paidContent:UK

Blinkx Rises And Falls On Mystical Google/News Corp Market Chatter

Robert Andrews — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:19:09 -0500

Market speculation from an Investec analyst (via Bloomberg) that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) or News Corp (NYSE: NWS) may buy voice recognition-based video search index Blinkx did wonders for the company today - then petered out a little. FT.com casually noted the company may seek a Nasdaq listing, adding to its listing on London's AIM market. Blinkx shares jumped by 50 percent in the morning to a seventh-month high, valuing it at £102 million.

But they fell back after lunch to settle at a valuation of around £80 million an hour before the close. Perhaps because the company just issued a statement to the market saying the board "notes" the price rise but "is not aware of any external bids or bid-related reason for the movement". Curious…

Blinkx has been adding services and video partners at a rate of knots - tied in to its speech recognition, it has its revenue share-based Ad Hoc ad platform and it recently launched its Blinkx TV platform. Being fundamentally a video search platform (with ads tied in), one can imagine interest from Google (and that colourful logo does nothing if not pay homage to Mountain View. FT.com also linked the London/San Francisco-based site to News Corp back in 2005 and Blinkx has been linked to Google since as far back as 2004. As I wrote last month, though Blinkx has an impressive catalogue of video content behind it, it's not yet pulling it together as a portal in its own right

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YHOO-MSFT Breakdown 'A Shame For Advertising': WPP's Sorrell

Robert Andrews — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:36:36 -0500

The apparent end of acquisition talks between Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is "a shame" for the advertising industry, according to Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of the WPP ad group. He told CNBC (via Reuters): "It was a shame ... that those negotiations failed. Maybe they'll come back again. To have a balanced marketplace in the online search (market) I think is important."

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has previously spoken up about the concentration of advertising inventory in Google's hands, including its DoubleClick acquisition - a fact he reckons could keep prices high. Adding a view from an industry much talked about during YHOO/MSFT talks, but little talked to, he said today: "What we're looking for on behalf of our clients is more balance. WPP is currently investing in digital and China.

Last.fm Distributing In-House Video Via CBS Audience Network

Robert Andrews — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:14:49 -0500

Finally, some more video announcements from Last.fm. The social music site has gone live with an addition to Last.fm/Presents - a collection of video interviews with artists including Moby, Santogold and Spoon. The interesting parts…

-- Videos are made in-house by Last.fm, rather than by CBS (NYSE: CBS), the big TV company that now owns it, so it sees Last.fm moving in to original video production.
-- They will be distributed to dozens of other sites via the CBS Audience Network, which include sites from AOL (NYSE: TWX) to Veoh. This means CBS gets to monetise more Last.fm content, selling ads against it through the network.

It's a very Last.fm idea to syndicate the videos far and wide - it already claims as many users via third-party off-site widgets as it does users of its site proper. Last.fm/Presents had acted as an aggregator for gigs and such staged by the site for several months - the video interviews are the only addition. Last.fm's aim to showcase all the world's music videos last year was scaled back by merely pulling in YouTube videos, and the aim of scrobbling videos and TV, as well as music, is still not yet live. I can't seem to embed the interview with Gruff Rhys…

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Indie Labels To Websites: Pay For Our Music With This New License

Robert Andrews — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:20:19 -0500

The body representing indie record labels, and a quarter of all UK music, has called on the UK government to create a new licensing system that could extract more money from ISPs and other web services. The Association of Independent Musicians (AIM) published a digital copyright manifesto advocating a "Value Recognition" license "to regulate the shift from user to usage economics".

By that, it means: "A significant and growing proportion of the revenues of ISPs, telecoms and other providers/intermediaries no longer comes from the initial communication services they offer but on access to a wide range of content, of which music is a central element."

Billy Bragg has recently criticised services like Bebo for raking in ad revenue they allegedly fail to pass on to artists. If existing licenses for online services, operated by PPL and MCPS-PRS are insufficient, AIM seems to be calling for reform that gets them a better deal.

AIM has had been operating a Value Recognition Strategy Group for about two years now, but the manifesto falls very short re: detail on exactly what this new proposal would entail - except that music producers are "perfectly capable of dealing with value chain issues via commercial negotiation and self-regulated agreements". In other words, the indies want to be freed to set their own license terms with online services. AIM also acknowledges copy control has "fuelled consumer resentment" and "resisting change does not in our view make sense.

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New Media Producer Tinopolis Gets £44.7 Million VC Bid

Robert Andrews — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:16:26 -0500

Llanelli, Carmarthenshire-based TV and interactive producer Tinopolis - which occupies what we Scarlets still call the "old Tesco building" - looks set to be bought by VC firm Vitruvian Partners for £0.45 a share, valuing the company at £44.7 million. Formerly called Agenda, Tinopolis produces shows like Wedi 7 and Le Rygbi for S4C but also Question Time and sport shows through its recent Mentorn and Sunset + Vine acquisitions. Moreover, it has a strong line in new media learning software through interactive arm, producing a range of National Curriculum resources. It had been a lead supplier to the BBC's Digital Curriculum project but, when the BBC Trust forced the corporation to close its Jam site last year, Tinopolis made 13 redundancies and forecast a £2.1 million for the end of 2008. More via RNS notice and Guardian.

Tiscali Gets Eight First-Round Bids; Carphone In The Mix

Robert Andrews — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:48:36 -0500

Tiscali's sale appears to have garnered interest from a gamut of first-round bidders. Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), BT (NYSE: BT), Carphone Warehouse, BSkyB (NYSE: BSY), Swisscom's Fastweb and Wind all put in bids, FT.com says. CCI Insight analyst Stuart Collins (via MobileToday) ruminates that Carphone may get to release some cash from its $2.1 billion injection by Best Buy to plough in to an investment such as Tiscali. The Times suggests the creation of a new UK broadband number one from Carphone's TalkTalk plus Tiscali, which last year itself bought Pipex, could hasten its spin-off from Carphone, allowing Best Buy to control the mobile retail operation. Given Best Buy's investment is only in Carphone's retail side and not in the broadband operation, the tectonics certainly appear to have shifted toward such a scenario. But, in BT, Voda and Fastweb, Carphone has challengers with significant financial clout. Tiscali meets Monday to discuss bids.

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Industry Moves: GNM Integration, Telegraph Digital, Microsoft's Cruickshank, AP Fills EU Sales Role

Robert Andrews — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:25:51 -0500

-- Guardian: Guardian News & Media has promoted Guardian deputy editor Paul Johnson to head of news, business and sport, working across online, Guardian print and The Observer, according to the buried paragraph in what is otherwise this re-announcement of GNM's multiplatform strategy. The integration will happen "over the next few months". The story says The Observer retains its newsdesk but, with Johnson gaining responsibility for Observer news, how far can that be the case?

-- Telegraph.co.uk: Telegraph Media Group is "bringing all digital operations under former AOL (NYSE: TWX) executive Mike Moore", mad.co.uk says, though frankly it's unclear what exactly that means. TMG only tapped Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) alum Alison Reay for digital director in December. We think Moore's focus is on the commercial and business side.

-- Microsoft: Eleven months after leaving GCap Media as interactive director to become Multimap's B2C GM, Jim Cruickshank is joining Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) as its EMEA director of mapping, local and shopping, he tells NMA. Microsoft bought the mapping service for a reported £24.4 million in December to complement its Virtual Earth, Live Search and Windows Live offerings. Cruickshank's realignment would seem to suggest further complementarity.

-- AP: Associated Press has appointed Daisy Veerasingham sales VP for the EMEA region and Asia. Meanwhile, a new role of global product development SVP sees Jane Seagrave focus on new media.

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Registration Open For EconAds Seminar: June 3rd NYC; Confirmed Speakers

Rafat Ali — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:19:37 -0500

Ticket sales are now open for our upcoming EconAds seminar on June 3rd in NYC. As we have done with our previous seminars, this will be a smaller, more intimate experience. The in-progress program is here.
The seminar will focus on key sectors in the online advertising market. We will look broadly at the marketplace to see what disruptions lie ahead and where the investors are focused and where VC and M&A activity is heating up. The program is specifically targeted towards leading media, advertising and investment executives and is designed to promote knowledge sharing and encourage networking.

Confirmed Speakers

Doug Anmuth Analyst, Lehman Brothers
Samir Arora, Co-founder, Chairman & CEO, Glam Media
Lynda Clarizio, President, Platform-A, AOL
Peter C. Horan: CEO, IAC (NSDQ: IACI) Media and Advertising
Lance Maerov, SVP, Corporate Development, WPP
Dave Morgan, Founder, Tacoda
Nancy Peretsman, EVP, Managing Director, Allen & Co
Mike Walrath, SVP, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Advertiser Marketplace Group; Former CEO, Right Media

Sponsors: Platinum: IAC. Gold: Wall Street Journal Digital Network. For underwriting the event, e-mail our business side at advertising AT contentnext.com.

Thanks to Digital Hollywood for helping us co-locate our event there along with the bigger Advertising 2.0 conference on June 4th and 5th. This is part of the Internet Week.

ITV Fined £5.6 Million For Phone-In Scandal

James Quintana Pearce — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:54:19 -0500

A week ago was the rumor that British broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV) could be fined a record $7.8 million (4 million pounds) for its part in the premium phone line scandal which rocked Britain last year. It turns out that was conservative—regulator Ofcom has fined it 5.6 million pounds (US$11.4 million), almost triple the previous highest fine, 2 million pounds given to producer GMTV last year reports C21 Media. The high fine is due to the seriousness and the repeated nature of the faults, and takes into account the 7.8 million pounds ITV has already pledged to return to viewers and charity—so what was the original amount?

Philip Graf, chairman of Ofcom's content sanctions committee, said: "ITV programme makers totally disregarded their own published terms and conditions and Ofcom codes. Further, there was a completely inadequate compliance system in place. The result was that millions of paying entrants were misled into believing they could fairly interact with some of ITV's most popular programmes." The fine was split amongst a range of ITVs subsidiaries. ITV executive chairman Michael Grade accepted Ofcom's fine today, saying it was "an appropriate moment to restate ITV's unreserved apology to the public for breaches that took place between 2003 and January 2007." Ofcom is still investigating issues…

Best Buy Pays $2.1 Billion For Half Of Britain's Carphone Warehouse

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:13:40 -0500

U.S. electronics store Best Buy said today that it is paying $2.1 billion for half of Carphone Warehouse in order to enter the European consumer electronics market, Reuters reports. Carphone's 2,400 existing stores will continue to operate under the Carphone Warehouse and Phone House brands in nine European markets, and starting in 2009 the new company will roll out larger stores under the Best Buy name. Previously, Best Buy teamed up with Carphone Warehouse to create Best Buy Mobile in the U.S. The concept will be added to all Best Buy stores this year. The two companies also have been collaborating to bring Geek Squad technical support to European markets. Best Buy said the consumer electronics category is the fastest-growing in European retail over the past five years and represents about a £89 billion ($175 billion) market. The two companies expect growth to be led by the convergence in entertainment, computing and communications. Release.

Earnings: Bertelsmann Sales Dip On CD Decline, Profit Up After Napster Pay-Outs

Robert Andrews — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:05:11 -0500

German media giant Bertelsmann saw year-on-year revenue fall 3.9 percent to 4.2 billion euros in the first quarter of 2008 - due to negative foreign exchange effects, the strong euro against the dollar and pound and a decline in physical music sales from its Direct Group book, DVD and music club in the US. Bertelsmann slimmed a 117 million euro loss from the same period in '07 to a three million loss this time, and expects a "moderate rise" in full 2008 revenues "due to fewer special items". In other words, thank god it's not still getting walloped by payments to record labels aggrieved by its former Napster (NSDQ: NAPS) unit. Figures.

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Mobile Content Bits: BT Returns To Mobile, EC Price Caps, T-Mob Earnings

Robert Andrews — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:11:08 -0500

-- BT Returns To Mobile Market With Home And Mobile Broadband Product: BT (NYSE: BT) Total Broadband Anywhere, which gives customers broadband at home and on their mobile, as well as a choice of two Blackberry-style smartphones from Taiwanese handset maker HTC.

-- EC Launches Consultation Mulls Data Roaming And SMS Price Caps: The EC is trying to determine whether or not to cap the cost of mobile broadband while abroad, and on SMS prices.

-- Earnings: Deutsche Telekom First Quarter Stable; T-Mobile Hit By Currency Declines: In the UK, T-Mobile recorded EBITDA for the first quarter of 2008 increased year-on-year by 2.7 percent to 230 million euros; the gain was 16 percent when measured in sterling.

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Updated: BBC Commits iPlayer To Kontiki

Robert Andrews — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:05:57 -0500

The BBC has refuted a report it is to abandon the Kontiki content delivery product that powers its iPlayer desktop application. C21 yesterday claimed: "The BBC iPlayer will cease using peer-to-peer service provider Kontiki, which has just been sold by parent VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN) and is in line to power on-demand joint venture Kangaroo."

But a BBC spokesperson today told me: "We're committed to providing the highest quality experience for our users. This includes a download version for PCs that uses Kontiki P2P distribution technology. We're continually evaluating the best options for each of the technology components used by BBC iPlayer."

Despite only buying Kontiki, which also powers BSkyB's (NYSE: BSY) Sky Anytime and C4's 4oD, in 2006 for $62 million, VeriSign flogged the operation to its investors MK Capital on Monday for just $1 million and a share in the spun-off operation. What could be going on? Perhaps the BBC is considering the in-browser version of Kontiki, which Sky Anytime added in December to allow downloads over the web? Despite being conceived as a desktop app that would house TV shows and manage their DRM, many more people use the web-based iPlayer the BBC later decided to add.

Updated: Meanwhile, BBC audience experience head Jonathan Hassell ~~let slip that live iPlayer streams are "something we're working hard on and hope to have ready some time in June or July"~~ said subtitling is now available on many programmes offered through the desktop app and could arrive via the web stream version by June or July.

The BBC said his blog post had been "misinterpreted": "He was referring to the availability of BBC iPlayer subtitling on streamed pre-recorded programmes for June or July; and then, after that, for programmes shown live on their linear transmission, such as BBC One's The One Show. As for live streaming of BBC channels on iPlayer, our aspirations are to meet audience expectations by providing this in the fullness of time."

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Earnings: Trinity Mirror Ad Revenue Falls 4.3 Percent On 'Volatile' Economy

Robert Andrews — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:17:19 -0500

How many times now have we seen companies report big digital growth in an otherwise shrinking market? Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) digital revenues grew 26.5 percent in the 17 weeks to April 27, while overall group revenue dipped 2.7 percent.

Digital revenues in regionals grew 20.6 percent but a complete figure wasn't given for national digital. Factoring in the boost from digital acquisitions The Career Engineer and Rippleffect, digital actually grew 44.1 percent. Those sites, TM confirmed, are in the regional division.

- Economy: But none of this disguises the reality that advertising overall fell 4.3 percent and circulation fell 1.2 percent. Media had begun to forecast improved ad markets at the end of 2007 - but that was before the credit crunch. From the statement: "The outlook for the UK economy remains uncertain with the ongoing adverse implications of inflationary cost pressures ... businesses are curtailing marketing budgets to offset the prospect of slowing revenues. This has resulted in the advertising environment remaining difficult." "Month on month volatility remains and we expect this to continue for the remainder of the year."

- Forecast: So TM is sticking to its strategy of "building a growing multi-platform media business via the launch and acquisition of new products and services complementing our print offering". In other words, websites. It said the performance is in line with expectations, and aims for £20 million in cost-cutting by year's end. Statement

Earnings: Virgin Media Hikes Prices To Improve Results

Robert Andrews — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:51:08 -0500

Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) will increase TV, phone and bundle prices from June 1 to turn around falling earnings. Revenue fell from £1.021 billion in Q107 to £1.001 billion, "due to seasonally reduced content revenue and reduced mobile revenue", though the overall operating loss reduced from £17.8 million last quarter to £4.6 million. At 181,400, VM added 2,900 fewer cable customers than Q107 and 43,700 fewer than the previous three months.

- Broadband: The company continues its new strategy of selling broadband as its "premier" product. Broadband revenue fell from £106.2 million in the previous quarter to £88.4 million, explained by seasonality, but VMED's off-net broadband operation, through which it provides access to 300,000 non-cable customers, swung to a £7.8 million loss from a £9.7 million gain a year ago.

- UKTV: The UKTV channel portfolio JV with BBC Worldwide earned VMED just £6.2 million in the quarter - up from £300,000 in Q407 but down from £7.1 million in last year's corresponding quarter. This may yet invite suitors rumoured in Sunday newspapers over the last few months.

- TV: VMED will charge £1.50 extra for its XL TV package and £1 for "most of our standard bundles", arguing it has, over the last year, provided better value for money through increased VOD content, free Setanta Sports for XL customers, higher broadband speeds and the just-launched BBC iPlayer. That last justification may not wash as the BBC's public services are supposed to be free by design. Some 48 percent of TV customers are now using VOD each month - an average of 24 times per month per customer, giving 36 million VOD views in the quarter - that's 10 percent more than the previous quarter. It said iPlayer over cable "gives VOD a new impetus and help establish on-demand as a genuinely mainstream TV service".

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EconAds: Registration Opening Tomorrow Night; NYC Mixer At IAC Building

Rafat Ali — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:47:47 -0500

We are about ready to open registration for our EconAds seminar to be held on June 3 in NYC...the ticket sales for the half-day seminar will start this Friday. As we have done with our previous seminars, this will be a smaller, more intimate experience. The in-progress program is here.
The seminar will focus on key sectors in the online advertising market. The topics include:
-- Ad Networks & Beyond
-- Agency 2.0
-- Social Media Advertising
-- Search Advertising

Thanks to Digital Hollywood for helping us co-locate our event there along with the bigger Advertising 2.0 conference on June 4th and 5th. This is part of the Internet Week, produced by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences in cooperation with the City of New York. For underwriting these events, e-mail our business side at advertising AT contentnext.com.

Also, the next day on June 4th evening, we'll do our trademark ContentNext NYC mixer at the IAC (NSDQ: IACI) building. We've done three of these before in NYC over the last two years, and another one has been due for a while now. As you well know, these mixers fill up very quickly, so keep an eye out for separate registration for it.

UK Bits: PlayerX/Paramount, Holy Moly TV, TalkSport Mag, MySpace Games, CNET Mobile

Robert Andrews — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:42:48 -0500

-- Player X/Paramount: Mobile media producer Player X has been enlisted by Paramount Mobile Entertainment to produce games and short video series based on its formts, C21 reports, calling the productions "retrosodes". Player X previously resurrected Knight Rider on mobile for Universal Studios and the idea is supposedly the same for the Paramount catalogue.

-- Holy Moly TV: Premiership and Football League broadband rights house Perform (the former Premium TV) has done a deal to supply celeb gossip site Holy Moly with more online TV content. The pair will split revenues from ads Perform places on the vids and the operator is even in early discussions to buy a stake in the site, Brand Republic notes

-- .TalkSport mag: Dennis Publishing's former publisher of its Monkey digital-edition page-turner magazine is to launch a digital title for radio station TalkSport, says MediaWeek. Esquire's sports editor Bill Borrows is the title's full-time freelance editor. Presenter James Whale won't figure, of course - he was fired last week for running an on-air "Vote Boris" campaign for the London mayoral election.

-- MySpace games: MySpace UK is launching a gaming channel. The channel will come with minigames from Oberon Media. The titles can be added to users' profiles, NMA says.

-- CNET (NSDQ: CNET) mobile: CNET.co.uk has launched a mobile web edition. The site debuts by giving away free copies of EA's Fifa 08 mobile game, CNET's Crave blog says.

AOL Radio Launches - Last.fm By Another Name

Robert Andrews — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:31:20 -0500

AOL (NYSE: TWX) has started replicating its recently launched Last.fm-powered AOL Radio in its European markets, starting with France, Germany and the UK. Despite living at radio.aol.co.uk, the site is so much powered by Last.fm, it's basically a copy of the CBS-owned social music engine with a joint Last.fm-AOL logo on top, right down to the user database. This ties in with CBS (NYSE: CBS) Radio's goal - repeated when it relaunched its online offerings last week - of being the "number one internet radio station" and is part of a joint CBS-AOL deal. The radio network, however, unveiled its own new Play.it player.

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@ PPA Wrap: Gazette Live, Telegraph, Channel4.com Try Community

Robert Andrews — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:42:40 -0500

-- Trinity Mirror: The Gazette Live site, which Trinity Mirror's (LSE: TNI) Teesside Evening Gazette launched two years ago with 20 hyperlocal sites, now has 200,000 unique users and 2.5 million monthly page impressions, said editor Darren Thwaites at the PPA's Magazines 2008 conference in London. Here is a clip from Thwaites' presentation to delegates…

-- Telegraph.co.uk: Telegraph.co.uk is to add new features to its ailing My Telegraph community site. The community has been on "life support" technically after its third-party vendor Interresource went in to administration - but the newspaper is tapping ONEsite to create a replacement. Telegraph.co.uk communities editor Shane Richmond, who visited with the Oklahoma-based company last week, told Magazines 2008 the new site "will allow people to upload different kinds of media, to organise themselves much better, giving them lots of tools to make the site much more rich, and backend tools to make it easier for us to moderate as it gets bigger".

-- Channel4.com: C4 new media factual commissioner Adam Gee said: Channel4.com is just about to adopt WordPress after a very bad experience with an off-the-shelf package." With Ofcom's decision over C4's public remit still awaited, Gee made a play for a new health site which he said got 3.5 million page views in the last week: "What it illustrates is what public service media may look like in a digital media age."

@ PPA: Online Suspicion From Print Mag Publishers

Robert Andrews — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:42:16 -0500

Comment of the day, at the end of the Periodical Publishers Association's Magazines 2008 conference, must go to Future Publishing (LSE: FUTR) CEO Stevie Spring, in a panel of 10 magazine bosses: "In a world where any Tom, Dick or Harry - and one w***er that I was married to - calls themselves a publisher, there is a feeling on the dinner party circuit that the barriers to entry are higher (than online). At the FT, it's much easier to publish a blog than it is to publish the FT."

So at said soirees, even at times of multiplatform diversification, Spring unashamedly introduces herself as a magazine publisher. Despite online commitments, there was plenty of commitment to print, even suspicion toward the web, here…

-- Economy: Asked what the top consideration is for the magazine business, IPC Media CEO Sylvia Auton said: "The recession: number one. This new interactivity people are demanding is putting new stresses on our resources, plus the development of cost-efficient technologies." Oh, and the environment: "Next thing you know, we'll be taxed for every unsold copy or something stupid like that." But Bauer Consumer Media CEO Paul Keenan disagreed on the economy: "I think we're at great risk of talking ourselves in to a downturn." Spring: "We're not battening down the hatches but we're making lots and lots of small bets." On online costs, Soring added: "Operating online is very expensive and, if you can't counterbalance that with subscription revenues ... it's the biggest challenge."

-- Metrics: Dennis Publishing CEO James Tye, talking of his Monkey digital magazne: "There was no set method for auditing a digital magazine so we had to invent one with ABC, who were v helpful. we shouldn't measure an e-magazine like a website. While we could measure unique users, a lot of people want them to be recorded like a conventional title." So Monkey registers unique "opens" of each edition.

Spring: "Whilst I applaud some of the big numbers that we all get online (11 million uniques against four million magazines for Future), I wouldn't dream of comparing the impact from engagement that we get in our magazine products to that which we get online." She criticised what she said was the belief that "all impacts are equal" from newspaper metrics gatherer ABC, which now groups together print and online readership figures. That's "the death of really good, expensive content so I'm absolutely against it".