News Corp

MySpace's mobile streaming video play

Pete Wylie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:21:46 -0500

MySpace announced it is entering the mobile streaming video market, streaming user-generated videos and some professional video directly to video-enabled phones. MySpace, which claims 10 million unique users per month visit its mobile offering, will be the first social network to incorporate the feature.

"Video is a natural next step for us in mobile," said John Faith, vice president of mobile for MySpace, in a prepared statement. "MySpace will continue to grow our video library as we increase delivery channels in order to keep pace with our users' accelerating desire for video consumption."

News Corp. obviously eyes the mobile market as one primed for growth and the foray into the nascent space by MySpace could be a precursor to more mobile offerings across its many media holdings.

MySpace will not stream ads with the videos to begin with, as it struggles -- like so many other sites incorporating video (YouTube) -- to monetize and advertise around user-generated content. This is the latest in several recent plays by MySpace to use its video assets to the fullest, including placing ads over pirated content through a deal with MTV and a partnership with fellow News Corp. venture Hulu.

Ripcode, a video transcoding company out of Dallas, Texas, will use its Real-Time Stream Transcoding application to deliver the videos for MySpace. Specific phone types the service will support were not named, but MySpace will use RT-SP streaming, ruling out availability on iPhones.

For more:
- see the release here

Hulu, MySpace join forces

Pete Wylie — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:05:06 -0500

Hulu and MySpace announced their latest online video partnership, as movies and TV shows available on Hulu will now be available in MySpaceTV. MySpace users can now embed Hulu videos on their homepages as well. Embedding the "Primetime plugin" on Myspace will enable users to view all of Hulu's content without leaving the MySpace page.

The deal isn't really that surprising when you consider the wave of partnerships made by online video aggregators, or, even more so, the fact that News Corp. owns MySpace and is a backer of Hulu. MySpace also has deals with Warner Brothers and Sony to distribute content through the Primetime plugin.

MySpace estimated the video partnership will garner the site more than 150 million more page views a month, leading to more opportunity for monetization of traffic and content for both companies.

For more:
- see the PC Magazine coverage here

Big four TV networks gain OV viewers

Pete Wylie — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:03:24 -0500

Nielsen Online released its September online video traffic statistics Friday, showing major gains in online video viewing by all four major television networks. NBC, ABC and Fox all saw their unique online video viewers at least double in September; CBS's unique visitors increased 38 percent.

Most of the gains were attributed to the premieres of network shows and coverage of the presidential election. For the month, NBC led with 5.56 million unique visitors. ABC had 5.25 million, CBS, 3.33 million, while Fox had 1.37 million.

"A combination of series and season premiers, political news and parodies, and coverage of the financial crisis all contributed to increased online video viewing for the television networks in September," Jon Gibs, vice president of media analytics for Nielsen Online, said in a statement. "Consumers are increasingly relying on the Web to catch up on content they missed when it aired on television and the networks are beginning to capitalize on this trend."

Another significant statistic identified was the average amount of time a viewer spent watching online videos on the sites. While Fox had the fewest unique visitors of the four, 1.37 million, Nielsen Online reported that the visitors spent an average of almost two hours on the site over the month. That indicates long form content on Fox appears to be engaging viewers and could prove to be an additional revenue stream for the company, whose content also appears on parent company News Corp's joint venture with NBC, Hulu.

For more:
- see the Nielsen Online release here

YouTube to add feature films

Pete Wylie — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:44:25 -0500

YouTube will add full-length feature films from a major Hollywood studio to its arsenal of short from user-gen and professional clips in 30 to 90 days, according to CNET news. It has long been speculated that Google-owned YouTube would make a play for this space, where News Corp/NBC joint venture Hulu has emerged as the clear leader.

The studio was not named, although it's safe to say that it's probably not Universal or Fox, as their parent companies are heavily invested in Hulu.

The other major studios, namely Paramount, Time Warner, Disney and Sony, have surely seen the success Hulu has had and know they need to embrace the trend toward online video. The CNET report states that the model will be ad-supported, but a major sticking point in negotiations has been whether Google or the studios will have final say in advertising methods and form over the content.

Google has been guiding YouTube in the professional content direction, as the immensely popular user-generated online video share site never drew gigantic profits from its gigantic audiences. Still, it has maintained 80 million unique visitors each month, and with lagging DVD sales, Hollywood execs are sure to want such a prime alternative distribution channel for their products.

For more:
- see the CNET news article here

Exec behind Hulu to leave NBC

Pete Wylie — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:17:17 -0500

George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer for NBC Universal, announced Monday that he would exercise a clause in his contract and step down from his position at the end of the year. Kliavkoff, who spearheaded Hulu and other digital reaches for NBC, said he plans to take some time before returning to work, but hinted that "this is the best time to start, run or invest in digital companies." I wouldn't be surprised to see someone with as much digital wherewithal as Kliavkoff unimpressed with the sidelines, and headlining an online video or other digital media venture by springtime.

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker praised Kliavkoff's work with the company in a statement.

"George came to NBC Universal when we were nowhere in digital," Zucker said. "We asked him to help us change the fundamental orientation of a traditional media company from an analog to a digital mindset. George did that."

NBC Universal hasn't yet named Kliavkoff's successor, but, given the success of Hulu, I would bet a senior VP gets an internal promotion come Jan. 1. It will be very interesting to see how the upstart NBC/News Corp joint venture fares after Kliavkoff exits stage right.

For more:
- see the Variety.com article here

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Hulu still a baby, but posting grown-up stats

Pete Wylie — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:09:07 -0400

Hulu has made it through its first year and even the most bullish execs at NewsCorp and NBC Universal might not have thought the site would have reached its present size or attained its present success so soon. The site, which formally started its private beta testing one year ago today, has exploded in popularity, rising from 1.7 million streams per month before opening to the public, to 142 million streams this September, according to NielsenOnline figures.

In the launch release, Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation said of Hulu, "This is a game changer for Internet video. We'll have access to just about the entire U.S. Internet audience at launch."

While Hulu certainly had access to the entire Internet audience at launch, it certainly didn't reach or win them over immediately. Bloggers, analysts and pundits all derided Hulu as a better-late-than-never entry into the online video market, doomed for failure due to its ad-reliant repackaging of network TV content.

But now Hulu staff and supporters (first and foremost Providnece Equity Partners, who sunk $100 million into Hulu in Oct. 2007) have cause to celebrate one of the biggest online video success stories of 2008.

While Hulu is not yet profitable, its rapid gain in viewership should soon translate to a positive balance sheet, and a recent Insight Express survey Hulu commissioned shows many positive signs for growth in audience and revenue through 2009. Millions of Hulu users are content with watching the ads streamed along with their desired content: 93 percent of nearly 18,000 viewers surveyed said that the site had the right amount of ads for free content.

Hulu advertisers are getting better than average ROI: The survey found users who viewed ads on Hulu demonstrated a 22 percent increase in advertiser message association and a 28 percent jump in intent to purchase.

Plus, Hulu has increased its advertising partnerships from 10 to 100 since launch, according to a wired.com blog post. At this rate, Hulu should grow to a ripe old age.

For more:
- see the wired.com blog post here

Hulu keeps winning viewers over

Pete Wylie — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:13:40 -0400

Hulu's September numbers are in, and they show another stellar period of growth for the NBC/News Corp. venture. Hulu was just another online video platform in beta back in February, with a paltry number of streams a month. Now, NielsenOnline is reporting that Hulu processed 142 million streams in September, making it the sixth most popular online video website by streams.

It can't touch YouTube's 5.5 billion streams, but it can monetize all of its content and its long form videos keep users engaged longer than the short-form, user-gen content on YouTube. Probably sensing the threat of ad-supported professional content to its current model, YouTube announced earlier this month that it will begin to stream and host CBS shows.

Looks like Hulu has got the big guys jumping through hoops.

For more:
- see the newteevee.com post here

MySpaceTV goes international and traditional

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

MySpaceTV has struck a deal to distribute its web video shows to media outlets around the globe. Shine Group, Elizabeth Murdoch's production company, will shop web shows around for TV syndication. (Dad Rupert happens owns News Corp., which owns MySpace, The Wall Street Journal, and Fox, among other properties).

Web properties such as "Quarterlife" or "Roommates" could show up on traditional broadcast television or DVDs outside of the U.S. Another option would be to create localized versions of the shows. MySpace will keep U.S. and worldwide Internet rights to the content.

"Quarterlife" was the first Internet series picked up by a TV network, but it was canceled after one episode. However, skeptics shouldn't sell the new effort short yet. There's a lot of, shall we say, old and bad TV content airing around the globe, so a U.S.-flavored web production could see a (financially) successful life as a broadcast property in an overseas market.

Further, it costs a lot of money to make a broadcast TV pilot in the U.S., so web productions could end up as the "farm team" for new broadcast shows.

For more:
- MySpace TV To Try Shopping Web Shows Abroad

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