Metue.com

NBC Universal accounts for roughly forty percent of the videos downloaded on iTunes and they’re ready to walk. 

Echoing a similar story with Universal Music in July (expanded on three weeks ago), unable to come to terms on a new agreement with  Apple, news wires are buzzing that NBC will not renew its long term contract with Apple.  Neither side has issued a public comment. 

Is this negotiating brinkmanship?  The end of partnership? A consequence of Hulu?   Theories abound.

At issue, and often reported, are a combination of factors.   For one, major media companies have been increasingly vocal about their frustration with Apple’s fixed pricing model.  They want more leeway to bundle products together or premium price new releases.  Apple, fearing such structures would complicate the user-experience and alienate customers has refused.

Click to Read More

Just a week ago, I wrote, half in jest that 8 figure deals were becoming increasingly common and frighteningly familiar Internet video startups.  I didn’t think I’d be reiterating the point again so soon.  But, turns out, another round of extreme funding has already come down the pipeline. I thought wrong.

Besting Veoh’s $25m and Metacafe’s recent $30m but shy of Joost’s $45m and Brightcove’s $59.5m, French-based video sharing site Dailymotion has raised a $34m second round.   The round was led by European firms Advent Venture Partners (London) and AGF Private Equity (Paris).  On top of $9.5m contributed last October, it brings the total funding raised for the site in one year to $43.5. 

Click to Read More

Usually when a company’s name or product becomes a verb, or otherwise enters the vocabulary of pop culture lexicon, it means the company created something pioneering (and usually lucrative) or utterly atrocious.  For Tivo (Nasdaq:TIVO), the pioneering title is an unquestionable fit but the moniker of lucrative is more elusive.  People may be "Tivo-ing" shows but TiVo isn’t making a lot of money. Wednesday after the close of Market, Tivo reported earnings for their second fiscal quarter.  The numbers were uninspired. Click to Read More

Shakespeare asked “What’s in a name.”  JFK quipped “Forgive your enemies but never forget their name.”   Barry Bonds said “It’s not the name that makes the player it’s the player.”  

However wide the sources one looks to  for wisdom, in a media world, it’s almost universal,  and hard to ignore, that there is something in a name.  Today, now, finally, NBC Universal and News Corporation have named their upcoming, and much hyped,  Internet video site.

The most famous John Doe of the Internet video world had been  known only as NewCo (or Clown Co to pundits.) Today, it was branded as Hulu. 

The site, which aims to be a YouTube rival, has been generously funded with monies from Click to Read More

Concerns about a credit crunch and further erosion of mortgage related securities may put a damper on debt based private equity deals, notably leveraged buy outs (LBOs) but it remains to be seen if the related interest rate and capital allocation costs will impact cash based or corporate deals.  It’s actually even possible that they’ll increase the rate of corporate transactions (as private equity deals slow and sellers consider alternate buyers).

In the media industry, NBC Universal apparently isn’t concerned.  According to rumors first reported Sunday, and now confirmed, NBC will go ahead with a buyout of international television player Sparrowhawk Media.

Click to Read More

Fans of South Park can sleep easy for a few more years.  In a deal signed Friday, Comedy Central’s most lucrative and most enduring (11 seasons and counting) franchise, the irreverent comedy cartoon, will see at least three more years of new episodes.  The program (and its creators) will also take the reigns of its online destiny as part of a joint venture that creates a web destination at South Park Studios.

To date, South Park and its legions of fans have languished in the absence of a legitimate, authorized, Internet distribution platform for anything and everything that is South Park.  For certain, there has been availability of content – offerings on Comedy Central’s home site, legions of fan sites – but with Viacom (parent of Comedy Central) embroiled in a billion dollar suit with YouTube over copyright violations, legal video clips, outtakes and other stock haven’t been widely available.  Even Joost which has a partnership deal with Viacom has not had the ability to broadcast South Park.

Click to Read More

Score a small victory for Fair Use and the rights of cable TV viewers (at least indirectly). Today, in an obscure agreement, administrative oversight consortiums representing cable companies (CableLabs) and electronics makers (5C), and with the approval of the content industry (TV/Film studios),  agreed to support an encryption and data management standard for streaming content within home networks.

At issue is the ability to watch and record digital programming within your home and then stream it from one device to another on a local network.   Imagine, record a TV show on your DVR, stream it live, or delayed, to your home office computer, or shift it to the TV in your bedroom.  Store it on a network hard drive rather than the drive on board your Tivo box.  Watch it in one room, while recording something else in another.

But wait you ask? Isn’t place shifting technology already here?  Isn’t this already possible?  The answer is, yes, it is available but with caveats. Click to Read More