Butterball, iconic brand of Thanksgiving turkeys, has debuted TurkeyTalk, its first podcast series about holiday meal preparation. This podcast series will consist of six episodes covering preparation advice, stories from the famed Butterball Turkey Talk-Line and more.

Episodes began with the promo on October 30, and are available for streaming, subscription or download at www.Butterball.com in the Holiday Guide section.

Today is Thanksgiving, and the days surrounding this holiday are the busiest air travel days of the year in the United States.

ust in time for that hectic time, the Denver International Airport (DIA) is introducing a new section on its website called Sights and Sounds, including new video and audio podcasts* that highlight interesting aspects of Denver International Airport and also provide useful information for travelers.

Sights & Sounds debuts with three videos and one “podcast”*:

Video topics

• Packing Tips — Tips to help travelers know the TSA rules for
• carry-on baggage
• DIA Art — A feature story about DIA’s public art installations and
• exhibitions, highlighting one exhibiting artist and an airport
• patron who saw the artist’s work at DIA and purchased the painting
• FOD Squad — A story that shows airport employees picking up foreign
• object debris from taxiway and runway shoulders (which Podcasting News wrote about a few days ago)

Audio “podcast”*

• Travel Tips — Tips to help air travelers have an easy journey
• through the airport and passenger screening. Describes current TSA
• rules for carry-on baggage

DIA staff produced all of the video and audio segments on the site.

*The segments are informative and very well-produced. However, the segments technically can’t be categorized as podcasts, since, as far as we could tell they do not have a subscribable RSS feed, but can only be accessed and/or downloaded individually.

Microsoft has announced that the XBox Live Video Marketplace is now open.

“Xbox Live Marketplace will now provide gamers with easy access to hundreds of full-length TV shows for download to own and movies for download to rent from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros,” notes Microsoft in its press release. “Xbox 360 is the first gaming console to offer standard and high-definition TV shows and movies via digital distribution.”

Microsoft is using a confusing points system that could prove to be a barrier for some buyers.

High-definition TV shows will be 240 Microsoft Points per episode, and standard-definition TV shows will be 160 Microsoft Points per episode. New release movies in high definition will be 480 Microsoft Points, and standard-definition new release movies will be 320 Microsoft Points each. Classic feature films in high definition will be 360 Microsoft Points, and standard definition will be 240 Microsoft Points.

After purchasing a high-definition TV show or movie, you can download the standard-definition version at no additional charge.

One month after launching the CBS Brand Channel on YouTube, CBS’s daily feed of news, sports and entertainment clips have become some of the most widely viewed content on the site.

CBS has uploaded more than 300 clips that have a total of 29.2 million views on YouTube, averaging 857,000 views per day, since the service launched on October 18. CBS also has three of the top 25 most viewed videos this month (Nov.1–17), including clips from CBS’s Tuesday night hit drama “NCIS,” “Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and “The Early Show.”

Ratings for the network’s late night programs, in particular, have shown notable increases. CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” has added 200,000 (+5%) new viewers while “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” is up 100,000 viewers (+7%) since the YouTube postings started. Although the success of these shows on YouTube is not the sole cause of the rise in television ratings, both companies believe that YouTube has brought a significant new audience of viewers to each broadcast.

“Above all the other good news, what’s most exciting here is the extent to which CBS is learning about its audience as never before,” said Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive. “YouTube users are clearly being entertained by the CBS programming they’re watching as evidenced by the sheer number of video views. Professional content seeds YouTube and allows an open dialogue between established media players and a new set of viewers. We believe this inflection point is the precursor to many exciting developments as we continue to build bridges rather than construct walls.”

Nielsen Media Research recently announced that it has begun gathering information on usage of Apple’s iPod, and has found that most iPod owners spend far more time using them to listen to music or audio podcasts than they do using them to watch TV or movies.

This report, which is of qualified significance because its focus is on mainstream media content, has resulted in some coverage that can only be characterized as interesting:

• CNET says that video a no-go on iPods a-go-go
• Smarthouse News’ reaction is that the video iPod is a dismal failure
• Laptop Logic says watching video on iPods is not popular
• The Inquirer says video iPods are a waste of money

According to Nielsen’s report, video iPod owners use them to view video 11% of the time, or nearly half an hour, if you use your iPod 4 hours a day.

How much more video could iPod owners watch?

Nielsen Media Research has announced that on December 11, 2006 it will launch a new service to measure mainstream Video On Demand VOD content using the same National People Meter sample it uses to provide television ratings to national programmers.

Clients will receive household and demographic ratings for VOD content along with other detailed audience information. By measuring VOD content in its national ratings panel, Nielsen will enable clients, for the first time, to compare the performance of programs airing on traditional channels with the performance of those same programs on demand.

Nielsen will be able to provide VOD reporting to clients who implement ‚Äúwatermarking,‚Äù or audio code, technology that identifies specific on-demand titles. Working in conjunction with clients, Nielsen has developed the encoding tools to uniquely “watermark” VOD content so that Nielsens newly deployed Active/Passive meter can accurately identify on-demand viewing sessions.

Because Nielsen’s system relies on “watermarking”, it will not accurately capture information on other on demand video content.

AppleInsider reports that Apple Computer’s second-generation iPod shuffle is in extremely high demand this month, with sales tracking in excess of 5 million for the quarter. As a result, the entry-level player is selling out at some resellers faster than Apple can provide fresh stock.

Apple vice president of worldwide sales, Phil Schiller, characterized early reaction to the new shuffle as “phenomenal.”

KnowNow today announced a partnership with Automattic, the creators of the WordPress.com blogging service to provide a blog communication and authoring platform for enterprise customers. As part of the agreement, KnowNow will market, sell, and support Automattic’s blog authoring solution as KnowNow WordPress Enterprise Edition.

WordPress is a free blogging tool that has become a popular choice among podcasters and video podcasters for creating podcasting sites.

“Enterprise customers are beginning to discover blogs as a great communication and collaboration tool, and the partnership with KnowNow will allow us to serve those enterprises best.” said Toni Schneider, chief executive officer of Automattic. “KnowNow is the most successful RSS aggregation and syndication platform in the enterprise market, and will compliment our blog authoring solution.”

Despite frequent media reports about iPods that kill, an iPod may have saved the life of a Oregon man who got lost in the woods while hunting for mushrooms.

Pini Nou, 25, was on his first outing and got separated from his mother, an experienced mushroom hunter. When Nou did not show up by nightfall, his mother called Benton County authorities for help.

Nou was able to use his cell phone to describe his location to searchers. He was finally found, after 1 a.m., when a member of the search team saw the light from Nou’s iPod.

Nou, lacking a flashlight, had been using the music device for light.

via OregonLive.com

British-Russian online audiobook publisher AudioBooksForFree says that “Podcasting is Dead,” predicting that in the next five years downloading, podcasting, P2P and other forms of on-demand delivery will be superseded gigantic compilations of thousands hours of digital entertainment in one single and relatively cheap boxset.

The company specialises in massive compilations, which they describe as GigaBulk products. These are gigantic compilations of digital entertainment – music, audio books, films, e-books, ring-tones and games – on various types of media such as DVD, external hard drives, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, VMD, FCD, and HVD that contain more then 1000 hours of digital entertainment in a single boxset.

“We have managed to put five years of audiobook listening on nine ordinary DVDs in one boxset,” commented Ruslan G Fedorovsky ABFF’s UK managing director. “When we move to double-layers DVDs, we will be able to store ten years of listening in one boxset.”

While Federovsky’s giant compilations may offer a great solution for delivering content in bulk, they don’t address many of the functions that podcasts currently offer, including frequently updates, ease of publishing, customizable content downloads and on-demand use.