June 12th, 2006

Message From Michael                    (image placeholder)
                                                  June 12, 2006                                                                           

• THE WEB AS A MEDIA PARTNER


• NEWS LEADING VIDEO ONLINE


• THOUSANDS OF VIDEOS BUT ANYTHING WORTH WATCHING


• TALKING MORE BUT WATCHING LESS


• ASIA VERSUS AMERICA


• COCKTAIL CHATTER

• THE WEB AS A MEDIA PARTNER:  Web media is the dominant medium during work hours (followed by radio) and the second most used medium at home (after TV), according to a study released by the Online Publishers Association.  The study says the web has gone from a medium that ten years ago reached 10% of the people for less than an hour each day to the point that now it reaches 60% of the people for more than two hours a day.  By comparison, TV reaches 90% of the people for more than four hours a day.  Association President Pam Horan says, “the evidence of the Web’s rise to mass media status is now clear and incontrovertible.”  But, even though the study notes that the ‘web dominant group’ averaged $5,000 more ($26,450) than the ‘TV dominant group’ ($21,401) on retail spending, the association isn’t pushing the web so much as an alternative to other media but rather as part of an overall media package.  The study shows the web increased the reach of TV anywhere from 39% to 51% depending on the time of day.  Newspapers experienced a similar increase in reach while magazine advertising actually doubled its reach.  The study shows that 20% of all web usage occurs while either viewing TV or immediate before or after watching.  Horan cites another report by independent banker Veronis Suhler Stevenson which specializes in communications media showing that while the Internet got 17% of people’s time, it only received 8% of the advertising dollars.  The association commissioned Ball State University’s Center for Media Design which produced the Middletown Media Studies which was the subject of a special MfM report some time back and which was one of the first to note the phenomenon of Concurrent Media Exposure.  The center uses an observational approach, employing people who recorded what 350 consumers did every 15 seconds for about 80% of their waking day.  As they put it, 15 media were tracked, including 5 ad-supported media, during 17 life activities such as child care, meal preparation and homework.  A final note: the study showed web use cut across all gender, age and socio economic groups.


• NEWS LEADING VIDEO ONLINE USE:  The same group, Online Publishers Association, released an earlier report showing a fourth (24%) of Internet users watch video online at least once a week while 5% watch video online every day.  The most popular videos were movie trailers followed by jokes and funny video clips, but news and current event videos came in a very respectable third, ahead of, surprisingly (to me, at least), music videos.  Not surprisingly, most of the viewing took place at home but one in five Internet users watched online video at work with 38% of them admitting the videos were mostly personal rather than work-related videos.  The study which was ‘hosted’ by Frank N. Magid’s online division, shows that online video viewers are frequent consumers of multiple media.


• THOUSANDS OF VIDEOS BUT ANYTHING WORTH WATCHING:  Meanwhile, an article in MIT’s Technology Review makes the point that the clichéd 500 channel cable universe is being replaced by the thousands of amateur video producers but the question still remains… is there anything worth watching on.  Writer Wade Roush notes that the photo sharing sites have had five years to evolve with the result that there are a variety of sites for different consumer needs and tastes.  Video sharing sites are now popping up as part of the “social media – the outburst of conversations and communities around consumer generated content.”  But he says they have not defined their niche yet.You may already know about Yahoo’s Flickr, but that only touches the surface of photo sharing sites.  Roush offers this ‘partial’ list: Bubbleshare, Fotki, Fotolog, Funtigo, Parazz, Phanfare, Photobucket, PhotoShow, PicPix, Picturecloud, Picturetrail, Pixagogo, Riya, Shutterfly, Smugmug, Snapfish, Tabblo, Webshots, and Zooomr.  And (because you read MfM) you may already know about YouTube, Google Video and the recently re-done Yahoo Video, but that only touches the surface of video sharing sites.  Roush offers this list of ‘new entrants:’  AOL UnCut Video, blip.tv, Buzznet, CastPost, ClipShack, Dailymotion, Google Video, Jumpcut, Ourmedia, Revver, Streamload, Veoh, VideoEgg, Vimeo, vpod.tv, vSocial, and still in development, Motionbox and Wallop.  If you want to see what the current version of the counter culture movement is, visit these sites.          On a related note, the podcast-only version of ABC’s World News Tonight has become one of the most downloaded items on iTunes.  According to an article in LostRemote.com, the newscast was downloaded 1.4 Million times in the last week of the sweeps.  It’s also available at ABCNews.com as well as MobiTV, GoTV, and Sprint TV Live.  The Times of London is launching its own version of this with an Internet television service with news video clips, provided by various news organizations and eventually news clips produced by ‘citizen journalists.’


• TALKING MORE BUT WATCHING LESS:  A comparison of talk show ratings year to year by Marc Berman in The Programming Insider shows that virtually ever talk show has dropped.  The one exception was Ellen DeGeneres which showed a 10% increase.  But the mighty Oprah was off 11%, while Dr. Phil was off 5%, Live with Regis and Kelly (-6%), Maury (-13%), Montel (-17%),  and Jerry Springer (-18%).  All of the Court shows, but one, were also off year to year with the one exception, People’s Court, only managing to stay flat.  Judge Judy was off 4%; Judge Joe Brown (-9%); Judge Mathis (-8%) and Divorce Court (-7%).  The entertainment/ news magazines were a mixed bag with Entertainment Tonight, The Insider and Access Hollywood all off 4% while Extra was flat and Inside Edition was up 3%.


• ASIA VERSUS AMERICA:  According to two separate reports, the Asia-Pacific area leads America in two significant ways.  According to eMarketer, It is the largest broadband center with 40% of the world’s broadband households.  And according to BusinessWeek Online, it also leads in terms of online gaming, an area it has dominated for more than a decade.  However, in both instances that is expected to change.  BusinessWeek quotes market research firm DFC which predicts that the online gaming market will grow from $3.4 Billion last year to more than $11 Billion by 2011.  And eMarketer says that as of this year there is One Billion Internet users worldwide and by the end of the year, 250 Million people will have broadband access.  


• COCKTAIL CHATTER:  July 4th marks the 35th anniversary of Project Gutenberg, a volunteer effort to convert the million-plus books that are no longer protected by copyright into digitally accessible online versions.  The project founder, along with World eBook Library, plans to make a “third of a million” of those books available free (many already are) online for a month.  A website created by the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center offers you a chance to find out if you have “authentic happiness.” The site (http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/) provides a series of questionnaires that help you determine everything from your strengths to your handling of relationships to your level of satisfaction with life.  To Bob Schieffer, Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson, you can soon add the name George Alagiah.  He is a BBC anchor who will  be anchoring the Beeb’s World News Today, airing at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time starting July 3rd.   Finally, I have to note that, indicative of the growth of blogging, the annual Kos blogging conference was held this weekend, getting coverage from traditional media from The New York Times to USA Today.  An interesting point made by several observers was that blogging has become the Liberal and/or Democratic answer to Conservative and/or Republican talk radio.    


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