Europeans Like to Watch Web TV

Close to half - 45 percent - of broadband users in Western Europe watch television via the web according to research just released by Motorola and conducted by StrategyOne, writes MarketingCharts (via the Guardian and paidContent).

Among the five leading markets studied, France led with 59% of broadband users saying they watch web TV, followed by Spain (48%), Italy and the UK (43%), and Germany (33%).

Some other findings from the study:

Some 64% of UK households have two or more PCs, as do 57% and 54% of German and French households, respectively.
Nearly a third of UK households have three or more TV sets.
Nearly two-thirds of those under age 25 said they watch TV shows on the web, compared with 30% of those over 55.
Some 57% said they would use interactive services on web TV, such as background info on athletes during a game.
35% of viewers want the ability to pause, fast forward or rewind live broadcast programming.
On average, users are now plugging three devices into the TV set, with nearly a third of Europeans attaching a digital camera to download and view photos.
45% of Europeans expect to be making video calls via their home TVs by the time the 2012 Olympics is on.
The research was commissioned by Motorola's connected home solutions department and surveyed 2,500 broadband users in five countries.

Me.TV Puts Custom TV in Users' Hands

Me.tv, a website upon which users can create their own TV channels online, launches this week, according to a press release.

Created by Demand Media, me.tv asks users to purchase a .TV domain, then provides them with the tools to create a video-centric website with built-in social features like profiles, blogs, message boards, messaging, and ratings.

Talk show host Carson Daly, formerly of MTV, was among the first members to take part, quickly snagging carsondaly.tv.

New Trade Publication Targets Bloggers, Podcasters

This month Larstan Publishing launched Blogger and Podcaster, a trade magazine dedicated to "new media titans," reports CMS Wire. Allegedly the first of its kind for the "new media" industry, Blogger and Podcaster will operate on a collaborative format, drawing from a number of frontline voices in the blogging and podcasting worlds. It will also be closely edited by two longtime journalists.

CEO Larry Genkin of Larstan expects the magazine to draw hobbyist attention at outset, but the content is dedicated mainly to professional practitioners of digital media.

“There are two things holding back the industry: helping practitioners to earn a full-time living from their craft and providing vendors a cost effective vehicle to communicate with and generate significant sales from bloggers and podcasters. We aim to help the industry on both fronts,” said Genkin.

Like its industry, the publication is fluid, appearing in a number of forms: digital, print and podcast. A yearly print subscription costs $79, while digital and podcast editions will be available at no cost.Genkin projects circulation will leap from its current 20,000 to 250,000 next year. The publication has already been dubbed the official trade magazine of the International Blogging and New Media Association.

TiVo strikes back against zippers

NYT reported that holy grail on Madison Avenue these days is to create advertising that is “TiVo-proof” — compelling enough to owners of digital video recorders that they will watch the commercials rather than zip past them when replaying recorded programs.

In an effort to come up with a TiVo-proof ad for itself, TiVo is relying on humor, double entendre and unfamiliar body parts. In one ad, above, a baseball fan’s antennas spring to attention when his girlfriend beckons.
But how do you make a TiVo-proof commercial for TiVo? Executives at TiVo hope the answer is to hire an agency known for broad humor, talking animals and chirpy jingles, then approve a campaign centered on a silly (though eye-catching) visual device, meant to symbolize how much TiVo differs from generic DVRs.

The proliferation of DVRs means that viewers are increasingly watching TV programs on a delayed basis rather than live. That in turn is leading Nielsen to rework its longtime methods for measuring viewership to count people who play back a program within one, three or seven days after it ran.

And because so many DVR owners fast-forward through spots rather than watch them, Nielsen plans to start providing by the end of May ratings for commercials in addition to its traditional program ratings. (TiVo has started supplying its own data to advertising agencies, showing second-by-second viewing patterns among its subscribers.)

TiVo, as the brand of DVR that has become synonymous with the category, is benefiting from the growing popularity of digital recording in the same way that brands like Band-Aid, Coke, Kleenex, Post-it, Q-tips and Xerox took advantage of similar synonym status in their markets.

But TiVo’s gains in subscribers have slowed significantly as more operators of cable TV systems sell their own — usually unbranded — DVR services.

As of Jan. 31, TiVo reported 4.4 million subscribers, 1.73 million who owned TiVo brand recorders and 2.7 million who had TiVo service through their DirecTV satellite service. The total was only 1.8 percent higher than the 4.36 million subscribers that TiVo had on the same day in 2006.

Microsoft to launch mobile ads

Seattle Times reports that Microsoft will launch mobile ads through its Windows Live properties, following an announcement Thursday that it will acquire ScreenTonic, a French company based in Paris.

ScreenTonic works to launch advertising campaigns in partnership with wireless carriers in Europe and Web-site publishers engineered specifically for mobile phones.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The expertise gained from ScreenTonic will help Microsoft commercially launch banner and text ads on Windows Live for mobile properties in the not-too-distant future, said Matt Champagne, Microsoft's director of mobile-product management for the online-services group.

Last year, he said, the group conducted trials in the U.S. and Japan for display advertising on Windows Live for mobile. Group members determined that taking knowledge they already had from advertising on the PC desktop and applying it to mobile didn't always work.

"There are unique things in selling it and unique things in fulfilling it on the mobile," he said. "These guys have a great sales force and ad expertise, and can accelerate us into the market."

ScreenTonic's 43 employees will continue to be based in Paris, he said, but with the acquisition, the company will enter the U.S. and other markets.

Mobile advertising is starting to gain attention as other companies in the U.S., including Boston-based ThirdScreenMedia and San Mateo, Calif.-based Admob, build mobile-advertising networks.

Although it's early, Champagne said mobile phones could have a more valuable audience than computers do because cellphones are more personal devices.

"The mobile advertising piece has been talked about for years, and now it's more mainstream and becoming part of media budgets. We want to be on the forefront of that," Champagne said.
advertising

Neil Strother, an analyst with JupiterResearch, said there are no leaders yet in mobile advertising as companies try to figure out the landscape.

"Microsoft doesn't want to get left out at this juncture," he said. "In fact, this might put them a little ahead in Europe."

Joost takes charge with online tv content

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Joost, the Internet TV platform being developed by the influential creators of Skype and Kazaa, said Tuesday it had signed several new content distribution agreements, including one to show CNN programs.

The company also planned to expand availability by the end of the month, letting "beta" testers invite anyone else to download the software from its Web site and view programs on Joost as well.

"This is the way you normally ramp up peer-to-peer software ... and it's a way to give our (beta tester) friends a little bit of a scoop," said Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, the company's top executive for content acquisition.

Joost — pronounced "juiced" — was co-founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the entrepreneurs who upset the music industry with the Kazaa file-sharing service and then developed Skype, the Internet telephone system that was bought by eBay Inc. for at least $2.6 billion in 2005.

Joost operates by distributing streaming video of shows "peer-to-peer," or user-to-user, over the Internet. Consumers choose a channel via a software interface on their desktop that resembles a remote control. Like regular TV, it is free for viewers, and aims to be ad-supported.

In Tuesday's deal with Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting System, Joost said it would air episodes of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" and "Robot Chicken" from Turner's Adult Swim network along with "Larry King Live" and other CNN news and interview programs.

Joost is seen as one of the many candidates to become a primary distributor of television and video to the Internet, competing against Google Inc.'s YouTube, Revver Inc., broadcasters' own Web sites, an as-yet unnamed cooperation between General Electric Co.'s NBC and News Corp., and file-sharing programs such as BitTorrent, among others.

Viacom Lawsuit a Threat to Internet, Google Says

Viacom's copyright infringement suit against Google and its YouTube video-sharing unit strikes at the heart of how the Internet works, Google argues in a new U.S. federal court filing. "Viacom's complaint threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information."

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN3047264820070501