Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
A new project for FX called 4 oz. is about a father and husband who chooses to have a sex change operation. This project comes from the creators of Nip/Tuck, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. (Yahoo!/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter 8/22)
Two new pilots on order at A&E – both scripted dramas, and cast contingent. The Beast from Sony Pictures TV is about a FBI agent who is training a new recruit and teaching him the ways of federal crimes and criminals. The Cleaner, also a scripted drama, from CBS Paramount TV focuses on an intervention team who help people get past their addictions.
Disney execs plan to turn their made-for-TV monster hit “High School Musical” into a theatrical movie, but they may have to do it without the major stars, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. Disney is said to be “only offering them $1 million each. Zac and Vanessa aren’t going to do it.” (http://www.nypost.com/seven/08222007/gossip/pagesix/lowball_offer.htm 8/22)
Personal time that consumers spend on the Internet is rivaling their television time, with user-generated content and networking sites among the most popular destinations, says a survey by IBM. TV is “increasingly taking a back seat” to personal computers and cellphones. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ia314015383aee6d1c2df545b983af870 8/22)
According to a new survey from Leichtman Research Group, more than 20% of homes now have a DVR, up from just 1 in 13 homes two years ago. Leichtman’s survey also revealed that 53% of DVR owners reported owning an HDTV set. (Multichannel News 8/21)
Tribune shareholders approved an $8.2 billion deal led by billionaire Sam Zell to take the company private. Despite concerns over taking on massive debt to finance the buyout, 97% of the shares voted approved the merger. The company is looking into selling the Chicago Cubs to help alleviate some of the debt but has said it plans to hold onto its current print and digital assets.
The FCC set a date of January 16, 2008 as the day it will begin auctioning the 700 Mhz band spectrum reclaimed from the switch to digital broadcasting. Nearly 1,100 licenses will be up for grabs.
Cox Communications has started using switched digital video systems from BigBand Networks in Northern Virginia as it expands its HD programming. The cable company also plans additional deployments of the technology this year as it works toward its goal of offering 50 HD channels by the end of 2007. (Multichannel News 8/21)
Time Warner Cable will add college-sports channel ESPNU to its digital lineup, effectively doubling the channel’s number of subscribers to 20 million. (Variety 8/21)
Echostar and TiVo return to court Oct. 4 for oral arguments as the satellite provider seeks an appeal for TiVo’s win in a 2006 patent-infringement lawsuit. (The Mercury News 8/22)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Today, social network aggregator MyLifeBrand launched the beta version of their new video platform MyLifeTV, enabling users to organize, share and upload videos based on community interests. The top 20 social networks including such sites as MySpace, Friendster, LinkedIn, etc. are agreggated in one place. Users can manage all of their friends in one placed and broadcast a message to friends across all social networking sites at once. Initial channels include A3TV (”The Nightlife Network”), Adventure Online and a music video channel powered by Brightcove. Revver will enable uploading, hosting and ad serving of user generated video. Corporations can create communities to agreggate company-based information from across the net.
For an idea of a community-based environment, check out the HBO on Demand sample community. Basically, the site is pulling the creative from www.hboondemand.com but windowing the information in a way that users can seamlessly move from website to profile pages to video pages. Very cool. Marauder likes. 
(below) I did report on this yesterday but I didn’t get the chance to comment. Keep in mind that most of the U.S. still doesn’t understand what “DRM” means and therefore will have difficulty navigating these price wars. If I the consumer don’t necessarily see the value in something, price seems less relevant no? Especially if I am a loyal iTunes customer who is comfortable using the iTunes interface. I doubt that many iTunes customers but the savviest of tech dorks out there will see this Wal-Mart proposition as a valuable one.
Apple’s iTunes could face a run for its money in the coming months from a competitor that knows how to compete on price. Wal-Mart announced the launch of a new “DRM-free” zone on its website featuring tracks from major labels including EMI and Universal for the bargain price of 94 cents each or $9.22 per album. (In comparison, Apple is selling a limited number of DRM-free EMI songs for $1.29). Wal-Mart will also continue to sell WMA-formatted 128 kbps downloads for 88 cents each. Digital music has only accounted for 15% of all recorded music sales in the U.S. until now. Look for that number to increase as DRM-free tracks open the market up to more competition. (The Washington Post 8/22)
Yahoo! is featuring exclusive video from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’s on-the-scene reports from Iraq on its home page and on Yahoo! TV this week. It is the first time that Daily Show content has been officially featured online outside of ComedyCentral.com. (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6470793.html 8/21)Google is unveiling mini commercials on YouTube that appear at the bottom of a video, are mostly transparent, and run for only 10 seconds. YouTube will begin testing the new ad format Wednesday with a handful of advertisers, including Warner Music and 20th Century Fox. (http://news.com.com/YouTube+tests+viewer-friendly+ad+format/2100-1024_3-6203802.html 8/21)
Google plans to insert videos from YouTube into its news pages to lure customers away from more popular news sites such as Yahoo. News clips from YouTube partner sites, including CBS, Reuters and Hearst television stations, will appear next to text versions of similar stories. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGpRt2jClG6E 8/21)
UK-based social networking site Bebo announced a partnership to integrate Microsoft’s Instant Messaging protocol within its profiles. Beginning this fall, Bebo users will be able to use Windows Live to chat with friends within their networks and import/export contacts from the client software.
Google agreed to give full credit card refunds rather than just credits to Google Video customers who bought download-to-own video from the recently shuttered site.
Multiplatform animation network Aniboom launched a branded channel on YouTube featuring short form animations from more than 60 countries. Aniboom conducts several creative contests to drive fresh content to its site, offering up to $50,000 in prizes a year.
Adobe Systems unveiled a Flash Player 9 update codenamed “Moviestar” that will bring HD video technology to the web. Moviestar will support the compression standard now available in Blu-ray systems, HD-DVD players and HD TV set top boxes.
Photos in the apartment listings on the free classifieds site Craigslist are described as sometimes deceiving. Brokers are starting to post video clips on YouTube to show off walking tours of open houses. Video clips of apartments on YouTube help move property fast, brokers say. (http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/08/craigslist-and-.html 8/21)
The attorneys general of all 50 U.S. states are joining forces to pressure MySpace, Facebook and other social-networking sites to put in place greater parental controls so minors can’t access the sites so easily. Lawmakers are accusing the sites of “resisting” age verification. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118773932035404650.html 8/22)
NBC and The Associated Press struck a deal to allow the AP to include NBCOlympics.com-produced video links, text and photos from the 2008 Summer Games in a premium online service for its client newspaper sites. NBC holds the exclusive broadcast and broadband rights to the Games and will present more than 3,600 hours of coverage. (Yahoo!/Associated Press 8/22)
Hackers are said to have stolen the personal data of several hundred thousand members of the online job site Monster.com. The hackers are e-mailing the victims claiming to have infected their computers with a virus and threatening to delete files unless demands for payment are met. (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2301792.ece 8/22)
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Hitachi has developed a lightweight 3-D display that may one day be used in mobile phones. “I’d like to see the technology eventually applied to mobile phones, so people could see images three-dimensionally from their handsets,” Hitachi researcher Rieko Otsuka said. (The Sydney Morning Herald/Agence France-Presse 8/22)
Four hundred fifteen U.S. cities are building or planning to build municipal Wi-Fi networks, but some companies, including EarthLink and AT&T, are having second thoughts and conducting new evaluations of Wi-Fi plans. Initial, optimistic forecasts of Wi-Fi subscriptions have been off by a wide margin, with only 1% to 2% signing up for the service in some areas, according to some industry estimates. (BusinessWeek 8/15)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Sharp claims to be the proud inventor of the world’s thinnest and lightest LCD TV. Officials at the world’s third-largest maker of LCD TVs say that the 52-inch LCD TV is 20 millimeters thick, weighs 25 kilograms, and uses half the electricity as similar models. (The Washington Post/Reuters 8/22) 
Microsoft has announced a new PC mouse geared toward the online-gaming community. The new “SideWinder” mouse will feature up to 5,000 adjustable settings and a small liquid crystal display between the thumb and index finger positions that keeps records of game settings. (Scientific American 8/22)
Toshiba officials have announced plans to release a 320GB hard drive for laptops later this year. The storage drive, which will connect via a 3 Gbps serial ATA interface, is said to be the first 2.5-inch laptop drive offered with that storage capacity. (Yahoo!/InfoWorld/IDG News Service 8/21)
Filed under: MISC
MISC
Sony’s “Spider-Man 3″ and “Shrek the Third” from DreamWorks Animation are helping fuel a record summer movie box office, with U.S. sales of $4.15 billion eclipsing the 2004 record of $3.95 billion. “Spider-Man 3,” at $336.5 million, is expected to be the year’s highest-grossing film. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aah0iIfJ5Adk 8/21)
