Real Networks spinning off Rhapsody to focus on RealPlayer
Real Networks is spinning off digital music service Rhapsody by the end of the quarter. While it will still own a significant stake in the new, independent entity, it won’t have more power than the other major interest Viacom. (They didn’t specify their exact share except to say that it was below 50 percent.)
The move is intended to lighten the load on Real Networks while simultaneously freeing up room for more investors in Rhapsody.... Continue Reading
Did the Beatles bomb with the video game generation?
The Fab Four did not set the video game world on fire with the launch of The Beatles Rock Band. The game was one of the most overhyped in game history, with a buildup that was similar to last year’s Spore, which sold millions of units but was still a disappointment.
The Beatles Rock Band sold just 595,000 units across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, according to market researcher NPD Group. That... Continue Reading
Cable TV online may sound great, but a la carte pricing is still the key
I recently ditched all but the most basic television package from my cable provider — and I would have ditched it all, but it was something like $5 for basic cable on top of my internet service. I simply don’t watch cable television anymore. But that’s not to say I don’t watch television shows anymore — I do, just through my Apple TV, Xbox 360 or on the web through services like Hulu. In moving... Continue Reading
Viacom to Time Warner: We’ll take Dora, and online episodes too
Time Warner Cable and Viacom’s drawn-out feud over rights fees could result in 13 million Time Warner and Bright House customers losing 19 popular channels, including Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon, on January 1. That’s right, you could be saying sayonara to The Daily Show, The Hills and Spongebob Squarepants as soon as the clock strikes midnight. But that’s not all: Viacom is also threatening to yank online content. Happy New Year, eh?
Viacom’s... Continue Reading
Roundup: AT&T cutting 12,000 jobs, record spending on Cyber Monday and more
AT&T cutting 12,000 jobs – That’s about four percent of the company’s workforce; it plans to pay about $600 million in severance over the next year.
Yahoo’s Search Assist gets image previews — The feature, which allows you to see the results for a suggested search before you actually click, is now available on the search results page and will be added to Yahoo.com eventually.
“Cyber Monday” e-commerce spending jumps 15 percent — With its... Continue Reading
Roundup: Intel cuts estimates, iPhone games taking off and more
Here’s the latest action:
Intel cuts fourth quarter estimates — The chip maker says sales could fall by as much as 19 percent, and things look similarly bleak for chip companies Applied Materials and National Semiconductor.
IPhone takes on Nintendo and Sony in portable gaming — Among other things, the iPhone tempts developers with lowered distribution costs. There are almost 2,000 games already available in Apple’s App Store.
Google joins smart grid group... Continue Reading
MTV Networks starts making money on MySpace, via video ad-matching tech
MTV Networks can now make money when a MySpace user uploads its content — say a clip from comedy newscast “The Daily Show,” or prank show “Punk’d” — via ad-matching technology created by a Palo Alto, Calif. startup called Auditude.
Similar to the “Content ID” system recently introduced by Google-owned YouTube, Auditude automatically identifies professional video clips and lets a content owner serve targeted ads alongside them.
In the meantime, MTV owner Viacom is pressing... Continue Reading
Is Hollywood forming DECE to wage a digital content war against Apple?
Digital rights management (DRM), for better or worse, is still the cornerstone of digital content. But the name has such a negative connotation now that major players in the entertainment and electronics industry appear to be trying to change it.
According to Reuters, some of the Hollywood studios are working on a consortium with various retailers, service providers, and consumer electronics/information technology companies that’s set to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in... Continue Reading
Italian Prime Minister’s media company sues Google’s YouTube
Some companies you don’t want to mess around with. It’s one thing for the media conglomerate Viacom to sue Google for a billion dollars over YouTube, but it’s another when a television company owned by the Prime Minister of Italy files a lawsuit. Such is the case with Mediaset SpA, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s television company. Might we have an international incident on our hands?
The suit, which has Mediaset seeking “at least” 500 million... Continue Reading
Google to veil the YouTube user data it’s handing over to Viacom
If you watched a YouTube video that may have been pirated, don’t worry, you’re safe from getting sued. Google will obscure the names of YouTube users and the unique internet addresses of their computers when it follows an existing court ruling and hands a massive amount of user data over to Viacom.
Viacom originally won access to this data as part of its plan to confidentially investigate whether or not its video and music... Continue Reading
Roundup: More YouTube user data fallout, MacBook Air SSD prices fall and more
Here’s the latest action:
More fallout from the YouTube/Viacom lawsuit — After a judge ruled that Google wouldn’t have to reveal YouTube’s source code but would have to open its user data for all to see, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wrote a post condemning the decision as a violation of privacy. Google lawyers are also on the case, according to The Wall Street Journal. The outcry in the blogosphere has been even bigger.
Chicken... Continue Reading
New MMO games startup, Meteor Games, to target youth demographic
A new independent game development studio, Meteor Games, launched today with Adam Powell and Donna Williams at the helm — the two entrepreneurs who previously launched game company Neopets back in 1999 and then sold it to Viacom’s MTV Networks for $160 million.
The new company is working on a fantasy/sci-fi massively multiplayer online game — a stylistically animated world for children ages 8 to 18 in 2009. That age group is well above the... Continue Reading
Visible World, a targeted cable advertiser, raises $25M
Targeted advertising, based on geographic location, age, gender and other factors, is a pretty common concept by now. Visible World wants to bring it to cable television, with an added twist — editing of specific commercial spots to appeal more to individuals.
Say a large company like Toyota doesn’t want to exclude certain groups from an advertisement, but does want to make it appeal more to each individual. Visible World’s... Continue Reading
Paramount moves into video games
It’s a little late from the point of view of its rivals, but Paramount Pictures has finally decided to take a plunge into video games.
The Hollywood studio is expanding its video game division with a slate of games that will start coming out later this year, according to Variety.
Most movie studios have seen why this makes financial sense. A movie might cost $90 million to make and gross $100 million. But a video... Continue Reading
Roundup: Kyte gets more, Microsoft’s ad deal, NetSuite’s golden IPO, more
Here’s the latest (updated) action:
1) Kyte.tv raises $15 million
2) Electric Sheep Company lays off 22
3) FCC receives 700MHz auction applications
4) Microsoft signs $500M ad deal
5) GPS devices fly off the shelves
6) Netsuite sets high price for planned IPO
7) Eric Eldon, celebrity at large?
Kyte.tv raises $15M second round — An online startup that offers a video player allowing near-live communications by... Continue Reading
South Park creators get web revenue cut. Sweet.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have signed a revenue-sharing deal with executives at Viacom-owned Comedy Central, their long-time television network, according to a New York Times article on Sunday.
This continues a shake-up in the way big-media works, the latest in a trend giving more power to artists — and less to the big media companies, as we wrote last week. Normally, television owners keep revenues, and separately negotiate payment with artists.... Continue Reading
Internet TV company, Joost, raises $45M
Internet TV company Joost has raised $45 million in a whopper round of venture financing, giving it a significant war-chest to spend just as its product hits the market.
Lead investors were Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. CBS Corporation, Viacom and the foundation of Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing also participated, according to the company, in a statement to VentureBeat Wednesday evening.
Despite being relatively untested, Joost has gained publicity because it was started by Skype... Continue Reading
Delivery Agent lets you buy products in your favorite TV shows
Delivery Agent, a company that lets you purchase products you see on your favorite TV shows, has won a major deal with Viacom and raised $18.5M in a third round of funding.
If you like the jeans that Meredith was wearing in the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy, you can go to Delivery Agent and buy them immediately. It’s the latest way media companies are seeking to use new interactive technologies to squeeze value from... Continue Reading
Roundup: Frontline, Breitbart, Maxthon, Clipsearch, Yahoo-Viacom, Salesforce-Koral
Here’s the latest action:
Big names support Frontline Wireless, which wants to end-run carriers — James Barksdale, former chief executive of Netscape (left, top), and John Doerr, a big-name venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins (left, bottom), are the latest to back Frontline Wireless, the company we wrote about last month, which wants to bid for radio spectrum dedicated for public safety but which can also be used for profitable wireless offerings.
The long-wave spectrum... Continue Reading
The dirt on Amazon, Steve Jobs, Topix, Fatdoor, MySpace, VC tax and more
Here’s the latest action:
Amazon’s odd and scary patent — First, Amazon rolled out a product called Mechancial Turk (image left), where people do tasks for you that a machine couldn’t perform. Strange name, we thought, but nicely couched in history, and the people still ruled. But the latest Amazon patent puts the machine in charge, breaking down tasks, and commanding the human to do them. According to the patent, just awarded, “the humans perform... Continue Reading