Cynopsis: DIGITAL

12/19/88

Good morning, it’s Friday, December 19, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing, and the last Digital edition of the calendar year 2009!

Yahoo upped the ante in the battle to win the hearts and minds of customers concerned with their online privacy. The company announced a new data retention policy promising to hold customer search engine data for only 90 days to help protect the privacy of its 500 million worldwide users. The move comes a week after Microsoft announced its support for the 6-month deadline legislated earlier this year by the European Union. Google, which facilitates about 75% of the world’s searches, said in September it would cut its search retention period in half from 18 months to 9 months.
 

 
CBS Mobile launched a pair of new mobile web sites for its CNET and CHOW properties. The tech news site iphone.cnet.com is optimized for the Apple iPhone and iTouch, with additional mobile handsets to follow in the coming months. Food blog CHOW is currently available as a WAP-based site.
 
Brant Publications completed an overhaul and redesign of Interviewmagazine.com, featuring a wealth of new interactive content including behind-the scenes slideshows, video blogs and exclusive video interviews from The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. Subjects include Steven Spielberg, Rob Lowe, and Ali McGraw.
 
NBC Universal announced it will be returning to CES next month in force with the multiplatform theme “Entertainment You Can Touch, Content That Touches You”. NBCU stars such as Al Roker, Maria Bartiromo, Nancy O’Dell, Jimmy Fallon and Bill Griffeth will originate special programming on site from the company’s 9,000 square foot booth on the show floor. The booth’s Multimedia Lounge will also be back, enabling bloggers to upload directly from the booth.
 
How’s this for 9 Lives. Eartha Kitt’s sultry “Santa Baby” Master Ringtone/Ringback was certified Gold by the RIAA with sales of over 500,00 units to date, according to Sony Music Entertainment. The ringtone was taken from her original 1953 recording. Mariah Carey’s holiday themed, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” is currently #2 among all ringtones and is topping the holiday ringtone charts for the third year in a row with cumulative sales to-date of more than 1.8 million copies.
 

 
More Pros from Dover are getting their feet wet in new media. A group of 15 episodic comedy writers including WGA West president Patric Verrone (Futurama) and Bill Oakley (The Simpsons) are working on creating original shows for gaming-themed video sharing site Machinima.com. (Machinima (Machine + Cinema) is the name for the genre of online video consisting of stories old using video game characters.) 15 pilots are currently underway and seeking sponsorship. The Machinima Comedy Lab Network shows will also be distributed on Machinima.com’s popular YouTube channel. 
 
HD animation site MyToons.com announced the launch of MyToons Live, a graphic interface with Google Earth allowing users to view where in the world its member animators are working from in real time.
 

 
Macrovision Solutions Corporation has reached an agreement to sell its TV Guide Network properties including TVGuide.com to Allen Shapiro and One Equity Partners for approximately $255 million plus up to an additional $45 million earnout payable through 2012. The company sold the TV Guide print publication to OpenGate Capital in October and had originally planned to keep TV Guide Online. Macrovision acquired Gemstar-TV Guide back in May for $2.3 billion in cash and stock and has retained Gemstar’s Interactive Program Guide businesses.
 
Wednesday night’s West Coast town meeting of the Screen Actors Guild came off in a more civil manner than Monday’s catcall-filled gathering in New York, reported THR. SAG President Alan Rosenberg and chief negotiator Doug Allen presented their case for strike authorization to some 570 attending members. The sticking point for SAG continues to be compensation over productions made for new media formats; the studio’s current deal does not allow for new media residual payments nor for product integration revenue sharing. Ballots to authorize the strike go out to active SAG members on Jan. 2 and are due back on Jan. 23 – two days before the annual SAG awards ceremony.
 
The MPAA filed suit against three U.S.-based movie download sites on Wednesday alleging copyright infringement – campusist.com, movies-on-demand.tv and sswarez.com, per Wired. The studio group has filed a total of 13 lawsuits against P2P download sites since 2007.
 

 
Hulu jumped to the #3 spot in total video streams for October according Nielsen Online‘s most recent VideoCensus numbers, increasing an amazing 45% from 142k streams in September. NBC Universal also broke into the top 10 in October, replacing Disney Online.
 
Top Online Brands ranked by Video Streams for October 2008
Brand                                Total Streams (000)     Unique Viewers (000)
YouTube                                   5,077,720                   82,553       
Fox Interactive Media                    244,216                   18,481         
Hulu                                           206,068                     9,069
MSN/Windows Live                       183,858                     13,394
Nickelodeon Kids and Family           181,084                       6,565
NBC Universal                              175,183                       9,649
Yahoo!                                       169,331                      18,826
ESPN                                         134,337                        7,775
CNN Digital Network                      133,643                       8,263
MTV Networks Music                       99,787                       4,417
Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.
 

 
EchoStar’s Sling Media is releasing a SlingPlayer Mobile edition for several BlackBerry models, available for download as part of a public beta beginning Dec. 30, 2008. The app, which works with a Wi-Fi or 3G connection, will allow users to watch streaming video from their Slingbox and control their home TV sets remotely.
 
This could come in handy for the holidays: Newport Beach, CA-based David Steele Enterprises has developed iBreath, a pocket-sized breathalyzer and FM transmitter that attached to your iPhone or iPod. Simply blow into the tube and the system reads your blood alcohol content – before you get behind the wheel. It’s currently selling for an introductory price of $79.
 

 
Former Sony PlayStation Europe CEO, Chris Deering, has joined the Livestation Advisory Board. Livestation is a TV and radio online portal offering international news channels from BBC, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, France 24, Euronews, C-Span, ITN, Deutsche Welle and Russia Today.
 

CYNOPSIS EVENTS AT NATPE 2009

 
Hockey fans looking forward to the highly anticipated outdoor Winter Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks at Wrigley on New Years Day will be sad to hear the game is already sold out. Unlike the first NHL “Heritage Classic” in 2003, this game will be televised again nationally on NBC. And it will also be available on NHL.com to NHL Gamecenter Live subscribers, the league’s newly-revamped streaming video service powered by NeuLion. In addition to original on demand shows like The Hockey Show, the service offers live streaming of every out-of-market game for $40/month or $126 for the season. Unlike MLB, which was streaming games online when most folks still had dial up connections, the NHL waited to launch live streaming and it’s a good thing they did. The quality of the experienced has improved to the point where you can actually see the puck – an important part of the action. It’s actually a terrific way to watch hockey if you’ve got a fast connection. The interface allows you to toggle between a smaller screen with handy team rosters next to the screen or full screen, streamed at up to 1200 Kbps. Click the multiscreen tab to watch up to 4 games at once. Check it out for yourself: NHL.com is offering the service for free on Saturday, Jan. 3 to attract more subscribers, who are up 230% year over year according to the league.
 
We’ll be back on January 2, 2009.  Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a very happy and health New Year!
 
Later — Wayne
 Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
12.19.08

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