Backpack MoJo

As soon as I figure that TV stations are going to settle on backpack journalist in place of the gender-biased term one-MAN-band, a new phrase comes along. MoJo for mobile journalist.

Check out the trend, in use at more and more TV stations.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2009/11/05/daily.14/

Outrunning their headlights?

A friend of mine has a saying, "Don't outrun your headlights." There's been discussion about radio being a declining medium--maybe even a dying medium. Can a commercial-packed hour of broadasting compete with commercial free, select-your-own music played from CDs or MP3 players? Nielsen has released study results showing that radio reaches 77% of adults daily. That's impressive--though TV has a 95% reach. Radio does even better among 18-34 listeners, reaching 80%.

The numbers are impressive but there is overlap among iPod/MP3 listeners and radio. What will happen as the iPod/MP3 technology becomes more widely available and easier to use? Does the data represent the strength of radio or signal the beginning of the end? Home broadband will enable listeners to download programs--which might just signal a shift of "radio" programming to a new distribution platform--the Internet to the MP3 player to the auto.

Read for yourself.

Radio is Red Hot is the name of a promotional campaign the RAB adopted several years ago to promote radio as an advertising medium. I have shortened the original URL with this name. Unfortunately, I couldn't include a question mark in the URL--not allowed.

http://bit.ly/RedHotRadio

Comcast Said to Be Close to Gaining NBC Universal

General Electric and the cable giant Comcast have moved closer to a deal giving control of NBC Universal to Comcast, and a formal announcement could be made sometime next week, people briefed on the talks said Sunday.

After a series of meetings last week, the two companies reached a tentative agreement on Friday over the main points of a deal, these people said. Comcast would own about 51 percent of NBC Universal, contributing several billions of dollars in cash and its own stable of cable networks to the new venture.

G.E., which currently owns 80 percent of the entertainment company, would retain the other 49 percent and would contribute about $12 billion in debt to the new entity, though it is expected eventually to sell its ownership interest over several years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/business/media/02nbc.html?_r=1ears.

DVR, once thought to lower television ratings, is actually helping

Digital video recorders or "DVR" is a growing addition to homes across the country. Once thought to be the demise of television ratings, it is said that DVR may actually increase them. With more and more people turning to the internet for their television content, stations are actually pleased that people are using DVR because it records the shows exactly as they are aired, including commercials. When people use On Demand or internet feeds to watch their favorite shows, they are missing the commercials, which are so very important to the network. While one would think that consumers would simply fast forward through the commercials, according to the article, some people are still actually watching the commercials. Now whether the reason for not fast forwarding may be to actually see the adds, or just to have a chance to grab something from the kitchen, it keeps the sponsers happy regardless. Therefore, networks are now giving DVR a chance and realizing that maybe it is not so bad after all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/business/media/02ratings.html?_r=1

Online ONLY TV Viewers Growing

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2009/10/ranks-of-online-only-tv-viewer.php

Check out the link above link, as it has to do with the growing rate of online "ONLY" TV

viewers. The reasoning behind their switch was saving money on their monthly television bills,

as well as the convenience, and hatred of commercials. Do you actually think that the numbers

will get high enough to where we will put away the traditional television sets??

MySpace ends its fight against Facebook
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
October 23, 2009

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NEW YORK - MySpace’s battle with Facebook is over, and the News Corp.-owned website is focused on a “fundamentally different’’ experience providing entertainment content, said Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta.

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“I really don’t view Facebook as a competitor,’’ Van Natta said in an interview yesterday. “I personally have a Facebook account, and I use it to communicate with my friends and my family. And I have a MySpace account that I use primarily to interact with other people in and around content.’’
MySpace introduced music features yesterday for artists and fans, part of an effort by Van Natta, 39, to focus on building entertainment programming since joining the company in April. Van Natta, the former chief operating officer of Facebook, is trying to reverse what researcher eMarketer projects will be a 14 percent drop in advertising on MySpace this year.
Van Natta said he’s building the MySpace user experience around the “socialization’’ of entertainment, including leveraging exclusive licensing deals with the world’s biggest music labels. Videos and online games are also a focus.
MySpace Music Videos will be a clearinghouse for videos from all the major record labels, the Los Angeles company said yesterday. It will include artist catalogs, as well as user recommendations on what to watch, a browsing tool, and a video player with “Buy’’ buttons.
Videos from the MySpace catalog also will be played on other social networks including Facebook as a result of the company’s recent acquisition of online music-sharing service iLike, Van Natta said. A new MySpace Artist Dashboard will provide a free data and analytics tool for musicians.
“The licenses that we have gotten through our partnerships are different from everybody else out there,’’ Van Natta said.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

- I personally, think that Van Natta has a valid point, yes facebook is not as "industry based" as myspace , but i do believe that facebook will head that way. Myspace did not originally come with music and band groups and websites and technology blogs, but later turned into that when facebook came out to provide something different; I believe facebook too will change and adapt and become a huge compeitior if it is not already with myspace.

End of the world as Hollywood knows it

This morning's TV Week update carries a story and link to a interesting piece on CNET about the changing Hollywood entertainment industry. I keep telling my classes that changing public interest and access to entertainment content will change the media business.

The simple explanation: audiences access so much free content (yes, some is low production value user-generated content--such as YouTube) that they are not as motivated to buy or consume some higher production value content. Mainstream companies are making alternate content available through online distribution. Higher end content, currently free, may become subscription service--if not watched on broadcast or cable television. We talked on Thursday about Chase Carey's expectation that Hulu.com will become a subscription service.

Here's the CNET article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10378654-261.html