MEDIAVEST is in talks with two cinema ad networks to transfer up to $100 million in prime-time TV ads to in-theater movie advertising. President of investment and activation Donna Speciale said that with ratings continuing to erode and a lengthy writers strike, “We can’t keep our money in TV.” The company is speaking with National CineMedia and Screenvision, which control a combined 29,000 screens.
JEFF ZUCKER criticized the economics of mobile TV, saying that phone carriers reap 90% of the profits and that the technology is “not that important.” The NBCU CEO was speaking at Davos in a group that included Howard Stringer, Eric Schmidt and Kevin Martin. Zucker said NBCU is only playing mobile TV “in a small way.” Google’s Schmidt took a more positive view of the technology, citing the ability to generate revenue using targeted ads based on a mobile user’s specific location. Schmidit believes that mobile advertising will take in over $1 billion in revenue by 2012.
NBC has moved Quarterlife’s premiere up to Tuesday February 26th, following The Biggest Loser. Starting in March the Internet-turned-network show will move to Sunday evening at 9 PM. The Tuesday premiere is meant to give the show a boost by borrowing some of The Biggest Loser’s momentum. In the Sunday slot it will compete with Oprah’s Big Give on ABC and reruns on both CBS and FOX.
QTRAX will launch its free P2P music download service with over 25 million copyrighted tracks, including content from all four major labels. The ad-supported venture will split ad revenue with copyright holders based on play counts. SONY ERICSSON has also made progress in launching its online music store, which will open in May. The company has signed deals with three of the big four labels. In related news, AMAZON announced plans to take its MP3 store international sometime in the near future.
BRIGHT HOUSE NETWORKS is rolling out a Start Over service for 600,000 subscribers in its Tampa Bay system. Start Over was developed by Time Warner Cable, but the Bright House Start Over deployment is almost three times the size of any TWC rollouts. As with other Start Over services, users can re-start a show after it has begun playing.
PLUS: Showtime will offer an online sneak-peak of “The L Word” after seeing positive results of letteing users stream the season premiere. RKO Productions signed an interim deal with the WGA on Friday. And cyclist Lance Armstrong will take an equity position in Demand Media and team up to offer health-and-wellness site Livestrong.com.