Message From Michael
January 22, 2007
JOOST RIGHT – TELEVISION PERFECTED
SLINGS OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE
BIG BROTHER HASN’T FINISHING SINGING YET
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT, ALFIE
MARSHALL MCLUHAN, WE HARDLY KNEW YE
COCKTAIL CHATTER – THE TIGER WOODS OF TV
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
JOOST RIGHT – TELEVISION PERFECTED: At least, that’s the feeling you get reading Wired magazine, but they’re not alone in singing the praises of Joost. Formerly known as The Venice Project, it is probably the closest thing we’ve seen to the marriage of TV’s and PC’s that we referred to in last week’s MfM. Now, the real test – let me see if I can explain it. Basically it is a system which allows you to watch television on your PC. Okay, big deal, right? There are lots of systems doing that – AOL’s In2TV, BitTorrent, Brightcove, iTunes, Google Video, even UGC site YouTube has cut a deal with CBS. The difference is the high quality of the picture delivered, the variety of searchable content and the fact that you can still check e-mail or read a PDF document (in other words, use your PC normally) at the same time. What is even more interesting, as tech site Playfuls.com says, is that the Joost controls and menu have a ‘glass-like’ appearance so you can see your desktop menu but watch the video underneath at the same time. The reason is the P2P (Peer To Peer) system of distribution. After all, the creators are the same two who created file-sharing network Kazaa and Skype, the free voice-over IP telephone system which they sold for $2.6 Billion. Janus Friis and Niklas Fennstrom are the Danish answer to Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page. But unlike Kazaa which got the two in trouble with various corporations and copyrights, the video in this is mainstream approved.Still not clear how it works? Let’s say you want to watch Fear Factor. You query the network. If no-one has ever asked for it before, the show is pulled from the 40 terrabyte main server, but then here’s where the P2P comes in to play. The show is then split into segments (with targeted ads – which makes it appealing to advertisers) and stored in pieces on the hard drives of the various computers on the system. So, the next time someone asks for the show, it’s pulled piece by piece in sequence from the various computers. The beauty of this is that the smaller chunks of data mean that the broadband pipes don’t get clogged. So, in reverse of normal downloading situations, the more people accessing the video the better. Somewhat immodestly but semi-accurately, Friis says, “we’ve taken the best about television and added the best things about the Internet.”
SLINGS OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE: From the people who brought you the Slingbox comes the SlingCatcher. Regular readers will remember the Slingbox which lets you access anything you have on your home TV through your laptop no matter where you are. Now, they’re going the other way, with the SlingCatcher allowing you to take anything on the Web and on your computer and put it on your TV. What is probably equally amazing is the price tag of under $200. Sling Media and CBS also unveiled a beta version of a system that will allow consumers to share clips from live or recorded TV at the Consumer Electronics Show. And the folks at Sling Media say by the end of the year they’ll have another device which will allow you to transmit anything you have on Cable, Satellite TV or on your DVR to any other TV set in the house wirelessly.
BIG BROTHER HASN’T FINISHED SINGING YET: To state the semi-obvious, these are not the only ones to watch. Monolith Microsoft and chairman Bill Gates says/promises/threats to make the Xbox 360 into a set-top that will not only let you play games but also allow you to watch high-def DVD’s, download movies, music and games from the Internet and record, time-shift and play live television on one system. Meanwhile Apple and its chairman Steve Jobs is following up its successful iPhone announcement with a promise/threat that it, too, will create a set top box that will make it easy to connect computers to TV sets. Plus, Motorola and Cisco’s Scientific Atlanta say they will have similar multi-purpose set top boxes out by the end of the year. And, finally, I couldn’t talk about all this without mentioning, again, Sony’s attempts to build support for its Blu-Ray technology through its PlayStation 2 while competitors are pushing the new HD-DVD. And may the best system win. Hopefully.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT, ALFIE: This may mean nothing, but I have to note a couple of ‘minor’ developments that may presage something much bigger. CBS is launching a campaign on YouTube called 15 seconds in which people post their own 15-second ‘inspriational’ message. Microsoft is launching a new site that asks users to upload content about their life-changing moments. Of course, both corporations plan to use the ‘messages’ for marketing purposes – CBS in its SuperBowl coverage and Microsoft to boost its new Vista system. But, even so, it ties into several other articles I’ve read about people’s search for something more from the Internet and Life. Readers of last week’s MfM’s will remember the issue of trust, belief, and just getting away from it all, being part of the predictions/ trends. Researcher Ipsos goes so far as to say, “the future will be dominated by competition for public trust.” They say the reason is that people are trying to sort through the cluttered information economy marketplace.SIDE NOTE: New York-based research firm eMarketer reports that one in four TV households were able to access VOD (Video On Demand) in 2006 and one in six had a DVR (Digital Video Recorder). And, of course, the VOD and DVR penetration is expected to rise over the next three years. But not so ‘of course,’ the firm says despite established wisdom that these devices will cut into traditional TV advertising, the dollars will be offset by spending in other areas.
FOOTNOTE: With everything I read, even I occasionally miss the “big” story. The perfect example is the story one about Joost. Luckily I have colleagues like Janet Sharik and David Hazinski watching my back, so to speak. I had heard about The Venice Project off and on for nearly a year but, as David put it, those talks were mostly at the Geek level until the recent unveiling.
MARSHAL MCLUHAN, WE HARDLY KNEW YE: This is a break from what I traditionally do in MfM, avoiding commentary and focusing on facts and factoids. However, an article in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media raised a question in my mind. The article by Donald Fishman, of Northwestern University, was a reflection and re-thinking of media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s role as “the patron saint of the digital age.” I know I don’t have to explain the author of The Gutenberg Galaxy, the ‘medium is the message… global village and hot and cool media’ to the smart readers of MfM. But it just made me wonder where -- as Fishman described McLuhan -- is the… provocative thinker… popularizer… public intellectual… willing to engage in a wide-ranging dialogue about the role of media in society” of the 21st Century.
COCKTAIL CHATTER: The Parents’ Television Council says violence in prime time television has risen 75% over the past six years. The networks averaged 4.41 violent incidents an hour in the year studied – 2005. NBC was the worst with 6.79 incidents an hour, followed by CBS (5.56), Fox (3.84), and ABC (3.80). It seems almost a related note to say that Jerry Springer’s bodyguard and head of security (the guy who bounces people) will get his own talk show in a deal announced, ironically, by NBC. And as long as I’m on a celebrity gig, Mr. Blackwell has announced his 47th Best and Worst Dressed Awards with, no surprise, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, tying for first place honors as “two peas in an overexposed pod.” Paula Abdul made the list as ‘fallen fashion idol’ while new House majority leader Nancy Pelosi made the best dressed list. And finally, on a decidedly more serious note, congratulations to News Director Dave Vincent and his folks at WLOX/ Biloxi. They are the Tiger Woods of Award winners, scoring a grand slam of virtually every award possible, with the latest award -- a DuPont-Columbia for their coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. And you can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.
Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts
Monday, February 05, 2007
Message From Michael
January 17, 2007
SWEEPS
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT 2007
THINGS YOU SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR IN 2007
THE SLEEPER QUESTIONS OF 2007
THE WEIRD PREDICTIONS FOR 2007
COCKTAIL CHATTER
SWEEPS: I couldn’t go this long without at least using the dreaded word. Sweeps. We will be sending out a separate document for client stations with some last-minute considerations for the February sweeps period. In the meantime, this week’s MfM is a look ahead at what the futurists and crystal ball gazers see in your future. I preface it, by referring back to the famous quote or admonition: You can’t predict the future, but you can help create it.
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT 2007: Research firm eMarketer says 2007 will see the crossing of the great divide. High-speed Internet penetration AT HOME (an important distinction) will pass the half way market. The firm predicts 50.2% of households will have broadband, up from this year’s 43.9%. That translates into 60 million residential subscribers. By 2010, two-thirds (63%) will have Broadband connection. Yesterday was the deadline for comments to the Federal Communication Commission which is reviewing media ownership rules. The decision is expected to reverberate throughout the broadcast and media world. The FCC has posted all of its media ownership staff reports and studies on its website. (That will be the subject of a future MfM.) On a related note, an estimated 3,000 people attended a national conference in Memphis on media reform.
THINGS YOU SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR IN 2007: The predictions and forecasts centered, unsurprisingly, on the growth of User Generated Content and Social Networks. Half to two thirds of every media source I subscribe to mentioned one or the other. However, one semi-surprising prediction was that the soothsayers and prognosticators should not count out Traditional Media.Consultants with the Deloitte firm say the ‘traditional’ media are, as they put it, “ideally placed” to take advantage of the explosion of user-generated content and social networking even though the revenue, at least for now, is limited. Howard Davies, the director of media strategy for the firm, told Reuters that there are two types of UGC people – those looking for five minutes of fame and those wanting to contribute to a discussion or community. He says the five-minute-famers phenomenon won’t grow, but that the “less glamorous” side is part of Internet society now. As possible proof of the traditional media’s favorable position, Paul Bond in The Hollywood Reporter reports that of the top ten movers of the tech-oriented newspapers Showbiz 50 stock index only one, Real Networks, is generally considered a new media company. He argues that last year was a mixed bag for new media companies while traditional stalwarts like Disney, News Corp and TW showed some strong stock advances. The question, says Deloitte, is whether the traditional media companies will see new media as a threat or an opportunity. Reporter Seth Sutel writing for the Associated Press says that’s why many mainline companies are hiring new media executives with experience, as they try to figure out whether to buy existing new media operations, re-build on their own operations or start from scratch when the investment pay-off is long term. Mike Shields writing for Media Week says the question is whether “web 2.0 darlings (like) MySpace and YouTube can stay hot while becoming more corporate.”Regardless, big companies will soon begin adding social networks and user-generated TOOLS to their Intranet sites, predicts Clark Kokich, worldwide president of Avenue A Razorfish. The simple reason, he tells The New York Times, is that the tools have become part of the youth culture. In a similar vein, Steve Bryant with The Hollywood Reporter predicts that video specialization and video editing will be two of the hot trends. As ‘most viewed’ becomes less novel, people will start looking for video tailored to their specific interests (daredevil stunts and college sports for example) and lesser-known websites (not YouTube and MySpace) will grow. Even more powerful a trend is that consumers are becoming more savvy about the editing tools. As reporter Bryant put it, “when I was was in short pants, I had no idea what a cutaway or cross-fade was… but today’s tweens and teens are intimately familiar with the language of the screen which has major implications for how the online video market will evolve.” Meaning – still shaky handcam videos in 2007, but the quality will improve. The New York Times article framed the issue in an interesting way when it reported that companies designing products will have to consider the large group of young people who use their thumbs more than their index fingers.Although nobody quite said it, it seems a foregone conclusion, ever since the cell-phone recorded London bombing, that UGC will be part of the news mix in 2007. Several major news groups, including the BBC and Reuters, have turned what was once a trend into a fact of life. The next move will be in UGC advertising. Although several major companies, including Anheuser-Busch and Proctor and Gamble have signed on to a greater or lesser degree (mostly lesser), most observers still question how advertisers will turn the viral video phenom into attention-getting, revenue-generating, money-making advertisements. Advertising giant JWT predicts, regardless, that there will be a growth in what it calls “participatory advertising.”
THE SLEEPER QUESTIONS OF 2007: Part of the issue is one of the top ten sleeper questions of 2007 – how to measure the impact of advertising. Nielsen is wrestling with that in its on-again, off-again measurement of commercials. The Online community is wrestling with it as well. Also on the top ten list of questions, possibly even making # 1, is whether the TV and PC will marry or divorce. And, if so, who gets custody of the kids. No-one questions the belief that 2007 will see greater distribution of video via broadband by everyone, including the networks. On the tech side in 2007 there is an echo of the VHS – BetaMax battle of years ago between new video storage system Blu Ray and DVD, although here the question is probably more of a “when” then an “if.” The growth of local search on the Internet raises all kinds of questions for local media – newspapers and television in particular – over how thin can you slice the local advertising pie. Also, on the sleeper question list is just how far mobile/wireless technology will go and whether consumers want to go along. The various groups have mixed predictions ranging from video cell phone ubiquity to rejection. Forbes magazine editors say the process “stretches the limits of human eyesight and attention.” Apple’s iPhone may help decide the question. Privacy issues will become a major question this year as online options grow and with them, the illegitimate spammers, spimmers and phishers and the legitimate marketers and advertisers.
THE WEIRD PREDICTIONS FOR 2007: People’s on-line lives will take on a life of their own in 2007. Second Life, which could arguably be called an amalgam of user-generated content and social networking, is the leader. Futurist Faith Popcorn’s Brain Reserve group predicts that people will start bequeathing their avatars – the characters that represent them in online fantasy worlds – to their friends and families. On the flip side of that, The New York Times, citing several sources, says more and more people will be pushing the ‘off button’ to escape the media-saturated world. Advertising giant JWT in its list of the top 70 trends of 2007 sees a growth in school buses running on biodiesel fuel, sustainable construction of ‘green buildings’ and a greater interest in Hallal foods, which are foods prepared according to the Quran. People will be making their broadband connections by ‘plugging’ into the power outlets at home as ‘powerline networking’ takes hold. Forbes magazine sees electronic books making a comeback, despite some earlier setbacks, as authors and publishers see the value of easily downloadable books and readers become more comfortable reading on an LCD monitor. On the flip side of semi-normalcy in predictions, expect LED lights to replace light bulbs, VoIP (Voice Over Intenet Protocol) taking the place of more and more regular telephones, the mainstreaming of the Internet and a maturing of the online population. In the end, as Mike Shields writes in Media Week, “unpredictability rules” when it comes to making predictions. As he candidly put it, last year’s forecast report by the magazine “did not once include the terms ‘you’ and ‘tube’ in the same sentence, let alone the same word.” But to leave you with a final thought, a quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt who told the BBC that 2007 will be a “bull market for imagination.”
COCKTAIL CHATTER: All right, this really isn’t cocktail chatter, but it could provide a lot of future cocktail chatter and so I thought it fell into the theme of this week’s MfM. The Project for Excellence in Journalism has launched a weekly “news coverage index.” The report, published online every Tuesday, codes the stories that dominated the news in the past week in newspapers, online, on network TV, cable and radio. Not surprisingly, the dominant story last week was the Iraq policy story which “filled 34% of the overall newshole,” followed by Congress (7%), Somalia (5%), the actual situation in Iraq (4%) and stories about the homefront related to Iraq (2%). The Malibu, California, wildfires came in sixth, just ahead of British soccer star and Posh Spice husband David Beckham’s $250 Million contract. What is particularly interesting about the report is what the different media focus on each week.
If you are receiving this newsletter from someone else, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, reply to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line.
January 17, 2007
SWEEPS
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT 2007
THINGS YOU SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR IN 2007
THE SLEEPER QUESTIONS OF 2007
THE WEIRD PREDICTIONS FOR 2007
COCKTAIL CHATTER
SWEEPS: I couldn’t go this long without at least using the dreaded word. Sweeps. We will be sending out a separate document for client stations with some last-minute considerations for the February sweeps period. In the meantime, this week’s MfM is a look ahead at what the futurists and crystal ball gazers see in your future. I preface it, by referring back to the famous quote or admonition: You can’t predict the future, but you can help create it.
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT 2007: Research firm eMarketer says 2007 will see the crossing of the great divide. High-speed Internet penetration AT HOME (an important distinction) will pass the half way market. The firm predicts 50.2% of households will have broadband, up from this year’s 43.9%. That translates into 60 million residential subscribers. By 2010, two-thirds (63%) will have Broadband connection. Yesterday was the deadline for comments to the Federal Communication Commission which is reviewing media ownership rules. The decision is expected to reverberate throughout the broadcast and media world. The FCC has posted all of its media ownership staff reports and studies on its website. (That will be the subject of a future MfM.) On a related note, an estimated 3,000 people attended a national conference in Memphis on media reform.
THINGS YOU SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR IN 2007: The predictions and forecasts centered, unsurprisingly, on the growth of User Generated Content and Social Networks. Half to two thirds of every media source I subscribe to mentioned one or the other. However, one semi-surprising prediction was that the soothsayers and prognosticators should not count out Traditional Media.Consultants with the Deloitte firm say the ‘traditional’ media are, as they put it, “ideally placed” to take advantage of the explosion of user-generated content and social networking even though the revenue, at least for now, is limited. Howard Davies, the director of media strategy for the firm, told Reuters that there are two types of UGC people – those looking for five minutes of fame and those wanting to contribute to a discussion or community. He says the five-minute-famers phenomenon won’t grow, but that the “less glamorous” side is part of Internet society now. As possible proof of the traditional media’s favorable position, Paul Bond in The Hollywood Reporter reports that of the top ten movers of the tech-oriented newspapers Showbiz 50 stock index only one, Real Networks, is generally considered a new media company. He argues that last year was a mixed bag for new media companies while traditional stalwarts like Disney, News Corp and TW showed some strong stock advances. The question, says Deloitte, is whether the traditional media companies will see new media as a threat or an opportunity. Reporter Seth Sutel writing for the Associated Press says that’s why many mainline companies are hiring new media executives with experience, as they try to figure out whether to buy existing new media operations, re-build on their own operations or start from scratch when the investment pay-off is long term. Mike Shields writing for Media Week says the question is whether “web 2.0 darlings (like) MySpace and YouTube can stay hot while becoming more corporate.”Regardless, big companies will soon begin adding social networks and user-generated TOOLS to their Intranet sites, predicts Clark Kokich, worldwide president of Avenue A Razorfish. The simple reason, he tells The New York Times, is that the tools have become part of the youth culture. In a similar vein, Steve Bryant with The Hollywood Reporter predicts that video specialization and video editing will be two of the hot trends. As ‘most viewed’ becomes less novel, people will start looking for video tailored to their specific interests (daredevil stunts and college sports for example) and lesser-known websites (not YouTube and MySpace) will grow. Even more powerful a trend is that consumers are becoming more savvy about the editing tools. As reporter Bryant put it, “when I was was in short pants, I had no idea what a cutaway or cross-fade was… but today’s tweens and teens are intimately familiar with the language of the screen which has major implications for how the online video market will evolve.” Meaning – still shaky handcam videos in 2007, but the quality will improve. The New York Times article framed the issue in an interesting way when it reported that companies designing products will have to consider the large group of young people who use their thumbs more than their index fingers.Although nobody quite said it, it seems a foregone conclusion, ever since the cell-phone recorded London bombing, that UGC will be part of the news mix in 2007. Several major news groups, including the BBC and Reuters, have turned what was once a trend into a fact of life. The next move will be in UGC advertising. Although several major companies, including Anheuser-Busch and Proctor and Gamble have signed on to a greater or lesser degree (mostly lesser), most observers still question how advertisers will turn the viral video phenom into attention-getting, revenue-generating, money-making advertisements. Advertising giant JWT predicts, regardless, that there will be a growth in what it calls “participatory advertising.”
THE SLEEPER QUESTIONS OF 2007: Part of the issue is one of the top ten sleeper questions of 2007 – how to measure the impact of advertising. Nielsen is wrestling with that in its on-again, off-again measurement of commercials. The Online community is wrestling with it as well. Also on the top ten list of questions, possibly even making # 1, is whether the TV and PC will marry or divorce. And, if so, who gets custody of the kids. No-one questions the belief that 2007 will see greater distribution of video via broadband by everyone, including the networks. On the tech side in 2007 there is an echo of the VHS – BetaMax battle of years ago between new video storage system Blu Ray and DVD, although here the question is probably more of a “when” then an “if.” The growth of local search on the Internet raises all kinds of questions for local media – newspapers and television in particular – over how thin can you slice the local advertising pie. Also, on the sleeper question list is just how far mobile/wireless technology will go and whether consumers want to go along. The various groups have mixed predictions ranging from video cell phone ubiquity to rejection. Forbes magazine editors say the process “stretches the limits of human eyesight and attention.” Apple’s iPhone may help decide the question. Privacy issues will become a major question this year as online options grow and with them, the illegitimate spammers, spimmers and phishers and the legitimate marketers and advertisers.
THE WEIRD PREDICTIONS FOR 2007: People’s on-line lives will take on a life of their own in 2007. Second Life, which could arguably be called an amalgam of user-generated content and social networking, is the leader. Futurist Faith Popcorn’s Brain Reserve group predicts that people will start bequeathing their avatars – the characters that represent them in online fantasy worlds – to their friends and families. On the flip side of that, The New York Times, citing several sources, says more and more people will be pushing the ‘off button’ to escape the media-saturated world. Advertising giant JWT in its list of the top 70 trends of 2007 sees a growth in school buses running on biodiesel fuel, sustainable construction of ‘green buildings’ and a greater interest in Hallal foods, which are foods prepared according to the Quran. People will be making their broadband connections by ‘plugging’ into the power outlets at home as ‘powerline networking’ takes hold. Forbes magazine sees electronic books making a comeback, despite some earlier setbacks, as authors and publishers see the value of easily downloadable books and readers become more comfortable reading on an LCD monitor. On the flip side of semi-normalcy in predictions, expect LED lights to replace light bulbs, VoIP (Voice Over Intenet Protocol) taking the place of more and more regular telephones, the mainstreaming of the Internet and a maturing of the online population. In the end, as Mike Shields writes in Media Week, “unpredictability rules” when it comes to making predictions. As he candidly put it, last year’s forecast report by the magazine “did not once include the terms ‘you’ and ‘tube’ in the same sentence, let alone the same word.” But to leave you with a final thought, a quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt who told the BBC that 2007 will be a “bull market for imagination.”
COCKTAIL CHATTER: All right, this really isn’t cocktail chatter, but it could provide a lot of future cocktail chatter and so I thought it fell into the theme of this week’s MfM. The Project for Excellence in Journalism has launched a weekly “news coverage index.” The report, published online every Tuesday, codes the stories that dominated the news in the past week in newspapers, online, on network TV, cable and radio. Not surprisingly, the dominant story last week was the Iraq policy story which “filled 34% of the overall newshole,” followed by Congress (7%), Somalia (5%), the actual situation in Iraq (4%) and stories about the homefront related to Iraq (2%). The Malibu, California, wildfires came in sixth, just ahead of British soccer star and Posh Spice husband David Beckham’s $250 Million contract. What is particularly interesting about the report is what the different media focus on each week.
If you are receiving this newsletter from someone else, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, reply to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line.
Message From Michael
January 10, 2007
THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS
HIGHLIGHTS AND LOW LIGHTS
FACTS AND FACTOIDS
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS: How will history record the year 2006? Will it be the year of YOU, as TIME magazine says, with YouTube and consumer generated content. Or will it be recorded as the year computer based social networks such as MySpace replaced neighborhood based social gatherings. Or even more dramatic when Second Life avatars replaced real life people. Interactivity. Connectivity. Wireless mobility. Broadband breakthrough. I feel a sudden urge to break into a rendition of We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel. Instead I thought I would review the reviews of 2006 by various publications. What follows are some facts and factoids, highlights and low lights. See what you think.
The most watched single telecast of the year, according to Nielsen, was – as always – the SuperBowl with a 41.6 rating. But the top rated program of the year was Fox’s American Idol which averaged a 17.2 rating. In fact, it took the top two slots with ABC’s Dancing With The Stars coming in third with a 12.7. And the top ‘time shifted’ primetime TV program was NBC’s Studio 60 with a 10.9 rating.Not too surprisingly, none of those TV shows made the American Film Institute’s list of TV programs of the year, although NBC’s Heroes which was the second most watched ‘time shifted’ program, according to Nielsen, did make the list along with Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Elizabeth I, Friday Night Lights, The Office, South Park, 24, The West Wing and The Wire.
The most watched news story of the year, according to the Pew Research Center, was rising gasoline prices with 69% of the public telling the researchers in May, just before the summer driving season, that they were following this story “very closely.” In its list of the top news interest stories of the year, the British officials stopping a terrorist plot to blow up planes coming to the U.S. was second, with 54% saying they were watching this ‘very closely’ when it broke in August. The 12 miners trapped in a West Virginia coal mine was the third most closely watched story (47%), followed by the mid-term elections (46% in November), the school shootings in Pennsylvania (46% in October). North Korea’s announcement that it had tested a nuclear bomb (45% in October) actually beat out the situation in Iraq (44% in November).For writer Alexandra Berzon writing in Red Herring, which covers technology, 2006 was “the year of spamming dangerously and zombies in your home.” Spam increased 30% in 2006, according to her report, accounting for 90% of all e-mails. The even bigger development was the zombies taking over and remotely controlling computers and networks – a development that accounted for 85% of ALL spam on the Internet. Anti-spam company Commtouch says on one given day, zombies took over 8 million hosts and sent out a Billion spam messages in a few hours.
The top Box office movie of the year, according to Nielsen, was Pirates of the Caribbean which took in $423 Million. Far behind in the number two spot was the animated movie Cars which took in $244 Million. For comparison purposes, the top box office documentary movie was Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth which took in just under $24 Million. Consolation for the former vice president though is the fact that the American Film Institute cited the movie as one of the eight most significant moments in film and television this year, arguing that the movie raised the level of debate around the world over global warming.
The hottest DVD of 2006 was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.Dirty Harry, a/k/a Clint Eastwood, was called a “national treasure” by the American Film Institute in its list of most significant moments. The institute calls his two movies, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, “one of the great motion picture experiences of the new century… an epic reminder that the American viewpoint is not the only human perspective.” The Institute, along with just about everybody else, cited the emergence of YouTube as a significant development “when the audience is both producer and distributor.” On the television site, the AFI declared that TV actually does have some sense of shame and provided as proof, the decision not to air the O.J. Simpson interview on how he would have killed his wife. The institute called the ‘migration’ of TV news to the Internet and the migration from “fact to fiction,” as significant moments for 2006, citing The Colbert Report as an example of the “fusion of journalism and comedy.”
The producers of The Colbert Report can also claim “credit” for producing most of 2006’s most popular words, according to website Dictionary.com. According to a survey of its users, the word “truthiness” was voted ‘word of the year.’ Other top voter getters, also from the show, were Lincolnish, Wikiality, it-getter, grinchitude, factinista, and superstantial. The words love and sex were also voted in as top words along with the word defenestrate, which is defined as a transitive verb meaning ‘to throw out a window.’ The word ‘love’ was the most searched for word on the website, followed by Affect, Effect, good, beautiful, metaphor, integrity, experience, irony and happy.
Media Web named New York Times’ columnist Nicholas Kristoff the print journalist of the year and NBC’s Brian Williams the broadcast journalist of the year. But the big announcement was the Online Journalist of the year – Brian Stelter, the 21-year-old Towson (Maryland) University student who founded the blogsite TVNewser.com – arguably the most influential TV blogsite in the country. Stelter is credited with breaking several major stories, including CBS’s publicity department sending out a touched up publicity photo showing a slimmed down Katie Couric. Aside from the fact the site gets 250,000 unique visitors and 900,000 page views a month is the fact that Brian Williams, CNN chief Jonathon Klein and other ‘movers and shakers’ read him and call him.
Back to Nielsen, the top selling album is Walt Disney’s High School Musical Soundtrack with sales of nearly 3.5 Million, beating out Rascall Flatts’ Me and My Gang (3 Million) and Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts (2.5 Million). The top song played on radio stations in 2006 was Mary J. Bilge’s Be Without You (395 Thousand), followed by Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten (336 Thousand) and Sean Paul’s Temperature (324 Thousand). The top ringtone sold for mobile phones was Eminem’s Akon Shake That (1.2 Million) followed by Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back (1.1 Million). And, no, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t know them all either.
The New York Times’ technology writer Stuart Elliott says one of the high points of the advertising year in 2006 was Phillips Electronics sole sponsorship in magazines Gourmet and The Week, as well as the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams which resulted in an 8% higher rating and 4,000 “praise filled e-mails.” Others taking part in the single sponsorship concept were Ford Motor Company, Match.com, and Nike. One of the low points was a spot showing a Blinged-out Cadillac Escalade as the main attraction at a ritzy fashion show. The problem? It was placed in the SuperBowl which, as Elliott put it, made about as much sense as arranging a product place in The Devil Wears Prada for Hungry-Man Dinners. The ad agency was fired.
Of course, one of the big movements in advertising in 2006 was the growth in viral videos, not just the home-grown version, but the million-dollar ad agency versions. All designed to get attention. One of the best versions I have seen is the Smirnoff “Tea Partay” viral video ad which shows a bunch of rich white boys and girls in boat shoes and clothes doing a gangsta rap style video.On the P.R. side of the fence, in 2006, Businessweek’s Phil Mintz points to Hewlett Packard’s in-house investigation into leaks to the media which brought out the practice of “pretexting” in which people impersonate others on the phone or on-line in order to obtain personal records. Of course, the O.J. Simpson situation made the list. But as an example of doing something wrong and something right, Mintz cites Wal-Mart. Its PR firm, Edelman, created a fake blog about Jim and Laura taking a cross country trip visiting Wal Mart stores. On the flip side, its generic drugs program generated a lot of positive pub.
Back to the news side, the Pew Research Center said there were several news stories in 2006 in which public opinion had an impact, including the Democrats regaining control of Congress in large part because of the “deepening gloom” about the situation in Iraq as well as what the authors of the report call the “stockpiling scandal” of Congressmen being investigated. Other examples of where public opinion had an impact were the decision to stop a Dubai firm from taking over control of some U.S. ports, Vice President Dick Cheney’s quail hunting incident, and the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with the public still supporting Israel.Under a heading which the Pew folks called, “Dogs That Didn’t Bark in 2006,” the authors cite the bi-partisan panel report on Iraq which just didn’t register with Americans; indifference to the immigration issue; the deaths in Darfur which only 13% of Americans said they followed closely; gay marriage, where although 54% say they favor legal arrangements for gay and lesbian couples, it just was not an overriding concern for voters; the Abramoff bribery case which the researchers say failed to ignite public outrage; and lastly, Katie Couric’s move to CBS which… “despite an unprecedented buildup… public interest remained restrained.”
Lastly, in an article in USA Today, reporter Kevin Maney argues that 2006 may be the year of “you” but 2007 may be the year to get over it. The techie buzz phrase of the year was ‘user generated’ content created by ‘users’ who, in a less politically correct age, would have been called ‘amateurs,’ says Maney. Even some major companies are ‘hyper-ventilating’ over user-generated advertising. And there are some good examples of user-generated content, he says, such as Curriki which is sort of a Wikipedia version of online textbooks for grades K through 12, and Wize.com which is a user-generated version of Consumer Reports. But he argues, “somewhere along the line, after the publicity surge, we realize that what came to pass was actually more evolutionary.” Garage bands, personal journals, community theaters and county fairs are all precursors. He says there is no doubt this is impacting media, entertainment and society, but in the end, reporters and editors will still have jobs to go to and roles to play, and we will all move “on to the next big thing.” I should say this is not meant as commentary, but just as a final thought. Something for you to think about. And, if you want, comment on. Contact me. In the next edition of MfM, I am going to review some of the trends and forecasts making the rounds for 2007.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.
January 10, 2007
THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS
HIGHLIGHTS AND LOW LIGHTS
FACTS AND FACTOIDS
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THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS: How will history record the year 2006? Will it be the year of YOU, as TIME magazine says, with YouTube and consumer generated content. Or will it be recorded as the year computer based social networks such as MySpace replaced neighborhood based social gatherings. Or even more dramatic when Second Life avatars replaced real life people. Interactivity. Connectivity. Wireless mobility. Broadband breakthrough. I feel a sudden urge to break into a rendition of We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel. Instead I thought I would review the reviews of 2006 by various publications. What follows are some facts and factoids, highlights and low lights. See what you think.
The most watched single telecast of the year, according to Nielsen, was – as always – the SuperBowl with a 41.6 rating. But the top rated program of the year was Fox’s American Idol which averaged a 17.2 rating. In fact, it took the top two slots with ABC’s Dancing With The Stars coming in third with a 12.7. And the top ‘time shifted’ primetime TV program was NBC’s Studio 60 with a 10.9 rating.Not too surprisingly, none of those TV shows made the American Film Institute’s list of TV programs of the year, although NBC’s Heroes which was the second most watched ‘time shifted’ program, according to Nielsen, did make the list along with Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Elizabeth I, Friday Night Lights, The Office, South Park, 24, The West Wing and The Wire.
The most watched news story of the year, according to the Pew Research Center, was rising gasoline prices with 69% of the public telling the researchers in May, just before the summer driving season, that they were following this story “very closely.” In its list of the top news interest stories of the year, the British officials stopping a terrorist plot to blow up planes coming to the U.S. was second, with 54% saying they were watching this ‘very closely’ when it broke in August. The 12 miners trapped in a West Virginia coal mine was the third most closely watched story (47%), followed by the mid-term elections (46% in November), the school shootings in Pennsylvania (46% in October). North Korea’s announcement that it had tested a nuclear bomb (45% in October) actually beat out the situation in Iraq (44% in November).For writer Alexandra Berzon writing in Red Herring, which covers technology, 2006 was “the year of spamming dangerously and zombies in your home.” Spam increased 30% in 2006, according to her report, accounting for 90% of all e-mails. The even bigger development was the zombies taking over and remotely controlling computers and networks – a development that accounted for 85% of ALL spam on the Internet. Anti-spam company Commtouch says on one given day, zombies took over 8 million hosts and sent out a Billion spam messages in a few hours.
The top Box office movie of the year, according to Nielsen, was Pirates of the Caribbean which took in $423 Million. Far behind in the number two spot was the animated movie Cars which took in $244 Million. For comparison purposes, the top box office documentary movie was Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth which took in just under $24 Million. Consolation for the former vice president though is the fact that the American Film Institute cited the movie as one of the eight most significant moments in film and television this year, arguing that the movie raised the level of debate around the world over global warming.
The hottest DVD of 2006 was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.Dirty Harry, a/k/a Clint Eastwood, was called a “national treasure” by the American Film Institute in its list of most significant moments. The institute calls his two movies, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, “one of the great motion picture experiences of the new century… an epic reminder that the American viewpoint is not the only human perspective.” The Institute, along with just about everybody else, cited the emergence of YouTube as a significant development “when the audience is both producer and distributor.” On the television site, the AFI declared that TV actually does have some sense of shame and provided as proof, the decision not to air the O.J. Simpson interview on how he would have killed his wife. The institute called the ‘migration’ of TV news to the Internet and the migration from “fact to fiction,” as significant moments for 2006, citing The Colbert Report as an example of the “fusion of journalism and comedy.”
The producers of The Colbert Report can also claim “credit” for producing most of 2006’s most popular words, according to website Dictionary.com. According to a survey of its users, the word “truthiness” was voted ‘word of the year.’ Other top voter getters, also from the show, were Lincolnish, Wikiality, it-getter, grinchitude, factinista, and superstantial. The words love and sex were also voted in as top words along with the word defenestrate, which is defined as a transitive verb meaning ‘to throw out a window.’ The word ‘love’ was the most searched for word on the website, followed by Affect, Effect, good, beautiful, metaphor, integrity, experience, irony and happy.
Media Web named New York Times’ columnist Nicholas Kristoff the print journalist of the year and NBC’s Brian Williams the broadcast journalist of the year. But the big announcement was the Online Journalist of the year – Brian Stelter, the 21-year-old Towson (Maryland) University student who founded the blogsite TVNewser.com – arguably the most influential TV blogsite in the country. Stelter is credited with breaking several major stories, including CBS’s publicity department sending out a touched up publicity photo showing a slimmed down Katie Couric. Aside from the fact the site gets 250,000 unique visitors and 900,000 page views a month is the fact that Brian Williams, CNN chief Jonathon Klein and other ‘movers and shakers’ read him and call him.
Back to Nielsen, the top selling album is Walt Disney’s High School Musical Soundtrack with sales of nearly 3.5 Million, beating out Rascall Flatts’ Me and My Gang (3 Million) and Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts (2.5 Million). The top song played on radio stations in 2006 was Mary J. Bilge’s Be Without You (395 Thousand), followed by Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten (336 Thousand) and Sean Paul’s Temperature (324 Thousand). The top ringtone sold for mobile phones was Eminem’s Akon Shake That (1.2 Million) followed by Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back (1.1 Million). And, no, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t know them all either.
The New York Times’ technology writer Stuart Elliott says one of the high points of the advertising year in 2006 was Phillips Electronics sole sponsorship in magazines Gourmet and The Week, as well as the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams which resulted in an 8% higher rating and 4,000 “praise filled e-mails.” Others taking part in the single sponsorship concept were Ford Motor Company, Match.com, and Nike. One of the low points was a spot showing a Blinged-out Cadillac Escalade as the main attraction at a ritzy fashion show. The problem? It was placed in the SuperBowl which, as Elliott put it, made about as much sense as arranging a product place in The Devil Wears Prada for Hungry-Man Dinners. The ad agency was fired.
Of course, one of the big movements in advertising in 2006 was the growth in viral videos, not just the home-grown version, but the million-dollar ad agency versions. All designed to get attention. One of the best versions I have seen is the Smirnoff “Tea Partay” viral video ad which shows a bunch of rich white boys and girls in boat shoes and clothes doing a gangsta rap style video.On the P.R. side of the fence, in 2006, Businessweek’s Phil Mintz points to Hewlett Packard’s in-house investigation into leaks to the media which brought out the practice of “pretexting” in which people impersonate others on the phone or on-line in order to obtain personal records. Of course, the O.J. Simpson situation made the list. But as an example of doing something wrong and something right, Mintz cites Wal-Mart. Its PR firm, Edelman, created a fake blog about Jim and Laura taking a cross country trip visiting Wal Mart stores. On the flip side, its generic drugs program generated a lot of positive pub.
Back to the news side, the Pew Research Center said there were several news stories in 2006 in which public opinion had an impact, including the Democrats regaining control of Congress in large part because of the “deepening gloom” about the situation in Iraq as well as what the authors of the report call the “stockpiling scandal” of Congressmen being investigated. Other examples of where public opinion had an impact were the decision to stop a Dubai firm from taking over control of some U.S. ports, Vice President Dick Cheney’s quail hunting incident, and the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with the public still supporting Israel.Under a heading which the Pew folks called, “Dogs That Didn’t Bark in 2006,” the authors cite the bi-partisan panel report on Iraq which just didn’t register with Americans; indifference to the immigration issue; the deaths in Darfur which only 13% of Americans said they followed closely; gay marriage, where although 54% say they favor legal arrangements for gay and lesbian couples, it just was not an overriding concern for voters; the Abramoff bribery case which the researchers say failed to ignite public outrage; and lastly, Katie Couric’s move to CBS which… “despite an unprecedented buildup… public interest remained restrained.”
Lastly, in an article in USA Today, reporter Kevin Maney argues that 2006 may be the year of “you” but 2007 may be the year to get over it. The techie buzz phrase of the year was ‘user generated’ content created by ‘users’ who, in a less politically correct age, would have been called ‘amateurs,’ says Maney. Even some major companies are ‘hyper-ventilating’ over user-generated advertising. And there are some good examples of user-generated content, he says, such as Curriki which is sort of a Wikipedia version of online textbooks for grades K through 12, and Wize.com which is a user-generated version of Consumer Reports. But he argues, “somewhere along the line, after the publicity surge, we realize that what came to pass was actually more evolutionary.” Garage bands, personal journals, community theaters and county fairs are all precursors. He says there is no doubt this is impacting media, entertainment and society, but in the end, reporters and editors will still have jobs to go to and roles to play, and we will all move “on to the next big thing.” I should say this is not meant as commentary, but just as a final thought. Something for you to think about. And, if you want, comment on. Contact me. In the next edition of MfM, I am going to review some of the trends and forecasts making the rounds for 2007.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.
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