Author Archive

Rocketboom goes mainstream, signs ad, distribution deal with Sony

by Daniel Langendorf

August 5th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Rocketboom is going mainstream.

The seminal newsy video blog, launched in October 2004, signed a reported seven-figure deal with Sony Pictures Television to distribute Rocketboom on Sony’s Crackle video site and across other Sony platforms such as the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation Portable, and Bravia I-Link televisions.

Sony also will handle all of Rocketboom’s ad sales, which is a load off Andrew Baron’s mind. Baron, the founder and producer of Rocketboom, said in an entry on his personal blog that dealing with advertising, while “fun to play,” was distracting as “every moment we spent on ads was a moment lost on the content.”

Baron’s blog post is a must-read as it gives a glimpse into what life has been like for Rocketboom the past three years. Not only is there content generation needs — from commenting on mainstream news to Internet culture and everything in between — but there’s the pesky business side, which most new media ventures struggle with. How do they make money?

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YouTube gets dedicated Olympic channel, but it won't be available in the U.S.

by Daniel Langendorf

August 4th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments1 Comment

The 2008 Olympic Games will be broadcast online to more than 70 countries on a dedicated YouTube channel, but the United States is not included.

NBC holds the video-on-demand rights in the U.S., but these have not been sold on an exclusive basis in other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Vietnam, Iraq, and India (see the complete International Olympic Committee list here).

The IOC will stream about three hours a day of exclusive content — mostly summaries and highlights — from Olympic Broadcasting Services. YouTube will sell ads, but only to Olympic sponsors. The channel will be available on Wednesday.

YouTube will use geo-blocking to prevent access to the channel in countries where the video-on-demand rights have been sold, like in the U.S. Geo-blocking is based on a user’s IP address.

The geo-blocking in the U.S. shouldn’t be that big of a deal, unless you’re one who wants to see everything broadcast night and day or you’re surfing videos at YouTube and want to catch up on the Olympic action without leaving the site.

NBC will show more than 2,000 hours of live content at NBCOlympics.com. That’s more than enough content to keep any Olympic fan happy — and in need of sleep.

See also: Roundup: The most digital of all Olympic games is well underway and, from ReadWriteWeb, Mainstream Web Watch: The Olympics & Online Video

Jobs admits MobileMe not up to Apple's standards

by Daniel Langendorf

August 4th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

It seemed like a lot to take on at the time — the introduction of MobileMe, the opening of the AppStore, the release of the iPhone 2.0 software, and the availability of the second-generation iPhone itself.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs admitted as much in an internal email sent to Apple employees Monday evening, according to Ars Technica. Jobs said MobileMe, the replacement for Apple’s ho-hum .Mac service, was launched too early and “not up to Apple’s standards.” Jobs said Apple should have introduced MobileMe slowly instead of launching it “as a monolithic service.”

“It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store,” Jobs said. “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.”

Absolutely.

The moment MobileMe hit the ether on the evening of July 9 there were problems that still linger, in various forms, today. It took longer to flip the on switch than Apple intended. Once MobileMe was “up and running”, the 2 million subscribers to the former .Mac service found themselves with intermittent email, syncing problems (so much for “Exchange for the rest of us”), disappearing calendar events and contacts, screwed up account information, and loads of frustration.

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"Mole" says Microsoft will sell sub-$200 Xbox 360 this fall

by Daniel Langendorf

August 1st, 2008 | Posted in Other | CommentsNo Comments

A “mole” — the informant kind, not the small furry burrowing animal — told Ben Kuchera at Ars Technica that Microsoft is planning to further cut the prices of the Xbox 360 in September.

The Xbox 360 will come in three flavors:

  • The Arcade: no hard drive, $199
  • The Pro: 60 GB hard drive, $299
  • The Elite: 160 GB hard drive, $399

The “mole” also whispered that hardware and game bundles will be available for the Arcade, Pro, and Elite models in the 4Q, just in time for the holidays.

The last time the “mole” met Ben in some parking garage he told him that Microsoft was going to release a 60 GB Xbox 360, “and he was right on the money with that one,” Kuchera said. “I’d be very surprised if this wasn’t accurate information.”

If the “mole” is correct, Microsoft will be the first company to release a major gaming console for less than $200, which may truly reach the mass market for gamers and home theater enthusiasts alike.

Nintendo’s Wii, the top-selling game console, retails for $249, when you can find one, and Sony’s PlayStation 3 costs $399 for the 40 GB model (an 80 GB model for the same price may be introduced this fall).

At $199, the Xbox 360 arcade would be a compelling purchase, especially if you can attach your own hard drive to it.

HTC on schedule to deliver Android-powered phone in 4Q

by Daniel Langendorf

August 1st, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments1 Comment

Overheard at a Verizon wireless store today:

Kid: “This phone sucks.”

Dad: “I know. But there’s not much I can do about it.”

Kid: “Why?”

Dad: “Your contract isn’t up until March and I don’t want to pay $300 for a new one.”

Kid: “Your phone is eligible for an upgrade. Let me use yours.”

Dad: “I don’t want to buy any new phone right now. There’s going to be a lot of phones coming out in the next six months and I want to see them first. All the phones here are lame duck technology.”

Kid: “Oh. Well, this phone still sucks.”

At least some relief is on the horizon for dad. High Tech Computer (HTC), a Taiwan-based maker of Microsoft Windows Mobile cell phones, announced it is on schedule to deliver by 4Q 2008 its first phones based on Google’s open source mobile operating system, Android [via DigiTimes and IntoMobile]. No other details were provided.

HTC has long been rumored to be making their HTC Dream smartphone available on the Android platform later this year, making HTC the first manufacturer to deliver an actual working model and not a prototype with promise.

It is expected that an Android-powered Google phone — along with the introduction in July of the Apple iPhone 3G — will completely shake up the U.S. cell phone/smart phone market with its touch screen and haptic feedback, a full QWERTY keypad (that slides or swivels for easy typing and texting), and Internet access, among other features.

It’s enough for dad to hold off buying a new phone for the kid.

Roundup: The most digital of all Olympic games is well underway

by Daniel Langendorf

July 31st, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

The 2008 Olympics are due to start in Beijing in seven days, five hours, and change, but the reporting and blogging surrounding the most digital of all Olympics is well underway.

Read on to learn more about youth and the digital Olympics and the possibility the Internet will break when billions of people worldwide access the Web to stream video and static content.

In just the past few days there have been announcements regarding schedules, video players, compatibility issues, even behind-the-scene looks at what it will take to produce 2,000 hours of live content for television consumption and 5,000 hours of streaming content for the Web.

If you start now, you just might finish in time for the start of the games on 08-08-08.

Using digital to appeal to youth

Reuters detailed the impact of the digital revolution on the 2008 Olympics, drawing the conclusion that streaming events and highlights over the Internet will attract younger viewers, who are not expected to watch the events live. The average age of people watching the 2004 Games in Athens was more than 40 years old, a statistic that’s not expected to change for the Beijing Games.

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Report: Dell to introduce (new and improved!) MP3 player

by Daniel Langendorf

July 30th, 2008 | Posted in Audio | CommentsNo Comments

The ingredients for Dell’s forthcoming MP3 player look yummy. A sub-$100 price point. Wi-Fi. Access to various online music stores. Maybe even DRM-free.

But will anybody care? Seriously. Haven’t people who want a portable digital music player settled on an iPod or one of its competitors from SanDisk or Microsoft?

With Apple owning more than 70 percent of the MP3 player market in North America, is the remaining 20-something percent incentive enough for Dell to want to re-enter the fray after failing with its first line of digital music players?

May the Dell DJs (2003-2006) rest in peace.

Apparently Dell thinks so. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported today that computer maker Dell will re-enter the market with a new player as early as September. Dell thinks it has a chance this time because, aside from a sub-$100 price point and Wi-Fi access to content, it has a new and improved strategy!

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ESPN to launch Action Sports Network online in fall

by Daniel Langendorf

July 30th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Fans of action sports such as surfing, skateboarding, motocross, and snowboarding, your time has come. ESPN will unveil a new digital strategy today that’s aimed at you, not the middle-age male sports fan.

ESPN will launch in the fall the ESPN Action Sports Network, which will encompass a bunch of Internet sites dedicated to a specific “action sport.” The action sports network will offer coverage of events that are not carried on mainstream television, the Los Angeles Times reports.

“We felt like we were under-delivering on a year-round basis,” Dave Finger, director of action sports for ESPN Digital Media, told the LAT. “We felt like we were missing out on covering action sports with the same voice and authority that we bring to stick and ball.”

ESPN was the first mainstream media outlet to embrace “anti-establishment” athletes and their fans with the creation of the Extreme Games in 1995, which later became the X Games. The X Games, however, are held only twice-yearly, while the non-team, non-traditional sports included in the X Games are often “played” year-round.

ESPN’s extreme sports Web site, EXPN.com, will now become a part of the ESPN Action Sports Network.

It’s a great move by ESPN. Television will continue to be dominated by the big four sports — football, baseball, basketball, and hockey — and time slots are limited for other sports like skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross.

Online, however, ESPN can cater to every sport with exclusive video and in-depth content with no time or space limitations. ESPN will expand original digital programming like “Guerilla Cam”, which takes fans behind the scenes at events, and the also will invite fans to upload and share their own videos in an attempt to build community around each sport.

Study: For first time, a significant number of people watch prime-time shows online, not on TV

by Daniel Langendorf

July 29th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Now these are some sexy — and significant — numbers:

According to a survey released today by Integrated Media Measurement Inc., more than 20 percent of people studied watch some amount of prime-time, episodic programming online.

Within that group of online viewers, 50 percent are watching programs as they become available and are starting to use the computer as a substitute for a television.

The other 50 percent use the Web to watch programming they’ve missed or to re-watch episodes they have already seen.

All of which means . . .

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NFL will stream select live games over Web for first time

by Daniel Langendorf

July 28th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

Good news for football fans. The NFL is loosing up, but just a bit.

The National Football Leauge — notoriously protective of its game action — will stream 17 prime-time, regular-season games this year on NFL.com and NBCSports.com, SportsBusiness Journal reported today. It will be the first time that live action NFL games will be broadly streamed in the U.S.

The streaming begins Sept. 4 in a Thursday game between the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants, with the online video consisting of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast feed. Announcers Al Michaels and John Madden will make the call. Viewers will be able to choose from four live camera angles and review updated stats in real time.

It is expected that NBC’s ads will be stripped out of the stream and replaced with new online ads sold by the NFL and NBC,who will share in the new revenue.

The announcement was not openly cheered by the NFL’s other television partners, who, combined, provide $3.7 billion a year in broadcast rights revenue — making the NFL America’s most valuable television property.

Over-the-air networks Fox and CBS and the cable network ESPN also broadcast several games a week, but NBC airs only one on Sunday nights (totaling 17). Because NBC broadcasts only one game, NFL executives told SportsBusiness Journal that it was the best fit for a single-year experiment.

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