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IAG has done a study of over 1,000 “hybrid” ads, which closely merge advertising with content to combat ad-skipping. The ads generated 30% higher brand recall than traditional ads. The study found that Jay Leno’s recent live-to-air ad for Garmin doubled that company’s usual viewer recall numbers, and CW’s “content wraps” were among the highest-scoring Continue Reading →

JEFF ZUCKER told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that content owners are “losing the battle” against piracy. Citing piracy as a cause for massive losses in jobs, revenues, and taxes, Zucker urged the Chamber to make it a top priority. Zucker said NBC Universal is “ripping apart old business models” to deal with the new Continue Reading →

JOOST will officially release its peer-to-peer Internet TV application to the general public today. The software will be upgraded to offer improved navigation and search, with an open API that allows developers to create Joost widgets. Joost has averaged 50,000 downloads per week while in limited beta, and the company expects that number to reach Continue Reading →

Amazon.com has launched AmazonMP3.com, an online download-to-own site. It’s awesome! If you think you have shopped for music online in the past, stop reading now, go directly to http://www.amazonmp3.com and you’ll get an up-close, personal view of what you’ve been missing. Did I mention, it’s awesome! To be fair, I’m a pretty big Amazon fan Continue Reading →

APPLE ends the week in the iGutter. Yesterday, the company released an iPhone update targeting users that have installed third-party applications on the device, unlocked it, or otherwise hacked it in some way. The update has rendered some of the phones completely useless, turning them into iBricks. This, absurdly enough, seems to be the intended Continue Reading →

MICROSOFT is expected to make several major online video announcements today, at DigitalLife in New York. The company is rumored to be adding fullscreen, ad-supported video content to Windows Media Center. Content will include Fox Sports videos, full-length music concerts, and individual shows such as the popular Arrested Development. Ads will be served by YuMe Continue Reading →

AMAZON is now going head-to-head with iTunes. The company launched its digital music store yesterday, offering 2.3 million tracks. Songs cost as little as 89 cents, come at a high bitrate, and not one of them is crippled by DRM. As a result, they work with almost any device on the market. Universal and EMI, Continue Reading →

CW NETWORK will launch a newsmagazine-style show this Sunday that will not break for traditional commercials. Instead, “CW Now” will seamlessly present entertaining, paid segments as part of the regular program. The first episode will feature a celebrity-filled segment pitching a new Xbox game’s availability at Wal-Mart. UNIVERSAL STUDIOS will launch its own mobile website Continue Reading →

MySpace recently announced a deal with Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the team behind Thirtysomething and My So-Called Life to create Quarterlife, an online show about post-college twenty-somethings. Unless it was a very slow news day, this would not be on most people’s radar — at least not until the show was a hit. However, Continue Reading →

CABLE AND SATELLITE OPERATORS have been hit with a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit seeking to force “a la carte” programming. Antitrust attorney Maxwell Blecher has filed the suit, asking the court to prevent cable and satellite companies from unlawfully bundling channels, and to award damages for forcing customers to pay for channels they do Continue Reading →