MediaBytes

WARNER BROS. will begin a trial-run of releasing movies to VOD and DVD on the same day. The experiment begins on July 10th with “The Astronaut Farmer,” which underperformed at the box office. YOUTUBE will soon begin testing home-grown video fingerprinting to identify copyrighted material. Content owners of identified clips will have the option of Continue Reading →

 APPLE is in advanced talks with Hollywood studios about offering downloadable movie rentals. Apple is said to be “aggressively pursuing” the idea, and wishes to launch the service in the fall. A downloadable Apple VOD system would compete heavily with cable company offerings.NBC has begun a unique online show that targets a new “prime Continue Reading →

THE FCC has issued almost $3 million in fines to companies that are still shipping TV sets without digital tuners. As of March 1st, all TV’s that are shipped must be capable of receiving a digital TV signal. The Commission has also been warning retailers that they must display proper Consumer Alerts on sets that Continue Reading →

NAB unveiled prototypes of two digital-to-analog convertors made by LG and Thomson. The association also announced an upcoming public service campaign intended to educate consumers about the rapidly-approaching shutdown of the analog spectrum. NBCU will release widgets for its major news and entertainment properties, enabling users to syndicate its content across blogs and social-networking sites. Continue Reading →

TNS MEDIA INTELLIGENCE reports that advertising spending in the U.S. fell 0.3% in the first quarter. Network TV spending was down 7.2% (to $6.1 billion). National newspaper advertising fell 5.3% (to $810 million). Internet display advertising jumped 16.7% (to $2.7 billion). EBAY will begin auctioning radio ads today via its Media Marketplace. Advertisers will create Continue Reading →

ROCKETBOOM has adopted a sponsorship model. For $3000 per show, a sponsor will receive a 7 second post roll and a personalized blog entry. Quicktime versions of Rocketboom will also include an embedded link to the sponsor’s web site. Andrew Michael Baron, the CEO and founder of Rocketboom, recently discussed the challenges of finding advertising Continue Reading →

HEARST-ARGYLE TELEVISION has signed a revenue-sharing deal with YOUTUBE. Hearst-Argyle will post local video content from its 26 television stations on the video site, and profit from advertising. This is the first time YouTube has made an agreement with local TV. Five stations will begin posting content today. NBC Universal appointed Katherine Pope as President Continue Reading →

EMI struck a licensing deal with YOUTUBE. EMI recordings and videos will be available on the site, and users will be able to include content in their own videos. All four major labels have now signed deals with YouTube. REALNETWORKS announced a new version of RealPlayer that will “rip” and save video from multiple internet Continue Reading →

APPLE is bringing YouTube support to AppleTV in June. Select videos will be added at first, with the entire YouTube catalog available by fall. No advertising will be seen initially. THE OXYGEN NETWORK is planning to sell ad time via the THE ONLINE MEDIA EXCHANGE. Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Home Depot will purchase time through the Continue Reading →

NBC UNIVERSAL appointed co-chairmen Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff to oversee the network. Graboff will focus on business matters, while Silverman will be the top creative executive. Silverman pledged to focus on content that can succeed in both prime time and on the web. ABC will launch a news show built on user-generated content. “i-Caught” Continue Reading →