Tech wrap: Google fined over drug ads
Google has agreed to pay $500 million to settle a probe into ads it accepted for online Canadian pharmacies selling drugs in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday. The forfeiture is one of the largest ever in the United States, according to the DOJ. It represents Google’s revenue from Canadian pharmacy advertisements to U.S. customers through Google’s AdWords program and Canadian pharmacies’ revenue from U.S. sales.
Apple won another battle in the mobile tech patent wars on Wednesday when a Dutch court ruled that Samsung Electronics must stop marketing three of its smartphone models in some European countries. Apple, which has conquered the high end of the phone market with its iPhone, argued that Samsung had infringed on three of its patents. The court ruled that Samsung smartphones Galaxy S, S II and Ace breached just one of Apple’s patents.
BlackBerry users tired of the narrow selection of apps available to them should welcome news that models expected next year will be able to run apps designed for Google’s Android mobile platform. According to a Bloomberg report, which cites three unnamed sources, Research in Motion plans to make its forthcoming BlackBerry models Android-compatible in an attempt to boost sales of its smartphone models and win back consumers. The Android Market currently offers more than 250,000 apps, nearly six times as many as RIM’s own app store, the article notes.
Reversing its view from a year ago, a federal appeals court said Verizon Wireless customers must resolve disputes over alleged fraudulent cellphone charges individually through arbitration rather than as a class. Some consumer advocates say arbitration favors companies by making it too costly for consumers to bring small claims.
Guess who’s moving to Silicon Valley? Hollywood’s largest talent firm CAA is. The agency is considering opening an office in Silicon Valley to expand ties with the technology community, two people familiar with the firm’s plans told Reuters correspondent Peter Lauria.
TiVo, the maker of digital video recorders, said revenue rose 19 percent as it signed new deals with cable operators to use its technology, sending its shares up in after-hours trading.
Tech wrap: How bold is the new BlackBerry?
RIM showed off a new version of its BlackBerry Bold phone with upgraded software, aiming to regain its stride after last week’s profit warning and other recent stumbles. RIM also said it will manage corporate and government communications sent using Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and devices running Google’s Android software, through its secure BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
The BlackBerry Bold Touch, the model most geared toward the business market, has a 2.8-inch screen and retains the company’s trademark physical qwerty keyboard with a 1.2 GHz processor. It will ship with a near-field communication (NFC) chip, allowing the phone to be used as a mobile wallet, executives said at the annual BlackBerry World conference in Orlando. The Bold Touch running on Blackberry OS 7 will be released sometime this summer. The new OS won’t be supported on older devices, the company said.
Sohaib Athar, a resident of Abbottabad, the Pakistani city where Osama bin Laden was holed up in a fortified mansion, “liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it”, setting off a firestorm of activity on Twitter.
Sony Online Entertainment temporarily shut down its online games service. A spokesman for the online games unit said the service was taken down at 1:30 am Pacific time on Monday. The spokesman declined to say how many customers were affected and none were alerted beyond a terse message on its website. Sony Online Entertainment is a division of the global electronics company that operates online games such as “EverQuest” and is separate from the PlayStation video game console division.
Sony won over some gamers by offering free access to its PlayStation Network to compensate for the leak of personal details on 78 million user accounts, but still had some way to go to regain the trust of consumers.
It’s doubtful that Sony’s handling of the Playstation debacle will be its Watergate, but so far it’s not its Tylenol, either, writes Wired’s John C. Abell.
Dish Network and EchoStar will pay TiVo $500 million to settle a patent infringement lawsuit involving TiVo’s video recording technology, putting an end to a long and costly legal battle.
Super Bowl Monday: The view from armchair copywriters
Ahhh, Super Bowl Monday. The hangovers. The salsa stains on the sofa. The dreams of winning your office betting pool crushed. And the ad reviews. Yes, today is the day when everyone — many with little or no connection to advertising, football or tastemaking — puts out a list of the top Super Bowl commercials. Some are better than others. USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter is probably the best known (and this morning had Bud Light’s Dog Sitter ad ranked tops). But two others that are very good gauges of the winners/losers of the Ad Bowl are TiVo and the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review.
They take very different approaches to rankings. TiVo ranks the most engaging moments “using aggregated, anonymous, second-by-second audience measurement data” while Kellogg goes with the panel approach that asks viewers to grade ads based on “Attention, Distinction, Positioning, Linkage, Amplification and Net equity.”
Three ads/brands were ranked highly by both TiVo and Kellogg:
But there were also some glaring differences in the two polls. For instance, the top spot in Tivo went to Snickers, followed by Best Buy and Pepsi Max. Kellogg gave all three of those middle-of-the-road rankings (Snickers and Best Buy each a received B, while Pepsi Max took a C.
The best Superbowl Ad? Easy, all the ones we did not see during Super Bowl 40 when in Australia in 2006. There were none on Aussie Tellie that I recall on the live feed on a Monday afternoon. So we saw the whole game commercial free except for a few brief station breaks. It was marvelous to See all of the nuances that occur on and off the field De Combat.(Steelers 21, Seahawks 10).
Blockbuster sees its digital future
Here’s the thing about Blockbuster: like other cultural icons, its synonymous with its service — renting movies from a local store.
Sure it does other things, rents video games, sells gadgets and point-of-sale popcorn, but most of us hear the name Blockbuster and do a quick mental check — “did I return that rental copy of “To Sleep With Anger”? (Ok, maybe that’s just me.)
But even with the spectre of looming debt, and market talk that bankruptcy might be an option it’s exploring (an idea the company flatly denied), Blockbuster is mapping out a future where Blockbuster = Movies (not so much on the “local store” part).
Its latest step on that path is a partnership that lets TiVo’s subscribers access (later this year) movies and video from Blockbuster on Demand. It joins TiVo’s roster of other video suppliers — Amazon, Jaman, YouTube, CinemaNow and Blockbuster’s archrival Netflix.
Although mentioned quietly as an aside in an Interview, Blockbuster executive Kevin Lewis also reiterated that Blockbuster is “enabling the Apple ecosystems” in its own services, which could someday mean a marriage of sorts between the video provider and the iPhone.
It’s too soon to tell if that is enough to help. But is that enough to withstand the onslaught of video available to a changing demographic that thrives on free video from myriad sources (some illegal). At least shareholders are pleased. The battered stock is up more than 17 percent today.
Then again, blogger Dan Frommer calls the TiVo-Blockbuster deal “insignificant.”
CES: TiVo’s Tom Rogers stands up for show
TiVo, the small company with the big brand name and tiny marketing budget, has long used CES as a primary showcase for its new products and initiatives.
This year we caught up with CEO Tom Rogers, where he talked about the pace of business discussions at CES, and how the video industry needs to learn from the mistakes of the music industry regarding “responding to strategic challenges.”
Blockbuster throws its hat into the set-top box ring
Blockbuster got into the set-top box game right in time for the holiday season with a new digital media player that brings fewer but newer titles from the Web to TV six months after arch rival Netflix launched its $99 Roku set-top box. Netflix followed that launch with similar partnerships with Tivo, Samsung, LG Electronics and Microsoft.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. While the number of people who watch movies or TV via the Web is still small, media and technology executives believe a host of new technologies will make Web to TV a mainstream staple. Vudu already sells a $299 set-top box that lets users download TV shows, while Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 game consoles can also be used to download programming from the Web for TV viewing.
Apple of course is trying to take a bite of the market with its Apple TV device that lets viewers download shows from their computers onto their TVs.
This could save consumers a lot of money– bypassing the need to pay hefty cable fees — and a lot of time when you factor in all the hours spent watching commercials. These devices do require fast Web connections, but market researcher Gartner forecasts there will be 499 milion residential broadband subscribers globally by 2012, up from 323 million at the end of 2007.
Blockbuster said its MediaPoint set-top box, made by broadband device maker 2Wire, allows customers to download high-definition quality movies to their TVs via broadband lines for $1.99 apiece, after an initial $99 for the box and 25 films.
Consumers have 30 days to watch a film once it is downloaded to the set-top box, and must finish watching it within 24 hours of pushing the “play” button. The service, called Blockbuster OnDemand, can be ordered at http://www.blockbuster.com beginning on Tuesday.
Unlike Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” feature, which streams movies to subscribers’ TVs or personal computers, the Blockbuster on-demand service will be open to customers who do not subscribe to its DVD-by-mail service, Blockbuster Online. Blockbuster Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Keyes said the company’s longtime emphasis on new releases draws different consumers than Netflix subscribers, who are directed by its Web site to older catalog titles.
Boy I bet there is a lot of pent-up demand for yet-another-movie-download box. The quality and quantity of TV programming on the Web has improved substantially but viewing that content on your big-screen TV is still an unmet need.
Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld = What?!!???
Jerry Seinfeld, a huge marketing budget, and well-respected agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky would seem a recipe for success. Unfortunately for Microsoft, which kicked off a $300 million advertising campaign last night, the first commercial debuted to lukewarm reviews.
Microsoft is hoping to improve the image of its Windows Vista operating system and take some of the sting out of those popular “Mac vs. PC” advertisements run by Apple. It hired Seinfeld to help, and the first commercial featured the comedian and Bill Gates at a shoe store.
The problem, it seems, is that many people just didn’t get the commercial. Here’s a sampling.
“I don’t get it. And seeing how the punchline was, ummm, Bill Gates adjusting his shorts, I don’t think I want to get it.” — ZDNet
“Seinfeld and Gates are like The Odd Couple, but awkwardly odd. I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot more of these Jerry and Bill segments. Let’s hope their chemistry improves.” — VentureBeat
“When we first heard that Microsoft was prepping an ad campaign starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld I was cautiously optimistic. Gates has a good sense of humor about himself, and Jerry might not be your cup of tea but he can be pretty funny now and again. The first ad has hit TV screens across the nation and… I don’t think I even have words for it.” — MacUser
“Anyone know what this is supposed to do except raise awareness of, well, Jerry?” — Geardiary
I’ve seen this spot several times and while it’s mildly amusing, it mostly leaves the viewer going “WTF?” Tries too hard and misses the mark. Quirky just for the sake of being quirky does not hilarity make. I give it a rating of LUKE WARM.
TiVo CEO: Subscribers will come
A couple of years ago, if you had suggested TiVo and DirecTV would ever kiss and make up — after DirecTV dumped TiVo in favor of DVRs by NDS (then a cousin in the News Corp Family) — you might have said it was as likely as “90210″ coming back to TV.
Well one day after the new “90210” premiered on the WB network, TiVo and DirecTV said they are working on a new HD TV set-top box. The agreement puts TiVo in a position to turn a bigger portion of DirecTV’s 16+ million customers into TiVo subscribers, in a deal that TiVo says will reap more in fees than previous agreements.
Reuters spoke to TiVo CEO Tom Rogers about the deal.
Reuters: This is kind of like getting back together with your first love. Rogers: I’ve been saying for a long time that with DirecTV’s ownership by Liberty Media, it created a new atmosphere and a new environment. I think the management of DirecTV has always been supportive of TiVo and believes that we can put together a very exciting offering.
Reuters: DirecTV is still going to offer generic DVRs to its subs? Rogers: We are comfortable with that. We recognize that generic DVRs will continue to exist. The biggest contributors to confusion between what is Tivo and what is “DVR” has been mass distributors themselves and obviously the more deals we do the more people have interest to make sure that there is a DVR offering and then something very different that is TiVo.
Reuters: DirecTV TiVo users don’t pay fees to TiVo directly. Is this deal lucrative for you? Rogers: It was very a successful arrangement for us. There is a lot of financial upside.
Reuters: You are still in court with EchoStar, the other satellite provider. Do you see a time when you will make a similar deal with them? Rogers: We kind of have a three-pronged strategy: Our go it alone route, our join ‘em route, which is what you could say this is, and our fight ‘em route, which is what EchoStar is. We are getting to the end of the enforcement stage in our fight with EchoStar. Tomorrow we are back in front of the judge for a hearing (related to an injunction and damages).
Heard this before? Music industry isn’t sold on iTunes
Once again, record companies are questioning the wisdom of selling music on iTunes. This time, the griping shows up the Wall Street Journal.
Basically, the argument is that music companies are starting to believe that selling single songs through Apple’s iTunes is bad for the industry (an industry, by the way, that is badly depressed and counts heavily on iTunes for sales and promotion).
The case for steering clear of iTunes is made through the example of Kid Rock’s “Rock ‘n Roll Jesus” album, which wasn’t sold through Apple’s site. Yet the album still sold an impressive 1.7 million copies, the article points out…
“In so many ways it’s turned our business back into a singles business,” says Ken Levitan, Kid Rock’s manager. Mr. Levitan says the rise of iTunes is far from being a boon to the industry; instead, he calls it “part of the death knell of the music business.”
Complaints from the music industry about iTunes are nothing new. Are executives are just looking a gift horse in the mouth? Or perhaps they have a point. Either way, as paidContent points out, there aren’t really any viable options out there right now.
In any case, trying to develop alternatives to monopoly distribution is always admirable, and indeed, desirable in the long run, but the more pertinent question is: if not iTunes, then what?
Meanwhile, there is still the larger problem of piracy. In Los Angeles yesterday, federal officials arrested a man on suspicion of violating copyright laws for placing songs on the Internet from an unreleased album by rock band Guns N’ Roses.
When ever you get a chance, please check out ZOOKFIND.com and iwant2search.com
Thanks and have a great weekend
For your video viewing pleasure…
Good news for fans of guilty pleasure shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Felicity” or “Dawson’s Creek” - TheWB.com is about to be up and running. With those shows and others, the website hopes to bring in those 18-34 year-olds so loved by advertisers.
Thing is, the website exists even though the television network doesn’t. Recall the WB was folded into UPN a couple of years ago to create the CW. (Warner Brothers, however, is still one of the major TV studios).
Given that, it’s sort of strange that Craig Erwich, EVP of Warner Horizon Television which oversees TheWB.com, tells Silicon Alley Insider in an interview that the thing separating TheWB.com, from other websites it – well, the name.
“The WB is a brand that resonates with fans and we are capitalizing on the history of the brand have created a destination site that targets a niche audience and that gives fans an active experience,” he says.
(Otherwise, Erwich gives very little away in the interview, declining to discuss specific details and numbers)
The site is supposed to launch later today, and it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against Hulu.com, which most people considered a big leap forward for professionally produced online video sites. Already, TheWB.com has some good reviews from those who got an early look.
