Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
The broadcast networks hope to capitalize on the recent chaos of the Hollywood writers strike by doing away with some of the industry’s arcane conventions. Execs say they plan to abandon the clustering of program premiere dates in the fall, instead spreading them year-round. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120303589685370159.html 2/15)
Expanding its push with its newest scripted series In Treatment starring Gabriel Byrne, HBO will also begin running the show on HBO2 and HBO Signature. Starting this week, HBO2 is rerunning the first episodes from 10-12m nightly, and starting on Sunday the 24th, HBO Signature will air the series weekly at 9pm, airing back to back a week’s worth of 30m episodes. HBO continues to air the show weeknights at 930p. The Hollywood Reporter (2/19)
Disney plans to raise its stake to 32.1% from 14.9% in India’s UTV Software Communications, maker of last year’s box-office hit “The Namesake.” UTV, whose stock more than tripled last year, has production agreements with New Corp. and actor Will Smith’s studio. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=acQJG73R_dpw 2/18)
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. is expected to announce today in its quarterly earnings call with the press that it will acquire the media and licensed properties of Emeril Lagasse for $45 million in cash and $5 million in stock, reports The Wall Street Journal. Included would be the TV programs The Essence of Emeril and the syndicated episodes of Emeril Live currently airing on the Food Network, numerous cookbooks and Lagasse’s website, as well as a host of licensing product deals. The one piece not included is the Emeril restaurants. (http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7b89AF302D-79EE-4214-81C7-2BE58F4BC041%7d 2/19)
The NBC Local Media division cancelled In the Loop with iVillage, reports TVWeek. The show debuted as iVillage Live and was originally spawned from the female-focused iVillage.com site acquired by NBC Universal for $600 million in 2006. The multiplatform effort failed to garner much of an audience for NBC’s 10 O&O’s, who have been pushing for an alternative since it launched. IVillage.com itself faced a series of staff cuts earlier this month in the editorial, marketing and research departments including iVillage Editor-in-Chief Jennie Baird. (http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/02/nbc_station_group_cancels_in_t.php 2/18)
Verizon’s FiOS TV service is telling some customers they will have to wait to watch HDTV through its service even though the company has touted its deep HD offerings to consumers. Verizon blames a shortage of HD set-top boxes and HD DVRs in certain markets on equipment supplier Motorola, which said the huge demand had “exceeded expectations.” (The Wall Street Journal 2/19)
The Motion Picture Association of America has given a thumbs down to an FCC proposal that would mandate cable programmers offer wholesale services to MSOs and satellite companies on an a la carte basis. The MPAA termed FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s plan a “radical intrusion” into the program market. (Multichannel News 2/18)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
In an escalation of its fight for Yahoo, Microsoft will authorize a proxy fight at the Internet company this week, according to people briefed on the matter. The move, expected to cost about $20 million to $30 million, is Microsoft’s alternative to raising its $44.6 billion bid. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/technology/19cnd-yahoo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 2/19)
The biggest reality show on television has finally joined the iTunes platform. Fox Broadcasting, Fox Interactive Media and FremantleMedia signed an exclusive deal with Apple to bring American Idol audio and video performances to the platform as single song-sized snippets available the day after they premiere on air. Audio performances of the top 24 contenders run 99 cents per song, and videos of the top 12 finalists performances will be priced $1.99/each from March 11. Apple will also become one of the show’s premiere sponsors and maintain a branded presence on americanidol.com, where some free streaming performances can be seen. (http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=554af52f-41c3-46ba-a62b-a8b45ee6f489 2/18)
Showtime CEO Matt Blank said the premium network would probably add an Internet-downloading service for original programming later in the year. Rivals HBO and Starz already offer broadband-on-demand downloads — HBO began its service a month ago in a Wisconsin Time Warner Cable system. (Multichannel News 2/18)
Starting out as a test, the BBC will sell about ten drama and comedy television shows only in the U.K. through Apple Corp.’s iTunes Store. If this initial trial is successful, BBC may expand the deal further. Currently, the BBC offers many of its show via download for free one week after airing on television. The Apple deal was negotiated with BBC’s commercial unit, BBC Worldwide and more details will be revealed this week including the titles of the TV shows available on iTunes. (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e2c80dcc-de77-11dc-9de3-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 2/19)
Time Warner’s celebrity gossip site TMZ.com regularly roves around Los Angeles setting up Webcams outside locations like upscale eatery The Ivy so that it can catch stars on camera. The video is streamed live on TMZ. In January, the site attracted nearly 11 million visitors. (http://www.news.com/TMZ-targets-celebs-with-Webcams/2100-1026_3-6230657.html 2/19)
Web entertainment network LiveUniverse reportedly has acquired video site Revver. The deal is said to be worth less than $5 million, even though Revver’s backers reportedly have invested $12.75 million in the Los Angeles startup. (The Wall Street Journal 2/19)
Variety, the Reed Elsevier trade publication for the entertainment industry, is launching an industry social networking site called The Biz. The site, located at Variety.com/thebiz, is being launched in association with Jobster, allowing media professionals to search for jobs. (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981083.html?categoryid=21&cs=1 2/18)
Video site GoFish.com aims to capitalize on its knowledge of youth advertising with the launch of an online ad network aimed at children and teens, thereby competing with giants Disney and Nickelodeon. GoFish represents leading kids’sites “you’ve never heard of.” (http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628478 2/19)
Video sharing and services site DailyMotion.com debuted a 720p full-screen High Definition video player that will stream user generated as well as professionally produced content shot in HD. The site is already featuring a selection of videos to showcase the embeddable player.
Traffic to political sites spiked during January, according to comScore Media Metrix’s January report, along with the tax, career, real estate and travel categories. BarackObama.com led the category with 2.2 million visitors, up 429% from December, followed by HillaryClinton.com with 1.1 million visitors (up 202%). On the Republican side, MikeHuckabee.com attracted 937,000 visitors, up 96%, while JohnMcCain.com grew 261% to 596,000 visitors.
Filed under: WIRELESS
Gameloft CEO Michel Guillemot, speaking at an industry conference, predicted that mobile gaming would expand into a $5 billion industry by 2012, a far cry from the $20 billion market predicted by some analysts. “The Japanese got the mobile game distribution model right, and it’s something the U.S. mobile games industry should adopt,” Guillemot said. “In Japan, the SKUs are hosted by the publishers themselves on branded portals, and this is a significant reason why Japanese mobile game adoption is higher than the U.S. or Europe.” (GameDaily BIZ/Modojo.com 2/18)
(Below) Can’t we kill Second Life already? This is like a bad horror movie where the evil guy just WON’T die. . .
Mobile gaming company Vollee is running beta trials of a version of the virtual world SecondLife for 3G mobile devices. SecondLife members can pre-register for the service at vollee.com.
Filed under: GAMING
After years of outsourcing game development, several big media companies are beginning to build their own videogame businesses. They see videogames as an opportunity for significant growth, especially compared to more mature businesses like television. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120338109294075671.html 2/19)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
Toshiba has decided to withdraw from the high-definition disc market, effectively ending a format war the company had been waging against rival Sony’s Blu-ray technology. “This was a very difficult decision to make … but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence,” Toshiba Chief Executive Officer Atsutoshi Nishida said. (Yahoo!/Reuters 2/19, Forbes 2/19)
Sony, Sharp and Panasonic are among the consumer-electronics manufacturers trying to bridge the Internet-TV gap by developing next-generation gadgets that allow consumers to hook up their TVs to the Web, this article says. Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics, said: “An Internet connection gives consumers the opportunity to define the experience they want on their TVs. This is TV at your schedule.” (Los Angeles Times 2/18)
