Home › DMW Daily

DMW Daily, October 20, 2008

Top Stories
o WSJ: Layoffs at Yahoo Expected Soon
o Google CEO Eric Schmidt Backs Obama; Will Hit Campaign Trail
o Actors Guild Requests Federal Mediator on Labor Contract Talks
o U2, Madonna, Jay-Z Got Live Nation Equity Stakes in "360" Deals
o MPAA Says RealDVD Lawsuit is Not "Controlling Innovation"
o Satellite Radio Firm Worldspace Files for Chapter 11
o Jamba Reorganizes Following News Corp. Takeover
o Movidia Lands $14 Million for Mobile Video Processors
Opinion & Analysis
o DMW Vlog: Promotional Currency's Barry Schaffer on Music & Meat
Briefly Noted
o CBS Debuts Online "Social Viewing Rooms" for TV Shows
o Microsoft: 3.8M Songs Sold Monthly via Xbox for Music Games
o Universal Music, Chinese Video Site Youku Team on Contest
o TuneCore Artists Now Paid When Songs Streamed via iLike
o Philips Spins Off Content Fingerprinting Unit as Civolution
 Top Stories
o WSJ: Layoffs at Yahoo Expected Soon 
New York - Yahoo is expected to announce a cost-cutting plan this week that includes a round of layoffs, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. [more..]
o Google CEO Eric Schmidt Backs Obama; Will Hit Campaign Trail 
New York - Google CEO Eric Schmidt has announced that he will back Sen. Barack Obama, and join him on the campaign trail starting with an event in Florida on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. [more..]
o Actors Guild Requests Federal Mediator on Labor Contract Talks 
Los Angeles - Hollywood's Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has formally requested that a federal mediator be brought into negotiations between its 120,000 actor members and the movie studios and networks over labor contracts.
[more..]
o U2, Madonna, Jay-Z Got Live Nation Equity Stakes in "360" Deals 
Los Angeles - Concert promoter and venue owner Live Nation gave up equity stakes to performers including U2, Jay-Z and Madonna when it signed lucrative "360 deals" with them that includes recording, touring and merchandise, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a regulatory filing. [more..]
o MPAA Says RealDVD Lawsuit is Not "Controlling Innovation" 
Los Angeles - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has responded to an allegation that the studios are "against innovation" with an open letter to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital civil liberties group that has sided with RealNetworks in a dispute with the studios over the company's DVD-copying software, CNET News.com reported.
[more..]
o Satellite Radio Firm Worldspace Files for Chapter 11 
Silver Spring, Md. - Mired in red ink, Worldspace, a provider of satellite radio services to foreign markets, said that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. [more..]
o Jamba Reorganizes Following News Corp. Takeover 
Beverly Hills, Calif. - News Corporation on Monday announced a reorganization at Jamba, the mobile content firm it acquired full ownership of from VeriSign last week. [more..]
o Movidia Lands $14 Million for Mobile Video Processors 
Dublin, Ireland - Movidia, a developer of mobile video processors, announced that it has raised over $14 million in its first round of financing, led by Celtic House Venture Partners and Capital-E. [more..]
 Opinion & Analysis
o DMW Vlog: Promotional Currency's Barry Schaffer on Music & Meat 
n/a
 Briefly Noted
o CBS Debuts Online "Social Viewing Rooms" for TV Shows 
San Francisco - CBS Interactive on Monday introduced a new online video feature called the Social Viewing Room, which allows viewers to watch CBS TV programs online in a virtual room that enables chat and comments. [more..]
o Microsoft: 3.8M Songs Sold Monthly via Xbox for Music Games 
London - Microsoft is selling 3.8 million downloadable songs a month for the Xbox 360 versions of music video games "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band," GamesIndustry.biz reports. [more..]
o Universal Music, Chinese Video Site Youku Team on Contest 
Beijing - Chinese video hosting site Youku on Monday announced a partnership with major label Universal Music, which will seek to find Chinese musicians to form a new band that will be signed to the label. [more..]
o TuneCore Artists Now Paid When Songs Streamed via iLike 
Seattle - Social music discovery service iLike announced on Monday a partnership with TuneCore, a digital music distribution service focused on independent artists. [more..]
o Philips Spins Off Content Fingerprinting Unit as Civolution 
Eindhoven, The Netherlands - Consumer electronics firm Philips on Monday announced that it has spun-off its digital audio and video fingerprinting business, which will now be known as Civolution. [more..]