Infinity and Beyond

Nielsen figures have just been released for television viewing online in the month of October. ABC.com attracted the most unique visitors with 10.6 million, NBC had 8.1 million, CBS falling behind with 6.1 and Fox heading up the rear with 3.4 million visitors.

No numbers for hulu.com, the joint venture between News Corp. and NBC/Universal, were available yet as it continues its beta testing.

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NBC has never really known what to do with their content on YouTube. They went from outraged that SNL clips were getting more views than the actual show to cooperative when they created an NBC channel to highlight clips of their programming to indifferent. They’ve closed their channel on YouTube in favor of the yet to launch Hulu.com. No matter what happens people will probably still watch only the good clips from SNL as that show hasn’t been worth staying home for on a Saturday in years.

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I might have missed yesterday’s ‘What to Buy’ consumerism at its best post but, fear not. I’ll simply suggest Elizabeth (Spotlight Series) on regular DVD or HD-DVD and move on.

While Viacom is getting ready to kiss Spielberg goodbye when his contract expires Disney and News Corp. are just settling in for the long HD format war against the company. Iger and Murdoch both made comments yesterday in regards to the superiority of the format and casually dismissed Viacom’s selling out for $200 million; a “donation” from Toshiba. Disney chief Iger said “we haven’t taken any money (to choose Blu-ray) because we think it’s far and away the best business.”

Speaking of the industry not getting along with each other, CBS has said they’re ” staying out of the battle” between NBC/Universal and Apple. Fox too will remain inactive on the matter. Disney (whose largest shareholder is Mr. Steve Jobs), the owner of ABC, has remained silent on the matter and continues to lead the networks in sales of its television shows via iTunes. Fox and CBS dislike Apple controlling the pricing of its content and resistance to selling movies with the digital service has remained high due to the price fixing control Apple wields. The original goal was for all movies to be set at $9.99 but not even Disney went for that deal and new releases can get up to $15.99 (still cheaper than the average $19.99 from brick and mortar stores like Best Buy or Target). The television and film industry has the luxury of being more protective of their content than the music industry was.

While box office and dvd sales have decreased in recent years due to piracy the impact is not nearly on the same scale the recording industry was facing in the late 90s. My prediction is that the other sites that NBC/Universal, Fox and others have created to sell their content on will under perform the same way the 3 Microsoft sites have (including the Zune’s site) and eventually new deals with Apple will be reached. For now expect a small backlash at Apple and the film and television industry trying to put the tech company from the valley back in its place, as a distributor, not creator of content. No wonder Disney is in bed with Apple, always first for new avenues of distribution of their content.

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Listed third and fourth out of 32 people called to give depositions, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are set to give evidence in the YouTube lawsuit that Viacom filed last March. The duo’s programs once held some of the top spots on YouTube only to have their videos taken down after Viacom (parent Co. to Comedy Central) couldn’t reach a deal with parent company Google on how to distribute it’s programming.

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It’s been a rough day. It was my boss’s last day, and so works going to be strange for a little while. So, while I might have compiled a list of recent earnings reports I have failed to really give quality thought to the following articles. Yes, these both appear in Variety, but really aside from the Hollywood Reporter nobody else does it better.

The Discovery Channel is planning to expand its web service and stream selected programs.

Last week it was facebook, this week we move on. Most of the major industry players are suing youtube in the states, so why not in Japan too? Twenty-four companies have jumped on board, including the Motion Picture Producers Assn. of Japan. Something has to be done, and it’s going to be Google’s responsibility to be the leaders in this situation the way they have been with everything else they’ve done.

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Sony and NBC Universal have announced plans to take their presence on the web even further. Taking direct cues from youtube.com they will be bringing comedy and home made videos to specialized websites that each company will be introducing in the coming months.

Last August, before Google purchased youtube and full-length episodes of ABC shows streamed onto the web, Sony purchased an online video site called Grouper for $65 million. Sony has changed the name to ‘Crackle’ (Beta version online now) and plans to re-launch the site as a space for up-and-coming actors, directors and producers to post their own videos that Sony says could be turned into future films or TV shows (no wonder writers want to strike). Sony is hoping advertisers will be more willing to buy space next to potential movie stars as opposed to dogs on skateboards. Naturally the videos posted via ‘Crackle’ will be available on social networking sites such as facebook and in a nod to synergy the videos will also play on Sony’s PSP.

Speaking of social networking. NBC is following the trend of Disney.com by adding networking tools to its site. They will be online by early Fall. NBC will also be following the grain of the most popular youtube videos and using humor to attract visitors by adding full-length episodes of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” to their arsenal of shows on NBC.com. “The Office”, “Heroes”, and “The Biggest Loser” will all be getting new looks and web-specific material before Labor Day.

NBC won’t be stopping there. They announced this past May that they will debuting a web-only show called “Coastal Dreams”, sounds like the return of the O.C. but only available on NBC.com.

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