A sea change is about to swamp your television shows, and the source of that tsunami might be a new Nielsen advertising metric to be unveiled this May.
For years, television advertisers have complained about the lack of specific data on who views their ads. They have been forced to make decisions based on show viewership numbers, knowing full well that full bladders, the mute button and Tivo erode those figures substantially.
Now Nielsen is tackling this question with new of data that measure advertisement viewership the same way they have measured the television audience. Commercial ratings will supposedly allow ad buyers to differentiate the number of eyeballs taking in their pitches from those watching the show in which they appear.
TV networks such as CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS) and the Walt Disney Corp. (NYSE:DIS)'s ABC along with advertising agencies are not so clearly enthused about this metric, though. If a few well-thought-of campaigns prove ineffective in holding the viewing audience, it could cast doubt on the entire industry.
Nielsen, probably cognizant of how deeply their business is intertwined with the ad agency world, is taking a very cautious step into these waters. While advertisers want a second-by-second breakdown on viewership, something modern technology should allow Nielsen to capture, the new metric will only provide an average commercial viewership for each show.
Once this door is breached, however, it's hard to imagine Nielsen long refusing the demands of advertisers for more discrete data. And if they don't like what they see, expect television to change quickly and dramatically. More about this later.
I'm eager to see just how the new generation of entertaining advertisements stack up against one another. How does the snack fairy's numbers compare to the Energizer Bunny? if I had the ability, I would offer a huge prize to the first commercial that outdraws the show in which it appears.
Chalk up another world's smallest title for Samsung this morning with this, their new 8.4 megapixel CMOS sensor. By implementing extended photo diode technology, Samsung has managed to achieve higher light sensitivity and saturation levels into less space. According to Samsung, their new sensor's high signal-to-noise ratio results in the equivalent image quality found in today's CCDs while using one-tenth the power. As such, Sammy expects it to "quickly replace" the CCDs used in mobile phones, camcorders, and even digital cameras. Yeah, they wish. We'll find out soon enough as this CIS hits mass production in the second half of 2007.
A few select journalists got a flash at this year's CES, but no photos were allowed—until now. Texas Instruments is showing off its Pico, a DLP projector that is chiquitito enough to be incorporated into the bottom of a cellphone.
The 1.5-inch gizmo, which contains three lasers, a DLP chip capable of driving widescreen TV images, and a power supply, can be used to beam DVD-quality video onto a wall or a screen, giving you a bigger image than anything you'd find on even the biggest smartphone LCD screen. Two more pics of a nekkid Pico and its DLP chip after the jump. Oh, and need I say that the phone is obviously phake?
TI demos its movie projector in a phone [CNet News]
Probably thought out by some interior designer with one too many sake shots inside him, ZenZui is both the name of a new Microsoft-backed startup and a new interface for phones designed to "transform how people engage, consume and interact with Web content through a revolutionary mobile user experience and information ecosystem."
Or in other words: "OMFG! We must do something about that iPhone-thang! Pronto!"
ZenZui's Zooming User Interface organizes Web and user content in 36 tiles arranged in a virtual desktop grid. The desktop can be panned and zoomed in or out using the cellphone's touchscreen or numeric keypad. Then, when you activate one of the tiles, it will show you a small interface, which appears to follow the same directional pad control for user interaction. The interface looks rather sleek and zoomtastic, I have to say, but you'll be the judge after you see the video demonstration, right after the jump.
The idea was originally patented at Microsoft Research labs, although to me it looks inspired by Don Hopkins' pie menus and the Nintendo Wii Channels. The system will require the participation of carriers and content providers, but beyond Kayak.com, OTOlabs, Avenue A | Razorfish, and Traffic.com, there's not much more detail.
The press release babbles on about social connections and digital content sharing, but I don't know if this is just marketing drone speech or if ZenZui will offer the users the possibility to share their bookmarks and content using a centralized server or some kind of peer-to-peer messaging. You can clearly see a "Rate tile" button on the screenshots in the gallery, so there may really be some kind of social bookmarking/recommendation system in place.
We will know more from CTIA, when Brian and Jason get their sticky paws all over it. – Jesus Diaz
Yet another reason to drool about for Apple fans waiting for the next coming of the MacBook and those who dig solid-state storage: Samsung has released a new NAND drive and, unlike Intel, they have pushed it to 64 Gbytes this time.
And if 64MB/s reads and 45MB/s writes in a 15 grams, 1.8" low-consumption storage thingie doesn't have you drooling, I don't know what other Samsung thing will. – Jesus Diaz
Oh sweet mother of solid state disks, Samsung just birthed another. Their new 1.8-inch 64GB SSD not only doubles the capacity of their current offering, it's said to be up to 60% faster than their existing SLC NAND-based 32GB SSD to boot. Mass production of this 1.8-inch drop-in replacement for hard disks is expected to begin in Q2. Fine, but hey, Samsung, in case you haven't noticed SSDs are already plenty fast enough in comparison to the conventional hard disks they are meant to replace. So how 'bout bringing us consumers bigger and cheaper SSDs based on your new MLC NAND instead of your lickity-quick SLC NAND? After all, Sandisk and Toshiba are breathing down your neck on this one. Thanks for listening.
A sea change is about to swamp your television shows, and the source of that tsunami might be a new Nielsen advertising metric to be unveiled this May.
For years, television advertisers have complained about the lack of specific data on who views their ads. They have been forced to make decisions based on show viewership numbers, knowing full well that full bladders, the mute button and Tivo erode those figures substantially.
Now Nielsen is tackling this question with new of data that measure advertisement viewership the same way they have measured the television audience. Commercial ratings will supposedly allow ad buyers to differentiate the number of eyeballs taking in their pitches from those watching the show in which they appear.
TV networks such as CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS) and the Walt Disney Corp. (NYSE:DIS)'s ABC along with advertising agencies are not so clearly enthused about this metric, though. If a few well-thought-of campaigns prove ineffective in holding the viewing audience, it could cast doubt on the entire industry.
Nielsen, probably cognizant of how deeply their business is intertwined with the ad agency world, is taking a very cautious step into these waters. While advertisers want a second-by-second breakdown on viewership, something modern technology should allow Nielsen to capture, the new metric will only provide an average commercial viewership for each show.
Once this door is breached, however, it's hard to imagine Nielsen long refusing the demands of advertisers for more discrete data. And if they don't like what they see, expect television to change quickly and dramatically. More about this later.
I'm eager to see just how the new generation of entertaining advertisements stack up against one another. How does the snack fairy's numbers compare to the Energizer Bunny? if I had the ability, I would offer a huge prize to the first commercial that outdraws the show in which it appears.
Probably thought out by some interior designer with one too many sake shots inside him, ZenZui is both the name of a new Microsoft-backed startup and a new interface for phones designed to "transform how people engage, consume and interact with Web content through a revolutionary mobile user experience and information ecosystem." 
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