image c. Fotolio

By Levi Shapiro

It doesn't take a vivid imagination to predict what the No. 1 topic will be after the November election: the weak economy and how to improve return on investments. While a slow-down in advertising spending represents an unprecedented opportunity to migrate ad dollars to the mobile space, that will not happen until standardized measurement systems are in place. For example, last month Chrysler's CMO Deborah Meyer announced 30 percent of the embattled car-company's ad-spend will move to digital. Unfortunately, it was also reported spending for "experimental" platforms, including mobile, would be cut in half. Mobile advertising desperately needs a unified measurement standard to help brands, agencies and publishers quantify ROI.

History suggests the process is slow. Although the first TV commercial aired July 1, 1941 (a 10-second billboard with voice-over for Bulova during a baseball game), it was 10 more years before the A.C. Nielsen Company's Audimeter became the industry's recognized standard for television audience measurement.

For their part, agencies are frustrated. "What is most glaringly absent is a mobile equivalent of persistent cookie tracking," said Dr. Yaakov Kimelfeld, senior vice president and director of Analytics at Mediavest. "Without unified tracking, mobile campaigns are destined to exist in some parallel world." He also said he believes online criteria, like click-throughs and downloads, "play only a marginal role in decisions to increase mobile budgets. The metrics that matter vary in each case, depending on the campaign."

Continue Reading, Mobile Advertisers Demand Unified Measurement Standards

Tivo has concluded their long sought deal with Netflix to stream over 12,000 movie titles to your home, this via standard Tivo DVR's. In addition to the Roku player and LG Blu-ray player, both currently available, Tivo plans to support Xbox 360 by late fall of this year.

Also, according to Steve Swasey, Netflix's VP of Corporate Communications. The company hopes to stream its content directly to television sets by the end of 2009.

Is Tivo positioning themselves as the bridge between lean forward and lean back entertainment in the living rooms of the U.S.? With over 100,000 titles in the Netflix library, the Tivo/Netflix deal has a way to go before this loss leader strategy for Netflix starts to impinge on their existing business model, would they want to abandon mailing discs in the future in favor of VOD?

But Tivo has been experiencing churn as subscribers leave the platform, this reflected in the chart below which illustrates a loss of 178k subscribers ending July of 2008, this verses 145k in the prior quarter.

Their overall market penetration is still small compared to the total universe of DVR's in the marketplace. In addition, with the U.S. in a deep recession, what impact will home budget constraints have on entertainment equipment and services?

With the U.S. Presidential election now four days away, Livestation will assemble what they call a "unique, interactive experience". With a number of news channels available in one place. According to the company, viewers will be able to view multiple perspectives and the chance to use the Livestation chat functionality to influence how live, on-air programmes develop.

BBC World News David Dimbleby, one of the BBC's most experienced presenters will be hosting an election special along with Matt Frei, anchor of BBC World News America. They'll be joined in the studio by veteran newsman Ted Koppel for big picture perspective and global analysis.

Euronews says it will be assessing the impact of the election from a European perspective and analysing how the outcome may influence the future relationship between Europe and America. The euronews coverage will be streamed in seven languages on Livestation.

France 24 has set up studios at the foot of the Trocadéro, where the largest American election evening outside the United States is being organized by Republicans & Democrats Abroad.

C-SPAN coverage will start at 14.00 GMT with an in-depth look at how the 2008 elections will impact the next Congress. C-SPAN will be taking the feeds from both campaigns' HQs from Chicago and Phoenix. This will most likely be interspersed with behind-the-scenes coverage, a studio host with guests and viewer calls

Fifty years ago last Wednesday on Oct. 15, 1958, Chicago, Edward R. Murrow gave what many consider the most profound speech about Television to the Radio and Television News Directors Association convention, know referred to as the Wires and Lights in a Box speech.

In reflecting on the state of Television as currently presented and the next wave of iTV/ IPTV and other forms we may not be yet aware of, I found much to consider when reading Mr. Murrow's speech.

While news and informational programming has expanded well beyond what Mr. Murrow called the "intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons", I often wonder what the value of repetitive news of the 24/7 cycle other then to scare, this as example in the case of the recent Wall Street melt down. If Morgan Stanley stock can fall in real time when cable news pundits repetitively wondered if MS would survive then the connection from input to output and back has created a closed loop where the news anchors are feeding and regurgitating the same information over and over, to what end other then filling time or boosting ratings?

Similarly, in this election year when some would use the medium to divide and instill fear that we are not all equal or equally concerned about our country, Mr. Murrow's words that the "battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference" are as profound today as when first spoken.

If our history is, what we make it, as Mr. Murrow said then what is the next chapter in iTV and IPTV as a medium and can it rise above simply the technology itself to inspire, educate and entertain us? Will it be just a new form of technology for established media outlets to showcase their content and adverts, or will it afford a more inclusive media for individuals to express themselves while being able to make a sufficient living to expand the diversity of voices online?