| Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006 |
What's inside:
Today's Online News
1. Fox Streams Prime-time Shows On MySpace.com by Wendy Davis
2. Mobile Text Ads Lag by Mark Walsh
3. AOL Upgrades Software by Shankar Gupta
4. Amazon Search Sheds Street Photos by Shankar Gupta
News Briefs
5. Sprint Adds Comedy Channel
6. Cars.com Sponsors NBC Streams
7. Yahoo Revamps Travel Guides
8. Demand Media Acquires Answerbag.com
9. Undertone Launches Video Ad Service
Today's News
1. Fox Streams Prime-time Shows On MySpace.com
by Wendy Davis
Aiming to build Web traffic while also broadening the audience for its TV programs, News Corp. Tuesday expanded the roster of Fox shows available online for free.
Fox Tuesday placed already-aired episodes from the current season of "Bones," "Prison Break," "Standoff," "Vanished," "Justice," "Talk Show With Spike Feresten," "'Til Death," and "The Loop" on MySpace.com and Web sites of 24 local affiliates. Many of these shows currently are in re-runs this month, or will be preempted for the Major League Baseball post-season games.
Toyota, Burger King and Lionsgate Films are sponsoring the free streams, with Toyota's Yaris the exclusive sponsor for the local affiliates' "Prison Break" streams. Shows will have pre-roll ads as well as ads that run between acts of the shows--although total ad time will be much shorter than during TV broadcasts. While the specifics vary by show, generally, each program will be accompanied by one 15-second pre-roll ad, and one-hour shows likely will have three ad breaks with one 30-second spot in each.
Online, the shows will run exclusively for three months on MySpace.com, and the 24 owned-and-operated Fox Web sites. More programs might be added in upcoming months, said Mickie Rosen, senior vice president, general manager of entertainment for Fox Interactive Media.
The deal marks an expansion of the "Fox on Demand" initiative, which launched in August and involved streaming ad-supported episodes of "Prison Break" "Bones," "Stacked," "The Loop," and "American Dad" to nine local Fox Web sites.
The move to stream additional TV shows was hinted at last week by Fox Interactive Media President Ross Levinsohn. Speaking at the OMMA conference in New York, he suggested that the network intended to make more shows available online, in the wake of its successful Webcast of a seven-minute clip from "The Simpsons." Burger King was the exclusive sponsor of the "Simpsons" clip, which received wide online play in the three days leading up to the show's season premiere. In that time, the clip garnered 1.4 million streams, with 80 percent of MySpace users watching five full minutes of the video.
2. Mobile Text Ads Lag
by Mark Walsh
Mobile text ads haven't quite caught on in the United States yet. The response rate to text ads by U.S. mobile subscribers was only 7 percent in August compared to rates as high as 29.1 percent in Europe, according to new research by mobile measurement firm M:Metrics.
The lagging U.S. response rate partly reflects that text ads are far less common here than in Europe, where subscribers are more accustomed to getting them. Almost 67 percent of mobile subscribers in Spain, for instance, reported receiving an SMS ad in August--compared to only 12.8 percent in the United States.
"It's still a novel concept for people in the U.S.," said Will Hodgman, CEO of M:Metrics, of mobile ads that invite consumers to use short codes--typically 5-digit phone numbers--to respond to promotions.
Because text messaging is more widespread in Europe than in the U.S., marketers there have also been quicker to embrace mobile ads. "Europeans have been more progressive in using text-messaging as an advertising medium than in the U.S.," noted Hodgman.
And while contests for game or reality TV shows drew the biggest responses from mobile users in Europe, content downloads were the main reason that U.S. subscribers responded to mobile ads.
Still, even the U.S. response rate of 7 percent is far higher than for many types of interactive ads. Hodgman likened the high response rates to mobile text ads to those of e-mail in the Internet's early days, before the explosion of spam. And as most commercial e-mail messages then were sent by Internet service providers, so now most text ads are sent by mobile operators promoting their services.
With 38 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers now sending text messages, Hodgman expects the ad response rate here to climb closer to European over time. He cited mobile promotions related to hit shows such as "American Idol" and "Deal or No Deal" as examples of text-messaging campaigns that will become more prevalent in the U.S. market. "From the brand marketers' standpoint, broadcast and media companies have taken the most advantage of this type of advertising," he said.
3. AOL Upgrades Software
by Shankar Gupta
AOL today will make available a new downloadable software program that combines Web browsing, e-mail, video and search into one ad-supported, free application.
The platform, AOL OpenRide, marks an upgrade to AOL's existing software, and is designed specifically with broadband users in mind. The product includes a browser that is powered by Internet Explorer, an e-mail program that can access any POP3 e-mail account--including G-mail and Yahoo Mail--an AOL Video player, and an instant messaging product based on AIM's newest iteration, Triton.
Roy Ben-Yoseph, a director of product management at AOL, said the new product aimed to consolidate key offerings in one platform. "This is an experience for broadband users that takes the most important experiences on the Web--e-mail, instant message, browsing and media--and puts them into a single experience," he said.
The free product will include a number of ad opportunities. Videos played on the media player will have pre-roll ads, the e-mail program will contain display ads, the browser will start on an AOL page with display ads, and the search bar will lead to an AOL search results page, powered and monetized by Google.
Yoseph added that although the OpenRide platform is a "nice, evolutionary choice" up from the existing AOL software, it is not intended as a replacement, and AOL users could choose any of the software platforms offered by AOL, such as AOL 9.0.
In August, AOL stopped charging subscription fees to its broadband users, in an effort to build traffic. Since then, AOL has made a host of additional services available for free.
4. Amazon Search Sheds Street Photos
by Shankar Gupta
Amazon.com has stripped its search engine, A9, of several of its distinguishing characteristics, including its distinctive photo-mapping feature and personalized search histories, the company said Tuesday.
A9 was known for offering a photo-mosaic map of thousands of miles of storefronts in major U.S. cities, including New York, Washington, Phoenix, Ariz., Miami, and Los Angeles. But, although the feature was critically praised, A9 never was able to gain traction with search users.
Amazon's A9 also discontinued a search-recall feature, which allowed users who signed in to call up their prior detailed search histories. Amazon also shed A9's Yellow Pages listings, as well as an A9 toolbar.
In addition to shedding features, Amazon tweaked the search engine by adding a 'continuous scroll' that displays all the search results on a single page. The interface also has been reorganized to allow easier customization of searches by letting users select from the more than 400 sources of data that A9 culls for its search results.
A spokesman for Amazon said that the changes were made "as a result of a shift in priorities to areas where A9.com can provide the greatest benefit for customers."
News Briefs
5. Sprint Adds Comedy Channel
Sprint will be the first wireless carrier to offer "Laugh Riot," a comedy channel created by GoTV Networks that includes highlights of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and episodes of "The Improv" live comedy show. "Laugh Riot" will also feature a mobile version of "Ask a Ninja," the humorous advice-giving site, and GoTV's original "Nic Nac Show" that will focus on "Jackass"-style stunts. Spearheading the development of programming for "Laugh Riot" is Chris Greenleaf, who was involved in the production of "South Park" at Comedy Central. Subscribing to the new comedy channel will cost Sprint customers an extra $6 a month.
6. Cars.com Sponsors NBC Streams
Online dealer Cars.com will sponsor streaming broadcasts of six NBC shows on NBC.com this fall. The shows, which include promising freshman drama "Heroes" and critically acclaimed "Friday Night Lights," will be available free on the site for seven days after they air on the network.
"We are excited to be among the first advertisers behind NBC's new online offering," says Carolyn Crafts, Cars.com's vice president of marketing. "As more people turn to the Internet for entertainment, we saw this as a unique opportunity to reach a captive and dedicated audience of online viewers."
The sponsorship is part of Cars.com's 2006 $100 million-plus marketing campaign. Other sponsors of NBC Rewind, which get to run pre-roll spots before the show streams, include Nissan, AT&T and Sony Pictures.
--David Goetzl
7. Yahoo Revamps Travel Guides
Yahoo has redesigned its travel guides by integrating its mapping service in the section and adding personalization features. With the integration of Yahoo Maps, visitors to the Travel Guides section will be able to pan in and zoom on specific areas, which also can be viewed as satellite or hybrid maps. The site also now has a module on the top right corner that displays information including a user's recent history and an optional personalized travel profile that contains travel flight, hotel and car rental preferences.
8. Demand Media Acquires Answerbag.com
Demand Media Tuesday announced the acquisition of Answerbag.com for $3 million in cash, and a partnership with the site's parent company, InfoSearch Media, Inc. Demand Media has agreed to purchase $2 million of InfoSearch's products and services over the next 2 years, and will receive warrants to purchase 5 million shares of InfoSearch's common stock for $3 million and the issuance of warrants for InfoSearch to purchase 125,000 shares of Demand Media's common stock.
--Shankar Gupta
9. Undertone Launches Video Ad Service
Ad network Undertone Networks today is expected to announce the introduction of click-able pre-roll video ads into its advertising network in 15-second and 30-second formats. The video ads began running on the Undertone Network three weeks ago, from clients including American Airlines, Cingular Wireless and the National Mutual Insurance Company.
--Shankar Gupta
Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006
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