Germans watching less TV

The Hollywood Reporter reports that, for the first time in recent memory, Germans spent less time in front of their TVs than they had the year before. And German kids watched significantly less television, boding ill for the future of the medium.

"According to the preliminary results of an annual study by Germany's television research institute, the GfK in Nuremberg, average per-day viewing in 2007 slipped to 208 minutes, down from 212 the year before. For young people the drop was doubled, down to 178 minutes from 184 in 2006.

The decrease may reflect a rise in the amount of time Germans spent at the computer. The introduction of such Web sites as MySpace.de and iTunes.de in 2007 ramped up the trend toward online entertainment consumption here, which had long lagged behind that of the U.S. and U.K."

[via I4U]

Archbishop's new year message airs on YouTube

The Archbishop of Canterbury demonstrated yesterday that he was coming to terms with the 21st century by posting his new year message on YouTube and giving it an environmental theme. [via The Independent]

"Dr Rowan Williams's broadcast, on why caring for the planet is a religious duty, was filmed in Canterbury Cathedral and at a nearby recycling centre.

The message was shown on BBC2 last night, and will be broadcast again on BBC1 at noon tomorrow."

More of The Arschibishop on YouTube

Imagine That: Nobody Likes Campaign Ads

Only a third of people who watch online videos have checked out a political video, not because of lack of availability, but for lack of interest. WebPro News reports.

"A third translates to quite a large number, though, according to Harris Interactive, or about 62 million people.

Overall, only 11 percent watched a political advertisement, and only 10 percent checked out a campaign video."

Senior Remote

Spotted on Core77, a simple remote control for the elderly who find electronics confusing.

The Senior Remote is made of fabric and has only three functions: On/Off, Channel and Volume.

Another day another survey

About 38% of consumers are watching TV shows online, 36% use their cell phones as entertainment devices and 45% are creating online content like Web sites, music, videos and blogs for others, according to a new-media survey from Deloitte & Touche.

The findings of the online survey of 2,081 U.S. consumers, conducted Oct. 25-31, were provided to The Hollywood Reporter before their official release next month.

... The percentage of consumers watching TV online jumped from the 23% figure reported in the previous study.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]

Apple signs film deal with Fox studio

Apple has signed News Corp’s 20th Century Fox studio to a new online video-on-demand service in a deal that could change the way people pay for online film content. The FT reports.

The agreement will allow consumers to rent the latest Fox DVD releases by downloading a digital copy from Apple’s iTunes platform for a limited time, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Walt Disney is the only Hollywood studio selling its new releases on iTunes but these are available to buy rather than rent.

Wal-Mart cancels movie download service

Wal-Mart Stores quietly canceled its online video download service less than a year after the site went live, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday, reports The Washington Post. Physical DVDs will still be able for sale at Wal-Mart stores and online.

MTVN: More than 1.2B Video Streams

MTV Networks Music Group said Thursday that it delivered more than 1.2 billion video streams from MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com in 2007, up 30% from 2006.

The top 30 most-streamed videos across MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com were:

1.. Gimme More (Live), Britney Spears, BMG

2. Girlfriend, Avril Lavigne, BMG

3. Umbrella, Rihanna, Universal

....

[via Broadcastng&Cable]

YouTube's most memorable videos of 2007

YouTube released its 10 most memorable clips of 2007. [via The San Francisco Chronicle]

Also, the most memorable television moments of 2007 - part I and part II

NTV Predictions: Video in the Living Room

NewTeeVee has asked a panel of experts whether online video will make it into the living room in 2008.

Their selected responses can be found here.

Most say not yet - because black boxes are not yet user friendly or because leaning back to watch TV and leaning forward to watch videos on a computer have yet to merge into something comfortable.

Answers all seem to be about bringing online video to the TV screen - but in my living room, where we gather as a family of 3 after dinner, we watch both television - it's on for my husband - and my son and I watch TV series on our computers. Yes, with earphones I admit. But is that really a stranger sight than each member of a family reading their own book?

Even if we could access online video easily on a flat super size TV screen, it wouldn't be satisfying for our family because we all have different interests and only rarely agree on watching the same show.

And as we watch TV online, my son is checking out Facebook, sending instant messages and text messaging. I'm checking my RSS feeds and will interrupt a video stream to blog.

Simply watching TV passively, no matter where it comes from (network or online) is no longer enough, we need to multitask. And we don't want to be confined to a Joost or Babelgum platform either. We simply adjust the size of our video screen to open our own applications.

Could that be the future?

Baby trained to give evil eye

One great baby. Well worth watching.

[via boingboing]

Pay-TV turns off China football fans

According to the BBC, China's enthusiastic band of football fans have failed to sign up to watch the English Premier League on a new pay-per-view format.

"Top-flight English matches were previously available for free on television and had a potential audience of 30 million. But that changed when broadcaster WinTV bought the rights to broadcast Premier League games in China for three seasons, starting this year.

WinTV now admits it has managed to attract only 20,000 customers willing to pay the 588 yuan (£39; $80) annual fee.

A company spokeswoman said it was proving difficult to persuade Chinese football fans to pay to watch matches that were previously free. "

ShoeTube.tv. New Online Video Channel Devoted To Footwear

ShoeTube.tv, a web channel devoted to nothing but shoes - okay, there will be a little bit about boots, too - is scheduled to launch on Valentine's Day.

Programming for the site includes regular segments such as "Pimp my Pump," for example, allows women to show off their own shoe embellishments; "Walk on By" features woman-on-the-street videos shot in major U.S. cities, and "Real or Deal" invites contestants to decide whether a designer shoe is real or a knock-off.

... A number of fashion writers have been hired to blog about shoes and to add a social network element and create forums, so that "viewers can comment as well as post their own shoe videos, YouTube-style.

[via Online Media Daily. Image from Angellica2017 Diary]

Whitney Presents Television Delivers People

Television Delivers People gathers together video works from the 1970s and 80s as well as more recent examples, which examine the relationship between television and the viewer.

The exhibition, organized by curatorial assistant Gary Carrion-Murayari, went on view recently in the Whitney's Kaufman Astoria Studios Gallery, through February 17, 2008.

The eight artists whose works are included are Alex Bag, Dara Birnbaum, Joan Braderman, Keren Cytter, Kalup Linzy, Richard Serra, Michael Smith, and Ryan Trecartin. Works by Birnbaum, Serra, and Smith will be shown continuously on monitors, while the other works are projected, also continuously, on screen.

[Artdialy.org via wmmna/del.icio.us/regine]

Talk back to the Queen

Queen Elizabeth got considerable press for opening up a YouTube channel for her Christmas message.

Now Sky News is asking the people for their messages back to the Queen.

What would you like to say to Her Majesty? Is there anything you think she should have said in her speech that she didn't? Is there a Christmas message you'd like to share with the world?

Email the clip to newsonline@bskyb.com or upload it to YouTube and tag it SkyChristmasSpeech.

[via BuzzMachine]

Over Half of Connected TV Viewers Also Watch on Alternative Devices

According to the recent release of The ChoiceStream 2007 Survey of Viewer Trends in TV and Online Video, 55% of connected consumers who watch TV watch some type of video on devices other than their TV sets, including their computers, mobile phones and digital media players (e.g., iPod). Not surprisingly, video-watching on these alternative devices is more popular among younger consumers (66%) than older ones (36%).

[via Media Post]

Online TV Ads Suck Less Than TV Ads On TV: Study

A new study by Simmons, a unit of Experian Research Services has found that consumers are 47% more engadged by ads that run with television programs viewed online than those watched on a TV set.

The study also found that viewers are 25% more engaged in the content of TV shows that they watch online than on a TV, are 18% more engaged in ads online, as opposed to print versions (magazines etc), and they are 15% more engaged in magazine articles online than in print form.

[via TechCrunch]

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This Christmas classic was written by my father.

YouTube to air Queen's Christmas message

Her Majesty turns to YouTube, her latest way of being "more personal and direct", writes Andrew Alderson for Daily Telegraph.

Fifty years after her first televised Christmas broadcast, the Queen today embraces the technology of the 21st century by launching her own channel on YouTube, the global video-sharing website.

The new Royal Channel - previewed here for the first time - went "live" in the early hours of this morning and is expected to be viewed by millions of people all over the world in the coming days.

... This year's Christmas message will go out on YouTbe on Christmas Day at 3pm - at the same time that it is first shown on television."

The Most Memorable Web Videos of 2007

The most memorable Web videos of 2007 from Yahoo. Of course most are American. "Good or bad, the videos we watch and post online are the historical archives of our time, a constantly changing reflection of our society."

In the U.S. alone this year, people watched approximately 100 billion Internet videos, according to ComScore Video Metrics.

[via Lunch over IP]

BitTorrent search site loses case

TorrentSpy, a website which facilitated the online exchange of films, music and TV programmes without permission has lost a US copyright case. The BBC reports.

"A judge made a default ruling in favour of the MPAA after she said the site's operators had tampered with evidence.

The site had ignored an order to retain server logs and the unique online addresses of computers which traded files using the
BitTorrent program.

The ruling could have personal privacy implications because the information TorrentSpy had been told to retain was held in Random Access Memory of computers."

WGA strike taking toll on L.A.

According to Variety, The WGA strike will wind up costing the local economy anywhere from $380 million to $2.5 billion, depending on how long it goes on and who's doing the forecasting.

The dent put on Los Angeles County's economy by the now 7-week-old strike was the subject of a 75-minute hearing held Wednesday ayem at City Hall by the L.A. City Council's Housing Community and Economic Development committee.

... Factoring in the lost wages of idled writers and the multiplier effect on a wide range of support businesses, the strike has cost L.A. County more than $342.7 million and counting, Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., told the committee, based on calculations he made as of Tuesday.

The last WGA strike, which ran five months in 1988, resulted in a $500 million loss at a time when the biz employed about 80,000 locals."

More TV viewers turn to Web: poll

More television viewers are turning to the Internet to watch videos, films and TV episodes, according to a new survey by Harris Interactive. [via Reuters]

"Approximately 65 percent of the 2,455 U.S. adults surveyed by Harris Interactive said they have watched a video on YouTube, compared to 42 percent during the same time last year.

... Apart from YouTube, which most people favored because they felt it had almost every video they could find, 43 percent said they have watched a video on a TV network Web site, followed by 35 percent on news sites and less than 30 percent on search engines such as Yahoo and Google."

FyreTV: A set top box for porn only

Something new for set top boxes: FyreTV.com - designed purely to download porn.

Juicy news gathered from The Inquirer who writes: "The service - which is currently in beta, and due to launch at CES / AVN in a few weeks - allows users to stream DVD-resolution pornography to a broadband-connected set top box. The box is designed to do nothing beyond connect to the FyreTV service".

When up and running, the service will allow you to select from a wide variety of movies by search term, category, performer or even uh, particular performer characteristics."

Striking Writers in Talks to Launch Web Start-Ups

The Los Angeles Times reports in a December 17 cover story by Joseph Mann that "At least seven groups, composed of members of the striking Writers Guild of America, are planning to form Internet-based businesses that, if successful, could create an alternative economic model to the one at the heart of the walkout, now in its seventh week."

According to the Times, "Three of the groups are working on ventures that would function much like United Artists, the production company created 80 years ago by Charlie Chaplin and other top stars who wanted to break free from the studios."

[via marketwire\

Handheld TV Recorder/Player

Takara Tomy's newest multimedia toy called Video Clip lets you record segments from any TV show and play it back on this cute little handheld.

It has really simple controls—pause, play, fast forward, rewind—and can store up to 8 hrs of video or 60 hrs of audio.

[via Tokyomango]

Google Wants To Index Your Videos

Google has launched Sitemaps for Video, an extension of their webmaster sitemaps program that will assist webmasters in having their videos indexed by Google.

To be indexed, webmasters must create a sitemap page that provides a list of videos on each site that is compliant with Googles sitemaps protocol,

[via TechCrunch]

Sony Senseware TV concept

Spotted on Ubergizmo, an interesting-looking micro-TV concept from the Sony Design Studio.

“Introducing fabric in TV design can again change the product landscape and stimulate our senses in entirely new ways. Sets that rest comfortably in the palm of your hand. Sets projecting images that reach you like the song of a little bird by your pillow.”

[via Yanko Design]

Youtube.com/davos

The World Economic Forum is really shaking it’s image of a closed and elitist conference. Their latest move: youtube.com/davos, or your chance to jump in the debate in Davos in January, right from your computer screen. [via Laurent Haug's blog]

In the WEF own words:

Every year many of the world's top leaders attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss how to make the world a better place.

This year, you get to join them.

First, submit a video answering The Davos Question:

"What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"

Then, starting January 1st, watch and rank others' ideas. The highest-rated videos will be screened in Davos (January 23-27), where world leaders will watch your videos and make responses of their own. Your idea could be the start of something big.

Frustrated Saudi youth take a shine to YouTube

YouTube has seen tens of thousands in the conservative Saudi kingdom upload and download a broad range of thrill-seeking, political and just downright bizarre video clips in a surge of expression. Reuters reports.

Much of the material involves cars, an obsession among affluent youth who cannot go to cinemas, mix with unrelated women or even enter some shopping malls because of Islamic prohibitions by the authorities and religious scholars.

"Only in Saudi Arabia" shows two Saudi teenagers hanging from the doors of a moving car, causing difficulties for other motorists. The video received around 379,000 hits in a year.

The government said last month it would impose heavy fines and jail sentences in an effort to combat the growing incidence of dangerous driving by thrill-seeking youths."