New Beginnings - MediaBizzBuzz.com for January 7, 2008

NEW BEGINNINGSJust one week into 2008 and ossified business models threaten to be upended in several domains In brief With SonyBMG caving as the last of the four majors holding onto DRM the music industry just might be resuscitated Likewise the standstill between HD DVD and BluRay formats suddenly tipped in favor of BluRay this past Friday at CES with Warner39s surprise embrace of the format And while Steve Jobs39 AppleTV had nowhere near the success of the iPhone with Netflix and Echostar39s Sling Media each entering the fray the time for seamless digital downloading of content may have finally come Name That TuneDigital downloading of music was a rare ray of sunshine in media performance in 2007 While CD sales of music continue to crater DVD sales are in decline and box office is flat but for the three blockbusters to Spiderman Shrek and Bourne online music sales are up close to 45 True singles are wholly preferred to albums but the public is voting with its wallet Just ask Radiohead After the year saw EMI Vivendi39s Universal Music Group and Warner throw in the towel BusinessWeek reports that SonyBMG will begin selling DRMfree music on Amazon Wired speculates what newfangled revenue models might be on tap with this changing of the guard TV Sheds Its Analog SkinThere39s been more than a modicum of anxiety if not at Y2K pitch that we39re unprepared for the February 2009 transition to digital TV It would seem that we39re wrong In less than 40 hours after the National Telecommunications ampamp Information Administration opened its virtual doors there have been one MILLION requests for the coupon giveaway designed to defray the cost of digital adapters for the 13 of households who get their TV over the air And just when it seemed that the contest between HD DVD and BluRay might be a war without end Warner39s decision to abandon Toshiba39s HD DVD for BluRay giving the latter five of the seven studios puts the rival format on Death Watchamp160 Reach senior ad execs Advertise on JackMyerscomNow while Intel39s Viiv never caught on and the reception to AppleTV has been cool it looks like this will be the longawaited year of convergence After outlasting Goliath39s Walmart and Blockbuster Netflix is finally prepared to move past the adored red envelope It announced the first of its partnerships last week with South Korea39s LG Electronics which will offer VOD of the Long Tail company39s 6000 titles on settop boxes coming in Q2 CEO Hastings was quick to add that quotWe want to be integrated on every Internetconnected device game system highdefinition DVD player and dedicated Internet settop boxquot LG continues to broaden its market share in the US where it will also introduce a proprietary format that will allow broadcasters to easily and inexpensively port TV content to mobiles Its Mobile Pedestrian Handheld MPH format will be formally introduced this week at CES Also at the Vegas conference Sling Media had a twofer announcing plans to offers software to watch TV on RIM39s Blackberry smartphones and that it would be debuting the PROHD which would wirelessly move HD content at 1080i from one39s TV to a networked PC or via the Internet JackMyerscom media Leadership Opinion Vision EvolutionThe Writers Strike became newsworthy again last week Hirsute Late Night hosts shambled back to their desks with Leno picketed and Huckabee accused of being a scab while Letterman39s Worldwide Pants negotiated an interim agreement and returned with his full writing staff That didn39t stop viewers from choosing Jay over Dave But Letterman39s standalone agreement may have set a tone By week39s end it was reported that Tom Cruise39s United Artists and not parent MGM was likewise in negotiation for an interim agreement An exWGA lawyer speculates that either The Weinstein Company TWC or Lionsgate might follow suit That said next Sunday39s Golden Globes remains up in the air SAG has asked its membership not to appear WGA has agreed not to picket if the event is not telecast on NBC That and the DGA has just begun its negotiations in view of a June deadline Trendwatch PeoplePowered SearchPerhaps its a visceral reaction to the ubiquity of Google but in the last six months there have been a roster of startups that aren39t based on algorithms but rather humanassisted search Jason Calacanis started Mahalo last summer as of December he was getting 24 million pageviews a month This week Jimmy Wales39 WikiaSearch opens to public beta And Hoosierbased ChaCha unveiled its mobile textbased search last week Simply text quot242242quot and a human quotguidequot will answer your queries lickety split The service is free in its trial phase Even Amazon has a presence here Its Askville will shortly morph into Questville which will combine search with some elements of MMO39s Looks like Bezos39 contact with Second Life has gotten in his bones Bedside ReadingJPMorgan39s Nothing but Net report despite the threat of a recession makes a 312page case for the continued growth in technology and consequently robust ecommerce and online ad spending Here39s the full PDFamp160 Place Your BetsPrediction market InTradecom had it right on both counts for the Iowa Caucusamp160 Riffing off of this Silicon Alley Insider has its own rudimentary futures market for next week39s MacWorld Among the bets that appear to be even money Apple39s iTunes enters into the movie rental biz Financial Times asserts that it has Fox on tap for content Leave it to Jobs to overshadow CES and Gates

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New Beginnings - MediaBizzBuzz.com for January 7, 2008

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Jerry Weinstein

Hispanic Leadership Roundtable: Inclusion, Mentorship, and Building the Next Generation (Video) - By Juan Ayala

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New Beginnings - MediaBizzBuzz.com for January 7, 2008

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