UCLA 405.23 Class #7, 20 Feb 2008

News
Will provided an NYT article heralding a major change in Google’s tactics (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/technology/21google.html?ex=1361336400&en=71c9da34cdbfcedd&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink ). Christian Oestlien, a Google product manager announced the launch of Google’s Ad Sense for video with a network of 20 partners including Revver and Blip.tv. The latter is a site I had not previously explored. Blip.tv has some interesting syndication and ad serving features. The NYT article goes on to mention that Google has chosen to use lower thirds overlays that will be contextually served. You need a million video’s served per month to get in on the action. I assume that Google is looking at metadata to decide which ads to serve where and and when.

Will also referred me to digitalmedialaw.blogspot.com which published the link to the summary of the WGA agreement at http://www.wga.org/contract_07/wga_tent_summary.pdf .
Elizabeth sent me a Variety article about NBC’s decision to stream full eps of over a dozen TV classics. Part of their Hulu strategy no doubt.

Alana put me on to www.artstechnica.com and its’ summary of the state of the music biz (http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/state-of-digital-music-2007.ars )

John gave me a Forbes article about Adblock Plus which is a threat to the 20 Billion Internet Ad biz since it makes it devilishly easy to block banners and even Google sponsored text ads.

Mark mentioned the increase in Global Click Fraud and read parts of an article detailing stats on Internet Video usage including the stat that 80 million Americans or 43% of the population have watched a favorite TV show online and 20% do it regularly. There are also impressive stats on the increase in time-shifted viewing and commercial skipping via DVRs.

Lecture Notes
My lecture was on the importance of metrics in the media and entertainment industry. It’s hard to sell what you can’t measure. The Internet has an advantage over traditional forms of advertising because you can accurately measure every click, therefore you can sell advertising by cost-per-click or cost-per-action. Nielsen is the juggernaut in media metrics. The $70 billion broadcast TV economy depends on Nielsen numbers for its valuations. VOD, time shifting, mobile and Internet viewing require new metrics. Branded media also requires new metrics. Nielsen is beginning to measure all of the former and its new “Place Views” product strives to measure the latter.

Straight from Nielsen, here are the two most important definitions:
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.

Share: The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)

Mark covered network topology and concept of “switching fabric” and Network Access Points where packets are exchanged between tier one carriers. We will see this first-hand at Wilshire One, one of the world’s busiest NAPs. We mentioned how important trans-oceanic fiber is to the worlds Internet infrastructure. Mark explained what Content Distribution Networks like Akamai, Limelight, Mirror Image, Level 3 and Edgecast.

Network topology is a complex topic that will provide a deeper understanding of the Internet actually works.

It is interesting to note that Google is building gigantic server centers near cheap power and high-speed fiber landings. Its largest cost is power for cooling. Sphere: Related Content