DIGITAL FILM FESTIVAL NEWS

A major change Brand expects to see with smartphones and tablets in the coming years is the way they are used in education. Coming off the back of Apple’s highly ambitious iBooks 2 launch and its dealings with major education publishers in the US, the tablet could become a new way to teach.

"Tablets in general are going to dominate the way education is rolled out. There are going to be winners - it could be Apple, it could be Android." "If you look at it from a developing market point of view, it’s going to take years for it to trickle down into developing markets. That’s where we are going to rely on very basic methods; notebooks with mobile connectivity, SMS type services, feature phones."

If schools' relations with tablets were to truly take off, we expect they would remain the preserve of only the wealthiest establishments for a good while. The alternative is to do what Android has done with the smartphone market and make decent enough technology highly affordable.

"Somebody is going to come up with a cheap Android tablet and win the education battle."

Photography pioneer Kodak files for bankruptcy

(Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co, the photography icon that invented the hand-held camera, has filed for bankruptcy protection and plans to shrink significantly, capping a prolonged plunge for one of America's best-known companies.

The Chapter 11 filing makes Kodak one of the biggest corporate casualties of the digital age, after it failed to quickly embrace more modern technologies such as the digital camera -- ironically, a product it invented.

Kodak once dominated its industry, and its film was the subject of a popular 1973 song, "Kodachrome," by Paul Simon.

The bankruptcy may give Kodak, which traces its roots to 1880, the ability to find buyers for some of its 1,100 digital patents, a major portion of its value. Kodak now employs 17,000 people worldwide, down from 63,900 just nine years ago.

The cloud is coming to Hollywood, and leaders are starting to emerge

Apple’s launch of iCloud has sparked a huge amount of attention, and companies like Microsoft and Google are aggressively staking their claims in the cloud as well.

Why all the hype? In an otherwise gloomy economy, the emerging cloud computing industry is one of the few bright spots. According to IDC, the industry is currently worth about $20B year, and is expected to grow by 27% per year through 2014. This makes it the fastest growing industry worldwide, ahead of others like biotech, solar energy, and even video games.

While much of the attention may be focused on big players like Apple and Google, there’s also a quieter revolution that’s happening in Hollywood – and it’s profoundly changing the way that films and TV shows are being made.

The cloud is coming to Hollywood, and it will forever change the world of film and television production...

At CES in Las Vegas last week, connected TVs were the talk of the show. It seemed everyone was making an announcement – Yahoo rolled out new features and partners to its connected TV business, Panasonic partnered with Myspace to launch Myspace TV on the Viera Connect Smart TV platform, and Google announced that LG will join the list of companies supporting Google TV.

There is substantial consumer demand for streaming television content, evidenced by virtually every major TV manufacturer rolling out Web-connected TVs in the past year. Companies are placing bets on connected TV for good reason. NPD DisplaySearch predicts that connected TV shipments will account for 47% of all flat-panel TVs in 2015.

Connected TV is still in its infancy, but its digital marketing potential is huge. Millions of videos that were previously only accessible online are now available to consumers via their TVs. Online video to date has been focused on “snacking,” but the living room consumer has more time for longer-form content and the substantial ad inventory that accompanies it. It’s not hard to imagine literally thousands of “channels” of professional and “prosumer” niche content.

While the promise of this is exciting, it also feels very familiar. We’re cresting the peak of inflated expectations. Brace yourselves for another ride on the hype cycle for the video ad business.

NPD In-Stat: Wi-Fi devices to approach 600 million in 3 years
The number of Wi-Fi devices is forecast to reach nearly 600 million in 2015, according to NPD In-Stat, as wireless connectivity reduces or eliminates the need for Ethernet connections to the Internet. "Wi-Fi has moved from a nice-to-have feature to a must-have feature as it provides the connectivity necessary to support IP-based video content," said Frank Dickson, the market research firm's vice president of research.

Maker Studios is a media company that bridges the gap between YouTube and television. Maker is developing sustainable programming and building large audiences on YouTube with over 33 million subscribers and 500 million monthly views across more than 250 channels. Offerings to partners include development, production, promotion, distribution, sales, marketing and enterprise. Maker is dedicated to help cultivate new talent, take existing talent to the next level and build lasting brands with engaged audiences.

According to Deloitte’s sixth edition “State of the Media Democracy” survey, access to content is increasing American media consumption. Movies are available on a wider array of platforms: home TV via cable, satellite, DVD, pay-per-view, Internet and online via streaming/downloading to a personal computer, gaming console, smartphone or tablet. As recently as 2009, only 28% of Americans reported streaming a movie; today, 42% report streaming.

In 2007, 37% of people said that they had not viewed a movie, available for purchase or rental, during the past six months. In 2011, that percentage of non-consumers dropped to only 19%. And, while only 23% of respondents preferred to be able to download their books, magazines and newspapers to a digital device in 2007, 36% now express interest in this option.

The survey found that 20% of leading millennials (ages 23 to 28) have read their favorite newspaper in the last six months on a smartphone, up from 9% last year. 11% of leading millennials have also stated that this is their favorite method for reading the newspaper, up from 3% last year.

Phil Asmundson, vice chairman and U.S. media & telecommunications sector leader, Deloitte LLP, notes that “Consumers may be watching fewer television shows and movies on TV, or reading fewer physical copies of books and newspapers, but they have not stopped consuming the content. They are simply watching or reading on different media or platforms."

Though using a DVR is the second-most preferred means of watching one’s favorite TV show, says the report, Americans have already cut, or are exploring cutting their pay TV connection entirely.

The survey found that 9% of people have already cut the cord and 11% are considering doing so because they can watch almost all of their favorite shows online. An additional 15% of respondents said that they will most likely watch movies, television programs, and videos from online digital sources (via download or streamed over the Internet) in the near future.

CEA: 53% of Online Americans Watching Video

Fifty-three percent of online Americans watch some form of streaming or downloaded video in the home, according to a new study from the Consumer Electronics Association, or CEA. Americans prefer streaming (51% of respondents) over downloaded content (15%), with those streaming also spending nearly double the time watching (two hours) as those who download.

“Technology allows consumers to access almost any content they desire instantaneously on Internet-connected devices,” said Chris Ely, manager of industry relations for CEA. “The rise of mobile broadband has resulted in the emergence of connected devices that are able to stream content directly from the Internet, and services that allow consumers to store and access content without the need of a hard drive.”

Mark Cuban, Ryan Seacrest, live entertainment impresario AEG and Creative Artists Agency will rebrand Cuban's small cable network HDNet into a bigger new music-entertainment-lifestyle channel. The new network called AXS TV (pronounced "access") is scheduled to debut this summer, building on the content of AEG’s live events, run in more than 100 venues worldwide.

TV programming will include behind-the-scenes access to live concerts and music festivals, red carpet premieres, award shows, parties, pop culture events and in-depth interviews. The new network will meld content with HDNet’s existing programming -- HDNet Fights, "Inside MMA," "Dan Rather Reports," Sunday concert series and other nonscripted series.

The announcement says the agreement will included an expanded deal with Dish Network, which will count a variety of unique music services for Dish subscribers. The new network, along with existing TV distribution deals, will get AXS TV into 35 million U.S. TV homes

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/166098/high-def-channel-gets-new-definition-mark-cubans.html?edition=42402#ixzz1k4SNmSJH

eMarketer just released an updated ad forecast predicting that online would surpassing print ad spending this year. "U.S. online advertising spending, which grew 23% to $32.03 billion in 2011, is expected to grow an additional 23.3% to $39.50 billion this year, pushing it ahead of total spending on print newspapers and magazines," the research aggregator and analyst projects in its updated forecast, which projects taht ad spending is expected to fall to $33.80 billion in 2012 from $36.00 billion in 2011. "Despite concerns about the troubled economy among agencies and marketers, total ad spending in the U.S. is expected to rebound in 2012 after rising 3.4% to $158.90 billion in 2011," the report also predicts, noting that total U.S. media ad spending will grow an estimated 6.7% to $169.48 in 2012, boosted by the national elections and summer Olympics in London. While quadrennial-boosted TV ad budgets will rise 6.8% to $64.80 billion this year, emarketer projects that "digital remains the sole bright spot" for print-based newspaper and magazine publishers. eMarketer estimates U.S. digital newspaper ad revenues grew 8.3% to $3.30 billion in 2011. Print advertising revenues at newspapers fell 9.3% to $20.70 billion in 2011. At magazines, US print ad revenues are expected to rise 0.5% to $15.34 billion in 2012, up from $15.30 billion last year. U.S. digital advertising spending at magazines grew 18.8% to $2.70 billion in 2011.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/166141/stop-the-presses-again-online-to-surpass-print.html#ixzz1jzHUOpp7

It’s no secret: online video advertising is exploding. Recent data from eMarketer estimated that in 2011, more than 158 million U.S. Internet users will be watching video content online each month, a number it expects to increase nearly 24 percent, to 195.5 million, by 2015.

Not surprisingly, this growth is expected to create a corresponding impact on spend for online video advertising. eMarketer has projected that video ad spending will increase from $2.16 billion in 2011 to $7.11 billion by 2015. So what will be the driving force behind this growth? Simple: online video will be an integral part of every website, large and small. That said, now is the time for publishers of all sizes that do not have a video strategy to start thinking about it. http://us.mg6.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=1fe2m1nr49jc4

DISH Network plans to close more Blockbuster stores than it previously announced when it paid $320 million to acquire the video rental chain out of bankruptcy last year. DISH, which initially said it would keep 1,500 Blockbuster stores open, now plans to shutter unprofitable locations and turn some of them into customer-service operations, CEO Joe Clayton said.

Hulu will create 2 original shows
Online video network Hulu plans to launch two original programs and bring back director Morgan Spurlock's "A Day in the Life" for a second season. The move comes as more independent producers and studios look for ways to create content for the Web.

Google and LG Electronics are in negotiations on providing LG with early access to the next generation of the Google TV software, Bloomberg reports, citing people with knowledge of the project. Such talks could give LG a leg up in developing a television set with Google TV 3.0 technology, much like how HTC and Samsung Electronics were able to make mobile phones with the latest version of the Android operating system

TiVo says research shows that DVR-equipped viewers are watching more recorded TV and TV from over-the-top TV services like Netflix than live TV.

Nearly two-thirds of the viewing on Web-connected TiVo units is now delayed television or on-demand video via broadband service. Only 38% of viewing is live. TiVo says the research comes from anonymous usage across some 2 million TiVo devices on a second-by-second basis.

These TiVo units provide access to Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus and other video options. Among those TiVo subscribers that used these services, live viewership is even lower at 27%. Tom Rogers, president and chief executive officer of TiVo, added: "The reduction in time spent watching live TV has huge implications for commercial ad delivery, how consumers search and find programs, and the role of networks in the carriage of shows, all of which require the industry's increased focus."

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/165672/tivo-dvr-viewers-watch-more-recorded-than-live-tv.html#ixzz1jOfaEY6q

Murdoch: we screwed up MySpace 'in every way possible'

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, has tweeted about how his company “screwed up MySpace in every way possible”.

Murdoch has spoken out before about how difficult owning MySpace was, after finally selling it off to advertising company Specific Media and Justin Timberlake last year, for approximately $35m (£22m) – just six per cent of what News Corporation paid for the business. Murdoch’s business is understood to have retained a small undisclosed stake in the social network, but is not involved in the day to day running of it.

In October 2011, during an annual shareholder meeting he admitted: “I made a huge mistake…We bought it [MySpace] for $600 million. We could have sold it for $6 billion a month later.” Instead, Murdoch’s company continued to try and battle against Facebook for users and advertising dollars for six more difficult years, relaunching several times and going through three chief executives.

The next challenge for the popular service, which already has 800 million viewers a month, is to make YouTube a more central part of these viewers' lives, said Robert Kyncl, YouTube vice president in charge of content partnerships.

"What we want is for viewers is to spend more time on YouTube," Kyncl told Reuters in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Kyncl, who moved from online rival Netflix a year and a half ago, comes to the consumer electronics showcase each year to check out connected devices because the more gadgets available with Internet access, the more ways consumers can watch YouTube. "We're a huge benefactor of what consumer electronics companies are doing with their devices, which is building Internet connectivity into them," he said. "It's allowing us to get in front of more consumers."

2011 was a breakout year for online video. It grew in both importance and prevalence largely because of the abundance of video content coming online from video streaming sites like Amazon, Hulu, Netflix and VEVO -- and the fact that the quality and quantity of content has dramatically improved in just a short time.

By investing $450 million in Facebook at a $50 billion valuation -- and helping Facebook raise as much as another $1.5 billion, as the NYT reported -- Goldman Sachs got a little extra: It's now in the driver's seat to eventually take Facebook public. Beyond whatever it makes on its investment, the fees will be a great bonus.

Goldman Sachs has reached out to its wealthy private clients, offering them a chance to invest in Facebook, the hot social networking giant that is considering a possible public offering in 2012, according to people familiar with the matter.

On Sunday night, a number of Goldman clients received an email from their Goldman broker, offering them the opportunity to invest in an unnamed “private company that is considering a transaction to raise additional capital.” Another person briefed on the deal said that Goldman clients would have to pony up a minimum of $2 million to invest and would be prohibited from selling their shares until 2013.
Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/goldman-invests-in-facebook-at-50-billion-valuation/

Cord-Cutting Grows: 22% of Consumers Have or are Considering Ditching Cable

A just released report from Deloitte on the state of the media business said that 9% of U.S. consumers have ditched their cable or satellite service and another 11% are considering canceling. The reason? They can watch the shows they like online. What’s more, another 15% of respondents say they will most likely watch movies and TV shows via online video options in the near future, suggesting that consumers are becoming more willing to try out new ways to watch shows.

Those numbers will likely keep growing because viewers are simply more conversant watching TV shows via other devices. Deloitte also found that 22% of consumers had watched a TV show from a free online source (such as Hulu) in the last six months, while 21% had watched from a show’s Web site; both figures are on par with the year before. About 9% of consumers used a gaming console to watch TV, up from 6% in 2010; and 6% had used a smartphone, up from 5% a year ago. About 3% are watching TV on tablets. Meanwhile, about 42% of respondents had streamed a movie online, up from 32% a year ago, and 28% in 2009.
Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/165251/cord-cutting-grows-22-of-consumers-have-or-are-c.html#ixzz1j8CKUusA

Pasadena, Calif -- NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt was honest about the network's continued viewership doldrums.

"We had a really bad fall -- which I kind of expected," he says, speaking at the Television Critics Association meeting here. Greenblatt took over the network early in 2011, coming from Showtime. Blame, he says, goes to the scarcity of good lead-ins, some departing high-profile talent, among other reasons. The good news is that new owners, Comcast Corp., are in it for the long haul, he says. They are investing in programming and have patience.

YouTube 2.0 helping new stars redefine TV

"YouTube isn't just a video platform; it's really a social networking site, a place to show like-minded people what you're up to," says Jutagir, 36. "I've been totally amazed at the response." Perhaps no more so than the folks at Google-owned YouTube, the Web's dominant video site with nearly a half-billion unique visitors a month.

If YouTube 1.0 was about showcasing random clips, YouTube 2.0 represents a quest to become a genuine entertainment destination. The company has become so convinced that grassroots content creators such as Jutagir are the key to this metamorphosis that last week it sent him and 24 others to its first-ever Creator Camp in New York.

During the past year alone, the site's hold on viewers rose 20%, from 33 million minutes per month to 40 million (about 28,000 days), according to the online-data firm comScore. By comparison, Hulu plus the top network-TV sites combined totaled 8 million minutes.