The National Basketball Association Wednesday unveiled plans to bypass television and launch NBA TV Broadband, an ad-supported web-based video network that will provide users free online access to “in-game” video highlights of the 2005-06 season, writes MediaPost (via MarketingVox). Users can also opt to receive the videos via RSS feeds.
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After a ten-year hiatus, General Mills’ Jolly Green Giant is back, this time gracing a 25-foot billboard in Times Square. The 80-year-old advertising icon is one of the most recognizable of the 20th century, and will be seen not only in outdoor advertising (including buses and billboards in New York, Hartford, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Cincinnati), but in print ads in publications such as Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies Home Journal, More, Woman’s Day, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Quick & Simple, All You, and Eating Well through December.
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XM Satellite Radio has fielded its first female-focused radio channel. Coined “Take Five,” the station can be heard on channel 155, and boasts an array of female-friendly content that exclusively features design and home strategies as well as recipes and entertaining tips from the hosts and programs of Home & Garden Television and Food Network. XM balances that with original XM programming from an ensemble of talk personalities focused on news, entertainment and political issues. Take Five also features daily audio broadcasts of the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” and the new “Tyra Banks Show.”
According to Lycos’ fifth annual list of the most popular talk radio personalities with Web users, Howard Stern continues his reign as “King of all Media” online for the fifth consecutive year, generating eight times more search activity than any other talk radio personality or team of radio hosts.
Searches for Sirius Satellite Radio are up 1,300 percent due to Stern’s scheduled arrival. Of total Stern search activity, 50 percent of online interest specifies Sirius Satellite.
Another big winner with web users this year is Laura Ingraham, seeing a 2,050 percent rise in search activity, up from number 28 last year. Kim Komando makes her first-ever appearance on this year’s list, with a 500 percent bump in online interest.
The nation’s two largest gay-oriented media companies will combine when PlanetOut Inc. acquires LPI Media Inc., the publisher of the Advocate and Out magazines, for $24 million in cash, according to the Los Angeles Times. PlanetOut will assume the $7 million in debt owed by LPI, as well.
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ABC has taken the early lead among adults 18-49 in the first week of sweeps, gaining two-tenths of a point on CBS, Media Life writes. And happily for ABC, most of its biggest sweeps stunts - a rumored death on Lost and the American Music Award, for example - haven’t yet aired. One of CBS’s big stunts, the miniseries Category 7, has already run.
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As the world’s largest independent media buyer, Aegis is determined to block any attempt by French billionaire Vincent Bollore to gain boardroom representation, according to the Guardian Unlimited. While Bollore has told Robert Lerwill, chief executive of Aegis, that his growing stake in the company - now up to 25 percent - is purely financial, it is expected that Bollore will seek influence over the company.
Fox began previewing an episode of Kitchen Confidential on MySpace.com last Monday, and will continue to provide users access until Monday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. EST, an hour and a half before the show airs, Mediaweek writes. The network likely hopes to build interest in a struggling series: to date, the show has averaged a 2.6 household rating, and only a 1.8 in the coveted 18-49 demo.
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The Associated Press and MSN on Wednesday announced that they are working together to develop the AP Online Video Network, which would provide AP’s 3,500 newspaper and broadcast members daily news video from AP for their websites, MarketingVox reports. MSN will provide a customizable Windows Media-based video player and will sell advertising for the fully ad-supported service. AP members that use the new service will share revenue generated by the pre-stream advertising on their websites.
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Data provider ChoicePoint Inc. has notified another 17,000 consumers that some requests for names, Social Security numbers, and other information filled by ChoicePoint may have been fraudulent, reports DM News. The notices were sent in September, according to ChoicePoint’s quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and were sent as a result of an October 2004 discovery that bogus accounts were posing as legitimate businesses.
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The fourth version of The Apprentice will wrap up on Dec. 15, production on the fifth version is nearly done, and soon, NBC should decide whether to go for two more, New York Daily News reports.
“I’m sure NBC will come to me and say, ‘We want to do No. 6 and No. 7,’” Trump said yesterday. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s the success that drives me. My inclination is to do it, because of the success of the show.”
Google’s initial testing of the print ad waters seems to have paid off, as the internet giant is considering a further test, this time in Chicago newspapers, Smart Money reports. Google first bought space in the September and October issues of PC Magazine and Maximum PC, using the space to display ads from its own advertisers. Following positive reactions from the advertisers and publishers, Google spokesman Michael Mayzel said the company plans to “continue exploring ads in print media.”
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XM Satellite Radio is ramping up promotions in the hopes of boosting holiday sales with a big-time sponsorship of next Thursday’s The Apprentice on NBC, Mediaweek writes. In that episode, the teams are charged with finding, developing, and promoting a new music artist, and the winning artist’s song will be placed into rotation on XM’s music channels. XM will also air music specials with a behind-the-scenes view into the episode on XM Live.
The largest AD:TECH ever - with over 8,300 attendees, 200 exhibitors, and an upbeat, optimistic mood - closed yesterday, Adrants writes. The next big conference from AD:TECH takes place in San Francisco, in April. And, beginning in March, the company will launch an “impact” series - a collection of one-day shows in 10 cities across the country.
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