ESPN, MediaFLO USA, Verizon Align for New Mobile TV Channel

SAN DIEGO/LOS ANGELES/BASKING RIDGE, July 26: ESPN, MediaFLO USA and Verizon Wireless have teamed up for the delivery of the first mobile TV channel dedicated to action sports, EXPN, on Verizon’s V CAST Mobile TV, complementing X Games coverage.

EXPN will carry exclusive mobile coverage of competitions, behind-the-scenes action and commentary from X Games 13. The new mobile TV channel will be available for the duration of X Games 13. The new dedicated channel will feature live coverage of events provided by ESPN for eight hours each day from August 2 through August 5, everything from practices to qualifying events to event finals, a daily "Best of the X Games" segment that will show viewers all of the extreme highlights, and an ESPN debut of a double box segment during the rally car races that will give fans the opportunity to see the race from each driver's viewpoint as they compete side-by-side. Highlights of previous years' X Games also will be shown on the EXPN from July 22 through August 1, and "Best of the X Games" and X Game 13 replays will air August 6 through August 7.

"X Games fans want to see the action as it happens,” stated John Zehr, the senior VP of digital media production at ESPN. “By teaming with MediaFLO USA to offer this channel through Verizon Wireless, ESPN is reaffirming our commitment to our fans by showing all the extreme action while expanding our multi-platform approach. Through this dedicated channel, X fans will see Travis Pastrana's practice runs or Shaun White grab big air during the skateboarding finals even if they aren't near a big-screen TV."

Cuban: The Internet Is Dead; Cable Is King

HDNet chief Mark Cuban, who was made a billionaire by his Broadcast.com, now says: "The Internet's dead. It's over." Cuban asserts that cable and satellite have become superior to the Internet as platforms for interactive services. In effect, he says, cable networks are "intranets."

Multichannel has the full story.

Bancrofts to Consider Murdoch Bid, 'Close Vote' Predicted

The Bancroft family will meet today to consider News Corp.'s $5 billion bid for Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones. "It is going to be a close vote," says Ken Doctor, an analyst with research firm Outsell. "This is the decision of a lifetime for the family."

The New York Sun has the full story.

WSJ Ad Sales Team Sold on Murdoch

Advertising sales execs at the Wall Street Journal are said to be more welcoming of Rupert Murdoch's advances than their colleagues in editorial. Sales staffers are hoping Murdoch will add some much-needed marketing dollars. "It's a good marriage," said one Journal sales exec.

Advertising Age has more.

Web and TV to Converge in 2011

A new study from eMarketer finds TV and web video may converge in 2011, reports Business Week.

Video ad sales are expected to climb from $775 million this year to $3.1 billion in 2010 and then a jump to $4.3 billion in 2011. However, this still only accounts for $1 of every $10 spent on Internet advertising.

Ultimately, eMarketer believes over the next few years video advertising will enter a grand experimental phase. It is after 2011 that TV and web advertising will really start to converge. Among the current experiements:

Major media companies like Sony are already starting to blur lines. Recently launched Crackle touts high-quality video and has the goal of finding high-quality talent to fill the netwaves.

Yahoo is testing animated window-shade ads that users can pull down over a video and graphical ads that appear during a video in the same way TV networks show ads at the bottom during programming.

Startup VideoEgg is experimenting with overlaid graphic ads that appear within content. A good move, considering 77 percent find current video advertising, such as pre-roll, too intrusive.

Cost is also a major reason why video is growing. Startup TurnHere produces internet videos for as little as $500, pulling from a network of 2,000 independent filmmakers who can shoot for local businesses.

European Online Marketing Spend to Hit 16B Euros, 2012

Spend on online marketing in Europe will double in the next five years, from around 7.5 billion euros in 2006 to more than 16 billion euros in 2012, according to a new Forrester report, "European Online Marketing Tops €16 Billion In 2012," reports MarketingCharts.

Online marketing - email, and search and display advertising - will account for 18 percent of total media budgets in Europe in five years, according to the projections.

The reason for this shift in spending is that audience and attention are moving online, according to Forrester:

Newspapers Suffer Most in Ad Dollars Lost to Internet

Newspapers more than other media are losing ad dollars from leading national advertisers, who are shifting budget away from traditional media to the Internet, according to a new report from Wachovia Equity Research, via Editor & Publisher.

By category, in 2006 only financial services advertisers increased spending in newspapers, which have seen less money from the automotive, retail, telecommunications, general services, media, and tech/Internet categories, according to Wachovia.

Additional findings from Wachovia:

* Of the seven categories considered, only one - financial services - increased spending in newspapers in 2006.
* Television, however, had more money flowing in from four of those seven categories: telecommunications, automotive, media and tech/Internet.
* Among the seven categories in the aggregate, newspapers lost 14.3 percent in advertising dollars, and TV gained 4.4 percent. Internet ad spend increased 17.8 percent. Spend in other measured channels decreased 1.1 percent.
* The top telecommunications advertisers shifted the most ad spend away from newspapers: In 2005 they spent 31.6 percent in newspapers, but in 2006 they spent 24 percent.
* In 2005, the top auto advertisers spent 9.2 percent, but just 4.6 percent in 2006, on newspapers.
* Retail advertisers spent 29.8 percent on newspapers in 2005 and 28 percent in 2006.

Internet ad spend growth would need to be 15 percent per year over the next decade to reach the level of ad spend going to newspapers, according to Wachovia.

GroupM: Internet Driving U.K. Ad Spending on Other Media

A new study from the agency GroupM says online ad spending is actually helping stem losses from other media, reports MediaPost.

The report from GroupM predicts losses at traditional media outlets will either level off or drop only one percent this year. The increased dollars spent online have been, it's believed, contributing to that decline as traditional media outlets find they can't demand the same price increases they once could.

Overall, and largely driven by online spending, GroupM believes ad revenue in the UK will grow by four percent in 2007.

MarketingCharts provides detailed coverage of GroupM's UK forecast.