Publisher Hyperion, which is a part of the Disney-ABC Television Group, reportedly plans to sell off most of its backlist and focus instead on books that tie in to ABC TV shows. Read more at paidContent »
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is leaving the company along with CTO Rich Tom. The two will stay on in the next months to manage the transition. Read more »
The third quarter saw many parts of the traditional media business in flux. Other developments included the rollout of new device-based content ecosystems, red flags and red ink for traditional consumer electronics makers, and a resurgence of consumer purchases of movies. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
If you saw The Avengers more than once in the theater, and still ended up buying the film on Blu-ray or DVD this week, then you are exactly for whom Marvel designed this deliciously nerdy two-screen app experience. Read more »
The big data world is full of small, scrappy startups using their ingenuity to build complex systems out of open source software, but the Walt Disney Company is not one of them. Here’s what goes into building a big data platform in a Fortune 100 company. Read more »
Profits were up across the board in the second quarter, with ESPN, ABC, Disneyland and The Avengers all making money for the conglomerate. Read more at paidContent »
Remember when Friendster was the hot social network, publishers doubted that ebooks would ever sell, and Netflix thought DVDs in red envelopes was the future? We do — that was that state of digital media when paidContent launched in 2002. Read more »
Social TV is any application, website or software that allows viewers to interact with television programming and share that interaction with others. Startups in this space hope to combine ubiquitous second-screen technology with well-established audience behavior to drive new value around shows. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
We interviewed executives at some of the biggest Internet companies, as well as hardware vendors, economic development groups, and utilities to find out why North Carolina has emerged as a hub for Internet leaders mega data centers. Here are the 10 biggest reasons: Read more »
The film business is under pressure to cut costs and dramatically change the way it windows its releases. But after Bob Iger’s bold choice of Rich Ross three years ago yielded more flops than innovation, the Disney CEO turned to made veteran studio boss Alan Horn Thursday. Read more at paidContent »
Outside its Burbank headquarters, consumers may be cutting cords, eschewing theatrical release windows and sharing pretty much everything. But Disney on Tuesday was celebrating traditional media models such as ESPN carriage fees, Disneyland admissions and Avengers box office revenues while reporting 21 percent profit growth. Read more at paidContent »
Five months after it was announced, Comcast’s Xfinity TV subs finally have access to a key part of the TV Everywhere promise — WatchESPN, the ESPN gateway to live streaming sports and news. It’s iOS only for now, but Android is “coming soon.” Read more at paidContent »
Bernstein Research wonders if the decision by Providence Equity Partners to pull its minority stake out of Hulu is a signal that the entertainment conglomerates who own most of the streaming service — and who wish to uphold TV’s multichannel model — don’t want it to grow. Read more »
Brent Schlender, a veteran journalist who wrote for Fortune and the Wall Street Journal found some interview tapes that shed new light on Steve Jobs’ life. The highlight of these tapes for me was Pixar and the role it played in shaping Jobs & Apple’s future. Read more »
The ball for ESPN’s international digital media activities is being passed from Tom Gleeson to Arne Rees. Read more at paidContent »
The Motion Picture Association of America released statistics today saying that Chinese theatrical revenue grew 35 percent to nearly $2 bill… Read more at paidContent »
Aereo, the controversial technology that turns iPhones and iPads into portable TV sets and DVRs, will not disappear anytime soon despite eff… Read more at paidContent »
Say this about TV Everywhere — it’s not making the complicated world of TV video streaming any easier to figure out. On Tuesday, cable netw… Read more at paidContent »
Disney (NYSE: DIS) Mobile, the short-lived U.S. MVNO that found a new lease of life in Japan through a Softbank JV in 2008, has now launched… Read more at paidContent »
While Hulu was formed primarily as a way for content owners to distribute and monetize content online that would otherwise be pirated, CEO Jason Kilar said Tuesday that there’s more reason for the company to exist now than there was four-and-a-half years ago. Read more »
– ESPN: The sports network is seeing a reorg: John Kosner has been promoted to EVP, digital and print media, from SVP and GM of the divisio… Read more at paidContent »
The UltraViolet initiative left the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week with an important new retail channel in Amazon (NSDQ: A… Read more at paidContent »
In its war with Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), Amazon’s Lovefilm has licensed U.S. TV shows from ABC (NYSE: DIS) Studios through Disney UK under the… Read more at paidContent »
Hulu Plus has “materially exceeded” expectations, passing 1.5 million paying subscribers and heading closer to the point where the premium v… Read more at paidContent »
A range of on-demand viewing options — and some new platforms to watch that content on — has traditional television watching on the run, r… Read more at paidContent »
Six Hollywood studios have urged the UK’s competition watchdog to throw out its assertion their Sky Movies deals are anti-competitive. But s… Read more at paidContent »
Yesterday’s press release from Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA), announcing a comprehensive new ten-year distribution agreement… Read more at paidContent »
Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) Xfinity TV subscribers stymied by the lack of access to iPad app WatchESPN have relief in sight: a new multi-year, cro… Read more at paidContent »
China presents one of the single biggest opportunities for mobile companies looking for more growth, and it’s no surprise that companies lik… Read more at paidContent »
FilmOn, the premium-content internet streaming site that met controversy earlier this year over lawsuits involving CBS (NYSE: CBS), CNET, an… Read more at paidContent »
At last week’s MongoSV conference in Santa Clara, Calif., a number of users shared their experiences with the MongoDB NoSQL database. One common theme: NoSQL is necessary for a lot of use cases, but it’s not for companies afraid of hard work. Read more »
With the growth of over-the-top services that let users access the video they want over the internet (and often, for free), those companies… Read more at paidContent »
Is Rovio’s floatation ever going to happen? For some time now, we’ve been reading chatter about an imminent IPO.
The latest date is 2013, t… Read more at paidContent »
When baseball great Albert Pujols signed a staggering 10-year, $254 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last week, he became… Read more at paidContent »
The U.S. MVNO market is now largely a niche where a handful of companies provide phones and services on the cheap. But several notable new players are joining the space next year and will provide a different, more-specialized kind of service; network operators could benefit in ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
More mobile movements from Facebook today: it has bought the check-in social media service Gowalla, according to a report in CNN. Read more at paidContent »
The UK PPV movie JV owned by Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Disney (NYSE: DIS) is on an aggressive expansion that will see it unleash up to 10 white l… Read more at paidContent »
Winnie the Pooh, Cars, Alice in Wonderland and other Disney and Pixar movies are coming to YouTube, thanks to a new partnership between the mouse-eared Hollywood heavyweight and Google’s video site. Movies will be available for rent through YouTube’s premium content section. Read more »
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is picking up some more momentum for its UK and Ireland launch, scheduled for early next year. The streaming video comp… Read more at paidContent »
Disney (NYSE: DIS) President and CEO Bob Iger has agreed to join Apple’s board of directors, filling the vacancy left by the death of co-fou… Read more at paidContent »
