Filed under: MISC
No images on the site today folks. I am having trouble uploading to the site today. My apologies.
Filed under: MISC
Online Site of the Week
HomegrownSeries.com, Showtime’s minisite for its popular MaryJane-themed TV show Weeds, launched a user submitted video contest to celebrate the premiere of the new season. Users are asked to upload their own video renditions of the show’s theme song Little Boxes, the folk classic written by Malvina Reynolds that parodies suburban life. Prizes include $10,000 in cash and all-expenses paid trip to LA with a stay at the W. Some of the submissions are very creative – the most viewed version so far is a remix of the song from Bulletproof Productions accomplished with two turntables.
This is one of the smartest user-gen contests that I have ever seen from a content provider. The level of engagement here is intense. Not only is the contest a brilliant move, Showtime features acquisition messaging on the page enticing users to subscribe. At the end of every video played, Showtime runs a short ad with 1-866 number so that users can call using one number no matter where they live and in which cable/satellite provider’s territory. If only I knew how many new subscribers this translated to, I would be a happy Marauder.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Time Warner’s HBO has forged an on-demand deal with Japan’s largest cable company, Jupiter Telecommunications. The agreement, beginning Oct. 1, will bring characters such as Tony Soprano into the homes of Jupiter’s J:COM on Demand customers. (Yahoo!/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter 8/26)
Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons, not yet 60, is getting ready to retire from the media giant. No. 2 exec Jeff Bewkes is “ready to rock ‘n’roll,” he says. Unlike media rival Rupert Murdoch, “I don’t define myself by this,” Parsons says of his position. “This is my job. It’s not my life.” (http://select.nytimes.com/2007/08/25/business/media/25nocera.html?_r=1&oref=login 8/25)
Liberty Media’s Starz Media has struck a deal to license 40 hours of its manga animation content to the video site Heavy.com. Starz executives hope the strategy becomes a paradigm for the future, with more of the company’s video content migrating online. (Variety 8/26)
(Below) You know the sound a truck makes if put in reverse? That’s exactly what I heard internally while reading the below story. Ever heard of a little piece of technology called the Slingbox? Well, the Slingbox does all that is described below including porting both linear (SD & HD) and on demand (where available) over a home wireless network to devices in the home. But, unlike what is described below, Slingbox takes this one step further. Slingbox ports to devices OUTSIDE the home. Every time it seems like the MSO’s have taken one huge step forward, there’s always a loop hole. Never mind the fact that this strategy seems a bit competitive with the MSO broadband products that I have read so much about as of late. Dear Mr. & Mrs. MSO, all I want is the same quality TV programming that you provide me at home to be made available on my phone and computer anywhere I go using the exact same user interface. I will pay more for this service. As Tim Gunn from Project Runway says, “Make it work people.”
CableLabs announced the approval of a new streaming video protocol that will enable MSOs to offer customers the ability to stream cable TV programming over their home networks. The Digital Transmission Copy Protection (DTCP-IP) DRM system was finally approved by several large studios including Disney, Warner Bros., Sony and Paramount after months of negotiations. Viewers will be able to port standard and high-def content from the set top box to PCs and portable devices connected to the network. The DRM protocol will restrict copying to DVDs or other portable media.
Hearst intends to bid nearly $600 million to buy the remaining stock of Hearst-Argyle Television it doesn’t currently own at the price of $23.50/share, a 15% premium over the current market price. Hearst currently owns approximately 52% of the outstanding Series A Common Stock and 100% of the Series B Common Stock, representing about 73% of both the outstanding equity and general voting power of the TV group. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abvAcne.iTy0 8/24)
NBC Universal is close to finalizing a deal to acquire London-based Sparrowhawk Media for $353 million. The deal would be NBCU’s biggest venture yet into British television with the acquisition of the Hallmark channel outside of the United States, among other properties. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/26/cnnbc126.xml 8/26)
Comcast has extended its digital-voice phone service to Colorado Springs, Colo., where customers receive unlimited local and domestic long-distance calling for $39.95 a month. The company offers the Internet Protocol-based service to 38 million homes in 70 U.S. markets. (Multichannel News 8/24)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Viacom’s Comedy Central is entering a deal with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the hit show “South Park,” to create a hub to spread the program and related material across the Internet, mobile platforms and video games. The deal is said to be worth some $75 million. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/business/media/27south.html 8/27)
The record-setting cable-television premiere of Disney’s “High School Musical 2″ is helping to propel Disney.com to new heights. On Aug. 17, the day of the movie’s debut, unique users to Disney.com surged by 73%. Unique-user numbers for August are expected to break records. (http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003631062 8/24)
Almost all of the networks are putting at least some of the pilot episodes of their upcoming series on the Web, offering viewers the chance to see premieres for free and producing original content around their new series that doubles as entertainment and advertising. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i3183b40c3b46a938afe9d7ba682765be 8/27)
Vint Cerf, one of the researchers who helped build the Internet, is predicting that we soon will be watching the majority of our television through the Internet, a revolution that could herald the death of traditional broadcast TV. Cerf is now a VP with YouTube owner Google. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/27/news.google 8/27)
MySpace currently bans commerce between its members. But the issue is being hotly discussed at owner News Corp. as execs grapple with the imperative of squeezing more money out of the social-networking site. Also: MySpace is said to have “a huge advertising opportunity in front of it.” (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/la-fi-myspace27aug27,1,7013873.story?ctrack=1&cset=true 8/27)
(Below) The beta site has launched but is currently only open to Nielsen employees.
Nielsen is launching Hey! Nielsen, an online social community where people can discuss — and influence — television, music, movies, Internet sites and celebrities. Nielsen, the world’s biggest researcher, also publishes the business magazines Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. (http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=66310 8/24)
Google is promising to give content makers control over advertisements overlaid on the video clips they post to YouTube. The company is seeking feedback on the new ad service as YouTube users threaten to leave the site. YouTube exec Shashi Seth says: “It behooves us to be careful.” (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136362-c,google/article.html 8/24)
Online job seeking site Monster.com suffered a security breach potentially exposing the confidential information of 1.5 million users then waited 5 days to report it. Hackers broke into site’s resume library using credentials stolen from Monster clients, according to the company, making away with names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. (Further investigation found that less than 5,000 users were affected.) Monster is working with FBI and other agencies to identify the culprit and has already sent out emails to affected parties. It first learned about the attack thanks to online security firm Symantec on August 17 but didn’t notify Reuters until August 24.
Fox Interactive Media’s Fuse.TV launched a new music wiki site powered by WetPaint encouraging fans to post comments, photos, videos and personal notes about their favorite artists. The site is organized by band name, with more than 35 profiles offered so far. Fuse will provide exclusive content from its archives including artist interviews and music videos to help attract fans.
My Space’s Project Revolution concert set new live streaming records with more than 1 million users logging on to view parts of the six-hour concert. It was an interactive broadcast of one of the 15-city concerts headlined by Linkin Park, which began on August 14 and is continuing through September 3. Sponsored by NowWhat.com, the event drew more than 180,000 live comments. The MySpace page that hosted it has amassed more 93,000 friends.
The New York Times unveiled a beta version of its My Times service to all users, adding expanded content options and new personalization features. Readers can customize their My Times with widgets including a Times’journalist recommendation engine, a crossword widget, Flickr photo slideshows, movie showtimes, mortgage rates, weather information and Marketwatch stock quotes.
Google’s Blogger platform added a video uploading feature to its post editor allowing users to add videos to their blog entries. Blogger’s technical team also corrected a publishing/hosting glitch last week that affected a number of publishers on the site. Blogger.com and its Blogspot hosting platform were down for over an hour on Wednesday.
Major streaming group Digital Media Association and royalty fee collector SoundExchange reached an agreement to cap charges levied against webcasters. It sets a $50,000 ceiling on royalty fees for internet radio stations that offer more than 100 channels and establishes a $500 per-station or per-channel minimum annual fee.
A developer has inadvertently figured out a way to circumnavigate video ads on YouTube, which have been removed on the site for the time being. The TubeStop extension was written by Chris Finke, a software developer for Netscape and other sites, as an Firefox extension to disable the autoplay function and allow users to open multiple videos without having them start all at once. It turns out the plug in also prevents the ads from playing, according to Finke’s blog.
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Google is rumored to be two weeks away from the launch of its much-awaited Google cellphone. The so-called Gphone reportedly will debut simultaneously across the United States, Europe and in India. Google “plans to invest $7-8 billion for its global telephony foray.” (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/08/is_google_phone.html 8/24)
Apple’s iPhone is said to have been “hacked” by a 17-year-old New Jersey student. George Hotz spent his summer unlocking the device, which may allow non-AT&T customers and those outside of the U.S. to use the phone on other carrier networks. (The Sydney Morning Herald 8/27)
Nokia will relaunch its N-Gage gaming-cell phone hybrid as a multiplayer gaming service designed for use with the company’s smartphones. Electronic Arts, Digital Chocolate and others have signed on to offer mobile games for the retooled N-Gage. (International Herald Tribune 8/27)
(Below) It’s not like SMS doesn’t exist already but thanks Yahoo.
Yahoo is introducing new features for its Web-based e-mail program, including software that allows computer users to type text messages on a keyboard and send them directly to cellphones. The changes come amid fierce rivalry with Microsoft’s Hotmail and Google’s Gmail. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070827/ap_on_hi_te/yahoo_mail 8/27)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
Gaming companies are highlighting massively multi-user online games as a means to combat the piracy that has recently threatened the industry. “We had many people playing but nobody paying. The online games drive the pirate out of the business,” said Gerhard Florin, general manager of international publishing at Electronic Arts. (Reuters 8/24)
2K Games’new title “Bioshock” presents its own take on the utopia created in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” The game presents PC and Xbox 360 gamers with a bevy of moral dilemmas that highlights the cost of communism, as viewed by creative director Ken Levine. (The Boston Globe 8/27)
Bioshock Game Trailer
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Taiwan-based computer company Acer has announced plans to buy U.S. computer maker Gateway for $710 million. By combining the companies, Acer will be able to create an “effective multi-brand strategy and cover all the major market segments,” Acer President Gianfranco Lanci said. (International Herald Tribune/Associated Press 8/27)
Palm has denied recent rumors that its Foleo mini-notebook will be delayed, saying it will be available “this summer” in the U.S. The 2.5-pound “smartphone companion” is designed to sync up with Palm’s Treo smartphones. (PCWorld/IDG News Service 8/26)
Samsung’s new HL-T5687S model rear-projection HDTV uses LEDs as its light source rather than a projection lamp. According to a review from Ultimate AV, this offers good color quality and saves consumers from having to replace a projection lamp when it burns out. (Ultimate AV 8/2007)
Sony has announced the release of its first shoulder-mounted high-definition video camcorder. The HVR-HD1000U enables video to be shot in high definition, but edited in a standard definition format. (Yahoo!/PC World/IDG News Service 8/25)
