I’ve been looking at some of the hilarious video satires that increasingly pop up on YouTube and Google Video. here, for example, is a Bush ‘State of the Union’ Address ingeniously doctored. And here is a German video showing that Dubya is in fact a remotely-controlled robot.
On the other hand, here is Dubya doing an hilarious double act with comedian Steve Bridges at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The internet has had a greater impact on advertising in Britain than elsewhere, according to Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world’s second largest advertising and marketing company. WPP’s media planning and buying arm, GroupM, recently forecast that by November the internet would account for 14% of advertising spending in Britain, overtaking the share for national newspapers.This contrasts with a global average in mid single figures and with some markets, such as Spain where only 2% of all ad spending goes online, Sir Martin said. Advertising spending online still lags behind the usage of online media by consumers.
[Source]
BBC NEWS | Technology | Texting levels reach record high
Mobile phone users in the UK sent a record 3.3 billion text messages in May, figures show.
The Big Brother TV show, the FA Cup and Champions League finals all helped boost numbers, according to the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
Person-to-person texts sent across all mobile phone networks averaged 106 million per day last month.
This figure was up 26% on May 2005 and beat the previous UK record of 3.2 billion texts sent in March.
That figure could rise higher this month due to a surge in World Cup-related messages.
An MDA spokeswoman said: “Texting has become second nature to UK mobile phone users, with many bank holiday arrangements being made via text.”
More than 120 million text messages were sent on FA Cup final day, rising to 124 million texts on Champions League final day.
A predicted 36.5 billion texts will be sent by UK mobile phone users this year – up from 32 billion in 2005, according to the MDA.
From today’s Guardian…
Newspapers and magazines have given away as many free DVDs as have been sold in shops so far this year, according to researchers.More than 130m free DVDs, or an average of five per household, were handed out last year and 54m free DVDs have been given away in the first quarter of this year alone, data from Screen Digest shows.Analysts said the flood of free films boded ill for retailers such as HMV, which already faced tough competition from supermarkets and online stores. DVD sales have fallen as newspapers and magazines have given away films in an effort to increase circulation. The average household bought 11.4 DVDs last year, down from 12.5 in 2004…
Very perceptive column by John Dvorak about YouTube. He gets it exactly right, IMHO. Sample:
BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) — YouTube, the privately-held video sharing website, now delivers an estimated 100 million videos a day to its users. The site has been online for barely a year.
It’s [sic] growth rate is phenomenal and without precedent, skyrocketing into the public consciousness and becoming commonplace nearly overnight. So what do the journalists, analysts and pundits all do when they witness this moment in history? Kvetch.
Nobody actually wants to understand exactly why this happened in the first place. Instead you hear the following (and typical) Silicon Valley commentary. “How are they going to monetize it?” “It’s the dotcom bust 2.0!” “There must be a video bubble.” “They’re burning through $1.5 million a month. How can they continue?”
It’s weird but almost nobody looks at this tremendous growth curve and asks themselves, “Holy cripes! How did that happen!?!” Instead you get headlines such as “Is YouTube the next Napster?”
Apparently YouTube has stumbled on to something and perhaps we should try and understand that in itself. If and when the company manages to “monetize” (don’t you love that term?) things may change.
And you must assume that with all the marketing brains out there one of them can find a way to make money. I’m more concerned about why this product exploded the way it did. I’ll critique the money-making scheme when it appears.
So let’s look at what caused the growth. And let’s note that this company is hardly the first on the block to let users share video. Google video, in fact, looks a lot like YouTube, but never achieved this growth despite getting a big head start.
Two things seem to be at work. The first is the incredible desire people have to share video clips with each other. That’s now apparent.
What’s not so apparent, unless you actually have tried to use the various video sharing sites, is that nobody — and I mean nobody — made it easy until YouTube.
Right on! (Now there’s an ageing hippy exclamatiion if ever I saw one!) I pay — happily — for my Flickr Pro account. And, like John D, I would pay for YouTube too.
YouTube is like Flickr in the early days — you can see its members still struggling with the technology. But they’re rapidly getting on top of it. Editing movies is HARD. (Believe me, I know: I have the scars to prove it.) In a year’s time there will be even more accomplished videos like this.
I’m perpetually astonished by the originality and talent of Flickr users. See, for example, this.
Thanks to Brian for the link.
From Technology Review…
YouTube is the one of the most popular video-sharing sites where amateurs and professionals alike can share and view videos — of a recent trip, of a new dog or even of themselves burping.
According to comScore Media Metrix, YouTube had 16 million unique U.S. visitors in July, a 20 percent increase from 13 million in June. The site did not even have measurable traffic until August 2005, when it had 58,000 unique visitors.
For July, YouTube debuted in the Top 50 at No. 40, up from 58th in June.ComScore also recorded a doubling of traffic to News Corp.-owned MySpace.com’s video site, with 20 million visitors, trailing only Yahoo Inc.’s video site, which had 21 million.
“Consumers clearly view video as one of the most accessible, interesting and entertaining sources of content on the Web,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. ”The trends we’re witnessing indicate that online video is emerging from its infancy and entering the mainstream.”
From Technology Review…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — CBS Television will begin showing episodes of several new and returning prime-time shows for free on the Internet, becoming the second network to do so.
The unit of CBS Corp. already sells downloads of episodes on Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes Music Store and Google Inc.’s video store. In May, it launched an advertising-supported online channel called ”innertube” to stream programming created just for the Web.
The network said Tuesday that starting next month it will begin streaming episodes of a new show, ”Jericho,” as well as returning shows ”CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” ”CSI: Miami,” ”CSI: NY,” ”NCIS,” ”Numbers” and ”Survivor.”The shows will contain fewer ads than when they are shown on TV. The ads also will be shorter _ typically 15 second to 30 seconds — and cannot be skipped, CBS said.The shows will become available the day after they appear on TV. Episodes of ”Jericho” and ”Survivor” will remain available online for the entire season, while episodes of the other shows will be online for four weeks following their initial airing.”
Making our new and returning prime-time series available to our viewers is the next step in innertube’s programming evolution,” Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media, said in a statement.ABC began showing episodes of four prime-time shows, including ”Lost” and ”Desperate Housewives” for free online in May. The network was the first to sell episodes on iTunes last October.
ABC recently hailed the success of its later effort, saying that in May and June, the network’s site showed 16 million video streams. The network is expected to expand its online offerings in the fall.
… is a 79-year-old British pensioner, who makes videos in which he talks quietly about his life, work and passion for motorcycles. You can find him here.