Top Stories
o MPAA: Film Piracy Costs U.S. Economy $20.5 Billion a Year
o "Superman Returns" DVD Launches in China for $2.75; Bootleg Copies $1.75
o HP to Acquire Gaming Computer Maker VoodooPC
o British Music Industry, Digital Music Retailers Set Royalty Rates
o List of Artists With Unclaimed Digital Royalties Includes Big Names
o Shares of Online Photo Service Shutterfly Rise Following $81 Million IPO
o News Corp.'s NDS Acquires Video Game Developer ITE
o Report: 60% of U.S. Internet Users Streamed or Downloaded Video in July
_____________________________________________

DMW Announcements   DMW Events Listing     · Digital Music Forum - October 4-5, 2006 - West Hollywood, CA   Job Opportunities at DMW - Join the DMW Team!   Digital Entertainment & Marketing Awards - Submissions Deadline: September 30 Featured Advertisements   YOUR HOTEL ROOM IS WAITING FOR YOU IN LAS VEGAS!   Forbes MEET 2006 - October 24-25, 2006 - Beverly Hills, CA   2006 Digital Entertainment & Media Directory - 1,000+ Company Profiles

_____________________________________________

Briefly Noted
o MTV to Air Season Finale of "Two-A-Days" Exclusively on MTV.com
o Xbox 360 HD DVD Player Accessory to Sell for $199
o Sirius Satellite Radio Airs "First Ever Profane Ad" on U.S. Commercial Radio
o Borders Launches Broadband Entertainment Program Featuring Authors
o U. of Illinois Taps UsableNet for Mobile Sports Service
o Xfire Hits 5 Million Users for PC Game Online Community Service
o Gameloft to Publish 17 New Mobile Games in the Fourth Quarter

Most Popular This Week
o Online Social Network Start-up Wallop Raises $10 Million
o Digg Founders Launch Internet TV Network, Revision3
o Fox News: Internet Division Used “Poor Judgment” Removing Clips from YouTube
o Yahoo Acquires Web-based Video Editing Software Firm Jumpcut
o Sony Debuts $350 E-Book Reader Device, Connect eBook Store

Online Extras
o Weekend Read: Poker Brings the Media and Gambling Industries Closer
o Sorry Mark, but Prospective YouTube-Buyers aren’t Morons
o Poll Result: Web advertising will be the best alternative to the 30-Second TV Spot
o Morning Links: September 29, 2006
    Hits and Misses at DemoFall; Video Games Your Mother Plays; ...
o DMW Videos
    Shawn Gold, MySpace; Terry McBride, Nettwerk; Jay Miller, EA Mobile; ...

Career Moves
o Career Moves: September 29, 2006
    Cyberview, SpireMedia
Submit announcements to careermoves@digitalmediawire.com

For your morning links and updates during the day, visit www.dmwmedia.com _______________________________________

Job/Event/Marketplace Classifieds   Job Opportunities at DMW - Join the DMW Team!   YOUR HOTEL ROOM IS WAITING FOR YOU IN LAS VEGAS! - CES 2007 - Las Vegas, NV   Director of Web Systems - Associated Production Music (APM) – Hollywood, CA   Marketing Manager - Warner Brothers International - Burbank, CA   Director, Digital Media - CW Atlanta, WUPA-TV - Atlanta, GA   Customer Service Manager - Walt Disney Internet Group - North Hollywood, CA   Senior Manager, Product Management TPS - Real - Seattle, WA   Senior Researcher/New Media Analyst - RF/Binder - New York, NY   Director New Media Development - Cox Enterprises - Atlanta, GA   Account Manager, International Publications - National Geographic - Washington DC   Creative Director Digital Media - Frog Design - San Francisco, CA   Project Manager Digital Media Systems - NBC Universal - Universal City, CA   Director, Digital Media & Content - GSI Commerce Solutions - King of Prussia, PA   2006 Digital Entertainment & Media Directory - 1,000+ Company Profiles   PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2005-2009

Washington - A new study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) finds that movie piracy exacts a greater toll on the U.S. economy that previously projected. While a previous study estimated that DVD and online movie piracy cost the industry $6 billion a year in lost sales, a new report from former Rep. Dick Armey's (R-N.D.) Institute for Policy Innovation think tank -- that also factors in lost jobs, worker earnings and tax revenue -- pegs annual piracy losses at $20.5 billion, 140,000 jobs and over $800 million in tax revenue. The report was presented at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce conference in Washington on Friday, at which NBC Universal CEO Bob Wright also spoke. "This research illustrates for the first time that motion picture piracy hurts not only the movie business, but triggers a harmful domino effect that results in lost jobs and wages for American workers inside and outside the industry, and lost tax revenue for all levels of government," said MPAA CEO Dan Glickman.
http://www.mpaa.org/press_releases/ipi%20release%209%2029%2006.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/l94tg (Washington Post)
http://www.ipi.org
_____________________________________________

o "Superman Returns" DVD Launches in China for $2.75; Bootleg Copies $1.75

Los Angeles - Despite Warner Home Video's efforts to curb piracy of "Superman Returns" in China by releasing the film on DVD in the country two months before anywhere else, a high-quality bootleg version of the movie was readily available on the streets of Beijing today for $1.75, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Warner's plan was to release a two-disc, legitimate DVD version of the film will all the special features to Chinese retailers to sell for $2.75, betting that the low price and early release date would provide competition to bootleggers. "That doesn't surprise me," Mark Horak, executive vice president and general manager of Warner Home Video, Asia Pacific and Latin America, told THR. "But at least now a consumer there has a choice of buying a legitimate copy, of higher quality and with all the extras, for not much more." "Superman Returns" isn't slated for release in the U.S. until November, when the two-disc special edition will retail for $34.99.
http://tinyurl.com/pvhrb (Hollywood Reporter)
____________________________________________

o HP to Acquire Gaming Computer Maker VoodooPC

Palo Alto, Calif. - Looking to capture a larger slice of the gaming market, Hewlett
Packard, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based technology giant currently embroiled in a boardroom spying scandal, said that it has signed a deal to acquire Calgary-based VoodooPC, a maker of high-performance gaming computer systems. Financial terms of the deal, expected to close in November, were not disclosed. HP said that it plans to form a separate business unit within its Personal Systems Group focused on the gaming industry, with VoodooPC co-owners Rahul Sood and Ravi Sood becoming the unit's chief technologist and director of strategy, respectively. HP plans to maintain VoodooPC's current distribution model and brand name along with its marketing, sales, support and development operations. HP, which already makes workstations for game development and powers online game services, said that the deal help it increase its strength in the gaming customer segment.
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2006/060928c.html
http://www.voodoopc.com
____________________________________________

o British Music Industry, Digital Music Retailers Set Royalty Rates

London - The British music industry announced this week that it has reached an agreement with Apple and mobile carriers including O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone, on royalties to be paid to artists for music distributed online and to cell phones in the U.K. The deal between the British Phonographic Industry, which represents major record labels, MCPS-PRS Alliance -- which represents songwriters, composers and music publishers -- and the digital music distributors also partially settles outstanding litigation between the parties. Under the agreement -- which covers only full-track downloads, and not ringtones -- Apple and the mobile firms will pay royalties of 8% of gross revenue on digital music, excluding value-added taxes. For non-interactive services like streaming Web radio, the royalty was set at 6.5% of gross revenues. "All parties to the settlement welcome this agreement, which will help drive the on-going growth of the legitimate digital music market," the MCPS-PRS Alliance said in a statement. More than 34 million song downloads have been sold in the U.K. so far this year, according to the Official UK Charts Company, already more than double the number sold throughout 2005.
http://tinyurl.com/fvmpz (MCPS-PRS Alliance statement)
http://tinyurl.com/kyrjc (Reuters)
_____________________________________________

o List of Artists With Unclaimed Digital Royalties Includes Big Names

Los Angeles - Well-known recording artists including Mos Def, T-Bone Burnett and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are among 9,000 whom SoundExchange, the recording industry entity set up to dole out royalties for digital music, has said it has been unable to locate or contact to claim $500,000 in unpaid royalties, the Los Angeles Times reported. "It says obviously how well they do their job -- which is not well at all," Fred Wilhelms, a Nashville lawyer who helps performers and songwriters collect back royalties, told the Times. "We've probably mailed multiple things to them without any response," John L. Simson, executive director of SoundExchange, told the Times. "What it shows you is perhaps for major artists or their management … this may have been lower on the priority list than the current tour or the current recording." SoundExchange has registered 22,000 artists for digital royalties over the past year. Of the 9,000 with unclaimed royalties, about 6,000 are owed less than $50, and fewer than 75 are owed more than $500. "For a lot of managers, they probably receive the form letter and throw it in the trash without even opening it," Simon Renshaw, who manages the Dixie Chicks and other groups, told the Times. "Now that there's a big sum involved, people will start to pay attention."
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-sound29sep29,1,7967836.story
http://www.soundexchange.com
____________________________________________

o Shares of Online Photo Service Shutterfly Rise Following $81 Million IPO

Redwood City, Calif. - Shares of Shutterfly rose nearly 4% on the their first day of trading after the Redwood City, Calif.-based online photo service raised about $80.9 million in its initial public offering (IPO). The company priced its 5.8 million shares at $15 each, at the top of its expected range. The seven-year-old company, which lets users upload, edit and share digital photos, is trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "SFLY." Since launching its service in late 1999, Shutterfly has fulfilled more than 11 million orders, sold approximately 350 million prints and stored more than 900 million customer photos in its image archives. Shares of the company closed at $15.55.
http://ir.shutterfly.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=212704
____________________________________________

o News Corp.'s NDS Acquires Video Game Developer ITE

London - NDS, a unit of News Corporation that provides content protection technologies for digital pay-TV, announced on Friday that it has acquired Denmark-based video game developer and publisher ITE (Interactive Television Entertainment). Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. In addition to console, handheld and mobile games that have sold a combined 8.5 million units to date, ITE has also developed interactive TV games including "Hugo the TV Troll."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060929/20060929005354.html?.v=1
http://www.nds.com
http://www.ite.dk
____________________________________________

o Report: 60% of U.S. Internet Users Streamed or Downloaded Video in July

Reston, Va. - About three out of every five U.S. Internet users either streamed or downloaded video during the month of July, according to new figures released by comScore Media Metrix. All told, 7.2 billion videos were streamed or downloaded by U.S. Internet users, which means that the typical video streamer viewed an average of more than two streams a day. Sunnyvale-based Yahoo ranked as the top web property by attracting 37.9 million unique U.S. streamers, followed by MySpace and YouTube. MySpace, however, led the way in terms of individual videos streamed, capturing 20% of the U.S. market share.
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1015

Top

View agenda at www.forbesmeet.com

Digital Media Wire members can save $600 on registration here.
Use source code 201858 when registering.

2006 Digital Entertainment & Media Directory - 1,000+ Company Profiles

Digital Media Wire's directory is the definitive resource for companies prospecting clients and sales in the rapidly expanding digital entertainment and media industries. This highly unique resource is an ideal time-saving shortcut for several types of corporate activities: business development; direct marketing; sales prospecting; market research & competitive analysis; and recruitment. To order a copy, click here.
_______________________________________

Top

o MTV to Air Season Finale of "Two-A-Days" Exclusively on MTV.com

New York - MTV on Friday announced plans to for the first time broadcast the season finale of a series exclusively on MTV.com. The second season finale of "Two-A-Days," a documentary series about high school football, will premiere on MTV.com immediately following the conclusion of the on-air broadcast of the next-to-last episode on MTV on Oct. 11. MTV said every episode of the series has been viewed more than 500,000 times on MTV.com.
http://tinyurl.com/nm6za
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/2_a_days/series.jhtml
____________________________________________

o Xbox 360 HD DVD Player Accessory to Sell for $199

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft announced this week that its HD DVD drive accessory for the Xbox 360 video game console will sell for $199 when it ships to the U.S. in mid-November. The drive is Microsoft's answer to Sony's inclusion of its own next-generation DVD format -- Blu-ray -- in its forthcoming PlayStation 3 console.
http://tinyurl.com/heqsq
____________________________________________

o Sirius Satellite Radio Airs "First Ever Profane Ad" on U.S. Commercial Radio

New York - Sirius Satellite Radio, a digital radio service with 4.7 million subscribers, has begun airing the first ever U.S. radio commercial to feature profanity, according to the makers of Sinus Buster hot pepper nasal spray, which produced the ad. Radio personality JR Gach voiced the ad, which will initially air exclusively on shock jock Howard Stern's two channels on Sirius. The 30-second spot is peppered with several other expletives before closing with the line, "The best sh*t that ever was ... Sinus Buster."
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/9/prweb444486.htm
http://www.sinusbuster.com
http://www.siriusradio.com
____________________________________________

o Borders Launches Broadband Entertainment Program Featuring Authors

Ann Arbor, Mich. - Borders, a retail chain that sells books, music and movies, on Friday announced the launch of a new broadband entertainment program, the "Borders Book Club." The program will provide insight from authors in an open, unscripted discussion and will conclude with a sharing of some of the treats and snacks of the club members -- recipes for which will be featured on the website. The premiere episode features author Mitch Albom discussing his new book "For One More Day."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060928/nyth164.html?.v=44
http://www.bordersmedia.com/albom
____________________________________________

o U. of Illinois Taps UsableNet for Mobile Sports Service

New York - UsableNet, a provider of mobile services to universities, corporations and government agencies, said on Friday that the University of Illinois is using its Lift Mobile service to deliver content including live sports scores to students, alumni and fans. New York-based UsableNet said the Illini mobile site has attracted 30,000 visitors since it launched in September.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060929/laf020.html?.v=73
http://liftmobile.usablenet.com/index_2.html
http://www.fightingillini2go.com
____________________________________________

o Xfire Hits 5 Million Users for PC Game Online Community Service

Menlo Park, Calif. - Xfire, a recent $102 million acquisition of Viacom's MTV Networks that provides a free, ad-supported online community for over 600 PC games, announced on Friday that it now counts over 5 million users. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Xfire's service includes in-game messaging, voice chat, friend tracking, peer-to-peer file downloading and a game server browser.
http://www.xfire.com
____________________________________________

o Gameloft to Publish 17 New Mobile Games in the Fourth Quarter

Paris - Mobile game developer and publisher Gameloft announced on Friday that it plans to release 17 new mobile game titles in the fourth quarter of 2006. Upcoming titles from France-based Gameloft include "Deal or No Deal," "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas" and "Meteos." The company added that 25 of its titles have now sold more than 1 million units each.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060928/ukth019.html?.v=33
http://www.gameloft.com

Top

Digital Media Wire, Inc. is part of the Tech Wire Media Group, an international network of publications that includes Potomac Tech Wire, New England Tech Wire, Southeast Tech Wire, Bay Area Tech Wire, Tri-state Tech Wire, Thames Tech Wire and European Tech Wire. The network reaches more than 70,000 individuals from over 70 countries each business day.

For more information, visit our network of sites:
www.digitalmediawire.com         www.potomactechwire.com www.newenglandtechwire.com  www.bayareatechwire.com    www.tristatetechwire.com          www.southeasttechwire.com

Executive & Editorial Team
CEO, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Ned Sherman
Co-Founder & Executive Editor: Paul Sherman
VP, Marketing & Events: Tinzar Than Sherman
Editor: Mark Hefflinger
VP, Publishing & Online GM: Robert Spears
Marketing & Events Coordinator: Dustin Hamano

Contact Us
Questions, Comments & Suggestions - comments@digitalmediawire.com
News Tips & Press Releases - editorial@digitalmediawire.com
Advertising - marketing@digitalmediawire.com

Telephone:  310-855-0033

For a free subscription to Digital Media Wire: Click Here

Top