Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
John Malone, the U.S. media mogul and chief of Liberty Global, is considering entering the auction for U.K. cable operator Virgin Media. Malone describes his interest as exploratory. Liberty Global, the holding company for Malone’s non-U.S. cable assets, spans much of Europe. (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/40b7048c-3dfc-11dc-8f6a-0000779fd2ac,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F40b7048c-3dfc-11dc-8f6a-0000779fd2ac.html&_i_referer= 7/29)
A judge is dismissing a lawsuit brought against Viacom chief Sumner Redstone by his nephew, Michael, ruling that the plaintiff’s charge that he was defrauded by his uncle arrived “two decades too late.” Michael had claimed he was “cheated” out of the Redstone family business. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-redstone28jul28,1,218536.story?ctrack=1&cset=true 7/28)
Nielsen is now offering ratings for the cumulative commercial breaks of each primetime television show. Viewers are expected to see longer commercial breaks, commercial breaks taken at awkward times during a show, and more ad spots dressed up as programs. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/07292007/business/ad_just_to_it__tv_about_to_change_business_don_kaplan.htm 7/29)
CNBC, preparing for the competitive onslaught from the Oct. 15 launch of News Corp.’s Fox Business Network, is said to be planning a new branding campaign. Featuring interviews with high-level CEOs who are often featured on the network, the spots could start in the next week. (http://cnedit.sv.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070729/FREE/70728027 7/28)
The CNN/YouTube debate for the Republican presidential candidates, scheduled for Sept. 17, is being moved to another date, possibly in December. Some of the candidates have expressed a lack of interest in the show. The debate for the Democratic candidates was held July 23. (http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/07/youmoved.html 7/28)The CW is continuing its role as the ad lab of TV networks with the Aug. 10 launch of “cwickies,” a series of 10-second spots for marketer Electronic Arts. Unlike most networks, which have stuck by the 30-second spot for fear of raising the profile of one marketer over another, The CW believes its ads must be different to keep the attention of its young audience, according to this article. (Advertising Age 7/30)
DirecTV has amended its false-advertising lawsuit against Comcast, changing its filing to allege that Comcast Media Center participated to produce what DirecTV calls an “inadequate survey” that made claims about perceived HDTV picture quality. “We stand behind the results of our survey,” Comcast said. (Multichannel News 7/27)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Better late than never. Testifying in the high-profile Viacom-Google lawsuit on Friday, a Google lawyer told a federal judge that video fingerprinting technology should “hopefully” be available on YouTube by September, allowing the company to quickly identify and remove copyright-violating clips. It is the first time the company has set even a tentative date for the long-awaited filtering system. (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135197-c,video/article.html 7/27)
Copies of NBC’s “Bionic Woman,” ABC’s “Pushing Daisies” and several other shows are already available for illegal download on Web sites such as Torrent Spy. Network reps are expressing surprise that the full-length pilots are on the Web and alerting their studio partners. (http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/07/top_fall_pilots_leaked_online.php 7/29)
Can someone approve my application already? I want in on this testing action.
The BBC launched its iPlayer for users who applied to be beta testers, laying the groundwork for full release in November. The player allows users to download full versions of most BBC shows up to 7 days after they originally air. Downloads can be saved on the user’s hard drive for up to 30 days before automatically expiring. The current version can only be used on computers running Windows XP though, excluding Mac and Vista user from the trial. (The New York Times/Reuters 7/27)
This would be even cooler they added video functionality was overlaid across the comic art. Regardless, the graphics are brilliant. I’m not a comic book fanatic but if I was, this would be pretty intriguing indeed.
MySpace and Dark Horse Comics launched a free online anthology series featuring the work of some of the best-known names in the fantasy/sci fi genre. The inaugural August issue of “MySpace Dark Horse Presents” includes Sugar Shock, from artist Fabio Moon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer showrunner Josh Whedon, as well as The Umbrella Academy, from artist Gabriel Ba and Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance.
An Internet video brainchild of three former University of California grad students is winning financial support from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Clear Channel co-founder Red McCombs. The moguls are backing Hotswap.com, which plans to bring e-commerce to Internet video. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2724266220070727 7/27)
Microsoft told analysts last week the company will focus more on web-based services and consumer devices in the future, according to reports, presumably taking pages from the playbooks of Google and Apple. Nearly every Microsoft software application will add web-based services within the next 3-10 years, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts.
Kid-targeted music site Kidz Bop reported a huge increase in traffic following an upgrade that allowed kids to upload their own music videos to the site. Video streams, which totaled just 238,000 before the July 3 relaunch, increased ten-fold to 2.8 million. Kidz Bop also kicked off “Be a Kidz Bop Star,” a national talent search culminating in a live world tour this October.
This may be the most talented child dancer I’ve every seen in my life. Here, Kendall dances to Beyonce’s Work It Out. Ah, there’s nothing like a small child imitating Beyonce. . .[sigh]
Top U.S. Online Streaming Video Properties (By streams May 2007)
Property Video Streams (million) Share (%) of Video Streams
Total Internet 8,357 100.0%
Google Sites 1,796 21.5%
Fox Interactive Media 680 8.1%
Yahoo! Sites 387 4.6%
Viacom Digital 237 2.8%
Time Warner Network 185 2.2%
Microsoft Sites 171 2.0%
ABC.com 100 1.2%
Disney Online 84 1.0%
ESPN 62 0.7%
NBC Universal 58 0.7%
Source: comScore Video Metrix, July 2007
P2P video start up Babelgum launched a dedicated channel to highlight content from the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival running through August 3 in London. The festival showcases short films from both established filmmakers and newcomers, judging entries based on six categories. Babelgum will also provide access to a wide selection of films produced for past festivals.
Wikia, the commercial start-up of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, is acquiring Grub, a Web crawler that will enable his forthcoming search service to scour the Web to index relevant sites. Wikia aims to shift the balance of power “from the search companies back to the publishers.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN272470320070727 7/27)
The New York Times is adding long-form sponsored videos to its Web site. The first videos, produced by FedEx, tell about five employees of the overnight delivery service from around the globe. The clips, running under five minutes each, are identified as “Video Advertisements.” (http://www.beet.tv/2007/07/the-new-york-ti.html 7/27)
The National Black Programming Consortium opened the application process for this year’s New Media Institute, a 6-week virtual workshop and one-week onsite residency digital training program for emerging and seasoned filmmakers. Projects will focus on creating content about the history of the Delta region and the impact of Blues in America. Applications will be accepted until August 22.
Monster Worldwide, the world’s largest network of online job-hunting sites, said it will cut 800 jobs, or 15% of its staff, after reporting lower second-quarter profit. According to one analyst: “There’s concern about both the job environment and the strategic direction of the company.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=a.2oOArdhU4g 7/30)
The second annual gathering of the Daily Kos liberal political blog starts this week in Chicago. The YearlyKos convention has become so influential that five top presidential candidates plan to attend, including Hillary Clinton, even though the Kos bloggers “don’t like her that much.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/29/MNGRVR91RU1.DTL 7/29)
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Want to see my favorite YouTube video The Grape Lady? How about I project it from my phone onto that wall over there? Nice. Apple, can you please incorporate this technology into the next iteration of iphone? Thanks.
Motorola and Microvision have an agreement in place to put laser-based projectors into mobile phones. The projectors, called PicoP, will display content on a nearby wall or other surfaces. (cellular-news (U.K.) 7/30)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
CBS became the first U.S. broadcast network to cover a video game tournament as a sporting event, with the airing of the World Series of Video Games in Louisville on Sunday. “In 10 years we could look back on this as a very significant moment,” says CBS Sports exec Rob Correa. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/arts/television/28vide.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 7/28)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Sony rebounded to report a doubling of first-quarter profit thanks to strong digital camera and flat panel TV sales and big box office receipts from Spider Man 3. Cost cutting and favorable Japanese yen exchange rates also contributed to profits, totaling 66.5 billion Yen or $554 million for the quarter. Yet PlayStation 3 sales continued to weigh on results, as the games division registered loss of 29.2 billion yen. Sony sold 710,000 during the quarter, compared to 3.43 million Nintendo Wii’s sold during the same period.
Filed under: MISC
20th Century Fox’s “The Simpsons Movie” raked in $71.9 million on its opening weekend. Insiders attribute its success to the marketing campaign orchestrated across the News Corp. empire: “The old saw of synergy within media companies, that was never full realized before, paid off here.” (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/doh-simpsons-pic-far-exceeding-predictions/ 7/27)
