HHR New Media, Entertainment and Technology Group

Two news reports regarding the MSOs and their media company partners caught our eye last week.  One provided details on Time Warner’s “TV Everywhere” initiative.  The other discussed Viacom’s efforts to work with cable operators to develop an authentication process to ensure that only users paying a monthly cable bill will have online access to certain content.  Taken together the reports revealed that these two players–which don’t always see eye-to-eye– are in agreement on an evolving business strategy that could–depending on whether you view the glass has half–full or half-empty–lead to either a severe limitation or an opening of the floodgates with respect to free content available on the Web. Continue Reading »

There are lots of ways to track our Internet use these days – and its scary to think that each and every piece of information related to such use, including the sites we visit and the products we purchase, are “fair game” for advertisers.  In particular, behavioral targeting, which essentially tracks our use of the web so that advertisers can push ads to us that are specifically tailored to our interests, gives a lot of people pause.  In its recently released report, the FTC made recommendations which seek to balance the potential benefits of behavioral advertising against privacy concerns and encourage privacy protections while maintaining a competitive marketplace.  Continue Reading »

What’s new in digital media?   Subscribe to digitalhhr.com to receive updates of the latest news:

• E-commerce sites, especially Amazon, the biggest of them all, got some bad news as the New York Supreme Court upheld the validity of a law requiring e-tailers to collect state sales tax. Amazon and Overstock.com sued based on a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that a company had to have a physical presence in the state to collect taxes.  Appeals are likely but for now, it looks likely that sales tax on e-commerce is inevitable.  More information is here.
• A task force has been formed by four Madison Avenue trade groups, with the support of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, to develop industry guidelines for new forms of online behavioral advertising and to lobby the government regulators and policymakers on the benefits to consumers.  The initiative is in response to potential government regulations that would limit new forms of online user targeting.  More details here.
• Reports out of Washington say that Julius Genachowski is being considered to take the chair of the Federal Communications Commission.  Although he was a former general counsel at the FCC and knows the agency well, he is better known as a digital media veteran, a longtime executive at InterActiveCorp and founder of a D.C.-based VC firm which has invested in numerous Web companies.  Here’s a piece from all things digital.com discussing the proposed appointment and industry reaction.
• Two consumer groups are set to appear before the FCC to seek an investigation into mobile ads.  The Center for Digital Democracy and US Public Interest Research Group claim that mobile ad firms don’t fully disclose the extent of the information they collect from consumers.  Here’s an article from the San Francisco Chronicle detailing the debate.

The Mobile Marketing Association (“MMA”), a non-profit industry trade group, recently announced the publication of a set of revised Global Mobile Measurement Ad Currency Definitions for the measurement of mobile media advertising currency, including: Ad Impression, Streaming Video Advertising, Rich Media Ad Impression and Click Measurement. The MMA does not intend for these “definitions”, which read more as contextual recommendations for how to assess mobile ad currency, to serve as a set of guidelines for mobile ad counting, but expects them to serve as the foundation and basis for discussion for subsequent mobile ad guideline development. The definitions were developed in close collaboration with the Media Rating Counsel (a non-profit association made up of leading television, radio, print and Internet companies), as well as ADObjects Inc., Amobee Media Systems, AOL LLC, DoubleClick, iO global limited, Isobar, Microsoft, The Coca-Cola Company and Yahoo! Continue Reading »

MTV Networks has signed agreements with MySpace and Auditude regarding the sale, display and distribution of advertising with user generated content posted to MySpace that contains MTV Networks’ programming.  HHR’s New Media, Entertainment and Technology team represented MTV Networks.  Click here for more details.