1 - Internationalist

F R O N T L I N E S
Viacom Gives a Boost
to Joost
Viacom has been in the
news a lot lately, as it faced
down Google’s YouTube
over the video site’s posting
Viacom’s copyrighted
content. Now Viacom has
signed a deal with Joost,
what is claimed to be the
world’s first broadcastquality
Internet television service, to give a huge amount of its
programming away free to consumers on Joost’s distribution
platform. Under the agreement, Viacom divisions MTV
Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures will provide
television and theatrical programming on the Joost platform. For
consumers, it means free access to thousands of programs and
channels not readily available on the Web.
“We built this platform from the ground up, with companies
like Viacom in mind,” says Janus Friis, founder of Joost, which is
headquartered in Leiden, Holland. Our platform provides
scalable distribution, in a completely safe environment that
protects the interest of content owners and advertisers, while
delighting viewers.”
Philippe Dauman, president and CEO of New York City-based
Viacom, tells inter national ist: “Our strategy is to be wherever the
audiences are, and we believe that this great new platform can
be an important addition to our distribution efforts for Viacom
content developed both in the U.S. and internationally.”
INFO: www.viacom.com or www.joost.com
Digital
Eavesdropping
Bad word-of-mouth can destroy the
reputation of a company or its product.
Blogging enables that to happen on a
global scale. In the U.S. alone, it is
estimated that 57 million adults (or 39
percent of the population) are blog
readers. Do you want to know what
bloggers are saying about your
business? Now you can find out.
Endai Worldwide, an interactive
marketing services company based in
New York City, has introduced
BlogTraq Brand Reputation Management
Technology and Services. BlogTraq
searches the Web, scanning new blog posts and referencing
them by company name, product name or any other
combination of terms. Human language analysis reports to
clients, in real time, if posts are endorsing the brand, are neutral,
or include negative comments.
“Consumer-generated media is changing the global
relationships consumers have with marketers,” Michael Ferranti,
Endai’s CEO tells inter national ist. “Every consumer with an
Internet connection has a voice. This phenomenon frightens
some marketers but empowers others. Smart marketers identify
opportunities and respond to potential threats while they are still
in their formative stages, giving those marketers the edge they
need in a fast-changing globalized marketplace.”
INFO: www.endai.com
Ferranti
Europe Ponders Privacy vs. Public Safety
A new European plan to track telephone and Internet use could have a chilling effect on some online or
phone-based communications and business transactions. The new requirement for companies to keep
detailed data about people’s Internet and phone use goes far beyond the current European Union directive.
The plan is an outgrowth of law-enforcement officials’ demand for better record-keeping following
terrorist bombings in Spain and Britain. How the data tracking will happen, however, is being decided on a
country-by-country basis. In the Netherlands, for example, a draft law would require phone companies to
track the cell phone caller’s location throughout the entire conversation.
In Germany, however, the response would be more far-reaching. The common practice of creating an Internet account using
a false name would be illegal. This could prevent participation in online auctions, in which bidders often don’t want their
identity revealed. Use of a fictitious account for receiving commercial junk mail also would be illegal. False e-mail names would
have to be able to be traced to a real name. Paying cash for a prepaid cell phone account might also become illegal.
All these proposals have privacy advocates up in arms. EU countries have until 2009 to implement the Data Retention
Directive. Stay tuned.
INFO: http://europa.eu
Do You Belong in Frontlines? If your company has news, e-mail it to bob.benchley@internationalistmagazine.com
10 inter national ist magazine