Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Alfre Woodard, Books, George Clooney, I Was Told There'd Be Cake, Mavis Heller, Sloane Crosley, Universal Media Studios, Vintage Books
HBO has optioned the rights to “I Was Told There’d Be Cake,” a bestselling collection of essays by Vintage Books publicist Sloane Crosley. (Iwantmedia 6/24, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117987934.html?categoryid=14&cs=1 6/23)
George Clooney’s Smoke House production company is developing a dark comedy titled “The Fall of Bob” for Showtime. The series follows Bob, a man who jumps off a building and, on the way down, viewers learn about his life through flashbacks. (Variety 6/23)
Alfre Woodard will star with Christian Slater in the NBC drama series My Own Worst Enemy from Universal Media Studios. The drama is about Henry, a typical suburban dad who leads a double life as Edward, a spy. Alfre will play Mavis Heller, Edward’s demanding boss who also has an alter ego who interacts with Henry. (Cynopsis 6/24)
Showtime picked up a half-hour comedy script called The Fall of Bob from George Clooney’s production company Smoke House, per Variety. The dark half-hour comedy will be shot in single camera and is about Bob who, as he jumps off a building, narrates his life through flashbacks. (Cynopsis 6/24)
FOX picked up a put pilot based on the Argentinean telenovela Lalola about a flirtatious man who becomes a woman, says Variety. Writer Kevin Falls will write the U.S. adaptation and executive produce this project, which is yet unnamed, from Sony Pictures TV. (Cynopsis 6/24)
Viacom shares on Monday fell to the lowest since the company’s 2006 split with CBS, after its film “The Love Guru” missed weekend box-office estimates. Sumner Redstone’s decision to split Viacom and CBS was “in error,” says Sanford Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson. (Iwantmedia 6/24, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aDUOCCYYdrQw 6/23)
Cable networks will pull in about $8 billion in this year’s upfront selling season while their broadcast counterparts generate about $9.1 billion, a significant narrowing of the gap that once existed between the two TV platforms. The reason the gap is closing is fairly simple, according to Jason Kanefsky, senior vice president/account director at media-buying shop MPG: “The natural shift of dollars to cable will continue. It just makes sense. Why pay more for eyeballs on CBS when you can go out and buy eyeballs on Turner for half the price?” (The New York Times 6/24)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Fox Broadcasting Company, Microsoft, Myspace, News Corp, News Corporation, Social network service, Yahoo, Yahoo Inc
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Techcrunch has got multiple sources at both Yahoo and Microsoft telling us that official talks are back on between the two companies. But Techcrunch is hearing something different than CNET – the talks are about a full buyout again, not a sweetened search-only deal. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/24/sources-microsoft-and-yahoo-talks-back-on 6/24)
Fox television network is pairing with social networking service Passenger to launch an online community for audience feedback. Passenger already created a similar online resource for ABC, which is one reason why Fox didn’t turn to News Corp. sibling MySpace for the new site. (Iwantmedia 6/24, http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=85171 6/23)
Demo Video
Late Fragment, a groundbreaking non-linear interactive feature film based on a user interface model developed by Lars von Trier, will be released on DVD in Canada on July 8. The movie, written and directed by Daryl Cloran, Anita Doron and Mateo Guez, varies sequentially based on when and how often audiences decide to click “enter” on their remotes. (Cynopsis 6/24)
Check out the trailer by clicking below. It’s a bit difficult to navigate but interesting none the less.
(Below) The recommended videos were pretty spot on in terms of things I would actually be interested in seeing.
YouTube officially launched its personalized homepage allowing users to manage subscriptions, connect with other users and view friends’ activities. One of the coolest additions is a Featured Videos section based on videos you’ve favored in the past – an example of how Google’s algorithmic genius is helping to improve the site. (Cynopsis 6/24)
Google plans to unveil a new service that measures Internet usage utilizing data from Web servers. The new tool, which aims to help advertisers find the best places to buy online ads, has the potential to be a major threat to comScore and Nielsen Online. (Iwantmedia 6/24, http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/google-unveil-service-measure-internet/story.aspx?guid=%7BA5D708DA%2D0EB4%2D4250%2DA733%2DDF0F9020E12B%7D 6/23)
Google News, six years after its start, is experiencing sluggish growth in traffic growth. With content is compiled entirely by computer programs, Google News still shows no ads, and there are no signs that Google is serious about making money from the site. (Iwantmedia 6/24, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/technology/24google.html 6/24)
Internet video series like “Break a Leg” are luring millions of viewers — but little cash. While media analysts agree that the future of television will be online, no one knows how it will make money. One problem: audiences are accustomed to free content on the Internet. (Iwantmedia 6/24, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/23/DDII10U5LH.DTL 6/23)
Ticketmaster plans to complete its spin-off from IAC/InteractiveCorp by late July or early August and borrow $750 million to give a dividend to the parent company. Other IAC subsidiaries, including HSN, will also pay dividends to IAC after completing anticipated spin-offs. Iwantmedia 6/24, (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080623/FREE/568774523/1084 6/23)
CNET shareholders approved CBS‘ $1.8 billion acquisition of the technology portal. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter. (Cynopsis 6/24)
As part of its recent Clearwire deal, Comcast will gain access to 5 MHz of spectrum that will be set aside for WiMAX femtocells, according to Dave Williams, Comcast’s senior vice president for wireless and technology. He added that any of the firms that joined in the Clearwire consortium would be able to use the spectrum, but it would be particularly appealing to cable firms looking to enhance subscribers’ wireless experiences. (Light Reading 6/23)
Viewers will be confronted with “a dozen video platforms a day” in the near future as the medium proliferates across devices and surfaces, according to a new report from Forrester Research provocatively entitled How Video Will Take Over the World. Total viewing time will increase from 4 to 5 hours a day by 2013, a majority of it viewed on demand:
OmniVideo Viewing Across Platforms, 2008-2013
Video Metric Drivers 2008 2013
% viewed on demand Cable, telco TV/VOD, online video, DVR 20% 45%
% delivered via IP Online video, IPTV, over-the-top TV 10% 35%
% viewed via mobile device Phones, personal/dockable media players 8% 15%
% personal video consumed Cell phone/digital cameras, social net sites 2% 10%
Source: Forrester Research
Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Android, Apple, Google, iPhone, Mobile phone, Nokia, Online music store, Ovi
While once formidable competitors like Motorola struggle just to deliver their phones on time, Nokia wants to transform itself into a next-generation entertainment company. Last August, Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone maker, created Ovi, an Internet service and online music store. Its intent, analysts say, is to compete directly against Apple. (Iwantmedia 6/24, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23nokia.html?_r=3&ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin 6/23)
The N96
Following reports Monday that Google is facing delays in completing its mobile-phone system, the company asserted that the handsets based on its Android operating system would go on sale in the second half of the year as it previously indicated. One of Google’s major issues is that carriers and phone makers have to configure Android into their systems, and analysts say they may have been distracted by the need to react quickly to the introduction of Apple’s new iPhone 3G. (
ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg 6/23, The Independent (London) 6/24)
Nokia have today announced that they will be acquiring the remaining 52% of Symbian they don’t own and will be releasing the complete Symbian platform under the Eclipse open source license. Nokia have also announced the creation of the Symbian Foundation, which is an alliance of mobile vendors and application providers that any company can join. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/24/nokia-acquires-symbian-goes-open-source 6/24)
Sales of cell phones fell 22% from January to April, but revenue dropped only 8.7% as consumers paid almost 20% more for handsets than in the same period a year earlier, according to an online survey of 150,000 customers conducted by the NPD Group. But a separate NPD study suggests that cell phone retailers could make ends meet through aggressive marketing of accessories, such as Bluetooth headsets, car kits, memory cards and devices for music players. (TWICE 6/23, cellular-news (U.K.) 6/23)
Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Monster Hunter, Playstation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Store, PS3, PSP, Sony, Video game
After three years of sluggish sales, a hot new series has turned Sony’s PlayStation Portable video game player into a huge hit in Japan. The game, “Monster Hunter,” allows groups to kill monsters and socialize online together without allowing strangers to join in — an important element in Japan, where online gaming has not reached the popularity achieved in the U.S. and other countries. (The Wall Street Journal 6/24)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Apple, Mac OS X, Amazon.com, Windows XP, Operating system, Snow Leopard, Arik Hesseldahl, Mac OS
Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader device, which costs $359, is “a pleasure to read because it’s as readily portable as a newspaper,” writes Arik Hesseldahl, in a product review. However, it’s “an imperfect replacement for the daily newspaper.” Pictures “don’t register well on the screen.” (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2008/tc20080623_917645.htm 6/24)
(Below) How you know you’re new operating system is truly THAT lame. . .
Due to customer demand, Dell will sell PCs equipped with Windows XP and XP Professional a little bit longer. The company, which had said it would stop selling XP-loaded PCs on June 18, has extended the cutoff to Thursday, June 26, at 5:59 a.m. Central time. (InfoWorld/Computerworld 6/23)
Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system, expected to debut next year, will be faster and more stable because of less disk space tied up by key applications, according to this report. Apple reportedly is trying to whittle down the size of Snow Leopard’s Utilities Applications from 468MB to 111.6MB. (CNET 6/23)
Eton has introduced a tabletop stereo system in the U.K. that the company says captures the essence of Porsche design as well as high-end audio. Selling for about $950, the system includes three 1.5-inch full-range drivers and a 3-inch active subwoofer. (Pocket-lint.co.uk 6/23)
Mitsubishi has partnered with graphics processor Nvidia Corp. and Aspen Media Products, a maker of media servers, to produce a 3-D home-entertainment technology. The group will try to integrate Mitsubishi’s 3-D-ready Diamond TV monitors, Nvidia’s PC-gaming technology and a server that can exploit the increasing amount of 3-D content being developed. (ElectronicHouse.com 6/23)
