Because this is my blog I get to put up stuff that is funny sometimes. There is of course much for the mediathinker here:

First, Cracked.com may be the funniest site on the web. Well-written, interesting, smart and more than just snarky. Notice the pre-roll ad from Google. Notice the crawl ads below the content when it plays and recall this blogs last post about Simpsons being more valuable on Hulu than on Fox.

The clutter police of much to complain about of course but, in the end, this is the state of the art in video content revenue generation.

A spoon-full of sugar always helps the medicine go down. Enjoy!

Bloomberg reports:

“Television programs such as “The Simpsons” and “CSI” are for the first time commanding higher advertising rates at Web sites including Hulu.com and TV.com than on prime-time TV.

The premium rates in the just-ended 2008-2009 television season are mainly for shows that rank among the most-watched by Nielsen Co., said David Poltrack, chief research officer at New York-based CBS Corp., which is home to “CSI” and owns TV.com.

Marketers, who are now considering commitments for the 2009-2010 TV season, are willing to pay more because TV.com and Hulu.com, owned by investors including News Corp., NBC and Walt Disney Co., provide committed viewers who actively seek out shows. There are fewer commercials, and consumers are twice as likely to recall Web ads, Poltrack said, citing Nielsen.”

Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co wrote “A ‘Simpsons’ episode on Hulu has just 37 seconds of ads”. A broadcast episode has nine minutes and produces three times the revenue per viewer at half the price, he estimated.

Remind me why I need cable again.

Good stuff from Kate Niederhoffer, Ph.D and Mark A. Smith Ph.D

From The Harvard Business Blog

Fast prototyping is essential.  Iterative approaches rule.

1. You can do a lot for a little. It amazes me when corporations complain that they lack adequate financial resources for innovation. With open source software, online market research tools, and the ability to create virtual prototypes, you can do a huge amount for $10,000. A lack of financial resources is very rarely a rate limiter.
2. Tight windows enable “good enough” design. Most Y Combinator–funded companies are expected to release a version of their idea in less than 3 months. That tight time frame forces entrepreneurs to introduce “good enough” software packages that can then iterate in market. This approach contrasts to efforts by many companies to endlessly perfect ideas in a laboratory, only to fail the real test of being exposed to real market conditions.
3. Business plans are nice, not necessary. Y Combinator doesn’t obsess over whether entrepreneurs have detailed business plans. Again, the focus is getting something out in the market to drive iteration and learning. After all, if you are trying to create a market, most of the material in a business plan is assumption-based anyway.
4. Failure is an option. One of the benefits of the Y Combinator approach is it forces quick decision making — if the team can’t produce a prototype, or the prototype bombs in market, the end comes quickly. And the low, up-front investment makes it easier to wind down ideas. Corporations that say they lack resources often have those resources tied up in the wrong projects. Saying no is not a bad thing.