Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

NBC Universal is signing an exclusive pact with the producers of “Project Runway,” as the hit reality series prepares to jump to Lifetime from NBC’s Bravo. NBC’s move means that Weinstein Co., which owns the rights to the show, must scramble to put together a new production team. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-runway6-2008may06,0,3970030.story 5/6)

Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy on FOX, sealed an overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV that could be worth more than $100 million making him the highest paid TV writer/producer. Under the terms of the new deal, which reportedly took two and a half years to negotiate, Seth will remain at 20th TV through 2012. So far the deal includes Seth’s continued work on Family Guy and his two other animated series for 20th TV and Fox, American Dad! and the Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show. The agreement includes new media associated with Seth’s TV series in addition to the DVD and merchandising revenue. (Cynopsis 5/6)

If Rupert Murdoch doesn’t testify in a lawsuit that accuses one of his companies of corporate espionage, it could cost News Corp. hundreds of millions of dollars, says the federal judge in the trial. News Corp. unit NDS is accused of hacking into EchoStar/DISH Network’s security code. (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4789512 5/5)

This video seems more appropriate for TMZ rather than ABC News.  And furthermore, this newscaster might want to work on his fitness level.  He sounds like he might pass out simply from walking down the street stalking Murdoch like the paparazzi stalk Paris Hilton.

Sumner Redstone is downplaying speculation of a “battle” between his Viacom and CBS, saying such talk “has been manufactured” by the media. Redstone also says: “We cannot tolerate piracy by anyone, including YouTube.” Plus: “I will not object” to the return of Tom Cruise. (Iwantmedia 5/6, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080506/skorea_viacom_redstone.html 5/6, http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSSEO13218720080506 5/6)

AP Photo: Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone delivers a speech during a Seoul Digital Forum in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 6, 2008.

NBC Universal plans to announce that $3 million will be the entry price for a commercial at the 2009 Super Bowl. While individual slots have sold at that level before, it has never been the starting point for negotiations for the dozens of 30-second ads sold for the game. (Iwantmedia 5/6, http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121004269277469845.html 5/6)

The New York Times and MSNBC are joining forces for a new political show, “The New York Times Special Primary Edition,” hosted by John Harwood. Times-journos will handicap the election in the series of specials. Segments will also run on NYTimes.com. (Iwantmedia 5/6, http://origin.observer.com/2008/msnbc-and-times-team-new-political-show 5/5)

Adam Nagourney on the trail.

Eyeing research that shows children and their parents are watching more TV together, Nick at Nite is assembling a programming slate that appeals equally to both groups. Shows such as “Home Improvement,” “Full House” and “George Lopez” have already been added, and in January the Nickelodeon channel will begin running “Everybody Hates Chris.” (Variety 5/5)

Freelance news chasers will be the focus of a new series beginning on truTV in September. The show, titled “L.A. Stringers,” goes behind the scenes with those who will do just about anything for breaking news. (The Hollywood Reporter 5/5)

VH1’s next celebreality series I Love Money premieres July 13 at 9p and brings together seventeen contestants from Rock of Love, I Love New York and Flavor of Love vying for a cash prize while in Mexico. Hosted by Craig J. Jackson, the twelve episode series will have the stars battle for the $250,000 grand prize instead of love. Starting this week, VH1 will also have specific I Love Money info available on the VH1 Blog at Blog.VH1.com. (Cynopsis 5/6)

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Yahoo! co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang rejected an acquisition bid from Microsoft valued at $33 a share, or about $47.5 billion. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer then pronounced defunct the company’s months-long effort to acquire the Web portal. In a letter to Yang made public in news accounts, Ballmer indicated that he would not stage a proxy battle to gain control of the company. (The Wall Street Journal 5/5)

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang says he would be open to another bid from Microsoft or other companies at a price he considers appropriate. While the Internet firm isn’t officially for sale, it would listen, “should somebody else come back someday and want to buy the company.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=az5DfMHYs0pY 5/5)

Jerry Yang, chief executive officer of Yahoo! Inc., speaks during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 7, 2008. Photographer: Ronda Churchill/Bloomberg News

With Microsoft walking away from the Yahoo deal, there’s been a lot of talk about what it’s next best option would be. Going after AOL is an obvious choice. It has the ad inventory (aka pageviews) Microsoft needs, has its own collection of growing online advertising businesses, and has a very willing seller in parent Time Warner. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/06/could-aol-be-next-on-microsofts-list 5/6)

Microsoft began offering TV downloads today for its Zune portable media player. The Zune online store, which used to offer only music-video content, will now offer shows from the likes of NBC, Comedy Central and MTV for about $2 each. Zune sales stand at more than 2 million, according to this article. (Reuters 5/6, Variety 5/6)

NBC’s return to YouTube with an official channel represents an acknowledgment of the power of Google’s community. NBC’s new Hulu channel on YouTube features brief clips from popular shows, along with the statement: “At Hulu.com, you can watch videos like this one, for free.” (Iwantmedia 5/6, http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080505-nbc-using-youtube-clips-to-drive-hulu-traffic.html 5/5)

Social networking and advertising networks are attractive sectors for investors in new media, according to panelists speaking at the Digital Hollywood conference in Hollywood. Also, investors should not look for any meaningful returns “for about five years.” (Iwantmedia 5/6, http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=81967 5/6)

LinkedIn, the social-networking site for business professionals, is said to be raising a new round of funding. LinkedIn previously raised $27.5 million from venture firms Sequoia Capital, Greylock and Bessemer Venture Partners. The new round reportedly values the company at $1 billion. (Iwantmedia 5/6, http://venturebeat.com/2008/05/05/whats-happening-at-linkedin-is-it-getting-bought 5/5)

Amazon.com plans to make out-of-print CDs available via its “Disc on Demand” service. The retailer is working with Sony BMG and EMI Music to gain access to hundreds of titles. (InformationWeek 5/5, American City Business Journals/Sacramento 5/5)

Stephen Colbert’s use of the Internet is earning the Comedy Central host special recognition in the annual Webby Awards for online achievements. The New York Times’s online unit will take home eight honors in the ceremonies, June 9 and 10 in New York. (Iwantmedia 5/6, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080506/internet_awards.html 5/6)

AP Photo: In this March 5, 2007 file photo, Stephen Colbert poses during the launch party for “Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream”, his new Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor in New York.

Wikipedia is asking a court to dismiss a libel lawsuit brought by literary agent Barbara Bauer, who claims she was described as “The Dumbest of the 20 Worst” in an article. Wikipedia argues that it is immune from liability, because Web sites can’t be sued for comments posted by users. (Iwantmedia 5/6, http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=81881 5/5)

The Interactive Advertising Bureau released its long-awaited Digital Video in-Stream Ad Format Guidelines to help provide a template for digital media firms to deploy, track and monetize non-linear ads. The goal is to develop common formatting and practices to make video ads more interchangeable between publishers and advertisers. (Cynopsis 5/6)

Multiplatform animation producer aniboom signed a quintet of online syndications deals to increase the exposure of its original content. Branded aniboom channels can now be found on DailyMotion, Metacafe, Veoh Networks and blip.tv, and more than 200 aniboom shorts are now indexed through video search engine Blinkx. The network also signed partnerships with MobiTV and Thumplay in the US and Buongiorno SpA, Cellfish, Jamster and Player X overseas to distribute bite-sized animated shorts on mobile platforms. (Cynopsis 5/6)

Another scalable online HD video start-up called Vusion shed its beta status and officially launched yesterday, competing with other high quality video streaming providers such as Move Networks and Brightcove. Island Def Jam Music will be its first paying customer, streaming music videos of artists such as Kanye West, Rihanna and Mariah Carey in 480p quality. (Cynopsis 5/6)

You’ll have to download a player for this one but the video is pretty impressive.  I checked out Kanye West’s Stronger video which was shot to be a bit grainy.  For a better representation of the quality, click on the image below and check out Rihanna’s Don’t Stop the Music video.

NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow was scheduled to testify today before lawmakers that broadband providers such as cable companies do not need to be regulated by net-neutrality laws, because they already manage the flow of online traffic in an open and effective manner. “The disaster scenarios voiced by network neutrality proponents for many years have never happened,” McSlarrow was set to tell the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet in morning testimony. “In fact, the opposite has happened — the Internet is booming without regulation. There is, quite simply, no problem requiring a government solution.” (Multichannel News 5/5)

WIRELESS

Sprint is considering cutting its failing Nextel unit loose through a sale or a spinoff as it heads toward reconnecting with Clearwire to build a nationwide WiMax network, reports the WSJ. Nextel, which made its name by delivering a reliable calling service to business customers, has lost its relevance as other carriers have improved their own networks. (Cynopsis 5/6)

The Associated Press and 107 of its member newspapers are launching a service that will make news stories available on Apple’s iPhone and other mobile devices. The service, delivering local news organized by ZIP code, will share advertising revenues with the news providers. (Iwantmedia 5/6, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080505/ap_on_hi_te/ap_mobile_news 5/5)

TECHNOLOGY

Users of Apple computers said the company had solved their technical issues 80% of the time, compared with the 60% average, according to Consumer Reports‘ annual reliability survey for its June issue. The magazine, which polled subscribers from September 2006 to January 2008, put Apple on top in both the laptop and desktop categories, while Lenovo finished second for notebooks and Dell for desktop PCs. (Computerworld 5/5)

Orb Audio has introduced another line of modular spherical speakers with the Mod4 model joining its Mod1 and Mod2 speakers; just as the latter two have a single sphere and two spheres respectively, the Mod4 consists of four spheres. Each sphere is small — only 4.2 inches in diameter — and costs $1,699, $1,999 and $2,399 depending on the home-theater package attached to it. (TWICE 5/5)

Consumers can upgrade to a Mod4 speaker by adding individual Mod1 speaker spheres.