CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox - In Context With Internet Growth

Ed: Impressive numbers from CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox; however, in context, growth counts. Facebook adds 250,000 members per day. This is the total circulation for a medium sized metropolitan newspaper or TV station.

How Facebook stays afloat adding 250,000 users per day

Posted by Dan Farber

A few weeks ago I talked with Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of technical operations at Facebook, about the challenge of innovating quickly and building stable infrastructure while 250,000 new members are added to the social network every day. Check out the video on ZDNet...

What are the challenges that you see--let's say you're at 80 million unique users per month, 250,000 being added per day and 50,000 transactions per second. What happens when you get to 500 million or a billion if you ever get there?
Heiliger: Hopefully, tremendous things. I think we can only look forward to those days...

Quincy Smith Named CEO Of CBS Interactive, CNET

from Silicon Alley Insider by Michael Learmonth

CBS completed its acquisition of CNET and chief executive Les Moonves named Quincy Smith, the dealmaker who pushed the acquisition, as CEO of the expanded digital unit.

Former CNET CEO Neil Ashe becomes president of CBS Interactive, reporting to Smith (SAI 100 #8). After the acquisition, CBS says it's now the 8th-largest Web network in terms of unduplicated unique visitors, according to ComScore.

The digital group will be organized into five vertical categories. How is CBS integrating its $1.8 billion acquisition? Per CBS's release:

Technology: CNET.com is the number one Web site in the computer and consumer electronics category, reaching more than 18 million people every month with daily premium content offerings. From the latest product reviews to breaking news from the digital world, as well as video and program downloads, CNET.com has become the leading destination for people looking to navigate today's digital world...

FIM Moving To New LA HQ In Playa Del Rey; Consolidating All LA Offices

from paidContent.org by Staci D. Kramer

Fox Interactive Media (NYSE: NWS) is celebrating its third birthday* by finally announcing a new headquarters that should be big enough to house all of its LA staff in one place: 300,000-plus square feet in the Horizon at Playa Vista in Playa Del Rey. In an internal memo to his staff, FIM president Peter Levinsohn described the deal "the single biggest real-estate transaction in Los Angeles in the last 25 years. When we move to our new facility between June of 2009 and January of 2010, not only will we enjoy the distinction of having one of the largest corporate headquarters in the LA area, but we will be housed in a state-of-the-art facility that reflects our corporate identity and culture." The space includes "an exclusive gym, internal and external eating facilities, volleyball courts, and lots of green space ..." It will house about 2000 FIM employees, which is all its LA staff...

ABC Considers Major Online Newscast Overhaul; CBS Looks To CNET, Celebs For Boost

from paidContent.org by David Kaplan

When it comes to all the tropes the broadcast networks continue to cling to, the national evening news shows are arguably the most in need of drastic change. As the shows' millions viewers are getting older and older, ad support is dwindling. While the networks' online versions of the nightly news were meant to invigorate the stale productions and attract younger viewers, it turns out that the webcasts are struggling as well. David Westin, ABC's news-division president, tells WSJ that the Disney-owned network isn't ready to pull the plug on the two-year-old World News webcasts, but ABC is clearly groping for ways to make its online news relevant. Westin: "I want to look at it and say, 'What have we learned from it?' 'How can we reconfigure it?' 'What can we do better?'"

-- ABC's numbers: Last Monday, internal traffic showed ABCNews.com logged 7.8 million pageviews, though the company claims it averages about 8.4 million. Within that, the 15-minuteWorld News webcast got 145,000 hits, while three million clicks went to the news site's photo gallery featuring shots of celebrities and "the pregnant man." Though general hard news has been met with indifference, sections devoted to health and politics have been relative bright spots, suggesting that ABC might try to focus on niche verticals.

-- CBS' (NYSE: CBS) solution: celebs and tech: CBS plans to overhaul its online news with some assistance from CNET (NSDQ: CNET) once the merger closes. And noticing the same insatiable appetite for celebrity news, CBS Interactive promises to deliver more of that kind of coverage with a new destination due "in coming weeks."...

Sports Shorts: ESPN360-Cricket; NBCU-Beijing; YES-NYT

from paidContent.org by Staci D. Kramer

-- ESPN360.com Will Carry Exclusive Live Cricket Coverage: ESPN360.com has the exclusive U.S. broadband rights to live and replay coverage of the 2008 Asian Cup Cricket Tournament from Pakistan June 24-July 6. The six-team, 13-match biennial tournament includes national teams from Pakistan, India, UAE, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka. ESPN's (NYSE: DIS) Cricinfo.comwill carry extensive highlights and provide 3D animation of each match.

-- Vista Media Center Users Can Download NBC Olympic Video Highlights: Yesterday I wrote about NBC Sports demanding that audio and video from Olympics trials come down from other sites before Beijing. Here's an example of how NBC is trying to expand access to its own video, albeit in a very limited way: NBC Olympics on the Go, powered by Wavexpress, will allow viewers with Windows Vista Media Center to set up automatic syncing of NBC-provided channels to laptops for commuter viewing "up-to-HD quality on the go". No word on whether this will work with portable devices that usually can sync with Media Center but it doesn't sound like it. Release...