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“They’ll be tried as adults for kidnapping (a first degree felony) and battery,” said Chip Thullbery, a spokesman for the Polk County state attorney. Three of them will also be charged with tampering with a witness. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison.   This story has been all over the news Continue Reading →

  If you are having trouble viewing our video player, check out MediaBytes on YouTube. THE NETWORK ADVERTISING INITIATIVE issued guidelines for targeted advertising that drew distinctions between targetable and non-targetable characteristics. The guidelines tell member companies, which include AOL’s Advertising.com and Google’s Doubleclick, to avoid tracking HIV/AIDS status, sex-related conditions (including STD’s), psychiatric conditions, Continue Reading →

TOSHIBA has officially announced that it will stop producing and marketing HD DVD players. Shipments to retailers will cease by the end of March. The company said it “simply had no chance to win,” and that continuing the format would harm consumers. APPLE has signed a multifaceted deal with American Idol, making iTunes the exclusive Continue Reading →

TNS MEDIA RESEARCH will begin receiving data from 100,000 DirecTV set-top boxes to analyze viewing patterns as part of a new service called TNS DirecTView. Households will be asked to join the service, which will record demographic data but be stripped of names and other identifying information. The new service will offer second-by-second ratings similar Continue Reading →

APPLE announced DVD-quality iTunes movie rentals and direct AppleTV rentals in HD. Rentals will cost between $2.99 and $4.99 and be available 30 days after the DVD release. Users will have 30 days to begin watching a download and 24 hours to finish after it starts. All the major studios are supporting the venture. For Continue Reading →

VIACOM and MICROSOFT have signed an extensive multi-platform partnership. Viacom content will be distributed on Xbox Live and MSN with the two companies splitting revenue. Microsoft will sell and serve display advertising for Viacom sites and purchase advertising on Viacom’s TV and web properties. Lastly, Viacom will produce casual games for MSN and Windows and Continue Reading →

JEFF BEWKES will replace Richard Parsons as the CEO of Time Warner, effective January 1st. The move comes after months of speculation about Parsons’ future at the company and pressure from Wall Street due to a sagging stock price. Parsons will remain Chairman of Time Warner and said that Bewkes has his “full support” as Continue Reading →

GOOGLE has unveiled its piracy-fighting service for YouTube, calling it “YouTube Video Identification.” The system requires media companies to submit digital files to Google, who will process them and create a “digital fingerprint.” Videos uploaded by users will be checked against the fingerprint, and rejected if a match is found. The system was developed in-house, Continue Reading →

YOUTUBE will unveil a new advertising model today. Semi-transparent overlays will appear on the bottom of videos a few seconds after each clip begins. Viewers will be able to close the overlay, click it to launch an advertisement, or wait for it to fade away. YouTube tested formats with 200 advertisers, and found this approach Continue Reading →

In honor of the Music Publishers joining the lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement, my last article focused on music rights. Specifically, what rights you need if you want to avoid getting sued by overzealous stakeholders. Thank you all for your comments, here and via email. The most surprising thing about the discourse this week Continue Reading →