June 25, 2008

BET

BET, TV One make plans to go all out over Obama convention coverage

With Sen. Barack Obama poised to make history as the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party, BET and TV One will significantly step up their coverage of the Democratic National Convention in August.

BET Awards offers integrated, multimedia platforms for advertisers

In support of this year's BET AWARDS, BET has announced unique marketing partnerships with several high-profile sponsors, including Dodge, Procter & Gamble, Target, CIROC Vodka, Ford, Coors, Pepsi, Verizon Wireless and street wear clothing brand Akademiks. In addition to being integrated into various elements of the show and its ancillary events, each partner will be featured in advertising spots during BET AWARDS '08

CBS

CBS 3 Launches Revenue Sharing Partnership With Local Blogs

CBS 3 (KYW-TV) today announced the launch of the CBS 3 Philadelphia Network, a first-of-its-kind partnership between a major media company's owned television station and local blogs and social media sites.

CBS Widget Deal With Blogs Already Profitable
CBS Television Stations' digital media group is rolling out a widget-advertising-revenue-sharing program with local bloggers at more than a dozen network-owned stations across the country. The program launched at New York's WCBS last week and was "making money from day one."

FOX

Fox Hires Giants' Strahan for $2 Million
New York Giants defensive great Michael Strahan is entering a $2 million deal with Fox Sports to join the pre-game show "Fox NFL Sunday." Strahan was the subject of a bidding war between Fox and CBS, although NBC and ESPN were said to have talked with him as well.

Fox Ignores MySpace for New Community Site
Fox television network is pairing with social networking service Passenger to launch an online community for audience feedback. Passenger already created a similar online resource for ABC, which is one reason why Fox didn't turn to News Corp. sibling MySpace for the new site.

Fox To Monitor Audience’s Marketing Preferences in Social Network

The Fox Broadcasting Co. has linked up with social networking service Passenger to launch an online community for passionate viewers of Fox Programs – giving the network a bird’s eye view of the audience’s programming and marketing preferences.

MTV

MTV India Undergoes Emergency 'Brand Treatment'

MTV India came up with something special for its audience: the channel’s new image crafted by the West.To achieve it, the signal underwent a brand-emergency treatment at Steinbranding´s design studios in Argentina. The reasons behind such actions are unknown, though for some, it wanted to again be the vanguard channel it’s always been. Eager to return to its profanity, madness and irony and wanting to yell ¨charge¨ to its spectators once again.

MTV Video Music Awards on going Hollywood

The 2008 MTV Video Music Awards are returning to Los Angeles after 10 years away. The VMAs will be broadcast live from Paramount Pictures Studios Sept. 7 at 9 p.m. The network will present awards from sound stages, rooftops and city streets. MTV also announced plans to allow the fans to chose the show's nominees.

MTV Wants To Raise Political Consciousness, Ad Revenues

"Given where we are in the election cycle, and how the youth vote has increasingly engaged and played a crucial role in past presidential elections, we're-evaluated the MTV policy and decided that campaign-approved ads would be a good fit for our audience, and would compliment our 'Choose or Lose' campaign efforts," says the network's Jeannie Kedas. "It's a good thing when candidates want to reach out to young people and the best way to do that is through MTV."

Sears targets teens with MTV film, LL Cool J gear

The company that once offered in-store hearing aids and dentures is teaming up with MTV to produce a back-to-school movie while adding a line of street clothes and accessories designed by hip-hop artist LL Cool J.

Viacom's MTV May Sway Election to Obama

MTV has declined political advertising since its launch in 1981. The Viacom television channel is now reversing course and will start accepting political ads. MTV's decision will allow the youth vote to have a "real impact" on the election's outcome, say Democratic strategists.

UNIVISION

Univision wraps $80M upfront with Zubi Advertising

Univision has closed a nearly $80 million upfront deal with Zubi Advertising, Miami, that includes ads on all three Univision TV networks, 64 owned-and-operated TV stations, Univision radio stations and the Web extensions of those channels, in addition to mobile.

VIACOM

Viacom Drops to Lowest Since CBS Split
Viacom shares on Monday fell to the lowest since the company's 2006 split with CBS, after its film "The Love Guru" missed weekend box-office estimates. Sumner Redstone's decision to split Viacom and CBS was "in error," says Sanford Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson.

AFRICA

AFRICA: Mind your language - a short guide to HIV/AIDS slang

HIV has hit our lives, our families, our economies; it also shapes the way we talk. IRIN/PlusNews looks at how the virus and its impact translates into everyday speech from the streets of Lagos to the townships of Johannesburg, and finds that despite the billions of dollars spent on positive communication strategies, the word on the street remains decidedly negative.

Civil Society to Harmonise Strategies in Fight Against Aids

Civil society organizations working in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Mozambique have expressed their commitment to contribute to harmonise all national strategies against this pandemic. The commitment was given at the end of the first National Civil Society Conference on HIV/AIDS, that ended on Monday.

Mobile Phones Soar in Internet-Starved Continent

The beleaguered African continent continues to lag far behind the rest of the world in battling poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS, but it is making dramatic progress in the field of information and communications technologies (ICTs). The technological advances, however, are limited primarily to mobile phones.

Mr HIV Positive Living aims to 'save the nation'
The HIV Positive Living pageant was held recently where Dikae was crowned. But Dikae did not enter the contest for fun and his mission is to save the nation from the HIV/AIDS scourge. For Dikae, being Mr HIV Positive Living means he has been thrust into the fight against HIV/AIDS. He explained that his victory is a milestone that will enable him to steer on unchartered seas. HIV/AIDS has always been a subject that is close to his heart.

New Policy Will Mitigate HIV Prevalency

One of the most important developments in the fight against the Aids pandemic is the "National Policy on HIV/AIDS and The World of Work", which the Ministry of Gender and Social Development launched early this year. The launch concluded a long protracted process that kept the policy in draft form for so long.

South Africa: Community Leaders Forge New Approach to HIV Prevention

HIV among imprisoned juveniles, teenagers and the Muslim community headlined a discussion of community leaders and AIDS experts in Johannesburg today. The gathering – orchestrated by the M·A·C AIDS Fund, the philanthropic arm of Estée Lauder-owned (NYSE: EL) M·A·C Cosmetics – explored solutions to curb the epidemic in one of the world’s most affected regions, where nearly one in five people is HIV-positive.

Quarter of Ethiopia AIDS patients have stopped drugs

Over a quarter of Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS patients on drugs are not taking their medicine because of logistical problems but also due to religious beliefs, the head of a treatment body said on Tuesday. Over 40,000 of Ethiopia's 156,360 HIV/AIDS patients on the life-prolonging medication have discontinued treatment "due to problems of transportation to hospitals," said Dr Ygeremu Abebe, the director of the Clinton Foundation in Ethiopia.

ASIA

China one of first stops for Gates in new philanthropy job

When Bill Gates takes on the role of full-time philanthropist this summer, one of the first places he's headed is China. That's where the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will move forward on several key health programs, including HIV/AIDS prevention and a new push to curb smoking — and try to tap China's expertise to improve African agriculture.

Mass awareness to fight HIV/AIDS underscored

Speakers at an awareness raising meeting on HIV/AIDS on Saturday stressed the need for creating mass awareness among the people about the deadly disease AIDS. They said prevention of the deadly disease can be made possible only by raising massive public awareness and by abiding and practicing religious teachings.

Vietnam strives to reduce impacts of HIV

Vietnam’s relevant agencies also pay special attention to behavioral change communication to reduce the impacts of HIV transmission. The country now has 1,500 peer educators and 2.500 health educators who have made important contributions to disseminating information and caring for HIV/AIDS patients.

CARIBBEAN & LATIN AMERICA

Gov't tables Green Paper on HIV/AIDS at the workplace

THE government has taken a major step towards removing the stigma of HIV/AIDS in the workplace by tabling a Green Paper on the issue in the House of Representatives yesterday. "Currently, there is a lot of discrimination against people with AIDS and, in some cases, there is unnecessary fear among workers or fellow workers with AIDS. So, it will be a very educational process for both workers and employers," Charles said.

Media vs parents - Who is responsible for children's sexual behaviour?

The topic, as presented to me for discussion was: 'Print and broadcast media entities that produce sexually explicit content should be held responsible for the sexual behaviours of our youth which potentially increases HIV infection'. It raised many issues, including the media's role and responsibility particularly in health reporting; the impact of media on behaviour, particularly on the sexual behaviour of young people and it called on the panel to analyse media content and to review reasons for the continuing spread of HIV infection in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean.

St Kitts PM outlines collaboration between Caribbean and New York

St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas said a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Medgar Evers College in New York would form the basis for moving forward after the Caribbean-New York Conference last week.

EUROPE

Swedish teens shun condoms and cigarettes

Swedish teens drink and smoke less than their peers in most other countries, but when it comes to sex, young people in Sweden are far from being the most careful. A new report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) paints a mixed picture when it comes to clean living by Sweden’s youth, especially concerning the sexual habits of Swedish teenage girls.

ADVERTISING NEWS

Internet Ad Spending to Overtake Radio, Mags
Internet advertising spending will surpass radio this year, forecasts Steve King, head of Publicis Groupe's ZenithOptimedia. "Internet has already overtaken cinema and outdoors. In a couple of years it's going to overtake magazines." Also, Publicis is forming a unit to boost Internet sales.

CELEBRITY NEWS

Big Tigger’s 7th Annual Celebrity Classic

BET veteran host and radio personality Big Tigger held his 7th Annual Celebrity Classic in Washington, DC from June 5-7. Celebrities who came out to support Tigger’s HIV/AIDS charity event included T.I., Tiffany Evans, DJ Clue, Melyssa Ford, and Rocsi.

Kelly Rowland takes HIV test for charity

Former Destiny's Child star Kelly Rowland is taking an HIV test for charity in Africa to raise awareness of the disease. Rowland traveled to Nairobi in Kenya. "Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to Hiv infection, and it is important for everyone to know their Hiv status. "The quicker you know your status, the sooner you can receive treatment if you're Hiv+, and reduce the risk of inadvertently infecting future partners". She said.

MAC Cosmetics Celebrates With Nelson Mandela at the 46664 Concert in Hyde Park

Cosmetics is proud to announce its involvement in the 46664 Concert honouring Nelson Mandela at 90 taking place in Hyde Park on the 27th June 2008. Many of the world's most powerful and instantly recognisable figures and a concert audience of 46,664 will pay their tributes to one of the world's most loved leaders, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and icon of freedom, Nelson 'Madiba' Mandela, as he turns 90 later this year.

SHERYL LEE RALPH WANTS COUPLES TESTED

Actress/activist Sheryl Lee Ralph and her husband, Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes, will mark National HIV/AIDS Testing Day Friday (June 27) by announcing the launch of their "Get Tested Together" campaign.

Stand By What You Say

Kelly Rowland, the official 2008 Ambassador for the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, speaks out in support of Stand By What You Say, a joint campaign between MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, SpinVox and Causes on Facebook, which encourages young people to speak openly about sex, sexual health and HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS AND SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS

Contributions to Early HIV Diagnosis Among Patients Linked to Care

ObjectiveEarly HIV diagnosis reduces transmission and improves health outcomes; screening in non-traditional settings is increasingly advocated. We compared test venues by the number of new diagnoses successfully linked to the regional HIV treatment center and disease stage at diagnosis.

Educational video in clinic waiting rooms reduces new sexually transmitted infections

A video-based waiting room intervention, Safe in the City, lowers STD incidence among STD clinic patients, new CDC data find. In a controlled trial, the Safe in the City research group found that patients who were exposed to a 23-minute HIV/STD prevention video had nearly a 10% reduction in new infections compared with those who were not exposed to the video.

Function Drinks Launches New Product to Support Sexual Health

Function Drinks announced today the launch of their newest product, FUNCTION: NIGHT LIFE, a physician's take on supporting sexual health. Function: Night Life's proprietary formula is a unique way to address sexual health, an important part of a complete healthy lifestyle.

Los Angeles County Offers Free HIV Testing

Almost 2,000 Los Angeles County residents are expected to take advantage of the free HIV testing offered as part of HIV Counseling and Testing Week, which started Monday.

Many may "trust" their partner is a low STD risk

Too many people may consider themselves at low risk of sexually transmitted diseases simply because they trust their partner, a new study suggests. The study of patients at an STD clinic found that many people relied on subjective measures in judging their partner's "safety" -- such as how long they had known the partner or how intelligent or well-educated he or she was.

One Love Provides One Stop HIV Info for African-Americans

California state officials and AIDS prevention and testing advocacy groups have teamed up to establish a Web site that focuses exclusively on the impact of HIV/AIDS and other health disparities on African Americans.

The National Latino AIDS Action Agenda Network Releases Federal Policy Recommendations

The Latino Commission on AIDS and its community partners join eight cities acrossthe United States (Los Angeles, New York,Washington, DC,Philadelphia,Puerto Rico,Miami,San Antonio and Chicago) in releasing Latino/Hispanic HIV/AIDS Federal Policy recommendations - addressing the Latino AIDS Crisis to address the HIV/AIDS emergency in Latino/Hispanic communities across the nation, includingPuerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. With 120 organizations represented by over 350 individuals already signed on in support of the document, the release comes in response to the health emergency caused by the accelerated growth of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Hispanic/Latino communities across the nation.

SexHealthGuru.com Launches Video Website for Sexual Health

Most online health websites are focused on the baby boomer generation and rely upon the oldest media – text. By contrast, SexHealthGuru.com is built around new media – video content – and was created for an overlooked portion of the online health market – 18 to 40 year olds.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases Hit Records Across Iowa

“It’s especially concerning that we’re seeing the greatest number of cases reported in teenagers and young adults,” said IDPH Director Tom Newton, in a statement released Wednesday. For Chlamydia, 8,643 cases were reported, 1,928 cases of Gonorrhea and 64 cases of Syphilis. Officials said the numbers would be even higher if the state required reports on the cases of human papillomavirus and herpes.

Unsafe Sex Remains Common Among New Yorkers

More than one-third — 36 percent — of New York City men who have sex with other men and have had five or more sex partners within the past year do not consistently use condoms. City officials said that statistic was one of the most troubling findings from a new report — titled “Are New Yorkers Having Safe Sex?” — that was released on Tuesday by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Women At Risk for HIV-AIDS by Sexism in Media, Down-Low Effect

Men on the “down low” go to extreme lengths to deceive the women they marry about their sexual encounters with other men because of self-hatred and denial, a practice that puts women at risk for HIV, writes Natalie Bell in “The Down Low Effect,” an essay at On The Issues Magazine Online.

Women with HIV who regularly use crack are three times more likely to die

A US survey of 1686 women with HIV on antiretroviral treatment has found that the 29% who regularly or intermittently used crack cocaine were nearly 60% more likely to develop an AIDS-defining illness, and the 3.2% who used it persistently were three times more likely to die.

MOBILE NEWS

AT&T Expands Content Delivery Business
Telecom giant AT&T, which provides Internet access to millions, is expanding its efforts in the content delivery business, which has long been the territory of companies like Akamai Technologies and Limelight networks. As more companies launch Web sites with video and other bandwidth-sucking interactive features, AT&T says it will bolster its network infrastructure across the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia, investing more than $70 million by year's end.

Graduate to develop text message system to help HIV/AIDS patients

Recent Princeton graduate Katy Digovich has been awarded a Compton Mentor Fellowship to establish a program that would enable HIV/AIDS patients in Botswana to receive text message reminders to take their medicine, aiming to solve a common problem in a country deeply afflicted by the virus.Katy Digovich, a member of Princeton's class of 2008, will use the Compton Mentor Fellowship to implement a pilot cell phone text message system to remind 250 HIV/AIDS patients in Botswana to take their pills, refill prescriptions and go to doctor appointments.

MULTI CULTURAL NEWS

Black households were one-third of record-setting NBA Finals audience

The heavily promoted NBA Championship series between the Lakers and Celtics drew a record setting audience for the league. Games three, four and five had an average of 4.5 million black viewers -- an average of 30% of the total audience for each game.

Nielsen: Black-oriented TV tied for second largest category in ad gains for Q1

Advertising spending for the first quarter of 2008 remained essentially flat compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary figures released today by Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the competitive advertising information service of The Nielsen Company

Planned black cable news channel faces many obstacles

Media observers say Watts faces many challenges in his effort to make the network "the single destination for reliable, credible, informational resources for the African-American community." "I'm not so sure that you see anything on CNN or Fox News that specifically targets the African-American community," Watts told The New York Post. Among the obstacles Watts will face include white backlash against a "serious" Black news program. He will also have to wrestle with how such an outlet will be financed given the reluctance to discuss race and class while selling cars, advertisements, branding big corporations and promoting an upcoming basketball game

PHILANTHROPY

Philanthropy conference focuses on educating children

Mayor Thomas M. Menino urged leaders of black community organizations to work together more closely and consolidate administrative functions to free up more money for educating Boston's youngest, most vulnerable children.

Rockefeller 2.0: Gates relaunches philanthropy

As Bill Gates formally leaves his day job at Microsoft to start work full-time at his family foundation, all eyes in the nation’s $300 billion philanthropy sector are focused on the man that many in the field now call “the Rockefeller of our time.”

Ruthless Philanthropy

Ask Bill Gates what advice he'd offer the next U.S. president to improve American competitiveness and innovation, and he gives a wry chuckle. "I tend to think more about improving the entire world as opposed to relative positions," he told Forbes.com. "Otherwise you could say, 'Hey, World War II was great because the U.S. was in its strongest relative position when that was over.' "

SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS

Facebook In Long Legal Fight for Its Future
A long-running legal battle over whether Mark Zuckerberg ripped off Harvard classmates in launching Facebook is moving to a courtroom in San Jose, Calif., for a fight that could end up "catastrophic" for the social-networking site, observers say. "This could be a fight for Facebook's life."

Facebook Passes MySpace With Global Boost

Last month, Facebook had 123.9 million unique visitors and 50.6 billion page views worldwide, according to the research firm ComScore. MySpace, meanwhile, had 114.6 million unique visitors and 45.4 billion page views. According to the Reston research firm, this is the first time Facebook has edged past MySpace in those measures.

Facebook Wins Visa Ads, Business Network
Visa is giving a $100 advertising credit on Facebook to each of the first 20,000 U.S. businesses that download the Web application needed to join its new small-business network on the socializing site. The move is part of Visa's new $2 million advertising campaign on Facebook.

Intel Launches Social Networking Site For Family Caregivers

Intel announced the launch of ConnectingForCare.com and ConnectingForCare.co.uk this week. The sites allow users to create profiles, interact, and share information on medical research and treatments. Intel said it hopes the site will help caregivers in the United States and the United Kingdom better coordinate care for the sick, elderly, and disabled

LA Times Launches Media, Culture Blog
Patrick Goldstein, who writes "The Big Picture" film-industry column in the Los Angeles Times, is expanding the weekly feature into a blog covering entertainment, media and pop culture. Goldstein predicts: "Someday soon our blogs will be the backbone of the paper."

Social Networking: An Internet Addiction?

Social networking Web sites like MySpace and Facebook have never been more popular. As CBS News National Correspondent Hattie Kauffman reports, some worry the sites are perhaps too popular... maybe even addicting.

OTHER NEWS

Google to announce new media research tool AdPlanner

Chalk up researching online media buys as yet another thing Google will let users do for free, according to items in the New York Times and Washington Post this afternoon. Set to be unveiled tomorrow at Advertising Research Foundation’s conference, the word leaked out when the conference put up an announcement of the new service, before yanking it back down.

MSNBC to Fund Feature-Length Documentaries

MSNBC is creating MSNBC Films, a banner that will serve as a financing instrument for feature-length documentaries and turn the cable channel into more of a player in the feature-film world. The news network plans to offer support of new films for theatrical release.

Net Generation Driving Growth In The Global Entertainment & Media Industry

The recently released PricewaterhouseCoopers' Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2008-2012, underscores the importance of continuing to extract revenues from traditional business segments while emerging technologies continue to solidify their consumer position. The report shows global compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 6.6% for the sector, anticipating it reaching $2.2 trillion in 2012.

Poll: Americans In Favor of An 'Internet FCC'
Nearly half of Americans believe that the U.S. federal government should regulate the Internet the same way it does radio and television, according to a national survey by electronic publishing firm Rasmussen Reports. Also, women "feel stronger" about Internet regulation than men.

National HIV Testing Day

Free HIV Testing Offered By The Southern NV Health District

The Southern Nevada Health District will offer free, rapid HIV testing between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday, June 23 - Friday, June 27 at its main location, 625 Shadow Lane, Annex A as part of National HIV Testing Day (June 27) and in collaboration with Aid for AIDS of Nevada (AFAN).

Free tests in QC on HIV Testing Day

June 27th, 2008 is National HIV Testing Day. To facilitate our community’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and to inform individuals of their own HIV status, the Rock Island County Health Department and the AIDS Project Quad Cities will be offering free, anonymous, rapid result HIV testing at a number of venues (see below).

Gas cards for HIV tests Friday

Coachella Valley residents who take an HIV test and wait for the results on Friday – National HIV Testing Day – will receive a free $20 gas card. “Knowing your HIV status is truly a case of ‘knowledge is power’ because getting into care as quickly as possible following a diagnosis as positive can help to determine a healthier future,” David Brinkman, executive director of Desert AIDS Project, said in a news release.

Get tested for HIV/AIDs and catch a free Sammie concert

The program, sponsored by Detroit's Department of Health & Wellness Promotion, includes incentives to take the test, since teens and young adults are two of the fastest-growing demographics being infected with HIV, says Detroit City Councilmember Alberta Tinsley-Talabi.

Local agencies to offer free HIV testing Friday, Saturday

Louisiana Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse opened earlier this year in Shreveport. The walk is in conjunction with National Testing Day, when nonprofit groups and health agencies encourage people to be tested for HIV.