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The Economics of Digital Content

Industry Moves: CBS Interactive; PGA; RealNetworks;Turn Inc.

—CBS Interactive: Mary Hentges has been named CFO and EVP of CBSI, reporting to President Neil Ashe. She joins from a seven-year tenure at PayPal, where she was VP of finance and CFO. Hentges replaces Zander Lurie; Lurie held the CFO and EVP roles until his April 2010 shift to SVP of strategic development for CBS (NYSE: CBS) Corp.

Facebook Brings 'Liked' News Stories To Search Results

Facebook has set itself up as a huge source of visits to news sites and it now seems intent on establishing itself as a place where people not only find stories that friends “like” but those that other members are recommending too.

Why Wasn't The AP Able To Get A Better Deal From Google?

A weekly look at a story that is defining the news.

The Associated Press and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) finally came to terms on a new deal this week that lets Google News continue to host AP articles on its site. The AP told us it was “pleased” with the agreement—but it’s not exactly clear what the AP actually gained from Google after so many years of bluster.

The Morning Lowdown 09.03.10

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:

»  Twitter’s Evan Williams says the company’s decision to launch its own mobile apps is paying off: mobile usage is up 62 percent since mid-April and 16 percent of all new Twitter users now start out on their phones, up from five percent before the company’s shift in strategy. [Twitter Blog]

»  The NYT profiles YouTube, declaring that the Google-owned site is an “increasingly fruitful place for advertisers.” The write-up includes the factoid that YouTube’s revenue has more than doubled each year for the last three years. [New York Times]

Connected-TV Race: Yahoo Lands A European Telly Maker

The connected-TV space is getting HOT. Manufacturer platforms like Samsung Internet@TV and Sony Internet TV are set to mix with Google TV and Yahoo Connected TV, while the UK’s Freeview TVs await connectivity upgrades through Dbook 7 and Canvas, and European broadcasters team for an industry-wide HbbTV standard.

In the coming melee, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) now says it’s gained carriage for its chosen implementation with Vestel, a Turkish TV manufacturer that Yahoo says is Europe’s largest telly maker with 16 percent of the LCD market.

Video: Here Is Google TV Running On Sony Internet TV

Sony (NYSE: SNE) unveiled a connected TV running Google (NSDQ: GOOG) TV at the IFA show in Berlin. TechRadar has the lo-down and pics, revealing Google TV to be an integrated part of Sony Internet TV that offers search for web, TV shows, YouTube and more.

As these videos show, there is also a number of apps, including a Chrome browser used to browse the web while TV scales down to picture-in-picture…

TV Everywhere Plays Important Role In New Disney-Time Warner Cable Deal

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) stepped to the precipice of blackout Armageddon—and wisely took a giant step back. Instead of risking their standing with subscribers and viewers, they put away the harsh rhetoric, kept working through the midnight deadline Wednesday and made a deal that keeps ABC owned-and-operated stations, ESPN and a host of Disney cable nets on Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Cable and Bright House Networks without a blip.

The new deal, described in the announcement as Disney’s “most expansive content agreement to date,” moves beyond broadcast and cable to broadband, gaining berths for ESPN3 and creating a “TV Everywhere” option for ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.

Amazon Kindle Searches Spike; Could It Challenge Possible iPad Mini?

In the last year, generic searches for e-readers have doubled, while Kindle-related searches have increased eight fold. With the smaller, sleeker and cheaper Kindle 3 now available Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) looks set to further capitalise on its position as a market leader in the e-reader market.

A Change In Approach? Microsoft Chooses Not To Buy Search Share

Is Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) changing its approach to online spending? The company, which had said as recently as a year ago that it was willing to invest 5 percent to 10 percent of its operating income on its search business for up to five years, wasn’t willing to spend enough to become AOL’s search partner. In fact, Microsoft’s bid wasn’t even competitive enough to bring negotiations down to the wire—and AOL chose Google as its partner months before its contract with the company was even up.

Archives.com Owner Inflection Raises $30 Million

Inflection, an under-the-radar startup which owns genealogy website Archives.com, has raised $30 million in a first round of funding. The company charges users $39.95 a year to access historical records and build their own family trees on the site and it is apparently doing very well, despite competition from sites like Ancestry.com.

AOL's Armstrong: Google Deal 'Better For Us Per Search'

Any search deal with AOL (NYSE: AOL) would start with the same given: search-advertising revenue will continue to decline as it loses access subscribers. But AOL CEO Tim Armstrong says the deal with Google to extend their search partnership through 2015 should make each search it does get more lucrative—and the expansion into mobile and video makes it a better deal than the current one.

“This is a better deal for us on a per search basis. It should be a better search and better monetized,” Armstrong told paidContent in an interview after this morning’s surprising announcement. He’s frank about the situation—“Search decline is going to continue and part of our search revenue will go down.” But he’s also optimistic that the improvements can help AOL make enough money from the “free web” to make a difference. “At some point in the future they should even out,” he said.

Analyst: Paywall Subscribers Worth A Quarter Of Print Readers

Even if newspapers migrate every print reader to paying online, they will still face big losses, according to one analyst.

Annual income per paywall subscriber on TheTimes.co.uk and WSJ.com is just a quarter that from subscribers to UK quality dailies’ print editions, Enders Analysis’ Benedict Evans observes in a new note.

AOL, Google Extend Search Deal To 2015; Add Mobile, YouTube

Ending months of speculation about whether AOL (NYSE: AOL) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) can make a new search deal, the companies announced this morning that Google will be the portal’s exclusive search partner through Dec. 31, 2015. The expanded search and content deal now covers mobile search and puts AOL’s content on YouTube.

The Morning Lowdown 09.02.10

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:

»  Disney (NYSE: DIS) content has remained on Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) even though the companies’ cable and broadcast deal has expired and they continue talks. [LA Times]

»  Twitter for iPad is now available, offering panes and inline video viewing to eliminate the need to open and close windows. [Twitter Blog]

Ping Pongs: What They're Saying About iTunes' Social Upgrade

Ping, the social network Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) announced on Wednesday it’s injecting in to iTunes, is rudimentary, buggy in parts and is deterring many first-time users by recommending they listen to Apple’s hand-picked selection of mainstream chart-toppers.

About Those 99-Cent TV Episodes Being Sold On Amazon ...

If you want to own Glee episodes at a cut-rate price, better get your Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) downloads fast. The e-tailer is countering Apple’s 99-cent rentals from ABC (NYSE: DIS) and Fox by selling some TV episodes at a loss. Amazon still has to pay the contracted rates for electronic sell-throughs (EST), according to sources familiar with the situation, and the networks still have deals with Amazon, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and other distributors that make a switch to 99-cent EST as the rule highly unlikely anytime soon. One source described the price-slashing as a “big loss” although the actual number depends on how many take advantage—and how long Amazon sticks with the lower rate.

Apple 09.01.10 News In Pictures

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) today announced a slew of new products and features on its phone, music and video viewing offerings. Check out a visual tour of Steve Jobs’ presentation, as well as our coverage, below:

Apple TV: The FAQ

Here’s a quick way to learn about the small, black second-gen Apple TV introduced by CEO Steve Jobs at the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) 09.01.10 event:

»  How much does it cost? The device is $99, nearly a 67 percent cut from the original $299 price for the first Apple TV and nearly 57 percent from the current $229. Remote is included; cables are not.

»  How big is it it? It’s 0.9” high, 3.9” wide and 3.9 inches deep. For comparison, iPhone 4 is 4.5” x 2.31” x 0.37”; the new Nano is 1.48” x 1.61” x 0.35”

»  How much does it weigh? 0.6 lbs, slightly more than the iPhone 4 at 4.8 oz.

Google Adds 'Sponsored Icons' To Maps

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has found a new way to monetize Google Maps: Advertisers can now pay to have their logos, rather than generic icons, show up adjacent to the names of their businesses when users zoom in on an area.

Alterian Buys Social Media Consultancy Intrepid

Alterian, which provides marketers with a suite of content management and social media monitoring tools, has bought up Intrepid, a social media consulting firm. Alterian says it’s buying Intrepid—which has 40 employees—in order to provide a “packaged solution of social media analytics and market research capability to organizations who have neither the time or in-house expertise to understand what the social media world is saying about them and how to make best use of it in their businesses.”