Articles of the Day
Earnings: Viacom 4Q Profit Nearly Triples - Citing acquisitions and growth in digital ad revenues, Viacom (NYSE: VIA) reported 4Q net profit of $480.8 million, or 69 cents per share, compared to $129.5 million, or 17 cents per share, a year earlier.
Ebay Looks To Social Nets For Growth: Report - With the majority of eBay users between the ages of 35-44, the online auctioneer hopes to attract younger demos though a partnership with teen-focused social nets like Bebo, the WSJ reports. Both companies are still working on the service, but the basic idea is for Bebo users to use the site to post lists of items they want to sell or buy on eBay. By clicking a listed item, Bebo users would be automatically sent to eBay.
ASCAP Lawsuit Seeks To Classify Music Downloads As ‘Public Performance’ - A federal court in New York will decide the question of whether downloading a song constitutes a “public performance” of a composition in response to a lawsuit brought by music publisher ASCAP against AOL, RealNetworks, Yahoo and others. The performing rights organization filed a cross-motion in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and was met by friend of the court briefs by a flurry of concerned parties, according to BillboardBiz, which listed the RIAA, BMI, the National Music Publishers’ Association, the Digital Media Association, the Cellular Telecommunication and Internet Association.
YouTube’s Going Small in Hunt For Content Deals; Viacom’s Chest-Thumps On Numbers - A good trend story in NYT about YouTube’s quest for small content deals, as it waits and litigates for big media content licensing deals. Just this week it has announced deals with NBA and Wind-Up Records. It says it has firmed up more than 1,000 partnerships with content owners ranging from the Sundance Channel to small independent video producers…YouTube officials say they are adding more than 200 media partners a quarter. Of course, does it amount to anything? A bit too early to say.
Media Rejection Of YouTube Not Smart - As we know, big media is turning it’s back on YouTube. Viacom, News Corp.’s MySpace, Sony Corp, and Time Warner’s AOL are all trying to beat the video-sharing giant at its own game, investing in or building their own such networks. It’s a bad idea, believes CNNMoney.com.Why? Because it doesn’t look like YouTube is any less popular, which is exactly what needs to happen for a rejection plan to succeed. According to Web traffic monitor Hitwise, YouTube’s traffic actually increased 14 percent in the two weeks following Viacom’s announcement to pull its content, suggesting that YouTube isn’t as dependent on big media as big media thought.
Presidential Hopefuls Open YouTube Channels - Democratic Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson and Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain have all bought video channels on YouTube, where they can post video of themselves. Members of YouTube will be able to post a video response or asks questions of each candidate, who gets the final say on what appears on their channel.
Google Enhances Click Fraud Prevention - Early Thursday, Google posted a notice to its AdWords blog outlining a new plan to help advertisers prevent click fraud. Well it’s about time. Now, AdWords participants can block certain Internet Protocol addresses from receiving their ads. That way, if a single IP address is repeatedly searching for the same products and clicking on the same ads (an indicator of click fraud), the advertiser can block that computer, and they will no longer be charged for its actions.
