Friday, December 30, 2005
Reuters - For years ESPN has thrived as one of the most lucrative franchises on U.S. cable TV, commanding high license fees for the loyal viewers who expect to see the sports network in their basic subscription packages.
Monday, December 26, 2005
AP - Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip maker, confirmed Monday that it is in talks with Sony Corp. to supply NAND flash memory chips.
PodCoward writes "VH is blogging that in Belgium a former talk-show host and now member of parliament for the biggest political party, Jurgen Verstrepen, received a fine of 12,500 Euro because he hadn't asked permission for his podcast." From the article: "The decision is apparently politically inspired and motivated by content, although formal reasons like non-compliance with Flanders' media regulation have been put forward in the motivation of the decision to fine. The issue has raised some serious concerns about free speech on the Internet in Flanders, about the definition of 'broadcasting,' and about territoriality
The online media giant will be able to sell its pending 5 percent stake in Time Warner's AOL Internet unit as early as July 2008, according to Google's recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Well, it had to happen sooner or later. With all the silly hype around whatever it is you want to think Web 2.0 really is, much of it focused on the idea of various new services working well together. However, once the big media players started buying up the hyped up little companies, you knew there'd eventually be some sort of conflict over what was allowed. There was a lot of worry when Rupert Murdoch's News Corp first picked up MySpace about how they would change the community. However, MySpace continued to thrive (even if the numbers don't really add up) as News Corp., mostly left them alone. Unfortunately, it appears that the old controlling mindset is sneaking back in as a bunch of MySpace users have discovered that they can no longer integrate with YouTube, a popular video hosting site. It's not entirely clear why this happened, but it does hint at some of the conflicts to come as more traditional media companies try to get their heads around the idea that what makes many of these new services useful is the fact that they avoid heavy handed control over what you can do -- even if it seems somewhat competitive to what the media companies are trying to do themselves.
While we know that the holidays are supposed to be a peaceful time to spend with family and friends, it can also be quite stressful for many people and fights with loved ones are bound to break out here and there. Now, as a holiday suggestion, we're going to recommend that should your fight with your significant other get serious, that you not swallow his or her mobile phone in an attempt to keep said significant other from leaving. Unfortunately, this advice comes a bit too late for a woman in Missouri who tried to swallow her boyfriend's phone to prevent him from leaving after an argument. The event resulted in her being rushed to the hospital with difficulty breathing. No word on whether or not the boyfriend actually left (or if he got the phone back).
