MaxxoMedia Digital Media and Entertainment Trends

Indie Filmmaker in Copyright Spat With Viacom Over YouTube Clips

Submitted by Mark Hefflinger on August 31, 2007 – 6:28am.

San Francisco - An independent filmmaker who posted some of his work on YouTube, which was then used without permission by Viacom on a TV show, has seen his posting of Viacom’s use of his work removed from YouTube by the media conglomerate, CNET News.com reported.

A new IBM online consumer study, a component of the upcoming report “The end of advertising as we know it” planned for the fall, shows that among consumer respondents, 19 percent stated spending six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage, versus nine percent of respondents who reported the same levels of TV viewing. 66 percent reported viewing between one to four hours of TV per day, versus 60 percent who reported the same levels of personal Internet usage. When it comes to mobile and Internet entertainment, consumers are seeking consolidated, trustworthy content, recognition and community. Despite natural lags among marketers, advertising revenues will follow consumers’ habits, concludes the report.

To effectively respond to this power shift, the study sees:

• Advertising agencies going beyond traditional creative roles to become brokers of consumer insights
• Cable companies evolving to home media portals
• roadcasters and publishers racing toward new media formats
• Marketers forced to experiment and make advertising more compelling

From Kenradio.com

Young adults (those ages 18-29) with internet access are the most voracious video viewers. Three in four wired young adults (76%) report online consumption of video, compared with 57% of internet users between ages 30-49. Less than half (46%) of internet users ages 50-64 watch or download video and just 39% of those age 65 and older do so, according to a new study by Pew Internet & American Life Project. On a typical day, young adults’ video consumption also outpaces that of older users. Roughly one in three (31%) internet users ages 18-29 said they watched or downloaded some type of video on the day prior to our survey. Just 18% of users ages 30-49, 12% of those 50-64 and 10% of those age 65 and older watch or download any type of video on the average day. Three in five online video consumers (59%) say they watch at home, while 24% report at-work viewing. One in five (22%) say they watch online video from someplace other than home or work. When asked if they happened to watch online from these various locations “yesterday,” 19% reported at-home viewing, 6% reported at-work viewing and just 3% said they watched online video someplace other than home or work the day before. Overall, 27% of online video consumers say they watch or download video from YouTube, and of those who watch or download videos from more than one location, 29% say YouTube is the place where they view online video most often. Young adults are almost twice as likely to point to YouTube as a source for online video; 49% of video viewers ages 18-29 say they watch YouTube videos. MySpace garners a much smaller slice of the young adult audience (15% of viewers), but one that is still considerably larger than the segment who use cable and network TV sites (7%) or news websites (6%) as sources for video.

Male viewers are more likely than female viewers to use YouTube (31% vs. 22%), but otherwise, men and women generally report the same levels of usage across every source they were asked about. Frequent viewers of online video also have a greater tendency to use YouTube; 39% of video viewers who say they watched an online video “yesterday” are users of YouTube compared with just 21% of viewers who did not watch “yesterday.”

News outlets were among the first big investors in the online video realm and their early-mover advantage shows. News video is the most-watched genre of video, with 37% of adult internet users reporting some type of viewing or downloading, and 10% saying they watch news videos on a typical day. Aside from the plethora of news content posted on video sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video, news-related video can now be found on virtually any website associated with major network TV news channels, cable TV news, and on most mainstream newspaper websites. Additionally, blogs, video podcasts, personal websites and social networking websites also feature news-related video.

By ANGEL JENNINGS NYTIMES

Published: August 4, 2007

Cellphone plans that encourage subscribers to talk mainly to people in the same network are having unintentional social effects.

A month ago, Brandy McDowell sat down with her longtime friend, Kezia Chandler, and told her she had switched cellphone carriers. Their relationship has not been the same since.

Now, they barely speak. Ms. Chandler rushes Ms. McDowell off the phone when she calls during her lunch break. And long conversations about schoolwork and relationship woes have been reduced to sound bites.

Maybe they should blame the cellphone carriers. The carriers, after all, set up plans that encourage subscribers to talk mainly to people in the same network. The companies say they are simply trying to recruit and retain customers.

According to a recent comparison shopping survey of 500 preteens conducted by Web site ShopLocal.com, preteens want more than paper, pencils and protractors for back-to-school supplies. 73 percent of kids between the ages of seven and 12 want to head back to school with their gaming systems in hand, and an equally strong 70 percent want a new computer.

69 percent of the kids surveyed say they strongly desire a cell phone to complete their back-to-school wares, even naming the new iPhone as one of their choices. 10-12 year olds who responded to the online survey listed cell phones and computers above their interests for a new backpack or book bag.

ShopLocal.com shopping expert Eva Yusa, says “Wants and perceptions have changed dramatically…with the growing popularity of consumer electronics, children have different ideas about what is acceptable, and what are ‘must haves’ for the back-to-school season… (But) boys and girls… at this age, have very different priorities when it comes to shopping. Boys typically look for entertainment, while girls are more interested in fashion and style.”

From Kenradio.com

TV advertising spending is growing, and analysts expect that to continue through 2010. Online video usage is increasing, online advertising spending is taking a larger proportion of the overall advertising pie and digital video recorders (DVRs) and video-on-demand (VOD) capabilities are becoming widespread, according to a new study by eMarketer. Talk of TV’s short-term demise is unfounded. Yet it is equally shortsighted to think that the traditional TV model will not change significantly over the next decade.