Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Three hot cable TV series — Lifetime’s “Army Wives,” MTV’s “Making the Band 4″ and HBO’s “Big Love” — wrapped up their seasons last weekend with impressive season-finale ratings. “Wives” averaged 4.1 million total viewers; “Making the Band 4″ averaged 3.5 million; and “Big Love” pulled in an average 2.9 million. (The Hollywood Reporter 8/29)
Marc Abrams and Michael Benson, who produced “Entourage” for HBO, have signed a two-year, seven-figure deal with Universal Media Studios. The pair will develop and produce drama, comedy and reality programming. (Variety 8/28)
Disney Channel, buoyed by the cable-record-shattering “High School Musical 2,” won the primetime summer ratings race, averaging a 2.5 household rating, placing it No. 1 among basic-cable networks. “High School Musical 2’s” Aug. 17 debut attracted 17.2 million viewers. (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6472317.html 8/28)
MTV is preparing a new series titled “The Paper,” which will follow a team of high school journalists working on their school newspaper. The series is scheduled to kick off its eight-episode run early next year. (Yahoo!/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter 8/28)
Katie Couric plans to leave Wednesday for an ambitious reporting trip to Iraq and Syria — the CBS anchor’s first time in the war zone — for a report on progress of the American military effort. Couric will anchor the “CBS Evening News” from Baghdad and Damascus next week. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801820.html 8/29)
News Corp.’s Big Ten Network, the U.S. television service aimed at fans of the college conference’s sports teams, plans to triple subscribers to 50 million in the next two years, says the channel’s president, Mark Silverman. The venture will see “tens of millions of dollars” in investment. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=ahF7MLcjzMTI 8/29)
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given antitrust clearance for News Corp.’s $5 billion acquisition of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones. The companies expect the deal to close in the fourth quarter, pending approval by Dow Jones shareholders and other customary approvals. (http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20070828-000549-2016 8/29)
Sundance Channel signed a deal with Virgin America to produce a custom inflight TV channel on the airline’s “Red” inflight entertainment system, which now offers 18 satellite TV channels, 25 PPV movies and a selection of video games and music files. Sundance originals including Nimrod Nation, Iconoclasts and Big Ideas for a Small Planet will be featured. (Multichannel News 8/28)
As part of the announced strategic plan to double its number of international cable channels in the next two to three years, NBC Universal agreed to purchase Sparrowhawk Holdings and its worldwide cache of pay TV channels from Providence Equity Partners, 3i and management shareholders. This deal includes 18 feeds of the non-US Hallmark Channels, airing across 152 territories to more than 60 million subscribers in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, Latin America and Asia. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nbc29aug29,1,3511254.story?ctrack=1&cset=true 8/29)
Comcast, with cable systems in Big Ten states such as Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, is highlighting its planned football programming, even if a carriage deal is not in place with the new Big Ten Network, which launches Friday. The company intends to air about 150 college football games and 100 NFL matchups this season on various cable and broadcast networks. (Multichannel News 8/28)
Cablevision has rolled out Broadcast Video Transport, a video transmission and delivery system, for its business broadband clients. It’s aimed at companies that need high-resolution video capabilities, such as television stations, broadcasters and production facilities. (Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) 8/28)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
News Corp. and NBC Universal are naming their new online video joint venture Hulu. The two media companies say the site — referred to by some as a “YouTube killer” — will be available for private trials by consumers by October, a month later than originally planned. (http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSWEN072120070829 8/29)
They pushed back the site launch a month but at least they have a name. Click below to sign up for beta test availability starting in October.
Google signed a multi-year online ad agreement with CNN.com, replacing Yahoo as the site’s ad partner. Google’s AdSense will deliver targeted text-based ads to CNN.com, though no video ads are included in the deal. (http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9767613-7.html 8/28)
The MySpace film channel is relaunching this month with exclusive footage from Rob Zombie’s upcoming Halloween movie opening in theaters August 31, as well as a personal video message from the heavy metal rocker/filmmaker.
News Corp.’s MySpace will hold a concert tour this autumn, stopping in several major U.S. markets, in a move that further shapes its image as an MTV-like pop culture hub. Tour co-headliners Hellogoodbye and Say Anything made their names as MySpace Music artists. (http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9768308-7.html 8/29)
Apple will sell television programs in Britain via its iTunes store as part of its push to become a one-stop shop for digital entertainment. Apple, which launched a similar service in the United States in 2005, will sell shows such as “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” for 1.89 pounds an episode. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSL2934315320070829 8/29)
Apple is sending out invitations to a Sept. 5 event called “The Beat Goes On,” fueling speculation that it will release new models of the best-selling iPod media player to spur holiday sales. A new video iPod may incorporate the iPhone’s 3.5-inch touch screen, analysts say. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aNK8XeCqVHT8 8/28)
Sweden-based virtual doll site Stardoll announced its 10 millionth registered user, according to ComScore figures, making it the top site for girls aged 9-17 among ComScore’s top 1000 sites. To celebrate, the site is giving each user a virtual “swag bag” as well as 1,000 “stardollars.”
Yup, I can completely see why. For this go around, I dressed Paris Hilton. Users can dress a myriad of celebrities and change their environments as well. They can then send their creations via e-mail to friends adding a viral component to this site as well. It seems imminent that a content provider like Disney with their High School Musical 2 success would jump on this bandwagon at some point and allow users to dress characters from their shows.
MSNBC’s Web site and CondeNast’s online arm CondeNet are forming a partnership that will allow MSNBC.com to offer content from Vanity Fair, GQ, Vogue and other magazines. MSNBC.com aims to use CondeNet’s “impressive portfolio of leading brands” to boost traffic. (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/msnbccom-condenast-partnership/story.aspx?guid=%7B0F735284%2D2CDF%2D45DB%2DAFD0%2D609791913ECA%7D 8/29)
MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites are yet to realize their full potential as advertising media, experts report. Analyst firm IDC says that some services may never be able to attract advertisers on a large scale, since they “cannot guarantee a brand-safe environment.” (http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2197566/social-networking-sites-miss 8/29
)Yellow pages publisher R.H. Donnelley is now selling ad placements on Yahoo Local in 14 Midwestern states. If the new partnership is a success, Donnelley will look at expanding the Yahoo arrangement to other parts of the country. Donnelley is the No. 3 U.S. yellow pages publisher. (http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/685660.html 8/29)
A new study from ABI Research finds that nearly half of U.S. consumers are using their PCs to watch video in one form or another. Of those people, 72% watch video through their browsers, 65% watch DVDs and 7.1% are watching premium content. ABI says its study illustrates that people are becoming more accepting toward using their PCs as video devices, but aren’t yet using a TV tuner on their computers. (Dealerscope 8/28)
Top-Visited US Broadcast TV Websites for Week ending August 25, 2007
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 CBS Big Brother 29.46%
2 NBC America’s Got Talent 5.13%
3 FOX American Idol 4.97%
4 FOX America’s Most Wanted 3.47%
5 FOX So You Think You Can Dance 3.00%
6 CBS Pirate Master 2.95%
7 CBS Power of 10 2.93%
8 ABC Grey’s Anatomy 2.37%
9 FOX The Simpsons 2.27%
10 NBC Heroes 1.99%
Source: Hitwise Custom Report
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
A 17-year old hacker who figured out how to unlock the iPhone so it can be used with other networks apart from AT&T has been rewarded with a new Nissan 350Z sports car and three 8 GB iPhones. Young George Holtz made the deal with the mobile phone repair company CertiCell in exchange for a consultancy gig. Meanwhile a video demonstrating the procedure has been posted by John McLaughlin – founder of Belfast, Ireland based Uniquephones – on a blog dubbed iphoneunlocking.com. (Yahoo!/PC World/IDG News Service 8/28)
Blurry and not very exciting to watch but wow, very impressive that he cracked the iPhone wall. This 17-year old kid did what no Apple programmer could do. Dissemination of this program has put on hold after UniquePhones received a call from legal representation from AT&T. This makes me want to go re-watch Hackers.
Ah, the wonder years for Angelina Jolie. Somehow, hacking looks a bit more impressive in this video.
Sony Ericsson has confirmed that it has a PSP phone in the works — but it won’t say exactly when it will hit the market. Sony Ericsson’s Peter Ahnegard said the device would be ready “before Christmas,” but declined to commit to a year. (Pocket-lint.co.uk 8/28)
Nokia today announced Ovi, a new series of online stores offering direct-to-cell-phone downloads of music, games and maps. The iTunes competitor will be available in Europe in the fourth quarter and accompanied by a new line of phones. Customers will need to upgrade to Ovi-compatible phones to use the service. (Forbes 8/29)
Nokia Music Store (accessed through Ovi
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
Electronic Arts’ “Madden ‘08″ sold 1.8 million units in its first week, according to VG Chartz, a gaming-industry sales tracker. Sales failed to reach the record-breaking opening-week numbers of last year’s “Madden ‘07,” but it is still expected to become one of the year’s top-selling titles. (New York Post 8/29)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Sony is gearing up for the highly anticipated holiday season with the release of 15 new flat-screen TVs. The displays, ranging in size from 40 to 70 inches, will join a new remote control in Sony’s lineup as the company tries to wrestle market share away from industry-leading Samsung Electronics. (The Boston Globe/Reuters 8/29, The Wall Street Journal (free content) 8/29)
Gateway’s new E-155C tablet notebook has earned positive reviews for its attractive styling, although questions remain over the unit’s battery life. The device weighs in at 4.9 pounds and features a 12.1-inch screen that also doubles as a touchscreen. (The Washington Post/PC World 8/28
Two new Casio digital cameras are scheduled for release in September, both featuring a YouTube-capturing mode. The Casio Exilim EX-V8 and Z1080 will both offer 11MB of internal memory along with software packages that expedite the transfer of footage to YouTube. (TWICE 8/28)
Exilim EX-V8
Z1080
