Given that Hulu is about to start tinkering with paywalls and subscriptions, its viewership numbers matter a bit less than they used to. But for the record, the video site had a record October. It will be very interesting to see what happens to these numbers next year if Hulu does move ahead with some sort of pay service.
Last month I told you about Hot Potato, one of the buzziest start-ups in the very buzzy “real time” sector. Now you can check out the service yourself. Or at least you can get a glimpse of it in this video.
A year ago, when Time Warner Cable and Viacom sparred over renewal fees, Viacom took out ads asking consumers for sympathy. Today, faced with the prospect of similar fights with the likes of News Corp. and Scripps, Time Warner Cable is launching its own appeal. Good luck with that.
How do you get Web users to pay for content? Get an iPhone into their hands.
That’s one conclusion you can draw from a new survey showing that people who own Apple handsets are more willing to pay for stuff than the average Internet surfer.
I’d like to say this is a half-full, half-empty scenario. But the more I think about it, the more I’m thinking the latter. Web ads improved over the last three months, but compared to last year, we’re still behind. And last year was terrible.
What if somebody made a version of “Mad Men,” but replaced the nostalgia and sex appeal with timeliness and accuracy? It would be sort of amusing, in small doses. Like this clip Yahoo made with other pitchmen in mind.
The tale of Joost, the would-be online video heavyweight, is almost at an end. Most of the company’s remaining assets have been sold off to Adconion Media Group, the two companies announced today.
Google’s acquisition spree continues: The company has bought Teracent, a start-up that customizes online ads on the fly. BoomTown reported in September that Google was interested in the San Mateo, Calif.-based company, which is filled with veterans of…Yahoo. No purchase price disclosed, but I’m fairly confident this was in the sub-$50 million category.
Another expansion for Spotify, the much hyped European streaming music service: It’s now going to be available on Nokia phones and other handsets that run the Symbian platform. That’s good, because the service is supposed to work best as a mobile play.
But Spotify has yet to make a key expansion: To the U.S., where the big music labels worry that consumers will love everything about the site except paying for it.
The new AOL will differ than the old one in several ways: New boss, smaller headcount, different owners. So, of course, it also gets a new–but awfully familiar–logo.
Want to see Condé Nast’s not-so-secret plans to produce tablet-friendly editions of its magazines? Get yourself to New York’s Meatpacking District. Or check out this grainy YouTube clip.
You can debate whether Oprah Winfrey’s plans to shut down her broadcast show–in 2011–and move to cable constitutes “news.” Ditto for what it means for the culture.
But what do Oprah’s plans mean for the TV business? Not that much, argues JP Morgan analyst Michael Meltz.
Here’s your half-empty/half-full stat for the day: Four in 10 consumers don’t want to see ads on their phones. Is that good or bad for the nascent mobile ad business?
In the U.S., this is no big deal, but in much of the world this is now the sports equivalent of the Zapruder film: French soccer star Thierry Henry cheating, via a handball, and propelling his team past Ireland and into next year’s World Cup.
The Web is full of chatter about yesterday’s game, but video is hard to come by: YouTube has shut down most of the clips. But dedicated searchers–and there are lots of them right now–can find them.
It’s official: MySpace has closed on its acquisition of Imeem, the streaming music service. It is paying a fire-sale price of $1 million, sources familiar with the situation tell me, and could pay up to $7 million to $9 million in earn-outs for key employees, who will likely include CEO Dalton Caldwell. Investors like Sequoia and Warner Music Group had pumped at least $25 million into the venture.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
Don't miss a post! Sign up for our Daily Email and get AllThingsD.com delivered each day.
Get columns, blogs and video from D and All Things Digital on your iPhone. Download now »
