EBooks now a quarter of all US Book Sales. From 9% in 3 years.

The American Association of Publishers, have reported that E-Books now account for nearly a quarter of all US book Sales (23%).

From 9% in 2009, it's pretty terrific growth and really interestingly, there's been a growth in books in general. Like ITunes has brought more music sales, so too has EBooks.

So instead of the Internet decimating Books and Music as predicted, it has brought a new life to them. Simply, the ease of access online has meant more people can buy more easily and they do.

At the time, the music industry particularly, instead of jumping onboard the download revolution, spent millions trying to stop it through law. When they should have encouraged it.

Interesting too that these stats on Ebooks show a real growth in children's/teen books which probably means, more younger people are reading - no bad thing. 

EBooks are a real success - if you haven't yet got a Kindle, go get one now. You'll resist it at first and then fall in love with it. Stunning piece of kit.

New writers will be encouraged by these numbers too. It's all in all, great news for literacy (if that's how you spell it).

Kobe Byrant V Lionel Messi. Turkish Airlines Video goes hugely viral. But it's great and worth a look.

Super Commercial/Viral Video for Turkish Airlines which has just passed over 110 million views and quickly. Actually faster than 'Gangnam Style'.

Kobe Byrant (he's a Basketballer of some note) Versus Lionel Messi (he's a footballer seemingly) vie for the attention of a kid on board. But the key here was by using such well known celebs, piggybacked their own following and so the Video immediately had traction amongst fans.

And critically, it was shared because of who they are.

Having said that, the spot is clever in itself and a good use of the talents on board. Unusually too for Turkish Airlines, not known for strong creative. Developed too, by a local Turkish Agency and local creatives, it shows Turkish airlines as a comfortable way to go - and celebrity endorsement does no harm.

Lovely idea and yes, the talent fees would be high but the shoot itself doesn't have a real expensive look about it. Still, if both players got a million each to appear and it has reached over 110 million people, that represents cracking good value.

In fact, at 5 million each, it still does.
Celebrity can be worth it.

North Korea have launched a missile. Japan's Government Tweets. By accident.

The Korean peninsula is on a knife-edge as we know.

One small mistake may unsettle everything. 

So the Japanese government officials got ready. On standby and had their tweets ready to go. All bases covered, all on alert.

One of the official Tweets was "North Korea has launched a missile" ready to send to advise the population to be prepared. All good preparation because Twitter is huge in Japan.

Until one donkey in officialdom goes and sends it, by mistake at noon on the official Twitter account. And leaves it up, for 20 minutes before replacing it with an apology.

It's one way to get re tweeted but another way to cause total havoc. And the sort of thing that really causes problems.

And the culprit? "The Crisis Management Office Affairs Bureau" of Yokohama in Japan. Irony of ironies.

(It wouldn't happen in Jack Dorsey's day.....)

It's back. Mad Men Series 6. Tonight.

It's back. He's back. Short sentences are back. Tonight. 10pm Sky Atlantic.

Advertising men like they used to be. Mad Men Series 6.

Fox threaten to go Subscriber only. Online re-broadcasting is causing problems (IPTV).

Fox, that great bastion of free right wing media (actually, I watch it a lot so I mean that tongue-in-cheek) are threatening to come off "free to air" and to move towards cable or pay-per-view.

In other words, just be available to subscribers.

And the reason? Online IPTV re-broadcasters (in this case 'Aereo' in particular) whom are offering live Fox and CBS and ABC and others online for free. They're simply, re-sending the TV signals online for a small fee. And the courts have upheld their right to do so. It would seem that these re-broadcasters have set themselves up exactly within the limits of existing laws.

So no need for an antenna or set-top box, you can now see Fox online through Aereo and that's what's bothering Fox. Aereo also allows you to record programmes in the cloud and of course, is available on multi-platforms to watch "as you go".

It means that traditional TV Companies are now losing control of their signal, their content and ultimately, their advertising. So if Fox became subscriber only, it would starve IPTV such as Aereo, of content. But then too, it would lose its advertising revenue because numbers of viewers would dramatically reduce.

It would also cause problems for affiliates of Fox (such as Sky) who may no longer get access to that content either. 

IPTV is a threat to broadcasters - of that, there's no doubt.
However, one wonders why they don't join the party and develop their own IPTV strategy? In other words, come together as an online brand and compete.

So many times, we've seen online destroy businesses who sat back and depended on legal action rather than, get into the space and fight. This to me, looks like another example.

Feels a bit like a Fox episode of The Simpsons.