Filed under: MISC
Being that yesterday’s ‘online video of the week’was removed from YouTube by request from Viacom, I present to you an alternate.
Online Video of the Week
Bud.tv may have been suffering in online hits, but this promo video (along with others available online) should help turn things around for them a bit.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Bill Nelson has been named Chairman and CEO of Home Box Office, it was announced today by Time Warner Inc.’s Chairman and CEO Dick Parsons and President and COO Jeff Bewkes. Mr. Nelson was previously HBO’s Chief Operating Officer. HBO also announced a new senior leadership structure, promoting three veteran HBO executives – Harold Akselrad, Eric Kessler and Richard Plepler – to the newly created positions of HBO Co-President, reporting to Mr. Nelson. (http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,1628362,00.html 6/5)
HBO and NBC led the pack at the 66th annual Peabody Awards on Monday, with HBO capturing five nods and NBC four. Event host and NBC employee Bob Costas noted that the peacock network won more Peabodys this year than any broadcast network in more than a decade. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ibd82197eecb00803ec5c964a1acd7272 6/5)
Starz Entertainment will soon have its new high-definition premium movie channels available on DIRECTV starting this September. The three new channels, Starz Comedy HD, Starz Edge HD and Starz Kids & Family HD will be added to the existing Starz HD channel, which will be available to DIRECTV customers via East and West Coast feeds.
A&E will stick with its highly rated show with a new deal in place for “Gene Simmons: Family Jewels.” A&E ordered 24 half-hour episodes, instead of last year’s 20 episodes, which provide the details on the family life of the rock legend. (The Washington Times 6/5)
WABC New York is being greenlighted by the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission to offer content in the back seats of New York taxis. Currently in test-mode, the TAXI-TV program airs material from Eyewitness News, AccuWeather, ESPN and the restaurant guide Zagat. (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6448821.html 6/4)
Comcast filed a lawsuit against Qwest Communications on Monday over what Comcast calls a “false, misleading and deceptive advertising campaign” by Qwest. Qwest has said in commercials that 72% of Internet users who took the “Broadband Challenge” found Qwest’s service be as fast or faster than Comcast’s, but Comcast said Qwest didn’t take into account Comcast’s fastest tier of service. (Denver Rocky Mountain News 6/5)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Facebook has gained 1 million new users since launching its new open source application platform last week, according to Fortune. Music social networking service iLike continues to be the hottest new app, growing at about 200,000 new users a day. There are more than 300 new applications developed so far.
In taking a tour through this site below, I like the ability to share music recommendations among friends. I just think a site which combines, music, media, and book recommendations in one will come along and squash this one any minute. Or, maybe iLike will expand.
(Below) This is BRILLIANT. Every media company should build a similar system for its employees to test new technology and report internally on their experiences.
The digital media crew at the Disney-ABC Television Group has built its own wiki or internal weblog. Staff members from any of the department’s divisions can access it to review new social networking applications, compare vendors and share projects, according to Fast Company.
New internal research from NBC shows that viewer recall of ads “triangulated” on air and online via the TV network site, the advertiser’s site and search engine optimization was 50% higher than average, leading to purchases of the product advertised 20% more often. Data shared in TVWeek also claims that households without DVRs skip more commercials than those with DVRs.
Google-owned YouTube announced a deal with Hearst-Argyle Television on Monday that adds local programming from five markets to YouTube. The deal, which includes the use of news, weather and original Hearst programming, marks the first distribution agreement between YouTube and an independent television broadcaster. (InfoWorld/Computerworld 6/4)
Radio giant Emmis is turning to Google to sell advertising for its Indianapolis and New York stations. The move follows a 15-month experiment that involved Emmis radio stations in Chicago, Los Angeles and St. Louis. The relationship could signal a shift in the way radio ads are sold. (http://www.ibj.com/html/detail_page.asp?content=02223 6/2)
A consumer-electronics watchdog has raised concerns over personal data found in DRM-free copies of iTunes music. Industry analysts say that the personal data can be used as a secretive tracking method, although it’s unlikely that such tracking is occurring. (USA TODAY/Associated Press 6/5)
Digital-music startup Lala.com will launch an iPod-compatible online service offering free song play in an attempt to get users to buy downloads. Lala is free and does not carry advertising, and founder Bill Nguyen said he thought the company might lose $40 million over the next two years. (The Boston Globe/Reuters 6/4)
The article is very leading. While it costs nothing to listen to a track, it costs $1 to join. After that point, you can TRADE CDs with other users getting rid of CDs you don’t want for CDs that you do want. And when I say trade the CD, I mean trading an actual CD through the mail. If you’d like to buy the CD like you do in iTunes, you can do that as well. This is a completely useless idea to me. I can see how they would in fact lose money over the next two years and beyond.
Google and Salesforce.com are entering an alliance that will challenge Microsoft’s business software market. Their first product will combine Google’s AdWords advertising technology with Salesforce’s customer relationship management applications and target small businesses. (http://news.com.com/Google,+Salesforce.com+to+partner+on+Web+site/2100-1024_3-6188670.html 6/4)
Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp is redesigning the search engine for its Ask.com unit as it seeks to make inroads against Google. Ask3D aims to simplify searches. Relevant information will be displayed on a Web page in three frames, allowing users to find related blogs and video. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601205&sid=axYBMPF3exEQ 6/5)
WCSN is finalizing a deal with Yahoo! Sports to provide weekly branded videos to its Olympic and Olympic Sports channels, featuring free coverage of swimming and cycling events. WCSN will also offer Yahoo! users one day free access to WCSN.com, which offers live video of track & field, skiing, cycling and volleyball events for a subscription fee of $4.95/month and $49.95/year.
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Hearst is beefing up its Esquire mobile internet site with content easy to view on the small screen and likely to be of interest to users on the go. It features travel resources, style tips, a drinks database and humor such as “Funny Jokes from Beautiful Women.” Esquire is delving into its 75-year-old archive for some of the content.
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
Sony’s announcement that it will slash prices for its new Blu-ray player has prompted some analysts to predict a pending price cut for the company’s PS3 gaming system as well. “If the cost of Blu-ray is coming down, you can drop the price of anything with Blu-ray in it,” Arvind Bhatia, an analyst with Sterne Agee & Leach, said. (MarketWatch 6/4)
Brash Entertainment launched with a pair of executives from in game ad company Massive at the helm and $400 million in funding led by ABRY Partners. Brash seeks to create gaming titles based on Hollywood TV shows and movies, a model that has had mixed success among traditional gaming companies. The company claims to have already cut deals with five major studios, licensing 40 film properties including LionGate’s Saw series. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will distribute Brash’s games.
No Good TV is hosting a celebrity face-off in L.A. to give fans their first glimpse of the Halo 3 game for Xbox slated for release September 25. The competition, running through June 8, will be covered on NGTV’s Game On series.
Sixty-five-nanometer-chip technology, motion-control controllers and 802.11n wireless capabilities are a few of the predictions made by gaming experts regarding the features expected in the next generation of platforms. And although the next releases aren’t expected for four or five years, analysts expect companies to spend the time focusing on cutting production costs. (EE Times/TechOnline 6/4)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Citing poor sales and profitability, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the Zune music player will not go on sale in Europe this year. (Pocket-lint.co.uk 6/4)
