May 16, 2008
Dead woman's 42 years in front of TV
The mummified remains of a Croatian woman have been found sitting in her armchair at home in front of a black and white TV set 42 years after she was reported missing.
A police spokesman said: "So far we have no idea how it is possible that someone officially reported missing so long ago was not found before in the same apartment she used to live in."
May 15, 2008
Cannes Festival on YouTube
YouTube will be covering the Cannes Film Festival including the red carpet arrivals thanks to a special IFC channel.
From their blog: Starting today and for the next 11 days, we'll be featuring a diverse selection of content from the French Riviera in our Film & Animation section, including industry panels from the Short Film Corner and the 2008 Real Ideas Studio Community Documentary Challenge, which consists of short works from the best student documentarians.
Samsung joins forces with LG, Harris on mobile TV
Samsung Electronics is combining efforts with fellow Korean electronics maker LG Electronics to develop a new standard for mobile TV broadcasts, the companies announced Wednesday.
Their technology will be competing with two others to become the standard for mobile TV, a decision that rests with the TV industry's technical standards-setting body for digital broadcasts.
[via Reuters]
TV Licensing "It's all in the database".
The latest chilling advertisement from the BBC's TV Licensing wing has an Orwellian touch, warning viewers that they cannot escape the tax-funded broadcaster's scrutiny.
It's scary alright. Or as Eamonn Butler described it in The Times: "It's an absolutely appalling vision, worthy of the Stasi or Gestapo.
[via eursoc]
May 14, 2008
Two new Mac Ads
Apple has released two new ads, "Sad Song" and "Pep Rally", viewable on Apple's Get a Mac page. [via TUAW]
IPTV in your (Voyager) car
Just when you thought the car was safe from the long tentacles of TV, USTelematics is offering IPTV to its Voyager in-car entertainment systems, allowing drivers and passengers alike to continue their couch potato habits while stuck in rush-hour traffic jam.
In addition, USTelematics will offer a "mobilecast" program known as 4VDO which will deliver both broadcast and video programming
[via Ubergizmo]
U.S. bill would require captioning for Internet video
Nearly two decades after the U.S. government began requiring television networks to provide text captions for hearing-impaired viewers, there is a move afoot to set the same standard for Internet video, reports The Boston Globe.
Representative Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, is backing a bill that would require major producers of Internet videos to add captions as well as "video description" soundtracks that describe the on-screen action for blind people.
The measure would also force changes in the design of television and telephone equipment to make the devices more accessible to the disabled.
The goal, Markey said, is "to ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind as technology changes."
YouTube ads for viral videos: 'buzz targeting'
Google is starting to share more details about its high priority of making more money off YouTube's popularity, introducing an advertising product on Tuesday called buzz targeting.
News Blog reports.
"The ad product uses an algorithm to find videos that are about to "go viral," when word of mouth (or IM, or blog, or e-mail) promotes a Web site to a phase in which it spreads like wildfire. In this case, ads are overlaid on the bottom fifth of viral videos supplied by YouTube partners who share ad revenue with the search giant.
Until now, YouTube ad campaigns have been more targeted to specific demographics. Buzz targeting adds a broader option, though the ads still are sold as categories such as entertainment or how-to, a YouTube representative said."
May 13, 2008
Sex and the iTunes Store
They're there: Carrie Bradshaw. Tony Soprano. Jimmy McNulty. Jemaine Clement. Seth Bullock. Julius Caesar. — Early Tuesday morning, somebody at Apple's iTunes Store flicked a switch and six of HBO's most popular series became available for download.
Google fuzzes out faces in privacy push
Google has rolled out a new technology which automatically blurs any human face appearing in street-level photographs taken for use in its mapping services by its fleet of camera-mounted vehicles. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
"The blurring technology, which will be retrospectively applied to all existing Street View images and incorporated in all future releases of the popular mapping feature, is intended to mollify concerns about the potentially intrusive nature of the service.
Google will shortly previewed the face-blurring technology on the Street View images found on its Manhattan maps. Detail of the changes were announced on an official Google blog today.
Hollywood actors, studios clash over internet clips
According to Reuters getting Hollywood actors paid for their smallest performances – video clips on the internet – is shaping up as one their biggest sticking points in stalemated contract negotiations with major studios.
"Whether actors must give consent for snippets of their film and TV work to be displayed online, and how much they should earn for them, was the No 1 disputed issue cited by the Screen Actors Guild after labour talks broke down last Tuesday.
Studios want to freely distribute YouTube-style clips of old TV shows and movies without seeking actors' permission and pay them a flat fee rather than bargain on a price with each performer individually.
The actors' union staunchly opposes that move."
YouTube, not CNN for first hand account of China Earthquake
Want to know what that giant earthquake in China's remote Sichuan looked like? Better yet, want to know what it's like to experience a 7.8 magnitude quake? A Sichuan University student posted the following video to Tudou, where it's No. 2 on the homepage, and it was reposted on YouTube.
[via Silicon Alley Insider]
Web Video Viewing Up 64% In March, Led by YouTube
Internet users in the U.S. watched 11.5 billion online videos in March, a 64% gain from one year earlier, led by Google’s YouTube with more than 4.3 billion views in the month, according to research firm comScore.
The videos viewed in the month, up 13% from February, came from almost 139 million users, or 73.7% of the total U.S. Internet audience, comScore estimates.
The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video.
[via Multichannel News]
May 12, 2008
HBO seen selling shows on Apple's iTunes
HBO cable network is expected to start selling shows on Apple's iTunes digital entertainment service, with flexible pricing, a source familiar with the discussions said on Monday. [via Reuters]
"Episodes of some HBO shows are likely to be sold at more than the standard price of $1.99 per episode, the source said, marking the first time Apple has agreed to selling content at different prices in the United States."
Microsoft Adds Player to Combine Chat, Online Video
Microsoft Corp., seeking more revenue from Internet advertising, introduced software that allows users to exchange messages while watching online videos.
Messenger TV combines the Windows Live instant-messaging program with video software, Microsoft said today in an e-mailed statement. Users will be able to watch and share clips from companies such as Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks, U.K. broadcaster Channel Four and music companies Sony BMG and EMI Group Plc.
[via Bloomberg]
MPAA aims at taking The Pirate Bay down with $15.4m lawsuit
BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay has been slapped with a $15.4m lawsuit bill from the MPAA for copyright infringement. ITProPortal.com reports.
"Surprisingly. the damages are being seeked for only four movies ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", "Syriana", "The Pink Panther" and "Walk the Line") as well as a few episodes of hit series "Prison Break".
... An MPAA Lawyer commented on the suggestion that each download is not equivalent to a lost sale by saying "We don’t know that, but the copyright law doesn’t care about that. It says that if you have downloaded something illegally, you must pay regardless, if you would’ve bought it or not.”
Colleges Putting Their Own Spin on YouTube
Frostburg State University, like a growing number of schools, is trying to elbow its own messages onto such sites as YouTube to promote themselves, create a virtual community and drown out embarrassing clips (like this one for Darthmouth). The Wasington Post reports.
"Marketing in higher education is really at a crossroads," said Nora Ganim Barnes, director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. "Those that don't engage and manage social media are going to be left behind."
Universities are moving onto social media including Facebook, iTunesU and YouTube "because they know that's where students are nowadays," said David Hawkins of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. To not have a presence in those areas means risking being left behind in the student conversation of this generation."
Turning down the volume on TV commercials
From your TV set, a man shouting about the great deals available at the used-car lot. The IHT reports.
"Broadcasting regulators like the FCC have long had guidelines to try to prevent this. Still, consumers insist that television channels continue to turn up the volume during advertising breaks in an effort to grab their attention.
In Britain, regulators moved last week to dial down the noise. The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice, which sets British TV ad guidelines, adopted a new rule, saying TV ads should not be "excessively noisy or strident."
Many ads, according to the broadcast committee, are recorded using a technique called audio compression. This shrinks the range of sounds in a 30-second spot. That way the ads can remain within previous guidelines, which typically prevent advertising from being louder than the maximum volume in a program."
The guidelines advise broadcasters to use a piece of equipment called a loudness-level meter to ensure compliance, which can measure "subjective volume," the audio level that the ear perceives in a show with a variety of sounds. This, according to the committee, is the best way to deal with compressed ads."
May 11, 2008
TimeTube Takes You Back in Video Time
YouTube search webapp TimeTube creates a timeline of video clips for a certain search. Searching for instance for "Barack Obama" and you'll get back a timeline (or "tubeline") of video clips.
[via LifeHacker]
May 8, 2008
NBC Streaming Full Episodes of 30 Rock and the Office to iPhones
NBC is streaming full episodes of 30 Rock and The Office to iPhones (and touches) in Quicktime, for free, with no ads.
[via Gizmodo]
Entertainment Industry Wins a Round on Piracy
In what was seen as a victory for entertainment companies, a federal judge in Los Angeles issued damages totaling $111 million against an Internet company that helped users find copyright material free. The Wall Street Journal reports.
The defendant, Valence Media LLC's TorrentSpy, was one of the Web's largest "torrent trackers," meaning it helped people find movies and other material they might want to download. TorrentSpy closed in March, telling users on its site the legal climate was "simply too hostile." It didn't store the video files on its own site but directed users to other locations.
The dollar value of the award -- which Judge Florence-Marie Cooper said she calculated by assigning a value of $30,000 to each of the 3,699 infringements shown -- should get the attention of people running similar sites. But they are largely based overseas and out of reach of U.S. law.
It is unlikely the movie companies that sued will get nearly the total damages. Valence Media's principals have declared bankruptcy. Valence is based in Nevis, a Caribbean island, and has filed for bankruptcy protection. The defendants plan to appeal, their lawyer, Ira Rothken, said."
May 7, 2008
Coolspotters
Coolspotters, a new site from Connecticut based startup Fanzter, will launch later today. TechCrunch reports.
"It’s an eye-candy celebrity-focused site that shows users the products celebrities are wearing in various photos. Users can then talk about and, of course, purchase those items.
Users can track celebrities, products, brands, shows (TV, Movies, etc.), places, events, and more.
Other services such as SeenOn show clothing and other items used by celebrities in TV shows, which can then be purchased. But Coolspotters is the first collaborative site that gets users to do most of the work. It’s essentially a structured data wiki The end result is a ton of highly structured, highly valuable information."
Related: - Shopisodes enable you to Dress Like Your Favorite TV Character
In praise of ... TED
Those who sneer at YouTube as a haven for bored teenagers, sneezing pandas and the terminally extroverted are behind the times, writes The Guardian.
"YouTube is not the only picture house in town; TED - nominated for three of the Webby awards that will be announced today - is proof of the appetite for knowledge and debate that confounds cynics who dismiss video-sharing as a spiral of aggression and idiocy.
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) began life as an annual conference in California 24 years ago. It challenges 50 participants each to deliver "the talk of their lives" in 18 minutes. The best are now made available on ted.com, and an extraordinary assortment they are: from an 11-year-old Taiwanese violinist to James Watson talking about the discovery of the structure of DNA and Al Gore's thoughts on climate change (though politicians are generally, and perhaps rightly, absent).
What emerges is a spirit of inquiry and optimism that is American in the best sense.
May 6, 2008
Combining TV and online ads benefits advertisers
Using TV and online together in advertising campaigns is significantly more effective for advertisers than using either in isolation, according to new research from Thinkbox and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). U-Talk Marketing reports.
"Findings show that their combined use produces major benefits for advertisers, including dramatically increased positive brand perception amongst consumers – some 50% higher – as well as significantly greater likelihood of purchase.
This is the first time the effectiveness of using TV and online in tandem has been examined in depth.
The sample focused specifically on ‘digital consumers’; people who own a digital TV and use broadband internet, and are medium to heavy users of each."
Posing Like TV Series Characters
Saturday night, my son and his friends thought the lighting in the kitchen was interesting. So they took some pictures, posing like TV series' characters on the covers of DVDs. I think they're just great! A new fad?
Zune ads 800 TV episodes
Microsoft finally gets around to adding a video store for its music player Zune, although the shop is limited, for now, to about 800 TV episodes from a handful of networks.
[News.com]
Hey! Nielsen Brings Buzz to Ratings
Hey! Nielsen is a place for TV fans to voice opinions about TV programming that opened last September.
Nielsen's intent is to figure out how to incorporate the feedback into its ratings:
"Using data from real users, Hey! Nielsen generates a Hey! Nielsen score -- a real-time indicator of a topic's impact, influence, and value. As users submit feedback, the score is created from a number of factors such as user response, blog buzz, and news coverage, as well as raw data from our sister sites Billboard.com, HollywoodReporter.com, and BlogPulse.com."
[via MIT Adverblog]
May 5, 2008
Video shows French banlieue violence
A new music video by the French music group "Justice" gives a taste of the violence that exists in a bleak Paris suburb or banlieue, reports CBN.
In the "Stress" video, a gang runs amok; beating people up, carjacking, mugging, and beating up more people.
And it sure looks like real crime.
Apparently after French TV refused to broadcast the video, the group "Justice" put it on YouTube.
Definitley looks like it was inspired by video game Grand Theft Auto.
IAB Introduces Online Video Ad Guidelines
The Interactive Advertising Bureau introduced a set of guidelines on Monday (May 5) aimed at bringing more standards to online video advertising--and ultimately to make the still burgeoning medium easier for advertisers to buy.
... "This is a historic day," said IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenberg, likening the announcement to a similar set of landmark guidelines put in place for banner advertising in the late 1990s. David Doty, the IAB's senior vp, thought leadership and marketing, predicted "seismic shifts" would occur in the online ad business as a result of their adoption."
[via MediaWeek]
Keskidi. A subtitling tool for video sharing platforms
A new tool for subfans - non US TV fans who translate entire episodes for the benefit of others - as well as anyone else who want their videos to reach an international audience.
Keskidi ("what did he say" in French slang) is a subtitling tool for five video sharing platforms: YouTube, Dailymotion, MySpaceTV, Blip.tv and Metacafe.
Self-hosted videos can be translated as well. For each video, you can type in texts in fifteen languages including French, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese or Turkish.
[via Tubbydev]
In 15 years, we'll all be watching TV online
In 15 years, we won't really be using TV for anything except launching a show and to watch big "event" shows like American Idol and The Super Bowl - NBC boss Ben Silverman tells TV Week.
[via TV Squad]
Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the U.S.
Every day in Switzerland, 40,000 people watch a 100-second television news broadcast on their cellphones. In Italy, a million people pay as much as 19 euros each ($29) a month to watch up to a dozen mobile TV channels. The New York Times reports.
"... Japan is the leader in direct mobile television, with 20 million cellphones equipped with TV receivers, followed by South Korea with 8.2 million, according to In-Stat, a research and consulting firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.
In-Stat estimated that there were 29.7 million mobile TV viewers worldwide at the end of 2007. That is expected to almost double, to 56.9 million, at the end of 2008, driven by growth in Japan.
Italy has been an early leader in Europe, with service beginning in 2006. The largest mobile TV broadcaster on the Continent is 3 Italia, a cellula