PaidContent.org |
September 5th, 2008 |
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-- Digital Rights Group: Lee deBoer has been tapped to lead the UK distributor's new U.S. branch, Variety reports. A 20-year HBO vet, deBoer will now be responsible for acquiring rights from U.S. content creators and pitching shows to the UK for DRG. During his tenure at HBO, he held [...]
PaidContent.org |
September 5th, 2008 |
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Did we mention that Billy Bragg is speaking at EconMusic, our London conference examining the digital music business on September 23? Billy has previously taken on MySpace for its policy on artist royalties and Bebo for building a fortune off musicians' work. At EconMusic, Billy joins Last.fm, Mog.com and others [...]
PaidContent.org |
September 5th, 2008 |
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Maybe it was the bad economy. Maybe it's the back-to-school season or an attempt to generate more interest ahead of Christmas shopping period. In any case, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) hopes to see a sales boost now that its XBox console is now cheaper than rivals Nintendo Wii and Sony (NYSE: [...]
Portfolio |
September 4th, 2008 |
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The stellar performance of superhero movies again this summer is enough to make you wonder if the film industry has figured out a way to bottle zeitgeist. You need look no further than the summer's two tallest action-figure tent poles, Warner Bros.'s The Dark Knight and Paramount's Iron Man, to [...]
PaidContent.org |
September 4th, 2008 |
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Raptr, a new online social gaming startup founded by Xfire co-founder and professional gamer Dennis Fong, is launching tonight and had received $12 million in its first round of funding. The round was led by Accel Partners and the Founders Fund. The service is a small download that then plugs [...]
PaidContent.org |
September 3rd, 2008 |
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Earlier this year, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) surprised us all when Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers announced it would support the iPhone by creating a standalone $100 million iFund focused on making investments in companies building iPhone applications. Six months later, KPCB has written five checks, and the iPhone has turned [...]
PaidContent.org |
September 2nd, 2008 |
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This didn't take long but it was longer than I expected ... Deborah Fine quietly has shifted roles inside the Universal Television Group, starting a new job this week as president, digital strategy, reporting to Jeff Gaspin. Fine stayed on as president of iVillage Properties, responsible for day-to-day operations, after [...]
PaidContent.org |
September 2nd, 2008 |
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This is beginning to feel so Yogi Berra—as in "deja vu all over again"—and it will be a recurring story until all major sports are streamed live locally, nationally and internationally. When he spoke with us last month, Bob Bowman, president of MLBAM, avoided any suggestion that local live streaming [...]
It's a good time to be covering politics, given the interminable campaign season. In between the two big conventions, Forbes checks in on Politico.com, a news site founded in 2007 by former Washington Post reporters John Harris and Jim VandeHei. The company, which operates a website, a print version and [...]
GigaOM |
August 28th, 2008 |
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I was talking to an executive at a major label the other day. We were talking about startups and he noted that they either sue these companies out of business or legitimize them out of business. That is not far from the truth. How many legitimate, standalone digital businesses can [...]
-- Hollywood classics unavailable for legal download, Blu-ray not coming soon: With the online availability of movies becoming more widespread, it's a wonder there aren't more classics that can be legally streamed or downloaded. Variety reports that of the 25 most successful movies at the U.S. box office, only five [...]
On July 31, an email landed in my inbox alleging that some venture capitalist insiders from Insight Venture Partners benefited disproportionately in last year's sale of online photo site Photobucket to Fox Interactive Media (NYSE: NWS), for about $300 million. Turns out WSJ also got a similar tip, dug into [...]
Another big hire for Endemol under the new regime. It's hired Disney-ABC-ESPN (NYSE: DIS) Television's EMEA EVP and MD Tom Toumazis as chief commercial officer, responsible for driving sales and distribution. Toumazis joined Disney in 2001 as EMEA SVP and MD of Buena Vista International Television; he's struck the Europe, [...]
After a year in the works, TheWB.com is out of beta and is opening to the public today. While the main draw to the site are the old shows that aired when The WB was known as a youth-centric TV network—e.g., Gilmore Girls, Everwood and Buffy The Vampire Slayer—the site [...]
Update: We found out the sale price: it is about $10 million, our sources say. Original post: Lifetime Networks' digital push continues with its first acquisition—picking up privately held ParentsClick Network, both for its technology and its content. With it, Lifetime now is a player in the parenting and moms [...]
Despite the rise of video-on-demand and targeted advertising, mass media is still a viable form and will likely remain so. But within mass media, only TV will continue to stand tall as radio and newspapers decline, says Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer at Publicis Groupe Media and CEO of Denuo, [...]
GigaOM |
August 26th, 2008 |
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Want to watch a great boxing match? Just take a seat and watch the back-and-forth between Adobe Systems and Microsoft. I wrote about this is fight without an end last year, but now it seems the punches being thrown with more intensity. No surprise - like two aging gladiators, the [...]
Vudu is trying to break the voodoo curse of online-TV boxes, but is having a tough time: it has laid off about 16-18 of its employees out of 100, and is now trying to build on its retail presence. It has hired a new CFO: Chris Watts, a former eBay [...]
So Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is also jumping into the online video investment space, and has done an undisclosed amount of strategic investment in already-heavily backed online HD video tech provider Move Networks. This is technically part of its third round, which it earlier closed in at $46 million from investors [...]
Another ESPN (NYSE: DIS) story worth mentioning ... after 18 months of acquisitions and building, the Disney sports unit is launching its major online high school initiative aimed at 14-18 year olds. ESPNRise.com later today. (For now, it defaults to ESPNU's football recruiting site.) ESPNRise.com represents significant investment and a [...]
ABCNews.com's 15-minute webcast will not be scuttled, despite recent rumblings to that effect, THR reports. For the past two years, the webcast has been streamed live weekdays at 3 PM EDT and then available as a free podcast on iTunes. The podcast, which is hosted by ABC World News anchor [...]
