Hulu To Lose Comedy Central’s Stewart, Colbert
March 3, 2010
Two of the most popular shows on Hulu will be pulled off the site after March 9th. Hulu announced late yesterday that it and Comedy Central have been unable to reach an agreement concerning the distribution of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
This doesn't seem to signal a complete estrangement between the two companies; in fact, Hulu's Andy Forssell wrote on the corporate blog, "[W]e are continuing to talk to the Comedy Central folks about a number of opportunities. They're a great team and I'm confident that we'll be working with them in multiple ways in the future."
Also, Hulu will direct users who search for the affected programs to TheDailyShow.com and TheColbertReport.com, two Comedy Central properties that will continue to make clips available for free.
Still, it's hard to imagine that this would have occurred if both parties were completely satisfied. Perhaps Comedy Central wasn't impressed by the size of Hulu's audience. Or maybe they couldn't agree over a revenue split. Either way, it's a fact that Hulu's trying to obtain more content, not shrink its existing library.
Hulu execs must be hoping that the site doesn't lose too many viewers due to this loss, and praying that the development doesn't represent the start of a trend.
Yahoo Mobile Blog Launches
February 6, 2010
Yahoo may be doing a lot more in terms of mobile before long. Or at least telling us more about its current cell phone-related efforts. Either way, it launched the Yahoo Mobile Blog this week for the sake of keeping everyone up to date.
Irv Henderson, who's Yahoo's Vice President of Global Mobile Products, wrote the introductory blog post, and explained, "You can expect to learn about new product launches and enhancements, quick tips and tricks, our take on market trends, and predictions for where we see the market is heading."
Henderson also hinted, "So what's to come in 2010? Three developments will play a key role in shaping the mobile industry: Powerful browsers, the OS as a launching pad, and local content."
It should be interesting to see where Yahoo comes into that list. "Local content" seems like the best bet, but at the same time, Henderson's reference to browsers and operating systems makes it more likely that the company has irons in those fires. Execs tend not to admit that they're ignoring two-thirds of a major growth opportunity, after all.
We'll see what happens. Hopefully Yahoo won't wait too long between blog posts.
Have You Read This?
> Consumers Expected To Spend $6.2 Billion On Mobile Apps In 2010
> Will Apple And Google Have Some Real Smartphone Competition?
Marketers Identify Social Networks As Top Priority
January 27, 2010
Social networks may become home to a lot more marketers this year. The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) surveyed a number of senior marketing execs, and found that many of them have made social networks and applications their top priority in 2010.
Indeed, a whopping 45.4 percent of the people involved in SoDA's Digital Marketing Outlook study indicated that they consider social networks and applications to be a top priority, and although this isn't quite a majority, significantly fewer people said the same thing about digital infrastructure, search optimization, and everything else.
Extremely few marketers consider social networks and applications to be irrelevant, too.
These are likely to be good signs for Facebook, MySpace, and perhaps Twitter in particular (since it's still in search of a steady source of revenue). Even users shouldn't mind the corporate participation, since an ad from a mainstream company is likely to be better received than something promoting a random dating site. And social media campaigns can be better still.
Of course, SoDA's information is a bit odd in light of the fact that people speaking for both Facebook and Twitter have said the companies won't IPO this year.
Have You Read This?
> Facebook Investor Promises "No Near Term IPO"
> Twitter COO Effectively Rules Out 2010 IPO
> Facebook Page Owners Getting More Stats
Brin, Page To Sell 10 Million Shares Of Google Stock
January 25, 2010
Sergey Brin and Larry Page are going to become much closer to their financial advisors over the next five years. Google disclosed in a regulatory filing late last week that the cofounders each intend to sell about 5 million shares of the company's stock during that period of time.
To address one possible concern: This is no way signals that Brin and Page are abandoning Google. Even after the 10 million shares are sold, the pair will still own 47.7 million shares between them, so it's not like they're cutting all ties and going home.
Also, even though their voting stake will be reduced from 59 percent to 48 percent due to this move, Eric Schmidt controls another 10 percent, so there's no danger of the three Google execs getting overthrown.
Still, the development is a big deal. Miguel Helft calculated, "The sales, if completed, would provide each of the founders $2.75 billion based on Friday's closing price of $550.01."
Google's stock is down 1.15 percent so far this morning. The Dow and Nasdaq are up 0.71 percent and 0.58 percent, respectively.
Have You Read This?
> Wall Street Turns Nose Up At Google Earnings Report
> Analysts Give Google Thumbs Up For Diversifying
> Nexus One Sales Of 5-6 Million Units Forecast
