Gawker
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hubris
Marissa Mayer Is Right 80 Percent of the Time
Continuing her unstoppable PR rampage, Google executive Marissa Mayer took to NBC's Press:Here, a Silicon Valley interview show. The cupcake princess of search defended her by-the-numbers approach to Google's design. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by GrumpyMcGillicutty: The thing is, Mayer's kind of right about this. Google is a business, not an art gallery. Their goal is... 3 Responses | Other threads
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twitterati
Hairy-Chested Mice Menace the Twitterati
Ryan Seacrest's wordsmith can't stand the sight of body hair! Wired's Jason Tanz went to the dentist! And a journalism instructor saw a mouse! It's scary out there in Twitterland: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by pacocornholio: Site of hair? Sight of hair? For a moment there it looked like a much juicier message. 3 Responses | Other threads
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breakups
Julia Allison Loses One of Her Nontrepreneurs
NonSociety, the attempt by unduly well-known dating columnist Julia Allison to blog for dollars, will soon be down to just two. Mary Rambin, her vapid handbag-designer gal pal, is quitting the startup.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Mount_Prion: That dog is terrified. I would say "terrierfied", but I'm not gonna go there. 8 Responses | Other threads
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television
Julia Allison to Air on Most Obscure Channel Possible
Relentless egoblogger Julia Allison took a break from hurling ladyparts labels at bloggers to inform us of breaking news: Her videoblog, TMIweekly, has been picked up by NBC's New York Nonstop. How appropriate! More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Terrafractal: I don't understand. Gawker blogs about this person relentlessly while repeatedly stating her irrelevance. Did she do something before I... 14 Responses | Other threads
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twitterati
Twittering Like a Peacock
Did GE corporate issue a memo about this "Twitter" thing? Because all of a sudden, Ann Curry and a bunch of other NBC people are using it. Can't wait to see the Six Sigma metrics! More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by sarrible: Am I the only one who can't tell Dan Abrams and David Shuster apart if they aren't side by side? 1 Responses | Other threads
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field guide
Shira Lazar, Kevin Rose's Latest Fling
Having famously "plowed through" San Francisco's eligible bachelorettes, Digg founder Kevin Rose went L.A. for his most recent paramour, Shira Lazar. Who is this Web-video wannabe with links to Dov Charney and Julia Allison? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by LilyBartleby: She's an upgrade from his previous paramour, Roseys Palm. 9 Responses | Other threads
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journalismism
TV Networks Prepping Steve Jobs's Obituary
Steve Jobs, currently on medical leave as Apple CEO, is not dead, but the major networks are acting as if he were. Producers from CBS and NBC are scheduling interviews for their Jobs obituaries. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by blix: Bill Gates canned television obit is a plain blue screen. 3 Responses | Other threads
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videuhoh
The Creepy Corporate Cult Behind Last Night's 30 Rock
Who's the newest Six Sigma expert? Tina Fey. The cultish quality process observed by her employer, NBC Universal, is a predictable source of profitable laughs for her show, 30 Rock and all too real. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by MrInBetween: I wouldn't have minded the laugh-counting gig for "Alf." 2 Responses | Other threads
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online video
Report: Sarah Palin destroying Web video
We've uncovered what's really killing the online-advertising business: Sarah Palin! Or rather, the lack thereof. Traffic at Hulu, NBC's YouTube wannabe, tumbled in November without the Web's favorite hot lady governor and VP candidate.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Catherine Helzerman: Palin was made for reality TV. Her family is a walking soap opera. I'm still waiting for cliff... more » | Other threads
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layoffs
Sugar leaves nine employees out in the rain
Brian Sugar, cofounder of San Francisco-based blog network Sugar Inc., sent two ominous Twitters this afternoon: "Sad day." "First rain, will last for 5 months." Was he just talking about the weather? Less than an hour later, he'd gathered his staff into a conference room and told them he was laying off nine employees, mostly in editorial — 11 percent of the company's 80-person staff. What's worse: More layoffs could come over the next two quarters, if ad sales don't improve. More » -
Robyn Peterson
Ziff-Davis CTO leaves meaningless job for NBC
The latest we're-supposed-to-care chatter from the tipline: "It was just announced yesterday that Ziff-Davis Chief Technology Officer Robyn Peterson is leaving to go to NBC. Ouch!" Ouch? The real ouch is that Ziff-Davis Media, the considerably reduced tech-magazine publisher, was paying someone to be its CTO in the first place. -
online advertising
Hulu's surprising lesson
Jason Kilar, the CEO of online-video site Hulu, has rediscovered a truism: less is more. Hulu, which is mostly owned by NBC and News Corp., runs fewer ads on the TV clips it licenses from its TV-network parents than they air when they broadcast the same shows. And yet the ads are more effective. This could simply be a novelty effect; everything about Hulu is new, so the ads also draw more notice. But Hulu may be onto something. Why don't networks try running fewer ads on air, too? (Photo via Alarm:Clock)
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By Owen ThomasComment by marcsiry: I'm not sure this story follows VW style guidelines- aren't you supposed to use at least one vaguely insulting descriptor... 2 Responses | Other threads
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we read twitter so you don't have to
Obviously fake Tina Fey Twitter account annoys Internet
This can't be real, can it? Since last week, a sporadically updated Tina Fey account on Twitter has seen more action, with more-frequent messages emanating from the supposed 30 Rock star and Saturday Night Live veteran. But whoever's updating it is far from clever enough to imitate Tina Fey. Unless this is actually Fey doing a bad impression of herself, thereby demonstrating how moronic most Twitter's users seem in the 140-character format the microblogging service limits them to. That's an idea actually funny enough to come from the mind of Tina Fey.
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By Owen ThomasComment by MariettaGanjka: Wake up sleepy. Mike Arrington hires 2007 Intern to serve as legal expert discrediting Earthcomber patent lawsuit against Stanford buddies... 1 Responses | Other threads
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online video
Joost will let you relive the '90s with "Friends"
BoomTown's Kara Swisher paused in making ribald jokes about Joost's London office to report that the online-video purveyor will be offering six full seasons of NBC's former hit Friends. With this, Joost will reach an audience who prefers New York City when there's no black people, just like in dated sitcoms and Woody Allen movies. But I digress. NBC-backed Hulu only offers snippets of Friends episodes. Joost isn't exactly going to take off with syndicated reruns you can watch on dozens of cable channels. For those of you desperate to relive Ross and Rachel, the site will relaunch in mid-October — no plugin required.
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By Jackson WestComment by sample032: Remind me again, was season 6 before or after the cute guy became a prescription drug addict and got fat? 1 Responses | Other threads
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michael steib
Old NBC friends come through for Google TV exec
Last we heard from sources on Madison Avenue, Google's TV advertising business was a joke. Only 200 clients had signed up for it in almost a year. Its ad targeting tech, unlike Google's sophisticated Web ads, judges whether or not an ad is relevant based on whether viewers click away while it plays, even though Google itself says 96 to 97 percent of the audience stays tuned in to a channel no matter what ad plays. So why did NBC today announce it would let Google play middleman for its cable networks, which include Sci-Fi, Bravo, Oxygen, MSNBC and CNBC? More »
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Comment by WagCurious: I wouldn't get too excited. There is tons of excess inventory on Sci-Fi channel. The article says that Google is... more » | Other threads
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online video
"Battlestar Galactica," "Heroes," and NBC shows we don't watch back on iTunes
Chalk up a rare victory for NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker in doing what few can: He stared down Steve Jobs and won. NBC shows like Heroes and Battlestar Galactica are returning to iTunes, but on NBC's terms. Almost exactly a year ago, NBC packed up its toys and left Apple's iTunes store over a pricing dispute. Apple insisted on sticking with one price for TV shows. But with today's announcements of new iPods, Jobs showed off NBC shows available again — at $0.99 for old shows, $1.99 for new shows, and HD for $2.99. NBC shows represented roughly 40 percent of iTunes video sales before they vanished from the store.
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Comment by WagCurious: It's called the split people. Has no one in the valley worked in TV? $1.99 was not the amount getting passed... 1 Responses | Other threads
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online video
Amazon.com puts Unbox away
We suspect the name "Unbox" only ever made sense to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. The online retailer has rebranded its video-download store as "Video on Demand." The only other big change: The videos will now play on Macs. They'll continue to be downloadable to viewers' TiVos, Windows Media Centers, and Xbox consoles. Flicks cost $2.99 to $3.99 to rent and $7.99 to $14.99 to buy. Another draw: Unlike Apple's iTunes store, you can get NBC Universal content from Amazon.com. (NBC vanished from Apple's store after a tiff over pricing last year.)
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Comment by UilliamLazred: I think the biggest change is that the videos you buy immediately play (streaming vs. Unbox download). more » | Other threads
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online video
To promote TV shows, NBC turns to Hulu
What's the best way to get people who don't watch TV to start watching it? For starters, advertising TV shows somewhere other than on TV. Give NBC this much credit: The network, which has seen better days in the ratings, hopes to attract viewers by releasing fall season premieres on Hulu a week ahead of their television air date. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by jetblack: I guess I'm the only person eagerly anticipating the new season of Knight Rider. I like what I like.... more » | Other threads
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online advertising
NBC's online video ads a $5.75 million piddle in the pool
According to an eMarketer estimate, NBC's Olympics videos online would have generated only $5.75 million if paid for on a CPM basis. That number is likely low; the network may have signed flat-rate contracts for brand exposure tied into larger sponsorship deals, rather than bother with cost-per-impression deals. Still, low views on the Olympics will make it harder for NBC to charge more for video ads down the road. And why pay for online ads when sponsors get buzz for free through social networks? [TV Week] (Original photo by AP/Greg Baker) -
gemini division
NBC's Web 2.0 cop show draws commenter hatefest
Gemini Division is NBC's new online-only science fiction series consisting of five-minute episodes starring Rosario Dawson as a New York detective trying to find her fiance's murderer. Instead of disruptive traditional ads, producers Electric Farm Entertinament incorporated blatant product placements right into the show! Genius, right? "Terrible," sums up one of the fourteen nearly all-negative comments posted to Gemini Division's Hulu page. "Take the worst elements of Cloverfield (shaky camera and retarded talking) and throw in blatant ads plus a hot girl stifled with sh1tty lines," agrees another. The one positive reaction has, of course, been bubbled up to the top of the list: "I enjoyed this a lot ... exceeded expectations."
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By Paul BoutinComment by DominiqueJagar: I certainly hope people will give it a chance. And if nothing else enjoy the delectable Rosario Dawson who carries... more » | Other threads
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online video
NBC mocks Web 2.0 with 17.6 Nielsen rating, $1 billion in ads
The network's online lockdown of Olympics video coverage, ridiculed as old-Web thinking, has paid off: A captive audience drove television ratings for NBC's Beijing coverage higher than the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens games. Advertisers who bought a billion bucks' worth of spots from NBC are probably happy. Oh well, maybe next time. [Wired] -
gemini division
NBC bungling Rosario Dawson's Web show
Electric Farm Entertainment, the production company behind NBC's new Web-only show Gemini Division, has already earned themselves a profit on the production. How? By lacing the show with consumer-electronics product placement from Intel, Cisco, and Microsoft, and striking distribution deals with NBC and Sony. NBC, however, might have a harder time making the project pay — the ads currently running on the site look like cheap, run-of network trash. Whose idea was it to advertise a fiber supplement alongside a sci-fi romp with Rosario Dawson that's clearly targeted to young, male viewers? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by marinman: Uhh, have you watched the series? It's not that good. And I'm sorry, but she can't act. more » | Other threads
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online video
Legal, illegal Olympics clips rule Web
Traffic to NBCOlympics.com has likely already surpassed the 229 million pageviews garnered by the entire 2004 Athens Games, according to the network. Even so, users frustrated with the lack of full-screen video have already started to figure out workarounds. So where are people turning for better-quality Olympics video? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by giddieup: seriously, is the 4h30m long opening ceremony that interesting to warrant all this attention? it looked like a snoozer to... more » | Other threads
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online video
The definitive guide to watching the Olympics online
The folks who are bringing you the Olympics online don't actually want you to watch their coverage. NBC and Microsoft are delaying the most popular events by three hours so that it won't interfere with more profitable TV broadcasts. And you'll have to download Microsoft's Silverlight browser plug-in to watch in your browser. But a bird's nest of geography and time-delay restrictions worthy of China's Communist Party government is in place. Thankfully, the anarchy of the Web offers plenty of options for having a crowd of curious coworkers surround your computer as you watch live handball, with varying degrees of expense and difficulty. Rather than being the coming-out party for Silverlight Microsoft hopes for, it may instead be the year sports fans learn a few new online-video tricks. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by cainmark: @stevieQ @tdhurst What's with the OS hating? I've paid plenty for hardware and software, even paid for a program to work on linux... more » | Other threads
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censorship
Reporters find presumed privileges revoked behind China's Great Firewall
The Chinese government may have assured the International Olympic Committee that reporters would enjoy Western freedoms while covering the Olympic games, such as unfettered access to the Internet. Once on the ground, however, journalists have discovered that's not exactly the case. The IOC has been busy backtracking. Olympics reps now have clarified that open Web access is only for sites about "Olympic competitions" — not, say, Amnesty International, one of many sites that has been blocked. The question no one has asked, however, is why China should feel compelled to act in any other way? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Dror Poleg: @LACJ: Cheers. I'm not sure all the blocked sites will be with us for many more years. After all, they... more » | Other threads
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downtime
Hulu widgets let you watch TV while pretending to use Internet
Finally a widget I can get behind: TV and movie site Hulu has built a set of highly configurable widgets that can preview or even play full episodes in the middle of a Web page. Now if only they'd carry the entire Season 4 backlog of Battlestar Galactica.
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By Paul BoutinComment by WagCurious: Let me save you the time Paul... the Battlestar finds earth, but it's been devastated by war. Did not see... more » | Other threads
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online advertising
NBC almost sold out of video ads for Olympics
With a little help from brands McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, Hilton, Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch, NBC Universal is 85 percent sold out of its expected inventory of ads to play at the beginning ofOlympics Web videos. All of the ads will be 15- and 30-second "prerolls" — because that's the only kind the International Olympic Committee currently allows. Hate prerolls? Go ahead and set up your own broadcast, then, bub. (Photo by striatic)
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Comment by MikeTy: They'll give them the 15 percent remaining so they can stop complaining! more » | Other threads
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great moments in journalism
NBC contractor not fired for posting Tim Russert's death to Wikipedia
Did you read our post that said a contractor at NBC had been fired for updating Tim Russert's Wikipedia page with news of the Meet the Press moderator's death? Um, never mind: Silicon Alley Insider reporter Michael Learmonth has confirmed with NBC executives that "the dude," as he puts it, wasn't fired, although he was briefly suspended. Since the earlier New York Times report was credibly reported from NBC employees, I emailed Learmonth to double-check his sources. Turns out he'd had the correct story all along, but we all liked "fired" better. -
acquisitions
NBC Universal buys Weather Channel
NBC Universal and two private equity firms, Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group, acquired the Weather Channel and Weather.com from Landmark Communications over the weekend for a rumored $3.5 billion. Yes, we're not shocked either that NBC figured out Weather Plus wasn't taking over the meteorological universe. [PaidContent] -
Internet Broadcasting Services
Employee at NBC contractor fired for network on Russert death
When Meet The Press host Tim Russert died, NBC held the news so it could inform Russert's family first. An employee at Internet Broadcasting Services, which provides web services for some of NBC affiliates, went ahead and updated Russert's Wikipedia page anyway. Then the New York Times saw the update and broke the news before NBC itself. NBC executives heard about the slip, got upset and now, IBS has responded by firing the employee who updated the page. Silicon Alley Insider's Peter Kafka and Henry Blodget say IBS shouldn't have fired the employee and that NBC should get with the times. Citizen journalism happens, Blodget writes, "and the genie isn't going back in the bottle." Except what the IBS employee did wasn't "citizen journalism." More »
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Comment by well-seasoned: You nailed it, and Henry Blodget should've known better. You'd think SEC prosecution would have made him more careful... more » | Other threads
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online video
YouTube moves to counter Hulu by offering full-length movies and shows
Mark Cuban says Hulu is kicking ass because of a simple marketing device: The NBC and News Corp.-backed site is advertising full-length programs on YouTube to get traffic to shows on which they can sell real advertising. YouTube, rather than ban Hulu, is now angling to keep that traffic in-house by allowing partners to upload shows up to 1 gigabyte in size, enough room for full-length film and television programming (though not at great quality). More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Hey_mikey: @WagCurious: SAG is dreaming if they think that vbloggers are going to pay union dues. Not that it might not... more » | Other threads
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media
NBC contractor broke Tim Russert death on Wikipedia first
A half-hour before the news broadcast on NBC, a Wikipedia user hailing from IP address 66.187.200.74 updated NBC's Tim Russert's page to report the newsman's death. Scooped by the world's most authoritative guide to Idaho wine? How embarrassing for NBC. How worrisome for one of its contractors. See, the IP address 66.187.200.74 belongs to a company called Internet Broadcasting, which maintains some of NBC's local news websites. Not a very good way to keep a news organization as a customer.
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Comment by tyciol: I'm not sure it was all that bad. Odds are that Russert's family watches NBC all the time to see... more » | Other threads
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stats
ABC tops online, with CBS a comer
ABC has the most popular television network website, just a shade more popular than NBC.com among the six broadcasters sampled by HitWise. But both websites are down in their relative share of the online audience, while CBS has greatly increased visits. Why? Well, for starters, CBS is ahead in the year-to-date ratings race for actual television. The top draws to the network sites are, once again, competitions and other game shows — American Idol was the top draw for Fox, Deal or No Deal for NBC and Dancing With the Stars for ABC. Almost every site, however, kept users on longer, with the average user spending three more minutes on CBS. Only visits to NBC got shorter, probably because some users are going to Hulu to watch full episodes of shows like The Office and 30 Rock
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By Jackson WestComment by dumanue: If only ABC had a good player, their web player sucks, as it actually STOP after an ad is played... more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Report: NBC Universal and private equity bid $3.5 billion for Weather Channel and Weather.com
Joining with private equity firms Blackstone and Bain Capital, NBC Universal bid $3.5 billion to acquire the Weather Channel and Weather.com. The cable channel is available in 97 percent of all cable TV home and has 96 million U.S. subscribers. With its local coverage and the always popular schadenfreude-laced disaster porn excerpted in the video above, Weather.com can claim a "people count" of 19 million in the U.S., according to Compete. -
acquisitions
Sugar Publishing ventures into "as seen on TV" product-pushing market
San Francisco-based blog network Sugar Publishing has bought StarBrand Media, a company that works with television producers to highlight and sell clothing and furnishings that appear in popular shows such as Gossip Girl, making every moment in every show an opportunity to place a product. One network it doesn't work with yet is NBC, which just happens to have invested in Sugar Publishing.
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By Jackson WestComment by Owen Thomas: @sample032: And yet in those 72 words, you completely missed the point: NBC may be more motivated to work with... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Microsoft confirms company abides by imaginary broadcast-flag law
Users of Microsoft's Windows Media Center began having trouble using the software to copy NBC shows for later viewing like any DVR would. The reason? The network had marked copying the show as verboten under the terms of the FCC's proposed, but never implemented, broadcast-flag rules. In other words, Microsoft is enforcing a law that does not exist. (An EFF video, "The Corruptibles," provides a good, if activist-biased, explanation of the broadcast-flag controversy.) [News.com] -
online advertising
Why does Madison Avenue have to beg its way into Web videos?
Hulu, the Web-video venture of NBC Universal and News Corp., reached nearly 900,000 visitors last month, according to Compete. Too bad that its 15-second ads and spots spliced into the middle of videos aren't where ad agencies want to spend their clients' money. They want to spend it the way LonelyGirl15's backers do — on product placements. "Just placing ads like prerolls are not a big interest to us, frankly," Digitas EVP Carl Fremont told Silicon Alley Insider. "That's just taking the old TV model and adapting it to a new screen. We would rather work with a producer and develop custom content." Which, of course, is the even older TV model — the one that led Procter & Gamble to invent the soap opera.
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Comment by bitpakkit: But the products are already in millions of videos. All we needed was a way to find them and... more » | Other threads
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online video
NBC Direct still doesn't work
Liz Gannes, a veteran online video reporter whom I've worked with and is no slouch when it comes to getting almost any newfangled content application to function, couldn't get NBC's relaunched video-on-demand software to work. The offering is powered by a file-sharing download process from Pando, but not much good if users can't even install the software. Isn't there a company that already has a delivery and payment system for 720p video content from the networks — one that NBC used to work with? Meanwhile, to get your 30 Rock fix online, Gannes says stick with Hulu. Just looking at the listed bugs on the download page would be enough to scare off anyone who's confused by file-sharing sites.
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By Jackson WestComment by WagCurious: NBC are you listening? Here is the problem with your installer. You are testing for a DRM individualization level before... more » | Other threads
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online video
Apple adds HBO to iTunes, but only by caving on pricing
As a a part of a deal to bring HBO shows to the iTunes store, Apple will allow a content producer to break its $1.99-per-show price structure for the first time, HBO employees involved in the deal told Portfolio. Last summer, Apple CEO Steve Jobs refused to allow NBC to do the same, so NBC boss Jeff Zucker took his shows elsewhere — to Microsoft and the Zune, specifically. Why did HBO get the deal while NBC didn't? More »
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Comment by jeffabc: @ValleyWorker Considering that HBO's cost per episode is somewhere around $10 per on some box sets, I'm going to guess... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Microsoft says Zune won't filter your home videos, promise
After news that NBC had asked Microsoft to develop content filtering technology to keep infringing files off the Zune spread like wildfire, Cesar Menendez, a Microsoft employee working on the Zune, said there was no agreement between the television network and the technology company to implement any such plan.We think some folks in the industry were expressing hopes for how the entire industry, not just Microsoft, would come to look at content distribution, and some speculation has ensued.
In other words, a bit of wishful thinking on NBC's part. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by WagCurious: Well at least you printed your retraction on the front page. more » | Other threads
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