In This Update:
• Google Takes Step on Video Copyrights
• Napster Relaunches, Shifts focus from Hardware to Web
• Scripps Splits Cable Networks, Newspapers Into Two Companies
• Venture Funding reaches five-year high in Q1
• Online TV Show Viewing Doubled This Year: Conference Board/TNS
• Yahoo Gaining In Search Dollar Share: RBC
• Nokia Delivers 8GB N95, Preloads Spider-Man 3
• YuMe Network Raises $9m

Google Takes Step on Video Copyrights
NYTimes
Google is seeking to put an end to the copyright wars over online video. On Monday, the company unveiled a long-anticipated system that, if effective, would allow media companies to prevent their clips from being uploaded to YouTube without permission. Whether the system will work well enough to satisfy media companies who have been irked by the proliferation of unauthorized copyrighted clips on YouTube is not yet clear. But if successful, the system, which Google is offering to all media companies, could usher in a détente between them and Google. “We are delighted that Google appears to be stepping up to its responsibility and ending the practice of profiting from infringement,” said Michael Fricklas, general counsel of Viacom, which filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against YouTube and Google in March. “We’ll be watching to ensure that the system is reasonably effective and sufficiently robust to address the issue.”
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Napster Relaunches, Shifts focus from Hardware to Web
Engadget
According to news out today, Napster is attempting a fevered slide back into the game with a relaunch of its music-download service, featuring a heavier emphasis on web-based streaming capabilities. The new “4.0″ platform the company is touting boasts improved compatibility, as playlists and content and be accessed from any computer, without the use of additional software — though if you want to get that music onto a player, you’re still stuck with Napster’s proprietary application and list of compatible players. In addition to the accessibility revamp, the company says it has further plans to embrace DRM-free music in 2008, which makes sense, as the portal’s music has heretofore been unplayable on Apple’s products — which have the largest market share. Can that rascally cat pick up the pieces? Only time will tell.
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Scripps Splits Cable Networks, Newspapers Into Two Companies
WSJ Online
E.W. Scripps Co. plans to split into two parts, becoming the second media company in recent weeks to isolate fast-growing assets from the troubled newspaper sector. The move would create one company with Scripps’ highly profitable cable-television networks and its shopping comparison Web sites, and another with its newspapers and local television stations. The decision reflects the length companies will go as souring sentiment on the newspaper industry dents stocks prices of companies exposed to the sector. Shares of Scripps, which generates roughly one third of its revenue from newspapers, have fallen 15% this year. Scripps’ cable networks, which include Food Network and HGTV, generate more than half of the company’s revenue and most of the company’s profit growth. Scripps’ newspapers include the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
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Venture Funding reaches five-year high in Q1
Network World
Venture capitalists put more dollars behind fewer companies in the first quarter of 2007, marking the highest amount invested in start-ups since the fourth quarter of 2001. While companies in the life-sciences and medical-device industries experienced an unusually high amount of funding, IT start-ups also garnered a significant chunk of the $7. 1 billion invested in 778 deals during the first quarter of this year, according to the MoneyTree Report. PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association compiled the report based on data by Thomson Financial.
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Online TV Show Viewing Doubled This Year: Conference Board/TNS
MediaPost
Close to 16% of Americans households who use the Internet watch television broadcasts online, according to a report released Monday by The Conference Board and TNS. The number of consumers viewing entire episodes/shows on the Internet has doubled from a year ago. Nearly 73% of online households use the Internet for entertainment purposes on a daily basis, and an additional 15% search for entertainment several times a week. Online viewers cite personal convenience and avoiding commercials as their top two reasons for watching TV broadcasts on the Internet. Four out of every five online viewers say that watching these programs online has not changed their television viewing habits, but a small percentage claim that their traditional television viewing has decreased.
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Yahoo Gaining In Search Dollar Share: RBC
MediaPost
A study from Atlanta-based searchignite and RBC Capital Markets reveals that overall search spending rose in 3Q 07 by almost 2%, and more marketers chose to use those incremental dollars with Yahoo than Google. SearchIgnite and RBC routinely partner to release insights on market share and revenue per search of Google, Yahoo and other players in the search space–using spending data from more than 500 marketers (all of whom are clients of SearchIgnite or sister search firm, 360i). This quarter’s study, entitled “Summer Heats up for Yahoo,” tracked impressions and clicks across Yahoo, Google and MSN from January of 2006 through the end of September 2007. Yahoo releases its quarterly earnings this afternoon.
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Nokia Delivers 8GB N95, Preloads Spider-Man 3
Digital Music News
Nokia is now tossing a heavyweight handheld into the ring, and luring consumers with a preloaded action film. The device is the 8GB N95, and the film is the recently-released Spider-Man 3. The Sony Picture Entertainment film, written and directed by Sam Raimi, was released globally this year on the big-screen. Now, Nokia is grabbing the release for the tiny third-screen, and pushing the mobile platform in the process. The mobile debut may seem unusual, but so is this phone. Buyers may be shocked by a €560 ($794) price tag, but the amenities are anything but low-brow. The N95 packs a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, built-in A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA, and a luminous 2.8-inch display for dazzling video experiences. “Watching videos, browsing the internet or viewing maps is a real pleasure,” the company promised. The phone, which offers easy compatibility with the Nokia Music Store, can handle 20 hours of video or roughly 6000 songs.
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YuMe Networks Raises $9M
MediaPost
YuMe Networks, a dedicated advertising network created and optimized for broadband video, has raised another $9 million in funding. The investors include Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, BV Capital, DAG Ventures Funding. YuMe is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, CA. Its network offers advertisers the ability to target messaging to online video content the way they do with keyword placements. YuMe uses a proprietary contextual mapping technology to scan online video content and then categorize it into such channels as Auto, Finance, Entertainment and Family Friendly.
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