Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, NBC, Programs, Talk Shows, Television, Tonight Show
The record $155.3 million opening weekend of “The Dark Knight” will boost Time Warner‘s chances of meeting its full-year forecast, analysts say. However: Time Warner’s stock price fell more than 2% on Monday. “It doesn’t help that the company is having trouble selling AOL.” (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080721/FREE/509248477/1084 7/21)
NBC says that Jay Leno‘s last night as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show” will be May 29, 2009, with Conan O’Brien taking over on June 1. The network refuses to concede that Leno’s departure to a rival network is a fait accompli, saying it continues to “work on ideas” with him. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/arts/television/22late.html 7/22)
Cartoon Network is developing a live-action/CGI made-for-TV movie based on its animated “Ben 10: Alien Force” series. The Alien Force series, CN’s second in the “Ben 10″ story line, made its debut in April and scored as the network’s most-watched original premiere among viewers 6 to 11. (The Hollywood Reporter 7/22)
TNT has ordered up a pilot episode of a new drama by “24″ co-creator Joel Surnow. The show, to be titled “Night and Day,” focuses on an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. (Reuters/The Hollywood Reporter 7/22)
Time Warner Cable has been making a series of moves during the past few months to guard its home turf in New York City against Verizon Communications’ FiOS service, which just won approval to begin operation in the five boroughs on Aug. 1. Among the moves, according to Landel Hobbs, the company’s chief operating officer, are reducing maximum customer wait times for residential service from four to two hours and offering discounts on long-term contracts. (The Wall Street Journal 7/22
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Beverly Hills 90210, Carl Icahn, Comedy Central, Jerry Yang, Love Boat, Microsoft, Yahoo
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Adobe, in a somewhat foolhardy quest to develop and establish its own media distribution creds, has now updated its Media Player with a new interface, and added full length movies from Sony Pictures…also added are new shows from CBS, including episodes of Beverly Hills 90210, 48 Hours, The Love Boat. About 600 shows and 25,000 individual episodes are available in all in AMP. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-new-adobe-player-adds-sony-movies-still-trying-harder 7/21)
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, I have download fatigue. The product has to be an unbelievable game-changer at this point for me to take the time to download it. In most cases, I forget to remove the program and clog up my machine like a impenetrable drain. Speaking of which, I should go remove Google Lively. . .
TiVo and Amazon.com may be getting one step closer to the marketing dream of using a TV remote control to order products being advertised or promoted on a talk show or commercial. TiVo today will unveil a “product purchase” option that will link to products being pitched by guests on a handful of popular talk shows, including Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” (The New York Times 7/22)
Ousted AOL chief Jon Miller is a candidate for one of the two open board seats activist investor Carl Icahn gets in a deal avoiding a battle for control of Yahoo. Miller could even end up running Yahoo if pressures to oust CEO Jerry Yang continue. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_hi_te/yahoo_miller 7/21)
Ongoing talks about a deal for AOL between Time Warner and Internet giants Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have heated up since Microsoft’s bid to acquire Yahoo was rebuffed by Yang in July. Those talks may further intensify, now that Yahoo may no longer be in play. (http://www.smartmoney.com/breaking-news/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20080721-000487-1624 7/21)
MySpace is rolling out a couple of announcements this morning a day ahead of Facebook’s F8 developer conference. The first is confirmation of our story that they are supporting OpenID, although they aren’t releasing any details (It’s our belief that they will first issue OpenID IDs, and possibly become a relying party later). The company is also announcing the launch of two new Data Availability integrations: Flixster and Eventful (we built what we believe is the first Data Availability app last month). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/22/myspace-confirms-openid-support-launches-data-availability-on-flixster-and-eventful 7/22)
Justin.tv, one of the first live video streaming sites, has announced its 1 millionth registered user since its launch in March 2007. Justin.tv has a number competitors, namely Stickam, Mogulus, and Ustream.tv, but has managed to keep a strong presence in the space (maintaining attention along the way with a number of media stunts). We’ve analyzed the competition several times. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/justintv-reaches-1-million-users 7/21)
Looking to become a conduit for other companies that want to get into the online-video arena, Comcast unit thePlatform has announced a series of deals to help other cable providers gain a toehold in the emerging market for Internet content. ThePlatform, a Seattle company that Comcast acquired two years ago, said it would begin delivering video to high-speed Internet subscribers with Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and Cox Communications. (The Wall Street Journal 7/22)
New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo is notifying Comcast that the state will take legal action if the company doesn’t block access to adult content that features children. Comcast, the No. 2 U.S. Internet service provider, says it will take action. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/21/AR2008072102623.html 7/22)
Filed under: GAMING | Tags: 96, Business, EA, Electronic Arts, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Take-Two, Take-Two Interactive
This saga continues to drag on: EA says it has extended, yet again, its offer to buy rival gamer Take-Two. The new deadline is August, 18th; the previous offer had expired on Friday. Once again, the company says the move is designed to let the FTC continue with its antitrust review. EA says 11.7 million shares of Take-Two have been tendered, which is up from 6.13 million shares last time. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-ea-extends-offer-for-take-two-again 7/21)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Apple, Business, iPhone, Macintosh, Net income, Recreation, Sony, Wall Street
TECHNOLOGY
Here’s the quick figures from the just-released earnings report from Apple: the maker of computers, iPods and iPhones announced quarterly revenue of $7.46 billion, compared to estimates of $7.37 billion and year-ago revenue of $5.41 billion, for growth of 37 percent. Net income came to $1.07 billion ($1.19 per share), compared to estimates of $1.08 per share and last year’s income of $818 million, for growth of 31 percent. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-earnings-apple-revenues-earnings-top-estimates 7/21)
With TV competitors such as Sony and Samsung making moves in the lower-priced segments of the market, Vizio announced that it would roll out a new line of high-end products this fall. The new Extreme Vizio Technology line of flat-panel LCD TVs includes what Vizio is calling “Smooth Motion Video,” a new motion-estimation and motion-compensation technology. (TWICE 7/21)
