Week of April 24, 2006

From the Apple earnings call: iPods by the numbers

Monday, April 24, 2006

iPods

• More than 50 million sold

• 8.5 million sold Jan.-Mar. 2006

• 40 percent new U.S. cars outfitted for iPods

• U.S. market share 78 percent, up from 71 percent in December

iTunes

• 2.9 million-plus songs sold

• 60,000 podcasts delivered

• 9,000 music videos

• 70-plus television shows

• 87 percent of legal download market

Porn Leads, The Rest Of Us Follow

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

A long-running media joke is that all innovation begins with the porn industry. Well, that may not be always true, but it is true for digital delivery of movies. Online streaming video retailer CinemaNow has just signed an agreement with porn production company Vivid Entertainment, which will allow CinemaNow customers to download and burn at least 30 of Vivid's porn titles. The cost is $19.95 and includes the entire content of a regular Vivid DVD, including cover art and extras.

The Dollar Power Of Divergence

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

PMG pointed out the power of taking existing content and packaging it for different distribution channels in our New Media Landscape report. Now comes a very potent example of how content users can selectively sell that content for maximum profit: NFL football.

ESPN paid a huge amount for Monday Night Football rights. Will they also be able to stream the broadcast via their Mobile ESPN phone service? No, they won't, because the NFL just announced that they sold the mobile rights to Sprint Nextel, which will offer streamed NFL games as part of its Sprint TV or NFL Mobile service. Does Spring, then, hold all streaming rights? No, they don't. The NFL sold satellite radio rights to Sirius, further monetizing what is a single broadcast.

AOL's AIM: The MySpace Killer

Thursday, April 27, 2006

AOL's Ted Leonsis points to AOL's instant messenger platform as "the original social network." Newly minted AOL executive Jason Calacanis makes it clear that AOL will use AIM to compete with MySpace. The result is a torrent of rumors that AOL is creating a social network to directly compete with MySpace. The idea is intriguing, as Leonsis is correct: AIM has 43 million users and sister platform ICQ has 30 million users globally. Building an online network on top of AIM makes complete sense and would be an immediate and powerful threat to MySpace's dominance

Is Divergence Sustainable?

Friday, April 7, 2006

Earlier this week we mentioned how the NFL was monetizing its content through divergence to various distribution channels. What does this mean for the outlets that are paying for these rights? Well, we are starting to get an early indication from the UK that they aren't happy with splitting the usage that thinly.

Word from Paidcontent.org is that UK mobile operators have cooled on the idea of buying exclusive rights to Premier League football matches due to the fact that exclusive access to highlights is becoming less and less of a valuable commodity.