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KEVIN MARTIN is proposing a 75% reduction in the rates that cable operators can charge to lease extra channels. To promote more diverse programming, prices would drop from 40 cents a month per subscriber to 10 cents. The plan will be voted on this month and could be enacted next year. GOOGLE is reportedly in Continue Reading →

NBC is in talks to acquire Quarterlife, the “TV-quality” series that debuts this Sunday on MySpace. The pending deal has been spurred by the Writers Guild strike and may bring the show to NBC as early as February. Quarterlife is currently scheduled to run for 36 eight-minute episodes online. Show creator Marshall Herskovitz recently expressed Continue Reading →

FACEBOOK officially unveiled a multi-faceted ad system that taps into user referrals and exploits the site’s “social graph.” The system allows brands to establish company profiles on the network. When a user interacts with a company page, the activity (and a display ad) will be reported virally to that user’s network via news feeds. Beacon Continue Reading →

THE WGA began its strike at midnight after Sunday’s 10-hour marathon negotiation broke down. Writers are expected to begin picketing at 9 AM this morning outside high-profile locations, including major studios on the West Coast and Rockefeller Center in New York. The Guild issued a memo telling its writers to spend at least 20 hours Continue Reading →

THE WRITERS GUILD negotiating committee has announced a unanimous recommendation to go on strike, perhaps as early as this Monday. The committee announced its decision Thursday night and drew an enthusiastic response from the meeting of 3,000 Guild members. The final decision is expected to be made at a meeting of the East and West Continue Reading →

MICROSOFT will purchase 1.6% of FACEBOOK for $240 million, which places a $15 billion valuation on the three-year-old company. Microsoft will begin to sell banner ads for international versions of the site and split the revenue with Facebook. In related news, RIM launched Facebook software for Blackberries. BARRY DILLER told a group of conference attendees Continue Reading →

FACEBOOK is the focus of a heated bidding war between MICROSOFT and GOOGLE. The two companies are competing for less than 10% of the social networking site and a deal could be announced within the next 48 hours. Google is reportedly driving the price very high in an attempt to outbid Microsoft. The winning bidder Continue Reading →

CURRENT TV will officially relaunch its website on October 16, and Al Gore has promised that the site will “take interactivity to a new level.” As part of the change, Current TV will drop the “TV” – and simply become “Current.” Current.com will act as a user-generated hub, accepting links to news stories, videos, and Continue Reading →

JOOST is planning to offer live online TV. The company’s Executive Vice President of Content Strategy revealed that live programming will begin in Q1 of 2008. Live transmissions will include a “catch-up” option following the initial broadcast. Joost’s initial “live” focus seems to be on sports. The company is speaking with rights-holders for major professional Continue Reading →

IAG has done a study of over 1,000 “hybrid” ads, which closely merge advertising with content to combat ad-skipping. The ads generated 30% higher brand recall than traditional ads. The study found that Jay Leno’s recent live-to-air ad for Garmin doubled that company’s usual viewer recall numbers, and CW’s “content wraps” were among the highest-scoring Continue Reading →