Now that Joost has given up the ghost and bailed out of the Web video portal business, who’s next? A good bet: Veoh, one of the best-funded would-be YouTubes. Multiple sources tell me the company is aggressively marketing itself to would-be buyers, and it’s asking for less than the $70 million investors like Michael Eisner have plowed into the company. Meanwhile, rival MetaCafe is looking for a “strategic investor.”
Here’s the beginning of the inevitable online video shakeout: Joost, the once-hyped video service that was supposed to rival Google’s YouTube, is restructuring to focus on “white label” services, i.e., a back end for other video players.
The site is laying off the majority of its 100-plus employees, and CEO Mike Volpi is out, replaced by Matt Zelesko, who had been SVP of engineering.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts will announce this morning that their two companies are linking up for a trial of an “authentication” effort. That means a handful of cable subscribers will get online access to Time Warner TV shows that have been previously kept off the Web. The idea is to protect cable subscription revenues by giving pay TV subscribers–but only subscribers–Web access to all the shows they get on TV. It’s a simple idea, but making it a reality will be very, very complicated.
The traditional publishing business is grim, but if you broaden your perspective and look at the rest of the media business, things are starting to look… not horrible.
Granted, “not horrible” doesn’t equal “good times are here again.” But I keep hearing that the sickening decline in advertising spending has stopped, at least, and that some marketers are actually spending money again.
Sure, YouTube dominated the online video world in April, and Hulu is continuing its rocket ride. But it’s surprising to see that Viacom’s MTV, which squandered its natural lead in online video long ago, had a big month, too. What happened?
Newsflash: More data confirm that ad spending was really bad last year. But ad execs–at least those in certain industries–say things may be bottoming out this spring.
Here’s yet another fan of the Kindle, Amazon’s much-hyped e-book reader: News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, who likes the device enough that he’s considering investing in a Kindle rival.
Viacom hauled Google into court over copyright violations at YouTube two years ago. So what’s happened since then? Not much, says Philippe Dauman. But he does say that his son continues enjoy working at the company he’s suing.
Both Comcast and Timer Warner Cable want to give their subscribers Web access to more shows than they can currently get–at least legally. But the two companies have competing plans, based on different technologies and philosophies.
Who’s pushing Hulu to stop putting its movies and TV shows on Boxee, the nifty, free Web video service? Here’s a theory: Perhaps it was your cable company, which has the most to lose from a free, nifty Web video service.
Remember when MTV used to mean music television? Those days are long gone, but music videos thrive on YouTube. And it shouldn’t be hard to turn that into a real business worth serious money–if the labels and Google can get their act together.
This is the soft bigotry of low expectations: Viacom saw its earnings drop by 70 percent in the last quarter, pushed down by a write-off and weak advertising and DVD sales. But compared to its big media peers, that’s really not so bad–at least it didn’t drop a bundle on a newspaper in the last year.
Last spring, RealNetworks announced plans to spin off its fast-growing casual games business into a separate company. That’s not going to happen in the midst of a meltdown, and today the company formally acknowledged the reality. But keep an eye on Real, which has a pile of cash and may be in an acquiring mood at some point this year.
Back to grim news: A bad economy and bad timing mean that the DVD business, once a source of strength for Hollywood, is going to be a weakness. “Home entertainment revenue” may shrink five percent or more this year, which is particularly bad news for Viacom and Time Warner.
Are you an aspiring media entrepreneur trying to figure out how to raise money during brutal times? Here’s one method: Start an email newsletter business, then give Bob Pittman a call. The investor behind DailyCandy and Thrillist is trying it again, via a $1 million stake in VitalJuice, a “wellness” newsletter.
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 »
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