Hulu Plus has made its way to Android, which could be key in its competition with other players like Netflix, who also recently launched Android support.
Like Netflix, however, Android support doesn’t mean availability for all Android devices. Only certain smartphone models work, but also like Netflix, Hulu promises to expand upon that number of devices.
On Hulu’s blog, Director of Product Management Rob Wong writes:
We’ve always said our mission is to provide the world’s premium content to people when, how and where they want it. And we know that a lot of people want that content on their Android smartphones. We’ve been working hard to make that a reality, and today, we have begun our early rollout of theHulu Plus application on Android smartphones.
With the first phase of the Android rollout, Hulu Plus is available on six phones, including the Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X, and the Motorola Atrix. We expect to add to the number of Android smartphones and will be making additional device announcements throughout the year.
The free Hulu Plus app is available for download from Android Market, and once installed, Hulu Plus subscribers will be able to enjoy the service on the go. As always, Hulu Plus offers new subscribers one free week to try the service.
Netflix has talked in the past about why they couldn’t must push out an Android app that works on everything.
“We regard Android as an exciting technology that drives a range of great devices that our members could use to instantly watch TV shows and movies from Netflix,” explained Netflix’s Greg Peters late last year. “We are eager to launch on these devices and are disappointed that we haven’t been able to do so already. The hurdle has been the lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android. The same security issues that have led to piracy concerns on the Android platform have made it difficult for us to secure a common Digital Rights Management (DRM) system on these devices. Setting aside the debate around the value of content protection and DRM, they are requirements we must fulfill in order to obtain content from major studios for our subscribers to enjoy. Although we don’t have a common platform security mechanism and DRM, we are able to work with individual handset manufacturers to add content protection to their devices. Unfortunately, this is a much slower approach and leads to a fragmented experience on Android, in which some handsets will have access to Netflix and others won’t.”
I’m going to go out on a limb and speculate that Hulu has had similar issues.
Besides select Android devices, Hulu Plus is also available for iOS devices, Xbox 360, Sony PS3, Roku’s streaming player, various TVs and Blu-Ray players from Samsung, Sony, Vizio, Panasonic, LG, and Haier, WD TV media players, TiVo Premiere, and of course PCs.
Finally, the television and entertainment industries are starting to get it – their audiences are online, and that’s where they need to be, too. While studios and networks may groan about fans skipping out on live airings of their programs to watch shows online at their convenience, the execs should recognize that even the lowest-performing shows (in terms of ratings) still have dedicated online communities. It seems that more and more shows are recognizing this and trying to capitalize on these communities to help keep audiences engaged while still boosting ratings and sales. As Ignite’s resident TV and movie buff, I can point to HBO’s massive hit, True Blood, as one show that “gets it.”
Social Media Case Study: True Blood
Execs used various social tactics to launch the show back in 2008 and have kept the momentum going ever since. At launch, they created an Alternate Reality Game and several sites to help fans visualize the fictional world that the supernatural characters exist in. They also employed blogger outreach – bloggers were sent samples of Tru Blood, the synthetic blood that vampires on the show drink which allows them to coexist with humans by not feeding on them (stay with me here) – to pique the interest of potential cult followers. Oh, did I forget to mention that Tru Blood is now actually sold in stores?
HBO is working hard to keep the thirst of True Blood’s millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers quenched with a constant mix of engaging channel management strategies and promotional campaigns.
Facebook
To keep the momentum going, the show continues to stake its claim in the social space. The 7.8 million Facebook fans continue to stay active in the show’s absence, counting down to new premieres with other fans, sharing their favorite quotes and offering commentary or predictions – and the page admins aren’t leaving them hanging.
The page is regularly sharing content like exclusive photos and videos and, while there are many posts driving to the other properties like True Blood Withdrawal and the official HBO site, their posts are still seeing a relatively high level of engagement. Nearly all posts dating back the last couple of months generated 5,000+ ‘likes,’ with their two photo albums for the upcoming Season 4 raking in 32,000+ and 15,000+ likes. In my opinion, the admins have a good understanding of the need for a balanced content strategy – they’ve got promotional posts, the exclusive content fans are looking for, and engagement in the form of Facebook Questions, quotes, and short episode recaps. And while they’ve been guilty of using hashtags on Facebook (a big pet peeve of mine), I can’t fault them too much because their posts have huge returns.
A couple of weeks ago, the page also launched the Immortalize Yourself application, which allows fans to incorporate themselves and their friends into an interactive exclusive clip from the next season. Fans can watch the video created with randomly selected friends’ names and profile pictures, or they have the option to “do bad things” by taking a quick friend quiz similar to Mad Libs in order to plug their friends into appropriate parts of the video. I used Megan as an example of a “friend who is likely to go MIA.”
For dedicated fans of the show, it’s a great way to get active fans to share your content because it’s easily customizable and sharable – and for the fans, it’s an added bonus to feel like you’re actually a part of the show’s world and culture.
Online Game: True Blood Dig Deeper
There is also a new TV spot that’s driving to an online promotion called True Blood Dig Deeper. I had watched the spots promoting the availability of Season 3 on DVD/Blu-ray, but I didn’t realize they were connected to an online promotion before starting research for this post. It’s actually a really, really clever game.
Essentially, fans watch the same commercial and identify 60 clues from the season hidden throughout within the 30-second clip in order to earn badges and to be entered to win the “Ultimate True Fan Experience,” a grand prize trip. Fans can watch the commercial multiple times, slow it down, zoom, pan… it’s clever in that it’s getting fans directly engaged and having them watch the spot over and over. It also ramps up the nostalgia and is a fun way for users to recap the previous season by recognizing elements they may have forgotten before the next one premieres. While some of the references are obvious, like the dog that shape-shifter Sam turns into, some are more obscure – like a blue sweater that one character wore for about 3 episodes – which could lead to hours spent playing along. I sent this site to a few of my friends who are fans of the show, and based on their testimonies, it’s pretty addicting.
True Blood Sites & Twitter Integration
The show is a summer series, so fans typically grow impatient waiting nearly a year for the next season, a sentiment echoed in the tagline “Waiting Sucks” – pun intended. There are several sites where fans can stay in the loop, including the revamped Bloodcopy, “The Official True Blood Conversation,” which once served as one of the fictional blogs at the launch of the show.
Here fans can find a live feed of all True Blood-related tweets, recent tweets from the official @TrueBloodHBO accounts and “Blood topics,” a clickable graphic of all of the most-talked about topics. The site even allows fans to connect their own Twitter accounts to get in on the conversation.
There’s also the recently launched True Blood Withdrawal site, promoted by a series of viral “PSAs” featuring the cast.
This page also aggregates tweets, with those tagged with #TBwithdrawal highlighting “the latest withdrawal victim.” Fans can see various feeds, connect their accounts, or engage in other activities to “feed their addiction.” Continuing to play on the puns, fans can also reach out to other “Truebies” suffering from “withdrawal,” or more cleverly, “check (themselves) in with GetGlue” to earn exclusive stickers and a chance to win a bottle of Tru Blood.
HBO has been promoting the #TBwithdrawal and #waitingsucks hashtags not only in their TV promos and videos, a trend I’m seeing more and more, but also with role-playing character accounts on Twitter. I’ve tried finding confirmation that these accounts are officially affiliated with HBO, but beyond the fact that the True Blood account follows them, I found nothing. Still, these fictional tweeters boast follower counts in the 20-30,000s, and the “characters” are regularly engaging in conversations around the show.
From what I can tell, True Blood is doing an excellent job of keeping its fans active and engaged all year round. The same goes for Sex and the City, another HBO favorite of mine, which continues to post content around the show (vs. the movie) regularly and host giveaways on their page, despite the show having ended years ago.
While I may watch a lot of TV, I’m sure there are a few niche shows that I’m missing out on that may be doing a great job in the social space. Are there any other TV shows out there that you think have a firm grasp on engaging audiences via social media?
Google has acquired SageTV for an undisclosed sum. SageTV is a company that builds media center software. It is expected that the company’s efforts (which include DVR technology) will find their way into Google TV.
An announcement on the SageTV site says:
We’re thrilled to announce that SageTV has been acquired by Google.
Since 2002, we’ve worked to change the TV viewing experience by building cutting-edge software and technology that allows you to create and control your media center from multiple devices. And as the media landscape continues to evolve, we think it’s time our vision of entertainment management grows as well. By teaming up with Google, we believe our ideas will reach an even larger audience of users worldwide on many different products, platforms and services.
We’ve seen how Google’s developer efforts are designed to stimulate innovation across the web, and as developers have played a core role in the success of SageTV, we think our shared vision for open technology will help us advance the online entertainment experience. We look forward to joining Google, and while we don’t have anything specific to announce at this time, we encourage interested developers to email: [email protected]
Google’s statement (via Engadget) on the acquisition is: “The SageTV team has developed the latest in media management software, and we look forward to working with them to take this technology to the next level.”
Last month, SageTV launched version 7 of its service in public beta. The following video shows that off:
Google TV has been slow to take off, but it seems the company will continue to invest in making it a more attractive offering, as clearly the web and the living room are becoming more and more integrated into one experience in people’s lives.
Today, on the Official Netflix blog, Tom Willerer from the product team wrote, “We’re removing avatars, nicknames and bios associated with reviews, as very few Netflix members use them. We’re constantly working to improve the Netflix experience, and by removing these little-used features we are simplifying the review process.”
After the user backlash over the major redesign, it was pretty much a given that users would complain again. Here’s a sampling of the comments on the blog post:
“This should go over real well :-P”
“The new layout is terrible, and removing the avatars and usernames from reviews is just plain dumb. Please return the site to what it was before you mucked it all up. It is becoming less and less satisfying every time a change is made.”
“Bad Idea. I count on particular users reviews, ones I find dependable to select movies to watch. I also write a lot of reviews for the same purpose for others who may share my tastes. Makes no sense.”
“Yay, MORE reduced functionality. The reviews aren’t even easily accessible, thanks to the new child and monkey-approved UI.”
“I was expecting an announcement that you were bringing back the old format. Instead you are taking more away?! Are you TRYING to make people cancel accounts?”
“I am officially canceling my account – Hello HULU!”
You get the idea. When Netflix launched its major redesign, a lot of users started saying they were going to cancel their accounts. I haven’t seen any numbers on how many actually have, but it’s not been great PR either way.
It looks like the comments on the original announcement got maxed out at 5,000. It doesn’t look like the new announcement is upsetting quite as many people yet. The discussion seems to be minimal on Twitter, compared to the major overhaul. Netflix calls this one a “minor update”.
Netflix says “very few” members used the avatars, nicknames and bios. Did you use them?
It wasn’t that long ago that Pandora was on the verge of going under thanks to royalty issues, but the company survived and went on to become the premier Internet radio service, giving users free music based on the artists and songs they like.
Pandora had its initial public offering today, opening on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “P”. The company priced about 14.76 million shares of common stock at $16 per share, with a total of about 6 million shares are being offered by Pandora, and 8.7 million shares by selling stockholders.
Pandora also granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2.2 million shares to cover over-allotments.Here’s a glimpse of what the stock is doing at the time of this writing, via Google Finance:
If you’re a Netflix user, you’ve probably noticed that the site has been redesigned. There’s also a good chance, judging from the comments we’ve received (and the nearly 5,000 on Netflix’s own announcement), that you don’t like it.
It would appear then that you have two options: get used to it or quit.
I personally believe that the backlash will die down in time, as it tends to do with other controversial redesigns (see Facebook, which is closing in on 700 million users). Still, a lot of those upset with the Netflix redesign are saying they’re going to quit the service. Empty threats? Some of them maybe. For others, probably not. Either way, it doesn’t seem to be phasing the company too much.
In an Entertainment Weekly article, Steve Swasey, vice president of corporate communications at Netflix is quoted as saying:
“Most of [the comments] have the same theme, which is ‘what was wrong with before?’ What we’re saying is we’ve tested this extensively, we know the vast, vast majority of people like this. It’s new, it’s easier, it’s cleaner.” When questioned about whether Netflix is planning on keeping the new interface despite the negative response, Swasey said, “Absolutely. We made it and tested it and researched it and tried it out and everywhere we tried it, it had a better reception. Otherwise we wouldn’t have made the change.”
WonderHowTo tells you how to restore the the former “Watch Instantly” layout, but it only works for the front page, so it’s not incredibly useful. You can log in and enter the following URL: http://www.netflix.com/WiHome?fcld=true
Looking back at this version now, I’m already pretty used to the new design, and I can’t see too big a problem with it. I wouldn’t mind if the ratings still appeared below the graphics, I feel (and I realize many of you disagree) the new layout makes it easier to take in more in less time.
Popular movie service Netflix has undergone a redesign, and it while it’s certainly not unanimous, the overwhelming majority of users (at least on Twitter and in Netflix’s blog comments) do not like it.
What do you think of the Netflix redesign? Let us know.
Netflix Director of Product Management Michael Spiegelman said on the blog, “I’m excited to announce that we’ve updated parts of the Netflix website with a new look and feel to make it easier for you to find something to watch instantly.”
“Starting today, most members who watch instantly will see a new interface that provides more focus on the TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix,” he added. “The title images are larger, there are more of them on the page and play buttons appear when you hover your mouse over the title images. Star ratings, information and other functions are available when you mouse over the title images. We’ve also made some changes to several pages on the site: adding more rows, and filling out the rows with more TV shows & movies, which you can find by hovering your mouse over the end of a row.”
And now for the complaints. Are are some posted in the comments on the Netflix Blog:
“The scroll-on-hover is terrible — the mere act of scrolling the entire page vertically causes random rows to start moving as they move under my mouse cursor and I never get to see the title on the far left or far right because it has already moved off screen and when I actually want a row to scroll, it scrolling is way too slow.”
“Thanks, now I can instantly determine that Netflix.ca has nothing interesting to watch.”
“Horrible! Everything feels as if it’s running together. I hate the way you have to hover over the last movie to see more in the row. They need to change it back or at least find some sort of compromise! I was in the middle of watching something when the site updated and when I came back to the main page my first reaction was to refresh the page twice hoping it would fix itself!”
The new look is a little jarring at first, but it’s nice that the movie covers are larger. I think I’ll get used two it, but I do have two concerns. One is that there is no plain display of the movie title without mouse-over. If I want to quickly search through movies, it would be nice if their titles were easily comparable. The other concern is the horizontal scrolling. the fact that this has a fixed maximum speed makes it impossible for me to quickly skip past movies that don’t interest me. In addition, I have to move my mouse back and forth across the screen to poorly defined zones if I want to switch from scrolling right to scrolling left. I would much prefer a real scroll-bar.”
“What happened to the ability to sort by rating? Now, you have to mouse over every. single. title. to find out that it only has two stars instead of being able to avoid it altogether. Also, the scrolling function is frustrating and slow.”
“It’s quite dazzling how much I hate the new look and feel of the Netflix site. It might be a great idea for people on tablets or PS3’s or dealing with remote controls for input, but for those of us who have keyboards and mice (or trackpads), you’ve just made navigating the site considerably slower. Beyond just navigation, I think stripping out the titles from underneath, as well as the projected star rating, makes finding a movie on the fly just that much more difficult. Because nothing’s in alphabetical order at this point. Now we’re just looking at random movies in a random order, possibly by genre, but also possibly in some randomly selected genre that is somewhat related to a movie we didn’t actually mean to watch, because we accidentally clicked it when we were trying to scroll past it. It’s a horrible design. Flat-out. This is one of those design changes that’s going to be talked about on the tech-review sites later today, and not in a good way. It’s the Gawker or Digg debacles all over again, because you’ve deliberately made your site more difficult to use.”
And the conversation continues on Twitter of course:
@refutethis Refute ThisRT @bySeon: The Netflix website redesign is awful. Kept loading up a movie when I really want to read the description. Not very mouse fr …5 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
@qwiggles Angelo MureddaNetflix redesign is great if you like ugly, functionless things. And I happen to, as a rule.11 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
@doomlaser Mark JohnsThe Netflix redesign hides information in mouseovers, removes sorting and filtering, and is grey and ugly. What did it actually improve?13 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
You get the idea.
Again, that’s not to say there aren’t people out there that actually do like it. Every now and then, you’ll come across a positive comment, but then again, that’s the nature of the web. People tend to speak up more when they’re upset.
I don’t think I’ve completely formulated my own opinion of the redesign yet. I’ll have to use it more, but I definitely like the mouseover play buttons.
I also kind of like the side-scrolling functionality where you can just let your mouse sit there and browse titles as they hover by. While I’ve yet to experience it on a tablet, I can definitely see where this would be attractive on such a device.
Either way, most major redesigns on the web get similar reactions at first, and then people get used to them, so I doubt Netflix is too worried about losing users over this.
Netflix doesn’t appear to be having the best week when it comes to PR. A couple days ago the company rolled out a redesign, which has been met with overwhelming hostility from users. It’s not completely unanimous, but it’s clear that a lot of people are pissed, and some are saying they’re going to cancel their accounts.
To me, this seem a like a bit of an overreaction, but some people really, really take user interface seriously (something we should all consider in on our online efforts).
On top of that, Netflix has been named as one of many companies with mobile apps that have security vulnerabilities. Security firm ViaForensics found that the Android app stored user names and passwords in unencrypted form. Movie queues were also reportedly exposed. The Wall Street Journal reports:
A Netflix spokesman said the company was aware of the vulnerability and is making a change in the app that will also secure the usernames and passwords. Netflix wouldn’t specify a date for the change but the company said it is a priority.
A recent post on the Netflix API Developer Blog indicates that Genres are getting replaced on June 15. It will be interesting to see how well this goes over with users in light of the backlash related to the redesign. The current genres will be replaced by a new classification model.
“This new model will be more flexible and more well-tuned to the diverse expectations of a global movie-watching audience,” said Netflix’s David Gross.
It remains to be seen how much this change will be felt on the front-end of things. Many of the complaints about the redesign have been about the browsing experience, including the lack of a browse-by-decade feature.
It’s certainly an interesting time to be a music fan. The rise of social media, along with that of user-generated content and smartphones have come together to not only enhance communication and journalism, but also creativity. The latest example of this comes from a new contest from the band Junip (a personal favorite of mine), which has taken to YouTube to find the vision for its next music video.
The band is looking for someone to shoot the video for its song “Without You,” which can be heard below:
“We live in a world where music fans are the next journalist, musician and video director,” the band says on its YouTube page. “If you have a phone–you have a camera. Junip wants your videos, your ideas, the inspiration you feel when you listen to ‘Without You.’”
5.. PRIZING! Selected winner will not only be credited with creating the official video for Without You but MOOG has stepped in to give away an original MOOGERFOOGER MF-102 RING MODULATOR!!!! Be excited!
6. All videos must be submitted by Tuesday, July 5, 2011 to be considered for selection.
The band explains that prize a bit further: “The MF-102 Ring Modulator is a direct descendant of the original Moog modular synthesizers. It contains three complete modular functions: a ring modulator, a voltage-controlled carrier oscillator, and voltage-contolled dual-waveform LFO. It can be used to process any instrument-level to line-level signal. Housed in a rugged steel and hardwood enclosure, the Moogerfooger’s timeless good looks, versatility, and exceptional sound quality is designed to be equally at home on stage or in the studio. Their expansive functionality combined with warm, analog sound come from their state-of-the-art all-analog circuitry, designed and built under Bob Moog’s personal direction. Musical, flexible, playable, and durable Moogerfoogers are the secret weapons of top players and producers everywhere.”
Whether you’re a fan of Junip or not, the concept employed by this contest is something we can expect to see more and more of as musicians find more ways to utilize the Internet to engage with fans, and get encourage participation. Another brilliant part of this from the marketing perspective, is that while only one video will win the contest and go on to become the official video, most participants will no doubt be eager to share their own versions, which should only enhance the exposure of the song.
This is something any brand – music-related or not – can learn from.
By the way, if you have an opportunity to see Junip live, take it. They put in on a great show.
Netflix is adding yet more content to its streaming offering. This time, the company’s existing partnership with Viacom and MTV Networks is getting an expansion that sees more episodes of popular television shows coming to Netflix’s on-demand service, effective immediately.
That means subscribers now have access to episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba, more episodes of Spongebob SquarePants, True Jackson VP, iCarly, and Dora the Explorer from Nickelodeon, so the children have more things to watch on Netflix.
The content expansion also includes new episodes of MTV’s Jersey Shore and The Hills, as well as episodes of The Buried Life and The City. It also has new shows from BET like American Gangster, and more Comedy Central content like episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program. There is also some amount of unspecified content form VH1, Logo, and Spike.
“We’re pleased to be able to offer programs to suit different ages and tastes and, as always, remain committed to bringing you more great TV shows and movies to watch instantly when and where you prefer,” wrote Netflix VP Content Acquisition Cindy Holland on the Netflix Blog.
Netflix is rapidly expanding its streaming on-demand offerings. Last week, the company announced a multi-year deal with Miramax, which will see the addition of a whole bunch of movies, which when combined, account for 284 Academy Award nominations.
In addition to expanding upon its content offerings, Netflix has also continued to expand upon the number of devices it supports. Recently, the company announced a new Android app that works for some Android devices, and said that they were developing for additional Android devices. As Google’s mobile platform continues to gain market share of its own, compatibility here will be key for continued Netflix growth, especially considering that Google is now renting movies directly from the Android Market and YouTube.
Netflix has announced a new multi-year deal with Miramax to bolster its ever-expanding catalog of available-for-streaming movie titles. That means users will get access to some classics from Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, among others.
Films include (but are not limited to) Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2, Clerks, Chasing Amy, From Dusk Till Dawn, the Spy Kids movies, Good Will Hunting, Cold Mountain, and of course Reindeer Games.
Miramax says the movies included in the deal have a total of 284 Academy Award nominations among them (and 68 wins). Granted, I don’t believe Reindeer Games falls into that category, unfortunately.
“Netflix is thrilled to enter into this deal with the new team at Miramax,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “Existing relationships with management and a shared affinity for these great films make this an important deal for both companies and for our members, who will enjoy instantly watching movies from one of the truly great film libraries for many years to come.”
“From day one, we’ve been very clear about the importance of digital and our desire to respond to the significant pent-up demand for our films — delivering to consumers whenever and wherever they want,” said Miramax CEO Mike Lang.
“This agreement is an important first step in our digital strategy,” he added. “Netflix has always been a trailblazer, with a tremendous track record of innovation and quality customer service. We’re thrilled to now be in business with them as we build and revitalize the proud Miramax brand.”
As competition mounts in the streaming movie space, Netflix seems to be making content deals faster than ever. That should not only help to keep existing customers from jumping ship, but also bring more on board. With studios putting movie rentals on Facebook and Google renting movies directly through the Android Market and through YouTube (just to name a couple of recent entrants to the race), things aren’t going to get easier for the company.
Meanwhile, Netflix also continues to expand upon the list of supported devices. Last week, they announced a new Android app for some devices, and said that they were developing for others.
Netflix is not available for Google’s other operating system (Chrome OS) yet, but the company says it is working with Google to have it available soon.
The Miramax deal will go into effect in June for Netflix subscribers in the U.S.
If YouTube wasn’t serious about movie rentals before, it is now. Today, the company announced that it was expanding its movie offerings by about 3,000 new titles.
While YouTube dropped the news a little while ago, they’ve now made more details available. “In addition to the hundreds of free movies available on the site since 2009, you will be able to find and rent some of your favorite films,” the company said in a blog post. “From memorable hits and cult classics like Caddyshack, Goodfellas, Scarface, and Taxi Driver to blockbuster new releases like Inception, The King’s Speech, Little Fockers, The Green Hornet and Despicable Me. Movies are available to rent at industry standard pricing, and can be watched with your YouTube account on any computer. ”
YouTube has partnered with NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. This is in addition to standing partnerships with Lionsgate, Starz, The Weinstein Company, and Magnolia Pictures (among others).YouTube’s movie catalog now boasts over 6,000 titles. Most new releases start at $3.99 and library rentals at $2.99.
Users will have 30 days to begin watching most titles, from the time they purchase the rental. Once a user actually begins the movie, however, they will typically have 24 hours to finish it. The service accepts all major credit cards.
While YouTube says it’s always up to the content owner, many titles will be available the same day as their DVD releases.
Interestingly, users can embed movies on other sites, and if a user who hasn’t rented the movie views the video, the embedded player will show the movie’s trailer along with an overlay that users can click on to rent the full movie. This should make for some interesting virtual viewing party experiences.
The new titles should start appearing today and throughout the week at youtube.com/movies. Have fun.
YouTube announced today that it is adding about 3,000 new movie titles for rent in the U.S. as well as some new original content from partners as part of the “future of video”.
The movie titles, the company says, will be accompanied by reviews and behind-the-scenes movie extras. “Whether it’s short movie trailers, funny movie parodies or full-length blockbuster films, we encourage you to sit back and settle in to the YouTube movies experience,” writes Head of YouTube Salar Kamangar.
He says YouTube is bolstering its investment in partner content as well. “Our 20,000+ partners—folks like Machinima, Annoying Orange and Ryan Higa—are producing original content for the web and commanding TV-size audiences for their own brand of programming,” he says. “Through YouTube Next, we’re helping fuel the creation of this type of content with initiatives like the YouTube Creator Institute and YouTube NextUp, following past initiatives like Partner Grants(which brought us Key of Awesome, creators of one of 2010’s most-watched videos) and $1,000 B&H Photo credits. In the coming year, we’ll bring even more content to YouTube. Building on the success of Partner Grants and YouTube NextUp, we’re providing even more resources to creators who you’ll know from TV or Hollywood, and to existing YouTube partners who have already built loyal audiences on the site. Look out for more details on this in the coming months.”
More details about YouTube’s movie plans should be made available later today.
Google I/O, the company’s developer conference kicks off this week, and developments around Android, Chrome, Chrome OS, and Google TV are expected. It will be interesting to see what kinds of YouTube-related news is sprinkled in there (particularly in relation to Google TV).
YouTube also recently announced YouTube LIve, a new destination for live streaming video options, and a platform it is sharing with select partners to provide live video. The site has already provided users with access to live streaming of the Royal Wedding, the Coachella festival, and soon a live concert film experience for the band My Morning Jacket, to name a few.
Vevo, along with partners YouTube and American Express, have announced a live concert experience around an upcoming performance from the band My Morning Jacket, to be directed by Todd Haynes.
The show takes place on May 31 in our (and MMJ’s) home state of Kentucky, and the project, titled My Morning Jacket UNSTAGED, will be streamed live on YouTube, as the latest example of how online video is changing the game.
“Something like this even a few years ago would have been unthinkable, what with how clumsy movie cameras and film editing used to be,” says Vevo in a blog post. “Until now, live-streamed online concerts have often been not much better than a guy with a handicam somewhere in the front row. But now, with advanced cameras and digital editing, the best directors can create a unique vision for a live music event, and fans in front of screens around the world can see that vision come together in real time! The result is not that you feel like you were there, but that the experience is designed for you where you actually are.”
Last month, YouTube announced the launch of YouTube Live, a new home page for live content on the site, as well as a live streaming platform for select partners. “With over 2 billion views a day, it’s easy to think about YouTube as a place to watch videos recorded in the past,” the company said. “But you’ve told us you want more – and that includes events taking place right now.”
The My Morning Jacket performance coincides with the release of the band’s new album Circuital, which is already available for pre-order.
I had the pleasure of seeing My Morning Jacket here in Lexington a couple weeks ago, and I can vouch for them putting on a good show. UNSTAGED should certainly be easier on the wallet.
DISH Network and parent company EchoStar have agreed to a half-billion dollar settlement with TiVo over litigation regarding DVR patents. A couple weeks ago, a federal appeals court decision ordering DISH and EchoStart to shut down DVRs due to their infringement upon TiVo patents was upheld.
It’s worth noting that this would have only affected older models of DISH DVRs, and the company said it would work to replace those still in use by customers. Now, here’s what the two parties have worked out, per an announcement released this morning:
Under the terms of the settlement, DISH Network and EchoStar agreed to pay TiVo $500 million, including an initial payment of $300 million with the remaining $200 million distributed in six equal annual installments between 2012 and 2017. TiVo, DISH Network and EchoStar agreed to dismiss all pending litigation between the companies with prejudice and to dissolve all injunctions against DISH Network and EchoStar.
The parties also granted certain patent licenses to each other. TiVo granted DISH Network a license under its Time Warp patent (US Pat. No. 6,233,389) and certain related patents, for the remaining life of those patents. TiVo also granted EchoStar a license under the same ‘389 patent and certain related patents, for the remaining life of those patents, to design and make certain DVR-enabled products solely for DISH Network and two international customers. EchoStar granted TiVo a license under certain DVR-related patents for TiVo-branded, co-branded and ingredient-branded products.
“We have tremendous respect for TiVo’s management, and we have always said that regardless of the outcome of the case, there were many ways that we could work together with TiVo,” said Charlie Ergen, Chairman and CEO of DISH Network. “The results of TiVo’s formidable intellectual property enforcement program speak for themselves, and consequently, we are pleased to put this litigation behind us and move forward. Additionally, we believe that our agreement with TiVo provides us a competitive advantage as one of the few multichannel operators with rights to operate under TiVo’s Time Warp patent, which ultimately will allow us to enhance the performance of our award-winning DVRs. We look forward to continuing to offer DISH Network customers the most choices in video service.”
“We are extremely pleased to reach an agreement with DISH Network and EchoStar which recognizes the value of our intellectual property,” said Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo. “The compensation from this settlement, including the resulting reduction in legal expenditures, puts TiVo in an enviable financial and strategic position. This settlement, which brings the total compensation paid by DISH Network for use of TiVo’s ‘389 patent family to over $600 million, demonstrates the significant return afforded to our shareholders by diligent enforcement of TiVo’s intellectual property rights. Those efforts will aggressively continue with other parties.”
Interestingly, the DISH and TiVo have formed a partnership in which they will work together to promote Blockbuster services (the company was recently acquired by DISH). “We are excited to work with TiVo to help develop our Blockbuster video service,” said Ergen. “Resolving the patent infringement case allows us to further engage with TiVo on a variety of exciting strategic initiatives, like Blockbuster, where we are uniquely positioned to collaborate.”
It will be interesting to see how another DISH collaboration – one with Google develops in the coming months. Recent reports indicate that Google is working on a new version of Google TV, which may be displayed as early as next week, at Google I/O, the company’s developer conference.
DISH was a launch partner for Google TV, announced at last year’s Google I/O event. Since its launch, sales of Google TV devices have been less than impressive. You must remember, however, that Google TV is a platform, as opposed to a device. If Google can continue to make the right partnerships, it may be harder to count the platform as dead in the water. If Google is able to follow Netflix’s lead (or even that of its own Android mobile OS) and get Google TV on a wide range of devices, it should have a better adoption rate. Android integration is supposed to get ramped up, so that should help. It could, in turn, help DISH Network as well.
ABC has canceled the long-running soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live.
TMZ has a statement from ABC saying, “Guided by extensive research into what today’s daytime viewers want and the changing viewing patterns of the audience, ABC is evolving the face of daytime television with the launch of two new shows.” These will reportedly be health and food-based.
Pardon any stereotypes, but I’m fairly confident this is a significant part of the target market in the soap opera space.
Anyhow, according to Anekal, 1 in 5 Americans play Zynga games like Farmville, Cityville, etc. Cityville, he said, has almost a hundred million users. Last year, the average user played 68 minutes per day, and though is based on browser time, even if you cut that number in half, it’s an “enormous amount,” even compared to broadcast television.
“More women are playing Farmville than watching soap operas,” he said.
Now, obviously many of Zynga’s players are playing through Facebook, and add to that all of the other Facebook time (status updates, photos, etc. [now movies]), and perhaps that simply leaves less time for soap opears – especially ones that have been around for nearly 50 seasons.
The 40 year old mom spends the most amount of time playing these games, and also spends the biggest amount of money, said Anekal. “She is the new hardcore gamer.”
Now mSpot has lowered the pricing on its movies, to compete with Netflix, Blockbuster, Redbox, etc. as well. They are offering new releases for $3.00compared to the $3.99 industry standard.
“We’re squarely focused on providing value to our customers and our new move is to allow our customers to watch movies on every device they own. mSpot supports 40 to 50 different mobile devices,” CEO Daren Tsui tells WebProNews.
“We’re finding that many of our customers want to watch new release movies that are not yet available for streaming on Netflix,” he says. “We’ve always competed very well with our new release selection and we’re excited to offer our customers more competitive pricing.”
One area where Netflix and others have a leg up is the offering of television shows. When asked about mSpot’s plans for this, Tsui told us, “We have episodic tv, but feel like we want to get movies down first before offering television series. This is something we could offer in the future though.”
mSpot counts Disney, Paramount, WB, Universal, Sony and others among its partners.
“Getting DVDs in the mail is old school,” says Tsui. “To sum this up. we want to pass the value to our customers.”
Users who join mSpot’s Movies Club purchase pre-paid credits for a select number of rentals each month, based on their plan.
The company says, “New releases on mSpot Movies are often available the day DVDs go on sale. This means people can watch these movies 28 days before subscription services like Netflix offer the same DVD, and a full 1-7 years before they are available for streaming instantly on subscription services.”
Plans include: $4.99 a month for up to 4 movies, $7.99 a month for up to 8 movies, and $15.99 a month for up to 16 movies. Movie rentals can also be purchased a la carte from $1.99 – $3.99.
Coachella 2011 starts on Friday, and there are a lot of good musical acts there, but luckily for those of us who don’t get to attend, we can still watch it online.
The popular music and arts festival is streaming live on the Coachella YouTube channel from April 15 – 17.
Here’s the artist line-up:
The actual schedule can be found here (hat tip to Clicker).
YouTube is actually placing a great deal more focus on live content these days. Last week, the company announced the launch of YouTube Live, a new destination for live content on YouTube, as well as platform for streaming live video.
Unfortunately, the platform wil not be immediately available to all users – only trusted partners – but clearly, users still benefit by having more video of live events, just like Coachella.
If there is one sign of hope for the marketing industry as a whole, it is that no one really wants boring, one-way, shout-oriented interruptive marketing to survive. Social media is a natural ally in this fight, given its focus on fostering conversations and creating content, but what about the role of marketing as entertainment? It isn’t necessarily the first word anyone might choose to describe effective marketing, but this week at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas it was the featured topic in a panel I moderated at an event focused on the intersection of broadcast, marketing, social media and entertainment.
What Is Branded Entertainment?
The focus on the panel was on branded entertainment through online video – though on several occasions it was raised that this content can increasingly find its way onto other platforms as well such as broadcast TV or mobile. There were three core models of branded entertainment being used by brands today that panelists shared:
Product Placement – The most simplistic form, some would argue that this barely qualifies to be called branded entertainment … yet it is increasingly popular for brands to use as a way of inserting their brand or products into existing content.
Brand Sponsorship/Integration – This category had the most varying descriptions, incorporating everything from a brand simply adding a “sponsored by” slate to a video to inserting a pre-roll or post-roll ad.
Branded Content Creation – The “purest” form of branded entertainment, this area was clearly the focus of the panel. Included in this category were examples like Royal Carribean’s recent Ocean Views campaign, as well as Lexus’ popular LStudio online video channel that spawned the popular series Web Therapy with Lisa Kudrow which was recently picked up by Showtime as a pilot.
What Will The Future Of Branded Entertainment Look Like?
Ultimately, the premise behind branded entertainment is that great content will provide an entertainment value and there is a role of marketing to play in trying to create or support more of that type of content. The ongoing challenge will be one of setting the boundaries between what is reasonable underwriting or brand sponsorship of a message, and what is over the top. This is the real question at the heart of the growth of branded entertainment – and one that several filmmakers have recently tackled – including The Joneses (a film about a fictional family planted in the surburbs to create demand for new products by flaunting them to neighbors) and Morgan Spurlock’s new documentary – “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” or as it is “officially” meant to be called “POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.”
Despite these cautionary notes, however, the powerful premise of branded entertainment is that brands need to get better at telling a story instead of merely hawking product benefits or service descriptions. People engage with entertainment, and they tend to share it if they like it. In a world where consumers have more ways to ignore and filter out brand messages than ever before, engagement is the new and necessary metric because it means more than empty measures of reach or frequency.
Branded entertainment today is still a strategy for marketers and organizations who are ahead of the curve. It won’t be long, however, before the followers and later adopters in the mainstream start to join the party. After all, no one wants to miss out on a good show.
NBA star LeBron James has a new cartoon called The LeBrons, which has made its debut on YouTube, and is sponsored by HP and Intel, as Google points out. I also saw a Bing commercial in there.
“Born from a Nike campaign that was very popular on YouTube, The LeBrons features four versions of James: Kid, Athlete, Business and Wise,” explains YouTube sports manager Andrew Bangs. “The show is intended for young audiences but has references and scenes for basketball and music fans, too.”
You can see the first episode above. Here’s the second:
To be honest, I don’t find it nearly as entertaining as the 1991 Saturday morning cartoon Pro Stars, which featured sports legends Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Wayne Gretzky:
Admittedly, I had a little trouble remembering what that cartoon was called, so I searched YouTube for “michael jordan bo jackson cartoon,” and in the results “The LeBrons” appeared at the top as a promoted video.
The show will have new episodes released weekly, via The LeBrons channel.
YouTube is said to be spending about $100 million to commission the creation of original content for new premium YouTube channels, as the site gets revamped into a more traditional TV-style format, in terms of channels. This will include a redesign of the YouTube homepage, which should make the site more connected TV-friendly.
YouTube also announced its new live streaming channels and platform last week, which should also be an important part of YouTube’s evolution into the mainstream living room experience.
Rumor has it that YouTube is going to get a big makeover, as a more traditional channel-oriented site. That’s not to say it will lose its current function as a user-generated video hub or the second largest search engine, but it may be getting a little more Television-friendly.
A report from the Wall Street Journal brings this news, based on what they were told by “people familiar with the matter”. The report says:
The company is planning changes to the homepage that would highlight sets of channels around topics such as arts and sports. YouTube is looking to introduce 20 or so “premium channels” that would feature five to 10 hours of professionally-produced original programming a week, one of these people said. Additional channels would be assembled from content already on the site.
The report also says that Google will spend spend as much as $100 million to commission the creation of original content for the premium channels. This is certainly in line with the apparent trend in video entertainment distribution companies.
This would all make a great amount of sense for YouTube and Google, given the rising popularity of connected televisions and related devices. While YouTube is certainly in no danger of losing its place as a frequent destination for online video viewers, it will pay in the long run to make it easier for people to browse the kind of content they are looking for – the average channel surfer – this will help make the YouTube experience more like the familiar TV experience.
It should also foster longer time spent on site by users, which means Google will have more time to show more ads and drive more revenue. It could also help Google TV look more appealing to consumers.
“We have expanded the functionality of this feature and reorganized it to allow users to have the above tools, but also a range of options to explore new YouTube Topics on search. This updated feature is called ‘Filter & Explore,” says YouTube on a help page.
Better search is always helpful for discovering content too.
Execs used various social tactics to launch the show back in 2008 and have kept the momentum going ever since. At launch, they created an Alternate Reality Game and 
Anyhow, according to Anekal, 1 in 5 Americans play Zynga games like Farmville, Cityville, etc. Cityville, he said, has almost a hundred million users. Last year, the average user played 68 minutes per day, and though is based on browser time, even if you cut that number in half, it’s an “enormous amount,” even compared to broadcast television.
What Is Branded Entertainment?