The Consumer Electronics Association reported today that digital television shipments rose 45 percent during the first half of 2005 over the same period last year, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Digital TV prices have dropped about $200 per set since January, which has helped drive wider adoption of DTV use and an increase in HD programming.
CSTV has announced a partnership with Paxon Communication’s ‘i’ network that will put the college sports network’s football programming on i’s Saturday night program schedule, Broadcasting & Cable reports. The four-hour Football Nation on i will air live on Saturdays at 6 p.m. starting Oct. 1 and will run through late November. CSTV is a 24/7 cable sports network, often found on digital sports tiers, that reaches about 10 million subscribers in the U.S.
Clear Channel’s request for proposals for a passive, electronic measurement system has brought in more than two dozen responses, writes Mediaweek. Final proposals, due December 15, will be reviewed by Clear Channel and representatives from a cross-section of the industry, followed by market tests and an audit from the Media Rating Council. The radio business has relied on diary-based measurement from Arbitron, but a recent study from Forrester Research has pointed to a need for radio to switch to a passive-based electronic system.
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After reaching the $1 billion mark in 2004, online revenue for U.S. newspapers will hit $1.4 billion this year and surge to $2.26 billion by 2008, eMarketer reports. Next year, eMarketer predicts that revenues will jump 23 percent, to $1.71 billion.
The Conference Board help-wanted online data series reveals that the number of new online job ads fell slightly to 1,970,000 in July from just over 2 million in May and in June, Editor & Publisher reports. The latest figure is still almost 10 percent higher than the 1,799,000 new online jobs posted in April. The July numbers translate into 1.33 new online job ads for every 100 persons in the civilian labor force (people who are employed and those actively seeking work).
What is apparently a Google experiment in a new way to determine search relevancy, seemingly commercial listings are appearing among organic search results, but demarcated by horizontal lines, reports ClickZ (via MarketingVox). A Google spokesperson assured ClickZ that the results are not paid listings. The listings are “very commercial-looking results,” according to Mike Levin, VP of Connors Communications Interactive Group, which claims it has examined 50 keywords and phrases that delivered such demarcated, but unlabeled, results.
Observers point out that the new listings approach could have significant impact on search optimization.
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Crown Media has decided to sell to another entity, or enter into a licensing deal, for the 70 million subscriber cable network Hallmark Channel, after having come to the realization that it can’t continue to operate primarily as a single cable network in a multiple-media-asset world, writes MediaPost. Companies like Viacom, Time Warner, Walt Disney, and Comcast, among others, have economies of scale when it comes to programming, distribution, and advertising.
Analysts agree, saying that few companies can make it on their own, but as one of the largest independent cable networks, Hallmark would be a prize asset for a bigger media company.
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Al-Tajdeed Radio, a London-based radio station that broadcasts songs calling on Muslims to join the holy war, should be shut down, said Patrick Mercer, shadow minister for homeland security, reports the Media Guardian. The station, which is transmitted in Arabic to Iraq and Saudi Arabia via the Eutelsat Hotbird satellite and is funded partly through listener donations, is sponsored by Mohammed al-Massari, a Saudi dissident who has lived in London since seeking asylum in 1994.
Rocker Tommy Lee has agreed to appear naked in an anti-fur PETA poster, according to Adrants. The poster will be seen initially in the New York nightclub, Home, which will mark the occasion by announcing a door policy of banning fur coats. Lee, resplendent in his tattoos, is quoted on the poster as saying, “Ink, not mink.”
B-to-B list provider DM2 has announced that it will offer a bi-monthly webcast series designed to offer information and insight for marketers to help them make direct marketing and email marketing decisions, reports B to B. The first webcast, scheduled for August 30, will address email security issues, and will include a client-side marketer, National Instruments, plus Denise Moser, privacy director for DM2 parent company Reed Business Information.
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