archives

o FTC, Justice Dept. Schedule Senate Talks on Changes to Merger Reviews
o Study: Broadband Rates for Consumers Increased in 2001
o Standards Bodies Working on TV Copy-Protection
o Study: Consumer Ignorance of Interactive TV Services Affects "T-Commerce"
o Briefly Noted: Music subscription services - executive teleconference,
Sprint PCS - 3G, George Lucas - "Star Wars" Fan Film Contest, Cakewalk,
ILive - ISP business, SunnComm - Sunbird Records, EMotion, Aardman
Animations - "Wallace and Gromit"
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o FTC, Justice Dept. Schedule Senate Talks on Changes to Merger Reviews

Washington, D.C. -- Newsbytes reported on Thursday that a last-minute
objection from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Fritz Hollings (D- S.C.)
stopped the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of Justice
(DOJ) from announcing changes to the process that determines which agency
will oversee antitrust reviews of mergers between entertainment, media and
telecommunications companies. Talks between the FTC, DOJ and the Senate
Commerce and Appropriations Committees have been scheduled for next
Wednesday. "We wanted to start a dialogue on this before any sort of final
decision was made," Hollings spokesman Andy Davis told Newsbytes. "If this
deal is as harmless as they claim, then it will be a 30-minute
conversation. But if it's not, we're going to need more time to look at
this."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173750.html
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o Study: Broadband Rates for Consumers Increased in 2001

La Jolla, Calif. -- The rates paid by consumers for high-speed Internet
access rose to their highest levels ever in 2001, according to a recent
report published by La Jolla, Calif.-based analyst firm ARS. The cost of
having a high-speed cable modem connection increased an average of 12
percent for consumers in 2001, while the cost of DSL service increased an
average of 10 percent. In December 2001, the average monthly fee for a
cable connection was $44.22, while the average fee for DSL was $51.67.
"The economic downturn which has resulted in a tightening of the financial
markets has led to consolidation in the broadband industry, [leaving]
broadband consumers with fewer choices and, ultimately, higher monthly
prices," said ARS analyst Mark Kersey. "We expect that this trend of
increasing prices will hamper the widespread adoption of broadband
services and that the vast majority of users will continue to access the
Internet via dial-up connections for the foreseeable future." The study
found that 83 percent of broadband providers offering services between
January 2001 and January 2002 exacted rate increases for their
subscribers.
http://www.ars1.com/press/pressreleases/Broadband011702.pdf
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o Standards Bodies Working on TV Copy-Protection

Los Angeles -- The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday on the efforts of
the inter-industry Broadcast Protection Discussion Group to adopt a
technology that would prevent TV shows and movies from being traded on the
Internet. The Advanced Television Systems Committee, the group that sets
standards for digital TV broadcasting, is developing standards for a
digital tag that will be placed in a digitally-broadcast TV program's
signal. The tag would indicate whether or not the program may be
distributed online. The Broadcast Protection Discussion Group is
developing technology that would be installed on TV-related consumer
electronics to read these tags and be able to block users from uploading
unauthorized programming onto the Internet. The group is lobbying for the
government to mandate its technology on all applicable devices.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-000004557jan18.story
http://www.atsc.org
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o Study: Consumer Ignorance of Interactive TV Services Affects "T-Commerce"

Egham, England -- Most European consumers with interactive TV features
available do not know they can purchase products from their TVs, according
to a consumer survey conducted by analyst firm Gartner G2. Fifty percent
of U.K. viewers and 75 percent of French viewers surveyed that have iTV
services were not aware that they could use their remote control to
purchase goods and services. Of the U.K. viewers surveyed who were aware
of the "T-commerce" feature, 35 percent had not used it because of lack of
interest in the products offered, and 40 percent said they simply did not
know how to use the feature. A total of 35 percent of U.K. households now
have interactive TV, according to Gartner. "The reason for the lack of
success with television-based commerce ("T-commerce") is that retailers
have not linked their interactive TV presence to TV programming," said
Gartner G2 analyst Davnet Cassidy. "They need to realize that consumers
will not use the TV like they use the Internet, to purposefully seek out
products for sale."
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/220182000&ticker=it|itb
http://www.gartner.com
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Larta Panel Session -- Jan. 24 @ USC
"Digital Cinema: Hollywood's Emerging Challenge"

Speakers for this discussion at The Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital
Arts at USC will include Dean Elizabeth Daley of the USC School of Cinema
and Television, Bob Dowling, Publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, Ken
Williams, President, Technicolor Digital Cinema, Michael Karagosian,
Digital Cinema Consultant and other leading executives.

For more information:
http://www.larta.org/Research/HollywoodUnstrung.asp

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o Briefly Noted:

(New York) The heads of all of the competing digital music subscription
services -- MusicNet, Pressplay, Listen.com's Rhapsody, FullAudio and
Rioport -- jointly answered analysts' questions during a teleconference
held by Jupiter Research on Thursday. Newsbytes and Reuters provided
coverage of the event. Andy Schuon, president and CEO of Pressplay, the
joint venture between Sony Music and Universal Music, said that Pressplay
hopes to offer its service to Mac users by the end of the year. Currently,
none of the services are available for Mac. Other issues discussed during
the teleconference were what to do about piracy, and the varied support
among the services for the Music Online Competition Act.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173754.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-818048.html
http://www.jmm.com

(San Francisco) Wired News reported on Friday that the analysts it
interviewed agree that Sprint PCS is the only wireless carrier that has
both the monetary resources and network infrastructure necessary to launch
3G wireless services in the U.S. So-called third-generation wireless
services will enable features such as streaming video on cell phones.
Other carriers such as AT&T, Cingular, VoiceStream and Verizon do not have
the necessary bandwidth to offer data rates of up to 2 megabits per
second. "Realistically, I don't expect to see [AT&T's, Cingular's and
VoiceStream's 3G systems] here in the U.S. before 2005," Forrester
Research analyst Charles Golvin told Wired News.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,49806,00.html

(Los Angeles) "Star Wars" creator George Lucas has agreed to judge the
entries in AtomFilms' Star Wars Fan Film Contest, where amateur filmmakers
submit original films based on "Star Wars." Only animated and live-action
spoofs and documentaries geared toward a PG audience will be accepted as
entries for the contest; "fan fiction," or new storylines that attempt to
expand on the Star Wars universe, will not be accepted.
http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/spotlights/starwars/about.html

(Anaheim, Calif.) Cakewalk, a developer of digital music production
software, announced that it will install PC-based workstations in the
stores of several major musical instrument retailers to showcase its music
production software. Boston-based Cakewalk has partnered with Aspect
Computer Corp. to supply PCs, Intel to provide its Pentium 4 processor,
and music retailers Guitar Center, Sam Ash and MARS. The pilot program
will include ten stores, with Cakewalk and Intel collaborating on in-store
product clinics in each of the stores.
http://www.cakewalk.com/Press/PR-NAMM-Kiosk.htm
http://www.aspectcomputer.com

(Irvine, Calif.) ILive, a producer of online pay-per-view and provider of
streaming media services, announced on Friday that it will now also begin
to offer dialup and broadband ISP services for both consumers and
businesses. The new offering will include hosting and video streaming
services. "By entering the ISP business, ILive gains the ability to
enhance our users' online experience while generating additional revenue,"
said ILive president Scott Henricks. "The plans allow for the vertical
integration of our business model as we will now take ownership of the
user experience from log on to watching one of many exciting shows on the
ILive network."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020118/180063_1.html
http://www.ilive.com

(Phoenix, Ariz.) SunnComm, a developer of CD copy-protection technology,
announced on Friday that Nashville's Sunbird Records, a subsidiary of
Cayenne Entertainment, has licensed its MediaCloq CD copy-protection and
CD-3 enhanced CD technologies for use on future releases. Arizona-based
SunnComm's technology makes it more difficult for users to upload songs
from commercially released CDs onto free file-sharing services, while
providing alternative, secure tracks on the same CD that can be played on
PCs.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020118/180153_1.html
http://www.sunncomm.com

(Vienna, Va.) EMotion, a developer of digital media management software,
announced on Friday that Bob Griffin, the company's president and CEO,
will be stepping down from his executive positions. The company said
Griffin will become vice chairman of the company's board of directors.
Virginia-based EMotion said it has retained Christian & Timbers, an
executive search firm, to find a replacement CEO.
http://www.newsalert.com/bin/story?StoryId=CpeER0bWbsfngmda3

(Bristol, England) Aardman Animations, a producer of claymation animated
films that include "Chicken Run" and "Wallace and Gromit," announced that
it will produce 12 new one-minute episodes of "Wallace and Gromit" that
will be distributed for free online. Using a free CD-ROM "album," users
will visit chosen web sites this fall when the "Wallace's Workshop" series
is released to collect a series of short film clips. Each set collected
unlocks a whole film for viewing from the CD. A new film will be available
for collection onto the "album" each weekend. The concept was developed by
Media Ideas, Ltd. All of the "Wallace's Workshop" films will also be
distributed on video.
http://www.aardman.com/wallaceandgromit/workshop/news.html
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