Nbc

Fallon Warms Up “Late Night” Online

Doug Mohney — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:20:31 -0400

New NBC "Late Night" host Jimmy Fallon will break into his show this fall as a nightly 5 to 10 minute show on the Internet before taking over the evening broadcast from Conan O'Brien.

Executive producer Lorne Michaels--also Fallon's boss over at "Saturday Night Live"--wants Fallon to work out "rough spots" in presentation through website performances. The online broadcasts are likely to start in the fall, be on every night, and will likely be posted at 12:30 a.m., so people will begin to look for Fallon at that time.

Using an online medium is expected to allow Fallon more freedom to experiment and for him to clock some time to "find his own show." Michaels pointed to O'Brien's experience of assuming the "Late Night" show and having to spend time finding his own way. Unsaid was the potential for Fallon to attract online viewers/fans before he launches his broadcast show.

For more:
- New York Times reports on Fallon's "Late Night" online start

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Olympic Headcounting

Doug Mohney — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:42:16 -0400

For the Beijing Olympics, NBC Universal is launching a new way to measure viewership across different media, encompassing legacy traditional TV, video-on-demand, cell phones and the web.

NBC's new system, to be offered to advertisers at the start of the fall TV season, should provide a more encompassing headcount for media buyers and give the company leverage to sell ads on newer media like VOD and cell phone video. It's a big deal since both audience and dollars are moving away from the traditional 30-second ad spot on broadcast television.

Executives at NBC aren't happy with current measurements available to track viewing across different outlets and need better tools beyond what Nielsen currently offers. NBC will offer TAMI--"Total Audience Measurement Index"--to summarize viewership across broadcast, websites, cable, VOD services, and mobile. The new scheme will be used for research purposes during the Beijing Games but could become a part of ad deals for the upcoming Winter Games in Vancouver.

NBC expects to bring in more than $1 billion in ad dollars for the Beijing Games after shelling out $894 million for the broadcast rights to the 17-day event.

For more:
- Wall Street Journal's reporting on NBC Olympic headcounting

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NBC Gets Flamed for Vista-Only Olympic Distribution

Doug Mohney — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:40:52 -0400

Critics are lining up as NBC announces its online video tech for distributing Olympic coverage.

NBC Olympics on the Go, from NBC and broadband media company Wavexpress, is a podcast-like service to let users pick their favorite sports and have coverage automatically downloaded after NBC broadcasts each event from China. However, the service is only available for PC users running Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium PC. So, pfftp to XP, Mac, and Linux users. There's also a video player to be downloaded and details needed be worked. Reports say event coverage will be available 12 hours after an event and downloaded coverage should be playable for at least the duration of the games.

Microsoft had already cut a deal for its Silverlight environment to be the cornerstone of NBC Olympic distribution, so people shouldn't be too surprised about the Vista-only hook for Olympic footage. However, the move may not go over well in Europe and other places where Microsoft is seen as acting in a monopolist fashion. Goodness knows what the Football/Soccer fans might do.

Mobility plans have not been announced yet, leading to speculation that something might appear in a Zune format since NBC broke off its distribution deal with iTunes.

For more
- Wired reports on NBC Video Distribution for the Beijing Olympics
- Ars Technica Vista-only Olympics piece

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American Gladiators Flag Embarrass All Around

American Gladiators Flag Embarrass All Around

Doug Mohney — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:10:27 -0400

Last week, some users of Vista Media Center were prevented from recording NBC's live on-air "American Gladiators" and "Medium" onto their computers. This week, Microsoft and NBC were clarifying their positions, with Microsoft getting called to the carpet for adhering to FCC regulations struck down by the courts in 2005.

(Ignore for a moment the questionable taste of an individual trying to record a recycled ‘90s TV show on high-end hardware--then complaining about not getting it in a public forum.)

NBC says they accidentally turned on the digital "broadcast flag" on both shows, preventing any recording medium looking for that flag from recording it. It wasn't intentional, but NBC won't say how the mistake occurred. Apparently, false flags do happen in the broadcast industry

For its role, Microsoft says it is fully adhering to flags used by broadcasters and is working with content owners to reduce the number of false flags. However, the voluntary incorporation of broadcast flag monitoring by Microsoft has come as a shock and raises the issue of what other companies and products are doing so.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is Not Pleased and is likely to start banging the drum pretty loudly for consumers to express their displeasure (Not that consumers aren't already unhappy about Vista, mind you).

So far, no commentary on the more intimate relationship Microsoft has with NBC, including MSNBC and NBC's embrace of Silverlight for delivering Olympic video this year.

For more:
- News.com talks about Microsoft use of broadcast flags
- EFF sounds the alarm about broadcast flag incorporation.

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The Olympics, Car Porn, and Online Syndication

The Olympics, Car Porn, and Online Syndication

Doug Mohney — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:06:11 -0400

Streaming Media East, New York - George Kliavkoff, NBC Universal Chief Digital Officer, said the broadcast giant plans to stream 2,200 live hours of Olympic events via the Internet and mobile phones. NBC's future for making money with online video is by generating and syndicating vertical content. And oh yes, Hulu is great too.

The Olympic effort will be delivered with Microsoft's Silverlight. "We think the video will be really compelling and Silverlight provide interactivity, Microsoft has great history of doing video on line. We're not worried about their development cycle." George wouldn't say how much Microsoft might have coughed up to NBC for use and support of the new software.

Using its successful cable companies as models, NBC is building specifically focused content building and marketing efforts around top vertical markets, "digital cable networks if you will." NBC will syndicate content it and its affiliates create, cutting deals with vertical market websites and selling ads against it. The company has found early success with the auto industry, with one of its properties creating an extensive library of short videos that record "every nook and cranny on every model of car ... it's really like car porn," Kliavkoff stated.

Health care is another opportunity to tap into existing content being generated by NBC affiliates. "They produce in excess of 120 health videos a week, play them once, and then put them off the shelf ... think about all the great health sites that are text based. You can syndicate video to them."

Kliavkoff was an interim CEO at Hulu and still sits on their board, so his feeling for the online video site might be taken with a grain of salt. "If [Hulu] does its job really well, it will have much broader content. I happen to think it is the best experience on the Internet," he said. "You'll see more content, better content, and I think a priority you'll see is to move that to other platforms, get it to TV and mobile platforms." Delivery to connected Internet devices is a priority Hulu will focus on in the future.

Surprisingly, making first-run TV shows free online has actually proved to be helpful for cable operators. Studies indicate a viewer that plays catch up with shows online is more likely to watch the next episode on broadcast television, with serialized dramas gaining significant benefit. "You can catch up on the story and rejoin it next week," Kliavkoff said. Cable operators like driving television viewing and watching back episodes adds value to their broadband offerings.

"The part that is still up in the air, we won't know for four to five years, what effect [online will have] on syndication, our second-run business," he said. "I don't think we know what effect all that content will have on long-term syndication values and we won't know for a while."

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HBO Breaks iTunes Pricing

Doug Mohney — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:33:03 -0400

Once upon a time, Apple made iTunes and insisted all TV shows available for download would be priced at the same $1.99 per episode. Until HBO came along and said otherwise, kapish?

Consumers will be charged $2.99 per episode to download acclaimed HBO hits “The Sopranos,” “Deadwood,” and “Rome.” Standard-issue fare such as “Sex and the City” and “The Wire” will be priced at the same old $1.99 per month, a fact that will no doubt annoy David Simon and Baltimore crime drama fans; “Sex and the City” fans should be consoled since they’re getting a big screen movie on May 30.

Apple says HBO programming is some of the “most requested” by their customers, no doubt another reason to charge an extra dollar per episode. The price hike is likely to get other media companies to lean on Apple to be more flexible in pricing, but will the discussions be as awkward as the way Paulie Walnuts wanted Christopher to cover the tab for dinner? After all, NBC Universal left iTunes over pricing issues. Showtime has offered most of its popular shows on iTunes for two years and music companies have been lobbying long and hard for flexible pricing beyond the 99 cents a song.

For more:
- Apple’s announcement of bowing to HBO
- New York Times coverage of the HBO/iTunes deal

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Zune Adds Video

Doug Mohney — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:17:40 -0400

Microsoft has expanded its Zune offerings to include downloads of popular television shows from COMEDY CENTRAL, MTV, NBC Universal, Nickelodon, Star Media, Turner Broadcasting and VH1, among others.

The additions give consumers more than 800 episodes of popular shows to download either on their computer or their Zune media player, including SpongeBob Squarepants, “South Park,” “The Hills,” NBC’s “The Office,” “Heroes” and “30 Rock.” Each TV show will be initially priced at 160 Microsoft Points per episode; around $1.99 in real world money. In addition, Zune already offers 4,000 music videos and 3,500 audio and video podcasts; however, there are no feature films (yet).

Zune is Microsoft’s counter to Apple’s iTunes integrated player/store/brand, and includes a social online music community and some other bells and whistles to set it apart from the iTunes experience. Will paying for portability succeed? Hulu and others already offer a lot more shows online for free with an ad-supported model, but you typically have to have a broadband connection and a laptop or larger device to view offering in real-time.

On the other hand, Microsoft gets the latest new shows from NBC, something Apple doesn’t have after NBC pulled out of iTunes last fall.

For more:
- Microsoft’s Zune adds video and other stuff release
- CNET reporting on Zune’s new features

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