Yahoo Engaged In Effort To Remove “Spying Guide” From Public View

Telecoms, cable companies and search engines are fairly routinely asked to divulge information about their users’ activities (and even location in the case of wireless carriers) by the government and law enforcement. Disclosure of this information and the fact that they charge for these “spying” services would potentially upset or outrage users and badly damage [...]

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Nielsen to Measure Online TV Audience

Nielsen has been measuring television audiences for decades. Now online TV is starting to take over—but do we have accurate measurement of the online TV audience?

comScore and other online measurement companies are watching videos—I mean, online video audiences—grow and grow. Now Nielsen will use a new “Internet Meter” with its People Meter families to measure online as well as offline TV consumption.

The Internet Meter will measure the “extended screen”—online television from cable companies, such as OnDemand Online from Comcast and TV Everywhere from Time Warner. This type of viewing may have slipped past online measurement companies looking at web-based TV, like from Hulu. Nielsen has worked in online measurement as well, though they don’t say if they’ll be combining Hulu numbers with the online cable numbers.

According to Read Write Web, Hulu has tended to prefer comScore’s measures of its audience, since comScore’s numbers have shown a higher viewership than Nielsen’s. Online measurement is notoriously tricky in this area, since there aren’t set industry standards on how to count audiences, and as always, there can be sampling biases.

RWW says that the Internet Meter might combat inherent problems in sampling—but the Internet Meter will be based on the same statistical principles, which are fairly sound. (Yeah, I know, it doesn’t seem like a small number of people can accurately predict the habits of the general population, and a larger sample usually yields more accurate data, but if people are truly chosen at random, a small sample has a 90-95% chance of accurately reflecting the population, depending on how they do their calculations. </AP stats lesson>)

What do you think? Will this make a difference to online television? Will it affect ad prices online?

Why Hulu Could Kill LOST, Heroes, House, SNL & Family Guy

There’s just one problem with the chart below:

If correct, cable companies are likely losing millions of subscribers that are instead getting their TV fix from online sources, such as Hulu. The problem? Online TV watching doesn’t generate anywhere near the revenue of cable programming.

If we all switch to watching TV via Hula et al, what happens to the quality of the programming? If we continue down this path, we’d better figure out a way to make online video ads successful–and fast–or we may see the end of quality shows such as LOST and House.

TV Better Learn a Lesson From Newspapers

We have chronicled the slow death of the newspaper industry for a while now. First, there was the thought that maybe the Internet could displace newspapers with the delivery of content in a more timely and personalized manner. Newspapers decided that they were doing just fine and that they were moving into the digital world in a way that could help them maintain their content delivery fiefdom with no problems. Now, we see a landscape of wreckage where some of the most venerable names in newspaper including the Boston Globe are losing value both monetarily and in reputation. It’s been painful to watch but now there is even more carnage predicted as a result of the Internet age.

Henry Blodget penned a column over at Ad Age that can be summed up neatly in its headline “Sorry, There’s No Way to Save the TV Business; It Should Take Its Cues From What Happened to Newspapers”.

The traditional TV industry — cable companies, networks and broadcasters — is where the newspaper industry was about five years ago: in denial.

If this is even half true the folks on the TV side of the ledger better wake up and smell the erosion. The erosion of their leverage, profits and influence is taking place but it is believed that the arrogance that led to the dismantling of the newspaper industry is just as active in the TV world.

Specifically, the TV industry’s attitude is the same as the newspaper industry’s attitude was circa 2002 to 2003: Stop calling us dinosaurs. We get digital; we’re growing our digital businesses; we’re investing in digital platforms; people still recall ads even when they fast-forward through them on DVRs; there’s no substitute for TV ads. And traditional TV isn’t going away: Just look at our revenue and profits!

Blodget posits that the Internet still represents such a small percentage of profits and revenue of TV today but as it continues to grow the tide will quickly turn. As a result, the traditional broadcast industry will buckle and eventually crumble under the weight of its own in cost structure. Sounds painful.

So why is TV still successful? The old model may still have some legs but it is certainly aging out fast. Less and less people are dependent on TV of their information and entertainment. A quick comparison shows the following:

Television Depends On

1. Few options at home other than TV
2. No way to get video content other than TV
3. Only broadcast, cable and satellite options to get TV content
4. Choke points for delivery give inordinate control to those who own the access points

Reality Is

1. More and more simple fun options including games, Internet, social media etc.
2. New ways to get traditional TV content like Hulu, YouTube, iTunes etc.
3. More options for video content including telcos and cable companies providing broadband
4. The Internet is everywhere. You can connect more easily, more often than ever and that will only get better

So how has the TV industry responded?

Thus far, the TV industry has reacted to these changes the way most people would: by trying to port its existing model to the new world and maintain its hold on power and money. This is why we’re getting so many ridiculous, consumer-unfriendly TV solutions

These solutions include, but are not exclusive to, market-based control over what can or can’t be watched, single episode downloads that expire after 24 hours and time shifting of popular shows.

So Blodget’s conclusion is as you may have guessed; TV is headed for the gallows and a slow death from their own ignorance and arrogance.

You won’t have five channels, or 50 channels, or 500 channels. You’ll have millions of channels. You’ll be able to watch anything you want, live or taped. You’ll be able to watch it wherever you want — TV, computer, mobile device. You won’t have to sorry about “slinging” video content around or programming your DVR. You’ll just plug a pipe (internet) into a box (device) and watch.

So all of folks in TV land better take heed. The same day that you reach for your morning paper that no longer exists at your desk in the corporate office could be the same day that your control is handed over your viewers and they leave you for greener pastures. Then what?