Techno-politics

APPLE will reportedly offer iTunes movie rentals from Warner Bros., Fox, Paramount, and Lions Gate. Rentals will cost $3.99 for 24 hours. An announcement is expected during the Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld on January 15th. HARVEY WEINSTEIN told reporters that WEINSTEIN CO. has signed an interim deal with the WGA. Weinstein called it a Continue Reading →

FRONTLINE WIRELESS has reportedly shutdown operations following a failed attempt to bid in the upcoming wireless spectrum auction. The company missed Thursday’s deadline for submitting the $128 million auction deposit after being unable to acquire funding. A company spokesperson released a statement saying “Frontline is closed for business at this time. We have no further Continue Reading →

THE NTIA is now accepting requests for coupons toward the purchase of the digital-to-analog converter boxes that will be required to use analog TV sets after the transition to digital in February 2009. 22 million coupons will be distributed on a first-come first-serve basis. Over ten million coupons have been reserved for households that only Continue Reading →

NBC has decided to use reruns from USA Network and internationally-produced shows to help fill the void created by the writers strike. The network will air the “Monk” and “Psych” reruns on Sunday during prime-time. According to Ben Silverman, two shows are currently being produced for NBC outside the US using foreign writers not bound Continue Reading →

NBC officially announced that Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien will return to the air on January 2nd without their writing staffs. Conan expressed his support for the writers and said his show “may be terrible” without them. Ratings have dropped off considerably during reruns, with both shows losing over 30% of their audience. THE FCC Continue Reading →

THE GAO released a study yesterday finding that the FCC has “no comprehensive plan” in place for the upcoming transition to all-digital television. The report claims there is a risk of inadequate funding for converter boxes and potential failure to properly inform citizens of the end of analog. In related news, the NTIA announced that Continue Reading →

NIELSEN has partnered with DIGIMARC to create a service that both watermarks and fingerprints digital content, allowing it to be tracked across the web. Fingerprinting will be done by matching the audio track of a video to known content in the Nielsen database while watermarking will embed content information (such as when a show first Continue Reading →

SPECTRUM AUCTION bidders are believed to include Google, Cox Communications, Frontline Wireless and AT&T. Time Warner, Comcast and Sprint will not participate in the auction. Details of the proceedings will remain shrouded in secrecy — bidders that submitted applications for yesterday’s 6 PM deadline are now barred from discussing the auction. THE FCC is under Continue Reading →

APPLE has removed all NBC content from iTunes. The contract between the two parties has expired and no new agreement is in place. NBC content accounted for 30% of iTunes TV show sales. AOL has canceled its paid download service and partnered with AMAZON Unbox for digital download sales. Unbox content has been given its Continue Reading →

FACEBOOK has been forced to change Beacon’s default behavior due to mounting criticism and user unrest. Previously a transaction would broadcast to a user’s network automatically if he did not choose to prevent it. Under Beacon 2.0 transactions will not be published until a user actually agrees to it. Ignored requests will greet a user Continue Reading →