dinsdag 19 augustus 2008
Belly up to the TV?
Inside the Cable Giant�s Plan to Marry Television and the Internet
Can Comcast Make TV 2.0 A Reality?
Inside the Cable Giant�s Plan to Marry Television and the Internet
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 8/17/2008 5:07:00 AM
The vision Comcast has for the future of TV isn’t locked up somewhere inside its brand-new, glass-encased headquarters in downtown Philadelphia. The rough cut of the cable company’s ideas are already playing out on the Internet, at Fancast.com.
Fancast, launched in January after two years of development, is supposed to be the first step toward totally personalized television. It’s TV that knows precisely what you want to watch and instantly serves it up anywhere at any time.
At first glance, Fancast looks like an attempt to compete with other online video aggregation sites — think MSN or Yahoo Video. That’s because Fancast hosts a buffet of more than 4,000 full episodes of shows and movies, from NBC, Fox, Viacom, CBS, FX, Warner Bros., Bravo, Sci Fi Channel, AMC and others, many provided through a deal with Hulu, owned by NBC Universal and News Corp.
But Comcast Interactive Media, which the operator formed in December 2005 to establish new online ventures, hopes to evolve Fancast into the last program guide a viewer would ever need.
Fancast is built to navigate a universe of TV and movie content to find that special show no matter where it lives: online, on a cable network or broadcast TV station, on video-on-demand, on a mobile phone, or even in movie theaters. This single comprehensive, intelligent source will let you discover and manage content choices, and share them with your buddies.
Comcast Interactive Media president Amy Banse expects Fancast to be the means through which you program your DVR, arrange your video-on-demand selections, watch past episodes of TV shows on an office computer, or read reviews of various programming.
“If you’re a Comcast customer and you buy a package of content from us, you should be able to consume and manage that content across screens,” she said. “We very much believe that the Internet and the PC should be a tool to manage and consume that content.”
Internet-only players like Google aren’t in the same position to tackle the multiscreen phenomenon, in part because they lack the wire to the home. And so far, Comcast is ahead of other cable and video distributors in settling this new frontier between the Internet and the TV.
Fancast, then, is the test case for the hypothesis behind the formation of Comcast Interactive Media: that the operator can extend its position as the country’s leading pay TV and residential broadband provider with a powerful Internet-content brand rivaling Google.
After two years and spending what is estimated to be more than $600 million for various Internet properties, Comcast Interactive Media — called CIM (“simm”) internally — has swelled to about 540 employees. Banse and her lieutenant, Sam Schwartz — CIM’s executive vice president of strategy and development, as well as president of Comcast Interactive Capital — have built a good portion of the division through acquisitions.
Those include thePlatform, a Seattle-based provider of video-management services which has more than 100 customers, for which Comcast reportedly paid between $80 million and $100 million in 2006. Another is movie-ticketing site Fandango, for which the MSO is said to have spent in the neighborhood of $200 million last year. Fandango, based in Los Angeles, sells tickets for more than 15,000 screens across the U.S. and has since been linked into Fancast.
And earlier this month, CIM picked up DailyCandy, a 55-person Web content publisher with 2.5 million subscribers to its fashion- and lifestyle-oriented newsletters, for what was widely reported to be about $125 million. The idea behind that deal was to acquire an audience of loyal and avid Internet consumers, and find ways to migrate them to the Fancast and Fandango sites as well.
“One of the luxuries we have as part of Comcast is the scale to pursue our huge ambitions for CIM,” Schwartz said.
A top goal for the unit is to establish standalone businesses that generate sizable sales, besides serving the traditional goal of enhancing the traditional TV and broadband services. CIM already does the latter with video and other content on Comcast.net, which has 15 million unique monthly visitors.
“We want to capture a share of what everybody believes will be an increasingly ad-supported revenue stream online,” Banse said.
Comcast’s ambitions reach farther than just catering to consumers — it wants to also serve other operators and video sites. In July, thePlatform announced a deal with Time Warner Cable to power the video player on RoadRunner.com. In addition, thePlatform provides services for broadband portals operated by Comcast, Cox Communications and Cablevision Systems — giving it four of the top five MSOs — as well as Hulu, BBC, CNBC, PBS, Verizon Wireless and others.
“We’re providing the ecosystem to have a low-friction way of moving from the content owners and the distributors,” said thePlatform CEO Ian Blaine.
For now, CIM represents a fraction of Comcast’s business. The company reports CIM’s revenues as part of the “corporate and other” category, which includes the Comcast Spectacor arena and sports group. For the second quarter of 2008, that segment generated $87 million, or 1% of the company’s overall revenues.
But as the biggest traditional video distributor in the country, with 24.6 million cable video subscribers as of the end of June, Comcast wants to gain a foothold now in the online video-entertainment space before Google or someone else establishes an insurmountable lead.
According to some analysts, Comcast is staking out ground that all video distributors will need to claim for their survival. “Not only is it the right strategy, it’s the essential strategy,” said Will Richmond, president of consulting firm Broadband Directions. “Consumers are showing companies what needs to be done by shifting their consumption away from linear video … Any company that doesn’t give customers what they’re looking for is going to be disadvantaged.”
Cable operators have had broadband portals for years, which would seem to have been logical places to establish a beachhead in online video, Richmond noted. Now, however, those sites are being eclipsed by Google’s YouTube, Veoh Networks, Metacafe and countless others.
In that sense, Fancast, and the rest of CIM’s properties, may be viewed as a hedge against a future in which the Internet is the predominant distribution mechanism for video.
Cable operators “are worried that if they give you online video, you’ll drop your premium cable subscription,” Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said. “They’re right in that fear, by the way. But only Comcast seems to have the money and the commitment to getting there first rather than watching someone else come in and walk away with their business.”
Comcast urgently wants to make Fancast a world-class Web contender.
Last month, Banse recruited Karin Gilford, who built up Yahoo’s entertainment properties in her eight years there, to run Fancast and other online properties. Gilford has a “proven track record of developing and growing multiple online entertainment businesses,” Banse said in announcing her hiring.
A central idea behind Fancast, Banse explained, is to deliver a “windowless” experience for video viewers, meaning they don’t have to worry about the time restrictions associated with content.
If a show or movie isn’t available free online, the site tries to find it somewhere else, whether that’s on a linear cable network, Comcast video-on-demand, in a movie theater, or on DVD. Or even on the linear services from DirecTV, Verizon’s FiOS TV, or any other provider you specify.
“We’re not there yet,” Banse said. “But by stitching the windows together in that fashion, we believe that consumers will get an on-demand experience when they want it, where they want it.”
Fancast also offers a myriad of ways to find stuff you might like, including a “Six Degrees” feature that shows related actors, directors and titles — pulled from a database of some 80,000 movies and 50,000 TV shows — and providing recommendations based on your ratings.
One of the next steps for Fancast will be programming Internet video for living-room TV sets, letting Comcast subscribers find it and play it back in a simple, seamless fashion.
“What you’ll see over the next 12 months is, if what you’re looking for is online but you want to watch it on your living room TV, we’ll be able to say, 'Here’s how you get it from the Internet to the television,’ ” Banse said.
With this particular feature, Comcast isn’t alone. Time Warner Cable is plotting a similar Internet-to-TV service, and Verizon is testing a service for FiOS TV that will deliver Internet video from sites including YouTube, Veoh Networks, Blip.tv and Break.com to customers’ television sets. Consumer-electronics manufacturers like TiVo, Sony Electronics and Apple are already slinging Web clips to living-room sets.
The trick will be to stitch it all together in a way that’s useful and interesting. “We think consumers really are going to respond to what we can offer,” Banse said.
Comcast won’t divulge viewer metrics for Fancast.com, but early estimates put it at around 2 million unique monthly visitors.
As it grows, the site will increasingly compete for eyeballs with Comcast’s traditional programming suppliers, which for now are drawing bigger crowds than the nascent Fancast. In May News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media division — which includes MySpace — had 60.8 million unique video viewers, while Time Warner sites (excluding AOL) collectively had 24.6 million, according to Internet measurement firm ComScore.
In Banse’s view, Comcast remains a powerful partner on any platform: “We have 30-year relationships with these content guys. It’s a synergistic relationship with them. There’s no reason why that relationship shouldn’t extend online.”
Cable-network executives agree that ventures like Fancast ultimately should fuel viewing of traditional TV programs. “Fancast reinforces linear, by helping people find new and complementary content,” said MTV Networks senior vice president of partner marketing Juliette Morris. What’s more, Morris noted, as Fancast grows into a serious revenue generator, MTVN shares in that bigger slice of online ad revenue.
David Preschlack, executive vice president of Disney & ESPN Networks affiliate sales, similarly believes broadband outlets can augment viewership rather than cannibalize it. For example, the programmer offers ESPN360, an online-only service with live sports events, to cable and telco operators.
“I think it’s nothing but good news for us to figure out ways of working with Comcast — and other distributors — to extend to as many platforms and as many devices as possible,” he said.
Banse was negotiating with programmers before she was tapped to run CIM. As executive vice president of content development, she previously oversaw Comcast’s investments in and development of cable networks, including E! and PBS Kids Sprout. A lawyer by training, Banse joined Comcast in 1991.
Comcast and other MSOs may have an inherent advantage in negotiating online content-distribution terms over startups, with their broad existing relationships with programmers and advertisers.
Cable companies “can bring scale and distribution,” said Steve Mitgang, CEO of video-aggregation site Veoh. “They can experiment. And they can come in later, and buy and integrate if they need to take advantage of a market trend.”
To Banse, though, time is precious. If Comcast and other cable operators don’t act now to redefine — and reaffirm — their roles on the Internet, they risk interlopers coming in and aggregating the same content.
“Tying the screens together” — the Web, the TV and mobile devices — “takes time,” she said. “So we actually look at it from the perspective that we don’t have a moment to lose.”
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maandag 18 augustus 2008
vrijdag 15 augustus 2008
Home Networking: 168 m HH worldwide
Rapid growth in home networking, approaching 168 million households worldwide in 2008, is laying the foundation for expansion of multimedia services internationally and especially in the European markets, according to Parks Associates. The market research firm will host CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit on August 29, 2008, at the Kempinski Hotel Bristol Berlin, to discuss the implications of this market growth.
“Broadband growth pushed Europe ahead of
Competition among incumbent and upstart telephone operators in
In the case of
All of these data point to the fact that home networking still has room to grow in
CONNECTIONS™
For information on registering or attending, please visitwww.connectionseurope.com.
woensdag 13 augustus 2008
Broadcast TV will surpass newspapers as the largest ad medium in 2008, while total Internet ad spend will surpass broadcast TV in 2011
dinsdag 12 augustus 2008
35% of adults has watched a TV program via internet
| TV/WEB STATS |
According to a study conducted for the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) by Nielsen:
- 35% of adult broadband users surveyed had watched at least one television program via the internet.
- 82% said they went online to find a specific television program that they had missed when it first aired on TV.
- 87% of those who were seeking out video content online watched television programs directly from a TV network website.
- Online Video watchers typically prefer shorter form clips. 53% like movie trailer. 37% general news. 31% watch comedy. 31% watch sports. 45% dabble with user-generated videos.
- A little more than half of the survey’s participants (51%) said they were online for at least three hours a week in 2007. In 2005,onle 41% spent that much time online.
- Standard TV viewing practices are growing too. Free on-demand programs and movies have risen in usage from 49% in 2005 to 71% in 2007. Paid on-demand usage increased from 46% to 55%.
donderdag 17 juli 2008
Americans viewed 12bn videos in May 08
People watch online.... yes indeed: TV
Daily Video Entertainment in 2013 Will Be Less Than 50% Traditional TV
YouTube - Tivo: less than 750k potential users
BT invests GBP 1.5bn in fast internet
Please stop talking..
YouTube on TV.. big deal!
dinsdag 19 februari 2008
interactiviteit
donderdag 14 februari 2008
Heavy Viewers Watch Eleven Times As Much Online Video as Moderate Viewers
Heavy Viewers Watch Eleven Times As Much Online Video as Moderate Viewers;
140 Times as Much as Light Viewers
RESTON, VA, February 14, 2008 – comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, and Media Contacts, the global interactive media network of Havas Media, showcased the results of a proprietary study of the online video audience at a Video Symposium in New York yesterday. The research was designed to understand the consumption habits and mindsets of Internet video users as they relate to online video, TV, and advertising and content across both media. The results revealed differences in orders of magnitude: the heaviest viewers (top 20 percent of viewers) averaged 841 minutes of online viewing per month, while moderate viewers (next 30 percent) averaged 77 minutes, and the lightest viewers (bottom 50 percent) watched just 6 minutes each.
_________________________________________________________________________
Time Spent Watching Online Video by Viewer Segment
October 2007
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore/Media Contacts Custom Study
Online Video Viewer Segments Average Minutes per Month
Heavy Viewers (Top 20%) 841
Moderate Viewers (Next 30%) 77
Light Viewers (Bottom 50%) 6
_________________________________________________________________________
“The difference in consumption levels was astounding. The usage differences are reminiscent of the early days of the Internet,” said Jarvis Mak, VP of Research and Insight at Media Contacts. “However, the networks’ online distribution of first-run content will go a long way to bridging the gaps between heavy, moderate, and light viewers.”
Heavy Viewers Spend Time on Niche Video Sites
YouTube is the common thread among the heavy, moderate, and light segments – it is the top video site for all three and reaches the most overall video viewers (54 percent reach). Distinctive behavior for heavy video viewers is found by looking at the top indexing sites for this audience, revealing mostly niche video-sharing sites, each reaching less than 1 percent of the total U.S. Web population.
_________________________________________________________________________
Top Indexing Sites Among Heavy Viewers
October 2007
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore/Media Contacts Custom Study
Online Video Site Composition Index*
Ouou.com 460
MegaVideo.com 457
Youku.com 449
zSHARE 448
Tudou.com 447
_________________________________________________________________________
*Composition Index = Site Reach of Heavy Video Viewer/Site Reach of Typical Video Viewer x 100; Index of 100 represents parity
Moderate Viewers Enjoy Specific Online TV Content
By contrast, moderate viewers show a high propensity to view specific video content on broadcast TV sites, including WorldNow (ABC), CBS TV Local, ABC Daytime, Scripps TV, and CMT, rather than frequenting more general video-sharing sites.
_________________________________________________________________________
Top Indexing Sites Among Moderate Viewers
October 2007
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore/Media Contacts Custom Study
Online Video Site Composition Index*
ManiacWorld 201
Glumbert 175
WorldNow (ABC) 173
CBS TV Local 172
ABC Daytime 170
Scripps TV Station Group 169
CMT 168
_________________________________________________________________________
*Composition Index = Site Reach of Moderate Video Viewer/Site Reach of Typical Video Viewer x 100; Index of 100 represents parity
Light Online Video Viewers are Heavy TV Viewers
The conventional wisdom says that the heaviest users of the digital channel are likely to be the heaviest consumers of media in general. However, the study found that light online video viewers are actually heavier TV consumers, with 46 percent of this group indicating they watch more than 13 hours of TV per week. By comparison, just 39 percent of moderate video viewers and 30 percent of heavy video viewers watched the same amount of TV.
“To discover how best to reach and message online different kinds of video viewers, we used the comScore data to further develop proprietary segments: ‘Content Explorers,’ ‘On Demanders,’ ‘Sight & Sounders,’ and ‘ Television Devotees,’ ” Mak continued. “Capitalizing on the explosive growth of online video, especially as consumers have started exploring media and entertainment options due to the recent writers’ strike, requires a deep understanding of the viewing audience driving the demand.”
What do we watch online?
woensdag 13 februari 2008
iPhone Flash Player
While I don't personally have an iPhone, getting Flash video adoption on the handset will go a long way in helping to make video a lot more portable for handsets. Yes, many phones already do video, but iPhone users amongst all others are always very adamant about showing what the phone can do and the moment it does Flash video, you'll see a lot of iPhone users showcasing that to anyone who wants to watch.
UPDATE: I am already getting a lot of questions about what "very shortly" means and it's a valid question. The answer is I don't know for sure, but based upon who told me the info to being with, I took it to mean this quarter"
zondag 10 februari 2008
Uitgesteld tv kijken wordt de norm
Kijkonderzoek: kijkgedrag verandert fundamenteel
16 januari 2008 - Door Erwin Boogert
|
Internet TV = TV!!
Uitgegeven: 1 februari 2008 17:41
Laatst gewijzigd: 1 februari 2008 17:55
HILVERSUM - Boer zoekt Vrouw is ook op internet populair. De afleveringen en extra video's van het KRO-programma werden in januari circa 2,7 miljoen keer bekeken via Uitzending Gemist.
Dat is een nieuw record, aldus een woordvoerster van Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO) vrijdag. In de top 3 best bekeken programma's op Uitzending Gemist staan in januari naast Boer zoekt Vrouw, ONM (522.000) en Wie is... de Mol (451.000). De programma's van de publieke omroepen werden in de afgelopen maand in totaal circa 13,4 miljoen keer via internet bekeken. Een jaar geleden bleef de teller in januari nog staan op 5,9 miljoen. ![]()
Uitgesteld
Het bereik van televisieprogramma's op internet gaat vanaf mei 2008 door Stichting KijkOnderzoek gerapporteerd worden naast de reguliere kijkcijfers. Het uitgestelde kijkgedrag, bijvoorbeeld via een harddisk- of videorecorder, wordt sinds 1 januari dit jaar al meegenomen in de kijkcijfers.
2690 online TV stations listed.. of 5000.. of...
U.S. Internet Users Viewed 10 Billion Videos Online in Record-Breaking Month of December
Writer’s Strike May be Contributing to Surge in Online Video Viewing Activity
RESTON, VA, February 08, 2008 – comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released December 2007 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, which reaches beyond simple site visitation to measure actual online video viewing behavior. The December 2007 report revealed that U.S. Internet users watched more than 10 billion videos online during the month, representing the single heaviest month for online video consumption since comScore initiated its tracking service. Top-ranked video property Google Sites saw substantial growth and extended its video market share gains, now accounting for nearly one out of every three videos viewed online.
“December represented a considerably strong month for online video viewing,” said Erin Hunter, comScore executive vice president of media and entertainment. “With the writer’s strike keeping new TV episodes from reaching the airwaves, viewers have been seeking alternatives for fresh content. It appears that online video is stepping in to help fill that void.”
Google Extends Lead in Online Video Market Share
Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property in December with 3.3 billion videos viewed (32.6 percent share of videos), gaining 1.3 share points versus the previous month. YouTube.com accounted for more than 97 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 358 million (3.5 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 340 million (3.4 percent) and Viacom Digital with 238 million (2.3 percent).
________________________________________________________________________
Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Videos Viewed
December 2007
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore Video Metrix
Property Videos Share (%) of
(000) Videos
Total Internet 10,156,199 100.0
Google Sites 3,314,962 32.6
Fox Interactive Media 358,353 3.5
Yahoo! Sites 340,409 3.4
Viacom Digital 237,689 2.3
Microsoft Sites 180,443 1.8
Time Warner Network 174,079 1.7
Disney Online 123,009 1.2
ESPN 84,839 0.8
Apple Inc. 50,316 0.5
ABC.COM 47,259 0.5
________________________________________________________________________
*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.
In total, nearly 141 million Americans viewed online video in December. Google Sites also captured the largest online video audience with 79 million unique viewers, followed by Fox Interactive Media with 43.9 million and Yahoo! Sites with 38.2 million.
________________________________________________________________________
Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Unique Video Viewers
December 2007
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore Video Metrix
Property Unique Viewers Percent of all
(000) U.S. Internet Users
Total Internet 140,926 76.7
Google Sites 79,041 43.0
Fox Interactive Media 43,915 23.9
Yahoo! Sites 38,214 20.8
Time Warner Network 27,168 14.8
Viacom Digital 24,504 13.3
Microsoft Sites 20,096 10.9
Disney Online 12,256 6.7
ESPN 10,004 5.4
Apple Inc. 9,455 5.1
Amazon Sites 7,734 4.2
________________________________________________________________________
*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.
Other notable findings from December 2007 include:
- 77.6 million viewers watched 3.2 billion videos on YouTube.com (41.6 videos per viewer).
- 40.5 million viewers watched 334 million videos on MySpace.com (8.2 videos per viewer).
- Online viewers watched an average of 3.4 hours (203 minutes) of online video during the month, representing a 34-percent gain since the beginning of 2007.
- The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes.
- The average online video viewer consumed 72 videos.
To request more information about comScore Video Metrix, please visit http://www.comscore.com/contact
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate <http://www.comscore.com/boilerplate> .
TV kijken voor de TV... met de PC!
donderdag 7 februari 2008
MSFT denkt als een kabelaar
woensdag 6 februari 2008
HyvesTV
Hyves op TV & TV op Hyves
From: Frankwatching, 1 day ago
Yme Bosma, Hyves - iMMovator Cross Media Café - 5 februari 2008 - Hilversum
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