The Hollywood Stimulus Package: Back To Work! MediaBizBuzz.com for February 11, 2008

To paraphrase Freud there are no coincidences in the collective unconscious This Wednesday promises not only the signing into law by Mr Bush of a 152B stimulus package but pending a Tuesday vote by the WGA39s 12000 members the return of writers to TV studios and movie sets and of course blank computer screens Both are daunting accomplishments given the roiling enmity between the legislative and executive branches as well as creative tension to put it mildly between the AMPTP and the WGA While there are always winners and losers last week proved that not all outcomes are zerosum To wit While the Patriots did not see a 190 season immortalized in the record books Ed Martin took note of the recordshattering audience of 97 12 million that turned on the Game Even though Murdoch39s NewsCorp was estimated to have banked 250M for the telecast the LA Times opined that Fox hadn39t even begun to tap into ways to further monetize XLII beyond selling it on iTunes for 199 a pop Super Duper Tuesday was certainly a winwin for democracy While political pundits strained their credibility even more than usual technology made watching the returns pure joy Google Maps teamed up with Twitter showing both state vote counts and live Twitters often at polling places across the country and abroad And while we continue to have anxieties surrounding electronic voting hanging chads anyone this week debuts the first time out for eVoting for American expats estimated at close to 6 million registered voters worldwide This isn39t an esoteric exercise in the close Democratic race twentytwo delegates will be up for grabs Shame on the RNC registered Repubs still can39t vote online To the Writers contract It might have been a bitter pill for the AMPTP but it reflects the evolving marketplace for both content creation and consumption PaidContent has the nuts and bolts here it39s actually a slight improvement on the DGA deal Exhibit A creators are entitled to 2 of distributor39s gross after three years For uptothesecond coverage no one has been more obsessed than LA Weekly39s Nikki Finke over the weekend she must have posted on the hour Currently she39s reporting that showrunners are back to work today Following the neutered Globes last night39s Grammy39s quotThe Kanye West ampamp Amy Winehouse Showquot was a first look at Awards Season if the WGA contract is ratified the Feb 24th telecast of the Oscars will get its closeup after all The music industry39s fete comes at a time when even flat CD sales are cause for celebration PaidContent reported that the Department of Justice is investigating Universal39s Total Music their planned subscription service Yahoo Music closed up shop and ported its listeners over to Rhapsody The entertainment industry managed to politicize HR 4137 the College Opportunity and Affordability Act the rider seeks to strongarm colleges across the land to offer sitewide music subscription services including Real Networks and Napster or face a threat of financial defunding In response to declining record sales and the concurrent uptick in mobile usage last night39s Grammy awardwinning Timbaland for LoveStoned is partnering with Verizon Rather than do a traditional album release he39ll drop a songamonth exclusive to Verizon39s 657 million subscribers And while we generally abhore puns the touring Verizon Mobile Recording Studio Bus actually sounds inspiring Fellow Grammyaward winning producer JayZ for Umbrella goes Timbaland one better in opening his own ad agency Translation Advertising to serve the untapped market of the multicultural consumer Interpublic has a 49 stake in the company This week sees the launch of Yahoo Finance39s Tech Ticker will it report on itself as well as Web 20 rechristenings of Fast Company and the Industry Standard Yahoo39s Got Chutzpah Microsoft39s 31share offer to takeover Yahoo was summarily rejected last Friday with some wiggle room for a 40share offer There wasn39t one media outlet that didn39t take a position For a while Quadrangle and Softbank were each offered up as White Knights Google continues to be a possible player as Yahoo seeks to hold off Steve Ballmer ampamp Co There was opining on what the merger would mean for Barry Diller39s IAC and Askcom by Diller himself Henry Blodget of Silicon Alley Investor termed the likely union a quotdisasterquot in the making while TechCrunch39s Michael Arrington noted that since the jousting had commenced that the Street had knocked 40B off of MSFT39s market cap In view of Yahoo39s rebuff PaidContent sketched out MSFT39s thrust and parryamp160 Jack Myers takes a longer view tapping a number of executives not only to speculate on the portal39s missteps but asking them how going forward they would define their markets respond to new disruptive models and expand their positions Last week was marked by a scourge of ad hominem attacks particularly in the political arena Lots of debate whether or not MSNBC39s David Schuster did an Imus when querying if the Clinton campaign was quotpimping out Chelseaquotamp160 Sexist coinage aside here39s what a real attack looks like Here39s a three minute clip from that banned Boondock39s with Aaron McGruder savaging BET39s Reggie Hudlin In case there39s been a takedown here39s a fallback The clip is so devastating it makes Southpark39samp160 Trapped In the Closetamp160 episode look restrained Intrigued Here39s the full episode of Hunger Strike against BETAsk Jack Myers Live Video Chats on Wed Feb 13thamp160amp160

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The Hollywood Stimulus Package: Back To Work! MediaBizBuzz.com for February 11, 2008

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Jerry Weinstein

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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Jerry Weinstein

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