In terms of increasing the understanding and control a user has over the information accessed by third-party applications, Facebook is introducing a new permissions model that will require applications to specify the categories of information they wish to access and obtain express consent from the user – before any data is shared. Users will also have to approve any access to their friends’ info, in turn subject to the friend’s privacy and application settings.

Visit Media in Canada for the full article

Even with the current economy, we have a wealth of experience to draw from and a lot to be optimistic about.

• While retail experienced a modest Christmas, Facebook made about $35M from virtual gifts alone in 2008.
• Business models that are free to customers — and both traditional and new media are good examples — now account for the majority of revenues for 60 of the world’s 100 largest companies.
• And global digital revenues, with their annual double-digit growth, are still projected to hit $153B by 2011.
• By 2020, 80 percent of all media consumption will be digital; today it is already more than 50 percent.
• The Guitar Hero World Tour led to the creation of 25,000 user-generated songs in the first ten days of release, representing a new subscription model to monetize fans — and a whole new level of fandom!
• New media supported new levels of fundraising and community outreach for non-profits: Wikipedia just reached its $6M goal from donations; and the United Way of Canada recently launched a YouTube awareness program with FanTrust.
• There will soon be as many avatars in the world as people in Canada…leaving Canadians to wonder if we’ll be replaced by Club Penguin in the G8?

So, as 2009 rolls out, and as I celebrate my 25th year in digital media, I believe that our industry’s collective depth and experience will stand the test of time and continue to take innovation to new heights. If desperate times call for desperate measures, no doubt troubled times can be the mothers of invention.

Welcome to the FanTrust guide to digital success – Setting Your Digital Resolutions for 2009. December is traditionally a time for reflection and goal-setting, both personal and professional. Though you know what it takes to reach your goals for, say, losing weight (less eggnog, more yoga) or having fun (more eggnog, less yoga) –what if you’re venturing into uncharted business terrain?

This month, we’ll walk you through short, simple exercises – complete with case studies and success stories – intended to spark transformation in your company. Set your sights on overall digital business goals, digital capacity, market niche and fan engagement strategies.

With more than two decades of experience in digital media, FanTrust can help you grow your digital lines of business. Our hope is to leave you inspired and invigorated for a happy, healthy digital business in 2009.

All the best!

Week Three: Define Your Niche

So far in FanTrust’s Setting Your Digital Resolutions series, you’ve identified digital business goals and investigated your fans’ online behaviour.

The next step – defining your company’s niche – requires the right blend of aspirational thinking and capacity assessment. It’s also a highly custom exercise. Over the years, FanTrust has led many entertainment companies through its Digital Brand Snapshot. Companies that to the outside world may appear very similar – television producers with similar broadcast partners, format genres and slate sizes, for example – have defined their niche in remarkably different ways.

Many content producers define themselves as storytellers. Some see themselves as media-specific storytellers– television, games, movies, etc. In this case, digital growth will generally stem from strategic partnerships on new distribution platforms, or creative IP licensing deals.

Other producers see their team as media-agnostic storytellers. FanTrust client marblemedia is a great example. marblemedia recently won both Company of the Year and Producer of the Year at the Canadian New Media Awards, and has built its award-winning reputation as a content creation company devoted to telling stories that entertain and engage audiences across all platforms, including This is Daniel Cook and The Dating Guy. Another inspirational client is the National Film Board of Canada, an organization that is producing and distributing virtual online communities and platforms for social engagement and documentary media creation, including Homeless Nation and its Filmmaker-in-Residence program.

Entertainment and media executives overseeing blockbuster digital success share a common attribute – they are able to pinpoint and extend the fan experience.

Oprah’s media tagline is “Live Your Best Life”. The Oprah media empire inspires its female viewer to challenge her thinking, expand her physical and spiritual knowledge, change her behavior and improve her life in the process. The Oprah Bookclub is one of the most recognized brand endorsements in North America. Therefore, the Skype-powered New Earth Web events and podcasts were a natural digital extension of the Oprah media niche.

The online cult phenom ICanHasCheezeburger.com boosts more than 4 million page views a day – that’s 4 million views of animal (mostly cat) photos set to funny captions of what they might say.  Ben Huh, CEO of Pet Holding Inc., which runs a network of humour sites including ICanHasCheezeburger, summed up his company’s niche succinctly when he said “We just want to make people happy for five minutes.” His is not the only entertainment and media company to find a market in “web escapism”.

How you define your company affects where and how it will grow in the multiplatform space. Often, how a company defines its digital position is the result of management’s digital comfort-level, rather than company-wide business capacity. This can lead to lost opportunities. FanTrust serves as a valuable executive coach, educating teams on market and revenue opportunities and realities – including budgets; technical and operational requirements for projects; case studies; and audience engagement.

An ICE 2008 advisory board member and presenter, FanTrust President Catherine Warren recently sat down with ICE Cubes host and producer Alan Sawyer to share her thoughts about the digital ABC’s – audience, business and content – including:

• How audiences are changing entertainment content and the business of entertainment
• Aggregating fans to monetize online content
• Developing a profitable digital strategy (property-specific or corporate)
• Raising capital for multiplatform IP
• What the gaming industry can learn from the TV industry, and vice versa

To listen to the podcast, visit the ICE Cubes player.

ICE 2008

http://www.ice08.com/

This announcement marks yet another collaboration on digital delivery and cross-platforming of HD entertainment, not to mention, the increased partnering of video games and films. This was a no-brainer for Disney given that in seven months Xbox Marketplace has seen 10 million downloads and the game platform already has a built in and engaged audience. As for Microsoft, movies have been available for digital download for some time now on rival iTunes, but not immediately in HD. It looks like in this case Microsoft is one step ahead of Apple.

Emily Carr Institute is launching a new industry and research initiative which will support the Institute’s core faculty and student body, its new Masters Degree program, and the new research facility (Intersections Digital Studio). The Masters Degree launches this September, and the new studio is scheduled to open this fall. Leading this new industry and research initiative, as Chief Industry + Research Officer, will be Catherine Warren, President of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies. Warren has led advances in digital media and education since 1985 in North America and Europe (expanded biography attached).

“We are pleased to have Catherine as a consultant to the Institute,” says Dr. Ron Burnett, President, Emily Carr Institute. “She brings to the new role of CIRO a significant track record in business and non-profit development combined with interdisciplinary research, publishing and a strong academic background in the arts and sciences.”

Warren and her team will focus on expanding research innovation, building industry alliances, and customizing job placements for Masters’ students. Emily Carr Institute received a funding match for the new CIRO project from the Western Diversification Program.

“The time is right for all eyes to be on Emily Carr Institute: industry, government and academia continue to converge around interdisciplinary talent and ideas,” says Warren. “Emily Carr Institute, with its hugely creative, technologically sophisticated faculty and student body, is well-positioned at the heart of today’s renaissance of innovation to attract research dollars, strategic partners and job placements. Being affiliated with Emily Carr Institute is a tremendous personal and professional pleasure and I look forward to working with Dr. Burnett and his team to create deep, lasting industry and research initiatives.”

“It’s a popular show, so when we decided to order up more episodes, we said why don’t we do a whole sweep,” says Bonnie Siegel, director of original productions at YTV, which is owned by Corus. “It’s a bit experimental. We’re looking to create original content, but not out of the TV material. We want something that uses the concept of Being Ian that stands alone on other platforms.”

In the recently signed multi-platform deal, Corus gets rights to BeingIan.com, interactive web-based games and activities, streaming clips and episodes, and content on mobile TV and video-on-demand.

“This is a unique deal. It’s like the second generation of deals,” says Catherine Warren, Studio B’s digital entertainment consultant. “It’s one of the early deals that hasn’t been run through a fund. This is exceptional in that it’s a business-to-business deal.”

Studio B cofounder Blair Peters says he wanted “to take the show to the next level.”

“We have a great relationship with YTV and we wanted to transcend the borders, into the U.S., worldwide. They’ve got the kids, the number-one portal, the eyeballs. You need a wide range of stuff to get out to the kids, and we’re working hand in hand to exploit the property,” he says.

Peters says the 10 x 30 run will be scripted with the multi-platform deal in mind, unlike the previous 52, which were written like a straight sitcom. Writing starts this summer.

To mark the deal, the Vancouver-based toon house is hosting a special kids event to celebrate the last day of school, while YTV will air of the one-hour special Hurry for Hollywood on June 29.

Being Ian won the 2006 Shaw Rocket Prize and Leo Award for best animation program and series.

www.corusent.com

www.studiobproductions.com

The terms of the agreement also give Corus Entertainment rights to the brand’s online assets, including BeingIan.com and the capacity to create interactive web-based games and activities, as well as stream clips and episodes. Corus’ multiplatform plans for Being Ian will include content on mobile television and VOD beginning this fall.

“Combining one of Studio B’s most internationally acclaimed animated series with Corus Entertainment’s leadership in multiplatform brand development, this deal will take Being Ian to the next level in the Canadian market,” said Phil Piazza, VP of Programming, Corus Children’s Television. “Through unique stunt events and unprecedented content initiatives, YTV and Studio B have taken an innovative approach to building and extending the Being Ian brand.”

Being Ian is aimed at nine-to 12 year-olds and follows the epic adventures of Ian Kelley and his off-the-wall fantasies that regularly turn a typical day at the beach into Castaway and an ordinary camping trip into the Blair Witch Project. The series currently airs on YTV Monday through Friday at noon and 6 p.m. and Tuesday through Thursday at 8:30 p.m. A one-hour movie special, Hurry for Hollywood, will air June 29 at 6 p.m. as part of YTV’s School’s Out event, including extra online features like: behind-the-scenes and making-of footage, a rock video and deleted scenes.

“Being Ian is an excellent choice for YTV to take digital, its sense of humour and fun come from Ian’s own digital video antics,” said Catherine Warren, President of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies and Studio B’s Digital Entertainment Consultant. “Kids specifically relate to Ian’s way of seeing the world through his digital video lens and will ultimately have more fun with the characters as Ian dives into the world of mobile, podcasting and the web.”

A YTV Original Production, Being Ian is produced by Studio B Productions and is distributed by Nelvana. One of YTV’s top-rated series, Being Ian has recently won the 2006 Shaw Rocket Prize and Leo Award for Best Animation Program and Series.

YTV, Canada’s #1 youth network, is seen in over eight million homes across Canada. As a major force in Canadian kids’ entertainment, YTV has triggered over $988 million in Canadian independent production; developed a website that averages over 90 million monthly page views; published a successful kids’ magazine, Whoa!; and conducts a highly respected annual survey, The YTV Tween Report.

YTV is owned by Corus Entertainment, a Canadian-based media and entertainment company. Corus is a market leader in specialty television and radio with additional assets in pay television, advertising and digital audio services, television broadcasting, children’s book publishing and children’s animation. The company’s multimedia entertainment brands include YTV, Treehouse, W Network, Movie Central, Nelvana, Kids Can Press and radio stations including CKNW, CKOI and Q107. Corus creates engaging branded entertainment experiences for its audiences across multiple platforms. A publicly traded company, Corus is listed on the Toronto (CJR.B) and New York (CJR) exchanges. Experience Corus on the web at www.corusent.com.

An award-winning Vancouver-based animation studio founded in 1988, Studio B Productions has earned an international reputation for incredible work. Studio B produces highly successful original series, such as Being Ian, Class of The Titans, D’Myna Leagues, What About Mimi? and Yvon of the Yukon. Their co-productions include George of The Jungle, Ricky Sprocket, Showbiz Boy, The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers!, Yakkity Yak and Something Else. Studio B also provides service work for some of the most well-known companies in the world, including Jetix Europe (Pucca). Enjoyed by children and parents alike in over 90 countries, Studio B shows can be seen on quality broadcasters such as YTV, TELETOON, ITV (UK), Nickelodeon Stations worldwide, Family Channel and Cartoon Network (US). For more information on their shows, the studio and the wacky characters that work there, please visit www.studiobproductions.com. There is no limit to their