Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, Bravo, Disney Channel, Home Sweet Hollywood, Million Dollar Listing, Television, Toon Disney, Tori Spelling
Oxygen drew its most viewers ever Tuesday night for the next-to-last episode of the Tori Spelling reality show, “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood.” The show attracted 1.4 million viewers and was tops in its time slot among women 18 to 49. Reuters/The Hollywood Reporter (8/7) , Multichannel News (8/6)
Bravo’s season finale of Flipping Out Tuesday at 10p attracted 881,000 A18-49 viewers and nearly 1.3 million total viewers. The network’s premiere of real estate drama Million Dollar Listing following at 11p delivered 510,000 A18-49 viewers and 753,000 total viewers for its second season premiere. (Cynopsis 8/7(
Beginning in February, Toon Disney will be relaunched as Disney XD, a cable channel that will target 6- to 14-year-old boys with a steady diet of original series, movies and animation as well as sports-themed content developed with corporate cousin ESPN. The move has been top secret for about a year now, according to this report, as Disney tried to figure a way to attract more boys, who currently prefer Viacom’s Nickelodeon and Time Warner’s Cartoon Network. Los Angeles Times (free registration) (8/7)
In an investor call Wednesday, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes focused on “old media,” confirming the split of the company’s AOL Internet-access and media units next year: “Our goal is to create, package and distribute high-quality, branded content across multiple platforms.” (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10008350-93.html 8/6)
Shareholders of Discovery Holding Co. will vote Sept. 16 whether to make Discovery Communications a publicly traded company, according to SEC filings. Discovery Holdings currently owns two-thirds of Discovery Communications. Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership owns the remaining one-third. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (8/7)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Google hopes to gain an advantage over Chinese search rival Baidu.com with the debut of a free music-search service in China. The ad-driven service, a partnership with Chinese music company Top100.cn, allows users to query by singer, song or album title and to download licensed music files at no cost. Ad sales will be shared among Google, the music labels and Top100.cn. 
ClipSyndicate/ChinaOnTV (8/7) , Reuters (8/6) , The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (8/6)
Top 10 Facebook Apps as of August 7, 2008
Application Developer Monthly Active Users
1. FunWall Slide, Inc. 20,110,250
2. Top Friends Slide, Inc. 14,631,711
3. Super Wall RockYou! 11,505,142
4. Bumper Sticker David, Stephen, etc. 9,470,040
5. Movies Flixter 5,949,076
6. Compare People Chainn Inc. 4,910,351
7. Owned! Coolapps.com 4,755,661
8. Photos Facebook n/a
9. R U Interested? SNAP Interactive 4,386,692
10. (Lil)Green Patch David 4,257,730
Source: Facebook
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Boston Acoustics, Financial Times, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Joint venture, Siemens AG, Sony, Wall Street Journal
TECHNOLOGY
In the battle for the hearts, minds and wallets of potential e-reader customers, it appeared that Sony’s Reader had two big advantages over Amazon’s Kindle: an early start and a corporate mandate to link the product wirelessly to other Sony devices. But, according to this column, Amazon’s Kindle seems to have taken a leap forward in the market. Financial Times (8/6)
Boston Acoustics debuted its Vista line of speakers earlier this week. Among the new offerings is the VS 336, a three-way, four-foot-tall, floor-standing model that will sell for about $3,400 for a set at 40 specialty stores around the country. ElectronicHouse.com (8/6)
After a nine-year partnership with Fujitsu, Siemens AG says it wants out of its joint venture in computer making. Though Fujitsu has the right to buy out Siemens’ 50% stake in Fujitsu Siemens Computers, company President Kuniaki Nozoe said Tuesday he saw more potential in mobile phones than PCs. With sales of more than $10 billion and pretax profit of more than $160 million in its most recent fiscal year, the value of the joint venture could be as high as $4.65 billion, according to one banker. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (8/6)
