Analysis

Analysis: Freesat Proves Popular Online in the UK

Authored by Robin Goad on May 14, 2008 - 8:06am.

The launch of Freesat, the free satellite TV service provided by the BBC and ITV in the UK, proved popular with online consumers during its launch week. UK Internet traffic to www.freesat.co.uk, the service’s online homepage, increased by 627% between the weeks ending May 3rd and May 10th, while UK Internet searches for the term ‘freesat’ increased by 752% over the same period, making it the fastest moving search term in the UK last week.

tags: Video | TV | UK | iTV | Metrics | BBC | Sky | Freesat |

Analysis: Coldplay Compared to NIN and Radiohead

Authored by Heather Hopkins on May 9, 2008 - 5:55am.

Last week we issued a news release titled Coldplay's Free Single Propels Website to #1 Online Among Bands and Artists. We found that U.S. visits to Coldplay.com increased 19 fold on the back of the band's new single, Violet Hill, being released for free online. On April 29, 2008, the day the single was released on Coldplay.com, the website ranked as the most visited website among the Bands and Artists category. A little more than 1 out of every 40 visits to Bands and Artists category went to Coldplay's website that day.

Analysis: Raising the a la Carte Alarm

Authored by Paul Sweeting on May 6, 2008 - 10:17am.
The talk of the digital media blogosphere over the weekend was a report by written by Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffet headlined, And Now for the News...The Emperor Has No Clothes. It's well worth a read if you can get your hands on it. For those who can't (and even those who can), digital maverick Mark Cuban has a looong post on his blog about the report in which he reproduces many of the juiciest parts.

OSG: The Secret Metric For Measurement Every Marketer Wants

Authored by Rohit Bhargava on May 5, 2008 - 7:12am.

Just over a week ago during lunch at the New Communication Forum, I had a great conversation with Tim Tozer from Radian6 (a social media monitoring service) about the real metrics that marketers are looking for and the increasingly common difficulty of finding metrics that are actually useful and offer actionable insights. Many people who have to contend with web analytics tools today will tell you that it is no longer an issue of having the technology available to measure things online, but rather the analytical ability to hone in on the metrics that really matter.

Mark Cuban: Will The Ala Carting of Video on the Net Lead to Disaster?

Authored by Mark Cuban on May 5, 2008 - 6:17am.
Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research wrote an amazing report entitled And Now for the News...The Emperor Has No Clothes". If you can get a copy, read it. Starting with the disappointing but expected news that journalism is no longer a service consumers desire to pay for, he moves on to the problems facing Internet video. He does a far better job than I ever did explaining the failings of Internet video and the expectation of free content. This is the report I wish I had blogged.

Google's Priority: Make Some Money Off YouTube

Authored by Paul Sweeting on April 30, 2008 - 10:50am.
It's a good thing Google makes so much money from its core business of placing text ads next to search results, because it's still searching for the special sauce on its other big initiatives. Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo in an interview that aired today (transcript) that the company groping for ways to monetize the enormous traffic and reach of YouTube (although it has a new, secret plan that will roll out later this year), and for a working advertising model for social networks.

Analysis: Is The Future Of Online Advertising Entertainment or Information?

Authored by Scott Karp on April 25, 2008 - 6:25am.

There are two principal ways advertisers are trying to create value for consumers on the web — and they must create value because, you know, consumers are in control. On the web, advertisers can provide entertainment or information. How effective is advertising as information on the web? See Google’s $15B in ad revenue — an $5.19 billion in ad revenue in Q1 2008. The technology of web search enabled advertisers to create value for consumers in a way that was never possible in analogue media.

Analysis: Netflix Guidance Disappoints - Here's Why

Authored by Paul Sweeting on April 22, 2008 - 6:38am.

After a spasm of irrational exuberance pushed shares of Netflix to new highs over the past few weeks investors abruptly reversed course late Monday, hammering the shares in after-hours trading after the company's Q1 earnings report included lower-than-hoped for guidance for the rest of the year. After officially closing up almost 2% on the day, the shares plunged more than 14% in the after-hours market, losing $5.52 a piece. The company shaved 1 cent off the upper end of its projected full-year EPS to $1.29, quickly deflating a bubble of expectation that had lifted the shares by nearly 50% over the past year.

Analysis: Viacom, MGM, Lionsgate Kick It Old School

Authored by Paul Sweeting on April 21, 2008 - 6:12am.
Old habits die hard in Hollywood. One of the hardest to shake, apparently, is the habit of exclusivity. At a time when many content creators and distributors are searching for ways to capitalize on the ubiquitous distribution of movie and TV programming made possible by new digital platforms and devices, Viacom, MGM and Lionsgate are trying to kick it old school with a new, digitally powered pay-TV channel premised on exclusive windows and exclusive access to content from the partner studios.

Analysis: Apple iPhone UK Price Drop

Authored by Robin Goad on April 21, 2008 - 5:41am.

Last week Apple and 02 announced that they had cut the price of the 8GB iPhone by £100 in the UK until June 1st. As always with Apple, the announcement generated a huge amount of media interest – including speculation that the launch of a 3G iPhone is now imminent. ‘iphone’ was the seventh fastest moving search term sending traffic to our News and Media category last week, and searches for the term reached their highest peak this year as a result.

tags: Mobile | UK | Europe | Metrics | Apple | iPhone |

Analysis: Content Aggregation is King?

Authored by Heather Hopkins on April 18, 2008 - 5:01am.

A colleague forwarded me a fantastic article from Ad Age "It's Web 3.0, and Someone Else's Content is King". The article is worth a read for anyone in the content business. The author, Matthew Creamer, suggests that Web 3.0 will be about monetizing the web's openness and points to examples in the news business of websites aggregating other people's content for profit. Are content aggregators in fact growing in popularity? The author cites Michael Wolff of Newser: "The space is heating up". According to internet usage data, is it?

Analysis: Search & Social Networks Neck & Neck for Video Referrals

Authored by Heather Dougherty on April 17, 2008 - 6:27am.

Online video is a hot topic these days with new entrants coming online (e.g. PluggedIn) and out of beta (e.g. Hulu) every day. We are seeing users spend a bit more more time with the video websites, spending an average of 16 minutes and 12 seconds for the week ending April 12, 2008 as compared to 15 minutes and 14 seconds during the same week last year. One interesting trend that I have noticed is that search engines and social networks are now accounting for an equal share of referred traffic. Last week (ending April 12, 2008) the share of upstream traffic from search increased 35% over the same week the previous year, while the referred traffic from social networks declined 20%.

Analysis: Battle Of The Commodity Web Applications

Authored by Scott Karp on April 16, 2008 - 5:56am.

Facebook has had an update feature similar to Twitter for a while. Now Facebook has a feature that lets users add feeds from other web services like Flickr and del.icio.us — just like FriendFeed. From a technology perspective, Twitter and FriendFeed are now reducable to Facebook features. Even if those two apps are currently more robust than their equivalent Facebook features, there’s nothing to stop Facebook from copying them in their entirety.

Analysis: Blockbuster, CinemaNow, Devices and Desires

Authored by Paul Sweeting on April 15, 2008 - 6:49am.
It's probably not enough to rescue Blockbuster's share price from the shellacking it's taken since announcing its unsolicited bid for Circuit City, but you can hear an echo of Blockbuster's logic in the deal being announced today between online movie service CinemaNow and Technicolor's Electronic Distribution Services unit. Under the deal, Technicolor will provide the "digital supply chain" for CinemaNow's strategy of embedding its virtual storefront on consumer electronics devices.

Analysis: Is The Website Owner Responsible For User Generated Content?

Authored by David Oxenford on April 14, 2008 - 7:29am.

Website operators who allow the posting of user-generated content on their sites enjoy broad immunity from legal liability. This includes immunity from copyright violations if the site owner registers with the Copyright Office, does not encourage the copyright violations and takes down infringing content upon receiving notice from a copyright owner (see our post here for more information). There is also broad immunity from liability for other legal violations that may occur within user-generated content.

Analysis: Coachella Traffic Turning to Ticketmaster

Authored by Heather Dougherty on April 14, 2008 - 7:11am.

On Wednesday, everyone that is heading out to the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in two weeks received the news of a surprise addition to the line-up – Prince. Coachella is always surrounded by rumors about the line-up and potential to almost impossible reunions, such as The Smiths, before the official announcements are made in January. Every year, fans debate and dispel rumors regarding which bands & artists will play the festival out in Indio, CA on blogs, message boards, and MySpace.

Analysis: Three Strikes Strikes Out - The End of ISP Policing?

Authored by Paul Sweeting on April 11, 2008 - 10:30am.
You can forget about French president Nicolas Sarkozy's original proposal for policing piracy on the Internet becoming a model for the rest of Europe. Not only has the plan been dropped from the French Parliament's current legislative agenda, but the European Parliament this week approved a resolution harshly denouncing a lynch-pin of the French plan: the proposal to require ISPs to monitor their subscribers' Internet use and cut off those found repeatedly to be downloading illegal copyrighted material.

Analysis: China Adopts New Rules on Streaming Media

Authored by David Oxenford on April 10, 2008 - 8:24am.

While US webcasters may think that they have legal issues - whether it be the Internet radio music royalties that have been such a concern (see our coverage, here) or the copyright and other liability issues that surround user-generated content on various websites (see our story here), they face nothing like new rules that were recently adopted for webcasters in China. The new rules require government permits from two separate Chinese government agencies before webcasting operations can begin. In addition, the rules appear to require ownership and control of webcasting operations by state-owned companies. A memo on these new rules, prepared by attorneys from Davis Wright Tremaine's Shanghai office, can be found here.

tags: Video | Marketing | Law | Policy | TV | China | Regulation |

Mark Cuban: How to Make US Broadband Competitive

Authored by Mark Cuban on April 10, 2008 - 8:10am.

There is a dirty little secret in the cable industry. Its being kept secret not by the cable distributors, but by the big cable networks. End this practice and the United States goes from being 3rd world by international broadband standards, to top of the charts and exemplary. Make this change and Net Neutrality becomes a non issue. There is plenty of bandwidth for everyone. What is the dirty little secret? That your cable company still delivers basic cable networks in analog.

Wikipedia - a Music Portal?

Authored by Heather Dougherty on April 6, 2008 - 5:19pm.

A recent Reuters article discussed the missed opportunity by the music industry to capitalize upon searches for bands & artists that result in a visit to Wikipedia. A typical search result on a band or musician will display their own website, MySpace profile, and Wikipedia entry. For the majority of the most-searched bands & artists, these results are the most visited websites, with some variations in the rankings. A quick look at the websites visited immediately following a search for the top ten most-searched bands & artists for the 4 weeks ending March 29, 2008 shows that for 8 out of 10 of them, Wikipedia is more commonly receiving traffic from the searches than MySpace (although MySpace also ranks high for many as well).