Log on to NBC.com during the Emmy Awards and you’ll see live a behind-the-scenes webcast and blog, as well as a synchronized trivia question game. The game is sponsored by Target, which is giving away $500 gift certificates at random. Writes Kevin Newcomb in ClickZ, “By providing a connection with the show and other viewers, NBC is hoping to shore up ratings on the awards show, which is seen by many critics as a network TV dinosaur that needs to be retooled to be relevant in today’s media environment.” If you play along, let us know how it went in comments…
Every so often, I’ll visit GuitarTabs.com to find out how to play a new song on my guitar. I’ll search for the song, then pick from a list of tabs — basically a simplified sheet music written by someone who has taken the time to reverse-engineer the song down to its guitar components. Sounds innocent enough, huh? Well the music industry has suddenly deemed them a copyright violation — even if they’re inaccurate — and is threatening to sue to shut the sites down. (Read the threatening letter here.) “People can get it for free on the Internet, and it’s hurting the songwriters,” said Lauren Keiser, who is president of the Music Publishers’ Association. I, like many other strictly amateur guitarists, would never buy sheet music or a guitar tab. In effect, we’re fans of the artist, and the guitar tab sites are basically fan sites. But again, the music industry’s unbelievable lack of creativity — why aren’t guitar tabs part of their existing fan sites? — why wouldn’t you want to maximize the number of people privately playing your artists’ songs? — has led to a legal crackdown.
Microsoft’s upcoming Zume portable music player will allow users to create their own mobile social networks and share photos and stream music over a wireless connection. Explains News.com about the DJ feature:
People have the option of turning the feature on or off, as well as of choosing whether to stream to any nearby Zune user or only to people on their friends list. If the DJ setting is on, people don’t need to do anything else to allow others to listen to their music. The music sent is the same as what the DJ is listening to; if they stop listening, the stream is interrupted.
Very cool. I imagine lots of folks will just leave it on so others can snoop at will — a great icebreaker for meeting people. As I’ve written before, social networking will soon be integrated into just about everything. The social technology revolution is just beginning.
On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Pipeline will stream CNN’s coverage of the terrorist attacks as they unfolded five years ago, matched to the exact time of day. The stream will begin at 8:30 a.m., just minutes before the first report of a plane hitting the World Trade Center. Plus, CNN.com is making Pipeline free for the day. Cool idea. Press release…
Viacom’s BET Networks has bought out the original investors behind BET.com: Microsoft, News Corporation, Liberty Media and IAC/InterActive Corp and 360HipHop.com. “This is a great day,” said BET Networks Chairman and CEO Debra Lee. “We’ve seen our goal of 100 percent controlling interest in our Internet property come true.”
Media companies are unveiling new online video projects left and right, but not everything is a success. Yahoo is canceling “Richard Bangs Adventures,” a travel adventure video section, due to low traffic. (But Yahoo says it remains committed to “Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone,” which is generating twice the traffic.) Also, Time Magazine is doing away with “Office Pirates,” a video-heavy webzine, because it didn’t attract enough monthly unique users to show up in the reporting data for Nielsen or Comscore.
While Brian Williams, Charles Gibson and Katie Couric all receive positive responses from the Pew study participants, Couric is also described as “perky, cute, nice, energetic, bubbly, and fluffy.” She’s also the most familiar personality of the three.
The network is releasing more details about its upcoming plans to stream shows for free on CBS.com. In addition to Survivor, CSI, Jericho and Numb3rs, CBS will also stream the first four episodes of Shark and Smith, The Class, The Unit, How I Met Your Mother and The Adventures of Old Christine. The additional shows are produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television or Warner Bros. Television — both of which required some negiotiation because they’re not owned by CBS. “It’s because of our strong relationship with our partners at Twentieth Television and Warner Bros. that we were able to come to this first-of-its-kind agreement, which recognizes the great opportunities available for both networks and studios in connecting television and online platforms,” said Nancy Tellem, President, CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group.
AOL Video has cut deals with major studios to start offering downloadable movies. The downloads will cost between $9.99 and $19.99, and can be burned to DVD. Interesting to see AOL beat Apple to the punch on movie downloads but, since the site won’t work on a Mac, expect iTunes to clean AOL’s clock once it starts offering flicks.
For those who don’t know who I’m talking about (geeesh), LonelyGirl15 is a YouTube phenomenon. In essense, it’s a young girl’s video blog of her life, from her strict parents (she’s home schooled) to troubles with her boyfriend. The clips are incredibly popular — pulling in more viewers than some cable TV shows — but, well, it’s almost too good. The lighting is great, the editing is sharp and her comments seem scripted. So now some folks are wondering if it’s all an elaborate viral hoax, and I’m waiting for Rex to reveal his hypothesis on who’s behind it all. Click below to watch her latest…
MySpace is in talks with the magazine Nylon to create its own mag, although nothing has been decided, reports Ad Age. “We’re in the process of modeling it,” said an executive privy to the discussions. “Our main concern is the MySpace brand. We don’t want to do anything that would hurt the brand.” (Via Fimoculous)
A good debate is brewing now that PBS has decided to move ahead with plans to sell advertising online. “PBS officials think they have a loophole because they aren’t prohibited from running ads online (as opposed to TV),” writes Center For Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester. “Congress must step in to bar PBS from running any ads—in any medium.” But PBS spokesman Kevin Dando responds, “Noncommercial does not mean non-revenue generating. PBS currently does have underwriting spots on-air, and we have explored this move into the online space very carefully and deliberately, and we plan to follow strict guidelines for the web.” Stay tuned…
A big shot in the arm for the DVR company, TiVo will provide software for Cox Cable set-top boxes. TiVo already has a similar deal with Comcast. “This is definitely the way they’d like to transition the business. I almost see their stand-alone business as a bridge strategy until they can deploy this strategy further,” said an analyst. TiVo’s stock rose 6 percent this morning. Meanwhile, TiVo’s dual-tuner, high-def DVR has appeared on TiVo.com, but without a launch date. As they say, better late than never, but TiVo is taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r.
Since 2003, E! has shot the Emmy red carpet show in high-definition, which then aired on INHD. But TVPredictions reports that E! is reverting back to standard-def this year, perhaps after pressure from the celebs themselves. Booo. (Thanks, Evan!)
The New York Television Festival has narrowed the field in their first-ever Pitch Contest to 50 semifinalists. Users can now visit MSN Video to vote on their favorite pitches to help select 10 finalists who will present their pitches before a celebrity panel at NYTVF 2006. Voting ends tomorrow. As NYTVF seeks to democratize the TV marketplace, the networks are also reognizing the important of this new development process. Last week NBC announced it would premiere its new series Kidnapped on the opening night of the festival. Fox is also going to show a new episode of Standoff for the first time.
I just learned about Paltalk form a colleague of mine yesterday. It’s a cool video chatting service that basically turns chat into a video conference call of sorts. Opie & Anthony use Paltalk so their audience can watch them and each other. The best part, the audience gets to see what’s going on during the commercials! Seems like every talk radio program should do this and there’s almost no costs involved for the radio broadcaster. You can download Paltalk for free, but it costs $14.95/month to watch Opie & Anthony.
On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Pipeline will stream CNN’s coverage of the terrorist attacks as they unfolded five years ago, matched to the exact time of day. The stream will begin at 8:30 a.m., just minutes before the first report of a plane hitting the World Trade Center. Plus, CNN.com is making Pipeline free for the day. Cool idea. Press release…
While Brian Williams, Charles Gibson and Katie Couric all receive positive responses from the 
A big shot in the arm for the DVR company, TiVo will 