Archive - Oct 22, 2007

Buzz Watch: French AOL Employees Sing After Being Laid Off

Authored by Jay Baage on October 22, 2007 - 4:41pm.
AOL France reportedly lost 90 of its 140 employees as a part of the company's cost cutting efforts, which DMW covered last week. Many of the employees spent their last day on the job creating a single-take music video to the tune of "L'amour a la française." It certainly puts some faces to the numbers for AOL CEO Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant, the management duo known on campus as "Smithers and Burns," according to Valleywag. One of the comments on the video posted to Vimeo says: "As a former AOLer, I thank you for showing the spirit and creativity that increasingly is lacking at the company. There are bigger and better things to work on and I wish you luck."

TechPresident.com Launches "10Questions" Presidential Video Forum

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 2:57pm.

New York - TechPresident.com, a group blog on the use of the Web by presidential candidates, announced on Monday that it has partnered with the editorial board of The New York Times and MSNBC.com on 10Question.com, a video forum that will solicit video questions from users and responses in video form from candidates. Users can post question videos to all candidates on sites including YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo and Blip.tv tagged as "10Questions." The public will then vote on the ten best questions, with the NYTimes.com opinion page and MSNBC.com directing users to the videos, and candidates will have four weeks to submit video responses to those questions.

Universal Music to Release U.K. Singles on USB Sticks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 2:56pm.

London - Universal Music Group will begin offering singles on USB memory sticks later this month in the U.K., which will be priced at about $10.14 each and initially include offerings from artists such as Keane and Nicole, lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, the Times Online reported. "This is aimed at the younger, 12 to 24 year olds, who no longer believe that the CD is as cool as it used to be," Brian Rose, the commercial director for Universal UK, told the Times Online. Both EMI and Warner Music also plan releases on USB sticks; the format was recently approved for inclusion on U.K. sales charts by the Official U.K. Charts Company.

MobiTV Hits 3 Million Subscribers; Extends Deal With Sprint

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 2:55pm.

San Francisco - MobiTV, a provider of mobile audio and video services for cell phones, said on Monday that it has surpassed three million subscriptions for its services worldwide, having added a million new subscribers over the past six months. The company provides both branded and white-label services to more than 20 operators internationally. MobiTV also said it has appointed Charlie Nooney, the company's new CEO, to the additional role of chairman. Separately, MobiTV said that it has signed a multi-year deal to continue providing its services to U.S. wireless carrier Sprint.

Ad-Supported Service SpiralFrog Licenses Sony/ATV Music Publishing

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 2:54pm.

New York - SpiralFrog, the operator of a free, ad-supported music download service, said on Monday that it has signed a new licensing agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which controls over 625,000 copyrights. Currently, SpiralFrog is live in the U.S. and Canada, offering more than 800,000 songs for downloading and 3,500 music videos from Universal Music Group and independent labels.

Disney-ABC, U.K.'s Channel 4 to Offer On-Demand TV Downloads

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 2:52pm.

London - Disney-ABC International has signed a deal with U.K. broadcaster Channel 4, to offer free, ad-supported downloads of shows like "Ugly Betty" and "Desperate Housewives" on 4oD, Channel 4's online video-on-demand service, Variety reported. The deal, a first for Disney in Europe, will see programs remain available for up to 30 days following their original broadcasts.

tags: Video | Advertising | TV | Disney | ABC | Channel 4 |

Mywaves Inks Mobile Video Deals With Columbia Records, Nokia

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 2:50pm.

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Mobile video distributor Mywaves said on Monday that it has partnered with Sony BMG's Columbia Records, to make music video content from nine artists available through Mywaves mobile channels. The offering will include free mobile video content from Wyclef Jean, Three 6 Mafia and Nas. Mywaves said its more than 200,000 mobile video channels attract 1.5 million unique monthly visitors. Separately, the company announced a deal with Nokia to feature its mobile video content in the Nokia Video Center, where users can download content to Nokia Nseries devices.

Apple logo2

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 2:05pm.
Apple logo2

Apple logo

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 1:58pm.
Apple logo

Apple Q4 Revenues Up 28% to $6.22B; 1.1M iPhones Sold

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 1:53pm.
Apple logo2

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple said on Monday that its fiscal fourth quarter revenues climbed 28% from a year ago, to $6.22 billion, bolstered by sales of 1.1 million iPhones during the period.

SanDisk Debuts PC-to-TV Video Device; Launches Web Video Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 1:36pm.

Milpitas, Calif. - SanDisk, a maker of flash storage media and portable media players, on Monday introduced the TakeTV Video Player, a device that moves video content from the PC to a TV, and also launched a public beta of Fanfare, an online service that lets users download TV shows, movies and other video content to portable devices.

NBC Pulls YouTube Channel Prior to Hulu Launch

Authored by Scott Goldberg on October 22, 2007 - 1:26pm.
No more from The Office on YouTube...at least legallyNBC Universal has finally left YouTube, removing the channel today ahead of the expected beta launch of Hulu, a video site formed by the company in a joint venture with News Corp.  The companies have touted Hulu, a name at the punch line of more than a few jokes, as a legitimate rival to YouTube.

AT&T to Offer Over-the-Air Song Downloads From Napster Mobile

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 1:22pm.

San Antonio, Texas - Wireless network operator AT&T on Monday announced an extension of its relationship with Napster, and beginning next month will offer subscribers access to over-the-air downloads of songs from the company's catalog of over five million tracks.

tags: Mobile | Music | AT&T | Napster |

Career Moves: October 22, 2007

Authored by dmw on October 22, 2007 - 12:22pm.

CDC Games, a business unit of CDC Corporation announced today that Jeffrey Longoria has been appointed as president of CDC Games International (CGI). CGI, a subsidiary of CDC Games, was created to launch new games internationally and to position CDC Games as a global publisher of online games.

tags: Career | Moves |

MySpace Roommates logo

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 12:06pm.
MySpace Roommates logo

MySpace Debuts First Original Scripted Web Series, "Roommates"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 12:00pm.
MySpace Roommates logo

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s MySpace online social network on Monday announced the launch of its first original scripted Web series, "Roommates," which will debut one of 45 new episodes each weekday through Dec. 21.

E for All Expo logo

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2007 - 11:42am.
E for All Expo logo