European video news aggregator Zoom.in (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, France) launched a mobile news video service today. Contrary to the normal online Zoom.in offering, there are no ads. The function of the launch is primarily to test the market. Including ads in the offering is not foreseen for this year.
Zoom.in states that they will eventually use Read on…
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I get this question a lot: Are people willing to pay for content on the internet? Especially when talking about online video, but also with content in general, we seem to have a hard time figuring this out. Is it because there is a change happening with people? Not really. What IS changing though, are the options people have online. And that, in turn, changes the accceptance of paid content in general.
Advertising.
First of all, there is one thing people really like; getting free quality content via ad-support. No-one likes ads, especially if you do user research or feedback sessions everyone complains about the ads being there, but when there’s an option to see something for free with some ads before or around the content, people will take it. Period.
Movies.
People generally are ready to pay for Read on…
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The Nielsen Company reports that product placements for the first quarter of 2008 rose 6% on primetime programming for 11 measured American broadcast networks. U.S. Broadcast television placements rose 39%. According to Nielsen Product Placement Service, the most prevalent placement type on broadcast television was “foreground,” which represented 35% of all product placements. On cable television, “wardrobe” placements were most common, accounting for 32% of all placements. Prime-time product placement occurrences on broadcast networks increased overall by 39% during the first quarter of 2008.
You can clearly see the shift to Read on…
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Video advertising is growing fast, but it is still a very new medium for most advertisers and agencies. Today most spots consumers see are brand advertising, mostly repurposed TV commercials, bought on a CPM basis.
This is fine for some advertisers, but mostly they are the sort of brand advertisers that are relatively shy to employ online advertising in general. Online video is indeed a powerful branding tool, but imagine taking that branded message and adding a strong call to action along with a CPC or CPA payout structure…
This is the new frontier for online video, and getting it in place means opening up the medium for a whole new category of advertisers looking to generate sales, sign-ups, coupon downloads, or generally any specific action. A category that usually understands internet advertising well, and reserves a large part of their budget for online today.
Standards for video ads.
To begin with, we need standards for online video reporting. Then, advertisers Read on…
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Zattoo publishes a software program that allows people to watch TV content on a computer over a broadband connection, much like Joost, for instance. The service is free of charge, after downloading the Zattoo Player and registering. Zattoo is currently available in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. So far so good. Now here is the interesting part.
Live TV
Recently, Zattoo started online live streaming of BBC1, BBC2, Channel 4, Five and Read on…
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According to the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, Apple has chosen to start testing the new iPhone together with partner T-Mobile in Austria “very soon”, although it is not exactly clear when and by how many users.
Personally I think the iPhone is a cool device, but I never really wanted the current version because the internet functionality is just too slow, making it pretty much useless outdoors (unless you want to impress random strangers in bars). This new ‘3G’ iPhone model however, will connect to the internet at a speed that puts a smile on your face.
Phat version :)
According to the well-informed technology gossip blog Engadget, the new iPhone will be Read on…
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It was a week ago today. The outskirts of a medium sized university town not far from where I live, just past midnight. Most homes were quiet, some bedroom lights showed that their inhabitants were still awake, and I was walking down the street towards a long line of men. It was raining. The men were standing outside, in the rain, waiting. The line went round the block. It was so long I decided to get a midnight snack first, and return later. The line would be there for a while yet.
The biggest entertainment release of 2008
Finally, close to 01.00 AM, the tired Read on…
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