The Walt Disney Internet Group announced yesterday that it is closing its Disney-branded mobile virtual network operator service, or MVNO. The move could have a big impact on Los Angeles-based MVNO startup Helio, as the closing of Disney Mobile leaves Helio as the only large stand-alone data-focused MVNO.

Disney says it will shift its mobile focus to a new business model that might include offering its Family Center services through a partnership with a major U.S. carrier. The Family Center suite allows users the ability to display the location of a child’s handset on a map, to limit when and how the child’s phone is used, and to set limits on expenditures in terms of voice and data. Disney ultimately made the same shift to a carrier partnership a few years ago with its ESPN Mobile MVNO.

Attempting from the start to establish a profitable business in a difficult market, Helio has been under intense scrutiny since the bankruptcy and shutdown of fellow Los Angeles-based MVNO Amp’d Mobile. And the news hasn’t been positive for Helio lately, as the company recently let go an undisclosed number of employees, and co-investor EarthLink recently pulled out of further investment in the company.

Helio was founded in 2005 by EarthLink founder Sky Dayton and has been backed to this point by EarthLink and South Korea’s SK Telecom.

CBS today announced the launch of “EyeLab,” an editing studio dedicated to creating CBS-based promotional content to be distributed across CBS Interactive platforms. The new short-form video content will be produced by fans, next-generation online content editors, and producers of CBS programming and will be tied to content from CBS News, Sports, Entertainment, Late Night and Daytime, as well as CSTV and Showtime. EyeLab clips will be distributed across the CBS Audience Network, including the newly redesigned CBS.com and CBS Mobile.

EyeLab builds on research demonstrating that short-form clips are among the most viewed videos on the Web. This next-generation studio will be dedicated to creating thousands of original clips that will enable users to easily engage with and sample video tied to CBS’s wide range of content.

“Recognizing that short-form content is what our viewers want online, we’re committed to bringing CBS fans short, easy-to-digest clips—which they can take and mash up, rework, re-edit and, no doubt, inspire us with their creativity,” said Anthony E. Zuiker, Executive Producer and Creator of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise. “Using the Web as a direct engagement platform with those who care the most about the show is a perfect way to bring the TV experience online and in turn, to learn from fans.”

“EyeLab will allow our marketing and production team to tap into a vast new pool of creative resources while attracting new eyeballs to our TV content in a format that works on Interactive platforms,” said George Schweitzer, President, CBS Marketing. “Online video is not just about TV shows as we know them and EyeLab content is not for TV. We can harness the passion and creativity of our shows’ biggest fans, and also learn a lot about their interests and talents.”

“We are well aware that the Internet is the world’s best laboratory and we want to encourage our loyal and passionate fans to lend their creative ideas and talents in a way that makes CBS content their own,” said Patrick Keane, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, CBS Interactive. “By inviting fans to participate, we expect to grow our already vast content slate tremendously. CBS was ahead in massive, open distribution and this represents the next step—catering content better for our users based on what we’re learning about them. The creation of EyeLab also underscores another key difference in the Interactive platforms, which is the ability to handle and program for inverse scarcity— EyeLab can’t feed the Audience Network, CBS.com or CBS Mobile too much content.”

Latest figures published from Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, reveal the most popular, most engaging and fastest-growing social networks in the UK.

The UKs most popular Social Networks

- Facebook received 6.5 million Unique Visitors in August 2007 compared to 6.4 million for MySpace – both are now visited by one in every five Britons online
- Since December 2006, Facebook‟s audience has grown by 541% compared to 20% for MySpace
- Almost half (48%) of Britons online (15.3 million people) visited at least one of the ten most popular social networks in August 2007

E.g. In August 07, 6.5 million Britons (20% of all active Britons online) visited Facebook; 541% more than did so in Dec 06

Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings says, “Three months ago I predicted Facebook would catch MySpace in September this year but it‟s continued phenomenal growth meant it only took until August to achieve this feat. This is particularly extraordinary considering that at the end of 2006 Facebook was one fifth the size of MySpace. However, even in the fickle sphere of social networking, MySpace has managed to maintain more than six million visitors in each of the last six months – it will be interesting to see if Facebook can achieve this level of audience retention.”

The UKs fastest growing Social Networks across 2007

- Perfspot.com had no recorded figures until April 2007; since then it has grown by 756% in just four months - making it the fastest growing social network in 2007 ahead of Facebook, which has grown by 541% across the eight months from December 2006 – August 2007
- Three of the ten fastest growing social network brands are formed around specific interest groups – business, travel and music

Facebook’s audience grew 541% from 1 million in Dec 2006 to 6.5 million in Aug 2007 “The suspicion that the next big thing in social networking could always be just round the corner is illustrated by PerfSpot. It wasn‟t even on the social network radar until April of this year but in the last four months its visitor numbers have grown at a greater rate than Facebook has across the last eight months. Some, however, have theorised the future of social networking will revolve around specific interest-groups as opposed to the general behemoths that dominate today. The fact that a number of the fastest-growing networks concern specific interest areas, such as business (LinkedIn), travel (WAYN) or music (Imeem), seems to add credibility to this theory.”

The most engaging social networks amongst UK audiences
- Amongst social networks, Facebook accrued the most total time spent by Britons (991 million minutes) followed by Bebo (600 million minutes) and MySpace (540 million minutes)
- Virtual world Second life is the leading social network in terms of monthly time per visitor (5 hours 29 minutes) followed by teen community Habbo (3 hrs 6 mins) and Tagged.com (2 hrs 40 mins)

“Not surprisingly, the most popular social networks tend to rack up the most total time amongst Britons online. Bebo, although less popular than MySpace, accrues more total minutes due to a much higher average time per visitor. However, one has to look away from the „Big 3‟ to find the most engaging social networks. The average Second Life visitor spends an astonishing five and a half hours there – over twice as long as the average visitor to Facebook and almost four times as long as the average visitor to MySpace.”

Marked upturn in profitability in first half 2007 compared to first half 2006

Marked upturn in profitability in first half 2007 compared to first half 2006:
→ operating income +34.4%
→ net income (Group share) +70.6%

First half 2007 earnings per share up +60.0% compared to first half 2006

A stronger financial structure founded on a significant reduction in net debt at June 30, 2007 to €430 million compared to €648 million at June 30, 2006

Fernando Rodés Vilà, CEO of Havas, stated: “These satisfactory first-half 2007 results for Havas are in line with expectations. Continuing our focus on winning new business, rationalization and cost control is the key to the Group’s long-term, profitable growth.”

The Nielsen Company said today that it will triple the size of its National People Meter (NPM) television ratings panel by 2011, further increasing the precision of its national television ratings and providing more flexibility for measuring non-traditional television viewing.

Nielsen’s NPM panel, which now encompasses about 12,000 U.S. households and 35,000 people, will increase to 37,000 homes and 100,000 people as the company completes the previously announced introduction of Local People Meters (LPM) into 56 local U.S. markets, and integrates these sample homes into the NPM. The sample expansion begins this November when three LPM markets are integrated into the National sample. (For research purposes, this expansion will result in an “effective” sample size of 17,000 households after weighting for the geographical distribution of the 56 LPM markets is taken into account. The “effective” sample size of the NPM panel is now 10,000 households.)

Larger sample sizes are increasingly important due to the continuing fragmentation of television viewing. A larger sample also supports the more granular measurement that clients are requesting as the television industry moves in the direction of commercial minute ratings. It will further help Nielsen accomplish many of the objectives of its Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) initiative, which seeks to measure televised video as it moves beyond the television set in the home to the Internet, hand-held devices and to platforms outside the house.

“Nielsen is committed to continuously improving the quality of its television measurement and this expansion will be a major step forward in the accuracy and the flexibility of our national television panel,” said Sara Erichson, Executive Vice President Client Services Nielsen North America. “With a panel of a hundred thousand people, we can more precisely pinpoint the viewing of all demographic groups and dig deeper into the audience levels for networks of all sizes.”

“This also has implications for Nielsen’s A2/M2 initiatives, all of which are built around the concept of ‘following the video,’ wherever it migrates,” said Scott Springer, Product Leader of Audience Measurement for The Nielsen Company’s Media Segment. “Our plans for out-of-home viewing, streaming video on the Internet, and ‘third screen’ devices such as cell phones and hand-held video players, are based on integrating these measurements with traditional television measurement. This much larger national sample creates the necessary foundation for an integrated measurement approach.”

The National People Meter panel is used to produce ratings for national broadcasting, cable and syndicated television programming. It is composed of randomly selected households that reflect the overall U.S. population. Nielsen uses electronic meters to continuously measure what shows are being watched and who is watching them. Until 2002 the NPM consisted of 5,000 households and about 15,000 people. Since then, Nielsen has installed Local People Meters in the ten largest local U.S. markets. Nielsen has announced plans to introduce LPMs in three more markets in 2007, five in 2008, twelve in 2009, twelve in 2010 and fourteen in 2011.

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek), trade shows and the newspaper sector (Scarborough Research). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands and New York, USA.

The Nielsen Company today began the public beta testing of Hey! Nielsen, an online social network site for a diverse range of pop culture enthusiasts who are eager to make their voices heard to Nielsen clients and other decision-makers in the entertainment industry.

Developed with Affinitive, a pioneer and leader in word-of-mouth (WOM) and social media marketing solutions, Hey! Nielsen could be an effective mechanism for Nielsen to explore - and define - a wide variety of experimental media and marketing research.

“Hey! Nielsen gives lovers of pop culture an opportunity to sound off online and to make their voice heard by decision-makers,” said Karen Watson, Senior Vice President of Communications at The Nielsen Company, and Executive Sponsor of Hey! Nielsen. “If you’re passionate about any aspect of the entertainment world, you will find like-minded consumers on Hey! Nielsen. We hope this will be a fun place to share opinions and discuss your favorite shows, movies and music. And because we will be providing our clients with insights from Hey! Nielsen members, joining the network is a way to let the entertainment industry know what you think.”

Nielsen will also launch ¡Oye! Nielsen, a Spanish-language version of the website in January.

Although the site is still under test and development, users will be able to participate in the site’s main functions during this test period:

- Members will be able to voice opinions and grade their favorite music, TV show or movie. These ratings and opinions will be available to other members, who can then respond with their own views.
- Members will have profiles and the ability to build a network of “recommenders,” or friends, giving like-minded members the ability to share ideas about additional sources of entertainment they might like.
- Members can contribute to the Hey! Nielsen Score, which will be a measurement system for the “buzz” on a star, TV show, movie and other entertainment property. The Hey! Nielsen Score is a combination of a number of factors including users’ opinions and ratings on the site, Internet buzz and raw data from sister companies including Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. Nielsen BuzzMetric’s BlogPulse.com, a key input into Hey! Nielsen, monitors nearly 60 million blogs every day. A significant percentage of the blog buzz deals directly with entertainment, and this data will be woven into the overall Hey! Nielsen Score.
- Members will be able to install Hey! Nielsen “widgets” on their desktops or other social networking sites in order to track developments and Hey! Nielsen scores for entertainment they care about even when they are not on the site.

The information collected on Hey! Nielsen could be an important step toward metering and understanding user engagement around entertainment. Initially, Hey! Nielsen will be able to provide demographic information, comments, and scores of each user that engages on a specific entertainment property. This information can be used as a supplement to existing products offered by Nielsen Media Research (TV ratings), SoundScan (music), Nielsen EDI (box office information), and other services that allow clients to tap into consumers’ connection to media

The development of Hey! Nielsen has been a cross-company collaboration within The Nielsen Company including Nielsen Media Research, Nielsen Entertainment, BuzzMetrics, Nielsen//NetRatings, Nielsen Games, Nielsen Wireless, Business Media, ACNielsen, and Custom Research. In this way, Nielsen can access the unique assets housed in each of these groups and others, and eventually offer products and services to the clients of these businesses.

The site, which was open only to Nielsen employees for closed testing over the past few months, is now open to the public at www.heynielsen.com.

France Telecom will start marketing Apple Inc.’s million-selling iPhone in France through its wireless arm Orange. Thursday’s announcement came days after Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs visited Britain and Germany to unveil similar deals with mobile operator O2 and Deutsche Telekom AG.

The iPhone, a combined cell phone-iPod media player that also can wirelessly access the Internet, will go on sale in all three countries in November — in time for the holiday season.

The latest deal was announced by France Telecom CEO Didier Lombard during a conference in Hanoi. Apple said last week that it had sold 1 million iPhones in the United States in the first 74 days it was on sale, shortly after slashing the price by a third. The iPhone debuted in the United States on June 29, with service exclusively through AT&T Inc.

France Telecom will be counting on the popular iPhone to raise sales, boosting its share of the cell phone market. Jobs said Tuesday his goal was to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, representing 1 percent of the global handset market.

Officials with Orange would not say how much the phone will cost in France. Consumers in Britain will pay 269 pounds ($536) for the 8-gigabyte model — or about $139 more than what Apple charges in the United States. In Germany the phone will cost 399 euros ($553). Both European price tags include value-added tax.

The company cut the 8-gigabyte iPhone to $399, from $599, and discontinued the $499 4-gigabyte version. It apologized to those who had paid full price and offered $100 credits to early buyers.

Taiwanese computer vendor Acer will go ahead with the purchase of Paris-based PC maker Packard Bell through US group Gateway which it recently bid for, Acer’s president said Friday in Madrid.

“Packard Bell will reinforce our position in Europe where we are already well positioned,” Acer president Gianfranco Lanci told a news conference in Madrid.

Lanci said Acer had already signed an agreement with the owner of Packard Bell, Lap Shun Hui, to buy the parent of the firm, PB Holding Company.

The amount on the table for Packard Bell “is relatively small” compared to the 710 million US dollars (506.5 million euros) which Acer offered for Gateway at the beginning of the month, he added.

Acer’s bid for Gateway is expected to be completed in October, he said.

With the acquisition of the two firms, Acer will jump ahead of China’s Lenovo, which had also eyed Packard Bell, to become the world’s number three computer maker behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

The integration of Packard Bell and Gateway will create a firm with a yearly turnover of 20 billion dollars and annual sales of nearly 25 million computers.

The new firm will post 48 percent of its sales in Europe, 34 percent in North America and the remaining 18 percent in Asia.

The acquisition of Packard Bell will also boost Acer’s position in the market for office computers, one of its weak spots, Lanci said. Three-fifths of Acer’s sales involve laptop computers, he said.

Acer will integrate the two new firms “very, very quickly” and plans to pursue a multi-brand strategy to respond to the needs of an increasingly segmented market, Lanci said.

“We will maintain multiple brands, we think this will be a winning factor in this industry,” he said.

Source: AFP

The Nielsen Company today announced a timetable to introduce electronic Local People Meters (LPMs) to 38 additional markets by 2011, bringing to 56 the number of local markets that will by 2011 have television ratings derived from the most advanced television ratings technology. All the 38 markets identified today are currently measured by a combination of Set Meters and handwritten Diaries.

Local People Meters are advanced electronic devices that continuously record television viewing behavior in real time all year long. The meters, placed in sample homes, accurately record who is watching what programs, and allows the measurement of various kinds of TV viewing activities, including broadcast and cable television, mobile video devices, video games, Digital Video Recorders, video on demand and other timeshifting.

When LPMs are introduced into the full 56 local markets, about 70% of U.S. households will be measured by People Meters. As a consequence, there will be continuous demographic reporting in these markets 365 days per year. This will allow local markets to receive demographic information for events such as March Madness, playoff games, award shows, and Christmas holiday programming, which typically air outside traditional “sweeps” measurement periods.

Introducing electronic measurement to all local markets is part of Nielsen’s Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) initiative. The ten largest local U.S. markets are already measured by LPMs, and plans for eight more that will be converted in 2007 and 2008 were previously announced. The schedule released today identifies the remainder of the Set Meter/Diary markets that will be converted to LPMs.

“This is a tremendous step forward for television measurement in these markets” said Susan Whiting, Executive Vice President, the Nielsen Company, and Chairman, Nielsen Media Research. “Nielsen is committed to continuous improvement in its measurement services and converting markets to our electronic Local People Meters will significant improve the quality of our local measurement. As a key part of this process, we are also committed to working closely with the clients and stakeholders in every market to make the transition as smooth as possible.”

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek), trade shows and the newspaper sector (Scarborough Research). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands and New York, USA.

NBC.com today announced the launch of its new service, “NBC Direct,” which will allow users to download and view NBC’s popular primetime and late-night entertainment programming on their desktops for up to one week after broadcast. This new feature provides yet another platform on which fans will be able to enjoy NBC Entertainment content. The announcement was made by Vivi Zigler, Executive Vice President, NBC Digital Entertainment.

“With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consumer their favorite entertainment,” said Zigler. “Not only does this feature give them more control, but it also gives them a higher quality video experience.”

The first version of this new feature, which will begin beta testing in October, will allow users to download full length episodes for viewing on Windows based PCs. Each original episode will be licensed to users for viewing through “NBC Direct” for one week following broadcast and will then expire. The downloaded file will provide users with an improved overall viewing experience compared to traditional streaming video. The list of programs available at launch will include “Heroes,” “The Office,” “Life,” “Bionic Woman,” “30 Rock,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

Later in the beta launch, users will be provided the free subscription option that will allow them to pre-select their favorite NBC programs they want to watch. Those shows will be automatically delivered to their computers as soon as they are available after the original broadcast. The downloadable player will also have filtering technology, which will prevent it from playing any stolen copyrighted material.

Future versions of “NBC Direct,” which will roll out over the next several months, will provide expanded platform functionality and will allow DRM (”digital rights management”) protected versions of its programs to be downloaded to Macs and portable devices in addition to PCs. NBC.com plans future enhancements such as high-resolution versions of programming made available via a closed P2P (”peer to peer”) distribution network. Using closed P2P will ensure that the maximum number of users will be able to view consistent, high-quality content directly from their desktops. Later in 2008, NBC.com plans to offer other business models for downloaded content in order to provide its users multiple options to consume their favorite NBC programs. These paid business models may include download-to-own, rental and subscription.