Monday, November 16, 2009
Waiting for Vivendi: Comcast-NBCU Deal Needs a “Oui”
When will Comcast and GE’s NBCU finally unveil their hookup plans? When Vivendi says they can. Which should be sooner than later.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
MySpace’s “Work in Progress”: Losing Money and Traffic, Blowing Google Guarantees
Did Rupert Murdoch wait way too long to fix MySpace? It’s easy to get that impression from the News Corp. earnings call today.
The takeaway: The site is losing traffic and money and is going to get at least $100 million less from Google than it once thought. “It’s a work in progress,” News Corp. says, over and over again.
Comcast Won’t Talk About NBCU, Will Talk About Internet Video
Comcast couldn’t mollify Wall Street about its pending deal to buy NBC Universal this morning, because it refused to talk about the deal at all. The company did spend time, though, explaining the peril and possibilities that Web video poses for the cable giant.
Friday, October 30, 2009
BusinessWeek’s Future Is Cloudy, but Better Than It Could Have Been: The Grim Non-Bloomberg Scenario
BusinessWeek employees are waiting to hear if they’ll have jobs once Bloomberg takes over the publication, and I’m told that staffers expect to hear their fate shortly after Thanksgiving. That has to be unnerving, but I can at least offer a little bit of comfort in the worst-case scenario employees would be facing had they been purchased by private equity firm ZelnickMedia. The short version: Almost everybody gets fired.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Surf’s Up? News Corp. Mulling Sale of “Action Sports” Channel Fuel TV.
News Corp. is reportedly interested in purchasing the Travel Channel from Cox for something like $800 million. Here’s one way to help pay for a small piece of that deal: Sell off Fuel TV, its modest surf, skate and snowboard-themed cable channel.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
CBS Digital Boss Quincy Smith’s Not-Quite Exit Interview: “Hulu’s a Great Service. That’s Part of the Problem.”
The man who helped shape CBS’s standalone Web video strategy explains himself, for the record.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Vevo Gets Its Investor: Abu Dhabi Media Joins “Hulu for Music Videos”
Vevo, the music industry’s version of Hulu, now has its own version of Providence Equity, the outside investor that took a flyer on the Web TV and movie joint venture: Abu Dhabi Media Company has purchased a stake in the company from owners Universal Music and Sony. No financials released, though I’m told the deal values the JV at $300 million.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sue or Sign: EMI Trades Lawsuit for Deal With Music Start-Up Grooveshark
Well look at that: EMI Music Group, which had been working on a licensing deal with music start-up Grooveshark but ended up suing it instead, now has a licensing deal with Grooveshark after all.
Fighting Words! Time Warner Says Comcast/NBCU as Dumb as…Time Warner/AOL.
Just in case anyone thought Time Warner had any lingering interest in NBC Universal, this ought to put it to rest: Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes just compared the proposed Comcast/NBCU deal with the disastrous one his company made with AOL nearly a decade ago.
Friday, October 9, 2009
The AP Tries a “Truthiness” Approach: “We’re Not Talking to Google” Means “We’re Talking to Google”
Associated Press CEO Tom Curley told a group of journalists this week that his company isn’t talking to Google about renewing its licensing deal. But they have been talking for months and talked again this week.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Spotify Promises a TV Service (in Sweden, of Course)
Spotify, the streaming music service Americans love talking about but can’t actually use, has given us even more to chat about: The company now promises to roll out some sort of TV service…some day.
Where? In Sweden, of course, which is where Spotify started, and which acts as a sort of test lab/best-case-scenario provider for the service.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Wall Street to Comcast: No NBC for Us, Thank You Very Much
Maybe this is why Comcast rushed to knock down a story that said it bought NBC Universal from GE: It knew Wall Street would hate the idea.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
In Their Own Words: Comcast’s Case for–and Against–an NBCU Deal
Comcast says it doesn’t have a deal to buy NBC Universal. Does it want to buy NBC Universal? Ask COO Steve Burke and you’re going to get a confusing answer.
Monday, September 28, 2009
How the YouTube-Warner Music Deal Got Done: Meet Vevo Jr.
Warner Music and YouTube, co-owners of the one of the Web’s nastiest spats, are about to patch things up. How’d they do it? By cutting a deal that looks a lot like the one YouTube has already made with Universal Music Group.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Nondeal of the Day: Microsoft Says It’s Not Buying Electronic Arts
There’s going to be a lot of buying and selling in the coming months, but here’s one deal that’s not happening: Contrary to market-moving rumors, Microsoft isn’t acquiring videogame giant Electronic Arts. Anyone else want to take a shot?
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About Peter
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
Ethics Statement
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
