Desilu = 20th century, Desi Hits! = 21st

Anjula Acharia-Bath, CEO of Desi Hits!

WSJ story on new record label focused on promoting Indian music.

Jai Ho!

Actually, my favorite recent Indian piece was that long soaring one that fronted Spike Lee’s “Inside Man.”

Legendary Jimmy Iovine supports Desi Hits!, which started in 2007 and is now coming under the larger umbrella of Universal.

The label is expected to blend Indian music with hip hop—naturally.

Online advertising in China takes off

Okay, make that a triple Sunday dip on Chart of the Day.

WSJ chart showing the skyrocketing growth in online advertising spending in China:  nowhere in 2000 and closing in on $3b this year. China’s total ad market is just above $20B and growing at a 14% clip. Online growing a bit faster at 25%.

Result? 

The world’s largest advertising companies want to conquer a presence in a burgeoning territory:  online-ad buying in China.

How video games may save orchestral music

More on my continuing theme of the elevation of video games to an art from that challenges traditional Hollywood product when it comes to the allegiance of my kids.

When we travel in the car nowadays and the kids plug in their iPods, I find them shuffling more and more musical scores (far more classical than you’d expect) from favorite videogames.

Rob Garner really, really wants a set of timpani.

Garner doesn’t play the drums himself. He’s a graduate student at the University of Maryland, getting a degree in library science, and his instrument is the trumpet.  But Garner is also president of the GSO, a student-run 100-member orchestra that’s been performing several times a year since 2005.

GSO, by the way, stands for Gamer Symphony Orchestra. This group is devoted exclusively to the music of video games.  And timpani could really come in handy when performing some of the themes from the popular game Halo.

These days, a lot of people in the classical music world are worried that kids aren’t connecting with orchestral music. But the music of video games is emerging as one way orchestras may actually be reaching new audiences. It’s certainly proliferating.

Hmmm, and I was so ready to harrumph about kids today!

MC Pushkin lives!

Neat WSJ weekend piece on the “surprise” that is Russian rap!

Anybody who’s traveled this world in the last decade can attest to how pervasively rap/hip hop have spread, with even greater impact, I would argue, than rock ‘n roll in decades previous.

Rock was more about cutting loose, but rap and hip hop tend to have a more critical tone regarding the powers that be, and since the main purveyors tend to come from underprivileged urban youth, that’s a more potent signaling function in this day of superempowered individuals pissed off enough to turn to terror.  Not to insinuate a link—anything but, just a powerful association (both terror and jihadism tap into a lot of the same anger and pool of individuals).  

But my sense has always been that rap and hip hop are more of a venting than a mobilization—by far.  Also more of a stirring for progressive political action, so by and large a very positive impact and, in many ways, a counterbalancing medium.

From the story:

To the surprise of many, Russian rap has emerged as an outlet for social protest, with rappers producing songs on such hot-button issues as drugs, police brutality and the immense power of the Kremlin-backed elite.  Although most mainstream, TV-friendly rappers stick to familiar topics, like bling and babes, the Internet has fueled the growth of a vibrant rap underground with socially  conscious songs too provocative for the state-dominated media.

Not all that unfamiliar, yes?  And hardly that much of a surprise for a Russian society that has loved its dissident poets over the centuries, going all the way to Pushkin.

GameStop, our favorite stop for games, gets come competition

Bloomberg Businessweek blurb on how GameStop, the fast-growing retail chain that sells entertainment software (games of all sorts—new and used and traded in), will have new challengers in the field as Best Buy seeks a beachhead in the trade-in trade and game makers look for more digital deliver a la Xbox.

Why this interests me:  my kids are incredibly loyal customers of GameStop, as are my wife and I.  Why?  No matter what gear or games we buy, they will take it back in trade for store credit, plus the sales people are incredibly knowledgeable on the games themselves, making them a seriously helpful resource.  In short, they treat us all very nicely every time we walk through the door, and I’m guessing that Best Buy, with its big box mentality (in contrast, GameStop stores are akin to neighborhood video stores in the late 80s and early 90s), will have a very hard time making the same level of personalized service work. 

Hell, at our preferred GameStop, everybody knows our names, and goes out of their way to make sure we’re happy as all get out before we leave (as well as signed up for all desired new-release dates).  Service-wise, the place is just as sharp in customer service as the fabulous Mandarin Oriental hotel in DC.  It’s that good.

So I’m pulling for GameStop, even as I knew this day would come.

My only complaint with GameStop:  they used to do trade-ins on DVDs too.

Personal data as a sellable asset

Our Bynamite heroesNYT story that I've been waiting a while to read:

On the Internet, users supply the raw material that helps generate billions of dollars a year in online advertising revenue. Search requests, individual profiles on social networks, Web browsing habits, posted pictures and many Internet messages are all mined to serve up targeted online ads.

All of this personal information turns out to be extremely valuable, collectively. So why should Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other ad businesses get all the rewards?

That is the question that animates Bynamite, a start-up company based in San Francisco. “There should be an economic opportunity on the consumer side,” said Ginsu Yoon, a co-founder of the company. “Nearly all the investment and technology is on the advertising side.”

Bynamite, to be sure, is another entry in the emerging market for online privacy products. The business interest in such products, of course, is being fed by worries about how much personal information marketers collect. Also playing a part are recent outcries after Facebook changed its privacy practices and Google introduced a social networking tool, Buzz, that initially shared information widely without users’ permission. Venture capital has been pouring into Web-based monitoring and privacy protection products like ReputationDefender and Abine, as well as services that help parents protect children’s privacy online, like SafetyWeb and SocialShield.

Bynamite brings a somewhat different perspective to the privacy market. “Our view is that it’s not about privacy protection but about giving users control over this valuable resource — their information,” Mr. Yoon said.

Both the protection and the value approaches to the privacy market could well pay off, says Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm. “What’s intriguing about Bynamite,” he said, “is its emphasis on privacy as revolving around choice and ownership of data, and ultimately a notion of an exchange of value.” (Kleiner Perkins is an investor in ReputationDefender but not in Bynamite.)

I think this is a great step forward toward an inevitable future. In my mind, the Googles of the world are largely ripping us off and achieving way too much power.  The backlash will come, but this is the right way to channel it.

Disney's penetration of Asia goes way beyond theme parks

pic here

FT front-pager on Disney expanding its language schools in China, with a goal of almost 150 schools and $100m in revenue. By 2015, it wants to be training 150k Chinese kids each year.

The curriculum features Disney characters, obviously.  A growing Chinese middle class "means there is no shortage of parents willing to pay $2,200 a year for tuition of two hours a week." 

I heard that last bit in spades from the Gymboree international franchise operators: there is almost no limit to what parents will pay in emerging markets to get their kids ahead of the pack--typical of countries on the rise.

The hidden benefit is also fairly obvious, as far as Disney is concerned:

But the schools also enable Disney to forge a bond with a new generation of consumers who may be unaware of the company's characters and stories.

This is crucial because gov quotas on foreign films restrict Disney's marketing there.

Making Broadway sell overseas

Interesting WSJ feature on how Broadway, much like Hollywood, is seeing an increasing share of total revenue come from international tours.  Disney alone has made $2B from "The Lion King" abroad--$2B!  Them's Cameron numbers!

The WSJ says that "the export of musical theater abroad has never been bigger."  So just like in Hollywood, you will see productions created with an eye to their sales potential abroad--further evidence of globalization's reach and staying power.

The trick is the usual one:  how to translate cultural references.

For now, the map is purely Core-limited.  A graphic showing where "Beauty and the Beast" has played, for example, listed Old Core North America, Europe and Industrialized Asia, plus New Core Asia, Argentina, Brazil and South Africa.  No Gap countries whatsoever, but invariably that will change as Disney aggressively brands consumers in frontier economies (an upcoming post).

The slow death of original screenplays

WSJ story on why Hollywood is rooting for "Inception," which projects to do about $50-60M over the weekend: it is emblematic of a dying breed.  Film franchises based on original ideas are going the way of the dinosaur in Hollywood, losing out to adaptations.  In the 1980s, 70% of the films featured original scripts. That share dropped to 45% in the 1990s and 25% in the 00s.

Here's hoping it reverses the trend, although that's too much to expect of any one film--unless it's made by James Cameron.

The king of soft-kill enters the picture in Iran

A WAPO story that only long-time aficionados (I confess) of Fox TV will celebrate.  

Unlike dozens of other foreign-based satellite channels here,Farsi1 broadcasts popular Korean, Colombian and U.S. shows and also dubs them in Iran's national language, Farsi, rather than using subtitles, making them more broadly accessible. Its popularity has soared since its launch in August.

"The story is so beautiful," said Maryam, a West Tehran housewife who was using a secretly stashed satellite dish on a recent day to tune into Farsi1's latest hit, "Body of Desire," a steamy Spanish-language telenovela. Maryam, who asked that her last name not be used, said she feels awkward watching some scenes in front of her family. Still, she said, she is "hooked."

"It's all about forgiveness, desire and justice," she said, as Cuban actor Mario Cimarro, playing Salvador, rose from a blue sea, his muscular chest only partly covered by his long, dark hair.

Satellite receivers are illegal in Iran but widely available. Officials acknowledge that they jam many foreign channels using radio waves, but Farsi1, which operates out of the Hong Kong-based headquarters of Star TV, a subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp., is still on the air in Tehran.

Viewers are increasingly deserting the six channels operated by Iranian state television, with its political, ideological and religious constraints, for Farsi1's more daring fare, including the U.S. series "Prison Break," "24" and "Dharma and Greg."

Rupert Murdoch, that destroyer of American morals, now does the same for Iran!

Go with God, say I.

Chinese gamers--unite!

pic here

Bloomberg Businessweek technology blurb.

China has 400m internet users, with at least a quarter of them avid gamers.

But the government is wary of such activity that it cannot easily control or understand, and so it's trying to limit individual activity, pushing rules to limit perceived "unhealthy" activity.  

This was tried in 2005 WRT minors playing online, but kids just got around that by using the IDs of older friends.  Now the new rules say gamers must register using their real names.

None of this, of course, helps Chinese companies trying to muscle their way into the global gaming biz, so each time the gov announces such rules, big Chinese gaming companies like Tencent and Perfect World and Shanda Games lose share price.

Beijing can't have it both ways:  trying to regulate individuals' activities in the industry while trying to promote local flagships.  But it will try, as in so many other spheres of activity, despite the obvious self-limiting outcomes.  If you want a creative population, you've got to let them explore and stop playing nanny all the time.

Iran: doing its best to block out sat TV

Iranians' love of foreign media is a well-documented fact, from the obsession with "Lost" to South Korea soaps.

Newsweek reports that the regime maintains its insane enmity to the Brits and the BBC, though.  After the putsch, the Revolutionary Guards made a supreme effort to block BBC's Persian TV channel. They blocked it by uplinking static to the satellite, but in doing so they scrambled a lot of popular fare from the same satellite.  

The problem:

Iran's domestic TV broadcasts--key to the regime's ability to maintain control and stability--depend on the very European satellites Iran is toying with to get its signals distributed across the country. (Arab-owned satellites have quit carrying Iran's broadcasts, and Iran has no satellies of its own.)

So chairman of broadcasting in Iran admits that when Iran messes with other people's broadcasts, they can easily retaliate, "So we have to make sure that we don't overreach ourselves."

Connectivity comes with code.

Brazil targets Africa . . . with media!

Outgoing Brazilian president Lula da Silva announces that TV Brasil, a Portuguese-language network will target former Portuguese colonies in Africa (there are a bunch) via rebroadcast through Mozambique.  In all, 49 nations will be targeted (out of 55 on the continent or on neighboring islands).  

Lula presents this as a pure soft-power play:

I want a channel that speaks well of the country, that can show Brazil as it really is.

The biggest draws will be Brazilian soccer and soap operas, which already have a large following there. These two are big media draws in the Western hemisphere as well.

Forget that offending billboard in Cairo. Take it online, kids!

Photo here.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek article pointing out how online advertizing is beginning to take off in the Middle East, thanks to more Arabs going online and getting mobiles.  Broadband penetration remains low (12% compared to 64% in North America and we’re no great shakes either).  Another trick:  5% of web users/consumers are Arab, but only 1% of the content is Arabic.

Still, there is a leap-frog quality to this development: maybe traditional advertising never makes it in the region like it has in the West, but maybe the online version fills the gap and obviates the old models, which, for a lot of reasons, are trickier to navigate in that part of the world.

Coming soon to a home theater in your basement!

The gist:

Major Hollywood studies and one of the country's largest cable operators are in discussions to send movies to people's living-room TVs just weeks after films hit the multiplex, a step that would shake up film distribution.

The norm is four months.  The premium charge would be 20-30$ extra.

Understand this:  I take my brood of six total to an IMAX and I drop $100 on tickets and sundries, so I will consider this a great bargain, especially since my high-def projector's always in focus, my sound is excellent, and I control the projector and the audience.

This could come as early as fall, with the first movies affected being those at the tail end of the year or early 2011.

The driver is obvious:  Hollywood is scrambling to figure out how to cut its declining revenue on video and adjust itself to the emerging realities of digital on demand.

Arrgh! They've stolen my content!

Pic here

I cite Lars Ulrich on this subject because my older son idolizes him and because he always impressed me WRT his vehemence on the subject (even more than his ferocious drumming, which I've witnessed close up).

In Indy last year, I snapped while accompanying my son to the concert, ear plugs firmly in place.

Anyway, what caught my eye on the article was this quote from the deputy chief exec of Penguin (the publisher that owns G.P. Putnam, publisher of my trilogy, and which in turn is owned by Pearson, which also owns the FT):

The only way to fight piracy is to publish digital content across as many formats as possible, through as many channels, at a fair price.  If we go for exclusive or proprietary formats, we're completely screwed.

You fight illegal connectivity by embracing connectivity all the more--not by putting up firewalls.

You knew this was coming: NBC sitcom about Indian call center

Thursday night slot for show about a call center in India: "A comedy where cultural differences are a novelty."

Like the cheesehead, goes well with the sacred cow.

America, at its best, has always been a if-you-can't-beat-'em,join-'em mindset when it comes to economics. The first best step in revitalization is de-demonizing your competitors and learning from them in the process.

Innovating faster than your customers can accept, otherwise known as . . .

Facebook consistently pushes the privacy envelope, and Chuck Schumer is gearing up.  The whole, letting companies know your brand loyalties strikes me more as reverse advertising that a huge loss in privacy, especially in a culture where everybody now wears their labels on the outside of their clothes (big damn change from my youth), but I get the angst too.

Zuckerman's quote disturbs a bit though:

There's always a challenge of innovating faster than your users understand or accept.

And there's a reason why, Mark.  When companies "innovate" at that stealthy speed, rule-breaking tends to follow--and fraud, and stealing, and . . ..

As DVDs decline, globalization comes to Hollywood's rescue

Conflicting messages from Variety and The Economist.

Variety points out that the great initial wave of DVDing the back catalogue (all those movies from the past) is winding down, especially as people move toward digital access and services like Netflix).

The pic in 2006 was about 2/3rds retail DVD, 1/5th DVD rentals and all the rest.  But by 2013, the all-the-rest will dominate to the tune of 2/3rds.  All-the-rest is online video, Pay-per-view & video-on-demand, DVD by mail, and rental and retail Blu-ray. 

Pretty big and fast shift in revenue sources, although one can argue that the generation shift from DVD to Blu-ray isn't really that profound as far as customer is concerned.  If you add up the rental and retails of DVDs and Blu-Rays in 2013, it's more like 3/4ths--so not such a huge drop from 2006.  Still, clear that digital access is rising as a model.

Meanwhile, the box-office revenue is doing great, off-setting the slight decline in domestic retail product sales ($27B in 2006 to predicted 25B in 2013, because the digital access involves a tighter margin).  Worldwide box office hit $30B last year, up 8% from 2008.  Domestic BO was only 1/3rd that total. 

So Hollywood, left to domestic sales only, would be a $35B-$37B business.  But add in overseas and you're talking a $55-57B business, meaning globalization works just fine for Hollywood.

The BO balance for Hollywood

Scanning the weekly BO report.

Of the 55 films listed, only 14 have bigger foreign BO than domestic, which isn't surprising, because the list is US-centric.

But the foreign-heavy numbers appear primarily in the tent-pole, or blockbuster films, such that, when you add up the total BO for all of the 55 films, the foreign revenue accounts for almost exactly 1/2 of total BO, or $4.4B out of $8.9B).

Those tent-poles films with higher international BO are:

1. How to Train your Dragon
2. Clash of the Titans
3. Alice in Wonderland
4. Avatar
5. Percy Jackson and the . . . Thief
6. Alvin . . The Squeakquel
7. Sherlock Holmes.

In that septet, the foreign share is 66%.  That means their foreign audiences pay the bulk of the tab for the prestige films back here.

There are only 10 blockbusters (over $200M) listed.  Besides the 7 above, there's Shutter Island, Blind Side and Valentine's Day.  Only Blind Side is primarily US BO (85%). The other two are slightly US-heavy.  Blind Side is unlikely to do well overseas, because the football theme doesn't travel.