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SHELLY PALMER analyzes Antigua’s threat to undermine U.S. copyright laws by legalizing piracy. Read this week’s essay to learn about the 1st InfoWar.
MARCH MADNESS streamed 2.8 million hours of video during Round 1 alone, compared to last year’s total of 2.5 million hours for the entire tournament. Unique viewers have doubled so far and the “boss button” — which replaces the video with a spreadsheet to hide it when the boss walks by – has been clicked two million times. CBS’s new strategy of allowing direct-linking to games and dropping registration requirements is a clear success.
MTV NETWORKS has made every single “South Park” episode available for free on the South Park Studios website. The extensive release covers all 12 seasons and over 150 episodes. An early sampling of the site revealed Toyota as the main sponsor. Viewers can skip skip forward and backwards through the programs but not during advertisements.
FORBES will launch the Forbes Business and Financial Blog Network, an online ad network connecting over 400 financial blogs. Ad sales will be handled by ADIFY. Forbes has already made modest projections for revenue increases resulting from the network and is expected to offered details during an announcement today.
YOUTUBE announced the winners of its 2007 YouTube Video Awards. Awards were granted in twelve different categories, including Comedy, Music, Sports and Eyewitness. Winners included laughing babies, tips on solving the Rubik’s cube and the impressive Human Tetris video. The most-viewed winner so far is a Harry Potter musical parody performed by puppets, which has been seen over 37 million times. Second among the winners is the music video sensation Chocolate Rain, which has racked up over 16 million views so far.
CBS canceled “Jericho” once again. The show was brought back after its first cancelation due to an online outcry from thousands of devoted fans. Past episodes were also performing well on iTunes and CBS.com. However, its revival did not increase its popularity and recent shows drew a 1.9 rating in the 18 to 49 demographic. The Jericho saga shows further evidence that online success is not a predictor of success on traditional television.
VERIZON will connect Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan to FiOS. This is one of the biggest FiOS hook-ups so far, bringing the high-speed Internet service to over 11,000 apartments in New York City’s biggest apartment complex.