Myspace gets their ABC's and their BBC's

Myspace has signed a deal with the ABC and BBC to setup channels for the respective broadcasters on the site.

It's a positive for myspace who get strong, legitimate and LEGAL content on their site. It's unclear what the benefit is for BBC and ABC but it would be reasonably safe to assume there is some royalty and it allows them to monetise their content.

Article here --> http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23101438-5014239,00.html

Myspace have a lot of current distro type deals with content providers (Rip Curl, BBC, ABC, Oyster Magazine) - what is blurry is how these actually help the bottom line of the company as most of the channels are ad free currently.

The overwhelming positive is that it strengthens myspace's position as a provider of great content. Out of all the publishers they have one of the most enviable collections of content - bands, movies, actors, celebrities - they are all on myspace and most treat it as their main digital channel. I think it's a smart move for myspace to diversify their offering to consumers beyond straight profiles and comments.

It will be interesting to see the January Neilsen numbers when they are released Feb 15. Myspace has been flat in terms of audience for the past 2 months and Facebook is gaining quickly. At the same time YouTube continues to rise, with over 3.8m local users (myspace is at just over 3m). This time last year the two sites were very close in terms of monthly unique audience.

Another danger lies in potential revenue hits to myspace from Facebook, whose local advertiser options are quickly becoming more sophisticated and cost effective; and YouTube, who have been introducing some very strong options to the market in the past 6 weeks.

Yahoo! slash 1000 jobs, share price dips again

After a tough fourth quarter, Yahoo! has announced plans to shed 1,000 jobs.

Right now it's not known if this is limited to the US or will affect other territories.

As a result of some cautious comments by CEO Jerry Yang, the market slashed 10% of Yahoo's stock price ... driving it down to $18.63

This is a massive fall. At the start of 2006 their share price was well over $40. It hit $30 on the announcement and favourable sentiment re the Panama project ... but has plunged since.

Specifics about the job cuts will be outlined in February.

When Eric Schmidt talks you listen

And the big man at Google made a big statement today.

Schmidt on mobile: ""It's the recreation of the Internet, it's the recreation of the PC (personal computer) story and it is before us - and it is very likely it will happen in the next year"

Full article here - http://news.sky.com/skynews/xml/article/tech/0,,91221-12485,00.html

Is 08 the year mobile comes off the bench and becomes a viable medium - not only for marketers but for publishers.

Fairfax and News cosy up in the digital auto space

Fairfax will sell News Limited's Carsguide dealer listings moving forward.

http://www.newsdigitalmedia.com.au/inc/docs/mediareleases/carsguide%20distribution%20deal%2029-1-08.pdf

This doesn't really mean anything for anyone who isn't a car dealer, but is very interesting as it sees two traditional rivals join forces in what is an incredibly competitive space (that both are being flogged in by carsales).

The spin is that this will offer an enhanced service for Carsguide's users ... but you have to wonder why News would hand over dealer sales to Fairfax unless it solved a deeper problem.

Seek embraces YouTube

From AdNews

"Leading employment classifieds website Seek has expanded its advertising inventory to video ads using YouTube. Employers will now be able to integrate YouTube video in job adverts and company profiles on Seek. "Seek video ads give advertisers more scope to showcase things that appeal to jobseekers such as lifestyle and workplace culture, and massively increase the volume of information they impart to jobseekers about the opportunity on offer," said product director Carey Eaton."

Great idea - more evidence of Google's functional suite seemingly being everywhere in 08.

Exploit

News is at it again with lightening fast SEM response to the death of Heath Ledger.

Type Heath Ledger into Google and News is using paid search to drive traffic to their site. The copy alleges it was an overdose ... it even has an exclamation mark (!)

The media hysteria was reported in depth on todays Crikey - and one interesting thing is TMZ.com has been seen as the definitive authority on the death ... they broke the story and are breaking most developments.

Most of the coverage on the local sites is based around what is being reported overseas, or footage/content from recent articles.

You have to ask - is this a desperate grab for page impressions and revenue or legitimate news?

The Age had a major whoops with their headline to the left (pic taken from Crikey) ... and if you look further down they are also running with video footage of Amy Winehouse smoking crack!

Is 08 the year we see the portals go trashy(er)?

Nova: Never more than 2 ads in a row ... unless it's online ...

I like Nova - despite their playlist not really being my thing ... I've always liked the way they've gone about things.

Digitally they have a potentially good offering - it's interesting and generally has a bit of thought about it ... much better than Austereo in terms of cut through and impact online in my opinion.

Saying that, I was horrified to see their homepage today. It had way too many clearly paid messages that made the page seem extremely cluttered. iSelect, Network 10 and Nova's Facebook App were all screaming for attention.

It's interesting a media group that overtly go to market saying they are all about a non cluttered environment that offers the advertiser cut through and integration have allowed this to happen ... btw the Sydney Nova969 site is no better - http://www.nova969.com.au/site/home.aspx

Everyone wants a piece of Corey

Even News.com.au who have bought the search term 'Corey Delaney' on Google.

It even goes through to this dedicated Corey page - http://www.news.com.au/feature/ranked/0,,5015729,00.html?CMP=KNC-google

Slow news day over at theage.com.au

It must be if they are trumpeting this video as a 'hit' with rail fans

The video - http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=bDd1dUQVGw4 - has had all of 1,708 views ... hardly newsworthy and hardly a youtube success.

The journo even increases his word count by putting the entire lyrics of this not-so-hilarious parody within the article.

Terrible article link - http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/01/21/1200764138918.html

Bravo!

Soulja Boy - viral visionary

I'm sure most people with Channel V have seen the new Soulja Boy video - Crank That.

It's straight southern rap - half time beats, lots of hoots and diet crunk beats ... not my thing personally but it's definitely all over the screens.

Watch the video here -->http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=vum3qgoh0x4 (blogger won't let me embed for some reason)

Now Soulja Boy is a great example of an artist who knows how to use new media channels - he is all over youtube, myspace, mobile downloads, messenger etc and in the process has generated some astonishing statistics.

We're talking:

- Over 30m myspace profile views.
- Over 29m streams of Crank That on youtube alone
- Over 52k subscribers to his youtube
- Over 3m single downloads of Crank That (never before done)
- Over 3m ringtone downloads

If you're looking for advice on effective distribution of content using digital channels, maybe speak to this 17 year old.