Talk about a back fire. Only one month into the company split of Netflix (into Netflix – Streaming and Qwikster – DVD’s), the once skyrocketing video entertainment powerhouse has lost over 1 million subscribers. Also, they have employed a more than backwards business strategy. Netflix CEO is effectively eliminating his core business prospects from the funnel, making it more difficult to convert new users. If Netflix remained as just Netflix, cross selling opportunities or possibily upselling opportunities would have remained from DVD to Streaming. Now, a user of Netflix DVD is automatically enrolled in Qwikster DVD, not only losing brand loyalists, but also making it more complex to be signed up for both services. Two companies. Two contracts. Too many issues. Without the brand Netflix for the DVD business, there is an increased concerned that users will become brand agnostic and switch to a different provider.

Check out the articles here

We can never overestimate the American public’s quest for video content.

Nielsen has released top line viewer usage comparison of the two major online video services Hulu and Netflix. This information is based on more than 12,000 online interviews conducted in March 2011.

It is obvious from the charts below that these two services satisfy very different purposes for the consumer.

• Hulu is the source for watching tv shows while Netflix is the source for movies

• The majority of Netflix users report watching on a TV screen and over half connect via a game console
• On the other hand, those who use Hulu as a source watch directly from their computers

We do not believe the recently announced new pricing structures will negatively impact these technologies as these costs will be off-set by the increasing availability of programming.

We see both of these technologies as adding to the viewing experience of consumers, and the near-future expansion of HBO Go to gaming consoles will only further enhance that experience. Additionally, these services represent advertising opportunities, whether directly with the service or through the devices used to access the programming.

It is interesting to note that since the recent announcement that Hulu is up for sale, it has attracted the interest of major players like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo. The real issue for Hulu is obtaining the necessary content to attract consumers.  In today’s marketplace, content providers are looking to find as many ways as possible to monetize and gain full value for their content — if not through Hulu, then by developing their own sites where they can control the advertising content.

To counter this both Hulu and Netflix have announced forays into the development of original long-form programming. On August 17^th, Hulu will offer A Day in the Life, a 6-episode half hour documentary series. Netflix has exclusive rights to the 26-episode series House of Cards in late 2012.

While it doesn’t seem likely, a Netflix purchase of Hulu would be beneficial to advertisers and consumers alike: Hulu would vastly improve its movie repertoire while Netflix could show recent television episodes and maybe even a few commercials.

Hmmm, Netflu could be the new epidemic for cable and alternate delivery systems to battle.

-Michele Buslik and Melissa Crosby

The Muscular Dystrophy (MDA) Annual Labor Day Telethon will be airing Sunday, September 4th from 6pm – Midnight across the country and TargetCast is seeking your help.

TargetCast is asking all of our media partners to help us help this worthy cause by providing PSA media inventory that will help drive awareness and tune-in to the new and exciting MDA Telethon. The following PSA featuring Steven Tyler shows one of the many stars that have partnered with MDA to drive tune-in for this years event including Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson, Natalie Morales, Nigel Lythgoe, Nancy O’Dell, and Max Adler.

Breaking from years past, this years show will air for only six hours versus the previous twenty-two and will feature host Nancy O’Dell and guest performers including Celine Dione, Lady Antebellum, Martina McBride and many others in this star packed show.

Please help the MDA and provide PSA airtime and space by contacting Harlan Schwarz at 212-500-6940 or Casey Boyer at 212-500-6970.

Your help is very much appreciated.

A new 3D technology called Unlimited Detail showcases how their technology will greatly improve in all genre of 3D. Using point cloud data, it can improve the amount of details by 100,000 times than the current standard. Point cloud data give artists unlimited freedom on how much details they can put into their 3D models. This technology eliminates the limitation on polygon count given to the artists and eliminates the need to create multiple detail levels of the same model. This will be the next break through in 3D technology. Check out the video.

More than any other cable or satellite provider, Netflix now has 22.80 million subscribers, 9 million of whom joined just in the last year. But the problem of how to reach these 23 million people who spend a lot of time in the ad-free Netflix space remains.

Two potential ways have been proposed for marketers to create a presence on the popular website: sponsoring channels and underwriting content with product integration. This could be the future of advertising on Netflix, if it isn’t in fact happening already. It’s easy enough for a cable network; there are plenty of branded Disney, NatGeo, History and PBS programs for consumers to play instantly. For the majority of Netflix members who retain cable and satellite subscriptions, an entire channel of programs similar to what they just watched is only a click of the remote away.

Starz is actually already doing this. There is an entire section on the Netflix website called Starz Play where members can stream approximately 1,000 titles or even a live feed from the premium cable network. The same approach could potentially work for a brand like XM Radio to sponsor the Music channel or for Sprint to reinforce its product placement within the series 24 with a presence on the show’s Netflix page.

Underwriting content and product integration will be a trickier path to sell, but it could still work. Recently, based on a recommendation from Netflix, my roommates and I watched a show describing some undiscovered, aka less publicized, attractions at Disney theme parks. Only after streaming the entire program did we realize that we had essentially watched a 43-minute infomercial. Not only that, but we were engaged with it and enjoyed it.

Netflix has said that they are not keen to offer any advertising inventory on their site, but they also recently took a leap into the original programming arena with the upcoming House of Cards, something else they also said they would not do. Perhaps Netflix is seeing the potential of expansion, and incorporating advertisements may be their next big venture. Now is the time for advertisers to start thinking about how brands can align with or reside within the Netflix landscape.

Recent app releases from Time Warner Cable and Cablevision allowing subscribers to watch live and VOD television content directly on their iPads are getting a lot of attention lately. Questions linger about what will happen when viewers begin to switch from the small static screen to the smaller mobile screen.

Using video consumption on mobile phones as a comparison point, these concerns can certainly be somewhat justified. According to a recent Nielsen study, more people are watching video on mobile phones than ever before: nearly 25 million people had done so by the end of 2010. And they’re watching more too. In Q4 2009, people watched an average of 3 hours and 37 minutes of video on their phones per month. One year later, that number rose nearly 20% to 4 hours and 20 minutes.

These are impressive statistics for a technology that is still in its infancy. But there is no need to panic about losing the traditional TV audience. In that same quarter of 2010, people were still finding time to watch over 150 hours of television each month. That’s over 37x more time people were spending with the established media format than video on their comparatively brand new smartphones.

We can’t tell for sure what the future of video consumption will look like. We do know that it is only beginning to find new homes outside of the actual TV screen, but this additional consumption is just that: additional. People are not abandoning their television sets in favor of portable devices, but rather consuming their media in more places. The same eyes in different places should be very beneficial for advertisers as this means more channels through which to expose viewers to messages. Now is the time to start thinking outside the (TV) box.

The explosive growth in IPads and the 100 competitive tablet products soon to be on the market have the potential to change not only how we read and receive newspapers and magazines, see movies, check on our airline flights, purchase products, locate restaurants, communicate with others and play games but also how television programs are viewed in real time as well as those stored on our DVRs.

Now that cable and satellite services such as Time Warner, Dish Network, Comcast are all scrambling to provide the television viewing experience on my IPad can I justify the price to purchase this expensive toy which I know will be replaced by more advanced models within 9 months?

In my house, watching television is the ultimate relaxation. Viewing is most often a co-viewing experience using the large HD set in a common area. Will I want to view shows as I move from room-to-room without missing a scene of the show or the ads sponsoring the program increase the time I spend with video?

If I objectively look at the Digital media which has been most successful and seems to garner the most industry press today it is all the talk about the expansion of video opportunities on the computer. The move from user generated short video clips to longer form professional shows seems to have caught the ear of the advertising community and moved many industry gurus to conclude that better measurement of these opportunities for ad placement are required.

We at TargetCast applaud and join in these efforts. We understand that to meet the gold standard of measurement will take time and collaboration by all in the industry. Our hope, is that the joint efforts will not take years and let this opportunity to explore the potential of this technology pass by as we wait for the ultimate answers.

Let’s all get our feet wet now by testing and adjusting our efforts as we learn more.

Tired of teaching your mother how to create an email list over the phone?  Well, Google has created a tech support care package that you can customize for your parents. You can teach your parents how to copy and paste, take a screen shot, spell check, etc.  by sending them a digital care package complete with pre-made videos created by Google. To send your mom or dad a tech support care package click here.

The Mother of All Funk Chords is the best meme that I have come across.  Created by Kutiman as part of his project ThruYOU, The Mother of All Funk Chords is a mash up of several different YouTube videos that blend together to create one funky sound.  Even after the seeing all of the auto-tuned songs from Auto-Tune the News, Kutiman’s work still remains my favorite.  Check it out!  For more Kutiman videos check out his YouTube channel here.

According to a study by Bytemobile 40% of mobile data traffic in 2010 was video traffic. However, only about 10% of the mobile-using public in the U.S. were accessing some form of video content on their handsets.  Based on usage trends, mobile video is going to grow and grow fast as technology improves and more people get smart phones.  Bytemobile believes that in the next year 60% of mobile traffic will come from mobile video.  Can networks support such a large increase in mobile video traffic?  Bytemobile says maybe not.

Read more here.