Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

The Ellen Degeneres Show will be the next daytime talker to be broadcast in HD next season after moving to a new state-of-the-art all digital facility on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. (Cynopsis 5/8)

CBS College Sports Network has also made the jump to HD, available nationally on DirecTV. (Cynopsis 5/8)

AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” the series about a chemistry teacher who uses his expertise with a Bunsen burner to produce crystal meth, has been renewed for a second season. The Bryan Cranston-starring show averaged 1.4 million total viewers during its freshman season. (The Hollywood Reporter 5/7)

HBO’s popular “Hard Knocks” series, which focuses on one NFL team’s training-camp experiences, will spotlight the Dallas Cowboys this August. And with stars like the Jessica Simpson-dating Tony Romo and the camera-loving Terrell Owens, the pay-cable net is expecting ratings pay dirt. (International Herald Tribune/Associated Press 5/7)

Bravo will continue to “flip out” as the docu-series Flipping Out is back for a second season starting June 17 at 10p. Jeff Lewis, the ranting obsessive-compulsive house flipper, and his staff are back as they renovate and sell multimillion-dollar houses in the Los Angeles area. (Cynopsis 5/8)

NBC Universal is making strides to fulfill its long-term plans for its East Coast operations. First, WNBC will makeover its 30 Rockefeller Center location into a multimillion dollar content facility and launch a 24-hour local news channel on the station’s digital tier this fall. The goal of this move is to offer more news and information to the New York market and house NBC News, NBC Sports, NBC Entertainment including SNL and Late Night with Conan O’Brien and WNBC, literally all under one roof. Additionally, a new Business Operations Center will open next year and employees from three different locations will come together … you guessed it, under the same 30 Rock roof. (Cynopsis 5/8, http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080507/FREE/453424355/1059 5/7)

Robust ad sales at the Fox Broadcast Network and Fox News Channel — along with a one-time boost from a stock swap with Liberty Media — fueled solid fiscal third-quarter advances for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The company, which also owns the National Geographic Channel, Speed and the new Fox Business Network, reported a profit of $2.7 billion during the period, up from $871 million a year earlier. Cable-related revenue was up 27%. (Stuff (New Zealand)/Reuters 5/8, OneTRAK 5/7)

Hallmark Channel’s subscriber count is up 11%, to 84 million, and ad revenue has increased 23%, to $56.4 million, the company announced in its first-quarter earnings call. Overall, Crown Media Holdings reported revenue gains of 32%, to $70.6 million, for the first three months of the year. (The Kansas City Star (Mo.) 5/7, Medill Reports (Chicago) 5/7)

News Corp. plans to wrap up an deal to buy Newsday from Sam Zell’s Tribune in the next seven days, says chief Rupert Murdoch. “We are at a pretty advanced stage. I trust Mr. Zell absolutely.” He adds, “I don’t think Cablevision will prevail” in its rival bid. “Wait a couple of days.” (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGJ0RmdIZHZM 5/7)

Six cable programmers are asking a federal appeals court to reverse the FCC’s requirement that cable systems carry local broadcast stations in digital and analog after the February 2009 transition to digital TV. The six — C-SPAN, Discovery Communications, The Weather Channel, TV One, A&E Television Networks and Scripps Networks — argue that they could be dropped from overcrowded systems if the FCC’s ruling stands. (Multichannel News 5/7, Broadcasting & Cable 5/7)

Hank Close, the president of ad sales for MTV Networks, will tell ad agency executives today that networks such as MTV, VH1 and Spike have had incredible success with commercials the company has created for advertisers that look like regular programming and that there will be more of them in the future. “The results are amazing,” Close said. “In many of these messages we’re seeing 100% retention.” (The New York Times 5/8)

A scene from a series of spots called “Men of Action” for Spike TV, which ties in products from Kay Jewelers and KFC.

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Microsoft is said to have informally approached Facebook to gauge its interest in selling itself. Microsoft contacted the social-networking site as the software giant looked likely to back away from buying Yahoo. Discussions between the two are not believed to be active. (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121017846020274243.html 5/8)

Social networking platforms are still waiting for traffic to translate into revenue. MySpace parent Fox Interactive Media’s revenue actually fell during Q1 from $233 million to $210 million as News Corp. CEO Peter Chernin admitted in a conference call that FIM will fall about 10% short of its optimistic $1 billion revenue projection for FY ‘08. The company is still dealing with several challenges, he said, including an abundance of inventory, a dearth of top shelf sponsors and the difficulty of establishing new metrics to prove FIM’s value to advertisers. (Cynopsis 5/8, http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSWNAS255720080508 5/8)

Google is considering running display advertisements alongside the results of Web queries for pictures, moving beyond text-based ads. “There’s lot of potential for advertising revenue there,” says VP Marissa Mayer. Google is seeking new revenue sources as its growth slows. (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1t9ASFGIJlY 5/7)

Google and Viacom are prepared to take their battle over whether or not YouTube is responsible for pirated uploads all the way to the Supreme Court, according to comments made executives from each company. (Cynopsis 5/8, http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/05/07/google-viacom-draw-lines-in-youtube-suit 5/7)

Beginning Thursday, the latest news, scoops and analysis from the blog TechCrunch will appear on washingtonpost.com. TechCrunch, founded in 2005, describes itself as “a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.” (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2008/05/07/LI2008050701103.html 5/7)

Women’s content is all the rage in the digital world these days. NBC unveiled a new Virtual Woman’s Network dubbed Women@NBC that will differentiate itself by firing on multiple platforms and brands including Bravo, Oxygen, iVillage and Green is Universal as well as other female-skewing properties such as the Today show, The Biggest Loser and Lipstick Jungle. Bravo & Oxygen Media President Lauren Zalaznick has been chosen to oversee the venture with the new title of President, Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, still reporting to Jeff Gaspin, President & COO, Universal Television Group. Women@NBC gives the company another shot at mastering the demo after the $600 million iVillage acquisition has failed to bear much fruit. (Cynopsis 5/8)

Former CBS Early Show anchor Rene Syler will join Meredith’s multiplatform network Parents TV hosting its first long-form show, It Moms, beginning in June. Parents.tv is available as a Comcast VOD channel, a Sprint TV offering and on broadband at parents.tv. (Cynopsis 5/8)

Facebook’s webmail platform is so inefficient that even minor changes (like adding the ability to send to outside email addresses last year) can make a big difference in usability.  They are now adding basic search functionality to email (see screen shots). Previously there was not way to find emails other than scrolling through the pages one by one. Some users have thousands of emails in their inbox, so old messages became essentially unfindable. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/08/facebook-email-gets-better-with-search 5/8)

Viacom’s MTV Networks, which is building hundreds of Web sites around its content, is launching video hub from its Logo network for gay audiences that will feature 3,000 ad-supported clips. LogoOnline.com aims to be the largest central library of videos for the gays and lesbians. (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9938035-7.html 5/7)

The MPAA won their copyright infringement case against P2P file sharing site TorrentSpy.com. Site operator Valence Media was ordered to pay $30,000 per violation for facilitating nearly 3,700 illegal movie and TV downloads. The site has been shuttered since March. (Cynopsis 5/8, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080508/ap_on_hi_te/mpaa_torrentspy 5/7)

Comcast, with 14.1 million Internet subscribers, is weighing a plan that would set a limit for monthly online downloads and charging those who go beyond that amount, the company confirmed Wednesday. One plan being bandied about would set the limit at 250 gigabytes per month, which is enough to download about 250 standard-definition movies or 6,000 songs. (MSNBC/Associated Press 5/7, INQUIRER (U.K.), the 5/8)

Brad Greenspan’s Live Universe continues its acquisitions spree: they’ve bought troubled Silicon Valley startup MeeVee, we’re heard from multiple sources. This comes less than a month after they announced the acquisition of Pageflakes, another northern California startup. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/07/meevee-acquired-by-live-universe 5/7)

Adobe has beefed up the beta version of its new online Photoshop application by including support for the Flickr photo service and introducing other features. (Pocket-lint.co.uk 5/8)

Forbes.com is announcing the launch of AnswerNetwork, a social network for business execs. The network, which Forbes is developing with Cisco Systems, allows business professionals to set up profiles and exchange data on industry topics and business issues. (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080507/FREE/842905424/1078 5/7)

MySpace received nearly 3/4 of the market share of U.S. visits to social networking sites in April 2008, according to a custom report from Hitwise. (Cynopsis 5/8)

Top 5 Social Networking Websites Ranked by Market Share of U.S. Visits
Rank       Name                Apr. 08     Mar. 08   Apr. 07    YoY% Change
1         MySpace            73.82%      73.59%  77.87%       -5%
2         Facebook            14.80%     14.70%  11.21%        32%
3         myYearbook          1.33%       1.29%     .23%      475%
4         Bebo                    1.09%        1.20%   1.25%       -13%
5         BlackPlanet             .98%          .95%     .85%       15%
Source: Hitwise

GAMING

The next big console game was released this week in North America - a casual multilevel puzzle game called Boom Blox produced by Electronic Arts, exclusively for the Wii. Why such hype for a puzzle game?  It’s the first of three EA releases created in close collaboration with Steven Spielberg. It’s also a chance for the famous filmmaker to save face in the gaming industry- a big budget Atari game released in 1982 based on E.T. has long been knows as one of the industry’s biggest flops. (Cynopsis 5/8)

Boom Blox Trailer

TECHNOLOGY

Consumer-electronics makers, such as Vizio and Seagate, as well as retailers such as Best Buy are stepping up efforts to help consumers purchase the right products and not ones that will have to be returned. Returns, which cost companies an estimated $13.8 billion last year, have become a major obstacle in the supply chain. (The Wall Street Journal 5/8)

Samsung is the top manufacturer of LCD television sets … again, according to a report from research group DisplaySearch. The company fell behind Sony in the final quarter of last year, but turned things around in the first quarter of 2008: It now has a slim 12.8%-to-12.7% lead over Sony. (TheRetailBRIDGE.com 5/8, CE Pro 5/7)

Korea’s Namsung America is selling a two-way platform, dubbed “Biddle,” that turns Blu-ray disc players into networked devices that could deliver HD content, targeted ad messages and other interactive services to TV screens. Though this development could potentially allow consumers to access HD content directly, Biddle is also being pitched to telecom, cable and satellite companies. (Multichannel News 5/7)

Neil Young became the poster boy for Sun Microsystem’s Java On2 technology that gives Blu-ray discs their interactivity. The rocker announced plans to release his entire music catalog on Blu-ray, beginning with a 10-disc set from Reprise/Warner Bros. Records in the fall, spanning ‘63 to ‘72. Fans with the latest Java-capable Blu-ray players will be able to download lyrics, photos, tour info and additional songs from the broadband connected devices. (Cynopsis 5/8)

Pioneer introduced a pair of Blu-ray players Wednesday designed to complement Kuro. The Elite BDP-05FD ($799) and the BDP-51FD ($599) Bonusview receivers — set for a summer launch — feature HDMI 1.3, picture-in-picture and support for a range of high-resolution Dolby audio formats. (Electronic House 5/7, Electronista 5/7)

Canton will bring six new speakers to market as it overhauls its Karat line of speakers. The new models will replace discontinued items, with prices starting at $600, the company said. The line will feature upgraded drivers and crossovers as well as Wave Surround technology. (CE Pro 5/7)

Left to right: Karat 795 DC, 790 DC, and 770 DC

MISC

TV Guide is back on the block, just days after it was acquired by Macrovision. The new owner wants to find buyers for the long-troubled weekly magazine while keeping TVGuide.com, a largely separate operation offering celebrity videos and a video search engine. (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/business/media/08guide.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1210270887-Ponkgeb5Z5lxddaLiLIkAgb 5/8)

Debra Birnbaum and Craig Tomashoff became the top editors of TV Guide on Tuesday. The magazine’s parent was sold last week.