Shows & Stars
Don’t Forget to ElfYourself
It’s true, eCards are soooo ’90s, but that’s only because most of them look terrible, aren’t specific or personalized enough, and/or cost money.
But OfficeMax’sElfYourself campaign? TIMELESS.
The holiday campaign, in which users attach a photographed head to an animated dancing elf, is up for its third season. Last year, OfficeMax brags, the site had 193 million site visits in six weeks. That’s huge.
This year, OfficeMax ditched the ElfYourself creators at Toy New York and EVB to work with online video shop JibJab, whose is core business is selling personalized eCards (it calls them “Starring You!”).
Office Max explains that JibJab helps offer more elves, more dances — and real-life souvenirs. The animations also look pretty good. But users are complaining about having to register for JibJab, the overt merchandising, and the lack of webcam support.
But c’mon, it’s not like OfficeMax is hawking office supplies in the background of its awesome new disco and hoedown themes. ElfYourself is by far the best free customized happy holidays stunt you’re going to find. This year’s tagalong efforts are lamer than lame by comparison. (Whoohoo…Tiled gingerbread men with your head on them, from Virgin Mobile.) Surely there’s at least one face you’d like to put a smile on…or attach a spastically dancing elf to.
Embedded above is our NewTeeVee holiday card, from Chris, Liz, Liz Shannon, and our dogs.
Weekend Vid Picks: Dance, Dance Scientific Revolution
Not sure how this one slipped past us, but last month Science magazine challenged its readers to translate their PhD research into an interpretive dance and post their moves on YouTube. Thirty-six videos were submitted and last week the winners were chosen.
It’s not exactly “news” at this point (hat tip to Slashdot for pointing it out), but if you’ve ever wondered what “Resolving Pathways of Functional Coupling in Human Hemoglobin Using Quantitative Low Temperature Isoelectric Focusing of Asymmetric Mutant Hybrids.” would look like as a dance — you’re in luck. Vince LiCata, a biochemist at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge won in the professors category for this performance.
Vid-Biz: TVTonic, Mobuzz, TiVo
TVTonic Shuts Down Service; popular Windows Media Center application that moved content from your PC to the TV being retired. (Zatz Not Funny!)
Mobuzz TV Closes; popular European online video show couldn’t afford to keep going, closes down. (Mobuzz)
The Economics of TiVo; how much is the time freed up by zapping commercials worth to you? (Freakonomics Blog)
Some Sony Flicks Return to Netflix-Xbox; licensing deals cause some titles to come and go on the Netflix streaming service. (CNET)
Big Love Webisodes Being Released This Weekend; three episodes of 3 Days Past Midnight to debut on Saturday in advance of the HBO series’ return in January. (Reel Pop Blog)
2 Billion Online Videos Watched in France in Sept.; 25 million people (77.8 percent of the population) watched 156 million hours of video content online. (comScore)
Vid-Biz: Sling.com, Hulu, Apple
Sling Launches Video Portal; hardware maker’s Sling.com features content from Warner Bros., Sony, MGM, CBS and more. (See our previous coverage.)
Hulu Users Prefer Front-Loading Ads; 88 percent choose to watch a two-minute ad prior to the program in exchange for no ads during the content. (Advertising Age)
Apple (Kinda) Fixes External Display Problem; update allows standard definition content to be played from laptops to external monitors. (MacRumors)
Verismo to Launch its Set-Top Box in December; the VuNow will cost $149 for the premium HD version, one of its hardware partners is Netgear. (PC Magazine) See video of Verismo CEO, Prakash Bhalerao explaining the Verismo platform from his talk at NewTeeVee Live.
Warner Bros. Re-Ups TMZ; show spawned from Hollywood gossip web site gets two more seasons. (MediaWeek)
Eight Million Homes Not Ready for DTV Switch; Nielsen finds that 7.4 percent of TV households are not prepared, down from 7.7 percent in October. (Broadcasting & Cable)
VGTRK to Stream Programming Online; Russia’s state-run television holding company will show content on Mail.ru and split the ad revenue. (Variety)
Vid-Biz: Magnify.net, AT&T, Jathia
Magnify.net Raises $750K; Innovation Ventures led this Series A1 round for the video publishing company. (Silicon Alley Insider)
AT&T’s Viral Series Not So Viral; Lost in America stars iJustine, but is not attracting lots of eyeballs. (Advertising Age)
Open-Source Movie Lets Fans in on the Action; footage from Jathia’s Wager will be uploaded and fans can edit together their own version of the movie. (io9)
Universal Music Group Hooks Up With Meebo; agreement will deliver ad-supported videos from UMG acts like Kanye West and Ludacris to the online chat platform. (release)
Hulu Adds to HD Gallery; episodes of The Office, 30 Rock and Heroes now streaming in high-definition on the site. (Broadcasting & Cable)
Dori Media Group Taps Kaltura; open-source white-label video service to power Novebox.com, a new social network dedicated to telenovelas. (emailed release)
Vid-Biz: Sezmi, KickApps, SAG
Sezmi Secures $28 Million; influx of cash comes on the heels of the set-top box company laying off 20 percent of its staff. (peHUB)
KickApps Raises More than $13 Million; white-label social networking site is working on Series C round. (peHUB)
SAG Seeks to Authorize Strike Vote; federally mediated talks between the actors’ union and the Hollywood studios broke down over the weekend. (Variety)
Sumner Redstone Under Pressure; tumbling share prices of Viacom and CBS hampering efforts to resolve debt issues of National Amusements, his family holding company. (Wall Street Journal)
MPAA Targets Fanedit.org; web community of hobbyists who make variations on movies will take down much of its site. (TorrentFreak)
Crackle Announces New Season; will debut Dec. 1 with renewals of shows like The Groundlings and new ones like Star-ving, the new comedy series from Married…with Children’s David Faustino. (emailed release)
Eisner Might Want Prom Queen Movie; and he’s loving being an indie in the current media market. (New York Times)
New York Times Magazine Does Special on “Screens”; including How Napoleon Dynamite Stumps Netflix’s recommendations, an essay on becoming “screen literate,” and pictures of kids playing video games. (New York Times Magazine)
Microsoft Locks Up The Guild
Felicia Day, creator of web series The Guild, said during her talk at NewTeeVee Live that she had some major sponsorship on news on the way. Looks like it’s a bit more than just that: The Hollywood Reporter writes that Microsoft has nabbed the exclusive rights to the second season of the series and will show it across the Xbox, MSN and Zune platforms.
Sprint will sponsor all 12 episodes of the season across the three Microsoft outlets and will have commercials attached as well as product placements within the show.
Day told us earlier this month that she rejected about 25 offers to sponsor the geek-friendly comedy, saying, “For me, an important part of the show is that I retain the rights to the show.” Her deal with the Redmond giant lets her keep the intellectual property rights to The Guild while collecting an up-front fee. This means that should The Guild follow in the footsteps of Sanctuary (another series where the creator held on to the IP) and move to TV, Microsoft won’t participate in any revenues generated from that.
Tay Zonday, Ray Stevenson and Funtwo at YouTube Live
I think YouTube missed a golden opportunity at their YouTube Live event last night. Mashing up the deep baritone voice of Tay Zonday with the high-pitched, nails-on-chalkboard “Fred” would have been comedy GOLD, I tells ya. Oh well.
Anyway. In addition to the excellent live-casting that Liz did from the show, I shot a few interviews with a couple of interesting folks on hand including Zonday (of Chocolate Rain fame), Ray Stevenson (the new Punisher, and also Titus Pullo from Rome), and Jeong-Hyun Lim, better known as funtwo, the YouTube guitar virtuoso.
Zonday chatted with us about being a part of web celeb roundups like the Weezer Pork and Beans video as well as having his head explode on South Park (he thinks they got his voice wrong).
NTV is Live from YouTube Live
YouTube is hosting its big YouTube Live event right now here in San Francisco. Liz and I are on the UG-scene and will be providing updates throughout the evening. Mainstream stars like Will.I.Am, AKON and Katy Perry are rubbing shoulders with web celebs like Michael Buckley, Tay Zonday and “Fred” so stay tuned for interviews, news and more.
Update from Liz 3:28 p.m.: Just live-streamed a couple clips of the backstage scene, including Katy Perry and Will.i.am’s rigs, and a nice little view of the Golden Gate Bridge just outside. YouTube is conducting a press conference now where they’re saying the people performing today are responsible for 2.5 billion views. Michael Buckley, LisaNova, Tay Zonday are queuing up to joint the press conference. They are part of the “Vlog Squad” today — not quite sure what that means yet. Holy crap, Tay Zonday really sounds like that in person.
Is the Web Hurting Guilty Pleasure TV Shows?
So, um, I watch Gossip Girl. But I do it on my laptop, when nobody else is around.
And as I read recently of complaints by Lipstick Jungle’s creators that its cancellation threats are unfair because much of its audience isn’t measured, I had to wonder if maybe they weren’t just whining.
Could the increasing number of options for watching TV shows that fall under the guilty pleasure category mean they are slipping in the conventional rating systems? Soap operas are some of CBS Interactive’s most popular online programming, I’ve been told. I’ve also heard concern from networks that younger-skewing shows just aren’t as economically viable these days, because their audience could care less about the TV. BitTorrent, YouTube, TV Links, iTunes — it’s all at their fingertips.
But I wonder if as online viewing goes more mainstream, this wouldn’t be a broader concern for shows that people prefer to watch in private or when nobody else is around. I don’t mean anything salacious, necessarily, I just doubt that I’m the only one who would rather not admit I know what Blair Waldorf’s latest blackmail scheme was.
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