Filed under: MISC
THE BMW M3: AUTOMOTIVE INNOVATION IN PROGRESS
Over the weekend, the 2008 BMW M3 debuted on this side of the pond at the LA Auto Show.
4 Liter V8 Engine with 24% more horsepower and 10% more torque than its predecessor and somehow 7% lighter and more fuel efficient. I wish I had a power button at my desk. Arguably the finest innovation in auto-engineering this year.
Playstation M3 Simulator
Exploring the Power Button
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Donald Trump is back on NBC with The Celebrity Apprentice which debuts January 3 at 9p. This seventh version of The Apprentice will feature 14 celebrities competing in business-related challenges in New York City, but instead of hoping to make Donald Trump their boss, they will raise money for charity. Participating celebrities include Trace Adkins, Carol Alt, Stephen Baldwin, Nadia Comaneci, Tiffany Fallon, Jennie Finch, Nely Galan, Marilu Henner, Lennox Lewis, Piers Morgan, Omarosa, Tito Ortiz, Vincent Pastore and Gene Simmons. The show is produced by Mark Burnett Productions in association with Trump Productions LLC.
I will watch this purely to see Vincent “Big Pussy” Pastore bump heads with every other cast member. Simmons vs. Pastore vs. Baldwin vs. Omarosa death match? Oh, I think so.
It seems the Red Hot Chili Peppers are not fans of Showtime‘s series Californication, and in fact have filed suit against the network alleging for unfair competition, dilution of the value of the name and unjust enrichment. It seems Californication is the name of an album the band produced in 1999. In a statement released by the band’s lead singer Anthony Kiedis, he said, “Californication is the signature CD, video and song of the band’s career, and for some TV show to come along and steal our identity is not right.” The suit names Showtime as well as Twilight Time Films, Aggressive Mediocrity, Inc., and creator/executive producer Tom Kapinos, as co-defendants.
Californication: An Inside Look
Nearly 300 CBS News newswriters who are members of the WGAE and WGAW voted 81% in favor to authorize a strike against CBS which gives the WGAE and WGAW the trump card to call a strike at any time. The special election took place last week in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. WGA-CBS members who work nationally or locally for television and radio in these markets have been functioning under an expired contract since April 2, 2005 and minus pay increases since April 2004. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071119/cbs_news_strike_vote.html 11/19)
20th Century Fox Television on Monday became the latest TV studio to send out suspension letters to regulars on series that have been shut down because of the writers strike. Two other studios previously notified their actors: Universal Media Studios and Sony Pictures TV. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ife568d22e177435a2efbde3db283cb8a 11/20)
Television networks are struggling with the question of whether to run out their remaining stockpile of produced series episodes or conserve the few that remain. Some originals may be pulled “to save for January and beyond,” says Fox scheduling chief Preston Beckman. (http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-11-19-strike-episodes_N.htm 11/20)
Gossip Girl
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution is mounting a global effort to launch a slew of cable, satellite and broadband channels offering on-demand access to a range of WB-produced series and movies. Viewers will be able to make a la carte programming picks. (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117976299.html?categoryid=1009&cs=1 11/19)
Al Jazeera English will launch a U.S. network within the next six months, according to London bureau chief Sue Phillips. The channel is overcoming misinterpretations about its agenda that earned it “the terrorist channel” label, she says. “The Americans are warming to us.” (http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=39476 11/19)
Media investors are growing increasingly worried about the possibility of an economic slowdown hitting advertising spending in 2008. Shares of CBS, Disney, News Corp. and Time Warner have each tumbled about 5% so far this month. But Internet ad spending is “holding up nicely.” (http://mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2007/11/19/media-investors-fear-recession/ 12/19)
Disney and ESPN Media Networks are introducing two new iTV applications viewable by Dish Network’s 12 million + interactive media subscribers. The ESPN Interactive Zone features up-to-the minute scores, stats, news and rankings viewable on a dashboard accessible during selected programs. Disney Channel’s interactive application enables Dish subscribers to set DVR timers for featured programs, obtain Disney Channel show information from the ticker on the main menu and interact with show-related content. (Reuters 11/19, Multichannel News 11/19)
Republican lawmakers want to rein in Kevin Martin, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, who is seeking to expand the agency’s authority over the cable industry. More than 20 Republicans sent a letter to Martin on Monday calling his plan “misguided” and “harmful.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21891109/ 11/20)
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts: “We face competition from satellite companies, phone companies and other cable overbuilders, and that’s forced us to become a better company.” (http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/19/technology/roberts_comcast.fortune/ 11/20)
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts
With the rental of a high-definition set-top box, Comcast subscribers in Michigan now can receive HD channels. The move comes as the state’s largest cable provider continues to establish a broad base of HD offerings and services. (The Detroit News 11/20)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
AOL unveiled new “video ticker ads” as an alternative to pre-rolls, embedding graphic banner ads directly into streaming video content. The Flash-based ads offer click-through interactive opportunities for sponsors; clicking on an ad pauses the video and takes the user to an interactive spot.
Notice the Crest Ad overlaid on the Rihanna music video. (Click on the image to watch) Am I the only person who finds this incredibly annoying and antagonistic to the video playing behind the ad? Think about it this way, when an ad is literally overlaid on top of streaming video, it seems even more necessary that those two pieces have a synergy or the overall effect is a noticeable dichotomy.
Sundance Channel is offering a free sneak peek preview of the first episode of Nimrod Nation on iTunes starting Nov. 19, a week prior to its on air premiere on Nov. 26. Subsequent episodes of the 8-part documentary will be available for purchase on Mondays, the day after they air.
Will people pay to read newspapers or blogs on the new Amazon.com Kindle e-book device? Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says: “The convenience of having your newspapers pushed to you full text is fantastic. Ninety-nine cents a month for a blog [is] a third of the cost of a latte.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/19/qa-with-bezos-about-the-kindle/ 12/19)
MySpace is planning to test its own ad-supported music streaming service powered by mobile billing and content delivery service Textango, report AdAge. So far only the indie band Pennywise is participating, with a widespread launch not planned until March.
Beowulf succeeded in slaying the competition at the box office this weekend with roughly 40% of its $28.1 million in domestic receipts coming from digital 3D screens. (Theater owners were able to charge more for 3D screening, boosting box office totals.) Meanwhile 3D IMAX screenings contributed a record $3.58 million to the total, despite showing on less than 2% of the screens it was released on.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment is entering a licensing deal with Yahoo that clears the way for people to upload files with music or video content by the record company’s artists to Yahoo. Like similar deals, the agreement calls for Sony BMG to receive a cut of advertising revenue. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071120/ap_on_hi_te/sony_bmg_yahoo 11/20)
AT&T plans to buy online advertising company Ingenio, in a move that puts the telephone giant in competition with Google and other online ad leaders. Ingenio’s technology measures the effectiveness of ads by tracking phone calls made to businesses based on phone numbers used in ads. (http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/11/20/ATT-buys-pay-per-call-advertising-company_1.html 11/20)
As more professionally produced content finds a home online, user-generated video is becoming less alluring to both viewers and advertisers. ManiaTV.com recently canceled its user-generated channels. Says CEO Peter Hoskins: “We have Hollywood talent that wants to work with us.” (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071119_701831.htm 11/20)
Digital is where the growth is for the music industry, according to a new report from Jupiter Research. But it won’t be enough to “save the industry.” Sales of downloads, on-demand subscription services and ring tones, “won’t compensate for declining CD sales.” (http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/card/archives/2007/11/latest_us_digit.html 11/19)
The boom in online advertising is reigniting New York City’s tech sector, spurring growth as companies are drawn to the concentration of media and creative industries. Google and Yahoo are building up their operations in the city, and AOL is relocating to the Big Apple. (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071118/FREE/71118028/1010 12/18)
Researchers are increasingly frustrated with measurement companies’ inability to provide reliable audience data for online video, reports Mediaweek. The trend of distributing the same content to several sites at once continues to result in dubious viewership numbers as competing data providers use different methodologies to track video usage. Expect this issue to heat up as more online video ad deals are tied to impressions, offered now by start-ups such as VideoEgg.
Google accounted for 64.49% of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending October 27, 2007, according to Hitwise. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 21.65, 7.42 and 4.76% respectively. The remaining 49 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.68% of U.S. searches.
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
AT&T has introduced its first mobile phone that features Napster’s Mobile service, which allows subscribers to search, preview and download songs wirelessly. Besides the Napster service, the Samsung SLM also features AT&T Video Share, stereo Bluetooth, a 2.0-megapixel camera with video capture and expandable memory. (Yahoo!/TechWeb/InformationWeek 11/19)
Mobile gaming is expected to draw more consumer attention in upcoming years, with some analysts estimating the industry will reach $10 billion by 2009. Indian and Asian markets are expected to adopt the emerging gaming model, which looks to bring a wide variety of games to a large demographic that may otherwise shy away from games. (The Sydney Morning Herald 11/20)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
Retailers are advising holiday Wii shoppers to buy the popular gaming system while they can. Fluctuating supplies from system maker Nintendo have left consumers and retailers scratching their heads as to when and where they can find the family-friendly consoles, according to this article. (USA TODAY 11/19)
Nintendo has introduced two special-edition versions of its popular DS handheld gaming system, which the company will begin selling Friday. “We chose a couple of the products (games) we know are so loved … and picked colors we know appeal to consumers right now,” said Perrin Kaplan, director of communications for Nintendo’s U.S. operations. (The Washington Post/Reuters 11/20)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Flat-panel TVs are expected to rank among the best consumer deals this holiday shopping season, as companies continue to slash prices in an attempt to garner more attention. Analysts predict 50-inch and larger plasma screens will be among some of the best available deals. (Yahoo!/PC World 11/20)
