Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Abraham Lincoln, David Simon, Emmy Award, John Wilkes Booth, Lehman Brothers, Time Warner, Tom Fontana, Wall Street Journal
“Total Request Live,” the MTV show that has been serving up new music videos for more than a decade, will televise its last episode in November. Despite the move, a Viacom spokeswoman said, MTV will continue offering music videos with its FNMTV, which will get a more permanent berth on Friday nights. The Wall Street Journal (9/16)
Okay Mad Men fans — this one’s for you. This week’s episode on AMC is going to be a repeat because really, who wants to air a first run episode up against the Emmy Awards? The next original episode, #6, is now slated for September 28, and off of that pushes back the season finale to October 26. (Cynopsis 9/16)
HBO is in the early stages of developing a miniseries based on James L. Swanson’s book “Manhunt,” about the 12-day hunt for Abraham Lincoln‘s assassin John Wilkes Booth. The project marks the reunion of “Homicide” creators David Simon and Tom Fontana, who will be executive producers on the “Manhunt” miniseries. Variety (9/15)
According to Nielsen, The Weather Channel’s coverage of Hurricane Ike reached a cume of more than 62 million viewers during September 12-13. (Cynopsis 9/16)
FOX’s next project is a 60m medical drama from Ian Biederman (Shark), reports Variety. The plot is about a female heart surgeon who also is schizophrenic. 20th Century Fox TV, who has a current overall deal with Biederman, and Imagine TV are producing. (Cynopsis 9/16)
CBS, Time Warner, Disney and other media stocks are feeling the impact of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy-protection news. Most media stocks are dependent on advertising revenues. In an economic downturn, many industries — including financial services — cut back on ads. (Iwantmedia 9/16, http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid={F941F324-7CE7-4CBB-A14D-7303D3BD2923 9/15)
A new report found that 27% of U.S. households have at least one digital video recorder, with 87% of DVR owners saying they would recommend the technology to a friend. “The number of U.S. households with DVRs has essentially doubled in the past two years, and … will likely double again over the next four years,” said Bruce Leichtman, president of Leichtman Research Group, which issued the report. Multichannel News (9/15)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Al Gore, AmyPoehler, Google, Internet Movie Database, Sarah Palin, Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey, YouTube
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
The Internet Movie Database
(IMDB), a massive, extremely popular website detailing all aspects of many movies and television shows, has finally added what the site has curiously been missing all along: video footage of full-length movies and TV shows. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/15/imdb-finally-adds-video-content-ill-give-it-three-stars 9/15)
Current, the edgy news and culture television channel co-founded by Al Gore, is coming up with a new way to broadcast the presidential debates: show Twitter commentary on what people are saying. Current will broadcast “Hack the Debate,” with Twitter updates shown in real time. (Iwantmedia 9/16, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10041931-36.html 9/15)
Google searches for the terms “SNL Palin,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Tina Fey as Palin” rocketed over the weekend. But the take-down notices from NBC Universal went out just as quickly, notifying Google’s YouTube that clips from “Saturday Night Live” infringe upon copyrights. (Iwantmedia 9/16, http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/nbc-universal-z.html 9/15)
Hollywood.com president Kevin Davis, a former Variety exec, plans to relaunch his site later this month as an alternative to “train wreck” celebrity news sources like TMZ and Perez Hilton, with both celebrity and industry news. (Iwantmedia 9/16, http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3630840 9/15)
The EMI Group is said to be close to joining the three other large recording companies in backing the upcoming MySpace Music service. EMI and MySpace reps are “trying to jump some final hurdles.” The Apple iTunes competitor is expected to launch later this week. (Iwantmedia 9/16, http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10042137-93.html 9/15)
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Apple, iControl, iFund, iPhone, iPhone App Store, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Matt Murphy, Pelago
Crunchgear confirmed the September 23rd announcement, cemented the rumors that there will be 3 different colors (all signs point to black, white, and brown), and then mentioned one little special tid-bit: the release date (October 20th). (http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/09/16/htc-dreams-late-october-release-date-is 9/16)
Apple says it removed some submissions to the iPhone App Store because of its policy banning items seen as “duplicating the functionality” of other store products. But developers contend that Apple recently rejected two applications, NetShare and Podcaster, because of the competition they represented to iTunes and other Apple products. vnunet.com (9/16)
A group of venture capitalists led by Kleiner Perkins unveiled a new $100 million iFund to back new ideas for the iPhone platform. Almost a third of the money is already spent, according to fund manager Matt Murphy. Recipients include: Pelago, developers of a social discovery and location sharing app called Whrr; iControl, a home automation and monitoring solution slated for release during Q1; and ng:moco, a game company launching its first titles later this month. (Cynopsis 9/16)
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Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Business, Financial Times, Games, Goldman Sachs, Neopets, Nintendo, Pogo.com, Wii
Each of Nintendo’s 3,000 employees created more profit for the maker of the Wii and DS consoles than the average person at the Goldman Sachs investment bank, according to the Financial Times, a finding the publication termed “exceptional.” Excluding taxes and pay, the average Nintendo employee earned $1.6 million for the company, compared with $1.24 million at Goldman Sachs, even as the bankers earned more than seven times as much as the typical Nintendo worker, the FT reported. Financial Times (9/15)
Online gaming continues to catch on with female users, according to new findings from comScore Media Metrix as women of all demos find casual gaming increasingly available online. Contributing to strong growth in the category among younger girls is the increasing popularity of fashion and dress-up sites (such as Stardoll.com, DressUpGames.com, and I-Dressup.com) and virtual worlds (including Neopets and Gaiaonline.com.) Older females are playing games on women’s content portals such as iVillage.com, which has a partnership with gaming site Pogo.com. (Cynopsis 9/16)
Online Gaming Site Visitation by Age Segment August 2008 vs. August 2007
Demographic Segments Unique Visitors (000)
Aug-07 Aug-08 % Change
Females: 12-17 3,030 4,710 55%
Females: 18-24 3,781 5,090 35%
Females: 25-34 5,724 6,543 14%
Females: 35-44 7,990 8,839 11%
Females: 45-54 6,366 7,359 16%
Females: 55-64 3,100 4,418 43%
Total Females: Online Gaming 33,888 42,884 27%
Source: comScore Media Metrix
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: FM broadcasting, mcdonalds, Microsoft, Onkyo, THX, Wayport, Zune, Zune 3.0
TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft announces that Zune users will be able to access the Zune music store for free from 9,800 U.S. McDonalds, care of Wifi provider Wayport. Users can wirelessly stream and download music, tag and purchase songs directly from the built-in FM radio and access personalized music recommendations and programming. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/16/maybe-theyll-put-zunes-in-the-happy-meals 9/16)
Onkyo has added to the THX products it introduced in July by releasing a pair of “top-of-the-line” Ultra2 Plus receivers that are much pricier than the earlier lines. The TX-SR876 and TX-NR906, which are designed to perform in large rooms, cost $1,799 and $2,299 respectively and offer 7.1-channel surround sound, new Loudness Plus processing and other high-end features, according to Onkyo. ElectronicHouse.com (9/15)
NEC Display will ship an LCD in December that is almost twice as large as the company’s biggest MultiSync 15 Series model and can be erected in portrait or landscape mode, the company said. Priced at $55,000, the the 82-inch LCD8205 features five picture options and 8ms response time to go along with a large array of connectivity. CEPro.com (9/15)
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