Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

Hollywood directors are entering a tentative contract deal with studios after a mere five days of talks. The agreement puts pressure on striking writers to end their walkout that has lasted over more than months. Among other things, the directors’ deal sets new residuals for Internet content. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080117/ap_en_bu/hollywood_labor  1/17)

About 35% of Americans are changing their media consumption habits as a result of the Hollywood writers strike, according to a report by the consultancy firm Interpret. Some 27% are watching less network television. Many viewers are turning to video games and DVDs. (http://www.worldscreen.com/newscurrent.php?filename=strike011708.htm  1/17)

NBC Universal, hamstrung by the Hollywood writers strike, is near a decision to cancel the glitzy “upfront” presentation it holds every May to introduce new prime-time television shows to advertisers, affiliates and the media. Chief Jeff Zucker might meet one-on-one with advertisers instead. (http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN1745116420080118  1/18)

The worsening economy might lead private-equity firms to break up or shut down media companies they have acquired recently, warns Michael Copps, a Democratic member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Private equity in media should be investigated, he says. (http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20080117-000967-1241  1/17) 

Comcast needs to replace Brian Roberts with a “qualified CEO,” because the U.S. cable giant’s stock is a “Comcastrophe,” says Chieftain Capital, an investment advisory firm that owns some 60 million shares of the company. Comcast is said to be providing “zero return” to investors. (http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN1723901820080117  1/17)

Executives from Verizon are meeting with officials from New York City about a 15-year video franchise, according to the New York Daily News. If the deal goes through, Verizon’s FiOS TV offering would be in direct competition with New York’s top cable providers, including Cablevision and Time Warner Cable. (CED Magazine 1/17) 

A new pilot project for HBO from producer David Milch called Last of the Ninth, is set in the 1970s and focuses on the corruption within the NYPD, reports THR. No word yet on casting.

VH1 has given the go-ahead for three new projects:

• VH1 is teaming with P.Diddy on a reality competition series to find a person to be his assistant and is scheduled to debut this summer.
• egotrip’s Miss Rap Supreme - VH1 will work with egotrip for another series and this time ten female contestants from all over the U.S. will live together in Los Angeles where their talent, stage persona and smarts will be challenged during eight episodes. This series is set to premiere this April.
• Celebracadabra - Seven TV and film celebrities learn and perform magic tricks from top magicians at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles. The participants will perform in front of an audience and be judged by a panel of experts who will select who continues to the next round for a chance to win a grand prize.

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

The Internet Movie Database, an entertainment site and subsidiary of Amazon.com, is acquiring Without A Box, an online service that helps independent filmmakers submit their works to festivals and promote movies online. Financial terms are not being disclosed. (http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205900547  1/17)

YouTube continues to hold the No. 1 spot in online video, says ratings firm comScore. “If you are CBS, the fact that people are watching a few hours of online video is of some concern,” says Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff. Some of these viewers “are never coming back.” (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/youtubes-traffic-continues-to-snowball  1/17)

The U.S. online advertising market will reach $50.3 billion in revenue by 2011, according to a new report by the Yankee Group. By 2011, close to 25% of all media consumption will be online. New publisher business models will “help sell interactive advertising.”  (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/01/18/online-advertising-to-reach-50-billion  1/18)

Web analytics company Compete is releasing a list of the fastest-growing — and fastest-declining — Web sites of 2007. Some of the fastest growers include Veoh, LinkedIn, Reddit, and TechCrunch. Some of the notable sinkers are Bolt, Broadcaster, Netscape, and Xanga. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/17/youporn-were-coming-up-behind-you  1/17)

Online TV network Revision3 launched a new program showcasing user-generated videos submitted to content discovery site Digg.com. Feeds are available in a variety of formats including Quicktime HD.

Tivo struck a deal with online film distributor jaman.com allowing Tivo subscribers to access and download thousands of films from its library. Viewers will be given the option to rent or purchase movies with pricing starting at $1.99 per title. Jaman has similar agreements in place with SanDisk’s TakeTV and DivX.

Indie music and film site OurStage has announced a new content partnership with Joost that will see user picked content offered to Joost users.Under the deal, OurStage will offer four channels on Joost: Best of OurStage Shorts, Best of OurStage Comedy, OurStage Music Videos and OurStage Artist Access. The channels will give Joost users access to 10 OurStage Artists on each channel and exclusive content including music festival coverage & advice from established musicians & filmmakers.  (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/18/ourstage-brings-user-picked-content-to-joost  1/18)

New statistics released by the Chinese Government show that China is due to surpass the United States as the nation with the most internet users in the coming months. The state-owned China Internet Network Information Center said that China’s total number of Internet users rose 53% to 210 million at the end of 2007 up from 137 million at the end of 2006 and 162 million in June 2007. According to the WSJ, China is now just five million users shy of surpassing the United States as the world’s largest Internet market. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/17/china-close-to-becoming-worlds-largest-internet-market-by-users/  1/17)

Rumors popped up here in Silicon Valley that Yahoo is in negotiations to buy Israel-based FoxyTunes. The Foxytunes core service is a Firefox plugin that allows users to control their favorite media players from the browser. It has a small but loyal following, who also use their tangential services (an email/blog signature tool and FoxyTunes Planet, a site that aggregates music information). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/17/yahoo-may-be-looking-to-buy-israels-foxytunes  1/17)

KickApps, provider of “white label” social networking functionality for existing websites, has been making strides to open up its hosted platform to both web and application developers.  Webmasters who want to integrate KickApps’ social networking features - such as user profiles, videos, photos, and blogs - typically use the company’s Affiliate Center, an online control panel with which you can modify the way those features look and function. For power users, KickApps provides an API that gives webmasters more direct access to KickApps-hosted data so they can build more highly customized websites. Today they’ve published a KickApps API Developer Kit intended to help its customers take fuller advantage of that API by introducing them to its capabilities and inviting them to initiate custom development projects, which require close collaboration with the KickApps team. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/17/kickapps-publishes-api-kit-adopts-facebook-and-opensocial-platform-standards  1/17)

GAMING

Players of MTV’s “Rock Band” video game have downloaded more than 2.5 million songs at about $2 each in the eight weeks since it went on sale, the network says. The numbers underscore the potential of video games as a new source of revenue for the music industry. (http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN1726082620080118  1/18)

Despite sluggish growth in many other retail sectors last month, sales of video game hardware and software grew 28% in December, compared with a year ago, according to market research firm NPD Group, which said Thursday that shoppers grabbed hot items such as Nintendo’s Wii console. But NPD warned that the overall 43% growth rate of 2007 will be hard to sustain this year when the emphasis will change from introducing new hardware to selling games. (Reuters 1/18)

TECHNOLOGY

Car lovers may soon be shopping for some of the new products unveiled at this year’s International CES. GPS and audio products garnered much of the booth attention, although safety-minded products, such as the Flir PathFindIR thermal-imaging camera, which helps nighttime drivers better avoid animals, also made strong showings. Forbes 1/18)

Hyundai officials have announced that XM NavTraffic real-time traffic will be an optional feature in the company’s new Genesis sports sedan. The move is expected to further Hyundai’s goal of incorporating XM radio into all cars as standard equipment. (TWICE 1/14)

Officials at Chrysler have announced company plans to incorporate high-speed, mobile Internet access in future vehicles. “Anything you do on your home computer, you could do in your car,” Chrysler’s Frank Klegon said. (The Detroit News 1/15)

Laptop Magazine has cited Netgear’s new Wi-Fi networking kit, geared for streaming HD signals and lag-free gaming, as the best Wi-Fi/home-networking device of the year. The publication also honored the kit with its Best of CES award, Netgear said Wednesday. (TheRetailBRIDGE.com 1/17)