Friday, September 23, 2011

Pew: 77% Think News Orgs Are Biased -does this surprise anyone....anyone?

Most Americans have a rather negative view of the press, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

The study found that more than three-quarters (77%) of Americans believe that when it comes to reporting on political and social issues, news organizations tend to favor one side -- a 3% rise from 2009, the last time the survey was conducted, and a 10% increase from 2001. Some 80% of respondents felt that news organizations were often influenced by powerful people and organizations -- a 6% jump from 2009.

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Respondents also questioned the accuracy of news reporting. Only 25% felt that news organizations in general got their facts straight, while 66% felt that stories were inaccurate. Opinions were reversed when it came to the news sources respondents relied on: 62% felt the news organizations they used most got their stories right, while 30% found reporting often inaccurate.

The outlook was a little brighter for local news organizations. Sixty-nine percent said they have a lot or some trust in local news sources, compared to only 59% for national news organizations. In general, the press was more trusted than government or business.

The report also found that television is still the top source for national and international news, with 66% turning to the set for news. The Internet, though, has narrowed the gap. Some 43% of respondents said they get their news online -- nearly double the amount from four years ago. Still, 63% volunteered the name of a cable news network when asked to identify a news organization.

The complete report can be found here.

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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

YouTube Becomes Entertainment Destination

Just for laughs, San Jose's Dylan Hart and a college friend posted a video on YouTube in 2007 about charging an iPod using an onion and a bottle of Gatorade. More than 9 million views later, that video -- uploaded at 5 a.m. after an all-night editing session -- marks the start of YouTube becoming Hart's meal ticket, the home of his popular "Household Hacker" videos that are often a cross between "Mr. Wizard" and "Jackass: The Movie." It's a winning formula: Household Hacker has more than 1.1 million subscribers to its channel on YouTube. It's also a winning formula for YouTube. Household Hacker is one of more than 20,000 YouTube "partners" -- the number doubled over the past year -- whose videos attract an audience large enough to generate significant advertising dollars. Although Household Hacker may sound like a more polished version of the amateur videos that made YouTube a cultural phenomenon, it and other YouTube stalwarts are also a key piece of Google's (GOOG) plans to transform the video platform it bought for $1.65 billion in 2006 from a money pit into a cash cow, making it into more of an entertainment destination like a TV network. "We're very excited in terms of the growth and the talent that's emerging," said Tom Pickett, director of content operations at YouTube. "In the Advertisement U.S., in the last year or two, we started hitting thresholds where people started making serious money, and that has caused a lot more attention to be paid to a lot of our top partners." Fans of Household Hacker connect each week to see everything from magnets made from neodymium -- a rare earth element -- that defy gravity, to game reviews by Hart's co-founder, to hidden-camera pranks like the shampoo-bottle ketchup bomb, powered by the chemical reaction between vinegar and baking soda, Hart planted in his unsuspecting brother's shower stall. "We have a very high level production-wise, but we're not trying to be the Discovery Channel," said Hart, 28, who took the plunge into becoming a full-time YouTube producer after he got laid off from a job as a graphic designer for a large Silicon Valley company in 2009. Household Hacker is among hundreds of YouTube partners that receive more than $100,000 a year in ad revenue from YouTube, with the most popular personalities now cashing checks of more than $1 million a year, according to YouTube. Popular channels Fans can subscribe to their favorite YouTube channels, where they can exchange comments and watch the latest video. Channels like 2 million-subscriber Mystery Guitar Man, a musical performance artist whose identity is hidden by wraparound sunglasses, and fast-growing Canadian newcomer Epic Meal Time, which turns huge quantities of red meat into a comedy prop for 1.4 million subscribers, now feature ads for everything from Miracle Whip to iTunes to Nordstrom. Mystery Guitar Man, whose off-screen identity is Joe Penna, has even done commercials for Coke and McDonald's. YouTube's popularity leader is Ray William Johnson, who has 4.4 million subscribers and is among the top 10 most-followed people on the new Google+ social network. He produces a raunchy review of the week's top YouTube videos that couldn't run on TV, but his YouTube sponsors include oil giant ConocoPhillips and 5-hour Energy drinks. YouTube says top partners such as Mystery Guitar Man attract audiences of 250,000 to 500,000 individual viewers a day. That compares with 2010 Nielsen data that shows MTV with 979,000 daily prime time viewers, or the NFL Network's 258,000 viewers. By sharing ad revenue with independent partners -- many have evolved into small professional production companies of a dozen people or more -- YouTube helps boost content quality, which attracts more viewers, which in turn produces more ad revenue, said Jon Gibs, senior vice president of media analytics for the Nielsen Co. For most big advertising brands, YouTube remains a relatively small "experimental" part of their ad budget, he said. "The real advantage to YouTube is, by having this kind of content, they wash away a little of the image of consumer-generated content as being a low-quality video experience," Gibs said. YouTube's video viewers averaged 2 hours, 37 minutes per month on YouTube during June, according to Nielsen. That is a tiny fraction of the time people spend watching TV, but Gibs said the partner program reflects YouTube's efforts to transform itself into a TV-like entertainment destination. Equal to TV Nate Houghteling, of San Francisco-based Portal A Interactive, which works as a consultant to help companies get their videos to go viral on YouTube, as well as producing content for its own YouTube channel, believes audiences, particularly younger people, increasingly see YouTube as an entertainment option equal to TV. "Especially with the younger generation, this is their portal, this is their platform," Houghteling said. "We're only going to see more of that as people come of age." YouTube does not disclose its revenue split but says partners get more than half of gross ad revenue. The Google subsidiary does not release detailed partner numbers, but it says there are "thousands" who make more than $1,000 a month. "That's a point where you can make a living at this," Pickett said. "Clearly there are people out there that are making more than $1 million a year, and once you get to be a certain size on YouTube, you start to become a very powerful distribution point" for advertisers. Partners also can negotiate deals directly with sponsors, in which a personality might wear a T-shirt showing a brand or endorse a product within his or her video. Household Hacker's "Scientific Tuesday" video typically ends with Hart making an endorsement -- recent clients included Netflix (NFLX) and Carbonite, an online data backup service. Hart, whose videos typically pull in 300,000 to 500,000 views each week, is keenly aware of the intense competition for audience. YouTube features a thumbs-down button as well as a "Like" button, which provides instant audience feedback. When the weekly version of "Scientific Tuesdays" comes out, Hart and his 31-year-old brother Justin, who was recently hired to do everything from operate the camera to organize meetings with sponsors, are glued to the view count. They spend up to 100 hours a week brainstorming, researching, shooting and editing video, as well as working on sponsorships and responding to viewers. But to succeed on YouTube, they say it's critical to stay true to the site's do-it-yourself, rebel roots. Like many YouTube personalities, they won't share their full names -- insisting that they be identified by their first and middle names only. "We're just a couple of guys making videos. I think at some point, you can look too professional," Dylan Hart said. "We want to teach you something, but we don't want to bore you." Contact Mike Swift at 408-271-3648. Follow him at Twitter.com/swiftstories. NEW MEDIA CHAMPS Top partners on YouTube have millions of subscribers and draw audiences of up to 500,000 individual viewers per day. Ray William Johnson Subscribers: 4,593,905 Total views: 1,281,601,912 Household Hacker Subscribers: 1,162,222 Total Views: 141,468,002 via mercurynews.com

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Monday, September 5, 2011

Online Video Eats Away At Broadcast TV

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Viewers are spending more time streaming TV programming online and slightly less time watching scheduled broadcast TV, according to a new study from Ericsson ConsumerLab.

Some 38% of respondents to Ericsson’s “TV & Video Consumer Trend Report 2011” reported watching Internet-based on-demand TV more than once per week, while about 80% watch broadcast TV more than once per week.

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The study also shows that social media usage has impacted the way we watch TV. More than 40% of the respondents reported using social media on various devices such as smartphones and tablets while watching TV.

“On-demand viewing is increasingly popular, while broadcast viewing has remained as the most common way for people to watch TV,” Ericsson ConsumerLab senior advisor Anders Erlandsson said in a statement. “People want both broadcast and on-demand viewing to be available. TV and video have not been negatively affected by the internet in the same way that print has; we just watch TV in many more ways than we did before.”

Data was collected in the United States, Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and South Korea. In all, 22 qualitative and 13,000 quantitative interviews were conducted representing almost 400 million consumers.

Canary...meet coal mine.

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www.invest2innovate.com

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I love it when capitalism has some true value and meaning.

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2000 Feet Above Hoover Dam

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Yes, this is our pilot

I wonder if she's old enough for a driver's license?

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Chopper Joni

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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Is there really that big of change coming?

When you read where Forrester and BIA/Kelsey both predict by 2015-2016 there will be shift in the majority of ad spending from traditional to digital media, then you see this below, it's difficult to reconcile to two. Are we really going to see such a dramatic change in spending over the next 3-4 years? 

 

Cable Experiences Little 'Breakage,' Advertisers Not Cutting Cords
by David Goetzl, Yesterday, 5:29 PM

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A Wall Street report Wednesday says that even with a bumpy economy, advertisers aren't pulling back on spending commitments made in the TV upfront market, while the scatter business remains robust. Also, national cable ad spending for 2011 is estimated to increase by 12%.

With upfront agreements being wrapped now, there is "little apparent breakage so far," according to Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang. Also, the scatter market for national TV has broadcast networks commanding between 10% and 25% hikes over upfront levels, with cable networks between 5% and 12%.

More broadly, Wang noted that the economy appears to be weathering the turmoil enough to prevent a change in a forecast of 2% growth for the U.S. ad market this year. That's largely fueled by the search (up 15%), online display (14%) and national cable (12%) sectors.

He did, however, suggest that a further economic decline might cause a downgrade in growth projections for 2012 -- from a 3% uptick to 2% -- even in a year with an Olympics and presidential campaign. One reason for the prediction is a belief that the ratio between ad spend and GDP will remain about the same next year as this.

As Wang touted the cable ad market, he projected the cable upfront pulled in a combined $9.3 billion in commitments versus $9.1 billion for the broadcasters.

A year ago, broadcasters continued to land more ($8.6 billion) compared to cable's $8.2 billion.

Still, as a 12% growth for cable in 2011 is projected, the rate of growth could be slowed next year if the economy ushers in a slowdown in scatter pricing, since cable networks can leave about 50% of inventory to be sold in the walk-up market.

 

 

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