Cupertino, Calif. – Apple (NASD: AAPL) on Wednesday named Ronald Sugar,
the former chairman and CEO of defense technology giant Northrop Grumman, to
its board of directors. Sugar, who led Northrop Grumman from 2003 until his retirement
earlier this year, will serve as chair of the audit and finance committee.
Related Links:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/11/17bod.html
Los Angeles – Sony (NYSE: SNE) has added Wal-Mart’s (NYSE: WMT) VUDU HD movie
streaming service to the video offering available to PlayStation 3 owners via
the PlayStation Network. The service recently added Hulu Plus and said the NHL
will begin streaming live games to the PlayStation 3.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2cpvs8j
(PlayStation blog)
New York – U.S. third quarter Internet ad revenues rose 17%
from a year ago, to $6.4 billion, according to a report from the Internet
Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC.
"Advertisers are shifting more of their
brand messaging online, accounting for this welcome surge in a difficult
economy," said PwC partner David Silverman.
"This trend reflects the
accelerating shift in consumer behavior towards the internet and away from
traditional media."
Spending for the first half of the year was up 11.3%
to $12.1 billion, the IAB reported last month.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2dfcmhc
(IAB)
New York – Major record label Warner Music Group (WMG) (NYSE: WMG)
reported a net loss of $46 million during its fiscal fourth quarter, as overall
revenue fell 13% despite a 7.1% uptick from digital revenue sources.
As the
only standalone, publicly-traded major record label, Warner Music’s detailed results
of its operations and finances are closely scrutinized, while those of the
other majors are less forthcoming and nested within results of their parent
companies.
The company noted that an increase in digital sales during the quarter “was more
than offset by contracting demand for physical product.”
Warner reported
digital revenue growth of 8% for its full fiscal year, and digital now accounts
for 40% of its U.S. recorded music revenues — but annual revenues overall fell
7% from the prior year.
Related Links:
http://www.wmg.com/newsdetails/id/8a0af8122c353d41012c56ba06bf0f65
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20023042-261.html
http://tinyurl.com/29nacv6
(Billboard)
Paris – Google (NASD: GOOG) has struck an agreement with French publisher
Hachette Livre, ending a dispute over the rights to scan out-of-print titles
for inclusion in its digital library project, The New York Times reported.
Unlike the lawsuit settlement hammered out between Google and U.S. publishers
last year, Hachette’s agreement with Google permits the publisher to control
which books Google may scan.
Any books scanned by Google will be made available
for sale as e-books by Google, or by Hachette to third-party retailers — as well
as to France’s own national book-scanning project.
French courts have sided
with publishers claiming Google’s book-scanning project violates their copyrights,
and other litigation is still pending.
But Google hopes the deal with Hachette will
"serve as a framework for other French publishers and maybe other
publishers around the world," Dan Clancy, director of Google Books, told
The Times.
Related Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/business/global/18book.html
Los Angeles – Hulu Plus on Wednesday officially launched to
the public, opting to discount the price of the subscription TV episode
streaming service from $9.99 to $7.99 per month.
The joint venture between NBC
Universal (NYSE: GE), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and Disney (NYSE: DIS) said that any users who subscribed at $9.99 during
the preview period will receive a credit for the difference in price, applied
to their next billing cycle.
Hulu Plus offers full current and back seasons of
both current and classic TV shows.
The company said it has attracted
advertisers including Bud Light, McDonald’s, Nissan and Microsoft for the
launch of Hulu Plus.
Beyond the PC, Hulu Plus is available on connected TVs and
Blu-ray players from Samsung, Sony, and soon LG, Panasonic and Vizio; set-tops
from Roku, Sony, and soon TiVo and Western Digital; the PlayStation 3 and soon
Xbox 360; and mobile devices including Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/25lr7zd
Seattle – Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) on Wednesday debuted Amazon Studios, a
new venture that aims to solicit screenplays from users and eventually help
produce feature-length films. Through monthly and annual Amazon Studios Awards,
the company plans to award $2.7 million in total prizes to participants over
the next year, with the top projects to be produced under a first-look deal
with Warner Bros. Pictures.
Filmmakers and screenwriters may submit both
scripts and test movies at least 70 minutes in length to the Amazon Studios
site.
Users will be able to view test movies and help in the development
process, and winners will be chosen by a panel, based on commercial viability.
Any
film that Amazon helps produce will garner the screenwriter a rights payment of
$200,000; if the film grosses more than $60 million at the U.S. box office, the
original filmmaker or screenwriter gets a $400,000 bonus.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2c2ayr7
New York – Digital music service eMusic has informed
subscribers that tracks from seminal independent labels Domino,
Merge and Beggars Group will be removed from the service as of Nov. 18.
"This is as heartbreaking to us as it is to you," reads a note on
eMusic.com. "Please know we have done everything we could to keep them from
leaving. Forging deals with our label partners can be pretty complex. As many
of you know, labels have come and gone over the years, and we hope to see these
labels back soon."
The exit by the indie labels comes as eMusic prepares
to add 250,000 new tracks licensed from Universal Music to its service.
The
company’s expansion into major label deals — eMusic has also licensed Sony
Music and Warner Music tracks — appears to have played a role in the indies’
moves.
"We wish this hadn’t happened, but as eMusic has brought major
labels on board, they have changed the terms on which they deal with labels in
certain ways, some of which we have found impossible to accept, in our own
interests, those of our artists, and ultimately those of their fans,"
reads a statement from Beggars Group.
"We have loved eMusic, and the
support it has given to our music, but it was the dedicated home for
independent music and is, in our view, not that any more."
A statement
from Merge adds that "it would be harmful to the interests of Merge and
our artists to continue our partnership [with eMusic] at this time."
Related Links:
http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=263050
http://tinyurl.com/28xoezr
(Billboard)
