Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

Katie Couric may leave her post as CBS Evening News anchor before her contract is up in 2011, per a report in the Wall Street Journal. The report indicated she might depart as early as January 2009, following the presidential inauguration. Katie has been anchor with CBS News since 2006 and despite the media flurry over her leaving NBC’s Today to be solo anchor at CBS, the CBS Evening News continues to rank third with total viewers and among the news sweet spot demo of A25-54. (Cynopsis 4/10, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120778369100203247.html 4/10)

“Hannah Montana,” the Disney show that has spawned a 3-D movie, a sellout concert tour and a clothing line, has been renewed for a third season. The series starring Miley Cyrus is the highest-rated show on television among viewers ages 6-14. (Yahoo!/E! Online 4/9)

Singer/songwriter Jewel was added to NBC’s Nashville Star as a mentor and judge to the contestants along with country music star John Rich. The competition series debuts on NBC June 9 at 930p. (Cynopsis 4/10)

After airing ego trip’s The (White) Rapper Show last year, VH1 will now explore the future of female rap artists as ego trip’s Miss Rap Supreme eight-episode competition series debuts next Monday at 10p. Ten female MCs will be tested with various challenges such as stage presence, creativity and mental astuteness with one swaggering over the others to win $100,000 and the title of Miss Rap Supreme. Returning as host for this new version produced by 10X10 Productions is Michael “MC Serch” Berrin and joining him is female rap artist Yolanda “Yo-Yo” Whitaker. (Cynopsis 4/10)

Despite political pressure from lawmakers arguing that forcing a la carte programming on cable companies would raise rates and lower channel options, FCC chairman Kevin Martin told members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government that he would not change his mind on the topic. “Absolutely, I am still enthusiastic about it,” Martin said Wednesday. “I absolutely think it’s the right thing.” (Multichannel News 4/9)

Hackers hired by News Corp. unit NDS Group stole and posted data that allowed free access to Dish Network’s satellite television service, the company says, in a corporate spying trial against its rival that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. NDS denies the spying charge. (Iwantmedia 4/10, http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN0947553720080410 4/9)

Verizon is suing Time Warner Cable for false advertising, alleging that the country’s second-largest cable firm makes a number of inaccurate claims about the telecom’s FiOS TV service in its ads. But Time Warner Cable spokesman Alex Dudley said the federal lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern District of New York, was “without merit,” adding that “we look forward to defending against it in the appropriate venue.” (InformationWeek/Reuters 4/9)

Following in Cablevision’s footsteps, Time Warner Cable has started offering caller ID on TV for 50,000 customers in the New York area. The service has been a big hit for Cablevision, which recently announced it delivered more than 1 billion caller ID on TV messages since debuting the service systemwide in November. (New York Post 4/10)

Cablevision is said to be uninterested in buying Newsday from Tribune, contrary to press reports. Separately, New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman has made a bid for the Long Island daily. Newsday also is in talks with Rupert Murdoch for a sale or a joint venture. (Iwantmedia 4/10, http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN0940597520080409 4/9)

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Yahoo is suddenly the target of two warring camps of tech and media titans. Yahoo and Time Warner are close to a deal to merge Yahoo with AOL, while News Corp. is in talks with Microsoft about joining its bid for Yahoo. One observer says: “The whole situation seems very unstable.” (Iwantmedia 4/10, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0942900520080410 4/10, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/technology/10google.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 4/10, http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0929033920080410 4/9)

In its latest effort to drive a harder bargain with Microsoft, Yahoo agreed to carry a selection of AdSense search ads from Google in a two-week trial limited to 3% of all search queries made through the Yahoo portal. Redmond called balderdash almost immediately, pointing out that a definitive agreement between the two companies would give Google over 90% of the search market. Therefore, a larger integration would never pass muster with regulators. Yahoo gets points for creativity here nonetheless. (Cynopsis 4/10, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080409/ap_on_hi_te/yahoo_google 4/9)

AOL’s Advertising.com is launching self-service tool, located at PubAccess.com, allowing small Web publishers to sell and manage ads on their sites. AOL is under pressure to improve its lackluster performance, as Time Warner mulls a possible sale or spinoff of the unit. (Iwantmedia 4/10, http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20080409-000697-0944 4/9)

AOL launched what they’re calling the AOL Tech Network this evening. It’s a grouping of existing blogs - the Engadget sites, Switched, TUAW and Download Squad, under a new tech content group. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/09/aol-regroups-blogs-launches-aol-tech-network 4/9)

MySpace plans to sell more merchandise and add a check-out feature following its deals with record companies to offer music downloads, says CEO Chris DeWolfe. Partnerships with Web retailers will allow MySpace to enter online retail, which is dominated by eBay and Amazon.com. (Iwantmedia 4/10, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abSTtHUcVxdI 4/9)

Barry Diller’s IAC is planning a slate of start-up Web sites, including sites aimed at African-Americans and kids. IAC’s news-aggregation site in partnership with Tina Brown will have a staff of about 20, including journalist Michael Kinsley, and will target news-savvy professionals. (Iwantmedia 4/10, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120777669866002881.html?mod=googlenews_wsj 4/10)

RushmoreDrive.com, IAC’s new search engine and Web site for African Americans, launched today.

The BBC is launching a version of its popular full-episode iPlayer that will stream programming through Nintendo’s Wii gaming console in the UK, the company announced at MIP TV. BBC says the iPlayer delivered 17.2 million streams & downloads in March and over 42 million views since launching late last year. For Nintendo, the deal is the latest in a series to bring more content to the Wii platform; next up are third party web-based “WiiWare” games and applications scheduled to launch next month. (Cynopsis 4/10)

Cinemax has launched a YouTube channel filled with a variety of short promo pieces.

Nat Geo has launched a new practical site to help viewers calculate the impact they will likely have on the Earth, based on their consumption habits. NGCHumanFootprint.com, built to promote an NGC special airing on Sunday night at 9 pm ET/PT, features a cool flash-based interface that queries users on tendencies such as how many miles they drive each day, then compares the totals to US, UK and Japan averages. (Cynopsis 4/10)

Last.fm said the free on-demand music-streaming service it debuted in January has caused its Amazon.com sales to more than double, adding that the results proved the value of giving listeners no-cost access to music. Users bought 66% more CDs and singles on Amazon since January, according to the CBS-owned site, which features a catalog of about 5 million full-length songs. (The Guardian (London) 4/9)

Pando Networks announced that its new peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, dubbed P4P, increased download speeds of video-based files over U.S. cable networks by 235% in recent tests. Tony Werner, Comcast’s chief technology officer, called the tests promising and said the company “[looks] forward to continuing our mutual efforts with P2P companies distributing legitimate content in order to improve the efficiency of their applications on our network.” (Multichannel News 4/9)

The U.S. improved its standings in terms of broadband infrastructure, climbing from 7th to 4th in the latest Global Information Technology report conducted on behalf of The World Economic Forum, despite lagging considerably in broadband speeds and penetration rates. Cisco Systems sponsored the report. (Cynopsis 4/10)

The State Privacy and Security Coalition, a trade group of Internet companies that includes Google and Yahoo!, have labeled a New York state bill that seeks to impose limits on collecting personal user information for targeted advertising as “unnecessary” and “most likely unconstitutional.” (The Wall Street Journal 4/10)

TECHNOLOGY

Blockbuster is expected to unveil this month a set-top device enabling viewers to stream movies to their TVs, a move that would give competition to Apple TV. The company declined to comment on the report, which suggests Blockbuster’s service would be an offshoot of Movielink, a PC-based film streaming service that the company acquired in 2007. (The Hollywood Reporter 4/9)

By the close of 2008, 44 million homes around the world will have high-definition televisions, according to a new study from Informa Telecoms & Media, which predicts that number will balloon to nearly 180 million by 2012. Simon Murray, principal media analyst with the London-based research group, added that North Americans have led the way with high-def TV adoption, partly because audio and video quality in standard definition “is relatively poor.” (MarketWatch 4/9)

MISC

Disney announced that from now on all computer animated features from Disney and Pixar will be released in the digital 3-D format, beginning with Disney’s Bolt slated for a Nov. 26, 2008 release. The news follows DreamWorks Animation’s commitment to the format for its computer-generated titles. Currently there are only about 1,000 3-D screens in the U.S., but exhibition chains are working fast to increase their 3-D screen counts. (Cynopsis 4/10)