March 3, 2008

BET

March Mania Hits BET

March mania hits BET Networks with the premiere of two new original series, BLACK POKER STARS INVITATIONAL and IRON RING, two reunion specials COLLEGE HILL: CLASS REUNION and KEYSHIA COLE THE WAY IT IS: A FAMILY AFFAIR, the 4th annual RIP THE RUNWAY and COLLEGE HILL: ATLANTA.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1160322/

CBS

CBS Losing 'Most Watched' Title to Fox

CBS -- the home to hits like "Survivor" and "60 Minutes" -- will almost certainly forfeit its longtime crown as "America's Most-Watched Network" in total viewers. That title is set to go to Rupert Murdoch's Fox, the most youth-seeking of all the networks, boosted by "American Idol."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-channel3mar03,1,5022500.story

CBS Outdoor named as a Business Superbrand

As a Business Superbrands, CBS Outdoor has become extremely desirable among many business leaders and influencers. CBS Outdoor is currently transforming the advertising estate on the London Underground with cutting edge digital advertising as part of a massive transformation.

http://www.creativematch.co.uk/viewNews/?95598

FOX

MySpace, Facebook move to better promote third-party apps

MySpace Inc. and Facebook Inc. today separately announced plans to make it easier for developers to earn money from applications that they build and lob at users of the popular social networks.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9066379&intsrc=hm_list

News Corp's MySpace Preps 'iTunes Killer'

MySpace is said to be planning a service that would combine free ad-supported music with paid MP3 downloads and music subscriptions. MySpace owner News Corp. aims to partner with the major labels in a music site, similar to its partnership with Hollywood studios for Hulu.

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN0123996020080302

MTV

Doritos and MTV Announce Casting Call for Spicy Girls and Sweet Guys for New Reality Dating Series

MTV and Doritos are searching for guys and girls who can prove that opposites really do attract for a new short-form reality dating series called "When Spicy Meets Sweet."

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1160615/

MTV to air “The MySpace Chart” show

A new television show, “The MySpace Chart”, will air weekly on the UK channel MTV2. And in typical web 2.0 fashion, users of the show’s own website and its official MySpace page will vote on which artists’ videos will feature — 35 to 40 videos will be selected from MTV2’s own playlist, in addition to five videos from less well known bands and artists.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=414

VIACOM

Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman to Speak at the Bear Stearns 21st Annual Media Conference

Mr. Dauman's question-and-answer session will take place on Monday, March 10th beginning at approximately 1:00 PM (ET). It will be open to the general public through a live webcast on Viacom's website

http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/408112.html

Viacom, NBC Support Comcast in Dispute

NBC Universal and Viacom are supporting Comcast's right to slow customers' access to certain applications on its high speed Internet network. "Reasonable network management practices are vital to combating illegal distribution of copyrighted material," Viacom says.

http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20080229-000996-1827

AFRICA

Africa's Mobile Market is among the Fastest-Growing in the World Gaining More Than 70% in the First Three Quarters of 2005 Alone

Africa’s mobile market is among the fastest-growing in the world, again gaining more than 70% in the first three quarters of 2005 alone. The fact that 14 African countries have achieved triple-digit compound annual growth rates (CAGR) for the past five years shows that this growth is not just short-lived. As early as 2001, Africa became the first continent as a whole where mobile phones outnumbered fixed telephone lines, which individually is the case in most African countries today.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080229005307&newsLang=en

Home-based programs cut African AIDS deaths: study

Providing HIV drug cocktails to people in their homes can cut AIDS-related deaths substantially in poor, rural areas of Africa, researchers said on Friday. A study in Uganda showed that hiring local health workers to help people stick to a strict regimen of drugs cut the number of AIDS deaths by more than 90 percent.

http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=82ab4d5f-829f-428e-a476-414f5597f859

ASIA

China Mobile Releases CSR Report

China Mobile has just released its CSR Report 2007, detailing the company's corporate social responsibility activities in China last year. In 2007, China Mobile donated RMB50 million, and it also started the Love Foundation with the All-China Women's Federation. The report also details how the telecommunications company provided life and study aids to over 10,000 orphans whose parents had died of HIV/AIDS in China.

http://www.chinacsr.com/2008/03/04/2139-china-mobile-releases-csr-report/

China’s Youth Ambassadors raise HIV awareness, online and in the community

China, 28 February 2008 – China’s Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign website was recently honoured as one of the country’s Leading Websites of the Year. The award recognizes young people in China who are battling HIV/AIDS through Internet awareness and messages of prevention.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/china_43021.html

Disney Begins Mobile Service in Japan

Disney is rolling out a mobile phone service in Japan in cooperation with Softbank, entering the tough Japanese cellular phone market following its withdrawal from the United States. The mobiles have a special online feature that allows subscribers to jump to Disney Web sites.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080301/tbs-japan-us-entertainment-telecom-compa-e5c2383.html

Hope for AIDS Orphans in Thailand

Albina du Boisrouvray, president of the humanitarian organization François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) International, will announce the expansion of FXB's Village Model Program at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Thailand tomorrow. FXB has been working in Thailand since 1990 to address and support orphans and vulnerable children affected by AIDS, and the Village Model Program enables families and communities to lift themselves out of poverty and provide for the children in their care.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/03/prweb738114.htm

Virgin goes mobile in India, finds ally in Tata Tele

The UK-based Virgin Group, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, has launched its telecom brand -- Virgin Mobile -- in India under a franchisee agreement with CDMA major Tata Teleservices

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/03virgin.htm

CARIBBEAN

Americans and the Caribbean HIV Explosion

According to Avert, an international AIDS charity, the Caribbean's thriving sex industry, which serves both local clients and many tourists, features prominently in the AIDS epidemics of certain countries, such as the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/03/23/americans-and-the-caribbean-hiv-explosion

CARICOM gets more HIV/AIDS funds from Germany

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has signed a Financing Agreement worth eight million euros to fund its HIV/AIDS fight. The grant, disbursed in two tranches the first of five million and the second of three million, is to assist the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean (PANCAP) in its attempts to prevent the spreads of the virus.

http://www.caribbean360.com/News/Caribbean/Stories/2008/02/29/NEWS0000005533.html

'Murder music' sparks Caribbean tourism boycott call

About 200 people attended the two-hour discussion, The Sound of Hate: Where Sexual Orientation, Race, Dancehall Music and Human Rights Collide. The debate focused on a popular segment of reggae that gay rights activists have dubbed "murder music," because it contains threatening sentiments toward homosexuals and pejorative patois terms for them.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/Music/article/308721

OTHER NEWS

Hollywood And Silicon Valley Team Up For New Digital Media

Northern and Southern California are coming together. Today, the William Morris Agency announced it's partnering with Silicon Valley VC firms Accel Partners and Venrock to invest in a Southern California based "new" or digital media startups.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/23451316

Reuters May Eliminate Jobs for Journalists

David Schlesinger, the editor-in-chief of Reuters, admits that job cuts for journalists can't be ruled out following the company's merger with Thomson Corp. "We have to look at areas where we overlap," he says. "Change is completely constant in our industry -- particularly now."

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=40417

Time Warner to Start 12 New Web Sites

AOL, the Time Warner unit trying to catch up to Yahoo and Google in Internet traffic, plans to start at least a dozen Web sites in the next six months to attract more advertisers. Existing AOL sites include celebrity news site TMZ, men's lifestyle site Asylum and music site Spinner.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=a1oQFoKztByg

Web 2.0 Changing Social Order, Book Says

New York University professor Clay Shirky's new book, "Here Comes Everybody, The Power of Organizing Without Organizations," offers a sociological text on how cell phones, the Internet and other technologies are strengthening the ability to form social and political groups with ease.

http://www.radaronline.com/radar-reviews/2008/02/here_comes_everybody_clay_shirky.php

William Morris, AT&T to Invest in Digital Media

The William Morris Agency is teaming up with venture capital firms Accel Partners and Venrock to invest in digital media start-ups in Southern California. Convergence is "as much an opportunity as a threat," says Susan Johnson, an exec with AT&T, a limited partner with the group.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/business/media/03morris.html