Metue.com

Some estimates suggest the market for global online video advertising will reach $1.3b this year.   The 4 major U.S. television networks (ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC) have been coy about their share of that booty.   It’s no wonder.  With writers striking, one of the core negotiating points is digital revenue.  The writers want a piece and the networks don’t want to lock in a rate for a market too premature to estimate accurately.

Thursday, the Financial Times put a number on the present stakes.  Citing a senior vice president at Starcom, a media buying agency that spends with all 4, FT estimated a combined annual take of greater than $120m.

That’s not bad, but it’s peanuts compared to the market opportunity.  Click to Read More

Positive earnings remain elusive for TiVo (Nasdaq:TIVO) but despite turbulent markets, the "time shift" pioneer may be getting ever so slightly closer. After the close or markets Wednesday, Tivo released Q3 earnings. The numbers were somewhere between flat and positive.

For the quarter ended October 31st, Tivo posted a net loss of $8.24m (8c a share), substantially better than a loss of $11.1m (12c a share) for the same period last year. The return was also far better than last quarter which suffered due to inventory write downs. The consensus analyst expectations were for a loss of 13c a share. Tivo beat the street by a penny.

Click to Read More

Like much of the media industry, the U.K.’s  BBC is struggling to adapt the changing ways consumers are quenching their information thirsts.  At times, it seems like they’re trying everything, like anything goes; especially over the past few months.

In July, BBC released a second Beta test for peer to peer media player software dubbed iPlayer.  In October, the Financial Times and other publications reported  that as much as 12% of BBC staff would be layed off.  Now, November, add joint venture to the mix.

Tuesday, several UK top broadcasters including the BBC (BBC Worldwide),  ITV and Channel 4, announced they will jointly launch an on-demand Internet video joint venture in 2008. The partnership, which is codenamed “Project Kangaroo,” sounds a lot like NBC Universal and News Corps recently launched (beta) Hulu platform.

Click to Read More

Shortly after EchoStar bought Sling Media in September the story mills starting grinding out reports that no sooner than Sling was absorbed, they’d be spun off into a new company with EchoStar splitting itself in half.   That buzz gained ferocity a few days later on rumors that AT&T was circling to acquire one half.  The stock surged and one analyst at Oppenheimer even  upgraded his rating from Neutral to Buy. 

From late September forward, the writing was on the wall that EchoStar was in some way putting itself in play.  Their Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen confirmed they were exploring it.  Now, courtesy of an information statement filed with the SEC, details of the proposed spin-off are starting to emerge.  A buyer could still step  in to pick up one side before this all plays out, but one way or another,  it’s looking pretty certain the company will split.  In fact, it seems it’s not so much a matter of if as when.

Per the deal described in the preliminary review documents, it looks to be a stock distribution to existing investors.   The current company would divide into two halves and trade as two separate companies on Nasdaq.  Half one, which retains the  EchoStar Communications Corporation name, would be renamed  Dish Network Corporation.  It would become home to the Dish Network satellite television service.  Their 13.7m subscribers would remain with them. 

Click to Read More

MTV Networks (Viacom) may own game developer Harmonix, and they may be working with Electronic Arts on the heavily hyped Rock Band game, but those relationships won’t preclude MTVN from working with other game companies too. There’s no conflict, especially when it comes to advertising on their TV stations.

Monday, MTVN and rival game publisher Ubisoft struck a substantial promotional deal to advertise Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed title. Beginning November 7th, ads and even two minute "sneak peak" trailers of the game will run on Comedy Central and Spike. Click to Read More

Few companies are victims of more pre-launch scrutiny than Hulu.  The NBC/Universal and News Corp joint venture has been derided as too little too late.  Some have called it a YouTube killer. Others’ have called it a bad joke.  It’s been challenged as an impossible, ill-conceived dream. The video site has even but mocked with the literally intended nickname Clown Co.   … and all that is without putting forth a single service or feature for critics to feed on.

Today that changes. With the launch of an invitation-only public Beta, Hulu will finally face critics head-on.  At last, the questions, all theoretical until now, are up for measurement.  

Click to Read More

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