If you havent read, ESPN has come out and said that they will be aggressively bidding for the retransmission rights for the next available Olympics, which will be in 2016. Notice I didnt say TV rights. The battle for the Olympics rights will be in spreadsheet projections done by ESPN, NBC and probably DirecTV (my guess, not based on any info), that will have to take in to account what revenues can be generated on TV advertising (traditional and interactive), through cable/satellite subscription revenues, an ever increasing market size for mobile video and advertising, and of course audio/video and text advertising of all types.

There is a dirty little secret in the cable industry. Its being kept secret not by the cable distributors, but by the big cable networks. End this practice and the United States goes from being 3rd world by international broadband standards, to top of the charts and exemplary. Make this change and Net Neutrality becomes a non issue. There is plenty of bandwidth for everyone. What is the dirty little secret? That your cable company still delivers basic cable networks in analog.

New York - DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), the No. 1 satellite-TV provider in terms of subscribers, is testing its own version of an on-demand movies and television service that it plans to launch in the second quarter with some 3000 titles, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The new services will potentially put DirecTV’s satellite service in direct competition with on-demand services that so far only have been available on cable or newer phone-company TV services.

New York - Disney (NYSE: DIS) president and CEO Bob Iger believes that the computer will soon replace television as children’s screen of choice. He made the remark at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit in New York yesterday. Iger also stressed how social media was far from a fad, but in fact a part of everyday life for children, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

Think video is the future of online media? Broadband revolution, right? Apple perfecting the digital video experience? Well, not if everyone decides to embrace that future all at once. Time Warner Cable is experimenting with caps on broadband usage, which means too much movie downloading and suddenly you’re paying $30 per movie.

Here's a fact: if you get naked and run across the football field at an NFL game, you won't get on television.  The World Cup and most international soccer leagues have also instituted the same policy.  If a streaker makes it onto the field, the television cameras cut away from the action and the commentators simply fill time and the action will continue once he or she is removed.  The thinking is, if you remove the incentive of getting fame by being on television, streakers will stop disrupting games. 

New York - CBS Corporation's Showtime cable TV network has announced plans to launch a broadband on-demand video game service.

New York - The creator and executive producer of Showtime Networks' "The L Word" series, Ilene Chaiken, announced on Monday that she has partnered with a group of women from the entertainment and technology industries to launch an online social network for lesbians and their friends.