TV

The Pirate Bay Acquired for $7.8 Million; Will Go Legit

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 30, 2009 - 5:11am.
Stockholm, Sweden - Swedish software firm Global Gaming Factory (GGF) announced on Tuesday that it has paid $7.8 million to acquire notorious file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, and will turn the site into a legitimate business that compensates copyright holders. Under the term, the operators of The Pirate Bay -- who were recently found guilty of copyright infringement, sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay fines totaling $3.9 million -- will receive half of the payment in cash and half in GGF shares.

Simage Gets $1.4 Million for Custom Digital TV in Bars

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 30, 2009 - 4:33am.
Chicago - Simage, the operator of a digital ad and programming network for bars and restaurants, has raised $1.4 million in angel funding, from investors including Horizon Investment Partners, Victory Records founder Tony Brummel, and individual angels.

French Xbox Users Get Canal Plus TV, Movies, Soccer

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 29, 2009 - 11:04am.
London - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) has partnered with French pay-TV company Canal Plus to offer movies, TV and soccer on demand through its Xbox 360 video game console, Reuters reported. The deal will give French Xbox Live members access to some 3,000 programs, as well as French Ligue 1 soccer matches. Microsoft signed an Xbox Live programming carriage deal last month with BSkyB.

Pirate Bay Testing YouTube Rival Video Streaming Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 29, 2009 - 10:13am.
Stockholm, Sweden - Swedish file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, which two years ago announced plans to launch a streaming video site, appears to be closer to completion as the developers launched a test version of The Video Bay earlier this month, TorrentFreak reported.

Supreme Court Declines Case; Cablevision DVR Remains Legal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 29, 2009 - 6:37am.
Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal challenging the legality of Cablevision's (NYSE: CVC) network-based digital video recorder service, which the television networks and movie studios had charged amounted to copyright infringement. Unlike a TiVo, which stores recorded programs locally on a hard drive in the consumer's home, Cablevision's "remote storage" digital video recorder stores recorded programs on the company's own servers, and streams them on demand to customers.

Canada's Zip.ca Movie Rental Service Adds Roxio CinemaNow

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 26, 2009 - 12:01pm.
Novato, Calif. - Sonic Solutions (NASD: SNIC) said on Friday that it has partnered with Canadian online video rental service Zip.ca, to make its Roxio CinemaNow download service available to Zip.ca subscribers. Zip.ca will offer movies and TV episodes that can be downloaded and watched on PCs; the service is also embedded on some consumer electronics.

TV Compass Raises $6.5 Million for Video Software, Services

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 25, 2009 - 7:14am.
Chicago - TV Compass, a provider of video software and services for the Web and mobile devices, has raised about $6.5 million in new funding, PaidContent reported, citing a regulatory filing.
tags: Deals | Mobile | VC | Video | TV | TV Compass |

Qualcomm Mobile TV Going Direct-to-Consumer, Cutting Prices

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 24, 2009 - 12:05pm.
San Diego - In a move to cut prices for consumers, Qualcomm (NASD: QCOM) plans to begin offering its FLO TV mobile TV service direct to consumers later this year, The New York Times' Bits blog reports. FLO TV, which offers live streams of some 20 TV channels, is currently offered through carriers including AT&T and Verizon. The carriers charge about $15 a month for the service, which Qualcomm told The Times is too expensive. Qualcomm hopes to offer annual subscriptions that work out to under $10 per month, along with $5 one-day passes, and $10 month-to-month subscriptions.

tags: Mobile TV | TV | Verizon | Qualcomm | AT&T | FLO TV |

Sports Broadcaster Setanta Enters Administration

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 24, 2009 - 11:09am.
London - Setanta Sports, a provider of premium and pay-per-view sporting events like English Premier League football, has switched off its signals to nearly three million British households, a day after entering administration, or bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported.

Redlasso Gets $1.25 Million for Blogger News Video Clip Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 24, 2009 - 10:57am.
Philadelphia, Penn. - Redlasso, a service that provides news video clips to bloggers for use on their sites, has raised $1.25 of a $2 million round of venture capital financing, led by real estate executive Daniel Keating III.

Comcast Gets Time Warner TV Programs On Demand, Online

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 24, 2009 - 10:43am.
New York - Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) announced on Wednesday that it has signed a deal with cable TV provider Comcast (NASD: CMCSA) to make programming from its Turner Broadcasting unit available on-demand, as well as online, to Comcast subscribers free of charge.
tags: Video | VOD | TV | Comcast | Time Warner | TBS | TNT |

TiVo, Quantcast Partner on TV-Internet Ratings Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 23, 2009 - 11:42am.
New York - TiVo (NASD: TIVO) announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Web audience measurement firm Quantcast to offer advertisers and media firms an analysis service that cuts across DVR and Internet usage. The Tivo/Quantcast sample of 35,000 households will include TiVo's own ratings panel with Quantcast's direct measurement offering to track the effectiveness of advertising, media consumption and programming affinity.

tags: TV | Reports | Metrics | TiVo | DVR | Research | Quantcast |

NBC to Stream Wimbledon Finals Live Online

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 23, 2009 - 11:40am.
New York - NBC (NYSE: GE) Sports has announced plans to stream next month's men's and women's finals from the Wimbledon tennis tournament live on NBCSports.com, Mediapost reports. In fact, the network will stream all of its tournament coverage online, offering additional camera angle choices for Web viewers. The network streamed the U.S. Open golf finals live online on Monday.

tags: Sports | Video | TV | NBC | Wimbledon |

Survey: 8% Admit Downloading Unauthorized Video on P2P

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 19, 2009 - 10:34am.
London - Eight percent of consumers across the U.S., U.K., France and Germany admit to having downloaded video content from unauthorized file-sharing sites, according to a study conducted by Futuresource Consulting.

Major League Baseball Adds Live Game Streams to iPhone App

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 17, 2009 - 12:19pm.
New York - Major League Baseball Advanced Media announced on Wednesday that it will now offer live streaming of baseball games through its At Bat 2009 application for Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iPhone. Users of the $9.99 application will be able to view up to two games a day, subject to blackout restrictions.

tags: Mobile | Sports | Video | TV | Apple | MLBAM | iPhone |

Report: Americans Favor Internet Over Cell Phones, Cable TV

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 17, 2009 - 11:25am.
Washington - Americans favor their Internet connections more than their cell phones or cable TV, according to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

FCC Working on Lost Digital TV Signals in DC, Chicago, Philly

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 17, 2009 - 8:10am.
Washington - In the aftermath of the relatively smooth transition to digital TV broadcasting on Friday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now looking into reports that viewers in D.C., Chicago and Philadelphia are unable to receive certain stations, the Washington Post reports. In the Washington area, WUSA (CBS) and WJLA (ABC) were unavailable to some viewers after switching from UHF to VHF frequencies, which require different antennas to aid in reception.

PwC: Media, Entertainment Spending to Grow 2.7% Through '13

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 16, 2009 - 11:24am.
London - The global entertainment and media market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 2.7% over the next five years, to reach $1.6 trillion in 2013, according to the annual report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Production Studio Ripe Digital Entertainment Shuts Down

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 16, 2009 - 8:31am.
Los Angeles - Digital production studio and ad sales firm Ripe Digital Entertainment has shut down, Deadline Hollywood Daily reported.

Complaint Site Axelist.com Gets Half-Hour TV Show

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 15, 2009 - 11:50am.
Los Angeles - Production company Prometheus Entertainment ("Bridget's Sexiest Beaches") has signed a deal with Axelist.com, a site that highlights users' complaints, to create a half-hour TV show, Variety reports. Launched in September 2008, Axelist includes users' rants about employers, neighbors, businesses and other entities. Each episode will reportedly focus on a single complaint, and attempt to reach a resolution.