March 08, 2006
First Time since 2001
 |
The Big Six networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN and WB -- collectively took in $22.3 billion last year, down from $22.37 billion the prior year, as a half-dozen of last year’s top 10 advertisers as measured by TNS, including Procter & Gamble Co., DaimlerChrysler and Johnson & Johnson, reduced their spending.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 04:54 PM | Comments (1848) | TrackBackA little thought about AT&T
Just a little observation about the proposed AT&T merger.
AT&T's footprint is already bigger than the biggest cable company. Also, the new telco's market capitalization will be more than the entire cable industry combined.
But I recall working with the cable industry when AT&T purchased TCI. The telco did not know what to do with television then. I doubt it has learned what to do with it since selling out to Comcast. So, I it is still Comcast's business to lose.
February 15, 2006
The Dog eat my rating point
NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH ANNOUNCED plans to add college students living away from home into its national TV ratings sample beginning in early 2007, marking the first time it will incorporate a so-called "out-of-home" viewing segment into its regular ratings panel.
Based on a series of special out-of-home measurement studies, the impact on TV audience levels and advertising rates may be quite explicit, raising ratings for some programs by as much as a full rating point. At least that's the conclusion of a two-year Nielsen pilot study commissioned by Turner Broadcasting, The WB, CBS, MTV Networks, Fox, and ESPN.
January 24, 2006
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.
December 30, 2005
TNT Ends 2005 on Top as Most-Watched Ad Supported Cable Channel
From Mediaweek via MediaDailyNews:
 |
 |
Not only did TNT conclude the year as the most-watched ad supported cable channel, the network also has the most viewers in the 18 to 49 demographic (1.17 million) and the 25 to 54 demographic (1.24 million) for the fourth year in a row. USA Network placed second, and FX's Nip/Tuck was the most watched show among 18- to 49-year-olds, according to Nielsen Media Research.
December 22, 2005
Big Apple Feeds TV
Hat tip to Craig Sender for pointing out an article in Broadcasting and Cable. It helps point out that the idea of television is changing. I wonder if some of the cell phone viewers will also be in Times Square?
|
|
For the first time, feeds will be available to mobile phone companies and IPTV carriers. The feeds are nonexclusive but meant only for TV programming related to the festivities.
December 18, 2005
I can't wait to watch Lord of the Rings on my 2" cell phone screen!
Do you want to watch video on your cell phone? Are you willing to pay for it?
An April 2005 JupiterResearch ask 1,100 people questions like those. Of those respondents, 44 percent said they would be interested in video at all. Only 19 percent said they'd consider paying for a video service.
Of those that would be interested, 25 percent said they would watch 30-minute live TV shows, and 21 percent would watch 60-minute live TV shows. Only 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively, would pay for those same services.
 |
See also: But will my phone ring when my TV show is about to start? |
|
See also: MobiTV to Sell Video Ads on Cell Phones |
December 16, 2005
Top ad-supported Cable Networks for 2005
According to Nielsen Media Research:
TNT is the top ad-supported cable network YTD, averaging 2.58 million total viewers in prime time.
USA is in second, with an average 2.31 million prime time viewers.
Nick at Nite is third, with 1.89 million.
ESPN is fourth, with 1.79 million.
Fox News Channel is fifth, with 1.78 million.
December 14, 2005
In his own words ...
 |
 |
Every week there are 436,000 illegal downloads of Battlestar Galactica. Clearly, someone is downloading it and watching it on a smaller screen. Ever since iTunes went online with video, there have been 500,000 downloads per week. It's pretty clear people want to watch this stuff. Now, given that we are selling Battlestar Galactica for $1.99, there is finally a legitimate model in place.
Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal Television Group President, answering the question: Do people want to watch 30- and 60-minute shows on smaller screens?Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:25 PM | Comments (427) | TrackBack
Read the entire interview in Broadcasting & Cable. Subscription required.
But will my phone ring when my TV show is about to start?
|
Apple's Video iPod has contributed to an acceptance of watching mobile video on a tiny 2" screen. If so, then my original opinion that people would not watch TV on their cell phones could be wrong.
Royal Philips Electronics has been a longtime proponent of mobile TV viewing. Executives there said earlier this year that they expect more than 50% of handsets worldwide will come with TV capability by 2013.
The electronics giant announced it will introduce to the U.S. next year the mobile TV broadcast chipsets it has successfully tested in Europe and Japan.
Stock speculators might want to look at Crown Castle Mobile Media (ticker: CCI) because Phillips will partner with them. That stock is already up over 60% YTD. Crown Castle also owns certain broadcast spectrum rights and plans to launch a mobile broadcast network in the U.S. in 2006.
Phillips' new chipset is its first all-in-one broadcast solution for wireless handset makers. Nokia is testing the chips in Europe, but we do not know who will use the chips in the U.S.
Competing chipmakers such as Texas Instruments and Qualcomm also have announced plans for broadcast phone chips. Qualcomm announced a similar all-in-one chipset solution two weeks ago. That chipset uses a different standard that Qualcomm said Verizon will use for real-time broadcasting; no launch date has been revealed.
Finding content is an issue:
Do you have anything a little more ... post-Police Academy?
by John Paczkowski at Good Morning Silicon Valley
12/15/05
HBO will put clips from its series, specials and sports programming on a new on-demand streaming video service being launched early next year by Cingular.
HBO Links With Cingular for Exclusive Content Deal
Broadcasting and Cable
December 09, 2005
Follow the Money (in Hi-Def)
Comcast Corp. is expected to spend the same amount of money on capital expenditures in 2006 — $3.4 billion — as it did in 2005, according to a new research study by Sanford C. Bernstein.
Comcast's strategy of deploying high-definition digital video recorder combination boxes has put Comcast far ahead of competitors in HD-readiness. By the end of 2005, Comcast will have pre-positioned HD in 24% of digital homes.
For those of you who look for investment plays: these boxes are supplied by Comcast to their digital customers for free and it is Motorola who supplies them.
December 08, 2005
I may not defend my neighbor's television habits, but I defend to the death his right to watch it
 |
There is no need to come up with additional puns or insights. Click on the link to read the entire article, but here are the best excerpts.
(excerpts from George Will's article 'The Inalienable Right to a Remote')
|
Feeling flush with (other people's) cash, the Senate has concocted a novel way to spend $3 billion: create a new entitlement. The Senate has passed -- and so has the House, with differences -- an entitlement to digital television.
If this ... becomes law, everyone who owns old analog television sets ... will get subsidies to pay for making those sets capable of receiving digital signals.
... this story illustrates the timeless truth that no matter how deeply you distrust the government's judgment, you are too trusting
Why is this a crisis? Because ... by April 2009 broadcasters must end analog transmissions and the government will have auctioned the analog frequencies for various telecommunications purposes. For the vast majority of Americans, April 2009 will mean . . . absolutely nothing. Nationwide, 85 percent of all television households (and 63 percent of households below the poverty line) already have cable or satellite service.
.. Today a digital-capable set with a flat-screen display can be purchased from -- liberals, please pardon the mention of your Great Satan -- Wal-Mart for less than $460. But compassionate conservatism has a government response to the crisis ...
... The $990 million House version of this entitlement -- call it No Couch Potato Left Behind -- is (relatively) parsimonious: Consumers would get vouchers worth only $40 and would be restricted to a measly two vouchers per household. The Senate's more spacious entitlement would pay for most of the cost -- $50 to $60 -- of the converter boxes. But there is Republican rigor in this: Consumers would be required to pay $10. That is the conservatism in compassionate conservatism.
... defenders of this entitlement argue that taxpayers will not be burdened by its costs because the government's sale of the analog frequencies will yield perhaps $10 billion.
|
Think about that: Because the government may get $10 billion from one transaction, taxpayers are unburdened by government's giving away $3 billion with another transaction...
Simply amazing. Maybe we can get Congress to underwrite VOD content next!
Looks like some portion of this hair-brained scheme was included in the final bill.
House OKs Digital Broadcast Conversion Plan
by Mitch Shapiro at IP & Democracy
December 02, 2005
Ariana Huffington, I got your next cause right here!
 |
(excerpt from CNet's 'Energy hogs in your living room')
TVs are the biggest energy beasts of the high-tech gadget world. Alone, they account for 4 percent of the nation's annual residential electricity consumption. That's roughly the same amount of energy used annually by all households in the state of New York. Factor in peripherals -- like DVD players, set-top boxes, game systems and TiVo machines -- and TV-related energy consumption can shoot up to more than 10 percent of the average household's annual electric bill.
Plasma TVs in particular have become the home's equivalent of a gas-guzzling SUV, consuming two to three times more energy than other smaller types of TVs. Some models can suck up as much electricity each year as a refrigerator.
The group estimates that reducing active-mode energy consumption in TVs by 25 percent could save the U.S. more than 10 billion kilowatt hours a year, enough energy to power the state of Delaware for a year.
November 13, 2005
Hello? I can't talk now, I'm watching Lost
Back in the 90's, there was a venture capital clique that goes something like "a technology in search of a solution." As in so many areas of media, the fact that a technology exists to do something doesn't mean consumers will rush to adopt it. In the case of downloadable TV, it appears that they will not.
The U.S. market for downloadable TV is likely to remain tiny for many years, with relatively few cell phone users bothering to take advantage of the feature.
(excepts from Media Life Magazine)
According to a recent study from Mobinet conducted among 4,000 cell phone users in 21 countries. A joint venture between Cambridge University in Britain and the consulting firm A.T. Kearney in Chicago, Mobinet found that around the world just 15 percent of cell phone users were willing to pay to watch TV shows on their cell phones.
That figures rises among younger people. About 24 percent of cell subscribers under 25 years old told researchers they were willing to pay for content.
Among all those surveyed, 49 percent said their first choice would be news clips. Sports came in a distant second at 17 percent. Entertainment followed, with music videos at 16 percent, movies, 9 percent, and TV soap operas and reality shows, 8 percent.
These results are hardly surprising when you think about it, say the researchers. Who wants to watch a TV show on their cell phone?
“If you can wait until you reach your office or home, you are most likely not going to watch it on a cell phone. That’s why the applications that are time-sensitive, like news and sports, fit very well. There is a value to that.”
The study found that cell phone subscribers in North America were the least interested in TV content. Only 6 percent said they're willing to pay to download TV clips.
Of course, video features and the promise of a boatload of streaming ads on cell phones have long been talked about, but so far with little to show for it.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 07:02 PM | Comments (40) | TrackBackNovember 06, 2005
Cablevision To Pay Big Dividend
We can likely do without this story, but it is just too interesting to wonder what is going on in the dysfunctional company called Cablevision. If it were not for the fact that the Dolan's have over 3 Million subscribers in the most highly desirable market of NYC, this company would be close to worthless.
By John M. Higgins -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/2/2005 5:51:00 PM
Cablevision’s board authorized the company to move ahead with a massive $3 billion one-time dividend that would pay investors $10.25 per share in cash.
The move is remarkable, given that the company’s stock trades for around $25 per share. Talk of the dividend should help support Cablevision’s share price following the collapse of a plan by Chairman Chuck Dolan to take the company private. However, borrowing money and actually paying it out should ultimately reduce the price to around $15.
The dividend would pay the Dolan family that controls the company $600 million. Some investors are clamoring for the company to instead use its financial capacity to shrink the company’s equity base by repurchasing stock. But the primary beneficiaries would be arbitrageurs who bought Cablevision stock around $31 after the Dolans announced their deal and are now in tremendous financial pain since the deal collapsed.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:52 PM | Comments (83) | TrackBackCable: "Triple Play is Passe, We Offer Cell Phone Service, too"
There was a development this week that pushes forward the idea of using cell phones to watch TV.
(excerpts from a November 3, 2005 Wall Street Journal article)
"Subscribers won't have to pick from a menu of prerecorded shows but can watch live TV shows as they are aired, as well as programs they've recorded on their digital video recorders at home. And if they miss their favorite show, they'll be able to program their digital video recorder by clicking a few buttons on their cellphone."
 |
"The new service, which will become available in the first six months of next year [2006], will also enable subscribers to interact with their home computers and TVs on their cellphones."
This service links Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Advance/Newhouse to Sprint's wireless service. Subscribers will need cellphones that can operate at broadband-like speeds. Sprint recently began making some models available for between $230 and $250, including a rebate.
"Together they serve about 41 million households. Other cable companies may join the group later. Sprint and the cable operators promised to commit $200 million initially to the venture, which has a 20-year term. No other cellphone providers will be able to offer the service with these cable companies for three years."
There is a contridiction in the WSJ article that goes unanswered. It is this: the cable companies offer a richer 'live' TV option but Comcast apparently believes that viewers are interested in 'snippets' of content, not the whole program.
This contradiction implies that Comcast mostly wants to bundle cell-phone service into a cable quadruple play to compete against the telco's as IPTV rolls out. It might not matter to them if subscribers actually end up using cell phones for television.
Other cellphone companies currently offer some live TV. ... But the program lineup offered by the cable venture is expected to be much richer, with the cable companies aiming to offer live programming from dozens of channels.
"... Starting next year, consumers will be able to get Sprint cellphone service from their cable companies, along with TV, land-line phone service and high-speed Internet connections."
"Cable-company executives believe TV on a small screen will develop into a medium that's different from traditional television. Cellphone TVs will never replace the feel of watching a football game or a movie on a big-screen TV and probably won't be used for extended viewing. But experts predict they will become increasingly popular for watching news clips, music videos and parts of programs specially designed for the small-screen format."
"We call them snippets," said Brian Roberts, Comcast's chief executive. He suggested a snippet might be just David Letterman's "Top 10" list from the previous night or the last inning of a baseball game. "What we're doing today is enabling that next generation of content," he said.Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:11 PM | Comments (10180) | TrackBack
October 03, 2005
Cable: "I have the eyeballs" Broadcast: "I have the ad dollars"
The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau is pointing out that cable's ad-supported networks have a 9 share point advantage over broadcast for the first week of the new TV season, representing the biggest gap ever for a premiere week, Mediapost reports. Cable's share, in the week of Sept. 19-25, was 54.3, while broadcast's was 45.0.
Dig a little into the numbers and we see that cable's viewership growth is coming from smaller networks, not the biggies. Just another reminder that television media consumption is increasingly made up of numerous micro-audiences.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 11:45 AM | Comments (190) | TrackBackSeptember 22, 2005
Is that a phone in your pocket, or are you just glad to see TV?
|
There has been buzz about mixing cell phones and television. In fact, there are two real approaches to it. MobiTV is the cellphone-TV entry from Sprint/Nextel and Cingular Wireless; offering 25 live television channels. Vcast from Verizon Wireless is the other.
My take is that neither of these will grow into a vibrant medium for television. Don't get me wrong, I can see very specific situations where I might wish I had one or the other services. But will I go out and pick out a cell phone and provider and be willing to pay to see this stuff. No.
An article today in the WSJ said it best:
"Few people are going to come home, pop open a beer and watch their cellphone anytime soon. But there may be a market for those who spend time on public transportation or waiting in lines."
Another angle on the business potential for this service: A consumer that pays $70 for digital cable, $30 for broadband, and $40 for cell phone service each month is paying almost $1700 a year for television, voice, and data. I don't believe that cell phone television is worth paying another $120 to get some of the same content (with lower quality and fewer options).
Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:47 PM | Comments (304) | TrackBackSeptember 21, 2005
Welcome to Television, the only $60 Billion Industry where everything is a guess
When it comes to television ratings, Nielsen is the gold standard effecting billions of dollars. I have been amazed at how much money in television rides on such sketchy ratings numbers.
Arbitron's Portable People Meters (PPMs) have been trotted out as a new way of gathering more accurate data. PPMs are a pager-like device that participants carry with them for at least eight hours a day.
Some recent results from Houston (Nielsen’s 10th-largest TV market) are being reported in Broadcasting and Cable. (Sorry, pay subscription required)
"In Houston, just 7% of TV households with a digital video recorder are watching recorded shows and out-of-home TV viewing accounted for 15% of overall TV viewing."
That 7% DVR number looks low to me. In my household DVR-recorded programs account for over 95% of all telvision watching. If the PPM data is indicative of what is going on out there, advertisers have less to fear from the device because it would mean a low consumer usage rate.
Arbitron also compared its PPM results to Nielsen ratings from the July ratings period and found "ratings increases in nearly every daypart, with early morning, day time and weekends seeing the largest gains. Spanish-language TV stations and medium-sized cable networks experienced the largest gains, but the Big Four broadcast networks increased ratings 15% in adults 18-49 years old under the PPMs, Arbitron said."
"The PPMs do alter the competitive landscape. In July, ABC affiliate KTRK ranked No. 1 in the Nielsen sample and the PPM survey. However, with PPMs, Univision affiliate KXLN ranked second, while CBS station KHOU was No. 2 with the Nielsen data."Posted by Martino Mingione at 10:35 AM | Comments (1148) | TrackBack
September 09, 2005
Now, let's turn to Ed for commentary from his Lazy-boy
 |
Beginning today, CBS SportsLine will feature on its front page what it calls "TheEyebox," a video window that plays on-demand clips. The added online video content gives CBS more opportunities to sell 15-second, pre-roll video ads, which advertisers have been clamoring for, said Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media.
The site will also add user-generated content in the form of blogs that provide color commentary on sporting events as they are taking place. CBS has dubbed these live game logs "glogs."
Kramer said the initiative was not meant to compete with cable channels like ESPN, but with other Web sites. He pointed out that advertisers on CBS SportsLine can reach users at work during the day better than cable can.
So, what are the bullet points from this story besides the obvious sports/video/broadband angle?
- Television and advertising go together like
politics and corruptionbaseball and hotdogs. With a few exceptions, people basically demand free access to content and they accept that commercials are the price that they pay. As the Internet becomes a viable distributor of television-like content, It is wrong to believe that anything will change other than the advertising formats. - The Internet is a viable television delivery mechanism. Fifty years ago there was 3 ‘broadcast’ networks over the airwaves. Next those signals where sent over cable buried under a community’s streets and hundreds of niche channels were added. The third distribution change occurred when satellite TV became economically viable. What really is interesting about the strategic significance of the Internet as a fourth conduit is that, similar to broadcast, it re-establishes a direct connection between the viewer and broadcast. It also creates that direct connection with the thought of a million channels (if that is the right word) available. It is no accident that it is CBS that is aggressively pushing Internet TV.
- Finally, the Internet is non-linear. This is different from the broadcast model and allows for different forms of content that are not feasible to air over broadcast. Witness CBS SportsLine’s mixture of content aired on TV, with video that did not make the edit, with user-generated glogs.
|
CBS News is also in the Internet TV arena. |
September 01, 2005
TV Households Revised Up
Nielsen Media Research now estimates that there are 110.2 million TV households in the U.S., up from 109.6 million.
Nielsen also expanded the number of Asian TV homes, rising by 3.2 percent to 4.22 million. Hispanic TV homes are up 2.9 percent to 11.23 million, and African American homes are up by 0.8 percent to 13.2 million.
August 17, 2005
Veoh: an Internet Television Peercasting Network
 |
Veoh Networks, a San Diego start-up, is described as an Internet Television Peercasting Network. They also completed a Series A round of financing led by Shelter Capital Partners. No where could I find how large (or small) that financing round was but Dmitry Shapiro, the company’s founder, did tell me that they are well capitalized and has what he needs to solidly move forward.
One of the impressive thing about Veoh is Dmitry Shapiro. He is a specialist in peer-to-peer networking and computer security. Veoh just announced its own protocol appropriately called VeohNet. I am not in Dmitry's league of expertise so my take is to think of it like BitTorrent (swarmcasting) but even better. For example, viewers will not have to open up ports to make it work. Also, publishers can pull back content if they need to. This should go a long way to solving legitimacy issues and ease of use.
InformITV said: "Unlike unmanaged P2P networks using software such as BitTorrent to share mainly illicit copyright video, Veoh will have a community of publishers and content will be approved by editors. The system will also integrate with Google Video and RSS, providing content producers with easy publishing to multiple video systems."
The current management team is supposed to include executives and advisers from Coco-Cola, Columbia Pictures, eBay, Gateway and Musicmatch.
I have put Veoh on my radar because there is a compelling economic logic to using the Internet as a distribution mechanism that allows content providers to connect directly with viewers. There have been many postings here on content owners who are doing exactly that. Who knows, maybe Veoh can latch onto that pin action.
From what I know about their business model it is straightforward. Publishers can use a program called VeohUploader (which is due to be released tonight). Dmitry described to me that if you can handle being a seller on EBay, you can become a publisher on Veoh. A content owner can specify whether people can watch for free or pay per viewing or work under some sort of subscription model.
Les Moonves, here is your chance to test your $1 per CSI episode and see if the market place validates that price point. But the real reason I bring that up is this: if Viacom were to do that in Veoh’s business model, they simply could start tomorrow. They would not need Comcast or Time Warner’s agreement to do so. They also would not have to invest any significant money to do so. This is why Veoh can allow people to easily become their own publishers.
Obviously, one key business driver for Veoh will be to amass an audience size to make it worth the larger network’s while. This is the classic chicken and egg scenario: well branded networks want larger audiences to make it worth their while, and larger audiences show up for high-quality content. We will see how Veoh gets past this business challenge and I for one will watch their progress.
There’s not much yet at Veoh’s web site, but you can sign up for notification when their beta is ready. Another thing is that you can enjoy their word-smithing:
It will open the world of media so that every country, established or third political party, foundation, charity, cause, company, and individual has an unrestricted voice, able to reach the farthest reaches of the world, with the capacity to alter human understanding. We will be able to stop wars, expose genocide, enlighten, entertain, educate, bring together, inspire, connect, and help find love of all kinds.
We are building the next phase of the Internet, the Self Published Video Web. Think of it as Television 2.0Posted by Martino Mingione at 04:29 PM | Comments (598) | TrackBack
August 05, 2005
Tele-Vegas comes to the UK
Interactive Television (ITV) is an area of technology I try to occasionally cover here. ITV transforms the passive one way nature of television into a two-way, interactive medium. What is needed is an ITV application and consumer interest.
 |
Rupert Murdock’s BSkyB service definitely believes in that direction. In a presentation to financial analysts that followed BSkyB's financial results, CEO James Murdoch cast some light on the company's interactive TV product roadmap. Not surprisingly, it taps into the global craze for online gambling.
The company's SkyBet interactive wagering service will "pretty soon be our second-largest revenue line" he said. Therefore "obviously [it is] going to be a more relevant part of our business going forward."
SkyBet plans to take advantage of the pending liberalization of UK gaming laws which will result in casino-style gambling being permitted on interactive TV platforms (currently only fixed-odds betting games are allowed). They will launch Sky Vegas Live 2, a sister channel to its existing fixed-odds betting channel. Sky Vegas will "include more traditional gambling formats" such as "roulette, poker and other card-based games."
He displayed an image of a new poker application that Sky has developed for the channel.
"This is an interactive television application that works. We just have to get it out into the marketplace where you can play live poker in tournament-style formats with other Sky customers. If you look at the audiences for poker which have been growing a lot, and you look at the participation in it that's been growing a lot, and our ability to leverage this on a wide scale, given the number of customers we have, we really see a very exciting opportunity in the UK gaming and gambling marketplace."
If they are correct about this becoming their second largest revenue line, then Gamblers Anonymous had better start writing an ITV app, too.
August 01, 2005
Current TV Puts Viewers in Control
Digital media puts consumers in control. And with all the news about non-linear television (Internet Television and VOD), we might begin to feel that any new linear television network has little chance of succeeding. However, an interesting test to watch is Al Gore's Current TV.
Why? Consumers are increasingly taking control of their television viewing and Current TV is fighting that on-demand television trend because it is a traditional television network. But at the same time, its content will mostly come from the viewers themselves; thereby placing them in control.
 |
The new 24-hour channel is aimed at 18-34 year-olds and will initially be available to a potential audience of around 20 million homes in the United States on DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Comcast.
Based in San Francisco, the new channel says it is rethinking the way TV is produced, programmed, and presented, so it makes sense to an audience that’s accustomed to choice, control, and collaboration in everything else they do.
What this amounts to is a channel that is programmed according to the three-minute culture for those with attention deficit disorder.
The new network says “a substantial portion” of its short form programming will be provided by the audience. Each submission will soon be showcased online so that viewers and collaborators can review and rank submissions, potentially voting the best ones onto the air.
Through a partnership with Google, there will be an update each half-hour on topics that people are searching for on the web.
“The internet opened a floodgate for young people whose passions are finally being heard, but TV hasn’t followed suit. Young adults have a powerful voice, but you can’t hear that voice on television… yet,” explained Gore. “We intend to change that with Current, giving those who crave the empowerment of the web the same opportunity for expression on television. We want to transform the television medium itself, giving a national platform to those who are hungry to help create the TV they want to watch.”
“Until now, the notion of viewer participation has been limited to sending a tape to America’s Funniest Home Videos, calling an interview show, taking part in an instant poll, or voting someone off an island,” Gore added. “We’re creating a powerful new brand of television that doesn’t treat audiences as merely viewers, but as collaborators.”Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:15 PM | Comments (329) | TrackBack
July 24, 2005
The New TV Dinner
This last week we heard that Gerald Thomas, a C.A. Swanson & Sons executive, died. He was credited with inventing the TV Dinner and changing America's eating habits ever since. Now, the WSJ reports a new trend - flat panel televisions "prices have dropped precipitously, making such displays more popular" and replacing CD's music as background ambiance.
"In both homes and restaurants, televisions are being turned on -- not off -- once the first guests arrive. Café Europa, a Bethesda, Md., restaurant known more for its romantic atmosphere and Continental cuisine, recently installed a flat-panel TV above the fireplace in its lounge."
Ah, but beware for that same story recounts many evening entertainment disasters arising from this trend.
|
||||||||||||||||||
July 23, 2005
Is Television Ready for its Online Close-up?
Rebecca Lieb has some good comments that are pertinent to television content making its way onto web sites.
As recently as five years ago, media companies safely considered their Web sites mere brand extensions; summoned into existence to promote a core print or broadcast product. A site wasn't a product unto itself.
… In this new landscape, every medium must master all the media, and the real media masters want to master the Web … It must have been part of the reasoning behind AOL TimeWarner and Barry Diller's IAC. It's why top Yahoo! executives, such as Terry Semel and Lloyd Braun, were plucked from Hollywood studios.
… Will old dogs learn new tricks? … Somewhere between citizen journalism and global media conglomerates … a lot of media companies out there are cramming on new skill sets.Posted by Martino Mingione at 09:03 AM | Comments (460) | TrackBack
July 19, 2005
Nielsen will pester TV viewers every 42 minutes
 |
Most people know that Nielsen Media Research measures television audiences. Nielsen says that it has decided to prompt audience panel members who are using its new Active/Passive Meters every 42 minutes rather than whenever they change channels.
The shift to time-based prompting is because of the growth of non-linear viewing options, such as VOD and PVR, that render the old channel-based prompting model inadequate.
This new service level should really endear Nielsen further into the bossum of America.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:34 PM | Comments (29) | TrackBackJuly 17, 2005
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
 |
The recent Live 8 concerts reminds us why it is important to dig a little at the television audience numbers. Across the Internet and in some publications, the perception is that the audience watching the concert over the Internet was larger than those who watched on traditional television.
Five million for AOL and just 2.9 million for ABC! “MTV and sister station VH1 had an average viewership of only 2.2 million viewers,” the Los Angeles Times said of the channels’ “soft ratings.”
In a bit of typical post-concert analysis, the Philadelphia Inquirer said, “The Internet left cable in the dust. To put it bluntly, MTV sank and AOL soared.”
"It turns out that the ratings [were an] apples-and-oranges comparisons. AOL’s 5 million figure was a cumulative number; the average viewership was 175,000 at any one time. " [A distinction that was pointed out on this blog]
"The ABC and MTV numbers in the 2 millions were averages. The networks’ cumulative audiences: 16.2 million for ABC’s two hours of coverage, and 13.3 million and 9.1 million, respectively, for MTV’s and VHI’s eight-hour simulcasts. Oh, and AOL’s numbers were global, not just U.S."
The analysis above came from Broadcast and Cable.
Still, it is an accomplishment for an Internet audience to even begin to be compared to television. I suspect we will see more of this trend. I recall the lopsided balance in audience sizes when comparing the broadcast to cable during its early years. Today, the aggregate cable audience is larger and still growing.
|
Fresh from the Live 8 success, AOL, XM, and AEG formed a Joint Entertainment Venture |
July 15, 2005
China Tightens Controls on TV
 |
Maybe its just my simple brain, but I have never understood how a market economy and authoritarian governance can co-exist. But that is what we are told is happening in China. Nevertheless, the inherent conflict between those two macro forces is very evident in the television and radio industries.
China on Wednesday tightened controls on its television and radio stations, announcing a ban on forming partnerships with foreign broadcasters to operate channels. The rule supposedly took effect on July 7th.
From the WSJ:
"Some foreign companies such as Viacom Inc.s Nickelodeon have formed joint ventures with Chinese partners. Others sell blocks of programming, while a small group including a Chinese-language channel owned by News Corp.'s Hong Kong-based Star Group have been granted rights to broadcast to small areas of the mainland. It wasn't clear how those arrangements might be affected."
Om Malik has pointed out that China is #2 in Broadband penetration at over 28 Million. Many postings on this site have highlighted the fact that television shows and news are increasingly available as web channels. I suppose that Chinese authorities have a lot of regulatory work ahead of them.
An interesting coincidence: USA Today ran an article on the same day called "Can the future of TV be seen on the Web?"
Posted by Martino Mingione at 03:49 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBackJuly 13, 2005
I love to watch but my arm is getting tired
 |
The folks at the MIT Advertising Lab point us to where television, cell phones, and french chic may be headed. They write:
"France Telecom’s wireless unit, Orange SA, will soon roll out a new mobile video service that will let cellular phone subscribers view TV, movies, photos and broadband Internet content with a big screen viewing effect using Kopin-enabled [head mounted displays]."
I include it here because every once in a while we should look at cool gadgets worn by french chic models dressed in black.
However, I am trying to wrap my head around (oops, poor choice of phrase I suppose) exactly what the target market is here. Perhaps Parisians who want to be somewhere besides their living room; are still within a cell phone service area; and have nothing else happening around them so they watch TV?
All I know is that if the U.S. had these things, we could go to a baseball game and watch a movie instead.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 09:47 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBackDigital Convergence: TV- or PC-Based?
This thought by Sean Carton:
"Consider convergence through the eyes of us old fogies who grew up with 'old media.' Of course the TV would be the focal point of information delivery and entertainment. It's where we spent most of our time as kids getting entertained, right? Now look at convergence through the eyes of a 13-24 year old who spends more of his time in front of the computer. The idea of having to go to the living room makes less sense. Could it be the real frontier of interactive entertainment and TV programming isn't the TV but the PC?"
Maybe.
This casts some interesting new insight into Viacom's experiment with TurboNick.
|
TurboNick: Cartoons on Demand |
The Eye on America now eyes Internet VOD
 |
Yawn. Another broadcast news group is going to offer up free video clips on the Internet? This time it is CBS News. They, like other traditional media companies, want to capture TV viewers who are flocking to the Internet. OK, really they want to capture advertisers who are noticing that viewers are flocking to the Internet.
This news story in the WSJ comes on the heels of Nickelodeon 's beta test of TurboNick, which will offer both repurposed television show and original content as VOD.
|
TurboNick: Cartoons on Demand |
CBS says CBSNews.com will offer more frequent updates, with more videos available than on competing sites.
"The video will be much more timely; we may update stories six or seven times during the day," said Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media. [quote appeared in the WSJ]
By allowing Web surfers to call up videos on demand, CBSNews.com will do more than cable networks, Mr. Kramer said. He added that the cable-news business is "a burden" and not one he'd want to venture into these days.
That last quote must be why I am making a note of this story to you. Fox News, ABC, and NBC started offering news video content on the Internet a while ago, so adding CBS news is nothing earthshaking. But I think that Mr. Kramer may be right: leapfrogging directly to Internet-based VOD seems like a smarter move than starting another cable network.
UPDATE:
The changes mentioned above come as CBSNews.com lags behind rival news sites. For the month of June the Web site had an audience of 5.8 million unique users, making it 17th out of the top 20 online news providers. The list is topped by Yahoo News, with 24.9 million unique users.
Plans call for the network's general news staff to begin producing video content for round-the-clock broadband play. New online offerings will include on-demand versions of 60 Minutes, The CBS Evening News and what network executives said would be a blog-like feature incorporating video from daily staff editorial meetings.
|
For premier content airing on cable, CBS would take $1 per VOD view?. |
Aug 17, 2005
Bill Martens was named director of business development for CBSNews.com. He joins CBS from Reuters, where he was responsible for global newswire strategy in the agency’s media group. He also worked as a journalist in Asia.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 02:46 AM | Comments (705) | TrackBackJuly 12, 2005
Time Travel: the Killer App
 |
Further details have emerged on BT's plans for its broadband television service, now aiming to launch by summer 2006. BT will offer a hybrid broadband and broadcast system, combining a digital terrestrial television receiver with an Ethernet network connection.
Interestingly, they promise the ability to catch up with television programs from the previous week. Industry reports suggest that it will include an electronic guide featuring programs for fourteen days in advance and seven days previous. The ability to go back in time by up to a week is seen as the killer application.
BT says it has a license to cover all BBC programs for up to seven days, while negotiations are ongoing with other channels. Whether a blanket arrangement can be negotiated remains to be seen.
I have some news for content owners: wake up and smell the BitTorrent. Your content already is available for subsequent viewing – and not just last week’s copy!
Video Networks already offers the ability to ‘catch-up’ on particular programs with its HomeChoice service in the London area. Cable operator Telewest is planning a similar service that it calls Teleport Replay. This autumn the BBC will run a public trial of its IMP web-based peer-to-peer media player, which will offer a similar seven day window to view programs after they are first broadcast.
July 10, 2005
Interactive Television (ITV); Where is it at today?
 |
Interactive TV is one of those technologies that enable many new services but yet we know so little about. In its simplest explanation, interactivity means this: there is a 'return path' between the broadcaster and the viewer. Therefore, television can be transformed from a passive activity into an interactive one. All you need are 'ITV applications' that engage the viewer and viola!
I am not a big believer that people have a burning desire to 'interact' with their televisions. However, there are some focused ideas that make a lot of sense. For direct revenue opportunities, the main money seems to be on gaming and gambling, although the latter represents more of a challenge in the United States.
I thought it wise to review some of my notes about ITV in light of the recent news that Emuse was partnering with Five to deploy interactive sponsorship for Peugeot, and that OpenTV was giving its interactive application for The Sporting News away free to Echostar subscribers.
The most informative read about where ITV is today was an assessment by informitv.com of the Interactive Television Forum 2005 that took place in London in late June. Here are some excerpts that I find interesting:
"The general tone ... was more self-critical and less self-congratulatory than at some conferences over recent years, suggesting a mood of pragmatic realism rather than idealism at what seems like a transitional period in interactive television."
"... there is a growing recognition that interactivity is no longer an interesting add-on; it has to support the core business of television."
"There was an evident tension between a perceived need to justify the return on investment through direct consumer revenue, and a wider, more strategic approach to support the television medium. For many, it was apparent that immediate commercial objectives were the priority."
 |
I do see a significant revenue possibility in the future (defined as 3 years out at least) of using some ITV technology in a VOD advertising solution. Interactive elements can be integrated into video on demand to transform the idea of advertising from 30-second commercial inserts into one of measurable opt-in only when the viewer is interested. But I will save those rantings for another time.
The report concluded with the following industry assessment.
"... following the news that BT is teaming up with Microsoft to launch a broadband video service, there was general recognition that broadband and on-demand services offered new opportunities for interactive television ..."
"The emergence of IPTV, internet protocol television, has without doubt been one of the most important developments in the field of interactive television over the last year. The jury is still out, but billions are being bet on the outcome."
"There is a lot to learn from the UK’s interactive television experience, but there is a strong sense that the real revolution in digital television has yet to come."Posted by Martino Mingione at 09:42 AM | Comments (91) | TrackBack
July 09, 2005
The Sporting News is given away free to Echostar subscribers
OpenTV is an Interactive TV middleware company owned by Liberty Media. I keep an eye on them because they are putting together the relationships and ITV technology that might make them a significant player in the future of television. (More on this in another post).
The Sporting News is a channel developed by OpenTV and is available free of charge to subscribers of the Dish Network with compatible receivers. EchoStar Communications Corporation serves more than 11.2 million satellite television subscribers in the United States.
The Sporting News channel covers headline news, scores, standings and statistics for seven sports: National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and NCAA football and basketball.
EchoStar customers with the following OpenTV-enabled receivers can see the Sporting News channel: Model 3900, 4900, DISH 301D, 301E, 111, 311, 322, DISH Player - DVR 501, 508, 510, 522, 721, DISH 811 and DISH Player - DVR 921 and 942.
|
OpenTV's middleware resides on more than 50,000,000 set top boxes. |
|
OpenTV announced an IPTV solution. |
Nickelodeon Cartoons on Demand (NOD?)
(Update Below):
Here is another example of a cable network experimenting with Internet Television.
 |
Nickelodeon has launched a new broadband internet channel called TurboNick. The "channel" will contain 20 hours of original programming including SpongeBob SquarePants. Unlike NICK the cable network, viewers can watch TurboNick on their own time schedule.
The only bad thing I saw was that I had to fire up Internet Explorer because Nickelodeon is oblivious to the fact all the cool kids use Firefox. After finding my IE icon, I can confirm the video quality on TurboNick is TV quality.
Advertisers are showing interest. Nickelodeon has commitments from Topps, General Mills, Kellogg's, Activision and Sony Pictures. TurboNick is using Nick's existing sales force to sell the advertising, consisting of pre-roll :15 and :30 spots appearing no more than once within a five-minute period.
Nick Jr., a Nickelodeon channel targeted at pre-schoolers, is launching a new version of its "Nick Jr. Video" Web-based VOD service. According to Nickelodeon, the new version features improved video quality and more content.
Both long- and short-form programs are available on the service, and all offerings can be viewed in full-screen mode. Other content available at launch includes full-length episodes of the shows, "Dora the Explorer," "Blue's Clues," "Little Bill," "Oswald," and "Gullah Gullah Island," as well as around 70 other videos.
Programming will be refreshed on a bi-weekly basis. Among other things, the new service features playlists, and a host who helps preschoolers navigate through the site via interstitials.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackBroadband Grows 7% in Q1 2005
Broadband penetration in the U.S. is a growth market right now. Here are some statistics published by Leichtman Research Group about market size and market share as of the end of Q1 2005.
The breakout by provider is interesting as is the split between Telco's and Cable. But what interests me the most is the aggregate number: 38.87 Million subscribers. Lets put that into some perspective:
Number of television households in the U.S.: 108,500,000
Number of Cable television households: 91,400,000
Number of Broadband households: 38,867,000
What this tells me is that it is possible to build interesting VOD businesses that are Internet based. Do not read that to mean IPTV -- rather, Internet Television.
|
What is the difference between Internet Television and IPTV? |
|
MSN and Yahoo are two Internet Television plays, each signed content deals with Mark Burnett Productions. |
|
Microsoft sees that video is going to be a key driver in developing future markets. |
July 07, 2005
Now I can be a Hammock Potato
Is it too late to trademark that phrase?
TiVo created its TiVo-To-Go program that allows you to carry your recordings on portable devices such as a laptop. This blog reported about Echostar investing in Archos to do that same thing with their DVRs in a program called PocketDish.
Television is quickly becoming an "everywhere" kind of thing. Cheap hard drives, flash memory and color displays are quickly causing the TV and DVD player and portable music player to merge into a fascinating class of device called the portable media center. Everyone's getting into the act. To a lesser extent, even cell phone makers and service providers are jumping on the bandwagon. The newest cell phones will soon download songs and play video.
 |
While doing my research on Archos, the company who received the $9M investment by Echostar, I ran across what looks to be a great device -- the AV700. It really shows what happens when a number of popular consumer electronics merge together. Archos has been pressing the case for a device that is more independent of the PC and, as a result, a little more functional than Microsoft's Portable Media Centers.
The concept of the device is simple. Take a large hard drive and combine it with a nice liquid crystal display and enough electronics to sync with a PC, a TV set-top box, stereo system or other entertainment device. The result is part Apple iPod, part TiVo, and as portable as a paperback novel.
What interested me about the AV700 is the screen size and weight. There have been many portable media devices unveiled in the last year, but, at 7 inches, the AV700 is nearly twice as big. It's sufficiently large enough to watch a full-length movie or a TV show.
It's also light--weighing a bit more than 20 ounces. It's 8 inches long, about 4 inches wide and less than an inch thick. It can fit in the pocket of briefcase or even in a small purse.
I am not sure that I would buy one for the hammock just yet because these things can only get better with time. However, they do appear ready for prime-time today and are on sale at Amazon.com.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 03:34 PM | Comments (21) | TrackBackJuly 03, 2005
Do You Want Interactive Television?
I tend to write about video on demand (VOD) in business terms and as a technology that effects life style choices. However, strictly speaking VOD is a subset of interactive television (ITV) technology. As such, a larger universe of possibilities is possible.
The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) has published its latest "Pulse" survey, which seem to indicate that US consumers might be interested in interactive television, and that the availability of ITV services might motivate many basic cable customers to upgrade to digital. I am doubtful of this, but here are a few of the more interesting statistics:
 |
35% of consumers (40% of digital cable customers and 41% of cable modem customers) are interested in playing ITV games on a dedicated channel;
33% of consumers (42% of digital cable customers and 50% of cable modem customers) are interested in apps that allow viewers to switch between camera angles;
29% of consumers (39% of digital cable customers and 37% of cable modem customers) are interested in accessing background information on a show;
40% of consumers (50% of digital cable cust