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ArchivesDirect2Drive to Power PC Game Downloads on Alienware.comAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:52am.
Brisbane, Calif. - Direct2Drive, a unit of News Corporation's IGN Entertainment that provides digital game distribution, announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with gamer-focused PC maker Alienware. Direct2Drive will power PC game downloads on Alienware.com, which sells the company's high-performance desktop and notebook PCs.
SonyBMG CD Copy-Protection Enables iPod Playback, Infringes Open SourceAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:49am.
San Francisco - The malicious XCP SonyBMG CD copy-protection technology developed by First 4 Internet, which has forced the recall of millions of CDs, also contained code that allows the copy-protected tracks to play on Apple's iPod, according to a post on Freedom to Tinker, a blog run by computer researchers Alex Halderman and Edward Felten. No other previous CD copy-protection schemes have enabled protected tracks to be transferred to the popular portable player, the result of Apple's refusal to license its FairPlay digital rights management technology. What's more, the code that enables iPod playback of XCP copy-protected CD tracks appears to infringe on the copyrights of several open source software products. Wired News on Wednesday profiled 24-year-old Princeton University researcher John "Alex" Halderman, in a story available from a link below.
Financier Icahn Warns Time Warner, Parsons About Potential AOL DealAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:46am.
Dulles, Va. - As media giant Time Warner continues to hash out the details of a potential advertising partnership between its America Online unit and Microsoft, billionaire financing Carl Icahn has issued a warning to the company about agreeing to any deals that could get in the way of a future spin-off or sale. In a statement, Icahn, who leads a group of hedge funds that hold a 3% stake in Time Warner, said that it would be "another egregious error in judgment" if the company's board approved a deal that would "make it more difficult to realize value at AOL or Time Warner." He also warned that if Time Warner Chairman and CEO Dick Parsons takes steps to lessen the value of his company in an effort to make it a less attractive takeover target, "such action would be a breach of the fiduciary duty of loyalty" and he would "hold Mr. Parsons and the board personally liable for the inevitable damage to shareholder value." Icahn is in the early stages of a proxy fight to gain control of Time Warner's board.
Report: World Mobile Games Market Doubles in 2005 to Surpass $2 BillionAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:43am.
London - The world mobile games market doubled in value over the past year to surpass $2 billion in revenues, and will be worth $8.3 billion by 2010, according to a report from market research firm Screen Digest. The U.S. and European mobile games markets are beginning to erode the positions of their Asian counterparts, now making up 52% of the total market. The report notes that major game publishers have largely faltered in the space, as U.S.-based Jamdat Mobile and France-based Gameloft together account for 30% of mobile game revenues in the U.S. and Europe, while only THQ Wireless has emerged among major publishers in the mobile games space. The report also noted that over $500 million has been invested in the mobile games market since 1999.
U.K. Songwriters Seek Larger Royalties from Digital Music ServicesAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:41am.
London - U.K. songwriters have petitioned for an increase in royalties for online music services, from about 5 pence per download to between 7-9 pence per download. The proposal from the Musicians Alliance is not supported by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents record labels and believes the royalty should shrink to 2.5 pence per download. The BPI argues that 5 pence is equivalent to 12% of revenues from online music, while songwriters earn 6.5% on CDs and up to 5.25% of radio ad revenue, adding that songwriters have not had to invest in the creation of digital music services. The Music Alliance responded by saying that record labels should pay for the royalty increase from the 40-50 pence they make on each download -- due to the savings they see from digital distribution. Both sides have filed claims with the U.K. Copyright Tribunal, which will likely hold a hearing on the matter in the fall of 2006.
Report: Theater-to-DVD Release Window Shrinks Again in 2005Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:38am.
Monterey, Calif. - Due to piracy worries, the average time between a movie's release in theaters and its DVD release in stores shrunk by 15 days this year, from 144 days in 2004 to 129 days in 2005, according to a report from Kagan Research. The firm believes the window will not be reduced much further. "If it shrinks significantly more, it would encroach on the box office," said Kagan Research analyst Wade Holden. "And that would be counter-productive to the distributors' total economic returns because what's lost in theatrical probably won't be fully made up in home video." The report found that films that made less than $30 million at the box office went to video in an average of 115 days, while films that grossed over $30 million averaged 132 days. The staggered release window system has long been utilized by movie studios to maximize profits, although the report comes as director Steven Soderbergh ("Traffic," "Ocean's 11") prepares to release his upcoming film "Bubble" simultaneously in theaters, on DVD and on a high-definition cable TV network.
Publishing Rights to Bankrupt Acclaim's Video Games Sold at AuctionAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:29am.
Plainview, N.Y. - The publishing rights to more than 200 video games once owned by now-defunct publisher Acclaim are currently up for sale, in an online auction hosted by the trustees charged with liquidating the company's assets. Current bids range from $5,000 for titles like "Double Dragon" and "Alias," to $25,000 for "Wizards & Warriors," $40,000 for the "Re-Volt" series and $75,000 for a suite of "Extreme G" racing titles. Other games up for sale also include a number of titles based on lucrative licenses for "The Simpsons" and "South Park," although these franchises have since been sold to other developers, and further royalties may be due the original developers by anyone buying the publishing rights to the older titles.
MTV Gets Film Rights to Atari/Marc Ecko Graffiti Culture Video GameAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:22am.
New York - Viacom's MTV Films announced on Thursday that it has acquired the motion picture rights to the Atari video game, "Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure." Slated for release in February, the urban graffiti culture video game is a collaboration with urban fashion designer Marc Ecko, and features voice talent from Sean "Diddy" Combs, Rosario Dawson, Talib Kweli, Brittany Murphy and others. Ecko will serve as a producer on the film adaptation, along with MTV Films' Gregg Goldin; Paramount Pictures will distribute the film. "When I first began working on 'Getting Up' seven years ago, I wanted to create a storyline that provided a rare look inside of one of the most influential, yet often overlooked, artistic movements in recent history," said Ecko. "Today, graffiti is a global cultural phenomenon and few understand its impact better than MTV, pioneers in its use as a motion graphics tool nearly two decades ago."
U.K. Satellite Firm Inmarsat Launches Global Internet ServiceAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:19am.
London - Inmarsat, a U.K.-based satellite firm, announced that it has switched on the first phase of its $1.5 billion satellite service. The service will offer voice and data services including telephony, fax, video, e-mail and Internet access with data transfer speeds of up to 492 kilobits per second, anywhere in the world. Inmarsat claims the service -- dubbed Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) -- is about 25% faster than 3G. The company expects governments, media companies, aid agencies, military forces and large corporations to be most interested in the service, especially where normal communications are problematic.
Investors Accelerate SmartVideo's $8 Million Private PlacementAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:16am.
Atlanta - SmartVideo Technologies, an Atlanta-based provider of technology for broadcasting live, on-demand and download-and-play television content for mobile video users, announced that the investors in its recent private placement of stock have waived the secondary closing requirements and have completed the $4 million, second phase of the deal. Shares in SmartVideo surged on Thursday, following the announcement, moving up $0.95 to close at $6.10, a gain of 18%. SmartVideo's library of content includes news, weather, sports and children's programming from such companies such as ABC News, NBC Universal, Fox Sports and The Weather Channel, among others.
BT, BBC, Warner Music, Paramount Team for U.K. TV ServiceAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:14am.
London - U.K.-based BT Group announced that it has teamed up with the BBC, Warner Music and Paramount on a new mass-market TV service that will be launched next summer. "They represent a cross-section of the kind of deals that we will be signing," said BTTV Services CEO Dan Marks. "What we are showing here is a music company, a broadcast company owning U.K. TV rights and a studio." Marks also said BT would announce further deals later this month and unveil a "series of interactive products" in the near future. The new service will combine pay-TV programming with more than 30 Freeview channels, BT said.
Creative Introduces 30GB Zen Vision:M Video/MP3 PlayerAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:12am.
Milpitas, Calif. - Consumer electronics firm Creative Technology on Thursday introduced the Zen Vision:M, a 30GB portable video player, photo viewer and MP3 player. The $329 device sports a 2.5-inch color LCD screen, and will be available in five colors when it goes on sale this month. In addition to storing personal media collections, the device also supports subscription services such as TiVoToGo, Yahoo Music Unlimited, Napster To Go and Rhapsody To Go.
T-Mobile to Sell EMI Mobile Song Downloads, Video Clips in EuropeAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 5:27am.
New York - Major record label EMI Music announced that it has signed an agreement with wireless network operator T-Mobile, for the rights to offer full-track mobile song downloads, video clips, ringtones and other EMI artist content in Europe. Some 200,000 EMI tracks will be available as mobile downloads under the pan-European agreement. T-Mobile claims 60 million customers worldwide.
Nickelodeon Acquires Local Family Events Website GoCityKidsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 5:25am.
New York - Viacom's Nickelodeon children's cable TV network announced on Thursday that it has acquired GoCityKids, an online city directory that indexes family-friendly local events in 14 U.S. cities. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Launched in 2000, GoCityKids.com aims to increase its coverage to 20 cities by the end of the first quarter of 2006.
Snoop Dogg Named Executive Producer of Hip-Hop for XM RadioAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 5:23am.
New York - XM Satellite Radio, a subscription radio service with 5 million subscribers, said on Thursday that it has named hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg as executive producer for its hip-hop channel, The Rhyme. The rapper already hosts a weekly radio show on XM, and will now provide creative direction and develop new hip-hop programming for the company.
AOL, Telepictures Team to Launch TMZ.com Entertainment News SiteAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 5:21am.
Dulles, Va. - America Online said on Thursday that it has teamed with Telepictures Productions to launch TMZ.com, a new entertainment news site. Telepictures produces nationally syndicated TV shows including "Extra," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "The Tyra Banks Show" and "ElimiDate". AOL said that TMZ.com will cover the latest news on celebrities, movies, music, television shows and video games.
GoldPocket Creates Interactive TV Features for TBS, History ChannelAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 5:19am.
Los Angeles - GoldPocket Interactive, a recent acquisition of Tandberg Television, announced on Thursday that it has created new interactive TV applications for the TBS series "Daisy Does America" and The History Channel special, "Boys' Toys." The TBS series will include mini-games and other elements that users can play along with in real-time on TBS.com, while viewers of the History Channel special will be able to interact both online and via cell phones in polls, trivia and wager challenges.
Yahoo Artist Mods Let Users Remix Music Videos OnlineAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 5:17am.
Santa Monica, Calif. - Yahoo Music said on Thursday that it partnered with graphics chipmaker Nvidia to launch Yahoo Artist Mods, a feature that lets users create their own animated music videos. Initially, users will be able to control backgrounds, lighting and camera angles when creating new versions of videos including "Just Stop" by Disturbed and "Good Times" by Tommy Lee, with additional videos from Sean Paul and Lil' Wayne to follow. The feature requires that users download ModMaker, a rendering engine developed by Big Bear Entertainment using Nvidia's Quadro graphics technology.
iPlayMusic Offers Free Video Guitar Lesson Downloads on iTunesAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 5:15am.
Menlo Park, Calif. - Interactive music product developer iPlayMusic announced on Thursday that it has made 35 beginner guitar video lessons available for free download from Apple's iTunes store, where they can then also be transferred onto a video iPod. The company also placed the rest of its lesson catalog for sale on iTunes, including $4.95 individual song lessons that teach users how to play tunes by artists such as the Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley and Willie Nelson.
InPhonic Launches mFly Unit to Sell Ringtones, GamesAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 5:13am.
Washington - InPhonic, an online reseller of wireless products and services, said on Thursday that it has launched mFly, a new business unit offering mobile content such as ringtones, wallpaper and games. Washington-based InPhonic said that it has forged relationships with m-Qube and RingTone Technologies to hasten its entry into the market.
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