As Mommy bloggers steadily grow in ranks, the segment is beginning to wield more influence in both the blogosphere and on the web as a whole. And it looks like NBC is waking up to the potential power of this audience. The media company is launching a web-based offshoot of the Today Show, called TODAYMoms.com. Unsurprisingly, the site is currently sponsored by Walmart.
The site will offer parenting news, advice and tips from the show, and wants to engages web-savvy mommies in engaging with the site. There will be a considerable amount of web-exclusive content, and NBC says that they want to create a mobile destination for the site, and perhaps in iPhone app. It appears that the site will be partly a social network, as moms will be encouraged to create a profile, share photos and participate in the blog via comments and reviews.And the site features a large amount of video content, which is partly on-air segments from the Today show and original content. → Read More
CBSNews.com is undergoing a major overhaul and redesign of its sites to make them easier to navigate, more visually compelling, faster and more focused on driving users to content.
The new home page features a rotating list of top stories on the left, next to the list of the latest and most important headlines. CBS News programs, as well as the latest videos, photo galleries and blogs, are all highlighted on the page. CBS News also plugs its program sites, including Evening News, Face the Nation, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, and Sunday Morning, on its homepage. CBS says that the company applied technology from its sister site, CNET.com, to deliver pages from its servers to users’ screens more rapidly. Dan Farber, CNET’s editor-in-chief, oversaw the redesign. → Read More
Video search startup EveryZing just landed its biggest fish yet: NBC Universal. Boston-based EveryZing signed a master service agreement with NBC to provide video search and search-optimization technologies across all of its online properties, which include NBC.com, iVillage, CNBC.com, and the websites for Bravo, Sci-Fi, and Telemundo. (The deal does not cover Hulu, which is a joint venture between NBC and Fox).
NBC is also investing in the company, leading its latest $8.25 million C round, through its venture capital arm, the Peacock Equity Fund. Peacock Equity put in $3 million of the total, with existing investors Fairhaven Capital, General Catalyst Partners, Accel Partners and BBN Technologies putting up the rest. The valuation was flat with the last $10 million round the company raised in 2007. → Read More
Just last month, we wrote that Hulu had gained some 10 million viewers to become the fourth largest video portal on the web. Now, it’s slain another rival to the list: Yahoo, to move into #3 — at least in terms of videos viewed.
To be clear, the new March U.S. numbers released by comScore show that Hulu is still slightly behind Yahoo’s video properties when it comes to unique viewers. But the NBC and Fox-backed Hulu should pass it any day now in that category as well. Meanwhile, the number two player, Fox Interactive Media (which runs MySpace), is slipping just as quickly as Hulu is rising in videos viewed. It could well be as soon as this month when Hulu moves into the number two web video position. → Read More
We last wrote about the upcoming Jimmy Fallon show quite some time ago, noting that NBC would be using THE INTERNET to create “buzz” and a “following,” so that when the show launched—the first episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon airs this Monday night—there would already be some sort of audience. We’ll see how that turns out; NBC and Conan O’Brien look to be fairly confident he’ll succeed. → Read More
Now the DTV Delay Act succesfully navigated through the US Capitol, there are some large, looming questions. Primarily, now that the analog switch-off is optional until June 12, what stations will switch off when? And is the Government going to pump more money into the bankrupt DTV vouchers program? → Read More
The brains behind NBC’s wunderkind video site, George Kliavkoff, is leaving NBC at the end of ’08. George came to NBC over two years ago as the companies chief digital officer and laid the groundwork for Hulu’s success. Under his watch, Hulu became a digital revenue cash cow for NBC and a legitimate alternative to YouTube for content providers. The site might not post as many page views as YouTube, but with Klavkoff’s guidance, it actually turns a profit which is something Google has been struggling to do after the $1.65 billion dollar purchase. Kliavkoff is excersing a contract clause that allows him to leave at the end of the year. “I believe in my heart that this is a best time to start, run, or invest in digital companies and I am very excited about moving on to my next challenge,” Kliavkoff wrote. It’s hard to imagine another success like Hulu, but even if he turns out something half as good, it will be a hit. → Read More
Fire up iTunes and you’ll find, for the first time, TV shows from the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) in HD. It’s still $2.99 per HD episode, and that includes a standard-def version of the TV show for your iPhone or iPod. HD shows now include hits like Lost, CSI, 30 Rock and The Office. But we all know The Shield is the best show on TV now, so whatever. → Read More
The real Office Let’s all congratulate NBC for seemingly having figured out how to prevent its great content, like clips of Saturday Night Live, from appearing on the likes of YouTube and Dailymotion. Well done, chaps! NBC told CNET that it’s gotten to the point that unauthorized video clips (like from the Olympics or The Office) are removed so quickly that there’s hardly a soul who sees them. NBC also says its own Web site and Hulu.com are now getting more traffic than ever. As a closing note, I will be grabbing this week’s episode of The Office from BitTorrent. Not to be a jerk or anything, but because I can’t visit Hulu from Barcelona. You’ve made me a criminal, NBC! → Read More
NBC had a huge week thanks to the financial troubles being experienced on Wall Street and its new relationship with Apple.
CNBC.com was the chosen destination for investors and businesspeople alike this week as the instability on Wall Street led to the site’s largest audience ever. For the first time in its history, CNBC.com served 1 million unique visitors on Monday and racked up 14.6 million page views — a 26 percent gain over the site’s previous high, according to its internal data.
Tiny Fey and the hoopla surrounding Vice-Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin can be thanked for giving NBC.com its most-watched viral video of all time. According to the company, it bested previous favorites, “D— in a Box” and “Lazy Sunday,” and even beat out copies uploaded to YouTube. → Read More
NBC shows being on iTunes isn’t a case of NBC begging Apple to let it come back, but a case of Apple caving into some of NBC’s demands. Let’s all predict Apple’s imminent demise! NBC left iTunes last year because Apple didn’t let it set its own prices for its content. That has now changed. NBC said that it’ll be selling certain, older TV shows for 99 cents a pop versus the “normal,” Apple-set price of $1.99. NBC is also toying with the idea of creating “best of” collections that it would sell at a price of its choosing. For example, maybe the five best episodes of The Office for $5 instead of $10. Consumers, so far, actually come out on top in this arrangement. As far as the bigger picture goes, this means that Apple doesn’t quite have the stranglehold over Hollywood that many have thought in the past. Though you wonder why NBC even bothered with going back to iTunes if it’s so confident in Hulu. → Read More
Despite its special Silverlight-powered Website and more than 2,000 hours of online video, it looks like NBC flubbed its opportunity to make its Olympics Web revenues more than a rounding error. NBCOlympics.com may have streamed 72 million videos and racked up 1.2 billion pageviews, but Yahoo Sports still edged it out with an average of 4.7 million visitors a day versus 4.3 million (source: Nieisen Online). And Yahoo didn’t even have video. NBC is spinning its numbers as a success to the New York Times today, in response an estimate eMarketer put out on Friday that NBC’s Olympics video ad revenues came to only $5.75 million. That compares to $23 million that CBS made from video ads when it streamed the NCAA basketball tournament live on its Website in March. Surely, NBC should have been able to make more money from Olympics Web video than CBS did from March Madness. But NBC decided to limit what people could see online, especially live streams, in favor of its TV coverage because it feared cannibalizing its TV audience. Those fears proved to be unfounded because given the choice, most people would rather watch the Olympics on TV than online. But NBC missed a big opportunity here to expand its audience by streaming events it gave short shrift on TV (i.e., anything that wasn’t women’s beach volleyball or sports where the U.S. didn’t have a good chance of earning a medal). The eMarketer estimate does not include banner-ad revenue generated by those 1.2 billion pageviews. Those could have been more than the video-ad revenue, depending on the CPMs—for instance a $10 CPM would have generated $12 million. It’s still a rounding error compared to the $1 billion in revenues that NBC made from the Olympics, most of that from TV ads. Right? Wrong. NBC paid $900 million for exclusive video rights to the Olympics, meaning that its profits will be about $100 million. It doesn’t take much to move that profit needle. After Website and bandwidth costs, online revenues are pretty much gravy. Think of it this way: Every $25 million above costs would have resulted in 25 percent more profits. But NBC still thinks of the Web as nothing more than an experiment. → Read More
NBC is lame. I’m sorry. They are making it really hard to watch videos of the Olympics anywhere but on their site. That would be fine with me, but as a user with an older Mac, I’m shut out. Their video only works on Windows machines and Intel-powered Macs that support Silverlight 2.0. Yes, I am bitter. And yes, I need to upgrade my computer. (Admitted lameness on my part). But I’m sure NBC could have made some backup video available in a more common format such as Flash or Quicktime. Microsoft, however, sees this as a unique opportunity to showcase Silverlight and got the exclusive. The mobile version of the site is a little bit better. At least there I can see video highlights of the games, even on my iPhone. (And why can’t I see this on my regular computer again?). But these are only select highlights. I don’t want the commentary, I just want to see the full footage. But top marks goes to Skyfire, whose mobile browser renders not only Flash videos, but Silverlight ones as well. (It also handles Ajax quite nicely, but that is a different story). You can go to the regular NBCOlympics video site on your phone and watch all 2,000-plus hours of video footage. Skyfire is available only on Windows Mobile (natch) and on Nokia S60 phones in private beta. (We have 100 beta invites for the first readers to sign up here with the code “Crunch”). So in order to watch the Olympics full-throttle on the Web, I need to do it with a mobile browser that is still in private beta. Here’s a video of what an NBC Olympics video looks like on a Nokia phone running Skyfire: CrunchBase Information Skyfire Microsoft Silverlight Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Just noticed this graphic as NBC took a commercial break during Olympic coverage. Can’t wait to watch the upcoming “SWIMMMING” events. Nice work there, NBC. You’d fit right in here at CrunchGear. As we always say, “Proofreeeading, schmroofreedninng.” → Read More
The NFL will broadcast games online this fall, bucking its previous “the Internet is evil, sue, sue, sue!” methodology. The NFL’s broadcast partner, NBC, will stream select games this season, streams that appear to be the real deal. That is, NBC will stream the very same TV feed that you’re used to watching, complete with John Madden’s insightful commentary. Boom, squiggly line, etc. The new site will also try to get regular TV viewers in on the action by hosting exclusive content along the lines of, “Go to [Web site] to watch an exclusive interview with some guy tangentially related to the on-the-field action.” Good for the NFL. Let that be a lesson to, say, the Barclays Premier League, which takes down YouTube clips at the drop of a hat. → Read More
BlogHer, an online network of female bloggers, has announced a partnership with iVillage and Women@NBCU, a new content and marketing intiative by NBC Universal. The partnership includes a $5 million Series B round led by Peacock Equity (a fund run by NBC Universal and GE) along with previous investor Venrock Capital. iVillage, Oxygen.com, and BravoTV.com will also obtain access to BlogHer’s network of 2,200 women’s blogs for syndication purposes. iVillage is an online network geared toward women that was bought by NBC Universal for $600 million in March 2006. It’s also the leading women’s content network with over 16 million unique visitors monthly and 4 billion page views per year. BlogHer co-founders Elisa Camahort Page, Lisa Stone, and Jory Des Jardins claim that this partnership will bring a much higher level of exposure to its network of bloggers. BlogHer was founded in February 2005 as a way to popularize and monetize blogs written by women and meant for women. The network includes a community portal, an index of blogs, and a series of conferences. The partnership was announced today by Lauren Zalaznick, President of Women and Lifestyle Entertainment networks for NBC Universal. Zalaznick also announced her plans to form a female-targeted digital ad network as part of the Women@NBCU initiative. The network will include BravoTV.com, Oxygen.com, iVillage, and Sugar Inc., making it the largest agglomeration of women’s media brands online. BlogHer had previously raised $3.5 million from Venrock Capital in June 2007. CrunchBase Information BlogHer NBC Universal iVillage Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
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