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Scooby Doo where are you? …  on T-Works?

In what is yet another effort to cut out or at least limit the power of 3rd party Internet distributors (from YouTube to iTunes) Warner Brothers announced today they will create their own destination. 

The site, called T-Works will house their broad animation holdings.  To populate the site, they will cull from the legendary libraries of Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes and DC works.  Everything from Batman, to Bugs Bunny, to Scooby Doo will be at their disposal.

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For a long time, the holy grail of the home movie industry has been true video on demand; the ability to pick what you want to watch, when you want to watch it and have it instantly without having to move from the body cradling comfort of your old worn out couch.  Many have tried to give consumers this kind of control over their programming choices, many have come up with partial solutions, many have come close but none have fully succeeded in making the dream possible, yet. A solution providing deep depth of available content and instantaneous delivery to the TV (not the PC) hasn’t been done.    Vudu, a well funded startup, announced in April to much fanfare that they’d figured out how to do it.  Today, they reveal their efforts.  Today, Vudu officially launches.

Vudu is built around a $399 set-top box with a 250GB hard drive and your high speed Internet connection.  Click to Read More

IPTV company Joost quietly made their first acquisition earlier this week (at least quietly relatively the hype that usually surrounds them.)   Joost bought digital programming guide OnTheToob.com (and with it, its developer).   Terms were not disclosed but the likely cost was trivial.

OnTheToob developed RSS feeds and channel guide interfaces built around the Joost platform.  The company, which was not much more than a personal project, had been working with Joost since April.  As part of the deal, the creator of the technology will join Joost as an employee.

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It’s official. Steve Jobs has taken the stage. He has spoken his gospel. He has pulled back the curtain.  The revelation, the result, the much anticipated Apple announcement:  new iPods.   

As anticipated, and largely predicted (see yesterday’s odds-making) Apple unveiled a reworked iPod product line. They also announced a mobile ring tone store at iTunes and price cuts for the iPhone.

The Nano, long waiting to be re-envisioned, got its makeover.  Leaked pictures of a boxier, wider screened model proved accurate. Click to Read More

In the spectrum of consumer products there are smart phones and laptops and nothing in between.  Some think it should be that way. In late May, the creative minds at struggling hand-held maker Palm boldly declared otherwise. 

Believing there was a sizable market opportunity for a “tween” device, the company unveiled a prototype “Mobile Companion” device called Foleo.  Endowed with a 10 inch widescreen and a full keyboard, it was intended to be used in conjunction with a smartphone, like a feature-packed peripheral.  With pricing around $500, it would ship, they said, by mid September. That’s now changed.

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Last week, NBC and Apple took off the gloves and brawled in the school yard.   This week, NBC is moving forward into the next round.

Things started out innocently enough.  Positioning for greater pricing flexibility and other concessions, NBC notified Apple that they wouldn’t renew their long term contract when it expired in December.   Somehow that contractually required notice became public.  Labels were applied in the media – good guys / bad guys. Sides were taken.   Details slipped out that NBC was positioning for more pricing flexibility and the option of bundling products.   Sources said Apple wouldn’t budge.  Things escalated.    Apple snapped back and said they wouldn’t make NBC’s upcoming fall line up available.  Things simmered.  Tempers boiled. 

Yesterday, NBC fired back.  In a surprise announcement, they said they had struck a partnership deal with Amazon.  Click to Read More

In July, display advertising was a noted weak spot when Yahoo reported 2nd quarter earnings.  In an effort to provide an immediate boost,  Yahoo today acquired internet advertiser Blue Lithium for $300m in cash.

Blue Lithium, which was founded in 2004 and was preparing for an IPO,  is something of a blind-buy network.  They sell a publishers advertising inventory but do not disclose to advertisers precisely what sites the ads will run on.  Instead, they serve them “blind” based on various demographic and targeting criteria.  Many of the Blue Lithium publisher relationships are also not exclusive.

In July Blue Lithium ranked as the 5th largest online ad network according to ComScore. Click to Read More