Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: 20th Century Fox, Arts, DreamWorks, Kung Fu Panda, Lizzy Caplan, Penguins of Madagascar, Television, Warner Bros.
Nickelodeon is preparing an animated series to debut early next year to be titled “Kung Fu Panda: The Series” that will be based on the DreamWorks film released last year. The two companies have worked well together in the past: Nickelodeon recently premiered “The Penguins of Madagascar,” which was based on DreamWorks’ “Madagascar” movies. The New York Times (5/13)
The premiere Tuesday of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” set a record for the popular franchise, with 1.72 million total viewers and 1.26 million in the 18-to-49 demographic. Separately, the first part of a reunion special featuring the cast of “The Real Housewives of New York City” attracted 2.29 million viewers. Broadcasting & Cable (5/13)
FOX renewed its frosh drama series Lie To Me starring Tim Roth for a second season. Shawn Ryan, creator/executive producer of The Shied also joins the series as an executive producer and show-runner. Imagine Television in association with 20th Century Fox Television produces. In addition, FOX picked up two new series, the drama Human Target from Warner Bros. TV, DC Comics and Wonderland; as well as the single-camera comedy Sons of Tucson from 20th TV and J2TV. Mark Valley headlines Human Target as Christopher Chance, a freelance security guy who takes on the identities of the people in danger he is hired to protect. Sons of Tucson stars Tyler Labine as a charming hustler employed by three young brothers to act as their father while their real dad is serving a prison sentence for a white-collar crime. (Cynopsis 5/14)
Starz approved a second season of Party Down, its new 30m comedy about a Los Angeles catering team made up of Hollywood wannabes hoping to catch their big break. Starz Media produces the series which has an ensemble cast starring Ken Marino, Adam Scott, Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen and Lizzy Caplan. (Cynopsis 5/14)
Broadcast networks will see their ratings among the coveted 18-49 audience plummet next season, says Turner Broadcasting researcher Jack Wakshlag. Both Jay Leno’s move to NBC prime time and the conversion from analog to digital will cause younger viewers to flee to cable, he claims. (Iwantmedia 5/14,http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/05/turner.html 5/13)
BET’s season two finale of its gospel competition series Sunday Best posted a 1.3 BET Coverage rating with 1.2 million plus households and 1.7 million viewers watching.
MGM is quickly selling its MGM Prime-Time Sunday Movie package to The CW affiliates. The movie package is secured in 65% of the US on Tribune Broadcasting Company-owned CW stations in addition to other broadcast groups with CW stations including Sunbeam TV Corporation, Capitol Broadcasting Company, Gray Television Inc., Freedom Communication, Inc. and the CW Plus station group. (Cynopsis 5/14)
(Below) F Boxee! This is the hotness…and already plugged into your set-top box experience if you are indeed a Verizon FIOS subscriber. Yet another reason that I will be switching from Time Warner Cable to Verizon. Shame though on the Hulu/YouTube front but I’m guessing that Hulu would bring Hulu’s supreme content offering too front and center for a MSO to be comfortable with…
Verizon Communications later this quarter is expected to launch a service that will bring about 7 million online video clips to TVs using its FiOS TV offering. The clips will be culled from sites such as Dailymotion, Veoh Networks and Blip.TV. Those from YouTube and Hulu.com will not be included. Multichannel News (5/13)
Charter Communications has won a temporary restraining order against DirecTV related to an ad campaign by the satellite provider that Charter claimed — and a federal court agreed — was misleading. The campaign gives the impression that Charter, which is in the middle of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, is no longer able to offer new services. Reuters (5/13) , Multichannel News (5/13)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Ashton Kutcher, Google, Myspace, News Corporation, On the Web, Ted Turner, Time Warner
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Amazon.com is unveiling a program that pays bloggers for Kindle e-reader subscriptions to their posts. Amazon will pay registered bloggers 30% of its subscription fee. At a $2 per month price point, a blogger could make $50,000 per year with just 7,000 annual subscribers. (Iwantmedia 5/14,http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/05/14/amazon-to-pay-bloggers-for-subscriptions 5/14)
Very nice. Thank you Amazon. Just published Daily Marauder. The format is a bit wonky but what the hell, still cool none the less. Love that Amazon even generates a Kindle preview so that you can see what your blog looks like on the device. FYI, Newspaper companies, speak to Kindle. They have it.
Actor Ashton Kutcher, in a quest to fulfill his promise to “ding-dong-ditch” Ted Turner‘s house after winning a race to attract 1 million followers on Twitter, unfurled a giant banner with his microblogging account’s name over the CNN logo on the Time Warner network’s building in Atlanta. (Iwantmedia 5/14,http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/14/cnn.kutcher.prank/index.html 5/14)
Google’s new search products demonstrate the company’s continued ability to innovate, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. The Internet giant will maintain its search leadership “for the foreseeable future.” Google’s position is “essentially insurmountable.” (Iwantmedia 5/14,http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/05/13/is-google-insurmountable 5/13)
Just weeks after a Swedish court found the four men behind the Pirate Bay Web site guilty of promoting copyright infringement, illegal file-sharing of music is as rampant as ever, says the U.K.’s PRS for Music. “The Pirate Bay trial has done nothing to discourage file sharing.” (Iwantmedia 5/14,http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f6fe991c-3fd0-11de-9ced-00144feabdc0.html 5/14)
U.S. social network advertising spending will fall 3% to $1.14 billion in 2009, from $1.18 billion in 2008, according to a forecast by eMarketer. MySpace is described as “the major problem.” While it has been cash cow for News Corp., “the brand has lost its shine.” (Iwantmedia 5/14,http://www.adotas.com/2009/05/myspace-drags-down-social-network-ad-spend 5/14)
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Business, Business and Economy, Jerome Kern, Mobile, Mobile phone, Playboy, Playboy Enterprises, Telecommunications
Playboy “is all about the brand,” says interim CEO Jerome Kern, who plans to extend that brand into other platforms, such as mobile-phone wallpaper. While the print magazine is “important,” he adds, “the company cannot continue to sustain significant losses.” (Iwantmedia 5/14, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-wed_phil_column_0513may13,0,1816984.column 5/13)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Mac OS X, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Paul Otellini, Sony, Verizon Wireless, Windows XP
With its HP netbook going on sale Sunday, Verizon Wireless has increased the monthly download limit from 50 megabytes to 250 MB and reduced overcharges from 25 cents to 10 cents per MB for the same $40 a month it now charges, the carrier said today in outlining changes to its data plans. The 2.4-pound netbook will run on Windows XP Home and cost $200 with a rebate plus two-year mobile-broadband contract. Reuters (5/14) , CNET (5/13)
At Intel’s annual investor meeting this week, company CEO Paul Otellini said he expects PC sales growth patterns to return to normal later this year following a better-than-expected second quarter. The statement runs counter to the Gartner prediction that computer sales will dip about 10% in 2009. “I’m getting increasingly comfortable that the dip here is not as aggressive as they are showing,” Otellini said. 
ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg (5/13) , The Wall Street Journal (5/13) , InformationWeek (5/12) , CIO.com/IDG News Service (5/12)
VTech’s new IS9181 Wi-Fi Internet Radio, with its two 3-watt speakers and 10-watt subwoofer, gives audiophiles access to 11,000 Web-based radio stations from around the world. The device, which retails for just under $200, is compatible with Windows XP and Vista, or Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, and it can play back files from a number of platforms. ElectronicHouse.com (5/13)
Executives at beleaguered consumer-electronics giant Sony Corp. forecast a second consecutive annual operating loss, this time for the period ending March 2010. If that comes to pass, it will be the first time Sony has reported back-to-back yearly losses since 1958. Reuters (5/14) , The Wall Street Journal (5/14)
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