Seth Gilbert, 10-23-2007
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.
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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, 10-9-2007
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.
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Seth Gilbert, 10-3-2007
With the start of the fall television season, a great deal of attention is focused on traditional media companies’ online efforts. Who’s streaming what. Premiers being aired online before television. Much of the discussion is centered on the television networks and their experimentation with video distribution strategies and platforms. In the cacophony of all this noise, Disney, despite being the parent of a major network (ABC), has managed to stay relatively unnoticed. Disney’s efforts are worth calling out.
Over this past year, Disney has launched a handful of online content and gaming communities. They’ve redesigned some of their existing properties. They’ve even bolstered their portfolio with the purchase of popular children’s destination, Club Penguin. The combined efforts are paying off.
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Seth Gilbert, 09-25-2007
Friday, place-shifting TV technology company Sling Media announced a deal to stream NFL games to DirecTV customers. The move away from consumer hardware and software and into business to business services came as a surprise. Even more surprising is Sling’s Monday evening announcement. The company announced it will sell itself to DirecTV competitor Echostar (operating of Dish Network) for approximately $380m.
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Seth Gilbert, 09-12-2007
Sometimes there is greater value in the sum of a company’s parts, other times, breaking things up just leads to confusion and lost value (or lost customers). Fearing the latter to be the case with their web strategy, MTV Networks is regrouping some of their slate of websites into a new consolidated property.
In a tip of the hat to the rapid growth of Spike TV, the new site will be called Spike.com. It will be home to the former Spike TV website along with video site iFilm. Some content from gaming site GameTrailers and Xfire will also move over though those properties will retain their own URL’s.
The new site will target the same audiences in the 18-34 age group as they did when operated individually but as a consolidated effort, and with audience overlap erased, the company hopes they’ll now be better positioned for ad sales. (And single ad team should mean lower cost overhead too) Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 09-10-2007
Joining a host of production houses from startups to media powerhouses, Warner Brothers will release a wide offering of original video programming for Internet distribution.
The new programming, expected to be revealed today in greater detail, reverses an initial strategy that aimed to offload production costs onto advertisers. Instead, as part of revitalized web strategy that includes a television spin off of their site TMZ.com and a planned animation-only video portal (called T-Works) , Warner is planning to spend at least $3m for web production.
The slate of content will include at least 24 productions in formats ranging from games and serials to short films. Click to Read More
