Filed under: Feature | Tags: Aniboom, Animation, Arts, Arts and Entertainment, Business, Media Production, Music Video, Radiohead, Training
ONLINE VIDEO OF THE WEEK: ANIMATED RADIOHEAD
To say that Radiohead has been wildly inventive in the digital space with this last album, would be putting it mildly. Don’t believe me? Click here.
Back in the winter, Radiohead challenged animators to create a piece of animation using music from their new album. Thousands of videos were submitted. From these, 13 finalists were selected. Until June 30th, you can vote on the list of 13. Each piece of animation is wondrously inventive. Anyone who thinks users can’t create content complimentary to professionally-created content should have a look at these videos. Here’s my favorite below. I almost teared up. . .just a little bit.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Brian Williams, Meet the Press, NBC News, NBC Nightly News, Nielsen Media Research, Steve Capus, Television, Tim Russert
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams will be the moderator of Meet The Press this Sunday, filling in for the late Tim Russert. Steve Capus, NBC News President said the network will take their time to permanently replace Russert both in the positions of Meet The Press moderator and as NBC Washington Bureau Chief. In the meantime, NBC News talent will fill in each week until a decision on who should take over has been reached. (Cynopsis 6/20)
TruTV may have found something with its newest series, “Black Gold.” According to Nielsen Media Research, the premiere Wednesday night attracted 1.61 million viewers, a record for the network once known as Court TV, averaging 950,000 adults 25 to 54 and 861,000 adults 18 to 49. (Mediaweek 6/19)
HBO and the BBC, which partnered on the made-for-TV movie “Rome,” are at it again. The two networks said they would join forces on two movies based on the works of British playwrights: “My Zinc Bed” by David Hare will star Uma Thurman and Jonathan Pryce and “A Number” by Caryl Churchill will feature Tom Wilkinson and Rhys Ifans. (Variety 6/19)
Harvey and Bob Weinstein are taking a fresh stab at television, announcing their first-ever development slate. The Weinsteins are developing a “Project Runway” spinoff, “Models of the Runway,” for Lifetime. Also in the works: a new take on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” (Iwantmedia 6/20, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117987783.html?categoryid=14&cs=1 6/19)
Comedians Sarah Silverman and Norm MacDonald have agreed to be panelists on TBS’ updated version of classic TV’s venerable “Match Game.” If the show gets picked up for a full run, it will represent the cable network’s biggest push to date into the game-show arena. (The Hollywood Reporter 6/20)
Charter Communications and Starz Entertainment have begun a test of interactive advertising in about 400,000 cable homes in Charter’s Southern California footprint. As part of the test, which will rely on Navic Networks’ technology in set-top boxes, advertising campaigns for movies to be aired on Starz, such as “Spider-Man 3″ and “Superbad,” will be tailored to the level of cable service available in specific homes. (Multichannel News 6/19)
Comcast and Big Ten Network have announced a carriage deal that will get BTN on Comcast systems in mid-August. The arrangement was a long time in the making, but the two sides have struck a compromise that will put the network on expanded-basic levels of Comcast systems in Big Ten states except Iowa on Aug. 15 and, in the spring of 2009, give the systems the option to move the network to digital tiers. (Chicago Sun-Times 6/20, The Detroit News 6/20)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Cyberspace, Facebook, Myspace, News Corp, News Corporation, Peter Chernin, Social network service, Social Networking
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Apple has announced that people have downloaded 5 billion items — and counting — from its iTunes Music Store. The online emporium features more than 8 million songs, 20,000 TV episodes and 2,000 movies. (Mediaweek/Billboard 6/19) (
In April, Facebook caught up to MySpace in worldwide unique visitors (actually nudging past it with 116.4 million unique visitors versus 115.7 million for MySpace). Now the worldwide comScore numbers are out for May and Facebook continues to blow past MySpace with 123.9 million uniques (up 6 percent), versus 114.6 million for MySpace (down 1 percent). Facebook also boasted more pageviews worldwide (50.7 billion versus 45.4 billion). Maybe MySpace’s redesign which just went live this week will pick things up for them again. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/20/facebook-blows-past-myspace-in-global-visitors-for-may 6/20)
(Below) Well, here’s an interesting way of addressing the competition.
The rise of Facebook did MySpace a favor by galvanizing the social network, says News Corp. president and COO Peter Chernin. Facebook spurred MySpace into change, culminating in a major redesign this week. “We owe a great debt to Facebook. It knocked us on the head.” (Iwantmedia 6/20, http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/38479/News+Corp+COO+gives+thanks+to+Facebook.html 6/20)
Google may have some unlikely allies in defending its proposed partnership with Yahoo: the very advertisers that critics say may be hurt by the deal. “It’s simpler to reach people if the access to the marketplace is controlled by fewer sources,” claims one marketer. (Iwantmedia 6/20, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aC75mgm67PNc 6/20)
MTV Networks’ virtual worlds at vMTV.com are giving fans a chance to pick their favorite of six up-and-coming bands in the “Battle of The Bands II” contest. Music fans decide which band will have a shot to move on by campaigning for votes and throwing in-world parties and events. Competing through June 22 are 2*Sweet vs. Desoto Jones. (Cynopsis 6/20)
Yahoo! announced the global availability of two new email domains – ymail.com and rocketmail.com – to give users a better chance at creating an email address or Yahoo ID they like. (Yahoo Mail, still the leading web-based mail service, has some 260 million worldwide users, which means most users must resort to cryptic combinations of names and numbers.) (Cynopsis 6/20)
Tribe Pictures is producing an original web series debuting Monday called Get Fit with Alyson sponsored by Nintendo and starring Alyson Stoner (of the upcoming Disney kids movie Camp Rock.) Each 3-minute webisode sets out to inspire teens to live a more active lifestyle (such as trying new games on the Wii Fit device). Additional content will be featured exclusively on the Nintendo Channel, accessible only through broadband-connected Wiis. (Cynopsis 6/20)
These children scare me much like the children on the Mickey Mouse Club did. . . Could Alyson be the next Britney? For her, I hope she’s more of a future Christina.
The Associated Press says it has “had a constructive exchange of views with interested parties in the blogging community about the relationship between news providers and bloggers.” The news organization and the Drudge Retort blog consider their contested matter “closed.” (Iwantmedia 6/20, http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003819095 6/20)
Internet Advertising Revenue rose by 18.2% year-over-year during Q1 08 according to the latest IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers revenue report. However, growth slowed slightly from Q4 of last year when revenues totaled $5.9 billion, the highest ever recorded. (Cynopsis 6/20)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Business, Consumer electronics, High-definition television, Liquid crystal display television, Sanyo, Shopping, Television, Video
U.K.-based Meridian has introduced the M810 digital home-theater video system, a projector/processor that can deliver crystal-clear 10-megapixel resolutions. The system, with a contrast ratio that can exceed 10,000:1, is expected to cost about $175,000. (CEPro.com 6/19)
(Below) Because who doesn’t need to watch TV while they’re in the pool? This is outrageous…and not in that MTV Cribs kind of way. . .just dumb.
Sanyo will aim to serve the custom outdoor market with the introduction in October of a 52-inch waterproof LCD TV — the CE52SR1 — that has full 1080p performance, the company said. Sanyo said it believed the monitor — which is viewable in the sun and priced at nearly $14,000 — was perfect for outdoor pool parties. (ElectronicHouse.com 6/19)
Wireless HDTV will be the next hot product — after phones, Internet and home networking — according to ABI Research, which predicted that the number of wireless HD installations will rise more than tenfold worldwide to 1 million by 2012. But ABI added wireless HD has been hampered by a fight between three technologies: 5 GHz, 60 GHz and ultra wideband (UWB). (TMC Internet Telephony 6/19)
