« December 2005 | Main | February 2006 »
January 31, 2006
Old Media Grabbing Onto New Media In Fight For Survival?
Paul R. La Monica, who writes for CNNMoney.com, says industry observers are seeing a heating up of the M&A market this year, resulting in higher share prices for companies in the sector. The recent acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios by the Walt Disney Company and the merger of UPN and The WB are just the beginning.
Rik Toulon, a partner in the entertainment practice of law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman, tells La Monica, "The industry is so fiercely competitive. Everyone is focused on how to maximize profits and best use assets. It's pretty frenetic out there."
The upcoming spate of quarterly earnings announcements, which analysts expect will be decent but unspectacular, only serves to fuel speculation about mergers. "These companies somehow need to change the perception that old media is passé," says Joe Bonner, an analyst with Argus Research. "Old media is trying to grab on to the new generation of media properties."
January 26, 2006
What! You mean paper is not the most efficient way to do business?
There is an article at MediaPost entited 'Top MediaCom Buyer Gives Stations The eBiz, Demands Paperless Invoicing.' Essentially, it says that MediaCom's Anne Elkins wants to "shift completely away from paper invoicing."
"We believe that this is an absolute necessity for doing business now and in the future," she wrote, adding that e-invoicing saves time for both sides and cuts down on errors. Elkins, evp-director of local broadcast, is a member of an industry task force on e-business.
The TVB says about 1,000 stations and 15 major agencies are now sending invoices electronically.
I am sure that the author of this article got all the facts and quotes correct. But it does miss a major point of what is happening in agency/station eBusiness transactions. Namely, Donovan Data Systems has started to sign up many rep firms and station groups in a complete eBiz solution called MediaOcean. NBC's O&O's were the first to embrace this direction.
That electronic transaction and workflow solution covers so many more topics than invoicing alone and that is where the real action is at. It is like comparing a modern figher aircraft to one from decades ago. There really is no comparison.
It appears that some stations are signing up for MediaOcean because they sense that someday media buyers just might stop purchasing ad inventory that is more costly to process, thereby, creating more agency overhead costs. That is the same basic thrust of why paper invoices have to go, too.
Hint, hint: the agencies are competing on very slim margins and transactional efficiency is very important.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 04:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJanuary 24, 2006
Atom Entertainment to Fund Video Shorts
 |
Do you ever start to wonder if the hundreds of billions of dollar spent on Internet and cell phone video technology only exists to make it easier to watch reruns of Welcome Back Kotter but this time on demand? Atom Entertainment at least is doing something original.
They have begun funding programming through a new division, called AtomFilm Studios. Geared toward original content, the broadband play stands in sharp contrast to the repurposed TV programming pushed online in recent months.
Atom will fund at least five video projects in the first quarter, including a reality series based on Craigslist's Casual Encounters and a "stop-motion homage to old school videogames."
These and future video endeavors will be published to the AtomFilms site and its online and mobile entertainment partners. AtomFilms.com is supported by advertising, and revenue from distribution partnerships comes through a combination of ads and syndication fees.
The scale of the projects is much smaller than what's standard in television production, and so are the budgets.
"There will be things that are thousands of dollars, and things that are tens of thousands of dollars," said Megan O'Neill, VP of content acquisitions for Atom Entertainment. It depends on the pitch, if it's a series or just a one-off."
Earlier broadband initiatives from Atom have included exclusive relationships with JibJab Media.
Four Major Players Give Boost To Mobile Television
 |
Intel, Motorola, Nokia, and Texas Instruments yesterday agreed to work together to promote a common standard for broadcasting digital TV on mobile devices, such as cell phones.
They have all gotten behind a technology known as DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting--Handheld), which will have the effect of accelerating the trend toward mobile TV. The loser here is San Diego-based Quaalcom, which has developed a competing technology (MediaFLO).
"Mobile TV efforts are heating up after a slew of mobile entertainment announcements earlier this month at the International Consumer Electronics Show," reports Red Herring.
While some companies, such as Samsung and LG Electronics, have said they intend to support both the DVB-H and MediaFLO technologies, the creation yesterday of the four-partner tech alliance clearly gives DVB-H a leg up. The technology will allow users to receive live TV on cell phones, with on-demand an interactive functions. However, notes Red Herring, there are a number of companies, including Sprint, that have adapted neither of the existing mobile TV standards and are attempting to establish platforms of their own.
January 23, 2006
MSN Names Ad Partner for Live Streaming Events
Excerpts from ClickZ News:
Microsoft tapped Lightningcast to handle video ad management for MSN Video's live streaming events, an area portal execs have described as growing in strategic importance.
Lightningcast has supported some real-time online events for Microsoft since 2004, when it began serving ads into WindowsMedia.com's Media Guide. Among other events, it has supported MSN's live streams of Fox Sports college football broadcasts and its own coverage of the New Year's Eve festivities in Times Square.
The company launched its dedicated platform for live streaming video and audio back in July. The offering addresses the unique problems of ad management within streamed, real-time events. For instance, it removes and replaces ads that may already occupy a broadcast video feed... The platform also has support for display ad elements that are synchronized with a streaming ad.
Serving ads in live streaming events, a growing area of interest to all the portals, poses inherent challenges to inventory prediction. Portals are accustomed to forecasting inventory in terms of impressions and pageviews, whereas with live events, duration of time watched is an equally important metric. Lightningcast claims to address this by analyzing the historical duration of user connections for its publisher clients. However, it remains difficult to predict the audience for certain types of real-time events. In the case of AOL's coverage of the Live8 concerts, for instance, the number of streams was far beyond what most industry watchers anticipated.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 07:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 17, 2006
Google is acquiring a radio advertising company, broadening the reach of its ad business.
Google will pay $102 million in cash for DMarc Broadcasting, a Newport Beach, Calif., company that works with radio advertisers.
My quick review of their web site indicates that DMarc can identify demographic/spot market combinations to meet advertiser goals, has some sort of distribution/delivery mechanism, inventory management, and reporting.
The deal calls for Google to make additional cash payments based on product integration, net revenue and advertising inventory targets. Those payments could total $1.13 billion over the next three years, Google said.
Google plans to integrate DMarc technology into its AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers. This may be how they think about television, too.
Kevin Newcomb had some interesting comments about the acquisition. Here are some excerpts that interest me:
While the move may be surprising at first, a deeper look shows Google's platform can potentially be applied to many kinds of media, bringing the same benefits of an auction-based, pay-for-performance model to other channels. It's likely Google believes it can do a few things in the radio business, including making radio advertising more accessible to the "long tail" of advertisers, and making radio advertising more targeted and measurable, Jeff Lanctot, VP of media at Avenue A | Razorfish, said.
"If you consider those benefits, they really aren't search- or Web-specific. Over the next several quarters and years, I think Google will try to take this same approach with newspapers, magazines and TV; they would like to be the marketplace where all media is bought and sold," Lanctot said.
Radio makes sense as a starting point, both for its similarity to search in its historic direct response focus, as well as for its potential ties to Google's local efforts. "Local businesses could turn to Google for a package that includes search listings, radio spots...and eventually TV spots and newspaper ads," Lanctot said.
... "Offline advertisers will ... come to expect detailed reports and accountability. They'll want to know how effective the radio ad was and whether it resulted in new business," Beal said. "The same level of accountability that search marketers have been held to will now apply to traditional advertising..."
Google will need to address the question of who will manage the creative process... A likely scenario is one that gives advertisers a self-service option to choose elements of a radio ad script and then use a partner to record them. A similar approach is taken by SpotRunner, which last week launched a tool that offered a similar service for local spot cable ads.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJanuary 16, 2006
Say Bravo to ad-supported broadband networks
NBC Universal's Bravo Network announced plans to launch a suite of ad-supported broadband sites throughout the coming year. The broadband sites will build on the network's main hub online, BravoTV.com.
You can write this down in your TV diary
VNU officially went into play this morning, announcing it has received a buy-out offer from a consortium of private equity firms valued at about $8.8 billion.
The consortium includes AlpInvest Partners, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Permira and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
While the companies did not disclose their plans for VNU, they are expected to sell the assets of VNU piecemeal to other companies. VNU is the parent of Nielsen Media Research, ACNielsen and business publications such as Adweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.
Whoa there buster, you're moving too fast for me
Each industry sector tends to create B2B electronic systems that help reduce cost, improve accuracy, and speed transactions between the companies within that particular ecosystem. If you made a list of industries and wrote down what B2B systems are in place, the largest on the list without any significant notation would likely be advertising.
Full disclosure: I’ve been involved with this arcane topic for too many years of my career when I used to run one of the companies in this space and many of my consulting clients employ me to help them with B2B solutions.
But why do I stay involved? Simple, the complexity of transacting commercials for linear television pales in comparison to what will happen in non-linear, video on demand requirements for the future. In other words, if the ad industry has not fully gotten its ‘plumbing’ together yet, what is it going to do 3 years from now?
On Friday, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) unveiled yet another new initiative designed to help speed the development of "eBiz" solutions for media buying and selling. The 4A’s mission is to design and convert all transactions between buyers and sellers to a fully electronic communications system.
When you really have not accomplished much, it is always wise for a non-profit industry group to hold another meeting and release more press announcements.
(excerpts from MediaDailyNews)
 |
… Dubbed the eBiz for Media Lab, the project is designed to provide a centralized location where media agencies, media companies, and their software vendors can share information and data on their progress and the systems they currently use to conduct electronic transactions…
... However, many efforts have been made independently and some companies have made more progress than others. As a result, a common set of guidelines has yet to be established. One of the purposes of the eBiz for Media Lab is to let all the participants share non-proprietary information that can lead to industry wide standards.
 |
[This is] a controlled environment with live data where standard message formats are used. Sending, delivering, and acknowledging receipt of live data between the agencies and media companies is achieved, and the data is sent not via e-mail but via transaction hubs that work with the traffic/sales and media buying systems…
Did you notice one of those vast improvements? Data might not be sent by e-mail! Whoa there buster, you're moving too fast for me.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJanuary 11, 2006
Consumers Prefer Ads To VOD Fees
 |
One of my core business beliefs is that there are opportunities in connecting advertisers to non-linear, video on demand streams. I don’t say that because I like commercials. I don’t say that because I make or sell ads. I say it because people accept advertising as a necessary factor in keeping television free and there is a lot of money spent today on linear television programs. That money has to somehow find its way into VOD.
Wayne Friedman in MediaDailyNews wrote an article today that helps prove my proposition. Here are select quotes:
|
New research suggests that consumers, almost three to one, would rather see commercials than pay $1.99 for a download... The study comes from research companies, Points North Group and Horowitz Associates, who did a telephone survey of 800 people last November.
The question asked of respondents: If you missed your favorite TV show and wanted to watch it afterwards, would you pay $1.99 or have it free with commercials?" Overall, 62 percent said they would rather have commercials than pay $1.99. Seventeen percent said they would pay the download fee, and 21 percent were undecided.
Opposition to paying a fee is even stronger with younger adults, says the survey. Consumers 18-34 prefer free, ad-supported content 68 percent of the time--as compared to 26 percent, who prefer to pay a fee. Five percent of those consumers were undecided.
 |
This research is good news for advertisers--as they could be more involved with VOD content, said Leddy. Still, he adds that VOD deals will need to be careful. "Unless the advertising is short and sweet, it won't work in the VOD environment."
It is interesting to note that in all the Internet television and iPod VOD deals that have been announced by major media companies, only one deal has been structured in which consumers watch free content with commercials -- Time Warner and AOL.
January 06, 2006
Akimbo links up with MovieLink, adds new set top box
from the San Jose Mercury News:
Akimbo announced a potentially lucrative deal with MovieLink to deliver movies over the Internet to consumers' televisions. Akimbo provides its broadband content services over the Web, but will now produce a set top box manufactured by Thomson and sold under the RCA brand in an attempt to attract more customers.
The notion of bringing movies to television screens via the Internet represents a new method of distribution for movie studios and television companies, and presents a real threat to cable companies, analysts said.
Other companies are also making similar moves. Netflix has hinted at bringing video-on-demand to the Internet, having recently partnered with the Independent Film Channel to distribute its movies over the Web. Akimbo's new service is fairly similar, but it will offer TiVo-like functionality to consumers that lets them watch content on their TVs. Analysts warned that consumers could be reluctant to add another set top box to their TV screens. Akimbo plans to bring the new product to market in April.
January 05, 2006
Google to offer Video Downloads
There is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal called ‘Google to Offer Video Downloads, Software That Rivals Microsoft's’ which I find interesting. It looks somewhat like Apple’s iTunes service, with the emphasis being on using the PC as the video viewing platform.
 |
What is interesting to me is that Google (a company who receives 98% of their revenue from advertising) is monetizing the video through a traditional ‘purchase’ mechanism. My initial thought is that it this strategy is the easiest way to get high-quality content from partners like CBS initially. Then, when that model inevitably pressured to move to an ad-supported structure, Google will be well positioned to be a leader in that model.
Excerpts from that article:
|
The search company also plans to announce Google Pack, a bundle of software from Google and other companies that consumers will be able to download and install on their computers... That software will include … RealNetworks Inc.'s RealPlayer multimedia software... Google Pack will also include Google's own desktop search software, Google Earth satellite imaging and maps software, Picasa photo-management software, Google Talk instant-messaging program, its Toolbar add-on for Web browsers and screen saver software.
… Google Pack, which could eventually come preinstalled when people buy some new personal computers, is one way for Google to promote alternatives to Microsoft. It doesn't, however, appear to include productivity applications, such as word-processor software, that would compete more directly with Microsoft's core software business. A Microsoft spokesman wasn't able to comment.
|
Some details of Google's online video service remain unclear, such as how much content owners might charge consumers to download their videos. Google last year had said it planned to allow content owners to charge for videos, but it hadn't activated that feature. Interest in delivering video over the Internet has surged since October, when Apple began offering downloads of popular TV shows through a partnership with Walt Disney Co. Google has developed its own digital-rights-management software to protect downloaded videos from piracy.
January 02, 2006
Woo, woo. ROO wins $5.1M from VC's
ONLINE VIDEO BROADCASTER ROO GROUP, Inc. completed $5.1 in private equity financing, the company announced Thursday. The financing was completed by broker dealers Burnham Hill Partners, a division of Pali Capital, Inc., and Brimberg and Co.
