Archive for July 2nd, 2008

Web sites are great, even the ones streaming TV content. But viewers still want to watch their shows on the big TV set in the living room.

The overwhelming number of adults—94%, in fact—who subscribe to cable or satellite prefer to watch television on television sets, according to a new study conducted by Nielsen for the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, or CTAM.

Still, TV network Web sites are useful to viewers and valuable to the networks themselves.
Among the adult broadband users surveyed, 35% said they had watched at least one TV program via the Internet. Of those who accessed programming online, 87% watched directly on a TV network Web site and 82% said they went to the Internet specifically to find a show they missed when it aired on TV.

According to the study, that accounts for much of the success that broadcast and cable networks are having with putting their shows on the Web.

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The highly anticipated film production of TV series Friends has finally been given the go-ahead, MailOnline has learned.

Cast members Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer will reprise their roles for a big-screen adaptation ‘within the next 18 months’, according to insiders.

The actors have been inspired by the recent success of Sex And The City, which recently hit cinemas worldwide.

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At a meeting with about a dozen senior members of AOL’s staff yesterday, Jeff Bewkes left at least one member of management with the impression that the company is for sale, a source close to the company says.

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y today with the global launch of its ‘Audi Brand Terminal’, a striking, Australian architect-designed mobile showroom created to engage consumers with the brand in unexpected locations.The eight tonne glass and aluminium Brand Terminal’s inaugural outing features Audi’s new TTS Roadster sports car, available late July, and creates a new consumer touchpoint that reinforces the premium positioning of the brand.

“Our goal is to make the brand more visible in a way that fits Audi’s sophisticated and premium positioning. This is a new channel for us and opens the door to further embrace experiential marketing,” said Audi Australia’s General Manager of Marketing Immo Buschmann.

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July 1 marks the halfway point of the movie year, and there is a clear winner among the major Hollywood studios. With the top 3 grossing movies of 2008, Paramount is riding high with both Marvel’s Iron Man and Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull topping $300M and DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda at $181M now and a cinch for $200M+. The Melrose gang will be the first studio in history with back-to-back-to-back $200M+ grossing movies.

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Univision Online has entered into a partnership with The Home Depot to launch a new Web show called Handyman Al Rescate.

The show will include six webisodes with intructions and advice on how to accomplish a remodeling or repair project, leveraging content from The Home Depot’s existing in-store clinics.

The microsite can be accessed through Univision.com by using the keyword Handyman Al Rescate. It will include streaming videos, expert tips and photo gallaries. The Webisodes will discuss how to renovate a patio, painting techniques, organizing a garage, remodeling a bathroom, organizing a house better, and beautifying a garden.

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Google is experimenting with distributing original content, striking a deal with comedian and producer Seth McFarlane, creator of Fox’s long-running hit series Family Guy.

Working with Google, McFarlane will create an animated Web-based animated series: There will be 50 Webisodes, each will be two minutes in length.

The offering, Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, will reside on Google-owned YouTube and be syndicated and distributed across the search giant’s content network to AdSense publisher sites.

Pre-roll and banner ads, as well as “brought to you by” messages, are available to sponsors.

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Screenwriters have spoken out against proposals to allow product placement on UK television, claiming the move would give them less editorial control and see advertisers and sponsors di ctate a show’s dramatic content.  The concerns were raised in a letter to culture secretary Andy Burnham from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, which claims that allowing labels and brands to be included in UK shows would damage the “integrity of British-scripted comedy and drama”.

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The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released the Revised Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines. By providing the industry with a common minimum set of creative specifications, these revised guidelines help simplify the online ad buying process, according to the IAB.

The guidelines include minimums for common ad formats and sizes such as banners and buttons as well as transitional and various over-the-page units such as floating ads, page takeovers and tear-backs. They define rich media as separate from basic animated ads by requiring interaction aside from the ability to click-through. Cover ads delivered into standard Web environments including email and static and dynamic Web pages; and finally update the minimum file sizes of the 2002 Universal Ad Package (found at www.iab.net/UAP).

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In another example of reverse product placement, a drink called Booty Sweat, based on the upcoming action comedy Tropic Thunder, is going to jump off screen and onto store shelves.

Because the Ben Stiller-directed flick matches up the demo that gulps a lot of energy drinks, Paramount executives figured it would be a smart novelty product to launch a real Booty Sweat based on the placement of the fictional product in the movie. Tropic Thunder features Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. playing actors shooting a Vietnam War movie who their frustrated writer-director decides to dump in a real war.

“It’s a great way to promote the movie to the target market,” said Michael Corcoran, president, consumer products and recreation group, Paramount Pictures. “And we think it can have a stand-alone existence.”

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