register |
login
| search members submit a classified | request a media kit
connecting people & knowledge
ReportUK Government Group Calls on Social Media Sites to Do More to Protect Young Users from "the Internet’s Dark Side"Authored by Ned Sherman on August 1, 2008 - 5:17am.
Report: Half of VNU Shareholders Set to Reject TakeoverAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2006 - 8:16am.
Amsterdam - According to a report by the Financial Times, about half of VNU's shareholders are planning to reject a $9.1 billion takeover bid recently tabled by a group of private-equity firms. VNU is the owner magazines including Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. The private-equity group, which includes Blackstone, Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is expected to launch its bid for VNU formally sometime next week. Quoting unnamed sources familiar with the situation, the Financial Times said that a number of shareholders -- including Fidelity International, which owns around 15% of the Netherlands-based market research firm -- would not support the offer.
Report: Average U.S. Household Owns 26 Consumer Electronics ProductsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2006 - 8:12am.
Arlington, Va. - The average U.S. household now owns 26 consumer electronics products and has spent $1,200 on products such as MP3 players, digital cameras and notebook computers over the past year, according to a new study by the Consumer Electronics Association. The study also found that analog is giving way to digital technologies across the board, and identified the top five most owned products as televisions (in 95% of households), VCRs (87%), cordless phones (85%), DVD players (81%) and wireless phones (78%). The report includes favorable findings for satellite radio, as well. Satellite radio ownership reached 10% of households as total subscribers to XM and Sirius topped the 10 million mark.
Report: Movie Studio Support Waning for Sony PSP Universal Media DiscAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on March 30, 2006 - 9:26am.
Los Angeles - Sony's Universal Media Disc (UMD) format, on which movies are sold for playback on its PSP handheld video game, is losing support among top movie studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Facing very low sales, both Paramount and Universal will likely stop releasing movies on UMD, sources told THR. "It's awful. Sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb," a "high-ranking executive" at Universal Studios Home Entertainment told THR. "No one's even breaking even on them," added a high-ranking executive at Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment. Studios including 20th Century Fox and Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment have also dramatically reduced the number of UMD titles they plan to release. THR noted that big retailers including Wal-Mart appear to be reducing the shelf space allotted for UMD titles. Sony, meanwhile, has seen some success on several UMD titles, and currently continues to support UMD as a movie format. "We're hoping the format's going to be reinvigorated with next-generation capability that may include living-room or normal television playback," Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, told THR.
Report: 43% of U.S. Households Now Have BroadbandAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on March 30, 2006 - 9:19am.
Arlington, Va. - Forty-three million U.S. households now have broadband Internet access -- up from just 2 million in 1999 -- but the U.S. still ranks just fifteenth overall in worldwide broadband penetration, according to a new research study conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association. South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan all claim higher than 50% broadband penetration, while Japan is now at 49%; the U.S. also lags behind Canada, and Western European nations including Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. However, the number of U.S. dial-up accounts has fallen from 74% of all connections in 2000, to 60% in 2003, and now stands at 36%. "It is very possible that dial-up Internet connections will be a thing of the past by the end of the decade," said CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro. In the U.S. broadband market, DSL has grown in popularity from 4% of all Internet connections in 2000 -- compared to 15% for cable -- to 29% in March 2006, where it is now neck-and-neck with cable broadband.
Report: Online Music Sales to Offset Physical Sales Decline in EuropeAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on March 29, 2006 - 10:00am.
Amsterdam - Sales of physical music formats (CD, DVD) in Europe are projected to fall 30% over the next five years, but online music sales will grow to represent a third of the overall market and make up for this loss, according to a report from market research firm Forrester. While total European music sales are forecasted to grow from $11.41 billion in 2006 to just $13.21 billion in 2011, online sales in the region will skyrocket from $335.2 million this year to $4.7 billion during the same period, Forrester said.
Report: Mobile Video Market to Reach $500 Million by 2010Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 29, 2006 - 9:55am.
New York - JupiterResearch, a New York-based business and technology market research firm, on Tuesday said that a new survey it conducted shows that 41% of mobile phone users "are interested in some form of video service on their mobile phone." While adoption of mobile video on phones has been somewhat low to date -- only 2% of respondents said they subscribed to such a service -- 17% said they were interested in watching "live" TV on their cell phones and 11% indicated interest in short video clips. Based on its survey results, JupiterResearch predicts that demand for video on mobile phones will generate $501 million in revenues by 2010, up from $62 million in 2005.
Report: Female Internet Users Up 63% Since 2003Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 28, 2006 - 10:21am.
London - According to a new report by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), the number of women using the Internet has increased by 63% since 2003. By comparison, the number of men using the Internet increased by 54% over the same period. What's more, online time for women between the ages of 16 and 24 has more than doubled over the last three years. The EIAA's Digital Women 2006 report went on to predict that women will be spending the most time online by the year 2007 if current trends continue.
Report: Cable Firm, Networks in Talks on Top 20 TV Show VOD ServiceAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on March 27, 2006 - 11:58am.
New York - The New York Times reported on Monday that Time Warner Cable, the nation's second-largest cable TV provider, is in talks with the major TV networks on a service that would offer the top 20 network TV shows as rated by Nielsen through a video-on-demand service. Time Warner Cable spokesman Mark Harrad confirmed that talks on the service were underway with CBS, ABC, Fox and NBC, but still in early stages. "There have been high-level discussions, but no definitive decisions or deals," Harrad told The Times. The service would offer a changing lineup of the current top 20 TV shows, to be available for an as-yet-undetermined length of time, through an on-demand service that would cost Time Warner Cable subscribers an extra $10 per month. Pay-TV providers such as HBO and Showtime already offer much of their original programming on-demand, as well as through show-specific subscription video-on-demand services; the networks have also experimented with offering downloads of popular shows for sale through Apple's iTunes Store. The major impediment to the service appears to be determining how the subscription fees would be divvied amongst the cable operator and various networks.
Report: U.S. Angel Investments Grow at Modest Pace in 2005Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 27, 2006 - 11:48am.
Durham, N.H. - Angel investments in the U.S. grew modestly last year, rising 2.7% to $23.1 billion, according to new figures from the Center for Venture Research (CVR) at the University of New Hampshire. The largest chunk of those investments, about 20%, went to companies focused on healthcare services and medical devices, followed by those focused on software (18%) and biotech (12%). Jeffrey Sohl, the director of CVR, said that a growing number of angel investors are taking part in later-stage investments. "This restructuring of the angel market has in turn resulted in fewer dollars available for seed investments, thus exacerbating the capital gap for seed and start-up capital in the United
Report: Number of Residential VoIP Customers Triples in 2005Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 28, 2006 - 9:30am.
Arlington, Va. - The number of residential Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) customers, not including PC-to-PC services, more than tripled to 4.2 million last year, and is expected to reach 18 million by 2009, according to a new report from the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), an industry trade group. The TIA said that the market is being driven by a number of factors, most notably the lure of inexpensive voice communications and increasing broadband subscribership. The organization said that VoIP carriers are now moving beyond the residential market, and are beginning to introduce services geared toward the small-business market.
Private-Equity Firms Finalizing Bid for VNU, Report SaysAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on February 27, 2006 - 10:40am.
Amsterdam - According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, a group of seven private-equity firms is preparing a $8.6 billion bid for VNU, the Netherlands-based media firm that owns the Nielsen ratings service, in addition to Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. The report said the group includes AlpInvest Partners of the Netherlands, Permira Advisers of the U.K., Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and ThomasH. Lee Partners.
Comcast Reports 2005 VOD Usage Up 71%Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 23, 2006 - 2:56am.
Philadelphia - Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV provider, said on Thursday that orders on its video-on-demand service in its home market of Philadelphia increased
EU "Monitoring" Windows Vista Bundling, Report SaysAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on February 14, 2006 - 10:25am.
Brussels - According to a report by IDG, the EuropeanCommission is looking into a number of complaints against the bundling of products into Microsoft's Windows Vista -- the software giant's first operating system using protocols set down by antitrust decisions in the EU and U.S. "Several companies have expressed concerns to the European Commission related to Windows Vista," Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd told IDG. Todd said the Commission has not opened a formal investigation because it has not received a formal complaint, but added that it was "monitoring" the situation. Vista is scheduled to ship by year's end.
Report: Revenue from TV Phone Sales to Pass $30 Billion by 2010Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 13, 2006 - 11:33am.
Boston - Revenue from sales of cell phones capable of receiving mobile TV is expected to grow from $5 billion in 2006 to over $30 billion by 2010, according to a report from Boston-based market research firm Strategy Analytics. "Japan and Korea dominate market volumes today, accounting for over 80 percent of TV phones sold in 2006. However, Western Europe and North America, as well as China, will be the hot spots for global volume growth over the next few years," said Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston. "We expect Western Europe to ramp up to over 1 million units sold this year, with North America and China coming online in 2007. The share of TV phone volume held by Japan and Korea will drop precipitously to under 50 percent by 2008, and under one third by 2010." The firm predicts that TV phones based on the DVB-H standard will grow from 19% of the market this year to 40% by 2010, citing the support of Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Siemens. One popular feature on TV phones expected to grow is "TV-Out," which lets users send mobile TV content to a home TV, set-top box or digital video recorder; Strategy Analytics forecasts that 40% of all TV phones in 2010 will support this feature, up from less than 10% this year.
E-Commerce in U.K. Grows by 28.9% in 2005, Report SaysAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on February 13, 2006 - 11:25am.
London - According to a new report by market-analysis firm Verdict, U.K. shoppers are taking to the Internet like never before. Last year, U.K. consumers spent more than $14.3 billion online, a 28.9% year-on-year increase. The report also found that the e-commerce community grew by about 14.6 million people (a 25.5% increase) over the same period, meaning that nearly a quarter of Britons use the Internet to buy goods now. Verdict said the report shows that e-commerce is rapidly closing the gap with the High Street, where consumers spent $16.4 billion last year (a 1.5% increase).
Report: Mobile Users in Germany, U.K. Warming Up toAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on February 8, 2006 - 4:16am.
London - Although 3G users still account for a relatively low percentage of mobile users overall, 3G users in the U.K. and Germany are about five times more likely to use their handsets' multimedia capabilities, according to a new report by mobile market analysis firm M:Metrics. The company said mobile users in the U.K. and Germany were warming to the notion of using their phones for gaming, watching video and downloading new content for personalization. With about 7.7% of its mobile users subscribing to
Lazard Report Calls For Breakup of Time Warner Into 4 Separate CompaniesAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on February 7, 2006 - 4:49am.
Dulles, Va. - In a move being closely watched at America Online, investment bank Lazard, working for billionaire Carl Icahn, on Tuesday released a report calling for the breakup of Time Warner into four separate companies. The report calls for American Online becoming its own company, along with a separate publishing company, cable company, and entertainment company. It argues that strategic mistakes by Time Warner's board of directors have cost shareholders over $40 billion in value. The report also calls for massive cost-cutting at Time Warner, including job cuts and the curtailment of executive perks.
CNET News.com: Report from DEMO '06 ConferenceAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on February 7, 2006 - 4:28am.
Phoenix, Ariz. - CNET News.com on Tuesday reported from the Demo '06 conference in Phoenix, Ariz., where dozens of companies each get just six minutes to pitch their new technologies and products to an audience of potential investors and journalists. Each pitch is strictly regulated -- no PowerPoint slides allowed -- but the event has served as the launch pad for firms including Palm, ETrade, Handspring and U.S. Robotics.
TiVo Reports Most-Replayed Super Bowl MomentsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on February 6, 2006 - 5:26am.
Alviso, Calif. - TiVo on Monday listed the most-replayed ads from last night's Super Bowl broadcast by owners of its digital video recorders. Ameriquest took the top two spots with its ads, while spots from Budweiser, Fed Ex and Michelob rounded out the top five. The company said that TiVo households hit the replay, pause or rewind buttons an average of about 100 times during the broadcast, adding that TiVo owners on average watched the controversial touchdown by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger more than four times.
|
Upcoming DMW Events
Nov. 18-19, 2008 | New York www.televisionconference.com 
Jan. 9, 2009 | Las Vegas www.digitalmediainsider.com 
Feb. 25-26, 2009 | New York www.digitalmusicforum.com Events Calendar Submit a Speaker To receive event updates & announcements: 
DMW 100 Financial Index
NavigationUser loginAds |
DMW Daily NewsletterLatest Top Stories
Latest Briefly Noted
Our Sponsors
PollOur PublicationsOther Ads |
Recent comments
5 hours 27 min ago
1 day 4 hours ago
1 day 19 hours ago
2 days 16 hours ago
2 days 19 hours ago
4 days 10 hours ago
4 days 10 hours ago
5 days 4 hours ago
5 days 9 hours ago
5 days 12 hours ago