NBC and its sister cable channels in the NBC Universal family is launching more Webisodes than any other big networks.
Webisodes –online minidramas produced in conjunction with an existing television series- are the only original fiction the networks are offering weekly (because of the many reruns and repeats of the shows and series). Many people, specially fans, take them a quick and free desktop entertainment.
Some samples on NBC.com are The Recruit, Chuck, and The Outburst -a four-episode Web extensión of “The Office”, with much of the regular cast of the Office but not the biggest starts as Steve Carell, John Krasinski or Jenna Fisher.
At usanetwork.com lie six Webisodes for ¨Psych¨.
The NYTimes writes about it.
Advertising agencies invent their own brands seeking a new business
Some ad agencies are creating their own web properties. Then they put their marketing expertise and promote those new brands. Sample: Mrs-O.org, a blog dedicated to follow the fashion of Michelle Obama. Fans of Mrs. Obama can view photos and videos of the outfit she is wearing and find out where to buy.
The advertising agency behind the blog, Bartle Bogle Hearty, does not work for Mrs. Obama or for the fashion designers the site features. This agency has created a new division, called Zag, dedicated to invent new brands. This initiative is seen by experts, featured by the New York Times, as a part of a business model transformation in the advertising industry.
“Advertising is a massively old model based on the 1950s. As media has proliferated, it’s become a lot harder for us to earn enough money off our ideas,” said to NYTimes Ben Jenkins, the strategic director of Zag. “Zag is about creating the properties ourselves from scratch and having 100 percent of it.”
This agency also has produced Pick Me, a line of premade vegetarian meals; Ila Dusk, a personal security alarm; a Dogside, a social networking and e-commerce site for dog owners.
Illicit live streams games proliferate online
Pirated live streams about professional sports are proliferating on the Internet. These video feed have become a menace to the major sports leagues’ businesses, because of their plan of building a live offering for a subscription fee.
For example, MLB.com (Major League Baseball’s site) offers a season of games streamed online for $79.95.
The hubs of the peer-to-peer networks that facilitate the illicit streaming of live games are mostly outside the U.S. Often they are in China, where some of the most popular services started as student projects. One of the biggest providers of live game fees is the Chinesse TVants.com.
As the New York Times says, “while the biggest services are located in China, it takes a fan, often in the United States, to upload the actual stream for distribution to the wider Internet. This is done by using a PC-tuner card, a $50 device that connects a television to a computer, or by uploading the stream from a legitimate online video subscription to a peer-to-peer network.”
In 2007, M.L.B. documented 3,000 incidents of its live games being stolen; last season that number grew to 5,000. M.L.B. employs three people full time to monitor the Web for piracy. Usually a steady flow of cease-and-desist letters flow out the offices of each league’s law firms.
