Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, Charter Communications, NBC, No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Paul Weston, Programs, Television, Tonight Show with Jay Leno
President Obama’s appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” attracted the largest audience to the NBC program in more than four years. The first late-night talk-show appearance by a sitting U.S. president posted an 11.2 rating. Advertisers “got more than they expected.” (Iwantmedia 3/20, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aE4s6jqewwQs 3/20)
HBO on March 29 will premiere “The No. 1 Ladies’Detective Agency,” a family-friendly series that will mark the pay-cable network’s first entrant into the 8 p.m. programming hour. According to this report, the upbeat series, which is set in Africa and stars R&B singer Jill Scott, is part of an identity makeover that will bring some less edgy shows to HBO. The Wall Street Journal (3/19)
HBO opens season two of In Treatment April 5 at 9p, with new episodes airing on Sunday and Monday nights. Gabriel Byrne returns as Dr. Paul Weston, now newly divorced and operating his therapy practice out of his new Brooklyn brownstone. Dianne Wiest also is back as Dr. Gina Toll, Paul’s therapist. New cast members include Hope Davis, Russell Hornsby, John Mahoney, Alison Pill, Sherri Saum and Aaron Shaw while Glynn Turman will also make a guest appearance this season. To clarify the schedule, two new 30m episodes of IN TREATMENT air consecutively on Sundays at 9p and three new episodes air back-to-back on Mondays starting at 9p. The Emmy Award-winning drama series is produced by HBO Entertainment. (Cynopsis 3/20)
Despite the recession … or maybe because of it … pay-TV subscriptions increased 836,000 homes in the fourth quarter of last year, according to a study by SNL Kagan. Showtime showed one of the biggest gains, according to the report, adding 330,000 subscribers in the last three months of 2008. Variety (3/19) , TVWeek.com (3/19)
Apollo Group, the private-equity firm that has bought the debt of Charter Communications, is expected to take a major ownership position in the cable provider through its upcoming bankruptcy filing, according to these reports. Charter is expected to file for bankruptcy April 1. The Wall Street Journal (3/20) , Reuters (3/19)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Arts, CNBC, Jim Cramer, Jon Stewart, Television, TheStreet.com, Time Warner Cable, us
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Twitter is the No. 1 fastest growing U.S. “member community destination,” says a survey from Nielsen. From February 2008 to February 2009, the microblogging service clocked in a growth rate of 1,382%. Also, Twitter counts the 35-to-49 age demo as its biggest. (Iwantmedia 3/20, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10200161-36.html 3/19)
Apple has started offering feature films in high definition at its iTunes online store. The service currently has about a dozen movies, but Apple says that in the future it will serve up new films in HD about 30 days after their DVD releases. InformationWeek (3/19)
Have you ever sent an email, and just as it was going on its merry way, you realize you misspelled something or you sent it to the wrong person. This happens to me a lot on Gmail because sending an email is not always instant. And you have more chances to experience email regret as you are waiting for one to send. Well, now you can take advantage of that delay to “undo” the message
. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/19/gmail-gets-a-panic-button 3/19)
Playboy is putting 53 back issues of the magazine on the Web for free at PlayboyArchive.com. The issues cover the years 1954 through 2007. “This is a great way to allow a whole new generation to easily explore the magazine,” says founder Hugh Hefner. (Iwantmedia 3/20, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343502,00.asp 3/20)
Amazon’s IMDB.com announced plans this week at SXSW to vastly increase the amount of video streaming it offers (some 2,000 movies and 14,000 TV shows are currently available on the site) as well as begin offering made-for-the-web shows. (Cynopsis 3/20)
Market news site TheStreet.com, co-founded by CNBC analyst (and Jon Stewart punching bag) Jim Cramer, eliminated 18 staff positions in a move to try and save $2.4 million. (Cynopsis 3/20)
The market for deploying IPTV services to multiple-dwelling units such as apartment buildings and hotels will be more than $6 billion by 2013, according to new research from In-Stat. Cable providers Time Warner Cable and RCN have recorded recent new-business wins at MDUs. CED Magazine (3/2009)
Coverage of the Oscars, The Grammys and the Chris Brown/Rihanna incident helped AccessHollywood.com achieve its best month ever in Feb. across all key metrics including unique visitors (+286%), page views (+656%), visits (+262%) and video streams (+253%), according to Nielsen. AccessHollywood.com, which supplies content to Yahoo’s omg! celebrity portal, also attracted its most monthly video streams to date, with 3.3 million, according to Nielsen VideoCensus data. (Cynopsis 3/20)
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Business and Economy, Mobile, Nokia, S60 platform, Services, Telecommunications, Window Mobile, YouTube
YouTube can now be widely accessed through an application on most Window Mobile and Nokia S60 devices. You can visit m.youtube.com from your phone to download the app. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/20/youtube-mobile-tweaked-for-windows-mobile-and-nokia-phones 3/20)
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Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Adobe, Chad Michael Murray, Games, Hilarie Burton, One Tree Hill, Peyton Sawyer, Sims 3, Tree Hill
Fans submitted more than five million entries to ESPN.com‘s 14th annual Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Sprint, surpassing last year’s record of 3.65 million entries by 37%. At the peak period, fans registered nearly 3,900 entries per minute or nearly 65 entries per second. ESPN is partnering with Adobe this year to offer an interactive PDF that automatically updates your brackets. (Cynopsis 3/20)
The CW has come up with a cool gaming-themed integration for the next episode of One Tree Hill. Next Monday EA‘s The Sims 3 will be seamlessly threaded throughout the storyline; the episode opens in an idealized Sims-style version of One Tree Hill then transitions into the real Tree Hill. As the episode plays out, “Simulated” versions of popular One Tree Hill characters are introduced and then morph into the real-life characters, including Dan (Paul Johannson), Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Peyton (Hilarie Burton). Following the episode, viewers can go to CW.com to download images of The Sims 3 versions of the characters. (Cynopsis 3/20)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Access Providers, Boston Globe, Carol Bartz, Google, Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, Yahoo
Starting next month, Cadillac will roll out cars equipped with wireless Internet access at a list price of $500, plus a monthly usage fee of $29, according to reports. The Autonet-produced Cadillac WiFi will be offered on the CTS sport sedan, making the carmaker one of the first to install Wi-Fi on a production vehicle. CNET (3/19)
I don’t like using ‘Wi-Fi’ for all. Wi-Fi to me means the speed that I can get in my apt over cable broadband not 2.5G mobile broadband. Why must we always confuse the public? Will people use this or as laptops employ integrated mobile broadband technology, will these ‘mobile broadband’ devices become unnecessary? I’m going mobile broadband with my Daily Marauder jacket. Stand within 150 ft of me while wearing it and get 2.5G. Flirting, geek fabulous style.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that a search partnership with Yahoo remains a compelling prospect and an important step to better compete with Google. Ballmer adds that he expects to sit down and talk with new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz after she settles into her new post. (Iwantmedia 3/20, http://www.smartmoney.com/news/ON/?story=ON-20090319-000785-1224 3/19)
TomTom has announced a map-updating service that enables customers to pay for a single map update or a full-year subscription. “The road network changes up to 15% each year, but with our 30 Day Latest Map Guarantee, TomTom Map Share and now, TomTom’s Map Update Service, users can rest assured … their maps are always accurate and up to date,” said TomTom President Jocelyn Vigreux. The Boston Globe (3/19) , TWICE (3/19)
Sony will freeze pay and cut bonuses for its workers after forecasting a record loss. The company is deciding not to raise employee pay for the 12 months starting April 1. Sony will also cut bonus payments to the equivalent of four months’salary from six months’wages paid last year. (Iwantmedia 3/20, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aUelnan1CmEk 3/19)
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