|
|
Who needs TV, cable or even the rest of the internet any more? Internet giant Yahoo continued to expand its paid-content offerings Monday, debuting a new subscription video service that will include feeds from broadcast and cable networks. The move targets the current dominant brand in the streaming audio and video world, RealNetworks. The latter boasts 900,000 subscribers to its similar RealOne Superpass. Yahoo will offer the service, called Platinum, for $9.95 per month. The March debut gives Yahoo its first major delivery opportunity: March Madness, the month-long NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, will be offered via Platinum, the first time the championships have ever been broadcast live on the web. Other content will include bits from CBS’s “Survivor,” Fox’s “American Idol,” ABC News, Nascar.com, CBS MarketWatch.com and the Weather Channel. A 2002 Arbitron/Edison Media Research study found that 103 Americans had used internet audio or video within the past year.
New AOL mail program targets the techie elite
Fighting a serious subscriber bleed, America Online is getting even more specific with its targeting. The latest bull’s-eye is tech-savvy users. AOL has begun previewing a new product called AOL Communicator, which will debut this summer. The service combines different aspects of the company’s instant messenger and email programs. AOL hopes that college students, small business owners and other tech-minded users will adopt the program. Communicator can consolidate several email addresses into one large bulk box, so that AOL, college, work, etc., addresses all feed into the same place. The program lets users send email directly to those on their buddy lists instead of going through the hassle of actually opening the email program to do so. Also, Communicator supposedly offers better spam control, filtering out more junk mail than other AOL versions. The company has been struggling to keep, not to mention add, subscribers during the 12 months. At the end of last year, AOL recorded its first-ever net drop in quarterly subscribers.
For Iraq coverage, Americans look abroad
Many Americans apparently feel that the nation’s newspapers aren’t giving enough critical coverage to the looming conflict with Iraq. According to figures from Nielsen//NetRatings, traffic to foreign news sites has increased this year as Americans search for a different perspective on the probable war. Nearly half of January traffic to the Guardian Unlimited site, which houses the U.K.'s Guardian and Observer newspapers, came from the U.S., totaling 1.3 million unique viewers. They helped drive a 10 percent overall jump in traffic to the Guardian site. Twenty-five percent of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s visitors during January were Americans. CNN, meanwhile, recorded a slight decrease in traffic from December to January. During February, American traffic to the British Guardian, Independent and BBC rose. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, much of the Guardian’s American traffic was driven by referrals from webloggers, the only segment of American media that has registered loud criticism of the Bush administration’s approach to Iraq.
Tablet PC sales surprisingly brisk, IDC says
Decent sales numbers for tablet PCs during a limited span in the fourth quarter have analysts predicting success for what initially was seen as a dubious venture. About 72,000 of the small portable computers were shipped during the fourth quarter. Research firm IDC predicted that the number will grow rapidly this year, considering that the table PCs were just introduced in November and really only had half of the quarter to sell. Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard, the device’s top vendors, say that sales have outstripped their projections. Although this market still represents just a fraction of the notebook computer market, vendors are excited about almost any improvement at this point. PC sales have been off since 2001, but tablet PCs apparently are gaining the interest of professionals such as lawyers, realtors and those in the health care industry who want a more compact device. The United States has accounted for about half of total tablet PC shipments, according to IDC. The company says that the biggest potential for the tool, which comes with a “pencil” and recognizes handwriting, could be in Asia, where handwriting Asian symbols is less cumbersome than typing them.
Texas student charged with major hack
The computer science program at the University of Texas at Austin may be teaching its students a bit too well. A comp-sci major at the school has been charged with hacking into the Texas database and downloading personal information about more than 55,000 former and current students, faculty and staff. Christopher Andrew Phillips will face federal charges after turning himself in. On March 5, Phillips allegedly executed a program that randomly entered thousands of Social Security numbers and recorded the matching hits. Police found the downloaded names and security numbers at Phillips’ Austin home. The 20-year-old has no criminal record, but he is banned from using computers as a condition of his release on his own recognizance. He faces eight years in prison and $500,000 in fines. Phillips apparently never used the data for anything, criminal or otherwise.
March 18, 2003© 2003 Media Life
Printer-Friendly Version
|
Send
to a Friend
Cover Page |
Contact
Us