Flight of the Conchords has a new video out on YouTube by way of their label Sub Pop Records. The band plans to write season two back in New Zealand and they’re on tour now so it may be a while before they’re back on HBO. In the meantime, enjoy this:
Above: Flight of the Conchords - Ladies of the World
This online video campaign, for AMP energy drinks, is my new favorite ad. BBDO Worldwide certainly nailed their audience. I’m predicting “Tea Partay” type numbers.
Head over to Adweek or Brightcove to watch.
Paris Hilton never met a camera lens she didn’t like. But this time the lens isn’t for a reality television show, the paparazzi, or even a jail mugshot — it’s that of New York-based startup For Your Imagination, which is debuting a new, branded web series tomorrow featuring Paris, her mom Kathy and her sister, Nicky.
The six-part series A Day With the Hiltons will follow a mother-daughter duo that won an all expenses-paid trip to L.A. to spend the day with Paris, Kathy and Nicky “while they visit a salon, attend an intimate brunch and spend the afternoon shopping.” Not exactly my thing, but an interesting example of a new media distribution partnership nonetheless.
Jon Stewart’s interview with Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense, architect of the Iraq war and (via HuffPo) the man Tommy Franks called “the stupidest f***ing guy on the earth” is now available online.
The full 22-minute interview was cut down for air for obvious reasons, but it’s great to be able to see it in its entirety.
Above: Part 1
Above: Part 2
Some insight into the state of the Telco vs. MSO convergence battle offered by Light Reading Senior Analyst Adi Kishore:
Telcos are having some success with IPTV deployments, Verizon is close to becoming a top 10 provider.
- Advantage in clean slate, ability to lay new fiber.
- Disadvantage is going up against established MSOs.
Cable is having greater success rolling out VoIP services
- Advantage is that they are well-established, large number of multi-service subscribers.
- Downside is the legacy infrastructure.
Kishore showed a “back of envelope” analysis of the potential incremental value derived from next-gen advertising. Pegged the potential increase due to addressable / VOD / Enhanced advertising at a 46% over traditional linear means.
Mitch Oscar, Executive VP & Director, Carat added some insight on Project Canoe
“We know more about what it’s not than what it is.” The cable operators that generate $5b-$6b in ad revenue and $60b in subscription revenues, all have legacy box issues, it takes time to build out new boxes, maybe we could build out a system…integrated across the 30m digital homes right now.
Cable networks and Cable operators - “poor form of coopertition.” In the future there might be this relationship where they create some inventory where the combine local and national for increased effectiveness. In some cases there may be a cable network that has national advertiser relationships, if the national advertiser wants to have a relationship we can start to grow that out locally.
“And we have very few metrics.” Historical set-top box viewing, aggregated set-top boxes forming segmentation pockets…scale and representation could bring national money to local coffers.
A year ago at this time I was splitting time between Light Reading’s Future of Broadband conference and Streaming Media East. I barely covered the conference at the time because it was so technical, laden with acronyms like GPON, EPON and FTTH, but I came away with the following thoughts:
We aren’t there yet but networks are moving toward smart gateways and routers that will personalize the digital media experience for each user across platforms and standards.
The future is a universal cross-platform personalized media experience allowing users to consume content on any device combined with relevant advertising based on their history.
Last year’s conference focused on video as the future of broadband because as Light Reading Chief Analyst Graham Finnie put it this morning “it’s a much more flexible means to deliver video.”
This year, Finnie spoke more about the two way experiences that can be delivered (think applications) as well as the emergence of mobile broadband. Video has not taken a back seat, but it’s no longer the end all of broadband.
Above: Broadband Penetration, EOY 2007 (Source: LightReading)
Levis has their own version of the Ray-Ban sunglass flip; 2.4 million views in a week and counting:
Gawker lines them up side by side.
I loved the lead in today’s Broadcasting & Cable newsletter in regards to upfronts Flat Is the New Up: “CBS is down 8%, while Fox and ABC are down double-digits — 11% and 15%, respectively. Fourth-place NBC is flat. Buyers expect the networks to ask for CPM inflation increases, but this season’s poor ratings may make higher ticket prices hard to justify.”
But brand advertisers still look to TV for reach, and well positioned TV networks will be in prime position to sell them digital. That was more or less the sentiment offered by Les Moonves earlier this year at the McGraw Hill Media Summit:
We haven’t had original programming since November 20th, that’s a big chunk of time, furthermore we’ve changed our ratings system…so by definition the numbers are different…
We’re more of a mass market mass-medium so ultimately we say you want to buy for national we’ve got that you want to buy local we have billboards we have radio we have local stations…if you have a dollar to spend we can spend the whole dollar for you, we can show you how it can fit for our CBS properties without having to go elsewhere.
And this continues to be the general perception of most network media execs. While media fragments, TV is still the biggest draw. At the same time networks are branching out into digital programming and other advertising platforms which combined with their traditional ad sales should place them in a very competitive position.
For example, I spoke with a FOX executive at the IAB forum last week who mentioned the power of selling MySpace advertising as a digital and international extension. This adds tremendous, measurable value across the board, and is a present day example of media convergence, if not one directly visible to users.
While it’s easy to say new media is hurting networks, because of their entrenched position and scale, it is more likely to help them in the long run so long as they’re smart about integration.
Live streaming startup Veodia has raised $8.3 million from angels, Clearstone Venture Partners, and the D.E. Shaw Group reports VentureBeat. The live video market is a crowded one these days, and the business model is even more clouded, but Veodia brings some cool technology to the mix.
“We invested in Veodia because we believe that video in the workplace is going to fundamentally change the way businesses interact with their customers, partners and employees,” said Anil Patel, principal with Clearstone Venture Partners in the release.
Veodia does a couple things differently. They own their data centers enabling them to deliver video at very low latency, they have some IP surrounding making archived content immediately available after a live event ends, and they are monetizing the service using a subscription model.
The company has focused on offering a low-cost business solution where live video is already being used or could be useful if made easy enough. There is a paying market for video delivery solutions and Veodia has positioned themselves well to take advantage of it. That said, we’re still early in the game.
People around the world at 2PM ET today will simultaneously watch a program of 24 short films selected from more than 2,500 entries, the realization of TED Prize winner Jehane Noujaim’s wish to create a day in which “people come together through film.
The four hour program will be shown publicly in a number of Venues. If there’s not an event near you, the program will also be broadcast live on Current_ in the U.S., on TV networks worldwide, and streamed live online and on mobile. The films will be available online here.
My short list: Encounter Point | J’Attendrai Le Suivant (I’ll Wait for the Next One) | Laughter Club | Operation Homecoming: Road Work.
