Top Stories
o Analysis: Samsung Gives Apple a Taste of its Own Medicine
o Internet Ad Spending Grew 49% During First Half of 2006
o Electronic Arts Reports Over Two Million Units of Madden NFL 07 Game Sold
o Report: HDTV Cable Network Revenues to Reach $1.8B by 2010
o Report: Online Game Market to Grow to $4.4 Billion in North America

o Note to Readers: Labor Day Break
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Briefly Noted
o CBS Unit CSTV Launches 100+ Broadband Channels for Live College Sports
o Pixsy Launches StarHabit.com, Photo & Video Celebrity Search Site
o Envizions’ Game Subscriptions to Be Powered by Stream Theory
o Browzar — New Browser to Provide Total Privacy

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o Mobile Content Distributor PlayPhone Raises $9.1 Million
o NPR to Launch Digital Music Service Next Year

Online Extras
o Spiralfrog’s Free Music Downloads Has Significant Downside
o Poll Result: Apple’s closed DRM is the biggest challenge to iTunes’ market dominance
o Morning Links: September 1, 2006
    Interactive Reality Baseball; HDTV for Cellphones; Soap Operas Get Interactive, ...

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o Career Moves: September 1, 2006
    Guardian Media Group, Radio Advertising Bureau, Classic FM, Harris Corporation
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The battle of the electronic giants is shaping up in the music sector. Apple's iPod/iTunes combo is not just being challeged by Microsoft Zune, but by Samsung's new generation of players and branded music services, as well. Samsung steps up to the plate with a new take on the social portable music gadget with built-in speakers that slide out from the back of the device. But perhaps most notable is that Samsung is going to launch a major ad campaign based on the tagline "MPFreedom", clearly aimed against iPod and iTunes. Ironically the ad campaign's theme is reminiscent of Apple's historic 1984 campaign against IBM, which was masterfully portrayed by Apple as an oppressive and unimaginative regime whose time was up. [more...]
http://tinyurl.com/r4ryx (CNET News.com)
http://www.mpfreedom.com
http://www.samsung.com/Products/MP3Player/MP3Player/YP_K5JABXAA.asp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFtuNPTBZ2k (Apple's 1984 Commercial)

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o Internet Ad Spending Grew 49% During First Half of 2006

Advertising spending grew 5.1 percent in the first half of the year across major media, according to preliminary figures released Thursday by Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the ad tracking service of Nielsen Media Research. Most of the 15 reported media showed gains with the Internet leading the way, up a whopping 49 percent, followed by Spanish-language TV, up 21.8 percent due largely to the World Cup. “Ad spending continues to build in strength when compared to last year, although not at the levels projected by many at the beginning of the year,” said Jeff King, managing director of Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Media showing healthy gains include local magazines (10.4 percent), national newspapers (6.5 percent), network TV (6.3 percent), outdoor (6.0 percent), spot TV in the top 100 markets (3.5 percent), and national magazines (3.2 percent). Several media showed little or no growth including spot radio (up 1.4 percent), local newspapers (0.7 percent), business to business magazine (0.5 percent), and national cable TV (0.4 percent). Media with negative growth through the first half of the year were free standing insert coupons (-0.1 percent), spot TV in markets 101 and smaller (-0.6 percent), and network radio (-3.5 percent). Nielsen’s product placement tracking service reported a drop in the number of occurrences for the first half of the year with The Contender leaving network TV. Last year, the show had 7,521 product placement occurrences. This year, Fox’s American Idol holds the top spot with 4,086 occurrences, followed by NBC’s The Apprentice (1,831), and ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition (1,573). Coca-Cola by far was the top brand making use of product placement with 3,233 occurrences. Nike Apparel was second with 625 occurrences.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003086312

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o Electronic Arts Reports Over Two Million Units of Madden NFL 07 Game Sold

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts announced on Thursday that its Madden NFL 07 football game has now sold more than two million units in its first week on the market, grossing over $100 million. This is the best opening sales week in the 17-year history of the game franchise, besting last year’s record of 1.2 million units sold, a 12% increase. Madden NFL has sold over 53 million total units to date, since 1989. Analysts estimate that the game franchise could account for 7 percent of EA’s estimated total annual revenues of $3 billion.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060831/tc_nm/media_electronicarts_madden_dc
http://tinyurl.com/s2ky8 (Press Release)
http://www.easports.com/madden07/

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o Report: HDTV Cable Network Revenues to Reach $1.8B by 2010

Monterey, CA – A new report from Kagan Research, titled Economics of High-Definition Cable Networks, forecasts that by 2010 nearly 180 million HDTV sets will have been sold to U.S. consumers. This projection equates to an 81% penetration rate and represents $1.9 billion in revenue for HDTV cable networks. The report also states that more than 21 million HDTV sets had been sold to consumers by the end of 2005 and that the penetration rate of HD sets in TV households is expected to reach nearly 30% by the end of 2006. At $0.84 per subscriber, ESPN HD sports was cited as the highest license fee among all HD networks.
http://www.kagan.com/HDCN

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o Report: Online Game Market to Grow to $4.4 Billion in North America

The online game market in will grow from $1.1 billion in 2005 to $4.4 billion by 2010 in North America, according to a new study conducted by Parks Associates, a Dallas-based market research and consulting company. Currently PC gamers spend an average of 18.5 hours playing each week - more than console (13.6 hours), portable (8.9 hours), or mobile games (4.6 hours). Of those PC gamers, 70% play some form of multiplayer online game. Additional findings and data from the report will be discussed in detail at the upcoming Austin Game Conference.
http://www.parksassociates.com
http://www.gameconference.com

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o Note to Readers

Digital Media Wire will not be published on Monday, September 4th, as we take a break for the Labor Day Holiday. The next edition will arrive on Tuesday, September 5th.

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o CBS Unit CSTV Launches 100+ Broadband Channels for Live College Sports

CSTV, a division of CBS, launched on Friday 100 new broadband channels dedicated to live college sports. CSTV’s offerings will include separate channels for the following conferences: Big East, Big West, Pacific 10, Southland, West Coast, Mountain West, and Conference USA, in addition to dedicated channels for individual schools. In most cases, CSTV will share revenues from subscriptions, advertising, merchandise and other sales, with participating schools. Live video of football and basketball games, however, will initially be limited due to existing television contracts. "It is not designed as a substitute for television," Brian Bedol, President and CEO, CSTV explained. "This is really for the fans that either (don't) have access to a game on TV, or the sports or teams they follow don't get on TV."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060901/ap_en_bu/college_sports_online
http://www.cstv.com/genrel/083106aaa.html
http://www.cstvxxl.com

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o Pixsy Launches StarHabit.com, Photo & Video Celebrity Search Site

San Francisco, CA – Pixsy Corp., a provider of media search solutions, officially launched today a new photo and video search site, StarHabit.com, that aggregates celebrity content using RSS feeds from around the web. The site also allows users to save their favorite content. StarHabit.com is built on the Pixsy Media Search Platform, a technology suite that provides photo and video search engines for online publishers.
http://www.pixsy.com/newsStarhabit.aspx
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060901/media_nm/media_pixsy_dc
http://www.starhabit.com

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o Envizions’ Game Subscriptions to Be Powered by Stream Theory

Irvine, CA – Stream Theory, a software delivery and DRM provider, announced today it has signed a licensing agreement with Envizions Computer Entertainment Corporation, to enable customers of Envizions’ media entertainment unit, EVO: Phase One, to subscribe to a range of online games. EVO is a hybrid media center that combines the functionality of PCs and game consoles. It is due to launch in October. Stream Theory’s technology enables its partners to provide games as “software-as-a-service”, instead of requiring gamers to download and install.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=159264
http://www.envizionsinc.com
http://www.streamtheory.com

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o Browzar – New Browser to Provide Total Privacy

A new web browser has been released that promises total privacy for its users. Browzar, as it is known, automatically deletes all traces of the pages a person has visited, and the terms that they have searched for on the web. Most browsers, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari, allow users to do this manually. The developers of Browzar say that it will be useful for people who want to protect their privacy on work PCs or when using shared PCs in Internet cafes. Browzar is an "Internet Explorer shell" - a program that sits on top of Internet Explorer (IE) to change the look of Microsoft's web browser and some of its functions. Earlier this year, web analysis firm One Stat released figures that showed that Internet Explorer had an 84% market share. In 2004, that share stood at 95%. Rival browsers such as Firefox and Opera have been gaining significant inroads into the browser market. At present the free download is available for PCs running Microsoft Windows. It is currently offered as a beta, while new versions for Apple Macs and Linux machines are expected soon.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5305250.stm
http://www.browzar.com/

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