Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Sundance Channel will begin showcasing some of its original content in HD from Wednesday, August 1st on NBCU’s Universal HD channel. The weekly programming block, sponsored by Microsoft, will feature shows such as Iconoclasts, Big Ideas for a Small Planet and Live From Abbey Road, which are all being produced in HD. Universal HD currently has over 6 million subscribers and is available to 54 million homes.
Logo and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) will co-present a televised forum on issues of importance to the LGBT community with the 2008 Democratic presidential candidates, including, currently confirmed Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The 60-minute event will be broadcast live exclusively on Logo and streamed live at LOGOonline.com.
With TV Guide’s board giving its approval to gauge the interest in selling the company, a sale could have an impact on the partnership with Comcast in GuideWorks. The sale could also have an effect on the market for and technology behind electronic and interactive program guides. (Light Reading 7/10)
Dish Network is scheduled to launch eight regional sports networks today, which will further Dish’s claim of having the largest national HD lineup in the U.S. Dish has more HD regional sports networks planned for Aug. 15, as well as seven national HD channels. (Multichannel News 7/10)
According to CTAM, cable TV subscribers’ownership of HDTVs increased from 15% a year ago to 29%. CTAM also said that 70% of the customer households that are planning to buy an HDTV set over the next 12 months know that they need to buy an HD-programming package. (Light Reading 7/11)
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is working on guidelines for the upcoming auction of the public airwaves that are being given up as TV stations make their conversion to all-digital signals. Martin wants the winning companies of the spectrum to provide open access to their wireless networks. (Los Angeles Times 7/11)
Fueled by “Hell’s Kitchen,” Fox won the adult 18-to-49 demographic last week for the 22nd consecutive week. Over on the cable side, Bravo had its best ratings ever for a Saturday during its 18-hour Live Earth telecast. (The Hollywood Reporter 7/11)
With the new statewide franchise agreement in place, AT&T is poised to roll out its U-verse video service, but existing cable franchise agreements could keep AT&T out of some cities and condominium associations until those agreements expire. (Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) 7/11)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Microsoft and Disney announced a deal Tuesday that would make 35 Disney movies available for download on Microsoft’s online video game service. The on-demand HD movies are available for rent by U.S. subscribers of Microsoft’s Xbox Live. (Houston Chronicle/Associated Press 7/11)
SOAPnet will begin distributing its two new original series General Hospital Night Shift and The Fashionista Diaries across multiple platforms this week. Episodes of both will be featured on ABC.com, iTunes, Sprint-based ABC Mobile service and Soapnetic, the gated soap broadband site available exclusively to Verizon high speed internet customers. Following the season premiers on July 12 and August 1 respectively, each episode will be available one day after they air on Soapnet.
Tribune Interactive announced plans to expand its Chicago entertainment portal Metromix across all its newspaper markets. The site provides a searchable database of restaurants, bars, clubs, theaters as well as event listings and classifieds. Sites for Baltimore, Orlando, and LA are already up and running with the New York version slated to launch later this week.
At first, I thought the site looked like a darker, more hipper version of Citysearch but more of the same really in terms of functionality. While all of this is still true, I watched a bit of video on the site and was drawn into the video blog style which chronicled late night debauchery at LA’s LACMA, one of LA’s many modern art museums. While Citysearch also now has video, I think the ‘man on the street’style to Metromix will attract the younger demo (18 – 34).
The change in leadership at the top of Yahoo! may be too little, too late for the Web company to gain on Google’s lead in the search segment and could put its display ad dominance at risk from rivals MySpace and Facebook, according to this article. (Bloomberg 7/11)
DC Comics launched the private beta version of Zuda Comics, a portal accepting online submissions from aspiring comic artists that promises to pay for the ones worth developing. The Zuda community will vote on which submissions are best. Starting in October, DC editors will choose 10 entries a month to vote on, awarding winners with the budget necessary to produce a year’s worth of online and printed comics.
Seventy-four percent of U.S. internet users are receptive to viewing ads in exchange for free or discounted downloads, and 83% would have a better opinion of advertisers who offered them, according to a new survey conducted by InfoSurv, Inc. for Intent MediaWorks. The research is meant to justify a market for ads reaching consumers through direct peer-to-peer content downloads. Seven out of 10 (73 percent) of respondents said they are willing to watch general advertising during the download process in order to obtain the content legally either free or at a reduced price.
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
The Skype VoIP application does not work on the iPhone, but a new workaround from SoonR fixes that. SoonR Talk, an AJAX application, enables Skype usage on the iPhone and other mobile devices. (Gizmodo 7/10)
ABC O&Os launched a new ad-supported mobile video service in all ten of their markets. Local stations will provide local video news content available for free to users within the ABC DMAs, delivered by mobile content aggregator Local Wireless. The LSN, Inc.-owned company also powers text-based news, weather, sports, financial and event services for ABC, Cox, Gray, Meredith, Raycom, Landmark and Scripps Howard stations.
Motorola and VNPT Group’s Vietnam DataCommunication Co. have signed an agreement to conduct a two-phase mobile-WiMAX trial in Hanoi and HCM City. The trial will use Motorola’s wi4 WiMAX to roll out IP services designed to meet the cities’broadband demands. (cellular-news (U.K.) 7/9)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Dell still has “a long way to go” to complete its turnaround, according to founder and CEO Michael Dell. Speaking at an event to introduce a new line of personal computers designed for small businesses, Dell reiterated that he remained focused on hiring new talent, forming new partnerships, making acquisitions and controlling spending. (
ClipSyndicate 7/10, Yahoo!/Reuters 7/10)
Nikon, Kodak and Sony are all offering digital cameras with integrated wireless technology to consumers, using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. These new cameras can wirelessly send photos to cell phones, Web sites and e-mail addresses at the touch of a button. (The Wall Street Journal 7/11)
