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Jonathan Miller Of News Corps Hints At Charging For Hulu

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:27:19 +0000

The aliens over at Hulu don’t just want to eat your brains—they also want to take your money, according to a Daily Finance story yesterday. New CEO Jonathan Miller said:

he envisions a future where at least some of the TV shows and movies on Hulu, the premium video site co-owned by News Corp., NBC Universal and Disney, are available only to subscribers.

Miller . . . prefaced his remark by noting that he won’t attend his first Hulu board meeting until Monday, so the scenario he foresees is merely his own speculation. But, he continued, “in my opinion the answer could be yes. I don’t see why over time that shouldn’t happen. I don’t think it’s on the agenda for Monday [but] it seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing.”

So before we all go freaking out, we have to acknowledge that this could just be Miller talking crazytalk.

On the other hand, it sure looks like well-thought out crazytalk. Not-so-incidentally, Miller is in charge of finding new ways to get people to pay for News Corp.’s digital content—including Fox and the WSJ. Rupert Murdoch has been saying the WSJ will ramp up its paid wall again—but is that model going to work for video?

What do you think—will paid subscriptions be the beginning of the end of the would-be YouTube challenger? Or is this the wave of the future? (You know, kinda.)

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Maven Scores Gannett USAToday.com Video Deal

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:24:20 +0000

Maven Networks will roll out an online TV solution with news publisher Gannett’s USAToday website and 150 other websites.

In September, Fox News tapped Maven for its Internet TV technology. Major news publisher Gannett has followed suit, Maven announced today.

Gannett will use Maven to deliver ad-supported news video on its various news sites. Their audience should be in the neighborhood of 22 million visitors per month, which according to Nielsen//NetRatings was 14.3 percent of the total US Internet audience in October.

"Our Information Center approach to news and information relies on multimedia, and video is a key element of our news and information offerings on all our Web sites – whether they are related to our newspapers or TV stations," Gannett Digital president Jack Williams said in a statement.

The key to success will be the advertising Maven can enable Gannett to deliver. A variety of customization options for the Maven media player can make it resemble the look and feel of various Gannett properties.

Advertisements can receive similar treatment, a feature Gannett certainly will promote as the company pitches big-name brands and other advertisers as Maven unfolds across its properties.

A Maven spokesperson said the technology should be available on USAToday.com in the first quarter of 2008.

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Fox Pushed To Free Presidential Debate Videos

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:16:05 +0000

Followers of politics won’t see Michelle Malkin and DailyKos on the same page very often, but the cease and desist letters Fox News issued to Republican Presidential candidates regarding the use of debate videos have put them on the same side again.

Long after other major networks have relented and permitted the use of their debate videos, Fox News wants all the Republicans running for the Oval Office to stop using theirs.

It wasn’t always this way. Go back a week, where Talking Points Memo noted who received a cease and desist letter on video usage, and who didn’t. John McCain’s campaign got the copyright infringement letter; to McCain’s credit, his campaign declined that request.

Rudy Giuliani, a long-time friend of Fox executive Roger Ailes, had plenty of Fox material on his website. It didn’t seem like his campaign suffered from similar attention from Ailes’ legal people.

After that little conflict became more widely known, Fox told all of the Republicans not to use its videos. That garnered a response from MoveOn.org, reprising efforts in April of this year to have networks release Democratic debate videos for others to use.

“It is time that the presidential candidates from both parties stand with Senator McCain and defend his right to use this clip to advance his presidential campaign,” Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig said on his blog.

“Not because it is “fair use” (whether or not it is), but because presidential debates are precisely the sort of things that ought to be free of the insanely complex regulation of speech we call copyright law.”

“One way to solve this is for all the candidates to pledge that they will not appear on any network’s debate unless that network frees the footage for all candidates and citizens,” Jeff Jarvis said at PrezVid.com. “It is, after all, our election.”

Prominent conservative voices like RedState.com blogger Eric Erickson and former Republican FEC Chair Brad Smith have also challenged Fox over the use of debate videos.

Though Fox has partially pulled itself away from a perceived conflict of interest by extending its demands to all Republican candidates, their stance runs counter to their motto of “We Report. You Decide.” It looks like people have decided they want fair use of debate video.

Google Debuts Facebook News App

Doug Caverly — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:19:41 +0000

Google may have this social networking thing down, after all – although it was just formally announced on Friday, a Google News app for Facebook already has almost 2,300 daily active users.

The app’s long-term performance might be a better indicator of its success (or failure) -early interest or even a bunch of Googlers could have inflated current numbers. Also, Vanessa Fox points to evidence that it may have snuck out of development earlier in the month, giving it time to build an audience. Still, The New York Times News Quiz is a similar app, and with just 650 daily active users, it’s already been labeled a success.

On to what the Google News app does, then. “This experimental application enables users to create custom sections or select from a set of pre-defined topics, then browse and share stories with their friends on Facebook,” wrote Google’s own Tina Huang and Dan Meredith. You might imagine that this is out of line with popular Zombie- and food fight-related apps, but again, we’ll just have to see how the numbers stabilize.

The Google News team revealed one other trick in recent days: YouTube videos became somewhat easy to find on the main Google News page. It seems that a lot of products are getting tied together; this development also acts as evidence of Google’s interest in Facebook.

Fox News Partners With Maven Networks

Mike Sachoff — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:16:39 +0000

Fox News has selected Internet TV platform Maven Networks to run all of its online video channels for its global news network.

Fox News Partners With Maven Networks

The Maven Internet TV Platform allows media companies to make video libraries available for syndication to online media outlets, while keeping control of their content and advertising.

"The popularity and demand for Fox News online video content are enormous," said Jeff Misenti, General Manager and VP of Fox News Digital.

"Online video opens up an untapped and arguably limitless landscape of inventory for media companies looking to grow their advertising revenue-creating an extremely valuable opportunity for businesses today. It is critical for us to be on the cutting-edge of innovation in Internet video syndication, monetization and user experiences."

As video consumption grows beyond Fox New’s current streams per month, Mavens scalable syndication platform will improve the delivery of Fox New’s online content to its affiliates around the globe.

"News Corp. in general, and Fox News in particular, have been at the forefront of transforming the online experience. We are excited to be partnering with a true Internet media innovator to bring the market-leading capabilities of the Maven platform to Fox’s millions of viewers worldwide," said Hilmi Ozguc, Founder and CEO of Maven Networks

Fox, NYT Play With Wikipedia

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:13:49 +0000

IP addresses associated with news organizations have been connected to edits made in Wikipedia that either smear rivals or remove negative information from their entries.

Fox, NYT Play With Wikipedia

No one can claim innocence on either side of the political spectrum when it comes to playing with Wikipedia entries. The online encyclopedia that anyone can edit sometimes suffers from that openness.

The debut of an automated Wikipedia edit tracker – Wikipedia Scanner – from CalTech grad student Virgil Griffith made it easier for people to see the connections between anonymous edits and the netblocks of IP addresses from which they originate.

Big organizations tend to own blocks of IP addresses to suit their Internet communication needs. It’s unlikely a random person would be using an address that is part of a netblock. That makes it easier to find out who has been playing fast and loose with Wikipedia entries.

Both Fox News and the New York Times have been caught being naughty with certain entries. The Geeks Are Sexy blog has a long list of Fox News edits. Here’s an example:

…you

Dow Jones Denies News Corp. Buyout

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:00:34 +0000

A report from British news site The Business that Dow Jones had officially been sold to Rupert Murdoch is being called untrue by spokespersons for both the Bancroft family, which owns Dow Jones.

Dow Jones Denies News Corp. Buyout

TheBusinessOnline cited anonymous "sources acting for the Dow Jones board," though it’s unclear what was meant by that.

In the report, which the publication labeled "exclusive," The Business claimed Rupert Murdoch’s $5 billion bid for Dow Jones was accepted, with editorial conditions set by the Bancroft family to ensure independence for the Dow Jones-owned Wall Street Journal.

The article also admits that Dow Jones issued a statement saying the report was incorrect, but later "refused to elaborate on the record." In fact, on the record, the Dow Jones statement simply reads:

An article published on Thebusinessonline.com this morning stating that an agreement in principle has been reached for the sale of Dow Jones & Company to News Corp. is incorrect.

End of statement. It’s easy to think, however, that someone spoke too soon. A deal between the two seemed eminent, as other possible suitors backed away from acquisition possibilities last week, and the WSJ published an article about how the company’s top three editors were protected by a "pact" to ensure editorial independence.

The initial report said an announcement was expected next week, and denials at this point may just be damage control. Statements from News Corp. seem noticeably absent.

The deal is significant because ownership of Dow Jones and its publication gives conservative-leaning Rupert Murdoch a huge boost of influence in the media, adding the WSJ to Fox, the New York Post, MySpace, and other powerhouses.

Integrating all the top media properties, online and off, seems to be Murdoch’s top priority. Adding Dow Jones to today’s approval of Fox’s purchase of the top photo site on the Web, Photobucket, will make next week a champagne type of week for a lot of corporate suits.

Top 10 Reasons Vanessa Fox Left Google

Chris Smith — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:03:22 +0000

Well, the search marketing industry was mildly rocked this week by the news that the much-beloved Vanessa Fox will be leaving Google where she was something of a maven, spokesperson, and technical evangelista for some years. The news has left me rather verklempt! I can’t help but suppose that we’ll now all get to see her less or not at all in her new role working for the real estate website, Zillow.

I’ll be missing her Sandman t-shirts and Buffy references at the conferences, and I fear the subject matter will end up being a lot drier overall for her lack.

Though I don’t know that she’d need any SEO help, I must say that I happen to know a thing or two about local search optimization, if she would like to call me in for advice at Zillow!

In appreciation for Vanessa, with warmest regards, here’s a little list I composed of the Top Ten Reasons Vanessa Left Google:

10. Vanessa got tired of being stalked by all the odd SEO geeks out there, like the strange man in the long black coat who starts hovering around behind her three-quarters of the way through this video interview between her and Rand.

9. Vanessa began to realize that Google is actually The Borg, and she decided to go through the painful surgeries necessary to divest herself from the hive-mind.

8. Vanessa resigned after the Google Image Search team refused to give her top ranking for her blog’s keywords “Vanessa Fox Nude“. (WARNING: link into Google Image Search for “vanessa fox nude” is NOT work-safe unless you have Strict SafeSearch enabled in your Google preference settings!)

7. Though generally a secret, Vanessa’s moonlighting job kicking the butt of Black-Hat SEO Vampires was leaving her way too tired for the day job on Webmaster Central. Those Black-Hat SEO Vampires really suck the link-juice outta stuff! (Vanessa, was this why you didn’t make it to our morning panel session on Images & Search at the NYC SES this Spring?!? Also, btw – don’t we have Dave Naylor to thank for the name of Vanessa’s blog? Starting to think Dave may’ve played “Xander” to Vanessa’s “Buffy”… or maybe Dave as “Spike” would be more apt?)

6. A technically-challenged administrator within Google leapt to the incorrect conclusion that Vanessa was secretly assisting spammers when they came across her blog entry on “7 steps to writing better spam email (or what to do if you’ve got an overstock of viagra)“. That dorky bureaucrat within Google secretly campaigned to boot Vanessa out of the company. Some percentage of people are always misunderstanding satire.

5. Amanda Camp was refusing to play “Willow” to Vanessa’s “Buffy”. Sets of twins, separated at birth? Compare:

Amanda Camp and Vanessa Fox

Buffy and Willow

4. Despite moving to England, Danny Sullivan could never master the British accent sufficiently to play “Giles” to Vanessa’s “Buffy”. Vanessa’s angst at the failure drove her on to new pastures.

(photo by Lee Odden)

3. Google’s free food for employees obsession was ruining Vanessa’s new starvation diet.

2. Despite ernestly trying, Vanessa was unable to get the rest of the Webmaster Central team to start referring to her as “Vanessa, the SEO Black Hat Vampire Killer”.

And… last but not least:

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1. When invited to work elsewhere, Vanessa misunderstood and thought they offered for her to “work with Willow” instead of “Zillow“.

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News Corp. Raises Fox Bid

WebProNews — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 17:10:50 +0000

News Corp. is increasing the exchange ratio in its previously announced exchange offer for all of the outstanding shares of Fox Entertainment’s Class A common stock that News Corp. doesn’t already own.

Pursuant to the terms of the increased exchange offer, holders of Fox Class A common stock will receive 2.04 shares of News Corporation Class A common stock in exchange for each outstanding share of Fox Class A common stock validly tendered and not withdrawn in the exchange offer.

Except for the increase in the exchange ratio, the other terms and conditions of the exchange offer remain unchanged, including the condition that there must be validly tendered a majority of the outstanding shares of Fox Class A common stock not beneficially owned by News Corporation or its affiliates, directors and executive officers or the directors and executive officers of Fox.

News Corporation’s increase in the exchange ratio followed discussions with the special committee of the Fox board of directors, comprised solely of independent directors, formed to consider the exchange offer and plaintiffs in the lawsuit referred to below. News Corporation expects to mail a prospectus supplement to Fox stockholders in the near future.

News Corporation has been informed by the special committee that the committee intends to recommend that Fox stockholders accept the increased exchange offer and tender their shares. The special committee received fairness opinions from its financial advisors, The Blackstone Group L.P. and Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated.

News Corporation also announced the settlement in principle of a purported consolidated class action lawsuit filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery and purported class action lawsuits filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York County of New York and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in each case, brought on behalf of stockholders of Fox other than News Corporation challenging the exchange offer. A memorandum of understanding setting forth the terms of the settlement was entered into by the plaintiffs and the named defendants as of March 2, 2005. Among other conditions, the settlement is subject to negotiation of final settlement documentation, confirmatory discovery by the plaintiffs, court approval of the settlement and dismissal with prejudice of the litigation.

News Corporation has extended the exchange offer, previously scheduled to expire at midnight on March 4, 2005, until midnight, New York City time, on March 18, 2005.

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News Corp. Wants the Whole Fox

WebProNews — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 22:18:33 +0000

If News Corp. wants to buy the remaining shares of Fox, it may have to increase its offer in order to get the minority shareholders to go along.

If everything goes according to plan, News Corp. will gain possession of Fox Network, 20th Century Fox film studios, Fox News Channel and its 34 percent interest in DirecTV.

Right now News Corp. only owns 82.1% of Fox.

“We really took Fox public as a way to drive value into the stock,” said News Corp CFO, David Devoe.

“While we believe that there is much merit in completing this transaction, we also note that we obviously already control and operate Fox through our 82 per cent position and therefore the operational benefits of this transaction are limited (but) it will be a significant milestone in the simplification of our company structure.”

The $5.86 billion deal still depends on a “favorable tax ruling and receipt of tenders for a majority of the outstanding Fox stock, will not dilute the Murdoch family’s 29.5 per cent interest in News Corp’s voting stock.”

According to a New Ratings article, Newscorp denies any links to Liberty Media, which owns an 18% voting-share stake in News Corp, in its Fox offer.

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