archives

o Sega To End Production of Dreamcast Game Console
o Sony Attributes Lower Profits to Playstation 2 Problems
o Hypnotic, Universal Studios Name Million Dollar Film Festival Winner
o Sundance Channel Acquires Three Shorts From Atom Films
o MediaX Partners With HP to Offer Print-On-Demand Music Posters
o Game Software Developer MarketEcho Raises $1 Million in First Round
o Comedy World Lays Off 40, Will Cease Streaming its Own Content
o iSyndicate Europe Acquires Content Syndicator nFactory
o Briefly Noted: ACLU - Association for Computing Machinery - DeCSS,
Immersion Studios, Hypnotic - "Bit Players"
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> Digital Media Wire Panel: "Interactive Gaming on the Internet"

Interactive gaming is a $6.5 billion market with sales rivaling those of
the motion picture box offices. Forrester Research forecasts that
interactive gaming will be a $26 billion market by 2005. Which
technologies and business models will drive this expanding market? Will
entertainment companies profit from gaming on the Internet? Digital Media
Wire will hold a dinner and panel discussion: "Interactive Gaming on the
Internet: Recent Developments and New Opportunities" on Thursday, February
15, 2001 at the Argyle Hotel in Los Angeles. Moderator: Victor Hwang, COO,
larta. Confirmed panelists: George Alexander, VP Media & Entertainment,
CAP Gemini Ernst & Young; Jim Charne, Attorney and former President,
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences; Brian Dearth, CEO, Hollywood
Stock Exchange; Chris Kantrowitz, CEO, The Groove Alliance.

For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/panel1.html
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> Job Postings: VP Biz Dev/Sales, Senior Web Designer, Tech Writer,
Account Exec./Sr. Account Exec.

> Events: "Digital Media Outlook"

Full Job/Event descriptions listed below "Briefly Noted" section or at
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/postings.html

To Post a Job: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html
To Post an Event: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html
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o Sega To End Production of Dreamcast Game Console

New York -- Confirming reports on Thursday, Sega Corp. announced on Friday
that it will halt production of its Dreamcast game console at the end of
March, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sega said it will focus on making
software for games instead of the consoles themselves. The company
reported that Dreamcast -- the first game console to come equipped with
the ability to connect with the Internet -- is currently its main source
of losses. The news contradicts an earlier assertion that the Dreamcast
would be the center of Sega's Internet strategy. Sega president Isao Okawa
said that due to price cuts necessary to compete with other consoles such
as Sony's Playstation 2, the company is currently losing about $85 on each
game sold. Other factors for the product's demise cited in the article
include developers' inability to create games that fully exploit the
Dreamcast's 128-bit processor capabilities, and a lack of versions of
popular games such as "Final Fantasy" for the console.
http://public.wsj.com/sn/y/SB980276743778949632.html
http://www.dreamcast.com
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o Sony Attributes Lower Profits to Playstation 2 Problems

New York -- Sony Corp. has announced a 23 percent decrease in its net
income for the quarter, attributing the decline to substantial losses from
its Playstation 2 game console, the Wall Street Journal reported on
Friday. The company also announced that it will ship one million fewer
game consoles to the U.S. than expected for the year ending March 31 -- on
top of the already announced decrease in shipments over the holiday
shopping period -- due to a continued shortage of semiconductors used in
the games. The lower profits from Playstation 2 were countered by strong
sales in the company's consumer electronics division, which sells products
including semiconductors, DVD drives and laptop computers.
http://public.wsj.com/sn/y/SB980411873232363445.html
http://www.playstation.com
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o Hypnotic, Universal Studios Name Million Dollar Film Festival Winner

New York -- Universal Studios and online film site partner Hypnotic
announced on Friday that "Bullet in the Brain" by David von Ancken was
named the winner of its "Million Dollar Film Festival." The filmmaker was
awarded a $1 million production deal with Universal Pictures and Hypnotic
during a presentation Thursday at the Sundance Film Festival. In addition
to the production budget, the film will also be distributed both online
and off-line through Hypnotic's partnership with Universal. The festival
sought online submissions from filmmakers that were narrowed down to five,
from which the contest's panel of judges chose the winner. "Bullet in the
Brain" captures the moment as a bullet pierces a bank robber's skull, and
an ill-tempered writing teacher revisits poignant episodes in his life.
http://www.hypnotic.com/hypnotic.asp?content=/mdff.asp
http://www.universalstudios.com
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o Sundance Channel Acquires Three Shorts From Atom Films

Park City, Utah -- Broadcast cable network Sundance Channel announced on
Friday that it has acquired six short films as a result of screenings at
the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah -- three of which were
purchased from short films site Atom Films. The films acquired through
Atom Films are Andrew Lancaster's "In Search of Mike," Gaby Dellal's
"Football," and Samantha Bakhurst and Lea Morement's "4 P.M."
Seattle-based Atom Films itself announced only yesterday that it had
acquired the films "In Search of Mike" and "4 P.M." at the festival. Since
its launch in 1996 the Sundance Channel has acquired and presented over
300 different short films, comprising the largest collection of shorts on
television. Atom Films' entertainment website presents short films in a
range of genres, and actively seeks off-line distribution for its
filmmakers.
http://www.sundancechannel.com
http://www.atomfilms.com
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o MediaX Partners With HP to Offer Print-On-Demand Music Posters

Los Angeles -- MediaX, an entertainment site and marketing company,
announced on Friday that it will begin offering users the ability to order
posters on-demand featuring musicians from its online properties. Los
Angeles-based MediaX designs and operates a network of websites for
musical acts such as N'Sync and Rod Stewart. Users will be able to
designate certain aspects of each poster such as size, and whether each is
printed on photo paper, matte paper or canvas. The posters will then be
printed using Hewlett-Packard Designjet printers and mailed to consumers.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010125/ca_mediax_.html
http://www.mediax.com
http://www.nsync.com
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o Game Software Developer MarketEcho Raises $1 Million in First Round

Austin, Texas -- MarketEcho, a game software developer, announced that it
has raised $1 million in its first round of venture capital financing.
Seriff Capital led the investment round; Castletop Capital, Marimae
Limited Partnership, Red Line Ventures and individual investors also
participated. Austin-based MarketEcho's game software is a mock stock
market where questions are posed to a community of gamers, and
user-submitted answers to those questions are turned into tradable assets.
Whichever answer is ultimately the right answer will result in a payoff to
its owners for the shares they owned. The company said it will use the
funding to partner for strategic alliances.
http://www.marketecho.com
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o Comedy World Lays Off 40, Will Cease Streaming its Own Content

Los Angeles -- Entertainment site Comedy World has laid off 22 percent of
its staff -- or 40 employees -- and said it will no longer stream its
comedy radio programming from its own website, VentureWire reported on
Friday. The company will instead focus on syndicating its content to
terrestrial radio stations and other content sites such as Yahoo. Los
Angeles-based Comedy World offers radio comedy shows with MTV
personalities including Ken Ober, Kennedy and Ahmet Zappa. The company
raised $20.5 million in October 2000.
http://www.comedyworld.com
http://www.venturewire.com
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o iSyndicate Europe Acquires Content Syndicator nFactory

Hamburg, Germany -- iSyndicate Europe, an online content distributor and
joint venture with Bertelsmann Content Network, announced that it has
acquired nFactory, a syndicator of French and Spanish-language online
content. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. iSyndicate
Europe will take a majority share in nFactory S.A., including business
units in France, Belgium, Spain and Morocco, complementing its existing
operations in the United Kingdom and Germany. nFactory’s French and
Spanish business units will be structured into individual national
companies. Hamburg-based iSyndicate Europe is a marketplace where creators
can offer their content to a network of other websites.
http://www.isyndicate.com/company/press/pr/pr_tmpl.phtml?id=82
http://www.nfactory.com
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o Briefly Noted:

(Washington) Wired News reported on Friday that several media
organizations and civil liberties groups will file "friend of the court"
briefs to support the reversal of a decision against DeCSS -- the lines of
code with the ability to crack the security encryption on DVDs. The
American Civil Liberties Union, Association for Computing Machinery and
several news organizations have joined in signing the brief, which also
brings into question the fairness of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
with regard to consumers' "fair use" to make a copy of digital content,
and the legality of simply "linking" to material considered illegal.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41441,00.html
http://www.acm.org

(Los Angeles) The Hollywood Reporter ran a feature story Friday on
Canada's Immersion Studios, creators of the Interactive Cinema Experience
in Melbourne, Australia. The products shown in the theater -- called
"goovies" -- combine live-action footage, computer graphic animation and
interactive consoles connected to viewers' seats.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/archive/hollywood/current/webwatch/webwatch04.asp
http://www.imm-studios.com

(Park City, Utah) New media film studio Hypnotic, a partner of Universal
Studios, announced that it has acquired exclusive global distribution
rights to "Bit Players," a 17-minute short by Andy Berman. New York
City-based Hypnotic will release the short initially on home video before
making it available to websites, cable and broadcast television and
airlines.
http://www.hypnotic.com

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Job Postings:
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To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html

> Sonata, Director/VP Biz. Dev./Sales - Wireless Internet - New York City

Venture-backed wireless company specializing in the next generation of
location-based applications and wireless advertising seeks executive to
initiate, negotiate and close deals. Cultivation of business contacts,
structuring deals, negotiation of contracts and being part of an effective
business development team will be essential. Familiarity with advertising,
high-tech software or Internet products. Must have a passion for
emergingtechnology. Send resumes to hr@sonatainc.com
http://www.sonata.com
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> Lucid Designs, Senior Web Designer - Los Angeles

This is an opportunity to join a young, growing company with established
high-profile clients. Should have a minimum of two years design
experience, and a thorough knowledge of web standard design software such
as Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. Experience with Dreamweaver, DHTML,
CD-ROM or print production are pluses, but not required. Position includes
benefits and generous salary. Send resumes and examples of on-line work to
jobs@luciddesigns.com
http://www.luciddesigns.com
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> Static, Tech Writer - Los Angeles

Software company that transforms the desktop into a peer-to-peer
distributed network for businesses and consumers seeks writer to document
cool software. Needs to have moderate programming/coding skills
(especially C/C++), as well as clear, concise and creative writing skills.
Experience with some sort of document layout software is needed. Send
resumes and tech-writing samples to cooljobs@static.com
http://www.static.com
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> Ruder Finn, TECHNOLOGY-Account Exec./Sr. Account Exec. - San Francisco

Global independent public relations agency seeks executives to help handle
explosive new business growth in dynamic and fast-moving office. Requires
excellent written/oral communication, organizational and problem-solving
skills, as well as a passion for client service. Sr. level positions
require strong program planning, client counseling and staff mentoring
skills. Great accounts, smart programs, competitive compensation and
benefits. Send resumes to careers@ruderfinn.com
http://www.ruderfinn.com 

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Event Postings:
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To Post Events: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html

> Digital Media Outlook, April 2, 2001 -- New York City

Don't miss a beat. In a world of limited bandwidth, companies are
pushing technology and services that mesh data with formats like MP3
and MPEG while employing edge serving and IP multicasting to clear
a path to the audience. At Digital Media Outlook, learn where
the future lies for rich media services and infrastructure companies.
http://www.digitalmediaoutlook.com/home.html?e=DMO01Dwire
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