Software Engineer, ABC Stations
Seattle
Read the full post February 6th, 2007
Archive for February 6th, 2007
Facebook signs TV deal with Comcast
Facebook and Comcast are teaming up encourage the social network’s users to upload video to Ziddio, Comcast’s user video site, which is currently in beta. Hollywood TV producer R.J. Cutler will then choose the best submissions to create a TV series called Facebook Diaries, which will air on Comcast VOD as well as streamed online. Comcast and Facebook will also shop the show to the networks. “We think the opportunity for our users to have their content shown on television is a real draw,” said Owen Van Natta, chief operating officer at Facebook. Ziddio has been around since November, and unlike sites like YouTube, it’s banking on the potential for users to make it on TV to differentiate it from the other guys. And Facebook, meanwhile, has been falling behind MySpace in the video department and needed to get in the game. Screen grab…
Add comment February 6th, 2007
A look at Viacom’s Talentload.tv
About a month ago, Viacom’s VH1 launched the user video site Talentload.tv, powered by technology from ViTrue (which runs its own video site, Sharkle.com, and has powered user video functionality for TBS and Friendster.) Users can upload music videos to win cash money and other prizes, which is also a way for VH1 and MTV to screen possible talent for upcoming reality shows. Recently, VH1 and Warner Brothers ran a songwriting contest to promote the film Music and Lyrics, and now P. Diddy is looking for vocal talent for MTV’s Making the Band 4. Screen grab…
1 comment February 6th, 2007
Wal-Mart video downloads a ‘game changer’
Wal-Mart has launched a video download site that for the first time offers movies from all five major studios (gee, I wonder what leverage they used to sign those deals?) Wal-Mart’s new store not only offers the widest selection but also lower prices than iTunes and Amazon’s UnBox. “We are talking about the beginning of the end for DVDs,” said Rob Enderle, an independent analyst at the Enderle Group. “The need to buy discs will not go away, but it will cut into any growth the market has.”
Also: Amazon, TiVo to test movie downloads direct to TVs
8 comments February 6th, 2007
Get caught up on ‘Lost’
The ABC series returns Wednesday night with 16 new episodes, and you can get caught up with a one-hour recap show that’s available on ABC.com and TV.Yahoo.com.
Add comment February 6th, 2007
NBCU’s Zucker lashes out at YouTube
On his first day as CEO of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker had some pointed words for the biggest video site on the web. “YouTube needs to prove that it will implement its filtering technology across its online platform. It’s proven it can do it when it wants to,” Zucker said, referring to the site’s controls to block porn and other objectionable content. He added: “They have the capability. The question is whether they have the will.” NBC and other media companies are frustrated with YouTube’s delay in launching its promised technology to filter out copyrighted content, which contributed to Viacom’s decision to halt negotiations and pull its content off the site.
4 comments February 6th, 2007
Hackers level one of biggest attacks since 2002
Hackers launched a denial-of-service attack on root DNS servers in one of the biggest onslaughts on the internet since 2002. “We would call it a brownout instead of a blackout. It was significant, but it did not take anything down,” said a representative with internet service provider Neustar. The attack begin early in the morning on Tuesday and continued throughout much of the day. The source has not been identified.
4 comments February 6th, 2007
Turner pays Boston $2 million for ‘Aqua Teen’ scare
Turner Broadcasting has agreed to pay Boston-area authorities $2 million after last week’s marketing-stunt-gone-haywire surrounding the Cartoon Network’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” $1 million will cover the costs incurred by Boston and two neighboring cities. The other $1 million will go toward local homeland security programs. (When the story broke, Boston said it spent $250,000 on the scare. Funny how that number went up eightfold once the city heard that Turner was behind the signs.) Still, this is short money for Turner. How do you quantify the amount of publicity the $2 million generated? I’ll bet it resulted in tens of millions of dollars of exposure for Cartoon Network. Nobody wants to admit it, but this wasn’t a publicity stunt gone bad. This was a publicity stunt that went exceedingly well.
2 comments February 6th, 2007
Meet the downloads: Apple and Beatles reach deal
About time. The long dispute between Apple (Computer) and Apple (Corps) is over. The two sides settled a trademark dispute centered around the iTunes music store. Apple Records had long agreed to let the computer company use the “Apple” name provided it didn’t get into the music biz. Once the iTunes store started in 2003, the notoriously litigious Beatles company sent in the lawyers. The suit is the big reason why you can’t download a Beatles song legally. But with the barrier removed, expect to see the Beatles available for download soon. The settlement has sparked a couple of fun fantasies: Motley Fool wants a “Beatles iPod” pre-loaded with songs. (We suggest the color yellow.) And The Mirror points out that the Fab Four could own the Fab Forty - all the slots in the top forty downloads at iTunes. The Beatles are not available for download yet. Still, you’ve got to admit, it’s getting better.
3 comments February 6th, 2007
World’s oldest newspaper goes digital
Sweden’s Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper, founded in 1645 by Sweden’s Queen Kristina, has ceased printing a paper edition and is now available only online. Despite its online transformation, Post-och Inrikes Tidningar remains No. 1 on a ranking of the oldest newspapers still in circulation compiled by the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers. “An online newspaper is still a newspaper, so we’ll leave it on the list,” WAN spokesman Larry Kilman said.
Add comment February 6th, 2007
New Disney.com launches
The new Disney.com debuted today (a week late), and so far I’m impressed, but I’m curious to read your comments. The Flash-heavy, video-everywhere site is packed with stuff that kids would click, from TV shows to games to radio to a friends social network. The Disney XD section of the site, still in beta, allows you to watch full-length shows on a larger screen, with some interactive elements like polls around the fringes. You can also drag-and-drop a variety of widgets around the player. My only complaint so far is the content-to-promotion ratio is a little too weighted towards the latter for my taste, but I would imagine they’ll be adding more content to the site soon. Screen grabs…
The home page.
The Disney XD page.
14 comments February 6th, 2007
Zucker named CEO of NBC Universal
Updated: He started as a part-time sports researcher, and two decades later Jeff Zucker has succeeded Bob Wright to become president and CEO of NBC Universal. Wright will remain vice chairman of General Electric, and he says Zucker’s biggest challenge is figuring out how to succeed in a digital world. “It’s sorting out the digital is the real challenge, the rest of our business is pretty good right now,” Wright said in a CNBC interview Tuesday morning. “Everybody can’t have My Space. We all want to have My Space. At least we think we do right this minute.” Press release…
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Legit clips fall victim to Viacom YouTube purge
Among the 100,000 clips that YouTube purged for Viacom are a few legitimate user-generated clips that happened to share some of the same keywords. This guy had his clip of a “Sunday dinner at Redbones” deleted, and he received a YouTube email that read, “Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account.” (Some suspect that YouTube had searched for “Leon Redbone” and ended up with his clip.) Regardless, he’s not so happy about it.
2 comments February 6th, 2007
