January 9, 2008

BET

BET Digital Media Group Launches Vertical Advertising Network

BET Networks announced today that the BET Digital Media Group will be launching a vertical advertising network focused on music, entertainment, and lifestyle content relevant to the urban and African American communities.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS182497+08-Jan-2008+PRN20080108

BET Launches Online Ad Network

BET Networks is launching a vertical advertising network in an effort to give advertisers more exposure to African-American Internet users. The ad network features 30 Web sites focusing on music, entertainment and lifestyle content aimed at the urban and African-American communities.

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/01/08/bet-launches-online-ad-network

CW

CW Network New Season Update

New Schedule Features the Return of Reality Hits “America’s Next Top Model,” “Pussycat Dolls Present” and “Beauty and the Geek” The CW Network announced its new midseason schedule, featuring the return of several reality hits and giving current shows exposure on new nights and in new time periods.

http://www.realitywanted.net/2008/01/07/the-cws-americas-next-top-model-returns-feb-20th-beauty-and-the-geek-5-debuts-march-11th/

The CW, Macy's and Warner Bros. Television Group Partner for the ''One Tree Hill…

The CW, Macy's and the Warner Bros. Television Group are offering

eight passionate ONE TREE HILL fans the opportunity of a lifetime - a

chance to win a walk-on role and spend a star-filled weekend with the

cast in Wilmington, North Carolina, where the series is filmed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS175932+07-Jan-2008+BW20080107

FOX

Study names Facebook and MySpace 'types'

Social networking has become so widespread that users of sites such as MySpace and Facebook can now be categorised into six specific types, according to a new report. The MySpace-commissioned study identified six personalities as part of a wider investigation into the kind of people who regularly use social networking sites. The first group which emerged were the "Netrepreneurs", people who accessed the sites for the sole purpose of making money.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/07/nnetworking107.xml

MTV

MTV launches Rythm Game Track Finder

MTV this week launched a new game database that gives audiophiles the ability to explore their favorite artists or songs as featured in major rhythm game releases.

http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=155628

MTV Plots Comeback After New Currency Guts Ratings

MTV is well aware of the tumble its ratings took going into last year's upfront sales, so for 2008, the cable network built on music videos has resolved to make sure viewers interact with brands in every way possible

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=122902

MTV Networks International and Corus Entertainment Expand Nickelodeon Content Partnership Into Digital Space

Leading Canadian media company Corus Entertainment Inc. and MTV Networks International today announced plans to extend their multi-year broadcast partnership for Nickelodeon content to encompass all digital rights for Nickelodeon and related brands, covering broadcast, broadband, mobile, video-on-demand, pay-per-view, electronic sell-through and gaming

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/media/article/mtv-networks-international-corus-entertainment-expand-nickelodeon-content_429252_15.html

MTV Networks names Tortoroli as new CFO

Tortoroli assumes his new position in early March and will report to Chief Operating Officer Rich Eigendorff.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSWNAS580520080107

MTV Networks Virtual Laguna Beach Honored with Emmy Gold

MTV Networks' Music Group today proudly announced that its "Virtual Laguna Beach" virtual world last night was awarded the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Creation of Nontraditional Programs or Platforms.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/technology/article/mtv-networks-virtual-laguna-beach-honored-emmy-gold_429348_12.html

MTV Tr3s Ramps Up Offerings

Viacom’s Hispanic music network MTV Tr3s has added three new original series to its lineup, and will also roll out a second season of the hit reality series Quiero Mis Quinces, which will be accompanied by a new online community site targeted at Latina teens.

http://www.worldscreen.com/newscurrent.php?filename=tr3s010808.htm

UNIVISION

Univisión's challenge: increasing revenue

''There's a connection here that's not existent in other media and markets. Univisión is a defender of our culture and our rights,'' he says, sounding an oft-repeated theme at Univisión. ``We play a role in the lives of the [Hispanic] community.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/business_monday/story/367789.html

Univision Kicks-Off Third Phase of Civic Engagement Campaign to Encourage Voter Participation in Upcoming Presidential Primaries

Univision Communications Inc., the nation's leading Spanish-language media company, today announced that it has launched "Ve y Vota en las Primarias" (Get Out and Vote in the Primaries), the third phase of a massive non-partisan campaign to educate and engage the country's Hispanic population in the national electoral process

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/media/article/univision-kicksoff-phase-civic-engagement-campaign-encourage-voter_426864_15.html

VIACOM

Samantha Maltin Promoted to Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing and Partnerships, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group

She will be responsible for developing global partnerships with U.S.-based companies, and will oversee the expansion and execution of all promotions marketing efforts, both on- and off-air, with key advertisers for the Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group brands

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS145378+08-Jan-2008+PRN20080108

Viacom makes videos available online

Viacom's MTV Networks Group has signed deals to make videos available on five online video services and Comcast Corp's broadband site, as the company aims to increase its presence on the Web.

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0844831520080108

AFRICA

Best writing on Aids in Africa will win

International development agency Oxfam has established a writing prize in honour of Susie Smith, one of its staff members who died in 2006. The prize, worth £3000, will be awarded to a published piece of writing on HIV and AIDS from Sub-Saharan Africa.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=674918

Bono’s art initiative

International vocalist Bono, UK artist Damien Hirst and Indian painter Subodh Gupta will raise funds to support the HIV/AIDS programme in South Africa

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1144024

Malawians with HIV get pay rise

Health Minister Marjorie Ngaunjeb said all civil servants affected by the disease would receive an extra $35 a month to help them buy more food. "We thought [it] would go a long way in improving their nutritional requirements which are essential to their wellbeing," she told Reuters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7176483.stm

ASIA

Across the mountains, Nepal radio breaks sex taboos

Ignoring social taboos in this conservative nation, a Nepali radio programme on safe sex is spreading awareness against HIV/AIDS and offers life-saving advice to young people who are vulnerable to the disease.

http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSDEL174243

China's Youku Approaches YouTube Territory

YOUKU.COM, THE BIGGEST VIDEO SHARING site in the Internet's second largest market - China - is approaching the kind of numbers being generated by the world's largest video sharing site, YouTube. Youku.com this morning said it has surpassed two significant Web traffic milestones, including registering more than 100 million daily video views during the week ending December 16, 2007.

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=73981&Nid=38057&p=917272

Int'l AIDS journal publishes first special issue on China

AIDS, the official journal of the International AIDS Society, has published its first special issue on China, to educate readers about the achievements and challenges in the country's efforts to deal with the fatal epidemic.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/27/content_7325297.htm

SW China opens methadone clinics in border areas

Southwest China's Yunnan Province set up seven more methadone mobile clinics in 2007 in the rural areas bordering the Golden Triangle in an effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/05/content_7368003.htm

CARIBBEAN

Caribbean media workers upset with Skilled National Certificate

The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) Monday said some Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states were preventing regional media practitioners from working in the Caribbean even though they were in possession of the CARICOM Skilled National Certificate.

http://www.cbc.bb/content/view/13735/45/

Digicel team donates to HIV/AIDS Food Bank

DIGICEL (Barbados) Ltd. reaffirmed its commitment to supporting those affected and afflicted with HIV/AIDS on the island when its staff and advertising agency, Vision Marketing, recently presented the Ministry of Healths HIV/AIDS Food Bank with a jumbo-sized barrel of food items

http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/NewViewNewsleft.cfm?Record=34084

FEMINISATION OF HIV/AIDS

More than half the number of those infected are women. This year, Flair, the leading women's magazine in Jamaica, begins its new series; The Feminisation of HIV/AIDS. Every first and third Monday of each month, we will examine the plight of women affected by the disease and the power of women in their fight against it.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080107/flair/flair4.html

INDIA

Media Companies to Benefit in Booming India

India's media sector -- led by print media -- is expected to be one of the major beneficiaries of the nation's growing economy and increasing consumerism. Broadcasting companies are due to be major beneficiaries of higher advertising spending.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Investors_Guide/Media_companies_benefit_in_a_growing_economy/articleshow/2677895.cms

Murdoch to Launch Wall St Journal in India

As U.S. newspaper readership stagnates, newspapers in India are enjoying a new golden age, luring in international groups. News Corp. plans to launch the Wall Street Journal in India. The company also is rumored to be gearing up to launch a version of its U.K. tabloid the Sun.

http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article3310765.ece

HIV/AIDS & SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS

National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS marks milestone anniversary fight against HIV/AIDS

A recap of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS Gala chaired by Reggie Van Lee, Senior Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton.

http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur39685.cfm

Study tracks sexual behavior of newly homeless youth

Newly homeless youth are likelier to engage in risky sexual behavior if they stay in nonfamily settings — such as friends' homes, abandoned buildings or the streets — because they lack supervision and social support, a new UCLA AIDS Institute study has found.

http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/risky-sexual-behavior-among-newly-40087.aspx

MOBILE MEDIA

T-Mobile And Current TV Partner For Promotion

T-MOBILE AND CURRENT TV ARE partnering again to challenge viewers of the cable TV network to come up with ads promoting the wireless carrier's Sidekick smartphone.

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=73956&Nid=38057&p=917272

Yahoo Spruces Up Mobile Platform for Ads

Yahoo plans to open up its mobile platform so outside programmers can develop new applications that can be planted on its pages accessed on mobile handsets. Yahoo hopes the mini-applications will help attract more users so it can make more money from advertising.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJjylg3irERF8b-luelgkxOXs6pQD8U0SD6G0

OTHER NEWS

Big Media Execs Descend on Tech Conference

Media movers and shakers are joining tech execs at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, anxious to make sure digital-age markets will be their next major revenue stream. "The world is changing fast," notes new Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/big-media-aims-public-likes/story.aspx?guid=%7BEFC4CE45%2D7C38%2D462F%2DAD86%2D4BD233994D90%7D

Bono in Talks to Buy Into CurtCo Media

Rock star Bono, through his investment firm Elevation Partners, is in talks to buy into CurtCo Media, which owns the Robb Report, Worth and several other magazines. Elevation Partners last year acquired a 40% stake in Forbes Media from the Forbes family.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01092008/business/no_moss_on_brownridge_754363.htm

BusinessWeek.com Launches Lifestyle Channel

BusinessWeek.com is unveiling a Lifestyle channel, an "essential executive lifestyle resource," says editor in chief John Byrne. The channel's content includes blogs and videos. The Lifestyle channel follows the debuts of the site's Company Insight Center and Managing Channel.

http://www.businessweek.com/editors_note.html

Comcast Interactive Media Launches Fancast.com

Comcast Interactive Media today launched www.Fancast.com, the first online destination that enables users to watch, manage and find entertainment content wherever it is available - on Fancast, on television, online, on DVD or in theaters. On Fancast, users can view an expanding free library of full episodes and clips from top networks and movie partners, find the content they are looking for across multiple platforms and create a personalized entertainment experience.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/media/article/comcast-interactive-media-launches-fancastcom_427669_15.html

Ice Cube and DJ Pooh Launch UVNTV.com, Web-Based TV Network

Hip hop icon, entertainment mogul Ice Cube and legendary DJ Pooh have announced the launch of UVNTV.com (U View Network Television), the world's first real-time online streaming television network. UVNTV.com utilizes Microsoft's Silverlight 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform, and its channels are capable of full screen DVD quality resolution, Dolby surround sound and comes complete with a channel guide with video window.

http://www.blacktalentnews.com/artman/publish/article_1692.shtml

Magazines Boost Digital Initiatives in 2007

U.S. magazines announcing digital initiatives -- video, content-sharing partnerships, integrated marketing, social networking, and other buzzy products related to Web 2.0 -- increased by more than 33% in 2007, according to data by the Magazine Publishers of America.

http://www.foliomag.com/2008/magazine-digital-initiatives-33-percent-2007

Magazines Face Web Generation Challenge

The magazine industry's biggest challenge will be "five or 10 years down the road when the present generation of magazine readers is gone and the new generation [emerges] that grew up on the Internet," says industry expert Marty Walker. "How are you going to transition them?"

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Magazines_22/For_magazines_new_year_of_challenges.asp

Microsoft's Gates Touts Car Computers, Xbox

Microsoft boss Bill Gates is unveiling a prototype navigation device that stores photos, plays videos and suggests nearby options for shopping and dining. Also, Microsoft's Xbox Live online video-game service will begin selling television shows from Disney's ABC.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aqzxdooZC3xU

Nielsen COD May Be DOA

Nielsen next month will give some TV viewers who receive its paper diaries a raise - sort of. In an unusual experiment, Nielsen will conduct a test using two forms of "non-cash" incentives - electronic debit cards redeemable as cash and paper checks - as an alternative to the paper money it usually stuffs inside envelopes along with its diaries to motivate TV viewers to complete and return them.

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=73982&Nid=38059&p=917272

Online Video Attracts Six Out of Ten Internet Users Weekly

According to the latest Horowitz Associates report, Broadband Content and Services 2007, six out of ten high speed Internet users watch/download online video content at least once a week and 86% do so on a monthly basis, compared to 45% and 71%, respectively, in the 2006 study.

http://blogs.mediapost.com/research_brief/?p=1614

Starz InBlack Showcases New Hip Hop Series

Starz InBlack will debut "Hip Hop: Raw & Uncut,” a 60-minute, monthly live concert series on Friday, Jan. 4. Shot live on location in South Beach Miami, “Hip Hop Raw & Uncut” will feature the nation’s hottest up and coming hip hop artists. Scheduled to perform in the premiere episode are Juvenile, Slim Thugg, Scareface, Baby Boy, Gucci Mane and Urban Mystic. Each show will feature three to four artists and a headliner from the Top 10 charts.

http://www.blacktalentnews.com/artman/publish/article_1688.shtml

STUDY: Social Media Impacts Speed and Tone of News Reporting, But Not Quality

A MAJORITY OF JOURNALISTS SAY that blogs and other forms of social media are not affecting the quality of traditional news--for better or worse--but that the blogosphere is definitely having an impact on the speed, tone and editorial direction of their reporting.

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=73946&Nid=38059&p=917272

Time Warner Invests in Teen Virtual World

Time Warner is said to be investing an undisclosed amount in GaiaOnline.com, a virtual world for teens. Time Warner movie studio Warner Bros. has shown movies in the San Jose, Calif.-based Gaia, in a virtual theater that Gaia virtual world characters can attend.

http://venturebeat.com/2008/01/08/time-warner-invests-in-teen-virtual-world-gaia-online/

Time Warner May Cut 1,000 Jobs Due to Strike

Up to 1,000 employees at Time Warner's Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, Calif., could be laid off after Friday as a result of the Hollywood writers strike. The Warner Bros. notice represents the first concrete sign that the strike could trigger massive job cuts across Hollywood.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i1472d5304a5c1a5016cc9844f4f9e97c

Video Game Industry Growth Seen Slowing

U.S. video game industry sales growth is expected to slow in 2008 as accelerated demand for software is tempered by a decline in hardware, says the Consumer Electronics Association. Now that all of the major consoles are established, software sales are expected to jump.

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0526213620080106