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SHELLY PALMER analyzes Amazon’s latest move in the techno-rebellion against the retail industry. Read on to see how 3G phones, white-space devices and future wireless technologies may impact retail stores.
MICROSOFT increased its pressure on Yahoo, threatening to begin a hostile takeover if a deal isn’t reached within three weeks. Steve Ballmer wrote a letter to Yahoo warning of a proxy fight to replace board members and suggesting that a second offer may actually be lower than the first. Ballmer said decreasing page views may make Yahoo less valuable now than when the takeover bid was first launched. In related news, Yahoo will announce the details of AMP, a new AdSense-like advertising system it plans to launch in the third quarter.
BRGHTCOVE has signed distribution deals with Bebo, Veoh, Meebo and more. Brightcove currently has distribution deals with Yahoo, AOL Video and others. The new sites have 300 million combined users, significantly increasing the reach of the Brightcove network.
THE NHL will add a revamped NeuLion video player to NHL.com, offering three years of archived clips and seven linear channels of content. Anheuser-Busch, Cisco and Dodge have signed up to exclusively sponsor individual channels. In the future the league will offer teams the chance to create their own channels to help monetize their own content. NHL.com will completely relaunch in September.
BMW has committed half of its advertising budget for the latest entry-level BMW 1-Series to online media. The company is offering Facebook applications that let users personalize the car, seeding YouTube with car clips, buying prominent ad positions on popular web portals and running a 1-Series microsite. As one of TV’s biggest advertisers, the auto industry’s shift to new media is worth watching closely.
PBS has scored an online hit with “Bush’s War,” an extensive four-hour documentary about the Iraq War. The program is being streamed in 26 segments and has reached 1.5 million viewers. Site hits have increased tenfold and viewers are staying on the site longer than before the documentary was posted. PBS has made a solid online offering, with embeddable clips, interactive timelines and more. In related news, the PBS Kids Sprout network will launch The Sprout Sharing Show, a 3-hour block that mixes traditional shows with user-generated clips created by preschoolers.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL will allow regional sports networks to offer on-demand replays of games for up to 24 hours after each game ends.