Seth Gilbert, 10-24-2007
A key precursor to advertising dollars is the ability to effectively measure audience response and behavior. It starts with the basics: how many people are watching. Then it gets to the who and where. Eventually, if there’s enough data to determine it, it becomes more and more targeted, more and more specific. The more you know about the audience, the better you can serve advertising to their interests. And the more you can target the advertising, the higher you can charge for it.
This kind of information based advertising has been the formula for Internet billions. It’s at the core of Google’s success. And now Google is hoping to expand that formula to television. Doing so, however, will require partners and new techniques.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 10-23-2007
There are surprises and then there are Surprises with a capital S. Apple trouncing earnings estimates this week fits in the first category. The results were stellar but hardly a shock; more of “wink wink” we did it again. Netflix handedly beating earnings estimates Monday was blind-siding surprise that was hard to see coming.
When Netflix reported late Monday, the expectation was much as it has been for recent quarters: competition from Blockbuster would be a drag on margins, price cuts would weigh on revenues and customer growth should fall into the moderate but not terribly impressive category. Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert,
A week ahead of launching a beta for Hulu , their Internet video joint venture with News Corp (Fox), NBC is circling the wagons and gathering up their content.
In a move reportedly confirmed by an NBC spokesperson, the company has pulled all its video clips from YouTube. Notice for the takedown was sent Friday.
The move is intended to maximize Hulu’s exclusivity and give it the best chance for drawing audience. Having the same content available elsewhere would have undermined the launch.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 10-16-2007
Corporate M&A activity is a little like addictive behavior. Once a company sets down the road to grow by acquisition, chances are they won’t stop at just one hit. For Discovery Communications, parent of TV’s Discovery Channel, TLC and others, the M&A road leads to a convergence of TV and internet initiatives. It seems they’re on it and happy to pay the tolls along the way.
Monday, Discovery Communications announced they’d agreed to buy privately held How Stuff Works, the informative and educational website property for a price reportedly near $250m.
HowStuffWorks is very much what their name describes. Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 10-15-2007
Touch screens, video-on-demand, GPS, Portable Entertainment, taxi’s with TV, highway rest stops with WiFi hotspots …. Entertainment technology is reaching into our travels and changing fast. No where are these changes more apparent than airlines. New planes have new technology and are trying to keep up.
Last week Virgin America, the newly launched U.S. low fare airline chose a handful of prominent Internet personalities and blogger’s as cartoon faces to front their new ad campaign. They included people like Kevin Rose (Digg) and the team at popular blog Boing Boing. I wasn’t among the chosen few – Metue is a good ways from the scale of audience to draw that kind of attention - but I have flown VA twice this month and the time seems right to take inventory and do a review; a closer look at the entertainment technology aboard the newest company to take flight.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 10-9-2007
Like the old maxim of killing two birds with one stone, sometimes a small change can fix several problems. Tuesday, GE’s NBC Universal unit said it would pay $925m for Oxygen Media, the woman-centric cable TV network. $925 may not be a small change but NBC is certainly hoping it will be one of the especially effective stones.
If the promise of the deal is realized, in one move the acquisition could both breathe new life into an occasionally faltering Oxygen, recharge NBC owned Internet property iVillage and fortify NBC’s mission-critical cable property portfolio.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 10-4-2007
Almost definitely in ten years, and very possibly 5 years from now, if I want to watch a movie, chances are I’ll be able to download a rental, or buy the rights to own it, through some combination of online and offline services. Maybe I can hit a button on a remote and that’ll be it; a copy of my purchase stored on a home-hard drive, an electronic debit for payment and nothing else to deal with. Chances are within the next decade, I won’t need to get a DVD in person. But for today, and the next handful of years? They’re not going anywhere and my viewing pleasures are still likely to be tethered to optical discs (DVDs).
But as for how I get my DVDs? or how many titles are available? Those are questions that may be answered differently, questions answered with evolutionary changes rather than a changing of the guard. Hewlett Packard is one of the companies hoping to be responsible for that.
For several years, Hewlett Packard has had a small but successful business venture selling technology and services to digitally restore old films. They’ve also been focused on building digital content libraries – both by building out IT infrastructure and by signing licensing deals (for which they have a partnership with Ascent Media). The eventual end goal of HP’s efforts, about which they haven’t been shy, is to pioneer print-on-demand DVD services.
Click to Read More
