs and websites? Apparently a lot, and a lot means, at least $5m.
Federated Media Publishing , the two year old advertising network founded by John Battelle, former CEO of Standard Media (SMI) and co-founding editor of Wired magazine, has quietly closed a Series B private financing round worth about $4.5m. (According to a Form D filed with the SEC on the 23rd via PE Hub).
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Seth Gilbert, 08-26-2007
From earnings announcements to press releases to interviews, they said it. Collected recent quips and clips from the executive suites On Gaming, On Mobile, On Internet Video, On Advertising and On Business:
“Video-game consumers are the single most sophisticated shoppers in the entertainment industry, despite their age and what you might think. People go to a movie or buy a book on a whim. But buying a video game is a much more methodical and judicious process. Next time you’re in an airport, look at how many magazines are dedicated to video games. And they’re not writing about the sex lives of game designers. They are writing about the content.” –Jeff Brown, vice president for corporate communications at Electronic Arts (New York Times)
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Seth Gilbert, 08-24-2007
After a year of deliberating, the New York Times has finally begun to embrace the changes sweeping the media industry. Their personalization service, MyTimes officially launched Thursday
The project originally began in April of 2006 with a beta launch. For the past year they were testing the customizable front page and RSS reader against pools of users to figure out what level of functionality best fit their customers. The offering released today is light compared to competing services but it does embrace Web 2.0 features. MyTimes allows editors to make content recommendations and readers can indulge with widgets (mini-feature applications) like Flickr photos, bookmarks, and weather data to add additional functionality. Multiple pages, organized by content or otherwise, are also possible. Click to Read More
