Filed under: MISC
Virgin America Does In Flight Entertainment SO Right
On yesterday’s flight from LA to San Francisco, I had one of the best in flight experiences of my life. So great, in fact, that I wanted to share it with all of you. Just to give you some background on this, Virgin commenced US domestic operations officially as of a month ago (8/8/07). San Francisco’s International Airport is the airline’s current central hub. All seats are equipped with an IFE system which offers free live and cached satellite television, Pay-Per-View movies, a small selection of free games as well as a larger selection of games for purchase, power-ports, and adjustable headrests. This is simply one of the best in flight user interfaces I have ever seen. Along with watching TV and playing games, users can:
- Listen to thousands of songs and create playlists
- Chat with other passengers by sending any seat a message
- Chat with other passengers in genre-specific chat rooms or while watching TV
- Order food items via the user interface (with a credit card)
- Monitor in flight progress via Google Maps
Check out photos from yesterday’s flight below. I apologize for the quality of these images. They were all taken from my phone.
Main Menu of the Red Interactive Environment
User Interface While Listening to Music
Remote Control
One side includes standard volume and channel buttons
Remote Control
The other side includes a full key pad for use in chatting. Other buttons on the side are used while playing games.
Seat to Seat Chat
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner’s future CEO, is said to have “much sharper elbows” than Dick Parsons. But will he break up the media giant? Time Inc. has “few clear synergies” with the rest of the company. And some observers question whether AOL has the know-how to compete with Google. (http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/17/news/companies/twx_bewkes.fortune/index.htm 9/17)
The Emmy telecast on Fox attracted 13.1 million viewers, the fewest since 1990, as the television industry’s annual awards show faced competition from football, baseball and reality programs. The three-hour show rotates each year among the four broadcast networks. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ajlTg.AWdzvA 9/17)
CBS is setting up screenings of “Kid Nation,” its controversial reality show debuting Wednesday, at elementary schools around the country. Copies of the first episode are not being made available to critics. The network aims to bypass traditional media in an effort to build buzz. (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117972162.html?categoryid=2554&cs=1 9/17)
Kid Nation Teaser
This is the most intriguing reality show idea that I have come across in quite a while. The show follows a group of children, aged 8 through 15, who set up a working town without the aid of any adults. Left to their devices, the children carry out town meetings, elect a council, farm the land, and compete for $20K towards their future college funds. It’s amazing to see what these kids say and do when left on their own to maintain the inner workings of the town.
HBO has struck deals with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore to star in an adaptation of “Grey Gardens,” the story of the eccentric Long Island aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It’s unclear whether the movie will be released by HBO Films first in theaters or debut on HBO. (The New York Times/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter 9/18)
TNT has signed Annie Potts to play opposite William H. Macy in an upcoming drama titled “Family Man.” A pilot for the show, about a respected member of the community who also leads a gang of bank robbers, is in development for 2008. (Variety 9/17)
TNT’s The Closer occupied the top 5 spots in Tivo’s latest Stop||Watch DVR ratings, ranking Tivo users’ most watched shows. The show topped out with a 10.4 rating on July 23, the first time a cable network made the top ten but far below the 25.6 ratings of the highest-rated show during the May ratings period. Amazingly Tivo favorite Studio 60 remained in the top 10 when it finished its single season run on June 28.
Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts, who also is chairman of CableLabs, says the group is developing an advertising platform that will track viewers’ responses to commercials, similar to the way an online advertiser can measure a user’s reaction to an ad. Roberts says the new interactive platform will help cable companies attract a larger percentage of TV ad dollars. (Reuters 9/17)
Cablevision’s Dolan family wants to take the Bethpage, N.Y., cable company private, and it is willing to sell assets or close money-losing business units to make that happen, according to an SEC filing. The company has scheduled an Oct. 24 meeting, at which shareholders will vote on the $10.6 billion proposal to take Cablevision private. (Multichannel News 9/17)
The Jewish Channel is the latest video-on-demand offering from Cablevision. The channel, which includes Jewish-themed films, documentaries and talk shows, will be made available for Cablevision’s iO TV digital-cable subscribers. (Broadcasting & Cable 9/17)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
An EU court rejected Microsoft’s appeal of the antitrust case the company ended up on the wrong side of in 2004, upholding $689 million in fines levied against the software giant. Microsoft was found to have abused its position by bundling the Windows Media Player inside of its Windows operating system and refusing to share interoperability data with server manufacturers. Microsoft may be unable to ship Explorer and Windows Media applications with future EU Windows products.
Microsoft Media Center owners will now have access to two new features released by the company. Internet TV and Media Center’s own version of SlingBox called WebGuide will be made available free of charge to existing owners. (CE Pro 9/17)
Facebook is helping start a $10 million fund to help developers create new applications for the growing social network. Founder Mark Zuckerberg said at the TechCrunch40 conference that Facebook is partnering with Accel Partners and the Founders Fund to form the fbFund. (http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_6925413?nclick_check=1 9/18)
AOL will test a free service that lets users consolidate on one Web site their personal photos, videos and music that are now scattered across multiple computers and Web sites. The new site, Bluestring, combines elements of YouTube, Flickr and AOL’s own Xdrive. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSN1732383720070917 9/17)
AOL will carry a blog by Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” show, carried for free on the BloggingStocks Web site. AOL’s addition of Cramer’s blog, a paid feature of TheStreet.com, is an experiment, says Steve Elkes of TheStreet.com. “We’ll figure out what works.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aK_yjcBr_vXg 9/17)
In an experiment to find new ways to sell music, Warner Music will allow U.S. consumers to listen for free to James Blunt’s new album from his MySpace page. If they like it, consumers can buy a download for $9.99 that will play on Apple’s iPod, and will receive a CD version in the mail. (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0d4f99ca-6579-11dc-bf89-0000779fd2ac.html 9/18)
I guess the question here is: How much do consumers still value the physical object that is the CD? If a value is still placed on the material object (and my guess is that it is), this is of significant value to the consumer. I can now buy a digital and CD version simultaneously for the same price. I now, no longer, need to produce a playlist and burn the CD. I also now receive a professionally produced CD with album art for no additional cost. Smart.
Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. says he is looking to digital downloads, mobile distribution, international markets and a closer relationship between artists and fans to make up for the diminishing CD sale revenue stream: “We’re trying a variety of solutions … ” (http://www.techconfidential.com/vc-ratings/money-in/bronfman-the-rumors-of-the-mus.php 9/17)
The New York Times is pulling the plug on TimesSelect, its premium online subscription service, at midnight on Tuesday. The decision reflects “a growing view in the industry that subscription fees cannot outweigh the potential ad revenue from increased traffic on a free site.” (http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2007/09/17/now-its-official-timesselect-is-history 9/17)
ABC will launch a video podcast called “Cavetalk” on Tuesday, September 18, to promote the Cavemen sitcom premiering Oct. 2 at 8 pm ET. Spokescavemen Joel, Nick and Andy have agreed to help clear up some widely held misconceptions about their race. Sign up for it on iTunes or ABC.com.
Cavemen Podcast
Lame. Really lame.
Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp is to announce that it is taking a majority stake in game developer GarageGames.com to anchor a soon-to-be launched gaming site, InstantAction. IAC also plans to announce a multimillion-dollar fund to develop new Internet action games. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119007633146730597.html 9/18)
ESPN360.com kicks off its 61 game season coverage (September – May) of the international UEFA Champions League on September 18, including the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final from Moscow. Each Tuesday and Wednesday match day ESPN360.com will deliver soccer fans three UEFA Champions League matches, one of which will be a simulcast of ESPN2′s coverage. Two each week will be offered in both English and Spanish-language feeds.
Viacom’s $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against Google and its video-sharing site YouTube won’t reach court until about 2009, says Michael Fricklas, the media giant’s general counsel. By then, “Who even knows what user-generated sites will look like?” (http://www.techconfidential.com/behind-the-money/blog/behind-the-money/viacomgoogle-case-wont-see-cou.php 9/17)
Yahoo is buying white-label open-source e-mail and communications suite provider Zimbra, reports Kara at AllThingsD, citing sources. The price is around $350 million, the story says, which is a big premium on its latest valuation. The San Mateo, CA-based company has inv*stm*nt from Benchmark Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Accel Partners, and has raised a total of $30.5 million in three rounds. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-yahoo-is-buying-e-mail-and-communications-suite-zimbra-report 9/17)
Hearst paid around $100 million in cash for the consumer health site RealAge.com, according to The New York Times. The site is built around a user survey that considers more than 100 health related issues to determine their “real age.” The site attracts about 2.1 million uniques a month and has annual revenue of about $20 million, according to Hearst.
TechCrunch40.com is the official website of this week’s TechCrunch40 new media conference hosted by the web 2.0 TechCrunch blog and venture capitalist Jason Calacanis. Besides covering the conference exhaustively, the site gives visitors a more intimate look at the 40 startups handpicked to exhibit (for free) at the show. Given the respect TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington and his cohorts are accorded in Silicon Valley, there just may be some future stars in this group of startups. The site also offers some cool social features such as the ability to rate the 40 new companies’ presentations.
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Google, expanding beyond Internet search, will start selling ads on Web sites designed for mobile phones and e-mail devices. AdSense for Mobile will let Web site owners in 13 countries display ads sold by Google on their pages. The mobile market is said to be “growing quite rapidly.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPF9Y0l0qQ.8 9/17)
Advertisers are currently spending about $500 million annually on mobile advertising but will increase that amount by 120% next year and reach about $1.1 billion, according to the Jack Myers Media Business Report. Also, general Internet advertising “is still on the rise.” (http://www.clickz.com/3627056 9/18)
Telefonica’s O2 U.K. has won the coveted deal to be the carrier offering Apple’s iPhone in Britain. It will be available through retailer Carphone Warehouse and Apple’s own stores starting Nov. 9. (The Washington Post/Reuters 9/18, MarketWatch 9/18)
