Media:Medium

It's no surprise that Oprah is going where the viewers are. I'm not saying that people are replacing TV with YouTube, but people are watching a lot of the YouTube. YouTube is one of the fastest growing media channels ever. Oprah is using YouTube the right way. She created the YouTube "Oprah Channel" to supplement her existing line-up. She will offer behind the scenes footage and other features for Oprah freaks to get their fix while they are on the net. You can expect to see more entertainers creating their own channels. You can expect movie companies to use YouTube to show "the making of footage" and other special features that would normally be found on the DVD.

Fox Interactive Publishing was formed in 1996 to create games for News Corps. assets like Die Hard, The Simpsons and Alien vs. Predator. The game publisher has not done anything since 2003. However, in 2005, News Corp. did purchase IGN/GameSpy.

News Corp. is expected to use the division in conjunction with Myspace to create games and interactive entertainment for the social network's millions of users. Rupert Murdoch is truly diversifying media, while uniting assets and spreading messages. The gaming industry has already topped the movie industry. But don't expect Murdoch to create the next Halo just yet. read article

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) and the HD Digital Radio Alliance have joined forces to announce the beginning of an initiative that will carry radio into the future.

The campaign, dubbed, Radio 2020 is expected to take radio into its 100 year anniversary. Kelly O'Keefe of O'Keefe brands is my professor. I have had a chance to work on some small elements of the Radio 2020 project and it looks promising. Radio has been bullied by other media and has never really come together until now. In the near future, expect to see more devices with integrated radio as well as more streaming content available on multiple platforms. Changes in content and programming will take a little longer. Radio is changing and it's about time.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has been making some big moves. Murdoch got a sweet deal on Myspace.com, but his more recent deals are shaking up finance and journalism. News Corp. launched the Fox Business Channel this month to compete with CNBC. But that's just the beginning. Murdoch is also buying Dow Jones for 5.3 Billion dollars. Dow Jones is the parent company of the Wall Street Journal. The strategic thinking behind launching a business news channel and owning a financial company with a news component scares some folks. Market bias? If the deal goes through without government oversight, other big holding companies will have to adjust. But for now, everyone is simply watching to see what happens.

Google is making strides in its bid to enter television advertising. Google is combining forces with Nielson to make the most out of their tracking capability and the consumer demographics information that Nielson provides. Google could learn a lot from Nielson. Enough to create a better measuring product. Google is shaping up to be the undisputed heavyweight advertising champion.

Google has tapped The Nielsen Company to bolster Google TV Ads—the company's new TV ad sales platform that is being tested with satellite provider EchoStar—as part of a new multi-year partnership between the search leader and the media research firm. Nielsen will provide demographic data to Google for its ongoing beta test of Google TV Ads, which has been designed to allow advertisers to purchase TV spots on 94 different networks distributed by EchoStar via an automated online interface, which functions much in the same way as Google’s existing search ad platform. While Google’s new TV marketplace—which it hopes will bring the efficiency and tractability of online advertising to the TV business—currently can record actual ad delivery through set top box data, it lacks data on audience and household demographics. That is where new partner Nielsen can step in.

When you go online and read an article, your browser knows something about you. It knows what region you're in, and some basic information about your preferences. It knows what  words you used in your search and uses the information to give you contextual ads based on then and there. Different information will create different context and relevance. Now that entertainment can be packaged for later consumption, ads that run inside the recorded block could be irrelevant when the entertainment is actually viewed. BlackArrow, a small new company  wants to create ads in on-demand formats, including broadband video and Tivo.  Comcast Corp., Cisco Systems and Intel Corp are investing in BlackArrow to ensure that contextual advertising becomes a reality for the entertainment industry. As the proliferation of digital replaces analog technology in the broadcast arena, you can expect better tracking and contextual advertising to become the norm. By 2010, contextual advertising will be more common in entertainment, but don't expect too much until 2014.

"NEW YORK (A dAge.com) -- At a time when consumers can use emerging technology to order up a fresh episode of "Heroes" or "Grey's Anatomy" days after it first aired, it's no wonder marketers are afraid of serving up ads that will be out of date. Now a number of technology companies and private investors are backing a company that aims to help advertisers grapple with the problem of placing relevant ads when consumers are the ones choosing the day and time the programs they watch are being seen..."  Published: October 15, 2007

A few years ago, Time Warner restructured their Global Marketing Group. The Global Marketing Group works with marketers to create solutions that span the company's media assets. AOL Time Warner owns magazines, programming, music, movies and entertainment. The Global Marketing Group has an innovation team that comes up with unique cross platform uses of media to expand reach.

The Global Marketing Group has already done some work with GM to create online programming and a few other projects. I don't think that they have made the most of the program. The concept of buying directly from a media company is in contrast with the current pre-purchase buying pattern. Media buying is changing dramatically. Media neutrality is changing the way we think about media. Once marketers change their buying behaviors, companies like Time Warner will be able to capitalize on cross platform solutions for larger marketers. The lines between media are blurring. It will be a few more years before the Global Marketing Group gets the attention it deserves. For now it's a good model to watch and learn from.

By mid 2008, most people knew about Google's 411 service. This forced other companies to lower their prices and to switch to automated voice systems. Very few companies could justify the $0.75 fee when compared to Google. There were some people who preferred talking to a live operator, but they quickly saw the value of Google's system and never looked back. Live operator services still exist but in the form of concierge services such as Onstar. 411 changed forever.

Going off the success of the 411 takeover, Google began using the same technology to improve automated voice systems for corporations in disparate need of help. It was all part of Google's mission to make information easier and faster.

The world has changed dramatically during the past few years. Companies with funny names like Google and Yahoo are the steel companies of the new revolution. Information has never been more accessible, but that's not even the hook. Life is being enhanced by improvements in communications and technology. Entertainment is now interactive. Mobile phones get cable channels and internet. What ever happened to long distance phone calls or pagers? When did everything change?  Why did it change? What's going to happen next?

It's time to answer these questions. Greetings from the future.