Articles of the Day
IAB Opens D.C. Branch, Hires Lobbyist - The Interactive Advertising Bureau has opened a Washington, D.C. office and hired its first in-house lobbyist, Mike Zaneis. He’s charged with representing the interactive ad industry in Washington on matters like anti-spyware legislation, proposals to tax e-commerce transactions and laws that would require Internet companies to retain data about consumers.
Joost Deal To Bolster Viacom Ad Inventory - The new distribution deal between Viacom and Internet TV startup Joost won’t just give Joost a strong content offering when it launches later this quarter. The deal also is expected to give advertisers a good deal of new online video inventory.
Burst: Two In Three Book Travel Online - Two-thirds of Web users who plan to travel in the next three months will do their travel research and buy tickets or book hotels online, according to a new study by Burst Media. Almost half of 2,100 people surveyed said the Internet will be their primary travel resource, while two-thirds said they would research and make a travel-related transaction online.
Google Beefs Up Office Suite Competitor - Google reportedly is preparing to integrate its Docs & Spreadsheets Web tool into its Google Apps for Your Domain, a package of white-label services, including instant messaging, home pages, email, and calendars, for use with any domain, according to PC World. The Google Apps for Your Domain beta service allows organizations to sign up and receive, for free, customizable versions of Google Talk, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Page Creator, and the personalizable Google Home Page to offer their users.
Marchex Adds Publishers - Contextual advertising company Marchex, with its subsidiary IndustryBrains, has signed seven publishers to its network in verticals including finance, sports, IT, and Home and Living. Under the agreements, Marchex will serve contextual ads on the publishers’ sites, as well as in newsletters and blogs. The publishers include CIOIndex.com, Homes and Land, InvestorVillage.com and WorldGolf.com.
Tweens Doing Homework Online… Honest! - It may not be their online activity of first choice, but preteens really are going online to do homework. According to new data from Experian Simmons, 48% of children ages 6-11 had played online games at least once in the preceding month. What is notable is how commonly kids said that they did homework online: 21% of those asked said they had done so at least once in the preceding month.
Viacom, Google Prepare For Possible Legal Battle - Google is set to make its anti-piracy plans for YouTube a privilege reserved for its media partners. Viacom, which ordered its content off the online video site a few weeks ago, is now said to be pursuing legal action against Google. The media giant called the proposition “unacceptable,” while others likened it to a “mafia-shakedown.” For months, media companies have been clamoring for content-recognition technology. However, they thought such a program would be a precursor to setting up a wider content agreement with YouTube, not a privilege reserved only for its partners.
YouTube, CBS Talks Break Down - YouTube, which had been close to closing a multiyear deal with CBS Corp., looks to have lost out on what would have been a broad-ranging deal.The companies were in talks that would let YouTube license its content in exchange for providing ad revenue from both the video Web site and CBS Corp.’s broadcast radio division. Talks broke down in part because the firms could not reach an agreement on issues such as how long the deal would run. However, they said the talks could be revived at a later date. For now, the report says Google and CBS will work only on “more modest initiatives.”
NYTCO’s January Ad Revenue Dropped 2.1 Percent; Internet Ad Revs Up 26.2 Percent - The New York Times Company reported a similar tale among other newspaper properties in January: weakness overall, offset mainly by rising fortunes for its digital properties. The NYTCO’s January ad revenue from continuing operations was down 2.1 percent from a year earlier, with total revenue dipping 0.4 percent.
Interactive Agencies Fueling Greater Media M&A Activity; Paucity Of Targets - Online ad agencies will continue to be a hot takeover target this year, a survey conducted by i-bank AdMedia Partners says, in an obvious conclusion. The survey finds that over 80 percent of 3,200 senior media company executives believe that this year’s takeover activity will be moderate to strong this year. Furthermore, ad holding companies will face increased competition from PE firms, the WSJ points out in its article on the survey.
Jupitermedia In Talks With Getty For Images Division Sale: Report - Getty Images, the stock photo giant, is in advanced talks to acquire smaller rival Jupitermedia, in a move to expand its suite of offerings to site designers and online marketers, according to NYPost. My guess is this is for the online images division of JUMP, not the whole company, though NYP doesn’t mention it
Ebay Readies Online Ad Marketplace For March Launch - The eBay Media Marketplace, the online auctioneer’s interactive TV advertising exchange, plans to launch March 15—just in time for the 2Q scatter market. Christi Korzekwa, director of media for Home Depot, told Mediapost a beta version of the system is finished and is currently being reviewed by networks, marketers and agencies that may be interested in participating.
Remaining In-Game Ad Startups Could Tempt Sony, EA - Now that it seems Google has bought AdScape, a relative non-entity in the current field, TheDeal speculates that the six remaining independents of note may be up for grabs..which of course is an obvious conclusion, Microsoft bought Massive for a massive $300 million or so last year. The six possible targets: Double Fusion, IGA, Exent Technologies, NeoEdge Networks, Eyeblaster, and Greystripe.
Google To Offer Anti-Piracy Tools To All, Eventually; Doing Damage Control After Non-Deals - Google is doing some damage control today, after a spate of stories on how it failed to close deals with media companies. Now Google CEO Eric Schmidt does an interview with Reuters, explaining that it will soon offer anti-piracy technologies to help all copyright holders, irrespective of whether those companies have a distribution/licensing deal with Google-YouTube or not.
