By Georg Szalai and Paul Bond
February 17, 2009

Can DirecTV and Sirius XM Radio create value in working together more closely? That is a key question now that John Malone's Liberty Media, which already controls DirecTV, the largest U.S. satellite TV firm, is providing Sirius XM with as much as $530 million in funding, in return for a stake as high as 40%. The satellite radio company avoided a bankruptcy filing ahead of a debt-repayment deadline Tuesday thanks to the Liberty deal, but neither side was willing to discuss methods of increased cooperation.

With Tuesday's agreement, Malone, for now, has beaten out Charles Ergen's EchoStar, which has amassed Sirius XM debt and proposed financing the company in return for a controlling stake. Liberty gave $250 million to Sirius XM on Tuesday so the company could pay $172 million in debt while pocketing the extra cash. Liberty has pledged an additional $280 million -- not enough to satisfy the $750 million Sirius XM owes this year, though much of that debt likely will be pushed out through waivers, ensuring that the radio home of Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey and commercial-free music is out of the woods for at least this year.

Liberty will get seats on the Sirius XM board proportional to its equity ownership, with chairman Malone and CEO Greg Maffei expected to take seats. Investors rewarded Sirius XM for dodging Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which would have made its shares worthless. The stock jumped 53% to 16 cents Tuesday and has nearly tripled in value in only three trading days since bottoming out last week.

Gimme Credit analyst Shelly Lombard said in a recent report that Ergen wanted Sirius XM's satellites, repeaters and spectrum, whereas some say Malone is looking at satellite radio as a pure investment. After all, Malone will hold the stake under investment vehicle Liberty Capital, rather than Liberty Entertainment, which houses DirecTV. In addition, Liberty's capital infusion will carry a 15% return in the form of interest, and that alone makes financial sense.

By Carl DiOrio
February 16, 2009, 02:57 PM ET

"Friday the 13th" remains a fearsomely full-blooded franchise after Warner Bros. opened a remake of the original 1980 horror pic with a genre-record $45.2 million over the four-day Presidents Day weekend. Warners also copped the domestic boxoffice's silver medal as ensemble comedy "He's Just Not That Into You" dropped a modest 29% from opening Friday-Sunday grosses for an estimated $23.4 million over the long weekend and an 11-day cume of $58.8 million.

However, the frame's two other wide openers disappointed as Disney's material-girl comedy "Confessions of a Shopaholic" fetched $17.3 million for fifth place and Sony's political thriller "The International" collected just $10.7 million for eighth. Collectively, the Presidents Day weekend registered a whopping $224 million in a record performance that surpassed last year's holiday haul by 34% and 2007's then-record tally by 19%, according to Nielsen EDI.

Industry boxoffice has outperformed year-earlier comparisons in five of the six weekends this year. Elsewhere among the frame's top finishers, Fox's leggy action-thriller "Taken" took third place with $22.2 million during its third weekend -- a session bolstered by Valentine's Day moviegoing Saturday -- as cume for the Liam Neeson starrer hit $80.9 million. Sony's PG comedy "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" nabbed $13.9 million in sixth place to stretch its five-week cume to $112.7 million.

Fox Searchlight's "Slumdog Millionaire" was the top grosser among films nominated in the best picture category of Sunday's Academy Awards, fetching $8.7 million in ninth place. "Slumdog's" cume has reached $88.1 million. IFC Films enjoyed the frame's highest-grossing exclusive engagements as Italian-language mob pic "Gomorrah" grossed $102,702 from five locations in New York and Los Angeles. That represented an auspicious $20,540 per site and brought "Gomorrah's" cume to $113,679, including grosses from a brief Academy-qualifying run in December.

January 7, 2009

A US consumer study into High Definition TV purchase drivers carried out by Oregan Networks™, an Internet TV software company and Micronas®, a leading supplier of innovative TV application-specific IC system solutions, has revealed that the ability to access the Internet from the comfort of the living room in parallel or in addition to watching regular TV programming, is making its way into the purchasing criteria of today’s tech-savvy consumers who plan to purchase a TV within the next 2 years.

The research measured the importance of Internet and home media browsing, placing emphasis on key features and the difference between the incumbent PC based Internet usage and the emerging TV-based usage scenarios. In addition, the study addressed the social and behavioural aspects of interacting with network-connected TVs.

71% of all respondents would prefer a default media browser to be installed, although they would like the option to be able to change it. Additionally, if their next TV did not come with a pre-installed media browser, 29% of respondents said that they "definitely would" download one, while a further 45% would be likely to download one. 69% of respondents would pay something to download a digital media browser to their next television, if this was supported. 87% of respondents would select a TV with a media browser because it would offer them more entertainment choices.

One of the key findings of the research is related to the differentiation between what is seen as desirable use cases and appropriate websites for TV based Internet. User managed video and multimedia sites, including YouTube™ and Hulu, delivered in a full screen mode, as well as pay per view Hollywood blockbuster services, such as Netflix® and CinemaNow, are perceived as adding most value to the regular TV feature set, as well as enabling families to spend more social time together. 85% agreed that a TV media browser would offer a "better audiovisual experience for watching web video" compared to a PC, while the same proportion agreed that it would provide a "more customized and personalized entertainment experience".

By Georg Szalai and Paul Bond
February 12, 2009, 07:49 PM ET

Cable operator Charter Communications and video game publisher Midway Games on Thursday provided a Chapter 11 double-whammy for the media and entertainment industry. Amid a high debt load, the deepening recession and a continuing credit crunch, the companies join media firm Tribune, which made a bankruptcy filing in early December, on the list of those seeking protection. Meanwhile, Sirius XM Satellite Radio also is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy ahead of a debt repayment deadline next week.

Paul Allen's Charter will make a Chapter 11 filing by April 1. On Thursday, it unveiled an agreement-in-principle with some of its debt holders on a financial restructuring that will reduce the cable operator's debt by about $8 billion. As part of the agreement, current chairman Allen will continue to retain the largest voting interest, if not the largest economic stake, in the company, Charter said without providing further details. Sources said he'll control a voting stake of about 35%, down from more than 90% in the past. His economic stake will be smaller.

Midway's Chapter 11 filing for its U.S. assets is the fallout from Sumner Redstone's decision to sell his majority stake in the company three months ago at a substantial loss. Shares of both companies were in free fall Thursday as the bankruptcy process will wipe out current shareholders. Charter shares tanked 48% to less than 4 cents, while Midway shares dropped 36% to 16 cents. The tough times are the "immediate causes" of the latest bankruptcy filings, said Hal Vogel, president of Vogel Capital Management. "But these were overleveraged companies to begin with and would have been in trouble even in the good times of three years ago."

With a majority of debtholders supporting its plan, Charter is expected to move swiftly through the bankruptcy process. Moody's credit analyst Russell Solomon said that bankruptcies historically take 12-18 months on average, but the de facto prepackaged plan outlined by the MSO should move it through the process within six months. "They will have a much more manageable debt burden" after emergence, Solomon said.

By Chris Foresman
February 10, 2009 10:59

Negotiations to add The Beatles' catalog to the iTunes Store are still in "gridlock," according to Sir Paul McCartney. He's not giving up the details on what's going on behind the scenes, but hints that the process is ugly.

Those hoping to get a hold of The Beatles music in digital form anytime soon will most likely have to pony up for Rock Band: The Beatles, as the years-long negotiations to secure The Beatles catalog for sale on the iTunes Store are still in a holding pattern. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog, Sir Paul McCartney reiterated the same things we heard last November.

When asked if the recent Rock Band deal was a sign that The Beatles would finally appear on iTunes, McCartney said that negotiations are still a "sticky issue." We want it to happen," said McCartney. And by "we," I'm assuming he means himself, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon, and Olivia Harrison, as they all gave the thumbs up for the upcoming Rock Band game based on Beatles music.

But, said McCartney, "The record company was taken over by new people quite recently, so there is a gridlock of sorts." It's not clear if he is referring to EMI or Apple Corps Ltd, but given that EMI was the first label to sign on for iTunes Plus over a year before any other major label, and Apple Corps has a history of disagreeing with Apple, my money is on Apple Corps being the stickler.

By Roger Friedman
January 29, 2009

Julian Lennon and Sean Lennon, the sons of John Lennon, are finally going to perform together in public. Sources tell me that the Lennon boys have agreed to appear at a United Nations event here in New York on February 26th called the UN-Millenium Goal Awards.

Other artists tentatively scheduled to appear include Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, as well as possibly Akon and Macy Gray. The show is the brainchild of Rhodesian Sacha Stone, founder in 1999 of the Humanitad Foundation. Stone, who lives in the UK now, is said to have relationships with all involved and convinced the Lennons to come aboard.

This would mean putting aside differences between the two former Lennon households. When John Lennon was murdered in 1980, a rift grew because Sean’s mom, Yoko Ono, wouldn’t give Julian what he and his mom, Cynthia Lennon, considered a fair share of the estate. Julian Lennon wound up engaging lawyers, and a long legal situation followed. In May 2007 Julian told Howard Stern that he still hadn’t gotten any money from Yoko Ono. Unbelievable.

Over the years, there’s been plenty of animosity, mostly fueled by Ono. At a 2001 tribute to Lennon at Radio City Music Hall, she all but wiped out any reference to the Beatle’s first family. When Cirque du Soleil’s "Love" show opened in Las Vegas a few years ago, the severe Ono kept her distance from the amiable Cynthia and Julian. Sean was a no-show.

By Eric Bangeman
January 19, 2009 - 07:20AM CT

Last month, the RIAA announced that it was putting an end to its reviled legal campaign against P2P users and would not be filing any new cases, moving instead towards a graduated response plan.

There are a number of cases still in the pipeline, however, some of which have been slowly chugging along towards a conclusion of one sort or another. But it appears that lawsuits directed at college students are quickly wrapping up, as the RIAA has dropped at least three John Doe cases in the past week. The cases in question involve students at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, North Carolina State, Rhode Island College, and the University of Michigan.

In each instance, the RIAA had filed its customary John Doe lawsuits seeking ex parte subpoenas, forcing the schools to turn over the names and addresses of the students using IP addresses flagged by ex-investigator MediaSentry. In each case, the RIAA has voluntarily dismissed the cases without prejudice, meaning that the anonymous students could be sued if the labels were to have another change of heart.

But given that the RIAA is moving away from the litigation strategy that it has pursued for over five years, it's likely that the students' identities will never be known to the industry group. Of the 14 students in North Carolina, two settled with the RIAA, presumably after receiving prelitigation settlement letters. The 22 students at Rhode Island College may have been saved by the actions of the school's ISP, Apogee Telecom, according to Ray Beckerman.

January 14, 2009

LOS ANGELES — Ricardo Montalban, the Mexican-born actor who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday morning at his home, a Los Angeles city councilman said. He was 88.

Montalban's death was announced at a meeting of the city council by president Eric Garcetti, who represents the district where the actor lived. Garcetti did not give a cause of death. "The Ricardo Montalban Theatre in my Council District — where the next generations of performers participate in plays, musicals, and concerts — stands as a fitting tribute to this consummate performer," Garcetti said later in a written statement.

Montalban had been a star in Mexican movies when MGM brought him to Hollywood in 1946. He was cast in the leading role opposite Esther Williams in "Fiesta." He also starred with the swimming beauty in "On an Island with You" and "Neptune's Daughter." A later generation knew Montalban as the faintly mysterious, white-suited Mr. Roarke, who presided over an island resort where visitors were able to fulfill their lifelong dreams.

"Fantasy Island" received high ratings for most of its 1978-1984 span on ABC television and still appears in reruns. In a 1978 interview, he analyzed the series' success: "What is appealing is the idea of attaining the unattainable and learning from it. Once you obtain a fantasy it becomes a reality, and that reality is not as exciting as your fantasy. Through the fantasies you learn to appreciate your own realities."

By Matthew Lasar
January 09, 2009 - 07:10AM CT

Edward Markey, the outgoing Chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, says that Congress should consider soon-to-be President Barack Obama's call to push back the DTV transition from its current deadline of February 17. And key Congressional Democrats, like Senators Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, say they support the idea.

Broadcasting and Cable reports that Rockefeller sent out a statement in support of the delay late Thursday. "I’ve long believed that there is too much at stake for consumers and for public safety to simply cross our fingers and hope for the best when it comes to the digital television transition," he wrote. "Millions of Americans could be left in the dark if this doesn’t go smoothly." February 17 is the last day for full-power TV stations to broadcast with analog signals.

But Markey's statement is far more ambivalent about the call. "Moving the transition date entails significant logistical challenges," he said on Thursday, although adding that "the prospect of leaving millions of consumers in the dark requires Congress to immediately consider the feasibility of the President-elect's proposal." Meanwhile the National Association of Broadcasters doesn't appear very enthusiastic about this discussion.

"The certainty created when Congress set the February 17 hard date for the DTV transition was a positive catalyst for broadcasters, manufacturers, retailers, public safety groups, consumers and the government," says NAB Vice President Dennis Wharton. "NAB and broadcasters nationwide are committed to being ready by February 17 and strongly support a solution that would enable the government to continue making converter box coupons available to consumers who rely on free television."

January 5, 2009

Las Vegas, Nevada - Sports icons, legendary musicians and television all-stars will come together at the 2009 International CES® to experience and promote the latest products and technologies in the consumer electronics industry. The 2009 International CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, runs January 8-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The celebrity appearances kick off on Wednesday, January 7, a day before the show floor officially opens, at the Billboard Digital Music Live! Conference Session in the LVCC, North Hall, N255. Soulja Boy Tell’Em has used the Internet to plot out one of the fastest rises to stardom in recent memory. Whether it’s recording disc tracks on YouTube or ranking in ringtone sales, Soulja Boy has his finger firmly placed on the pulse of today’s digital world. He will discuss his strategies with his manager and producer during his revealing presentation at 10:55 a.m. Then, at 3 p.m. Akon and Rio Caraeff will outline together how art meets commerce in the digital age.

NBC Universal will again be the Official Broadcast Partner of the International CES, broadcasting live from the show floor. They will be on hand with select NBC Universal broadcast and cable entities such as: The Today Show, the NBC Evening News with Brian Williams, Access Hollywood and CNBC’S Maria Bartiromo.

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) will also return to the 2009 International CES show floor, showcasing its wide variety of content across all platforms. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Jeopardy!, SPT will film daily episodes of Celebrity Jeopardy! on a specially built set on the CES show floor. They will record 11 Jeopardy! episodes throughout CES, on a 16,000-square-foot stage that will become the new set for the game show, in front of an audience of 600. Dr. Oz, a frequent medical guest star on The Oprah Winfrey Show, will also appear in the SPT booth, promoting his new syndicated talk show.

January 5, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Lionsgate agreed to buy TV Guide and TV Guide Network, seen by 83 million homes, for $255 million, from Macrovision Solutions Corp, the companies announced on Monday. At the same time, Macrovision ended an agreement made last month to sell the properties to Allen Shapiro and One Equity Partners for the same price. "On the surface it's the same price," said Alan Davis, an analyst with D.A. Davidson& Co., of Lake Oswego, Oregon. But he said the deal with Lionsgate was better because it has a closing date of February 28, sooner than the other deal, and fewer contingencies. "Those deals are tenuous to begin with considering the credit market," Davis said. Lionsgate said it would pay with existing cash and available funds.

"The closing is not subject to financial performance requirements," the companies said in a joint statement. Macrovision sells digital entertainment technology, and Lionsgate is a producer of movie and television programs. The companies said that TV Guide Network is the 19th most distributed channel. "This is tremendous real estate, rarely available, that fits extremely well with our strategy of combining content creation, distribution and direct access to the consumer," Lionsgate Co-Chairman and Chief ExecutiveOfficer Jon Feltheimer said in the statement. Macrovision will continue to be able to license its online guide to other portals. Lionsgate's television business includes many television shows, such as MadMen for AMC, South Park and Family Feud.

UPDATING TUESDAY'S STORY:

Viacom and Time Warner Cable have now reached an "Agreement In Principle." Less than an hour before TWC's 13.3 million subscribers were going to lose 19 Viacom channels at 12:01 AM today, the two Big Media companies came to an agreement. Here was their joint statement:



TIME WARNER CABLE, VIACOM REACH AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE
Networks Will Continue to Be Available On All Time Warner Cable Systems

New York, NY - Jan. 1, 2009 — Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) and Viacom (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) jointly announced this morning that they have reached an agreement in principle to renew carriage for Viacom’s MTV Networks. The companies expect to finalize the details of the agreement over the next several days.

Glenn Britt, President and CEO of Time Warner Cable said, "We are pleased that our customers will continue to be able to watch the programming they enjoy on MTV Networks. We are sorry they had to endure a day of public disagreement as we worked through this negotiation."

Philippe Dauman, President and CEO of Viacom said, "We’ve been partners with Time Warner Cable for a long time, and we’re happy to be renewing that partnership for the benefit of their customers and our loyal viewers. It’s gratifying that we could reach an agreement that benefits not only our audiences but that is also in the best interest of both of our companies."

What an awful way to ring in 2009. It turns out that Viacom has been trying to negotiate what it claims is a "fair" renewal of its prized cable channels for months and months, but reputedly Time Warner has been unresponsive an "unreasonable". So now the fight between the two Big Media giants will hurt cable viewers. What the hell? At 12:01 AM on January 1st, just after the ball drops in Time Square, gazillions of Time Warner Cable subscribers will lose 19 Viacom channels. The howling starts here, especially by parents home for the holidays with children who won't have access to their favorite shows like SpongeBob Squarepants and Dora The Explorer, and tweens/teens wanting to see new episodes of those new unreality Reality TV series The City and Bromance, and twentysomethings and older who get their news from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report.

This affects all U.S. Time Warner cable subscribers including those in New York and Los Angeles. Such fights have happened before and lasted a mere 39 hours. So this one will either end fast or go on forever. It probably will depend on how many subscribers start flooding Time Warner Cable with obscene calls. This is Viacom's just issued statement (note how the bigwigs don't know MTV's The Hills has been replaced by The City):

Statement from Viacom: This move by Time Warner Cable to force such channels as Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL and MTV off the air is another example of a cable company overreaching for profit at the expense of its viewers. The renewal we are seeking is reasonable and modest relative to the profits TWC enjoys from our networks. We have asked for an increase of less than 25 cents per month, per subscriber, which adds up to less than a penny per day for all 19 of MTV Networks’ channels. We make this request because TWC has so greatly undervalued our channels for so long. Americans spend more than 20% of their TV viewing time watching our networks, yet our fees amount to less than 2.5% of what Time Warner generates from their average customer.Throughout the country, we have negotiated equitable license agreement renewals, or are in the final stages of renewals, with virtually every cable and satellite carrier. Nevertheless, Time Warner Cable has dismissed our efforts at a fair compromise and has effectively chosen to deny its customers some of the most popular TV shows on the air.

As a result, we are sorry to say that for Time Warner Cable customers our networks will go dark as of 12:01 on January 1st , denying Time Warner customers shows like Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and The Hills. Ultimately, however, if Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL, MTV and the rest of our programming is discontinued – over less than a penny per day - we believe viewers will see this behavior by their cable company as outrageous. Time Warner Cable subscribers who are being handed a January 1st $3 monthly increase in Raleigh, Orange County, Los Angeles, and New York City are simultaneously facing the removal of beloved shows across 19 channels. We find it a shame that Time Warner Cable remains unreasonable at this time. We hope its leadership will have a change of heart and will seek to negotiate a fair renewal agreement.

By Nick Farrell
30 December 2008, 10:57

THE ONLY successful Recording Industry Association of America conviction against a file-sharer will go to retrial despite the music industry's best efforts. The RIAA appealed an earlier decision to grant a retrial of the copyright infringement case against Jammie Thomas.

A jury found Jammie Thomas guilty of copyright infringement by illegally sharing more than 1,700 songs and said that she needed to pay $220,000 to six of the top music labels. However the Judge in charge of the chase US District Judge Michael Davis ordered a retrial after he found that he misguided the jury by telling them that the act of making a copyrighted song available for sharing amounts to infringement. He ordered a new trial for March. But the RIAA really does not want another trial, particularly if the Judge is going to tell the jury that making a copyrighted file available is not infringement.

The RIAA has already admitted that proving that songs have been downloaded from services like Kazaa is nearly impossible. The music industry stands to lose countless cases if it loses this particularly high profile one. So the RIAA appealed the judge's decision to declare a mistrial. Unfortunately, Davis just chucked it out without commenting.

By Charlie Demerjian
29 December 2008, 19:19

SLYSOFT HAS DONE IT again with their highly recommended AnyDVD HD product. The new version 6.5.0.2, announced today, breaks the new revision of the unbreakable BD+.

For those of you not following this one-sided fight, Blu-Ray movies do a lot of very unfortunate things, like stripping your fair use rights, preventing backups (no one has kids or pets that maul disks), being incompatible with boatloads of hardware, and transmitting every viewing, every click, and every thing you do back to who-knows-where to be used against you.

Really, they do that, why do you think net access is mandatory? Slysoft was the first to fully crack the old encryption scheme over a year ago. A few weeks ago however, a new revision of BD+ came out that was not crackable with the current schemes. A fix was estimated at a few months, but never doubt the good folk at Slysoft, they did it in a few weeks.

Order is restored in the universe, and you can watch your legally purchased BDs on your legally purchased equipment, even if the DRM schemes don't like each other. No more black screens with AnyDVD HD. If you are looking to pirate, this is not your product - it is much easier to download pre-cracked files. In any case, you can read all about the program.