In This Update:
• LG to Launch TVs with Built-in Netflix Capability
• Stung By Blu-Ray, and Yet, No One Cares
• Universal Sells Rogue for $150 Million
• Investment Fears in Venture Capital Shake-Out
• Intel, Adobe Partner for Web Video on TVs
• The Times to Sell Display Ads on the Front Page
• Mail.ru Investor Offloads Stake; IPO Looks Less Likely
• Brands Struggled With Social Media in ‘08
• Superfish Raises $5.3 Million for Visual Search Engine
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LG to Launch TVs with Built-in Netflix Capability
NEOWIN
Netflix and LG Electronics announced on Sunday that LG will soon be launching a new series of televisions that will be capable of screening Netflix movies directly from the internet, without the need for an external box, according to an article published by Reuters today. The U.S. DVD rental company and Korean electronics giant teamed up last year to launch set-top boxes and Blu-ray DVD players with the capability to stream Netflix movies, and an update to the Xbox 360 last November saw the Netflix software embedded in to Microsoft’s game console. Subscribers of Netflix who own a device containing the software can choose from a selection of around 12,000 movie titles and TV shows which are available for instant viewing.
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Stung By Blu-Ray, and Yet, No One Cares
PAID CONTENT
A year since HD DVD conceded defeat at last CES, Blu-Ray and its backers will be touting their so-called success at this year’s CES, but the reality is far from it. As numbers point out, very few consumers know about Blu-Ray, and those who do still do not see enough value for the premium. As NYT points out in this story, “Going from the whirring VCRs of yore to a DVD player was a big leap in picture quality and convenience, while the jump from DVD to Blu-ray is subtler, at least for those who do not have the latest and largest high-definition televisions.” With the economy being what it is, the march towards HDTVs has also slowed down. Plus the inevitable march towards HD downloads online put the future of physical media, HD or not, in jeopardy.
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Universal Sells Rogue for $150 Million
NEW YORK TIMES
In a deal that signifies further reordering in Hollywood’s specialty movie business, the Universal Pictures unit of General Electric completed its sale of Rogue Pictures, a maker and distributor of lower-cost films, to Relativity Media for about $150 million. The deal closed quietly just before Christmas and was disclosed by the companies on Sunday. The transaction pointed toward G.E.’s willingness to bolster profit with help from an asset sale. It also signals the continued viability of Relativity, a private production and financing company, which has been in a dispute with one of its major lenders. It was a welcome sign of health in the independent film business, or at least the part that trades heavily in audience-pleasing action and horror films.
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Investment Fears in Venture Capital Shake-Out
FINANCIAL TIMES
The US venture capital industry, which has become an important source of capital for technology start-ups around the world, is facing a severe shake-out that will lead to a contraction in future investments, according to some of Silicon Valley’s leading financiers. These warnings follow one of the weakest years ever seen for profit-taking by start-up investors, and come amid predictions of an even worse period ahead. Only six companies that were backed by venture capital went public last year, the lowest numbers since the 1970s.
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Intel, Adobe Partner for Web Video on TVs
GIGAOM
Intel and Adobe announced today that they are collaborating to bring Flash to the Intel CE 3100 Media Processor, a move the two companies say would provide a better, more seamless web video viewing experience on your HDTV. The new Flash-enabled chips are set to roll out before the middle of the year and will be found in CE 3100-based cable set-top boxes, Blu-ray disc players, digital TVs and other AV devices. Watching web video on your TV set isn’t anything new. Set-top boxes like TiVo and the Apple TV have been offering web video options for a while, but recently we’ve begun to see where it’s heading. YouTube HD streams on an HDTV look pretty sweet, and Netflix, which is already streaming content (some of it in HD) to a host of set-top boxes, will soon be streaming content directly to LG televisions with no external box required.
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The Times to Sell Display Ads on the Front Page
NEW YORK TIMES
In its latest concession to the worst revenue slide since the Depression, The New York Times has begun selling display advertising on its front page, a step that has become increasingly common across the newspaper industry. In the past, The Times has printed an occasional front-page classified ad – two or three lines of text at the bottom of the page. And a few years ago it began selling display ads – which are much larger and can combine images and text – on the front pages of sections inside the paper. But The Times did not sell displays on the first page of the first section, a move regarded by traditionalists as a commercial incursion into the most important news space in the paper.
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Mail.ru Investor Offloads Stake; IPO Looks Less Likely
PAID CONTENT
While you were off for Christmas, the ownership of Russia’s top website (according to TNS) shifted a little. Tiger Global Management hedge fund sold its 27 percent stake in Mail.ru to its existing shareholders Digital Sky Technologies and Naspers. The Russian online investment vehicle and the South African media outfit now have 53.2 percent and 42.8 percent respectively, CEO Dmitri Grishin has 2.5 percent. The deal means DST, which is part-owned by Arsenal soccer club and LiveJournal investor Alexander Usmanov, now controls a majority of both Mail.ru and Runet’s top social site Odnoklassniki.ru.
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Brands Struggled With Social Media in ‘08
CLICKZ
One might have expected 2008 to bring a great many social marketing success stories, given the huge, engaged audiences amassed by the likes of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter. However as the year ends, things remain pretty much where they were last January. That is to say, creating campaigns for social platforms is hard work that frequently produces marginal results, and upbeat case studies are few and far between. “Not many marketers have really cracked the code,” said Amy Auerbach, SVP and director of digital at Initiative. “It’s such a utility for Web users.” Google is one firm whose efforts on social networking sites are “not monetizing as well as expected,” according to previous CFO George Reyes.
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Superfish Raises $5.3 Million for Visual Search Engine
DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE
Superfish, a start-up developing a visual search engine, has raised $5.3 million in its second round of financing, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing. Investors in the round included DFJ Tamir Fishman Ventures, The Individuals’ Venture Fund and Xenia Venture Capital. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Superfish, which also maintains offices in Israel, says on its website that “after a couple of years of research,” it plans to launch its visual search engine in early 2009.
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