Congress Agrees on $700 Billion Buyout: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer September 29, 2008 September 29, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentWatch Shelly’s commentary on the biggest banking buyout in United States history.
AT&T is switching its satellite-television provider to DIRECTV. Despite signing a one-month extension with the DISH NETWORK last week, AT&T will ditch the struggling provider. Analysts believe that AT&T left DISH because of the companies lower-end market and its inability to roll out quality High Definition programming faster than its competitor.
Screen legend Paul Newman passed away this weekend. Newman, the Academy Award winner known for roles in Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, was also a philanthropist and avid sports fans. His Newman’s Own company has given more than $250 million to charity.
The FCC is considering rules for product placement on television. While consumer groups want product placement to be more transparent, advertisers see it as one of the last viable ways to get your product to the audience. Product Placement has grown so rampant that American Idol logged 4,636 product placement shots during the first half of 2008.
Baltimore will become the first city to test SPRINT’s WIMAX network. The service, which will provide users with wireless internet access at home, as well as mobile internet, will begin offering the mobile product for as little as $30/month. While Sprint is banking on its next generation wireless network to increase revenue, the fact that it is not compliant with AT&T and Verizon’s 4G.
60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer September 22, 2008 September 22, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentIf you are having trouble viewing our video player, check out MediaBytes on YouTube.
Watch Shelly’s commentary on the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards and how the television industry sounds desperate.
SANDISK is set to release SlotMusic. SANDISK, who is working with all four major recorded music labels, will sell music and special extras on compact, customized memory cards. The initial offering will feature albums by 29 of the big 4’s best selling artists and will retail for roughly $15.
YAHOO’s new board will meet for dinner tonight before its first official meeting tomorrow. The new Carl Icahn backed board is flanked by Icahn cronies Frank Biondi and John Chapple. The board is expected to discuss the ongoing negotiations with Time Warner and the regulatory issues facing the Google search ads deal.
COMCAST submitted its broadband management plans to the FCC on Friday. As previously reported, Comcast will slow internet speeds for heavy users at peak times by utilizing a second traffic stream. With web traffic constantly increasing, Comcast’s model for bandwidth management could set great precedent for other networks.
CBS is set to auction off 50 radio stations. The auction is a chance to test the current market value of each station, as well as the difference between buy valuation and seller’s sense of worth. Analysts believe that CBS would be lucky to receive cash flow multiple of 9 or 10.
The Future of Targeted Online Advertisements: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer, July 9, 2008 July 9, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentWatch Shelly’s commentary on the future of targeted online advertisements.
NBCU (NYSE: GE) CEO Jeff Zucker is expected to be a popular man at the Allen & Co. media conference this week in Sun Valley, Idaho. One source noted that “Zucker’s made it pretty clear that he’s looking to do deals and remake NBC’s overall approach.” Rumor has it that Zucker could be in talks with TIME WARNER (NYSE: TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes and LIBERTY MEDIA’s (NASD: LCAPA, LCAPB) John Malone about a selling NBC.
YAHOO (NASD: YHOO) and GETTY IMAGES (NYSE: GTI) announced that they have teamed up to combine FLICKR with GETTY’s search function. Getty editors will search Flickr, an online photo community, for relevant photos and invite photographers to join the Getty program and legally license photos. Over time the deal could legitimize thousands of Flickr amateur photographers.
GOOGLE (NASD: GOOG) is trying to raise ad revenue at YOUTUBE by selling more video and display ads. While Google experiments with the proper advertising format for the online video community, Google CEO Eric Schmidt noted that Google still hasn’t figured out the best way to monetize YouTube. As of right now, Google expects YouTube to make roughly $200 million by the end of the year.
WALL STREET JOURNAL’s (NYSE: NEWS) Walt Mossberg reviewed APPLE’s (NASD: AAPL) new 3G iPhone and noted two significant draw backs; cost and battery life. Mossberg noted that the battery on the new 3g iPhone drained much quicker than the battery on the original iPhone, while the rising cost of AT&T’s data plan significantly increased the total cost of the phone. On the positive, Mossberg notes that the email function is 3 to 5 times faster than that on the original iPhone.
