More data suggests these were the “mobile games”. London 2012′s organising committee says most digital engagement was via mobile devices, as it closes the lid on the Olympics with an end-of-games stats dump. Read more at paidContent »
The BBC’s celebrated ‘four-screen’ London 2012 output has revealed a late-night iPad fetish and new high water marks for live video and mobile content consumption. ‘This has really been the multi-platform Games,’ the corporation says. Read more at paidContent »
No wonder Tencent ranked #9 in this year’s paidContent 50. In a land considered a piracy hotbed, the massive Chinese service has attracted millions to pay for online experiences. It’s all thanks to the humble instant messenger, Tencent GM Sophia Ong tells paidContent. Read more at paidContent »
Portals used to be the on-ramp to a world of desktop web services. But individual apps and services rule the smartphone waves. Sina admits it’s worried and frightened about its role as internet springboard evaporating on mobile. Read more at paidContent »
Only a sliver of people who have tried out The Guardian’s iPad edition for free end up subscribing after their trial. But does that small percentage matter? Other publishers also see low premium take-up, The Guardian is more interested in selling ads than subs. Read more at paidContent »
A bid for full live English Premier League soccer rights may have been out of Google’s league. But could YouTube yet bid for online highlights? Read more at paidContent »
Tech start-up buzz is bringing Berlin to the attention of suits who broker company investments and sales. That means many more German outfits are likely to see money sloshing around, just like SoundCloud did. Read more »
As the market for music on discs shrinks, struggling retailer HMV will try blurring online and in-store to beef up plastic. But is the initiative just designed to defend a fast-diminishing old business? Read more at paidContent »
Just how poor is the outlook for publishing? News Corp has answered that question by devaluing its own activities before splitting them from its TV businesses. To blame? Restructuring costs, diminishing advertising and the gap left by the News Of The World, the company says. Read more at paidContent »
When is an explosion in mobile users ever a bad thing? When those users are switching from your website and you have no mobile business model. That is what growing numbers of online service are now worrying about. Read more at paidContent »
We crunched data from the last 12 years to examine UK newspaper and website readership. Here is what the results say about the future of online news. Read more at paidContent »
Struggling to finance its core TV channel amid funding cutbacks, Welsh-language broadcaster S4C is re-committing up to £1 million per year to producers it hopes can give an overdue lift to its online ambitions. Read more at paidContent »
As Facebook Payments revenue through Zynga games slows up, the social network is turning to gambling for more direct user money. How will the social network balance responsible behaviour with the need to impress investors? Read more at paidContent »
Half of searches and video streams are coming from mobiles and tablets during the Olympic games. Has the mobile internet reached a tipping point? New Google data would seem to suggest as much. Read more at paidContent »
In the video game industry, power and money is moving away from high street retailers. But how will development studios adapt to an ecosystem of new platform power brokers? Read more at paidContent »
UK TV viewers are gobbling up 24 simultaneous live Olympics streams the BBC is taking from web to TV. First-week data shows a big appetite for viewing of all kinds. Read more at paidContent »
New technology can insert realistic branded 3D objects in to TV shows and movies. Channel 4 is getting the ball rolling with the first of several planned 2012 roll-outs. Read more at paidContent »
France’s Hadopi piracy agency has warned hundreds of thousands accused of piracy. But it’s become frowned upon by the country’s new government. First step in reform is to cut the agency’s budget. Read more at paidContent »
Almost half of the internet video NBC is serving this Olympics is going to mobiles and tablets. That’s a watershed for portable TV. But what happens when at-home internet TV becomes commonplace? Read more at paidContent »
Stung by online criticism of its “#NBCFail” Olympics, the broadcaster comes out fighting with a range of record cross-platform viewing stats it says show critics are just a ‘vocal minority’. But can it make the most of digital when the laser focus is on prime time TV? Read more at paidContent »
Somewhere over the rainbow for Phorm is a land where it gets to target brands’ ads to users based on their every web browsing habit. After UK controversy, the latest emerging market in its sights is Turkey. Read more at paidContent »
Many publishers are introducing digital fees but, in print, shrinking economics are moving others to abandon cover prices. Their hope is to drive up free circulation and advertiser interest. Read more at paidContent »
A game console that doesn’t yet exist now has committed support from the web’s biggest music video service, amongst other operators. For Ouya, the Kickstarter effect is making for plenty of buzz. Read more at paidContent »
What can a 153-year-old news publisher teach five tech startups? Digital expertise may flow both ways as Ireland’s newspaper of record offers desk space and funding to new companies whose products it hopes to adopt. Read more at paidContent »
Valueclick, Demand Media, the New York Times and Hulu are among the companies that didn’t make the cut for this year’s paidContent 50, in part because we took our list global this year. China, meanwhile, is heavily represented. Read more at paidContent »
The companies that made our second-annual paidContent 50 had a collective $150 billion in digital revenues. Here are some other key trends and data points that emerged from our list this year. Read more at paidContent »
You want to know which media companies are making the most money in the digital economy? Welcome to the second-annual paidContent 50 list Read more at paidContent »
China’s online games market is huge. Now some of its biggest publishers want to replicate that success in the west. Where does that leave Zynga and Playfish? Read more at paidContent »
Irony of ironies – after encouraging fans to tweet copiously, the International Olympic Committee requests London 2012 attendees limit their output only to “urgent” status updates. The problem – mobile updates from some attendees have clogged a mobile network used by official TV data suppliers. Read more at paidContent »
The BBC’s commercial wing is promising six months of office space and advice to new start-ups. But what will it get out of the program, and how will it help fledgling companies? We ask the woman in charge. Read more »
Company filings this week suggest economic worries have resurfaced the downturn in the free web’s engine oil – advertising . Some digital operators are celebrating sheltering in paid content, but others are still courting advertisers. What do their fortunes tell us about the recipe for online success? Read more at paidContent »
BSkyB has disclosed the startup costs for its new over-the-top internet TV venture. The amount tells us how much the UK pay-TV leader will invest in seeking new online customers and protecting its satellite business from IPTV challengers. Read more at paidContent »
Boxes for the UK’s big internet TV venture have finally gone on sale, priced a hefty £299, four years after it was conceived. But YouView may be the wrong service, aimed at the wrong market at the wrong time. Read more at paidContent »
Netflix’s first disclosure of European subscriber numbers shows it has quickly become a big competitor to local incumbent Lovefilm, thanks to heavy marketing outlay. Read more at paidContent »
When is “bye-bye buffering” not “bye-bye buffering”? When Virgin Media acknowledges its own ad starring Olympic athlete Usain Bolt was mere “puffery”, landing it in regulatory hot water. Read more at paidContent »
Who owns the airspace in London’s Olympics venues? Organisers want to stop spectators from creating personal WiFi hotspots, while BT charges up to £9.99 per day for on-site access. Read more »
With peripheral inquiries ongoing in to conspiracy and media ethics, Tuesday’s announcement that Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and six others will be charged for “phone hacking” shows the News Of The World furore will soon finally focus on the original criminal allegations. Read more at paidContent »
UK regulators will next month consider whether to go on allowing voting in TV talent shows via mobile apps, following high-profile slip-ups by one of the industry’s leading vendors. Read more at paidContent »
Traditional TV will dominate, viewing on other devices is growing, and researchers can’t agree on how many people will watch the Olympics on mobile and tablet – that’s the conclusion from sifting research forecasts on the matter. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon is amalgamating development teams from two acquired companies in to a London “centre of excellence” for streaming movies, TV and music on devices around the world. Read more at paidContent »
