Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
TNT‘s coverage of the NBA All-Star Saturday Night attracted 5.84 million viewers and generated a 3.5 rating, according to fast national data from Nielsen Media Research. TNT set a viewership record with this year’s event, which includes the Sprite Slam Dunk competition. Multichannel News (2/16)
FX has struck a multi-film deal with Paramount Pictures that includes Oscar-nominated “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and the upcoming sequel to “Transformers.” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” debuts in theaters this summer, and FX will get the movie in late 2011. Broadcasting & Cable (2/16)
Universal Sports, the network partially owned by NBC Universal, has added almost 19 million homes in 20 markets. The network, now available to 45 million homes, specializes in sports, such as downhill skiing, that are not widely covered in the U.S., but will be a big part of the upcoming Vancouver Olympics. Broadcasting & Cable (2/16)
CBS has ordered up the pilot project Thunder Road, exec produced by McG. Described as Wipeout in cars, with two teams of drivers on a demolition course. Producing the pilot are Warner Horizon in association with Wonderland, reports THR. (Cynopsis 2/17)
Cartoon Network is developing an animated series that will feature some of the top superheroes in the Marvel Entertainment repertoire. The Turner Networks channel has ordered 26 episodes of “Marvel Super Hero Squad,” which will spotlight the crime-fighting adventures of Captain America, Silver Surfer, Hulk, Wolverine and Iron Man. Variety (2/16)
The transition to all-digital TV signals may be delayed, but the waiting list for coupons to help Americans pay for digital-to-analog converter boxes goes on unabated. According to this report, there is still a wait list for 4 million coupons, which, under current funding parameters, would take the National Telecommunications and Information Administration roughly two months to process. USA TODAY/The Associated Press (2/16)
Comcast investors won stock buybacks and their first dividend in almost a decade last year by putting pressure on CEO Brian Roberts. Now they’re pushing for more. Comcast “has billions in cash and the stock is near an all-time low. Now’s the time to buy back.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aVXIrV2UPqx8 2/17)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
If you were to ask “over 200 social media leaders” which social media site they would pay for if they had to, as Abrams Research
recently did, Facebook would come out on top, with 32.2 percent saying they would pay for it. LinkedIn was second, Twitter was third, and MySpace and Digg tied for last place. But if you ask, which one would they recommend for businesses to pay for, Twitter beats Facebook by more than two to one (39.6 percent vs. 15.3 percent). LinkedIn again comes in second. Why did Twitter come out on top. It is seen as an efficient way for companies to get their marketing messages out there. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/17/survey-says-twitter-is-better-than-facebook-for-businesses 2/17)
When Facebook recently changed its terms of service to no longer allow users to delete their data when they leave the service, it justifiably created an uproar. Just what is Facebook planning to do with this data, and isn’t it mine to delete if I wish. In a blog post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tries to calm everyone down. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/16/zuckerberg-on-who-owns-user-data-on-facebook-its-complicated 2/16)
Today was the second day in the trial brought against popular torrent site The Pirate Bay by a phalanx of media companies formed by Universal, Warner Brothers, MGM, EMI, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, and Sony BMG. So far the trial has amounted to a circus wherein the plaintiffs have struggled to make their case. According to them, The Pirate Bay has profitably caused over $13 million in damages by assisting copyright infringement and helping to make copyrighted material available. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/17/half-the-charges-against-the-pirate-bay-dropped-but-the-circus-aint-over-yet 2/17)
AMC has teamed up with Sony to launch online “minisodes” of the cable network’s “Breaking Bad” series. The five stand-alone shorts, each running between three and five minutes, debut today at AMC’s Web site and at Crackle.com. The Hollywood Reporter (2/16)
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Filed under: WIRELESS
Skype is (finally) teaming up with mobile handset maker Nokia to get their VoIP and IM software program pre-installed on some of its devices, as announced at the Mobile World Congress and reported by MobileCrunch. The eBay-owned company had 405 million registered users in total at the end of last year, and Nokia is still the largest handset maker in the world until further notice, so this is a significant deal. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/17/skype-integration-on-handsets-threat-or-opportunity-for-mobile-voip-startups 2/17)
MySpace, which in a few years expects half its traffic to come from mobile devices, is unveiling new deals with Palm and Nokia that it says will make it the first social network to support every major smart phone. MySpace is also relaunching its mobile site with better-integrated ads. (Iwantmedia 2/17, http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090217/ap_on_hi_te/tec_myspace_mobile 2/17)
Under the agreement, LG will include the Windows Mobile platform on its new mobiles. LG expects to roll out 50 Windows-based products over the next five years. Bloomberg (2/16) , The New York Times (2/16)
Samsung unveiled a quartet of sexy new smartphones featuring a range of multimedia features: the Omnia HD phone, a touch-phone with a 3.7″ display, which can record video in HD resolution or play video content in 640 x 360 pixel resolution, the S8300 UltraTouch which features a 2.8″ touch screen, an 8 megapixel camera and Samsung’s new TouchWiz interface, the Blue Earth, an eco-friendly phone designed to resemble a shiny beach pebble. It utilizes a built-in solar panel to power itself, holding a full solar charge for 10-14 hours, the Beat DJ and Beat Disc models target music lovers with high end audio technology powered by Bang and Olufsen. (Cynopsis 2/17)
The GSMA, a worldwide consortium of mobile industries, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have teamed up to found the the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) initiative, allowing folks in developing countries to carry out mobile banking from their non-smartphones and keep and grow their money in a safe and affordable fashion. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/17/bill-gates-wants-to-help-the-third-world-with-cellphone-banking 2/17)
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Google’s new Latitude service, an effort to turn mobile phones into tracking devices, is facing criticism from privacy advocates. Nonetheless, U.S. mobile phones with location features are forecast to increase ten-fold to 30.9 million by 2012. For now, Latitude doesn’t have any ads. (Iwantmedia 2/17, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aS8DrblAaWOY 2/16)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
Sales of LCD TVs jumped 14% from 2007 to 2008 to a total of $22.7 billion, according to Quixel Research. TVs with big screens showed the strongest growth, with sales of sets measuring 55 inches or larger climbing more than 300%. CEPro.com (2/16)
Musical Fidelity’s Titan amp offers top-of-the-line sound at 1,000 watts per channel with minimum distortion. The dual-mono Titan will retail in North America for about $30,000. ElectronicHouse.com (2/16)
Filed under: MISC
“Slumdog Millionaire,” from News Corp.’s Fox Searchlight unit, is headed for a $56 million Oscar box-office bump, say industry observers. The feel-good “Slumdog” is attracting bigger post-nomination audiences than downbeat rivals, including “Benjamin Button” and “The Reader.” (Iwantmedia 2/17, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aLcBOSvspXvc 2/17)
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