Articles of the Day
CBS ‘EyeLab’ Will Give Consumers Bite-Sized Clips - If someone’s going to be mashing up CBS content, it might as well be CBS. That’s the rationale behind “EyeLab,” a digital production studio just launched by the network to creatively edit its full-length shows, news programs, and sports coverage into bite-sized clips for a generation of YouTube-obsessed dabblers.
Friendly’s iScream Attracts Younger Target - Friendly’s Restaurants tapped Valassis–known for its newspaper insert couponing–to create a summer campaign blending mobile, video and UGC. Called iScream, it successfully reached a 13- to-25-year-old target, and also demonstrated how Valassis is extending its business into digital media.
Citi Cautious About Advertising On Social Networks - Financial services giant Citi, which does considerable online advertising, is a long way from exploring opportunities involving consumer-generated content or social networking sites, despite other blue-chip brands dipping a toe in. The company is concerned about adversely affecting its brand value.
Web Video Viewers Logging More Hours - Time spent watching video on the Internet is increasing, according to a study sponsored by AOL and Google. Viewers said they still favor free ad-supported content. Three-quarters of online video viewers watch more video than they did a year ago, and more than one-half expect to watch even more next year, according to a study conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres and sponsored by AOL and Google.
Search Insider: Who’s The Best Facebook Fit? - In what’s become something of a quarterly ritual, Google and Microsoft are now dueling to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. The fight this time is over Facebook, for which Microsoft is reportedly looking to pay up to $500 million for a 5% stake — and over which pundits are on the lookout for a Google countermove. Let the games commence. But whether Facebook ultimately migrates towards Google, Microsoft, or neither, it’s still worth evaluating which of the two competitors could go furthest with the social network.
The Future Of Impulse Buying Is Mobile - Like the music being played at your local Starbucks? Well, starting tomorrow, you can instantly download any song you hear through iTunes, which has become free to access from Starbucks locations in New York and Seattle. The New York Times says the Apple-Starbucks partnership, announced several weeks ago, is part of a larger technological trend aimed at baiting the impulse buyer.
Facebook Meets VOD - TechCrunch UK has an interesting profile on UK-based Tape it Off The Internet, which it calls “Facebook meets TV on-demand.” Sort of. TIOTI indexes professionally produced TV content, but doesn’t wade into the murky waters of hosting it at the site. Instead, the startup sends users who click to watch a show to the primary source. So far, the site contains 75,000-plus TV shows and more than 500,000 episodes.
New Line Of Thinking Means Good Times for eBay, Amazon - Amazon.com and eBay have enjoyed a solid year on Wall Street, thanks in part to a change in the way financial analysts and investors assess their performance, says The Wall Street Journal. Both are members of the Internet’s Old Guard; as such, their growth is slower than other companies, prompting analysts to weigh metrics like operating margins and revenue per user more heavily.
NBC, Other Networks Enjoy iTunes Leverage - It’s less than a month after NBC decided to pull its new season shows from Apple’s iTunes, and the media giant’s executives say they’re just not worried about the companies’ inability to come to an agreement on pricing. “We’d love to figure out something with Apple, but frankly, we have a lot of other alternatives,” J.B. Perrette told Wired.
