I'll have more after 5pm, but these were too good to wait, especially the one near the bottom regarding the "Digitally Enhanced Olympic Opening Ceremony".
Comcast, MGM Plan Action-Movie TV Channel
Associated Press
Comcast Corp. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are teaming to launch a video-on-demand channel featuring action movies and TV shows, aimed at males 18-49.
The new "Impact" channel will have about 30 mostly free titles every month, including the James Bond franchise. The selection will tap into MGM's library of over 1,000 action movies and TV shows, including many in high-def. Programming will be grouped as thrillers, crime, war films, martial arts, westerns and espionage.
Comcast already has a genre-specific VOD channel FEARnet, which features horror movies and thrillers. In the first quarter of 2008, FEARnet VOD views were up 40% from last year. - Read the whole story...
Disney Ramps Up Media R&D
Variety
Disney and Pixar are intensifying their quest for innovative technologies. Disney is partnering with Carnegie Mellon University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology to conduct R&D for several Disney projects and companies.
Aside from improving ways for fans to interact with robotic and virtual Disney characters, research will include "sports visualization for ESPN, simulations for Disney Interactive Games and artificial intelligence for park attractions and games," say executives. The work will also support Pixar animation.
"The scope of technology today means no single company or single university can do everything," says Disney vice president Joe Marks. - Read the whole story...
CNN Doubles Its U.S. Newsgathering
Reuters
CNN will double the number of regions from which its newsgathering staffs operate, even as an advertising slump prompts job cuts at other news organizations.
CNN will add 10 regions of coverage including Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Seattle. It will also hire a handful of employees and reassign some current employees to create a mix of traditional news correspondents and "all-platform journalists," who gather news using laptops, cameras and online editing tools.
"Everyone's a reporter now, even our viewers," says Nancy Lane, CNN executive. The network has said it intends to own more of the programming it runs on the Internet and on-air, rather than relying on news agencies. - Read the whole story...
NBC's Olympics Coverage Helps GE Sales
Los Angeles Times
Everyone talks about the ad revenues that NBC is hauling in at the Olympics for its owner General Electric. But the Games are helping GE in other ways as well; sales of GE industrial products that have been incorporated into Olympic venues will generate profits of more than $150 million.
NBC Universal's coverage of the Games has helped GE pry open the potentially vast Chinese market for its lighting, medical equipment, security systems, water treatment technology and wind turbines.
For GE, owning NBC Universal has never been just about producing sitcoms, newscasts or movies. The Olympics are "just one of the benefits of having NBC in the GE portfolio," says a GE representative. - Read the whole story...
The Downside of TV Ads Tied to Content
Advertising Age
You can't plan for everything. Most viewers in the nation's No. 1 TV market didn't see a special promotion from Honda specifically designed to go along with NBC's "Last Comic Standing" reality show.
A unique ad plan, created by NBC, Honda and Honda's agency RPA, involved outside comics appearing in ads during the series and soliciting online votes from viewers. The winner appeared in a long-form ad during the last episode. But the finale show was preempted for football in New York, Cleveland and Baltimore.
Crafting ads tailored to programs is gaining more popularity at networks, but the risk -- as Honda learned -- is that the ads rise and fall not only on the success of the show but on the myriad factors that can knock a program off the air. Making it even worse is that these ideas generally require weeks, if not months, of planning. - Read the whole story...
Obama Tests Late-Night Informercial
TV Week
CBS Grows Cable Programming Unit
Worldscreen.com
Anger Grows Over Olympics Fakery
Variety
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