Google says Viacom’s suit ‘threatens’ internet
Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit against Google’s YouTube “threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information” over the web, Google said in a legal filing.
Nielsen: 25M households not ready for DTV
A new report from Nielsen says 25 million households have at least one TV set that’s not DTV-ready, and 10 million households are “completely unready.” There are 9 months to go…
More on the May sweeps meltdown
Scott Collins writes in the LA Times that the May sweeps disaster “is beginning to look like a signal moment in the slow, painful meltdown of the broadcast TV industry.” He goes on: “Broadcasting, simply put, isn’t casting broadly anymore. As the sweep suggests, the TV networks are losing not just their viewers but also [...]
Cable still strongarms customers who keep shelling out
With all that we talk about online video disruption, the MSOs (that’s cable companies to you and me) are still making bank. The New York Times reports that cable prices have risen 77 percent since 1996, roughly double the rate of inflation. The average customer is now shelling out $60 a month for a cable [...]
Top contenders for the Weather Channel are…
Time Warner and NBC Universal are leading the pack, according to the WSJ. (B&C free version here.) Second-round bids are due today, and offers are expected in the $3-4 billion range.
Changing names with the times
The Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association (BCFM) has announced that it has changed its name to the Media Financial Management Association “to embrace the new media that are reshaping our businesses.” So, the finance folks have changed their association’s name, but the news association (Radio and Television News Directors Association) and the technology association (National [...]
Inside New York Times’ R&D labs
Scobleizer scored a tour of the NYT’s building, which included a peek into some cool gadgetry and interactive experiments. His blog post includes some video of the “Time Machine,” a new archive application. (Via Fimoculous.)
Media General announces deep cuts
First CBS, then Gannett, and now Media General is announcing a round of layoffs: 750 people, or 11% of its workforce, across its newspapers and TV stations. But the company has increased staffing in its interactive division.
ABC.com adding embedding feature to player
On the heels of Hulu.com’s successful launch with embeddable video, now ABC.com is adding the ability for users to embed its player on their own sites. ABC.com will also roll out full-screen viewing and closed captioning. The new features are in closed beta, and expect to go live in time for the fall season. Says [...]
Be ‘shocked’ into more aggressive thinking
May sweeps is officially a disaster, and Variety has a follow-up: “The writers strike, along with the rising popularity of DVRs and the increased availability of programming on multiple platforms, conspired to make this season the lowest-rated on record for the broadcasters,” says the trade mag. The top five broadcast networks are down 10 percent [...]
Mobile reporters and an idea to help save papers
With laptops and WiFi, is there any reason for newspaper reporters to file from the newsroom — or even work out of a newsroom at all? “With most editing, ad placement, layout, and design done on computers anyway, it’s conceivable that the newsroom as it exists today could be eliminated, with folks working from home, [...]
NBC: DVR block was a mistake
“We made an inadvertent mistake,” said an NBC spokesperson about the episode earlier this week when Vista Media Center users were unable to record American Gladiators and Medium.
Hulu adds new sites, beats ABC.com
Hulu has added new content partners TV.com (soon to be owned by CBS), TVGuide.com, BuddyTV.com, Flixster.com, MyYearbook.com, Break.com and Zap2it.com. According to Nielsen stats, Hulu now surpasses ABC.com in total videos watched (63.2 million to 60.8 million) and average minutes watched a month (129.3 minutes to 57.3 minutes.)
Amanda Congdon returns to the blogosphere
Former Rocketboom host Amanda Congdon is back on the Internets, after a quick foray into the MSM realm at ABC News. Congdon is now on “Sometimes Daily.” Congdon told the New York Times’ Brian Stelter the ABC News gig started great – but didn’t quite fit: ABC News felt right at first, she said; looking [...]
What to call abandoned blogs?
In today’s B&C Station to Station blog, Mike Malone challenges Lost Remote to come up with a term for an abandoned blog. We’re not ones to shy away from a challenge, so loyal readers what would be a catchy term for an abandoned blog? (And no, “Local TV Site Blogs” might indeed be mostly abandoned [...]
CNBC.com to share content with AOL
The NBC-Universal owned business website will now supply content to AOL’s business and finance section in a deal announced today. CNBC will provide video to AOL – and help sell integrated packages across CNBC-TV, CNBC.com and AOL. Full release after the jump.
No recording that NBC show on your Microsoft DVR
Microsoft admitted that it will honor a programmer’s requests to block the recording of programs on its Media Center PCs. And this isn’t some theoretical possibility… it looks like it happened. It seems some folks weren’t able to TiVo record American Gladiators and Medium last week. So News.com started asking questions. Microsoft included technologies in [...]
YouTube keeps growing
April usage numbers for YouTube show another month of growth, hitting 4 billion streams. That’s up from 3.6 billion in March. YouTube’s closest competitor is Fox Interactive Media, at just 329 million streams. (Via TV Week)
