AllThingsD » Peter Kafka

L.A. Stories: What's the Frequency for Web Video Discovery? (Video)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:04:19 +0000

Earlier this year, Peter Kafka wrote an update about Los Angeles-based Frequency, which is essentially a social TV Guide for online video.

I stopped by Frequency’s HQ — on a recent visit there to check out SoCal start-ups — to chat with its founder and CEO, Blair Harrison, who created and sold iFilm to Viacom several years ago, and to talk about how the Web video hub is doing, even in the face of a range of video-recommending competitors. That includes big-dog Google, which is both a rival and a partner via YouTube and its niche channels.

But, with a slick interface, which Harrison has compared to Flipboard for online video, Frequency is an interesting effort. Here’s the interview I did with him:

[ See post to watch video ]

GigaOM Buys paidContent (Like Peter Kafka Said)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:19:06 +0000

GigaOM finally fessed up and said that it had bought tech and media news site paidContent, as AllThingsD.com media ninja Peter Kafka had reported earlier this week it would.

The price is reportedly low, according to sources, but we’ll find out for you, since neither GigaOM nor the former paidContent owner, Britain’s Guardian News & Media, is talking. As part of the deal, though, the Guardian has gotten some sort of stake in GigaOM, and someone there is joining its board as an observer.

PaidContent founder Rafat Ali left his company a couple years after selling to the Guardian in 2008. The Guardian put it up for sale in the fall.

Malik has sold off chunks of his own business — one of the pioneering tech and media news blogs — to venture capitalists such as True Ventures (where he is now a venture partner) and Reed Elsevier Ventures, who have invested a total of $15 million.

In a blast from the past, here is a video interview I did with Ali in mid-2007 in Santa Monica, Calif., at what was then its new offices, talking about the bright future ahead for paidContent (sorry about the quality, but whatevs!):

[ See post to watch video ]

Here is Om Malik’s blog post on the subject, which goes into all (or almost all) the deets:

First the news: Yes, the rumors are true. We are indeed buying the assets of ContentNext Media from Guardian News & Media Limited. And no, we are not disclosing the terms of the deal, except that we are buying the entire group of properties — paidContent.org, mocoNews.net, contentSutra and paidContent:UK and that a representative of Guardian News & Media will join our board of directors as an observer.

A few weeks ago when Paul Walborsky, CEO of GigaOM, came to the board and suggested that we should try and acquire paidContent, my fellow board members — Jon Callaghan (True Ventures), Ammar Hanafi (Alloy Ventures) and Kevin Brown (Reed Elsevier Ventures) — didn’t hesitate for a minute. The ethos of paidContent and our company are in sync. GigaOM’s core belief is that as connectivity becomes ubiquitous, it changes everything from society to business to we the people. paidContent from the very beginning has been built on the idea that connectedness is and will change media. It makes perfect sense for us to team up. Since then, Paul and his team worked tirelessly to make it happen.

OK, now you know what. Let me tell you why.

Now, why are we doing this deal, clearly the biggest of our five-and-a-half-year history? Two simple but equally powerful reasons — the first and perhaps most important reason: people. I have been an admirer of paidContent’s editorial team from the very beginning of its journey. Rafat Ali and Staci Kramer were two of my favorite writers in the early days of professional blogging. And while Rafat (who is on our board of advisers) has moved on to new things, I am glad to have Staci join us. She has been instrumental in building ContentNext from the ground up, and in addition to writing, she has been building the company’s event business. I am thrilled to announce that she will remain the editor of paidContent.

Ernie Sander who spearheads the ContentNext editorial operations is the kind of veteran everyone on our team, including me, can learn from. And for that precise reason, Ernie is going to become the executive editor of our sprawling online editorial operations. Our managing editor, Nicole Solis, is being promoted to VP of Editorial Operations. And then there is the most awesome team of journalists — Robert Andrews, Tom Krazit, Daniel Frankel, Laura Hazard Owen, Jeff Roberts and Amanda Natividad. In addition there are a wonderful group of technology, business and sales people who are joining our company. I welcome them all to our growing family and can’t wait to break bread with them in weeks to come.

Location, location, location

These fine folks are actually going to help bolster our presence in New York and help increase our footprint in Europe, a region of key strategic focus for GigaOM. (We will be hosting Structure:Europe in Amsterdam, October 16-17.) With this deal, we are really pleased that one of the most forward-looking media outlets around, Guardian News & Media, will become a shareholder in our business.

As you all know, I am (and will always be) a displaced New Yorker; New York City is my spiritual home. By increasing our footprint in the capital of the world, I would get a chance to go back more often. But it’s not an emotional tug that is driving us to this decision. New York is fast becoming a major technology hub, as Ryan Kim outlined in his recent post. And we want to expand our coverage to Boston — thanks to Barb Darrow who joined us several months ago — and the Washington DC corridor as well. paidContent’s New York City offices are now GigaOM East.

Media is the new Wild West

We are quite strategic about our acquisitions — we acquire media entities only if we love the people and believe that we are at the starting phase of a trend. In 2008, we acquired jkOnTheRun as our tip of the hat to the growing demand for mobile devices and the changes it would bring into society. Later that year, we brought in The Apple Blog because we knew the best was yet to come for Apple. Both of those acquisitions have helped GigaOM cover the issues that matter most to our ultimate customers — you, the reader — in a smart, sensible fashion.

“The question that mass amateurization poses to traditional media is ‘What happens when the costs of reproduction and distribution go away? What happens when there is nothing unique about publishing anymore because users can do it for themselves?” We are now starting to see that question being answered.” — Clay Shirky

Shirky’s observation means that we are in a time of chaos where the very idea of media is being questioned. And as a Chinese proverb says, from chaos emerges opportunity. I believe the best is yet to come for media.

Over the past few years we have started to see the transformation of media by new technologies, new methods of distribution and newer ways to consume information. Mathew Ingram has been writing about these disruptions on a regular basis, and now we are going to double down on what we think is a great new chapter in the media industry.

I have always believed that we’ve got to stop thinking of media as what it was and focus on more of what it could be. In the world of plenty, the only currency is attention and attention is what defines “media.” Zynga is fighting Hollywood for attention (and winning). Instagram is taking moments away from other media. They have attention. There are old companies that are dying and new ones that are being invented. We’re eager to expand our coverage of social and digital media editorially, in our research and at our events. paidContent is the best chronicler of the media industry, and by blending their coverage with ours, we hope to watch this fast-changing industry ever more closely.

Please join me in welcoming the ContentNext team!

Jason Kilar Is "Not Surprised" He's Still at Hulu (Video)

Liz Gannes — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:55:06 +0000

Hulu’s Jason Kilar opened D: Dive Into Media this morning, saying he’s totally okay with the turn of events that left Hulu ownership intact after a failed attempt to sell last year. It also left him in his CEO job a year after he wrote an incendiary blog post about the future of television.

Here’s a video from his interview with AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka:

[ See post to watch video ]

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo: We're Not a Media Company. We're in the Media Business.

Liz Gannes — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:50:15 +0000

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is warming up the hot seat tonight at our D:Dive Into Media conference in Dana Point, Calif. A liveblog of his interview with Peter Kafka will be here, starting at 6 pm PT.

While you’re waiting, watch:

6:12 pm: We’re just about to get started.

6:15 pm: Here’s a photo from inside the Ritz-Carlton Ballroom, where D: Dive Into Media is about to get under way.

6:18 pm: Here’s a photo of Dick Costolo and Kara Swisher backstage in the Green Room.

Okay, now that our live attendees have gotten a drink and a bite in them, we’re ready to start for real. Sorry for the delay! Feel free to drink along at home.

“Don’t worry if you have to go to the bathroom,” says Kara. “Rupert is in the back, tweeting the entire event.”

She’s kidding, but we’ll be here liveblogging and posting news stories until our fingers go numb.

Right now, we’re showing a video expose, made with Funny or Die, on the excesses of D conferences. Big takeaway: Jason Kilar is a fantastic actor. Will post this online as soon as I get the code.

Also, Martha Stewart is a great sport.

And now, the man we made you wait for (sorry!): Dick Costolo. (Consider the comments paraphrased unless they’re in quotes.)

Peter Kafka: You had a partnership with Google, and now you’re having a public fight [over inclusion of social data in search results]. What happened?

Costolo: There are about 900 people working at Twitter now, and it’s just a matter of fact that Google happens to be the company from which more Twitter employees are drawn than any other. About 80 or 90 came from Google, including myself. And we look to Google as the shining light on the hill.

We think that when people are searching for things like @itunes or if they see a hashtag on a billboard, people are going to go to Google to look for them, and we think they should go where they want to.

Regarding access to data, Google crawls us over 100 million times per day; the Googlebot has more than three billion pages. They have the data, I think, that they need.

We just weren’t able to come to an agreement on the details.

Kafka: Are you guys going to end up in the same war with Google as Facebook?

Costolo: No, it’s not a zero-sum game. He compares it to dealing with people in the Twitter ecosystem. We’re growing faster than we’ve ever grown before, irrespective of anything Facebook or Google is doing. All these companies can coexist.

Kafka: What’s the deal with this selective tweeting policy?

Costolo: There’s been no change in our policy. What we were announcing was a capability we now have to leave the content up for as many people around the world as possible while adhering to the local law.

“This is purely a reactive capability. We don’t proactively do anything.”

Costolo says Twitter is already blocked in Iran and China, and he doesn’t see a way under the current system that Twitter would ever operate in China.

The point is: This capability isn’t a prelude to trying to go into China.

Kafka asks for some more hypotheticals, and Costolo gets more emphatic, calling Twitter’s policy “the most honest, transparent and forward-looking way.”

“When we get a legal order that is valid, we will try to make sure that all the tweets are viewable in as many parts of the world as possible.”

6:42 pm: Kafka moves on to SOPA and PIPA. Costolo proposes a summit in San Luis Obispo for Northern and Southern California to meet. He says, less in jest: “It’s certainly the case that piracy is an issue for content creators. However, the SOPA and PIPA legislation we view as flawed legislation that wasn’t written with the perspective of both sides of the debate.”

Costolo adds that Twitter has more than 45 people working in its trust and safety department, and it abides by copyright laws.

Kafka: What could you have done instead of blacking out your site to protest SOPA?

Costolo: There were 3.9 million tweets that day, Wednesday, about SOPA and PIPA. When you’ve got an amplifier like that, you don’t pull the batteries out of the microphone.

Kafka: You’re a media company — are you comfortable with that assessment?

Costolo: We’re not a media company. We’re in the media business. We distribute traffic. We’re one of the largest drivers of traffic to all sorts of other media property.

For more on Costolo’s comments about Twitter and censorship, check out this post.

By the way, this might be hard to convey via liveblog, but Costolo is continually giving Kafka a really hard time about everything — his voice, the chair, the microphone. He is determined not to do a straight Q&A.

Costolo is now talking about whether Twitter would do other forms of business besides ads. He says analytics and commerce are options.

As for the advertising business itself, “It’s growing incredibly well.” Ad units are: Promoted tweets in timelines, promoted accounts and promoted trends. “They perform up and down the stack for brand advertisers; display advertisers, they work well,” Costolo says. Now it’s all about scaling.

Ads first came out in April 2010, Costolo notes. An ad with Barclays a couple of weeks ago, he says, had over 50 percent engagement and continues to. Ads are rolled out to 100 percent of users of Twitter.com.

Kafka: There doesn’t seem to have been any outcry about that.

Costolo: No, our ad quality is good. Plus, people learned about how to market and promote on Twitter before we had advertising, so they already “understand its real-time nature.” We think we can create a lasting company if we just scale this business.

Kafka asks about profits; Costolo says “no comment” a bunch of times.

Kafka: Let’s talk politics.

Costolo: “I really think 2012 is going to be the Twitter election.”

The fascinating thing about 2012 — we really saw this during the State of the Union address. When Obama made the spilled-milk joke, there was this collective groan, and we didn’t have to wait for the pundits to tell us that. Republicans live-tweeted. “Tomorrow morning it will be too late to react to what was said the day before.”

Twitter gives people a human element, from Chad Ochocinco tweeting about the Premiere League, to politicians.

Kafka turns to talking about how Twitter works with TV.

“Twitter is the focal point for this shared experience,” Costolo says.

Costolo: Twitter is extending the runway of the conversation. If you look at the trajectory of conversations about “Glee,” it starts before the East Coast airing, then goes to 1,000 percent, then extends across the country.

Now they’re talking about Howard Stern live-tweeting “Private Parts.” Kafka says he tuned in after seeing the tweets, but isn’t sure he would tune in if Stern did it again. Costolo says it’s just the first inning. There are lots of possibilities for how to use Twitter, with new ones coming from Simon Cowell, Republican debates, etc.

Kafka asks about Twitter taking revenue from TV, and Costolo reverts to his everybody-can-happily-coexist thesis. “It’s more about value creation, not value extraction,” he says.

Kafka asks what Costolo thinks of check-in services (I think he means things like GetGlue for checking into TV shows). Costolo says he doesn’t think an overt check-in is necessary; these conversations will just happen naturally.

Kafka: What are you doing on discovery?

Costolo: We just introduced this “Discover” tab. We have so much content now, we need to surface it to people, especially new users.

Costolo says “Discover” should be more personalized based on the accounts you follow, etc. Sounds like something Twitter is working on.

Some challenges for Twitter include finding tweets that end up being world-changing, even though that’s not clear when they first are tweeted. Like the guy in Abottabad who tweeted about a helicopter overhead when the Osama Bin Laden raid was happening.

For more on Costolo’s comments on how Twitter is changing politics, check out this post.

Costolo is now addressing people who use Twitter for consumption only. “That’s great, and we need to encourage more of that,” he says, noting that 99 percent of the people who watch TV don’t also create it. He wants to make Twitter “like checking your watch,” where people glance and then go away.

Integration with Apple has increased engagement, usage, etc., on iOS devices, Costolo says. “They’re kind of a mentor company for us,” Costolo says of Apple, noting Twitter’s inventor, Jack Dorsey, is focused on simplification and clarity, just like Apple.

Kafka: How did Facebook not get that deal?

Costolo: You’d have to ask them. Our conversation with Apple was quick and efficient. We thought it was a fantastic idea.

Kafka: Who’s really in charge, you or Jack?

Costolo: Jack’s focus is on three specific things: Product vision, brand and identity, and representing the company externally. “The fascinating thing about Jack is he’s got all these people out there in the world telling him you’re the next great thing, you’re the next Steve Jobs, and it’s pretty amazing for him to be as open-minded and humble about the product as he is. He is just as likely to come in in the morning and say, ‘I hadn’t thought about it like that, let’s do it your way.’”

Costolo says Evan Williams and Biz Stone are the same way, very humble.

Costolo and Dorsey meet twice a week, once at the beginning, once at the end.

First audience question comes from none other than Kara Swisher. She asks about Facebook’s IPO.

Costolo replies: Mark and Sheryl are doing a great job running that company. It’s a really big company and they’ve had amazing success. I tell our company we need to focus on our own goals. We don’t care about the market window for going public, or whether there is a window. It will be fascinating to see what happens. I’m sure everyone will stay up Wednesday night reading the S-1, but I have to run my own company.

Twitter will probably go public, says Costolo, because the cap table can’t include more than 500 shareholders.

Next audience question comes from a woman who says she’s from Qualcomm, asking about mobile.

Costolo says he thinks Twitter lacks a compelling feature-phone experience, and that’s something it’s working on.

Next question from a Rogers Ventures VC. He asks about analytics.

Costolo says Twitter is trying to be clear that it will provide the core-user experience of Twitter.

Costolo: I’d rather provide a baseline of data, and then other companies can add UI and other things. I think companies try to ascribe too much value to data. It’s not that easy to be in the data business. It’s hard to scale across verticals. So we’re happy for other people to do that.

Now Costolo is asked about PandoDaily’s report about board changes and his “cojones.”

“It’s nice to ascribe to this stuff that I did some crazy ninja move. The reality is much more boring than that.”

Now a question about the rationale for Twitter acquisitions. Costolo talks about adding TweetDeck for prosumer users, and Summify for summarizing what you’ve missed in the past few days. He says he walked into the New York Times newsroom and saw TweetDeck on every monitor, and “thought it was important that we own it.”

Question about enhanced brand profiles (these last few questions have been from other reporters in the audience, but I didn’t catch all their names). Costolo says the idea is to allow brands to use Twitter as a customer relationship management tool, but not have those reply tweets highlighted at the top of their streams.

Last question is about “mobile-first” design, and second-screen mobile users versus people who are truly mobile.

Costolo says Twitter starts with iPhone and Android designs when it works on new products, then moves to everything else. This is a change, he says — Twitter used to go the other direction. It doesn’t design specifically for the “second-screen” experience.

And that’s it! Time to go back to watching television, tweeting and working on your ninja moves.

Viral Video: Secret Code About Apple's New York Media Event

Kara Swisher — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:14:45 +0000

Yesterday, on WSJ.com’s “Digits” online tech show, host Simon Constable asked me if some parts of my scoop on Apple holding a media-focused event in New York at the end of this month were secretly implying anything.

Simon apparently read “The Da Vinci Code” one too many times! I don’t know from clandestine signals, but here I am talking about the event, along with AllThingsD.com media ace Peter Kafka.

Enjoy:

Survey Sez: Consumers Still Miffed at Netflix, but Give Even Bigger Kiss to Amazon

Kara Swisher — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:00:40 +0000

It’s not clear if Netflix’s recent series of snafus are Amazon’s gain or not. But in a just-released report by ForeSee, one went up and one went down.

It’s an easy guess which was which.

In the well-known customer satisfaction survey of the Top 40 online retailers during the holiday season — which ForeSee has been conducting twice a year for the last seven years — Amazon rose to its highest spot ever, while Netflix’s score dropped significantly.

Amazon got an 88 out of 100, up two points, while Netflix dropped seven points to 79. The survey noted that “Netflix saw scores drop in every single element of the website that ForeSee measures, including site content, site functionality, merchandise, and prices.”

Ooops.

(Netflix fared better with customers in another poll last week, conducted by Citigroup. As Peter Kafka noted: “They’re less happy than they used to be. But they don’t seem to be going anywhere.”)

But in the ForeSee survey, Netflix moved from being a consumer darling to just another face in the crowd. It garnered the average score, which is also 79, a number that has risen from 74 since 2005.

But Netflix was not the only online retailer hit. Also down: Gap.com (down 6 percent to 73), and Overstock.com (down 5 percent to 72).

But on the up: TigerDirect.com (up 8 percent to 79) and J.C. Penney (up 6 percent to 83).

In general, ForeSee concluded that consumers are starting to get the hang of this e-commerce thing, and have become less price-sensitive, too.

And here’s a pretty chart explaining it all (click on the image to make it larger):

Peter Chernin on Hollywood, Asia Growth and Not Yahoo: The Full AsiaD Interview (Video)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:34:20 +0000

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

We’re following the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Hollywood mogul Peter Chernin.

The much-respected entertainment exec, who was the longtime president of News Corp. (which owns this Web site), now runs his own production company in Santa Monica, Calif.

Chernin Entertainment has had some big early successes, including the hit movie “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” and the adorkable television show “New Girl.”

But Chernin has always been much more Internet-curious than the average Hollywood mogul. He was deeply involved in the creation of the Hulu premium video service, and now serves on the board of the Pandora online music site. He’s also been giving the troubled situation at Yahoo a look-see with some private equity firms.

Chernin declined to talk about this deal in an onstage interview with Peter Kafka, but he does discuss the prospects for the old media world in the digital age, and the giant opportunities in Asia:

[ See post to watch video ]

Google+'s Bradley Horowitz Talks Facebook, Social Networking and That Memo: The Full AsiaD Interview (Video)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:39:10 +0000

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Google+ exec Bradley Horowitz.

In an onstage interview with Peter Kafka, Horowitz talks about the progress being made in the search giant’s attempts to compete against social networking giant Facebook, the concept behind its organization and also the recent controversial internal memo by a Google engineer dissing the company.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

SurveyMonkey's Goldberg, Joyus's Cassidy and Airbnb's Chesky on Silicon Valley Innovation: The Full AsiaD Interview (Video)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:01:14 +0000

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: A trio of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs — SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg, Joyus’s Sukhinder Singh Cassidy and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky.

In the onstage interview with Peter Kafka, they give their take on the Valley’s culture and commerce, and how they’re trying to export that as they venture into Asian markets.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Alibaba's Jack Ma on Yahoo (And More Yahoo): The Full AsiaD Interview (Video)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:00:04 +0000

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next two weeks, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Alibaba Group’s voluble CEO and co-founder Jack Ma.

Ma has cut quite a colorful path through the Internet space, both in China and, more recently, in the U.S. — mostly due to his high-profile wrangling with partner and major shareholder Yahoo.

And, in the midst of the Silicon Valley Internet company’s endless agonizing over what to do with itself, Ma has thrown Alibaba into the mix prominently as a self-described kingmaker to any deal. Also, he has said he wants to buy Yahoo too.

Ma talks about all this, as well as his thoughts on the Asian markets, his goals for Alibaba and more, in an onstage interview with Peter Kafka.

As he told the audience at the AsiaD event:

“We’ve been working with Yahoo for years to buy a portion of them or buy them out. Money is not the problem. The problem is what Yahoo wants to do.”

Indeed, so watch Ma in action:

[ See post to watch video ]

Bradley Horowitz: Highlights From AsiaD (Video)

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:11:07 +0000

Google+ project manager Bradley Horowitz joined Peter Kafka on the AsiaD stage today to talk about Larry Page’s leadership, privacy and the lessons Google has learned.

[ See post to watch video ]

SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg, Joyus’s Sukhinder Singh Cassidy and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky: Highlights From AsiaD (Video)

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:24:58 +0000

Three Silicon Valley founders formed AllThingsD’s first-ever panel of entrepreneurs today at AsiaD. Brian Chesky of Airbnb, Dave Goldberg of SurveyMonkey and Sukhinder Singh Cassidy of Joyus joined Peter Kafka onstage for a discussion of the issues surrounding expanding their businesses into Asian markets. Video highlights below:

[ See post to watch video ]

Jack Ma: Highlights From AsiaD (Video)

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 07:30:45 +0000

Alibaba’s Jack Ma sat down with Peter Kafka this morning at AsiaD, our inaugural international conference, for a broad conversation that touched on philanthropy, pricing and, of course, Yahoo. Video highlights below:

[ See post to watch video ]

What Not to Do in Hong Kong (Trust Me on This One)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:30:23 +0000

How shall I put this as delicately as I am known for: So I went to AsiaD in Hong Kong and all I got was this lousy transient ischemic attack.

First off: I’m doing great, have recovered all functions completely, and have even had a couple of scoops while bedridden. (And, yes, I am a bad patient!)

In all seriousness, as it happened, a 14-hour plane flight sandwiched into a window seat with two big dudes sitting next to me, combined with a not-uncommon but undetected-until-now heart condition, seems to have spelled trouble for me this week and sent me right into a hospital here in China.

(Note to everyone: When they tell you to walk around on long-haul air trips and drink plenty of water, you might want to listen.)

Without going into the gory details, what I thought was jet lag and a bad migraine actually rendered me speechless for a few hours on Tuesday morning, and in need of some serious medical attention and recuperation, which is why I will not be appearing at our first international D conference tonight.

As you might imagine, I am pretty bummed, since I was looking forward to the event and interviewing the stellar list of speakers we are hosting. It is the first D in a decade that I am not part of, except in spirit.

But, as usual, I know that my fantastic partner Walt Mossberg and the amazing AllThingsD staff here and in the U.S. will do me proud and deliver yet another memorable D. ATD phenoms Peter Kafka and Ina Fried will take over my interviewing duties.

It all starts tonight, with an interview with Google Android chief Andy Rubin by Walt, so I hope you’ll be following it as closely as I will be from the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital (no flowers, please!).

Speaking of my sickbed, here’s a little video I did from my room with a view, this time turning the lens on myself for once. The message, in living color and for those who care: I really am doing well and am as snarky as usual.

And, as you also might guess, I will be back in California this weekend and back to scooping as usual:

[ See post to watch video ]

Zuckerberg Tops Vanity Fair's "New Establishment" List Again (And Look Who's No. 40)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:13 +0000

Vanity Fair magazine put out its high-profile “New Establishment” list of the top 50 people, who are “an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies, and entrepreneurs, who quite often sport hoodies, floppy hair, and backpacks.”

The hoodie part would be referring to Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who topped the list — which is in the just-released October issue — for the second year in a row.

The Vanity Fair list was packed with Silicon Valley luminaries.

The No. 2 spot went to the hopelessly conjoined twins at Google, CEO Larry Page and his co-founder Sergey Brin. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was No. 3, followed by newly born CEO Tim Cook and top product guy Jonathan Ive of Apple at No. 4, with Twitter creator and Square founder Jack Dorsey at No. 5.

Interestingly, super-VCs Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz clocked in this year at No. 6.

The digitally fast-forward Lady Gaga was the top woman on the list at No. 9, in front of “Harry Potter” author J. K. Rowling at No. 16.

And, clocking in at No. 40? Why, me and my partner-in-crime at AllThingsD, Walt Mossberg. He is apparently a “kingmaker” of tech and I do “juicy exclusives.”

That actually is pretty accurate. More importantly, we were ranked higher than Justin Timberlake and Ashton Kutcher. In other words: Mission accomplished!

We also beat the Angry Birds dudes at No. 49, whom my two kids would nonetheless have voted tops over their mom any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

In addition, Vanity Fair broke off a list of 25 “Powers That Be,” which is made up of a lot of longtime “New Establishment” folks, as well as another list called the “Hall of Fame.”

“These are the people who have shaped the world we live in today — and continue to wield enormous influence,” said Vanity Fair, which translates into dustier moguls.

Topping the powers-that-be, of course, is Apple’s co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs. And outgone Google CEO and now Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is now enshrined in the hall of fame.

As Walt and I head to a good table at the Minetta Tavern to meet the cool peeps for a celebratory drink, here is the official press releases from Vanity Fair:

FACEBOOK FOUNDER MARK ZUCKERBERG TOPS VANITY FAIR’S NEW ESTABLISHMENT LIST FOR THE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW

Sergey Brin and Larry Page Take No. 2 Spot, Lady Gaga Jumps to the Top 10 of Tech-Dominant List

NEW YORK, N.Y. — “The Age of Information gives way to a burgeoning Age of Technology,” announces Graydon Carter, remarking on the “seismic shift in interest and influence” that has occurred in the 17 years that Vanity Fair has been ranking America’s power players. The magazine’s 2011 New Establishment list identifies the top 50 of an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies, and entrepreneurs, who quite often sport hoodies, floppy hair, and backpacks.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the inescapable social-networking site Facebook, maintains his perch at the top of Vanity Fair’s 17th annual New Establishment List ranking for the second year in a row. With a possible I.P.O. on the horizon by 2012, which could value the company anywhere between $50 and $100 billion, Facebook has enough clout to worry even the unshakable Google. Zuckerberg is still the youngest person ever to top the list.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, co-founders of Google, are in the No. 2 spot this year, closing in on Zuckerberg as they jump up one spot, from No. 3 in 2010. Eric Schmidt, who appeared on the list last year with the duo, has since been pushed out of the C.E.O’s office, replaced by Page. Despite reports of an anti-trust investigation, Google has been setting its sites on Facebook by concentrating on strategic initiatives, such as engineering social-networking features.

Rounding out the top five are Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, at No. 3, Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, of Apple, at No. 4, and Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey, at No. 5.

Lady Gaga makes an appearance for the second year in a row. Coming in at No. 9, she is the highest-ranking woman on the list, in front of J. K. Rowling at No. 16, Sheryl Sandberg, of Facebook, at No. 26, Angela Ahrendts with Christopher Bailey, of Burberry, at No. 30, Natalie Massenet at No. 32, and Kara Swisher with Walt Mossberg at No. 40. At 25 years old, Gaga is also the youngest person on the list — not a surprise for someone whose fans managed to crash Amazon’s servers in their desperation to download her third album.

Youthful energy is spread throughout this year’s list with 15 members under the age of 40, including Zuckerberg, Brin and Page, Dorsey, Lady Gaga, Andrew Mason, Sean Parker, Ryan Kavanaugh, Jeremy Stoppelman, Ashton Kutcher, Dennis Crowley, Daniel Ek, Mikael Hed and Niklas Hed, and Justin Timberlake.

There are 14 billionaires on the list: Zuckerberg, Brin and Page, Bezos, Mark Pincus, Michael Moritz, J. K. Rowling, Jim Breyer, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Allen III, Yuri Milner, Robin Li, Parker, and Peter Thiel.

Five member of the New Establishment are actively involved in space exploration, including Brin, Elon Musk, Bezos, Thiel, and Dennis Crowley. Eight of the New Establishment nominees can count themselves members of the ever growing Stanford Mafia; they include Brin, Page, Reed Hastings, Jim Breyer, Hoffman, Musk, Thiel, and John Hennessy.

The New Establishment, Vanity Fair’s annual ranking of the top leaders of our time, is made up of owners, creators, buyers, thinkers, and innovators — the movers and shakers in the worlds of technology, media, business, politics, entertainment, and fashion. These men and women are the taste-makers and trendsetters, opinion formers and agenda creators, not to mention empire builders. Entry into the ranks of Vanity Fair’s list is based on a number of factors: wealth, influence, and philanthropy, as well as such intangibles as vision and the x factor.

The October issue of Vanity Fair will be on newsstands in New York and L.A. on September 1, and nationally and on the iPad September 6.

THE VANITY FAIR NEW ESTABLISHMENT

1. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook
2. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google
3. Jeff Bezos, Amazon
4. Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, Apple
5. Jack Dorsey, Square, Twitter
6. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz
7. Reed Hastings, Netflix
8. John Lasseter, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios
9. Lady Gaga, singer
10. Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg L.P.
11. Dick Costolo, Twitter
12. Mark Pincus, Zynga
13. Jim Breyer, Accel Partners
14. Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Graham King, Movies
15. Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital
16. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter
17. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park
18. Reid Hoffman, Greylock Partners, LinkedIn
19. Herb Allen III, Allen & Co.
20. Judd Apatow, Apatow Productions
21. Jay-Z, Roc Nation
22. Todd Phillips, Green Hat Films
23. Yuri Milner, DST Global
24. J. J. Abrams, writer, director, producer
25. Robin Li, Baidu
26. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook
27. Andrew Mason, Groupon
28. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, television
29. Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson, Leverage
30. Angela Ahrendts and Christopher Bailey, Burberry
31. Elon Musk, Tesla Motors, Space X
32. Natalie Massenet, Net-a-Porter Group
33. Paul Graham, Y Combinator
34. Sean Parker, entrepreneur
35. Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, Flatiron Partners
36. Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, Clarium Capital Management
37. Peter Jackson, Wingnut Films
38. Ryan Kavanaugh, Relativity Media
39. Mike Allen, Politico
40. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, All Things D
41. John Hennessy, Stanford University
42. Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp
43. Ashton Kutcher, actor, investor
44. Tyler Perry, director, producer, writer, actor
45. Dennis Crowley, Foursquare
46. Kevin Ryan, Gilt Groupe
47. Daniel Ek, Spotify
48. Henry Blodget, Business Insider
49. Mikael Hed, Niklas Hed, and Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio
50. Justin Timberlake, singer, actor

STEVE JOBS HOLDS THE TOP SPOT ON VANITY FAIR’S LIST OF THE POWERS THAT BE

Embattled News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch in the Top 5

NEW YORK, N.Y. — This year Vanity Fair inaugurates a list of the Powers That Be. These are the people who have shaped the world we live in today — and continue to wield enormous influence. Many are longtime New Establishment members, and their destinies are intertwined with the members of this year’s New Establishment.

Steve Jobs, of Apple, holds the top spot on the list of the Powers That Be. Since Jobs took control of the company 14 years ago, the stock’s share price has risen more than 6,500 percent. At the height of the debt crisis in late July, Apple had more cash on hand than the U.S. government.

Bernard Arnault, of luxury-goods company LVMH, ranks in the No. 2 spot. As an overseer of countless enduring luxury brands, Arnault has left his mark on the industry. Last year he spent $2 billion to accumulate a 20 percent stake in family-controlled but publicly traded Hermès.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is No.3 on this year’s list while News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch comes in at No. 4. The tumultuous News of the World scandals this year have shaken the media baron, but also shown his staying power in the face of just about anything. Brian Roberts and Steve Burke, of Comcast, NBCUniversal, who recently acquired the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2020, are No. 5.

Jill Abramson is the highest-ranking woman out of six on the list, at No. 9. She is followed by Angelina Jolie with Brad Pitt at No. 11, Sue Naegle with Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo at No. 15, Anne Sweeney with George Bodenheimer at No. 22, Bonnie Hammer at No. 24, and Arianna Huffington with Tim Armstrong at No. 25.

Because some power is permanent, Vanity Fair nominates a number of regulars to the Hall of Fame this year. Warren Buffett, of Berkshire Hathaway, joins Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, Tom Ford, actor Tom Hanks, and designer Karl Lagerfeld. Network impresario Oprah Winfrey, Jeffrey Katzenberg, of DreamWorks Animation, and talk-show host Charlie Rose all make the ranks as well.

The October issue of Vanity Fair will be on newsstands in New York and L.A. on September 1, and nationally and on the iPad September 6.

THE POWERS THAT BE

1. Steve Jobs, Apple
2. Bernard Arnault, LVMH
3. Michael Bloomberg, mayor, New York City
4. Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation
5. Brian Roberts and Steve Burke, Comcast, NBCUniversal
6. François-Henri Pinault, PPR
7. Bob Iger, Walt Disney Company
8. Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner
9. Jill Abramson, The New York Times
10. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft
11. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, movies, philanthropy
12. Diego Della Valle, Tod’s
13. Roman Abramovich, investments
14. Mickey Drexler, J. Crew
15. Richard Plepler, Sue Naegle, and Michael Lombardo, HBO
16. Larry Gagosian, Gagosian Gallery
17. Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the Weinstein Company
18. Marc Jacobs, designer
19. Lorne Michaels, Saturday Night Live
20. David Zaslav, Discovery Communications
21. Jean Pigozzi, investments, art
22. George Bodenheimer and Anne Sweeney, Disney Media Networks
23. Vivi Nevo, NV Investments
24. Bonnie Hammer, NBCU Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios
25. Tim Armstrong and Arianna Huffington, AOL Huffington Post Media Group

HALL OF FAME

Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music Group
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
Ron Conway, angel investor
Philippe Dauman, Viacom
Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, IAC, DVF
John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Larry Ellison, Oracle Corporation
Tom Ford, designer/filmmaker
Ted Forstmann, IMG Worldwide
Tom Freston, Firefly3
Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, Imagine Entertainment
Tom Hanks, actor
Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation
Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel
Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren
John Malone, Liberty Media
Ron Meyer, Universal Studios
Leslie Moonves, CBS
Ronald Perelman, MacAndrews and Forbes
Miuccia Prada, Prada
Charlie Rose, talk-show host
Eric Schmidt, Google
Terry Semel, investor
Oprah Winfrey, OWN

(Full disclosure: Readers who look closely at the list will notice that all things ATD senior editor Peter Kafka is listed as a contributor. This is true! Also true: Peter wrote biographical entries for several people on the list, but has zero input on its composition. He tells us he had no idea that we were being considered for inclusion, and we believe him. He also says that had he been asked for his opinion, he would have voted for us, his bosses, to be included. We also believe that.)

What to Expect When You're Expecting a Zynga IPO (Insider Selling, Natch!)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:07:46 +0000

So exactly how fecund is “FarmVille”?

If reports hold, we’ll all find out today what the yield is from the online gaming phenom Zynga, which will finally be filing its regulatory documents sometime today.

The S-1 for a public offering valued at up to $20 billion, which will contain all kinds of juicy information about the San Francisco-based start-up’s business, is likely to come out after the markets close. Zynga is expected to raise $2 billion in the offering.

Before everyone gets to see what’s in it, there’s a lot that investors should be looking out for, based on recent IPO filings by similar companies, such as Groupon.

Digging Up New Accounting Ground

As Tricia Duryee pointed out, Zynga will be the “first major U.S. company supported primarily by the sale of virtual goods” to file.

That’s what will likely make the Zynga filing very interesting, from an accounting point of view.

How Zynga handles its accounting is sure to be much scrutinized, especially since Groupon attracted all kinds of ugly from its unusual treatment of its financial results.

To defocus from its money-losing under GAAP acounting, the Chicago-based social buying service used the more attractive “Adjusted CSOI,” which is defined as adjusted consolidated segment operating income.

My definition: Sketchy!

Zynga’s finances are expected to look better, reportedly generating about $400 million in profit last year on about $850 million in revenue.

It will be important to pay attention to the breakdown of those revenues and about what period of time the company accounts for them.

As Duryee wrote, Zynga has several choices:

Game-based model: The company recognizes revenue over the life of the game.

User-based model: Revenue is recognized over the estimated life a user plays the game.

Item-based model: Revenue is recognized based on the implied or explicit life span of the item — in other words, how long it would last in the real world. Examples of more durable goods are virtual vehicles, furniture or weapons. Revenue from these would be recognized for as long as the player stays active in the game. Revenues from a more consumable item, like a virtual cup of coffee or a jolt of energy, would be recognized almost immediately.

And there are still other factors to take into consideration, such as whether the goods were paid for with virtual currency or real cash, and how much information a company has for establishing the averages.

In the Revenue Weeds

Another interesting thing to study will be the revenue breakdown for Zynga, especially as it relates to its biggest platform provider, Facebook.

Such as: How many in-game items are purchased directly on Facebook versus through gift cards purchased in the store? How big (or small) is Zynga’s advertising business? What about mobile games? Will the profitability of individual games be called out, with details about their performance?

And, of all its various distribution platforms for its games, where does it get the most mojo?

That’s important, since Zynga will be seen as a proxy for Facebook’s business. Thus, a lot of investors might find some nuggets of information, since the pair are so tightly intertwined as businesses.

Facebook, of course, has been famously trying not to IPO, so any indication of the social networking site’s business will be carefully studied.

Reaping the Insider Rewards

Lastly, it’ll be important to see who is selling what and when among current Zynga investors.

Groupon ran into a buzz saw of criticism from the giant payouts its founders took out of the company from its massive venture funding rounds.

As Peter Kafka wrote:

Groupon raised a total of $946 million in two funding rounds last winter. It kept $136 million of it to help run the money-losing company. The remaining $810 million was paid out, via stock purchases, to CEO Andrew Mason and some of his backers, including Eric Lefkofsky, and, notably, the Samwer brothers, who sold their CityDeal company to Groupon in 2010 … Of note: This wasn’t the first time Groupon had raised money and taken cash off the table. In April 2010, the company raised $130 million, and handed $120 million to many of the same people.

My definition: Even sketchier!

Along with its founder and CEO Mark Pincus, Zynga investors are the pantheon of venture players, including Digital Sky Technologies, Kleiner Perkins, Union Square Ventures and angel investors LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel.

How much Pincus and others inside the company have taken out and are selling should be one of the first places new investors should look.

Because with the hyped valuations that many of these Web 2.0 companies are getting, who’s zooming who should be a key sign to pay mind to.

Barack Obama Wants You To Watch His Funny YouTube Video

Peter Kafka — Sun, 01 May 2011 02:44:01 +0000

The White House Correspondent’s Dinner, an annual tradition where the media and political elite meet to roast/congratulate each other, with mixed results, just finished up. Seth Meyers of “Saturday Night Live” hosted the event, and you should be able to watch replays on C-SPAN if you’re interested.

One new twist to the proceedings: The White House, which normally plays along with the event even though the chief occupant gets ribbed, has gone all in. Immediately after showing this video–a parody trailer based on the “The King’s Speech”–at the event, they released it on YouTube (via Twitter, of course).

The bit isn’t LOL-worthy, IMHO. But it does contain jokes, and I think it’s noteworthy that they’re putting this out there for public consumption, at a time when much of the electorate seems particularly… susceptible to jokes. Even more so if they’re easily accessible via Google.

Also, as The Atlantic.com’s Gabe Snyder points out, the clip contains a Wu Tang Clan sample. Which is sure to upset someone (and please lots of us, too).

(Correction: The song — “Shimmy Shimmy Ya“–is actually from (now-deceased) Wu Tang Clan member Ol’ Dirty Bastard, notes MediaMemo reader “quietstorms“. Even better/worse!)

Meanwhile, you can see all 17 minutes of Obama’s presentation here (much sharper, I think–good Fox News dig), via the Washington Post:

HBO Comes to the iPad, a Couple Days Early

Peter Kafka — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:28:55 +0000

HBO Go, the pay cable channel’s Web service, doesn’t formally launch on the iPad until Monday. But no need to wait: You can download it now at iTunes.

As advertised, the free app is a mirror of HBO’s existing broadband service: It lets the channel’s subscribers stream a very deep catalog of HBO’s shows and movies, on demand, via both Wi-Fi and wireless networks.

It will also work on Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as 20 phones running Google’s Android; it won’t work on tablets running Google’s newest Honeycomb OS, though. (Demo video from BTIG’s Rich Greenfield at the bottom of this post)

The two catches:

The service is available to most cable customers, with the exception of Time Warner Cable and Cablevision subscribers. Time Warner Cable says it’s working on a deal; Cablevision won’t comment.
It’s a very deep catalog–1,400 titles, including the complete run of great series like “The Sopranos” and “The Wire”–but it will still have gaps that could frustrate HBO’s most avid users. I’d like to try David Simon’s “Treme” again, for instance, but I can’t get last season’s episodes; just the new ones that started airing last week.

Some of you will bemoan the fact that you have to be a cable subscriber to get this–there’s no broadband-only option, a la Netflix and Hulu Plus. But that’s the point: Parent company Time Warner is completely wedded to the cable industry and wants to build as many incentives as it can to keep you there, too.

Still, this stuff is lightyears ahead of where the cable business was just a couple years ago, where paying subscribers had no way to get these shows except on their TVs, or by buying it again on DVD or iTunes.

And if you really are a dedicated cord-cutter, and a patient one, you may eventually get your way: I can imagine a scenario where HBO does offer this stuff directly to consumers, and if it happens within a few years, I won’t be completely shocked.

The Bull Case for Demand Media–And Why Wall Street May Not Buy It

Peter Kafka — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:25:25 +0000

There’s no debate that changes Google has made to its search engine’s ranking formula have taken a toll on Demand Media.

How big a toll? That one’s up for debate: Richard Rosenblatt’s company says the changes, which affect the traffic that Demand’s sites get from Google, aren’t significant enough for the company to change its guidance.

Most of Wall Street disagrees, and has been hammering Demand shares for the last couple of weeks. DMD is now trading around $16.70, down from a peak of more than $27 earlier this year.

In a note published today, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan argues that investors are overreacting (Stifel helped take Demand public in January), and keeps his “buy” rating intact. A worst-case scenario, he says, is that the Google changes will clip Demand revenues by 10 percent and EBITDA by 20 percent–but Wall Street has pummeled Demand much more than that.

Rohan (and many others) are very interested to see what Demand says on its May 5 earnings call:

EHow and Demand Media had a great deal of momentum all the way through the first quarter and into the second quarter. But there is now this new variable with which to contend–it is hard to forecast traffic if there is volatility in index rank. How does that all balance out? To the extent that is possible to broaden the range of possible outcomes for the year, without abandoning the guidance altogether, we believe that would be incrementally positive, at least compared to current levels of fear. Maintaining guidance for full year revenue and EBITDA would be even sweeter, if possible. The “what can be done” part of this is key, in our view–own up to the weaknesses, identify the steps required to address those weaknesses, and correct course. Quickly.

Which sounds great. The problem for Demand (and many other publishers, including the New York Times, which said that its About.com had been beaten up by algorithm changes, too) is that it’s entirely possible that Google isn’t done adjusting its search formulas.

And what if it’s just beginning to overhaul search?

If so, every Google-dependent publisher is going to have a very hard time responding to each and every change the search giant makes. Which means that Demand Media’s fortunes will be in flux for some time. And it will be very hard to make Wall Street feel good about that.

I Do… Want Some Magnum Ice Cream. (Really?)

Peter Kafka — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:10:16 +0000

No surprise that my Twitter feed is overrun with the royal wedding: This is the sort of thing that everyone says they don’t care about, but ends up watching/talking about anyway.

I am surprised, though, at what happens when I click on #royalwedding, Twitter’s official hashtag for the event: I end up on the day’s Promoted Trend, purchased on behalf of something called “Magnum Ice Cream,” and which directs Twitter users to Magnum’s Facebook page.

Turns out this is indeed a real product, from Unilever, and I guess they’re getting their money’s worth, because you’re reading about it now. More important is that near the height of the ceremony Twitter was seeing 13,000 #royalwedding tweets per minute.

I do wonder, though, how the media companies Twitter has been encouraging to use #royalwedding today feel about helping the social network promote the “stylish and luxurious lifestyle inspired by the world’s most pleasurable ice cream.”

Related: In advance of the event, Twitter and ABC News told me they were working closely together on live coverage and plans, with hashtag polls and onscreen meters showing the velocity and total number of wedding tweets, etc. But this turned out to be pretty restrained: In an hour of viewing this morning, I only saw a single reference to Twitter cross my screen (an ABC rep tells me there have been more).

Also worth noting: If you wanted to, you could watch the wedding itself on Twitter.com, via a livestream that NBC News provided. Pretty sure we’ll see more of this.

Gripe About the Cable Guys if You Want, but They're Having a Very Nice Quarter

Peter Kafka — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:24:13 +0000

If you live in certain pockets of the country, or on the Web, you know that the TV business is the Titanic, and that it’s just about to be smashed into pieces.

Could be!

But right now the industry is steaming merrily along. Today’s snapshot, via three earnings reports:

Discovery Communications: Revenue up 9 percent, profits up 20 percent.
Viacom: Revenue up 20 percent, profits up 47 percent.
Time Warner Cable: Revenue up 5 percent, profits up 50 percent.

And those cheery results hold up when you dig into the reports, too: Discovery’s numbers are up because it’s getting more for both the ads and the subscriptions it sells–in the U.S., those numbers are up 6 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Viacom has the same story, plus “The Jersey Shore,” which remains astonishingly and distressingly popular.

(But don’t get me wrong: The boob tube has always been the boob tube. And, really, much boobier, in the old days of three (three!) networks. Here, via Bill Simmons, is a clip of Heather Locklear and Heather Thomas in a “Battle of the Network Stars” dunk tank. And at the bottom of this post, Telly Savalas and Gabe Kaplan and Farrah Fawcett. So great/bad.)

Okay, but those are programmers. What about Time Warner Cable, which merely owns pipe? Doing fine, too. The company did lose 66,000 video subscribers–about a half-percent of its 12.2 million base, so if you’re looking for evidence of cord-cutting, you can point to that.

But the cable industry’s consistent refrain is that any customers that are cutting the cord aren’t doing it to watch Web video on iTunes or Netflix or Hulu; they’re doing it because they don’t have any money for anything, period.

Here the numbers seem to bear out the argument: Time Warner’s video losses were outweighed by customers who added broadband and/or phone service to their packages, and the company ended up adding a total of 208,000 new subscription services for the quarter.

Next week we can check in with Comcast, which now has its hands in both the programming and pipe business. Those numbers should be instructive.

And now, because I can:

See? Apple Is Totally Tracking You. Ask South Park. (Video)

Peter Kafka — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:36:12 +0000

Sure, you could take Steve Jobs at his word (see Ina Fried’s excellent Q&A). Or you could listen to Kyle and company. (via GeekWire)

HUMANCENTiPAD
Tags: SOUTH
PARK more…

NBC Digital Exec JB Perrette Leaves

Peter Kafka — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:39:12 +0000

Comcast is still shuffling executives in the wake of its NBCUniversal merger. The latest is Jean-Briac (JB) Perrette, who at one point headed up digital distribution for NBC and was bumped up to a larger distribution role in 2009. Perrette was also one of NBC’s reps on Hulu’s board of directors, back before it gave them up as a merger concession. Deadline.com first reported on Perrette’s departure. An NBCU statement praised Perrette and wished him well.

Yet Another Blogger Weighs In On Barack Obama's Birth Certificate–The White House

Peter Kafka — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:17:17 +0000

Blogs are old news, but you can still find new uses for them. Like today, when the White House used its official account to release Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate, along with with correspondence from Hawaii’s state health agency. And like any responsible blogger, the White House used Twitter to promote the post.

Eric Schmidt Plays Oprah With Tina Fey (Video)

Peter Kafka — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:45:19 +0000

Now that Eric Schmidt isn’t running Google anymore, he has time for this kind of stuff: An hour-long interview with Tina Fey, conducted last week at the Googleplex.

He’s good at it, too. Or at least, he’s good in this one, where he’s paired with a great interview subject.

Some good stuff here very early on, as Fey explains some basic rules of improv comedy, all of which seem completely foreign to the engineer interviewing her, and the ones in the audience.

And, if you like getting outraged about location tracking and don’t have a sense of humor, here’s some red meat for you. Check in around the 25 minute-mark, where Fey starts talking about her kid and mimes using an iPhone (later on she admits to using many Apple products).

Schmidt tells her she should be using Android. “We want you to use a more powerful phone,” he says. Then this:

Schmidt: “As your daughter gets older, you can keep track of your daughter with your phone. Trust me. You’re going to want our phones.”

Fey: “Ah. Subdermal chip, that you guys…

Schmidt: “That’s been proposed, but we’re not quite there yet.”