News Bytes: Classes #9 and #10

3 March 08: The Chicago Tribune’s Jon Van reported that the FCC Auction for the analog TV spectrum could yield $20 billion, way more than anticipated. The 214 bidders included Verizon, AT&T and Google. No doubt that these airwaves formerly used for free over-the-air television will be recycled for wireless broadband Internet access that will compete with WiMax, EVDO and even Qualcomm’s Media Flow for wireless streaming video. Widely available wireless broadband will expand the market for mobile devices and mobile content services.

Dateline 15 March 08, Wall Street Journal superstar tech Journalist Walter Mossberg took a look at HULU with a balanced critique. He liked the UI and feature set and pointed out that the selection of videos was, of course, limited to NBC-UNI and Newscorp Content. Essentially Hulu clones YouTubes most popular features: fast search, embedding, emailing, fullscreen viewing. The networks finally get that the Internet is simply an extension of every other form of TV distribution and will rapidly equal or even dominate consumption. The networks are grasping that consumers have a limited tolerance for advertising. The reduced ad load in HULU’s delivered programming reflects this. I still believe that in the long run HULU will NOT become the mass destination its architects desire. The Internet is too fungible, and endless choice via endless search will dominate.

www.aimeestreet.com got a big PR boost from the Spitzer scandal when it was instantly discovered that his service provider, Ashley Alexandra Dupre, aka Kristen, had two tracks on the site. The site prices tracks based on popularity and her two offerings quickly rose to the max of 98 cents.

On the ad front as reported in the NYT 14 March 08, PepsiCo opted to go the event, experiential marketing route for its Tava brand. Aside from the soup of synthetic compounds that go into these “natural” beverages, including “vitamins”, I admire the www.tava.com website as an exercise in branded media. Top level navigation of Events, Music, and Art reveal the strateg of pairing the beverage experience with emerging artistic experiences. Combine with strategic sampling in the offices of influencers at MTV, Google and others, Tribal DDB ( a unit of Omnicom) seeks to mirror the bottom up success of the likes of Red Bull. Free music downloads sweeten the tea.

Any contributed a link RE Intel’s WiMax chipset:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143577-c,tabletpcs/article.html# The article supports the imminent coming of ubiquitous, cheap wireless broadband.
And Facebook’s new privacy options:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143579-c,webservices/article.html

Joyce pointed out this WSJ article discussing the challenge imposed by exponential increases in Internet traffic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/technology/13net.html?ex=1363233600&en=37c92cf02bd0601f&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Massive amounts of P2P, video and music uploading and downloading is going to strain the system. Improvements in compression, and expansion in bandwidth will probably keep apace. Some ISPs and their customers who may not have adequate infrastructure may suffer. I see a tiered structure imminent whereby bandwidth limits are imposed with tariffs to begin balancing usage.

Flora sent a link to a Reporter summary of Disney CEO Robert Iger discussing its billion dollar online revenue outlook at Digital Hollywood. 4 million movie and 50 million TV episode downloads on iTunes are impressive stats. He claimed this was incremental revenue an no cannibalization of DVD sales, although I doubt that. Sphere: Related Content