Metue.com

Most startups beg for money but having a billionaire backer has a way of twisting things like Alice’s rabbit hole.  That’s the case with Internet TV site Babelgum.  Monday, along with introducing a new beta release of their peer to peer software, the company announced that they were setting up a fund to invest in new original content. 

A total of €10 million has been budgeted.  The money will commission documentaries and shorts up to fifteen minutes in length.  They will air exclusively on Babelgum’s Internet network.

Click to Read More

Mini-major independent film producer Lionsgate announced Monday that they will become the third movie studio behind 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures to bundle an iTunes digital download with a DVD purchase starting in May.  According to the announcement, the packaging will begin with all special edition DVD and Blu Ray copies of Rambo.  A second movie, The Eye, featuring Jessica Alba, will also feature the bundled package when it’s released.

Click to Read More

Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley remains ground zero for venture capital investment.  In 2007 Silicon Valley outpaced its closest geographic competitor by a factor of nearly three to one (via PWC Moneytree).  Still, even with a smaller scale Hollywood Blvd. is getting busier, generating more investment traffic, and building buzz.  Saban Capital Group is the latest to hang up a V.C. shingle to address the SoCal market.

First reported in the Hollywood Reporter, Haim Saban’s Saban Capital Group (SCG) is expanding from a focus on broad, large, traditional private equity deals to now also include more venture oriented digital media component in their portfolio mix.

Historically, SCG has been known for large media transactions. Haim Saban himself was behind Fox Family Worldwide which News Corp sold to Disney for $5.2b in 2001. Click to Read More

The WB Network catered to youth audiences from 1995 to 2006.  The upstart TV Network then joined with UPN to form the CW.  Now, according to aMediaweek report that cites “unidentified sources” the old WB may be on its way back again, only with an exception: it will be online.

Though there is no official report, the former home of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville and the Gillmore Girls may be reborn as an online video portal targeting women between the ages of 12 and 34. 

So far, few facts have surfaced.  Click to Read More

Peter Lynch used to say, “the person that turns over the most rocks wins the game.”  The revolving door of executive management changes sometimes seems to fit that sentiment.  New strategies and new people come and go as individual and company both seek new challenges and new perspectives in the pursuit of their goals.    Over the past couple of weeks, from Warner Music to Atari to NBCU/GE to Facebook, even Sony’s Crackle, there have been a handful of high profile leadership changes.   

FACEBOOK
Facebook recently lost chief revenue officer and COO Owen Van Natta.   His departure left a void in the experienced leadership column for the high profile social network.   To fill the gap and add a figurehead with the balance of brains, expertise and managerial skill, they’ve lured away Google’s VP of Global Online Sales and Operations Sheryl Sandberg.

Click to Read More

From Arliss to Sex in the City to the Sopranos, HBO has a history of being experimental with the original programming they green light.   In scheduling, they haven’t historically been as daring.  Usually their broadcast timetable is relatively traditional and consistent.   With their new program “In Treatment” starring Gabriel Byrne they gambled.  Unfortunately, the five nights a week experiment hasn’t panned out with audiences. Still, even in failures there’s a perk:  the show’s struggle to catch on has opened the door to a rare opportunity for the cable network to explore online streaming of their content.

In the past streaming has been a “do not fly zone” for HBO.  Click to Read More

Hollywood studios fight and follow each other in the search for their next blockbuster movies so it probably  should come as no surprise that the same “follow the leader”  “anything you can do I can do better,” mentality applies to the talent agencies representing  those in  the films.  And that’s exactly what’s happening.   Like one shotgun wedding after another, or the line waiting outside the Elvis Wedding chapel in Vegas, pairs keep forming between venture capitalists and talent managers.

Click to Read More