In This Update:
• YouTube Starts Overlaying Ads On Some Professional and User-Generated Video
• DVRs Now in 20% of All US Homes
• Digital Ad Firm AKQA Launches Buying Spree
• ROO consolidated revenues up 78% for Q2
• Boston-Based Conduit Labs Closes $5.5 Million Series A Funding
• Reuters Buys US Research Firm StarMine
• Wal-Mart to Sell DRM-free MP3s
• Adobe Flash Video to Support H.264
• Toshiba Planning 320GB Notebook Drive
• IBM Consumer Survey Shows Decline of TV as Primary Media Device
• Mobile ad group, Medio, acquires rival Suhari
YouTube Starts Overlaying Ads On Some Professional and User-Generated Video
PAIDCONTENT
Looking for more ways to make some revenue from its $1.65 billion purchase, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has begun inserting ads within YouTube videos, reversing its current practice of running ads on a page where videos are featured or placing them before or after the clip plays on screen. Under the new format, the ads will appear as translucent animations or graphics overlaid on the lower 20 percent of professionally produced videos, such as those from media companies like Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) or Fox (Nasdaq: NWS). And in a few cases, user-generated clips on YouTube will also feature the animated ad overlays, which are being called YouTube InVideo ads
Source>
DVRs Now in 20% of All US Homes
LEICHTMAN RESEARCH GROUP via ARS TECHNICA
DVRs are now in 20 percent of all US households, according to the Leichtman Research Group’s sixth annual study on DVRs and video on demand. That’s a huge increase since 2003, when only 2 percent of American homes had DVRs. Oddly enough, the explosion in DVR ownership isn’t entirely due to consumer demand. Most of the increase can be attributed to cable and satellite TV providers aggressively pushing the devices, especially when consumers make the switch to HDTV. “Cable and DBS providers are getting their customers to move to DVRs when they make the transition from standard definition,” LRG president Bruce Leichtman said. “They’re also pricing DVR service very aggressively.”
Source>
Digital Ad Firm AKQA Launches Buying Spree
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Online ad agency AKQA is buying search-marketing company Searchrev, shortly after its announcement that it was planning a string of acquisitions before going public next year. Financial details were not disclosed, but the price is likely to be small considering Searchrev’s small size and annual revenue, believed to be under USD10m. The California-based family business becomes the first target of AKQA’s ambitious expansion drive, with companies keen to follow the enviable path of digital marketing firm aQuantive acquired by Microsoft for USD6bn. AKQA, which is one of the largest independent online ad agencies along with iCrossing in the US, will fund its expansion thanks to a USD250m investment made by private equity General Atlantic earlier this year. The large sum, made against a majority stake in AKQA, is indicative of the growth of the online ad market.
Source>
ROO consolidated revenues up 78% for Q2
MARKETCLUSTERS
Digital media and advertising firm, ROO Group, is reporting a 78% increase in consolidated revenues for Q2 ending June 30. The revenues went up to USD3.6m from USD2m for the same period last year. The company says it had an operating loss of around USD7.5m that included USD1.2m of non-cash items compared with a USD3.3m operating loss for the same period last year, which included USD0.7m non-cash items. ROO’s cash and cash equivalents balance for Q2 was USD23.8m. ROO’s chairman and CEO, Robert Petty, says during the quarter, the company built on its core features in its ROO VX platform that enabled greater automation leading to a large number of video player deployments. He says the number went from 400 at the start of the quarter to 880 and another 350 are on the way.
Source>
Boston-Based Conduit Labs Closes $5.5 Million Series A Funding
TECHCRUNCH
Conduit Labs , a yet-to-launch gaming virtual world, just closed a $5.5 million series A round with Charles River Ventures and Prism Venture Works. In addition to the financing, CRV’s Susan Wu and Prism’s Will Kohler have joined the company’s Board of Directors. The details on the site are in flux and scarce. However, the service will be in the emerging space of “immersive online gaming meets social networking”. Their vision is to combine the best of social networking and online virtual world gaming, which Co-founder Nabeel Hyatt loosely termed as “Facebook meets World of Warcraft”. They don’t want to recreate a social network online, but rather marry existing networks (even perhaps Last.FM) with a 3D gaming experience. In the real world you can call up some friends and play a simple game of basketball. Conduit wants you to enable you to do the same thing easily online.
Source>
Reuters Buys US Research Firm StarMine
PAIDCONTENT
Reuters (Nasdaq:RTRSY), in the process of merging with Thomson, has bought an investment research firm StarMine, for an undisclosed sum. San Francisco-based StarMine is a provider of analytics and equity research tools and performance ratings to securities analysts. Founded in 1998, StarMine had gross assets of $16.3 million as of June 30, the company said. The company has investment from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Instinet and American Century Ventures.
Source>
Wal-Mart to Sell DRM-free MP3s
RED HERRING
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, on Tuesday began selling digital music tracks without copyright protection software, the latest sign that the Internet music market is turning away from digital rights management technology. The move could also help Wal-Mart better compete with Apple’s iTunes Internet music store, the world’s top digital music vendor, which recently started selling DRM-free tracks. Wal-Mart said it would begin selling on its web site unprotected MP3 music tracks from major record labels such as Vivendi’s Universal and EMI for $0.99 each. The retailer said it would also continue selling copyright protected music in Microsoft’s WMA-format for $0.88 per track.
Source>
Adobe Flash Video to Support H.264
THE REGISTER
The next version of Flash Player will support the H.264 video codec – allowing much better quality footage, for less bandwidth.H.264, also known as MPEG4 Part 10, is a video standard offering much greater compression than its predecessors, as well as working over a huge range of bandwidths and resolutions. Such is the reduction in bandwidth that it’s possible to increase the quality while reducing the bandwidth requirement by an order of magnitude, as exemplified by encoding the same video clip twice. This has made H.264 very popular, initially with mobile phones for very low bandwidth video, but now including high definition video systems such as Blu-Ray and HD DVD, as well as broadcast HD services.
Source>
Toshiba Planning 320GB Notebook Drive
PC WORLD
Toshiba Corp. will start producing a 320G-byte hard-disk drive for laptop computers before the end of this year, the company said Tuesday. It is the first 2.5-inch drive to be announced at that capacity, with production to begin in the fourth quarter, according to Toshiba. Pricing was not announced. The drive is one of a series of five that make up Toshiba’s new MKxx52SX family of hard-disk drives. The 320G-byte model will contain two platters — the circular disks on which data is recorded. Other drives in the range will offer between 80G bytes and 250G bytes of storage space. They will connect via a 3G bps (bits per second) serial ATA (SATA) interface. The amount of data that can be stored on a hard-disk drive is constantly expanding as drive makers fine tune technology, and the needs of laptop users are growing in tandem with the expansion in drive space . While enterprise users might not require such a capacious drive, users of multimedia laptops will almost certainly welcome the extra space to store video.
Source>
IBM Consumer Survey Shows Decline of TV as Primary Media Device
YAHOO!
A new IBM (NYSE:IBM) online survey of consumer digital media and entertainment habits shows audiences are more in control than ever and increasingly savvy about filtering marketing messages. The global findings overwhelmingly suggest personal Internet time rivals TV time. Among consumer respondents, 19 percent stated spending six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage, versus nine percent of respondents who reported the same levels of TV viewing. 66 percent reported viewing between one to four hours of TV per day, versus 60 percent who reported the same levels of personal Internet usage. Consumers are seeking consolidated, trustworthy content, recognition and community when it comes to mobile and Internet entertainment. Armed with PC, mobile and interactive content and tools, consumers are vying for control of attention, content and creativity. Despite natural lags among marketers, advertising revenues will follow consumers’ habits.
Source>
Mobile ad group, Medio, acquires rival Suhari
ALARM:CLOCK
Mobile advertising group Medio is acquiring its rival Suhari, to increase its footprint within the mobile ad market. Financial details were not disclosed. The mobile ad and search company will gain access to Suhari’s technologies, to boost its own ‘MobileNow Ad Network’ platform. Employees of Suhari, and its founders, will join Medio, which will work on improving its search technology with the added expertise it has gained. Medio hopes the increase to its portfolio will attract other advertisers. The ad company boasts operational partners which include T-Mobile, Amp’d and Verizon Wireless, with content coming from Amazon, AccuWeather.com and Yellow Pages, amongst others.
Source>
Tags: 3G, Amazon, Apple, Boston, Cisco, DRM, DVR, EMI, Facebook, Financing, Fox, Google, HD DVD, IBM, iTunes, Microsoft, Music, RIM, Series A, Social Networking, Toshiba, Turn, Verizon, Video, Wal-Mart, Warner Music, Yahoo, YouTube