Filed under: MISC
ONLINE VIDEO OF THE WEEK: COUNTRY-ER
And I thought George Bush Jr. was country. In this video, the Democratic party nominees prove that they’re country-er than the rest. Down home y’all.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Ten years after he brought “Sex and the City” to HBO, Darren Star is back at the premium cable channel with “Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl,” a comedy series project he is exec producing with Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i7b7f6bee78014d178b9f581fc7d933d9 10/19)
Darren Star (Getty Images photo)
News Corp. is “leading the media industry” in the transformation to the digital world, proclaims News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch at the company’s annual meeting. “None of our peers compare in terms of sheer numbers of users or, more importantly for stockholders, revenues.” (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22617795-664,00.html 10/20)
ABC, Disney, Hearst and other media conglomerates are establishing divisions to take minority stakes in small Internet and tech companies. “We see the impact digital media is making — and it’s being made by some very small players,” says Bertelsmann digital exec Richard Sarnoff. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/business/media/19venture.html 10/19)
Comedy Central is signing a two-year extension deal with “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart. The contract extension will lock in Stewart past the 2008 election, keeping him with the network until at least 2010 — the same year David Letterman’s deal ends at CBS. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i9a5b1b09402b23bfe1a767ca4094a53e 10/19)
Showtime’s new Steven Spielberg comedy pilot, The United States of Tara, has signed Toni Collette to star as Tara Gregor. Her character is a wife and mother to two teenagers, and all seems well until you look a little closer and learn she has some sort of disassociative identity disorder - in other words, she’s got multiple personalities - she’s a Sybil!
The first ratings returns this fall for CBS are noticeably weak. The new reality series “Kid Nation” mostly fizzled; a new drama, “Cane,” has been less than stellar. CBS boss Les Moonves admits: “I’m a bit concerned about the state of network television generally.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/business/media/19cbs.html 10/19)
The last two years were “more difficult” for NBC Universal, so it became “fashionable” to ask whether General Electric will sell off the company, says NBCU chief Jeff Zucker. “If we turn the company around, then those questions will subside.” (http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2007-10-17-nbc-universal-zucker_N.htm 10/18)
News Corp. plans to invest as much as $300 million in its new Fox Business Network over the next few years, says chief Rupert Murdoch at the company’s annual shareholders meeting. “We have many challenges against an entrenched competitor,” he says, referring to CNBC. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a13CfSYRVTMo 10/19)
The new Fox Business Network has hired longtime CNBC anchor Liz Claman to host its afternoon business block. Claman left CNBC in July after eight years, most recently as host of the NBC’s “Morning Call.” Her contract prevented her from working for any competitor until Monday. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071018/ap_en_bu/fox_business_claman 10/18)
V-me, a Spanish-language digital-cable channel, has launched on Time Warner Cable systems in the Los Angeles market. Programming on the 24-hour channel runs the gamut, including educational shows for children and current affairs. (The Boston Globe/Associated Press 10/18)
DirecTV has filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles charging Cox with false advertising on its Web site. The complaint alleges that the cable company, citing a study, unfairly claimed that the quality of Cox’s HDTV services was superior to DirecTV’s. Cox did not provide comment on the suit. (Multichannel News 10/18)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Can you say $700? Google’s Q307 earnings are out, beating expectations and fueling even more. Google reported revenues of $4.23 billion, up 57 percent over Q306; the sequential increase was much smaller, 9 percent over the previous quarter. The company earned $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per share, up 46 percent over $733 million, or $2.36 per share, in Q306. The sequential change was healthy but not as dramatic: Google made $925 million in Q206. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-earnings-google-revenues-up-57-percent-profit-up-46-percent/ 10/18)
It’s time to put the Yahoo or Facebook acquisition deals from Microsoft to rest, suggests CEO Steve Ballmer during a talk at the Web 2.0 Summit. Microsoft would consider buying small startups, he says. The software giant is rumored to be considering taking a stake in Facebook. (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/10/18/ballmer-rules-out-yahoo-facebook-buys 10/18)
MySpace plans to double its workforce to 1,600 in the next year to add features and expand outside the United States, says CEO Chris DeWolfe. The News Corp. unit expects to get more revenue from its non-U.S. editions. “We’ll run out of people in the U.S.,” he says. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=azhntKZtpppg 10/18)
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a demonstration Thursday of new mashup tool Popfly, at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The tool allows ordinary Web enthusiasts, with little or no programming knowledge, to create applications that run on sites like Microsoft’s Windows Live Spaces and Facebook. (InfoWorld/IDG News Service 10/18)
Comcast actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, according to a test conducted by the Associated Press. Such blocking runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Internet traffic equally. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_hi_te/comcast_data_discrimination_tests 10/20)
Hoping to take local news and events to a whole new level, Cablevision, through its News 12 Networks, has started launching what could be as many as 800 user-generated Web sites throughout its coverage area. The so-called My Town Web sites allow users to analyze local news and issues and share photos and videos.( Multichannel News 10/18)
Sen. Barack Obama is the next candidate to be features on MySpace and MTV’s presidential dialogue series on Monday, Oct. 29 to be held at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The interactive dialogue, powered by Flektor, will be streamed live on MySpace, MTV’s ChooseOrLose.com and MTV Mobile and premiere on MTV at 7 pm ET/PT that evening.
Palo Alto-based Doostang, a career-oriented networking and jobs site, has raised $3.5 million in a first round led by Shasta Ventures, reports VentureBeat. It previously raised a small angel round from unidentified investors. The company’s most obvious competitor is LinkedIn, though its trying for an elite user base by going invitation only. The company’s blog says the service recently passed 300,000 users. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-social-jobs-site-doostang-raises-35-million-first-round/ 10/18)
Read the top line in the image below. Doostang is like the snobby elitist kid you avoided in college. Can we all just agree that we don’t need more of the same within the social networking space? All this segmentation is frustrating me.
Akamai Technologies will install server computers in Starbucks stores to speed up customers’ in-store iTunes downloads, the company announced Thursday. Akamai will first install its servers in 900 stores in New York, Seattle and San Francisco. Service will then expand throughout the U.S. (The Boston Globe 10/19)
Advertising is likely to start appearing on the BBC.com Web site starting next month. BBC Worldwide is moving quickly to generate revenues from its global audience following new approval for the controversial plan from the BBC Trust. (http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2193995,00.html 10/18)
The United States is losing its clout in the Internet as other countries develop faster growing markets, says Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker at the Web 2.0 Summit. Germany leads in e-commerce and the United Kingdom leads in online advertising, she notes. (http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=202404434 10/18)
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
Audi officials recently displayed a concept Audiphone that combines mobile-phone technology with a bevy of remote car controls. The phone, which some say resembles a Nokia handset, features a touch screen, remote car starter, car finder and remote display for the in-car cameras. (Mobilemag.com 10/18)
Samsung Electronics achieved higher sales and profits in the July-to-September quarter as cell phone sales hit a record high and the company enjoyed strong demand for its semiconductor and flat-panel display products. (http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/10/12/Samsung-achieves-record-cell-phone-sales_1.html?source=NLC-WIRELESS&cgd=2007-10-18 10/12)
News is out about project “white phone,” a Skype-branded cell phone allowing users to make calls without being in front of a computer. The eBay subsidiary has deals in place to launch the service with wireless carrier 3 Mobile in Europe, Asia and Australia, reports Business Week.
Turner Broadcasting System has started airing mobisodes — or short, original episodes — of Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne” on the network’s Very Funny Channel, part of Verizon Wireless’ mobile-video platform. So far, TBS has produced 10 shorts for “House of Payne” on the Very Funny Channel, which features clips from several of the network’s syndicated shows. (Mediaweek 10/18)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
Strong demand for “Halo 3″ helped propel Microsoft Xbox 360 sales past Nintendo’s Wii for the first time this year, according to new market data. “We expected software sales to soar due to Halo 3, but hardware sales are impressive this month,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “The Wii had its second best month ever as more inventory made its way to stores and into consumers hands, and PSP sales benefited from the new Daxter bundle.” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer 10/18, MarketWatch 10/18)
Vivendi Games’ Sierra Online set release dates for its Battlestar Galactica space combat game, on sale for PC’s Oct. 23 and via Xbox Live Arcade on Oct. 24. Scifi.com is building anticipation for season 4 with “flashback” clips of the two-hour Razor episode premiering Nov. 24 on Sci Fi Channel.
Battlestar Galactica Game Trailer
