 |
Ben Fritz at Variety has the buzz on Microsoft’s outreach memo:
Looking to strengthen ties with Hollywood as it delves deeper into online video, Microsoft on Tuesday sent a memo to top execs at all the major media congloms offering to work closely with them to combat piracy, but not to implement the kind of filtering technology Viacom is demanding on YouTube.
Confidential memo obtained by Daily Variety was sent by Microsoft to media toppers such as Peter Chernin, Jeff Zucker and Bob Iger as well as heads of the major labels. It outlines the tech giant’s approach to Soapbox, its newly launched viral video service on MSN that is going up against YouTube, MySpace Video and others.
In the letter, media and entertainment VP Blair Westlake said Microsoft is developing “what we believe content owners want and need: industry-leading notice and takedown … practices, including tools that enable our content partners to more easily find content that is rightfully theirs and give us prompt notice so we can respond even more efficiently and expeditiously.”
That’s probably (non-copyrighted) music to their ears except that
Soapbox, which is still in a public beta trial run and has a miniscule amount of content and visitors compared with YouTube, already has numerous copyrighted clips from “South Park,” “High School Musical,” “American Idol” and other TV shows, films and musicvideos.
Still, it behooves Microsoft to stay on the good side of the media bigs since their aspirations for future bounty seem to lie in that direction.
Speaking of which, the latest numbers from Compete show MSN is in 5th place with only with 4% marketshare. YouTube plus Google adds up to 54% and only MySpace with 16% looks like a contender.
Spurred by the popularity of MySpace, News Corp. sites have overtaken Yahoo Inc. sites as the most viewed by U.S. Internet users, according to new industry data cited by News Corp. on Tuesday.
According to comScore Media Metrix data, News Corp.’s Fox Interactive unit said the total of its pages viewed by the U.S. Web audience jumped to 39.5 billion in November from 38.7 billion in October.
Meanwhile, Yahoo’s total pages viewed fell to 38.1 million in November from 41.6 billion in October. Microsoft ranked third, falling to 17.9 billion in November from 19.3 billion.
Yahoo countered that it still had a larger audience, even though Fox sites won the top ranking for number of Web pages viewed. The company also has far more ads, and its customers spend more time, on average, on Yahoo than MySpace, it said.
The big story here is less MySpace growth than Yahoo decline as is admirably shown in a chart at TechCrunch. Yahoo stated that a reason for part of the decline was its increasing use of AJAX Web 2.0 style interfaces and Microsoft could likely use a similar rationale. Google won’t need it however – their page views were up 5% and of course, that’s predominantly search where their interface is rather spartan.
Update Dec. 14: The original version of the above story had millions where it meant billions. I have corrected it above.
Internet Advertising Revenues Surpass $4 Billion for Q3 and the fact that it is up 33% over Q3 2005 is the good news. The bad news is that it is only up 2% over Q2 2006. Of course, the worst news is that the spoils are unevenly distributed among the players and while Google shows great growth, other players like Microsoft just get by.
And speaking of advertising, Microsoft apparently thinks Google shouldn’t have the eyeballs in the US municipal free Wi-Fi market all to itself, so it signed up to provide ads for MetroFi’s public network in Portland, Oregon. No financial details were disclosed.
Internet Explorer 7 Auto-Updates Begin
Office 2007 and Windows Vista were made available for download by members of Microsoft’s MSDN and TechNet programs. Vista is also now available to Volume License customers. Also, CompUSA will start retailing Vista and Office 2007 to small businesses on Nov. 30 through a special volume licensing plan. Unsurprisingly, bootleg versions are also available, but Microsoft says they won’t work for long.
Microsoft’s Software Update Services (SUS) users got a 6 month reprieve until July 10, 2007. It’s being replaced by Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).
If Linux violates Microsoft’s patents, let’s see the proof. I can’t believe that Microsoft would be so foolish as to sue its customers, so FUD like Ballmer’s remarks and deals with impoverished Linux vendors like Novell are all we’ll see. Related: Red Hat Rejects Patent Agreement with Microsoft.
Microsoft Delays Halo 3 to Late 2007
Had to happen: Universal sues MySpace over “user-stolen” content
Hardware hackers (in the old, good sense) are already taking apart their Zunes.
Microsoft is either going to release a low end version of Longhorn Server called Fresno for the appliance market or they aren’t.
MSN, Microsoft Corp.’s Web portal, said on Tuesday it will make a big push to stream live concerts to its users after signing an exclusive global partnership with Control Room, the company behind the web broadcast of last year’s Live 8 event.
The move to offer major live performances online is the latest move by Microsoft to drive both consumer and advertiser growth on its sites with a range of new entertainment and media features to challenge or differentiate itself from rivals including Yahoo Inc., YouTube Inc. and News Corp.’s MySpace.
As part of the multiyear agreement, MSN will exclusively air 36 different live events which will also be available for on-demand viewing for an agreed period afterward. The shows will be available on MSN’s 42 sites around the world.
The shows will be free to the viewer and supported by advertising, according to Rob Bennett, general manager of entertainment and video services for MSN.
MSN kicks off the partnership with Control Room on Oct. 2 with a live performance from Sony BMG R&B singer John Legend delivered from London.
There were no details on financial terms or specifications of the video feed, but if ever there was an offering that cried out for a PC connected to a home entertainment center, this certainly is it. Presumably MSN is planning on offering something better than the usual little Internet video box.
Update: Some more details from the official press release:
Under this new arrangement, MSN will be the exclusive online worldwide destination via live and on-demand streaming for Control Room’s slate of live music programming, and visitors to MSN® Video will have ongoing access to live concerts from the most popular, top-selling musical artists as well as today’s most talked-about breakthrough acts.
…
Further, through this agreement, Microsoft Corp. may stream Control Room shows to other platforms, including Xbox Live®, MSN Messenger, Microsoft® Windows Media® Player and Windows® XP Media Center Edition.
…
In continuing to expand its entertainment offerings, MSN is creating rich new opportunities for advertisers to integrate into and around the content itself. Advertisers can take advantage of display, text and streaming video opportunities, engaging with the worldwide MSN audience.
Commercials! I guess they’ll sneak them into the dull spots in the concert just like with football.
