| Entertainment Industry |
| Facebook makeover adds partners with facelift |
| Entertainment Industry |
| LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Facebook is getting a face-lift.
The social network giant announced a major makeover Thursday, revealing dozens of new partners to embed a dizzying array of applications -- known as widgets -- into the site from such companies as Amazon, Microsoft Corp. and Warner Bros. Records.
In a separate announcement Thursday, CBS Corp. unveiled an expansion to its CBS Interactive Audience Network, adding a slew of new partners, too.
Facebook, the sixth-most-visited Web site in the U.S., unveiled the new plan at its F8 conference in San Francisco. Among the 65 inaugural developers that will contribute widgets to the site include Amazon, which would allow Facebook users to write and exhibit book reviews directly on their profile pages along with a link to purchase the book.
Content applications already signed up for Facebook include such sites as uPlayMe and CollegeHumor, which will enable sharing and showcasing of their programs.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the overhaul as a "social operating system."
The strategy is in stark contrast to the only social network bigger than Facebook in the U.S., MySpace, which has been more guarded about allowing widgets on its site. But while MySpace's 67 million users dwarf Facebook's 24 million users, Facebook is growing faster.
In addition, CBS' CIAN is adding a batch of new partners, including Dave Networks, Goowycq Media, Meevee and VideoEgg. In addition, the network will allow existing partners to incorporate community-building applications to its content.
Among partners CBS already named to the network for syndicating content are Microsoft, CNET Networks and Joost.
http://www.facebook.com
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| Posted by crawler 7472 hours ago | Permalink | Comment? |
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| Web video attracting broad band of users |
| Entertainment Industry |
| LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Several years late for the likes of Pop.com, Icebox.com and other sites trying to earn a buck from it, Internet video has finally become the killer application that just about everyone in the entertainment industry knew that it someday would be.
In March, seven of every 10 Internet users in the U.S. streamed at least one video online, with the average "streamer" viewing 55 videos during the month, according to digital measurement service comScore.
Such audience statistics clearly announce the arrival of online video as a mass medium worthy of attention, according to observers. And it is why media and entertainment giants are pushing into the Internet video space aggressively these days.
For example, CBS said in April that it will partner with AOL, Microsoft Corp., Comcast Corp., Joost and others to distribute its videos all over the Web. Shortly thereafter, NBC Universal partnered with News Corp., CNET Networks, Comcast Corp. and others to do likewise.
The 126.6 million U.S. streamers in March, according to comScore, each watched an average 145 minutes of online video during the month.
The biggest beneficiary was Google Inc., whose sites streamed 1.2 billion videos out of the total 7 billion streamed by Americans in March, or 16.7% of all online videos initiated, comScore says. Credit Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube for the vast majority (1.1 billion) of those.
In second place were sites owned by Yahoo Inc., which streamed 434 million videos, followed by News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media (421 million), Viacom Digital (260 million) and the Time Warner network (222 million).
Walt Disney Co. sites operated by Disney Online, ABC.com and ESPN streamed 237 million videos. ComScore separates them, which is why Disney isn't No. 5 on the list of biggest providers.
Now that videos on computer screens are a mass medium, some are banking that broadband content on TV screens will be the next big thing.
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| Posted by crawler 7472 hours ago | Permalink | Comment? |
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