Bambi Francisco

This is my virtual playground. It's my test lab of sorts.

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NBC embraces YouTube

YouTube - the online-video sharing service that exploded in popularity after showcasing unlicensed NBC content - managed to ink a marketing deal with the network.  As part of the deal, NBC will make a "small advertising buy" on YouTube's site. The deal runs for a season and includes a cross-marketing and a user-generated video component.   

It's not surprising. YouTube, along with every other emerging video channel or video-sharing service, has been trying to strike such marketing deals with major studios. Guba.com signed with Warner Bros. earlier this week. (Watch my video with Guba.com founder and CEO in my earlier post.)  But Google inked a deal with CBS earlier this year. And, that's not exactly working out so well. Who watches CBS shows on Google? That said, NBC is only putting promotions on YouTube, and not entire  programs.

To read more, go on my official MarketWatch blog at Bambi's blog on MarketWatch

Meanwhile, Guba.com also inked a deal with Warner Bros. earlier this week.

Watch my interview with Guba founder/CEO Tom McInerney

June 27, 2006 in Digital video, Internet trends, My media (user-generated) trends, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Favorite GPS, mobile services

About 10% of mobile phones are GPS enabled, according to American Technology Research. If you have one of these phones, you might want to consider two of my favorite services - MapQuest Mobile and Telenav.

Mapquest costs $4 a month, and is used to help you find places from wherever you are without you having to know where you are. Telenav is a $9 a month and is a navigational device. If you want a voice-guided system on your phone, Telenav works really well. I demonstrated how both worked on MarketWatch Weekend, which airs on CBS.

My review of GPS-enabled phones and services

March 24, 2006 in Television | Permalink | Comments (1)

Photo-sharing sites for your photos

Watch TV segment on MarketWatch Weekend on CBS

March 09, 2006 in Television | Permalink | Comments (5)

The network effect of photo sharing

If you're like me, you've taken countless videos and photos during the holidays.  Unfortunately, if you're like me, these photos are likely scattered across a number of camera phones, memory cards, digital cameras, photo-sharing services and old computers. A year or two ago, I wouldn't have guessed at how much messier our digital mess would get. Today, not only are we trying to organize our photos and videos, we're trying to organize the photos and videos friends want to share with us. I guess it's what's to be expected in this collaborative and open-source Internet world.

Consider this: People take about 2,000 digital photos a year, according to Lars Perkins, who founded Picasa, which was bought by Google. Digital camera sales topped 50 million in 2003, according to PMA Marketing Research. So, if you've been putting your photos online since then, you'd have roughly 6,000 photos to manage by today.

Read Net Sense on MarketWatch

I'm testing out various services to see which one offers the easiest solution for me to share my videos from my Treo camera phone and digital camera. So far, my blogs pretty effective. The only problem is that this blog is pretty public. I'm sharing these personal videos that I took at a recent Rolling Stones concert as part of my commentary this weekend on MarketWatch's business magazine show. 

Mick Jagger at the Rolling Stones concert in San Francisco

More of the Stones

January 24, 2006 in Social services (Sharing), Television | Permalink | Comments (3)

Innovation

Over the holidays, I spent some time with my younger cousin. As a senior in college, he's glued to the "Facebook" and "MySpace" -- two companies that are changing the way teenagers and young adults socialize. He says he goes on both sites each day because, well, all of his friends (and potential friends) are there.  They meet online; they create groups online; they update their profiles (with tons of pictures) or share a bit about themselves online. When I returned to work on Tuesday, I went on my own "social-network" services of sorts. I received invitations or requests to be part of  LinkedIn or to update my information on Plaxo.

One could argue that it wasn't until this year -- 2005 -- that these social-networking sites or services became mainstream. Yet it was back in late 2003, that Silicon Valley was trying to figure out just what would become of such services, notably Friendster - the social-networking pioneer. Read column on MarketWatch When I first wrote about MySpace, back in December 2004, the site had 3 million visitors. Read column

Across Silicon Valley, I don't see many investments into social-networking services, but I see a plethora of dollars flowing into user-generated services. Last week, Ron Conway - an angel  investor in Google (at $70 million in market cap) - e-mailed me to check out Wink.com, which is a user-generated search engine. Other user-generated services range from user-generated phone books, like Insider Pages, to user-generated local news operations, like Backfence. If the evolution of social-networking sites is any guide, maybe mainstream America will begin to understand user-generated services in 2007. 

It's not easy to be an early investor in these startups. But they certainly change the rules of the game for many public companies out there.  What's more, these young companies are getting attention and the funds to build up their operations. The optimism and relatively easy-money environment nearly smacks of 1999 - when nearly $100 billion was invested in venture-backed startups. Of course, roughly $21 billion will be invested in startups this year. And, unlike 1999, when public investors lined up to snap up unproven and unprofitable startups at wild prices, there is another group of buyers out there. They're big; they've got cash, and they're looking to stay alive in the Internet age.

Here's the TV package that ran on MarketWatch Weekend on CBS.
Watch report on startups in Silicon Valley

December 27, 2005 in Television | Permalink | Comments (2)

Motorola's sleek gadgets

MarketWatch 2005 CEO of the Year award went to Motorola Chief Executive, Ed Zander.

In our interview, Zander talks about Motorola's hot Razr line and  "many derivative products" to come in 2006. He also takes issue with Wall Street and critics who say that Motorola's  Rockr phone - a Motorola phone with Apple iPod capabilities -- was a great success in Europe and Asia. He says there will be a number of new Rockr phones  in the first half of 2006. And, I can't wait to see Motorola's MotoQ. As he's already said, that Blackberry-like gadget comes out in the first quarter of next year.

Zander's interview will air this weekend on MarketWatch Weekend, MarketWatch's business magazine show that airs on CBS.

Watch interview with  Zander

Read about Zander on MarketWatch



December 09, 2005 in Television | Permalink | Comments (8)

Apple's video iPod needs your content

First it was music, then pictures and now video. Apple's latest iPod with video capabilities received a lot of fanfare in the last month. But it may be for the wrong reasons. Current conventional wisdom is that this Apple video iPod - however cool it is -- will one day be a big hit with mainstream America as long as Apple expands its selection of shows and movies. And, that can take time because copyrighted material requires Apple to strike licensing deals with major movie studios. But there's another type of content being generated out there. It's very mainstream and it doesn't require any licensing deals at all.

Watch TV piece that aired on MarketWatch Weekend on CBS

October 28, 2005 in Television | Permalink | Comments (6)

Google - $30 or $300?

Even though I think Google ends the year above $300, some people think Google should trade closer to what it's worth -- that is $30.

Is Google worth closer to $30? That's what Ray Conley, an analyst at Palo Alto Investors, thinks. In fact, he thinks Goog 's worth $30 today, especially based on the profit and cash flow he thinks Google can earn in the future. Of course, if I applied that analysis (by using future rent) to value the homes in Marin or San Francisco, I'd price myself out. It's already happened a number of times. Yes, I know. A stock is different from a home. OK, back to Conley. While he can make a case for Goog going up to $436. He can make a case for Goog being worth $137. 

His interview received a lot of interest on MarketWatch. Watch the interview

Also Google wants to WiFi San Francisco, and it's already testing a service through a little company called Feeva.

Here's the WiFi story that aired on CBS a couple weekends ago.
Google WiFi plans in San Francisco

October 20, 2005 in Television | Permalink | Comments (12)

Online Poker

What's behind the online poker fascination?


Online Poker TV package on CBS MarketWatch Weekend

 

May 25, 2005 in Television | Permalink | Comments (20)