archives

o Disney to Close Go.com Portal, Convert Internet Group Shares
o Bertelsmann: Napster to Become Paid Service by Summer
o MP3.com Issues Guidebook for 107th Congress
o Radio Companies Sue Copyright Office Over Digital Music Royalties
o Video Games Firm Infogrames Acquires Hasbro Interactive and Games.com
o Sega Games Integrated Into Pace Micro Technology Set-Tops
o Broadband Streaming Provider On2.com Raises $2 Million
o SportsLine.com Buys Assets of MVP.com, Allies with USA Networks
o RealNetworks to Stream Live Video of NBA.com TV to GoldPass Subscribers
o Briefly Noted: MP3.com, Sony - NTT DoCoMo, sputnik7.com, Cahner's
In-Stat, McGraw-Hill Professional - DigitalOwl, MeTV Network - Eveo.com,
Washingtonpost.com, Streampipe.com
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> Digital Media Wire Panel: "Interactive Gaming on the Internet"

Interactive gaming is a $6.5 billion market with sales rivaling those of
the motion picture box offices. Forrester Research forecasts that
interactive gaming will be a $26 billion market by 2005. Which
technologies and business models will drive this expanding market? Will
entertainment companies profit from gaming on the Internet? Digital Media
Wire will hold a dinner and panel discussion: "Interactive Gaming on the
Internet: Recent Developments and New Opportunities" on Thursday, February
15, 2001 at the Argyle Hotel in Los Angeles. Moderator: Victor Hwang, COO,
larta. Confirmed panelists: George Alexander, VP Media & Entertainment,
CAP Gemini Ernst & Young; Jim Charne, Attorney and former President,
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences; Brian Dearth, CEO, Hollywood
Stock Exchange; Chris Kantrowitz, CEO, The Groove Alliance.

For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/panel1.html
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> Job Postings: VP Biz Dev/Sales, Senior Web Designer, Tech Writer, Account
Exec./Sr. Account Exec.

> Events: "Digital Media Outlook"

Full Job/Event descriptions listed below "Briefly Noted" section or at
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/postings.html

To Post a Job: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html
To Post an Event: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html
_____________________________________________

o Disney to Close Go.com Portal, Convert Internet Group Shares

Burbank, Calif. -- The Walt Disney Company announced on Monday that it
will close its Go.com portal and convert shares of its Disney Internet
Group tracking stock back to shares of Disney common stock. Outstanding
shares of Disney Internet Group stock will be converted to 0.19353 of a
share of Disney common stock as of March 20, 2001. Disney Internet Group,
which includes websites Disney.com, ESPN.com and the ABC.com family of
sites will continue normal operations. As a result of the closing of
Go.com, 400 employees from the company's Sunnyvale, Calif. office will be
laid off with severance packages. "Go.com employees have contributed a
tremendous amount of technical skill and creativity to our company," said
Disney CEO Michael Eisner. "Like our other 120,000 cast members, they are
a key source of the Disney 'magic,' which makes decisions such as this one
particularly difficult." Popular Go.com features such as Astrology Zone by
Susan Miller will move to ABC.com. The company said it is still
considering the sale of its Infoseek search engine and traffic to
Infoseek.com to a third party.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010129/ca_walt_di.html
http://www.disney.com
http://www.go.com
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o Bertelsmann: Napster to Become Paid Service by Summer

Davos, Switzerland -- Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Middlehoff said that a paid
version of the Napster music file-sharing service with included digital
rights management will debut in June or July of this year, Reuters
reported on Monday. The German media company made a multimillion-dollar
investment in Napster and said it would drop its subsidiary BMG
Entertainment's copyright infringement lawsuit against the company if it
could come up with a secure file-sharing service. Napster CEO Hank Barry,
however, said in the article that he was surprised at Bertelsmann's
announcement. "We haven't decided on a time schedule at all," said Barry.
The two companies have stated that they are pursuing partnerships with
other record labels to join the service, but thus far only indie labels
TVT Records and Edel Music have agreed to sign on.
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/790386l.htm
http://www.napster.com
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o MP3.com Issues Guidebook for 107th Congress

San Diego -- MP3.com has published a guidebook for the 107th Congress,
hoping it will help keep issues pertinent to digital music on the minds of
legislators in the new administration, according to a Reuters report. The
guidebook -- which features short biographies and pictures of all 535
members of Congress as well as quotes from a range of music-related people
-- was distributed to about 3,000 lawmakers and congressional staffers,
according to MP3.com chief lobbyist Billy Pitts. "We thought an
introduction to the new Congress by an Internet service provider is
appropriate since future use of the Internet will be among the greatest
challenges the new Congress faces," wrote MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson,
in the introduction to the guidebook.
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/786191l.htm
http://www.mp3.com
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o Radio Companies Sue Copyright Office Over Digital Music Royalties

New York -- A number of radio companies including the National Association
of Broadcasters (NAB) have sued the head of the U.S. Copyright Office to
block a ruling that would force them to pay record labels when they
simulcast their signals online, the Wall Street Journal reported on
Monday. Terrestrial radio stations do not pay record labels when songs
that the labels own are played over the radio, but a December ruling by
the Copyright Office said that online webcasts should be charged royalty
fees regardless of whether they come from a dot-com or a traditional radio
station. The suit calls the ruling "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of
discretion, and otherwise not in accordance with the law." In addition to
the royalties paid to performance rights organizations such as BMI and
ASCAP, online radio stations currently pay royalties to record labels each
time a song is streamed to which they own the copyrights. Radio companies
including Cox Radio and Infinity Broadcasting joined the NAB as plaintiffs
in its suit.
http://www.nab.org/Newsroom/issues/internet/12501filing.pdf
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o Video Games Firm Infogrames Acquires Hasbro Interactive and Games.com

Lyon, France -- Infogrames, a publisher and distributor of video games,
announced on Monday that it has acquired Hasbro Interactive. The company
purchased 100 percent of Hasbro Interactive's common stock for $100
million. The acquisition includes Hasbro Interactive's assets Atari and
MicroProse, the website Games.com and a long-term licensing agreement with
Hasbro, Inc. that gives Infogrames exclusive rights to develop and publish
games based on current and future Hasbro properties. Hasbro Interactive
will now use Infogrames' name and branding strategy. "We felt that Hasbro
Interactive was an ideal partner due to its lineup of over 250 titles,
together with licensing access to Hasbro's 600 franchises," said
Infogrames CEO Bruno Bonnell. New York-based Infogrames publishes and
distributes video games for consoles such as Sony's Playstation 2, as well
as interactive television, the Internet, wireless devices and in-flight
entertainment systems.
http://www.infogrames-corporate.com/x2000/eng_index.htm
http://www.hasbrointeractive.com
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o Sega Games Integrated Into Pace Micro Technology Set-Tops

Boca Raton, Fl. -- Pace Micro Technology announced on Monday that it has
integrated the Sega game platform into its personal video recorder (PVR)
set-top boxes for television. In addition to 'time-shifting' TV shows so
that viewers may watch them at their convenience, they may now also play a
range of Sega's games against other online users with the Pace device. The
Sega games can also be transferred to other devices such as PCs and
wireless devices including cell phones. Sega has said that it wants to
move away from manufacturing hardware and focus more on developing video
game software and establishing partnerships to distribute the games.
http://www.pace.co.uk/content.asp?id=442&template=0
http://www.sega.com
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o Broadband Streaming Provider On2.com Raises $2 Million

New York -- On2.com, a provider of broadband streaming services, announced
on Monday that it has secured financing of up to $2 million from existing
shareholder Abanat Limited. New York-based On2.com provides services such
as video encoding, hosting, streaming, interface design, customized
technical support and consulting to broadband website customers. The
company previously announced an equity financing commitment of up to $40
million in December 2000.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010129/ny_on2.html
http://www.on2.com
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o SportsLine.com Buys Assets of MVP.com, Allies with USA Networks

New York -- CBS online sports site SportsLine.com announced on Monday that
it has acquired certain assets of sports retail site MVP.com. The
company's assets will eventually become part of SportsLine.com's
e-commerce partnership with USA Networks, also announced today. Under the
terms of the transaction, SportsLine.com acquires the domain names,
trademarks and certain other assets of MVP.com, PlanetOutdoors.com,
igogolf.com, tennisdirect.com and golfclubtrader.com. In its deal with USA
Networks, USA's Electronic Commerce Solutions will become the operator of
New York-based SportsLine.com's online store, scheduled to re-launch in
the spring. Chicago-based MVP.com, which has ties to Michael Jordan, Wayne
Gretzsky and John Elway, went through a restructuring in December 2000
where it laid off almost half of its employees.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010129/fl_sportsl_2.html
http://www.sportsline.com
http://www.mvp.com
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o RealNetworks to Stream Live Video of NBA.com TV to GoldPass Subscribers

Seattle -- Streaming media distributor RealNetworks announced on Monday
that it has signed a multi-year partnership with the National Basketball
Association to provide live streaming video broadcasts of NBA.com TV
through the company's GoldPass subscription service. GoldPass subscribers
will have access to real-time statistics, scores, and news from NBA.com,
with live studio-based programming, live "look-ins" of games in progress,
highlights and vintage NBA games. The service also offers live streaming
play-by-play audio feeds of home and away games of every NBA team.
Seattle-based RealNetworks' GoldPass is a $9.95 per month service that
gives users access to exclusive broadband streaming content such as the
NBA games. GoldPass, which launched in August 2000, currently has 150,000
subscribers.
http://www.real.com/sports/bb.html
http://www.real.com/goldpass
http://www.nba.com 
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o Briefly Noted:

(San Diego) MP3.com announced on Monday the launch of a paid marketing
service for bands that post music to its site. Acts that subscribe to the
Premium Artist Service will receive the option of eliminating banner ads
on their artist page and receive priority placement on the MP3.com search
engine. Additionally, the band's name and song titles will appear in bold
font on the MP3.com song charts. Musicians will be able to upload multiple
files at once and include image files using the company's Artist Upload
Tool, available to subscribers to the new service.
http://www.mp3.com/premium

(Tokyo) Sony announced on Monday that it has partnered with Japanese cell
provider NTT DoCoMo to create games for wireless devices, Bloomberg News
reported. DoCoMo aims to create an international market for its I-mode
phone, which has 18.4 million users in Japan. The company has minority
stakes in wireless network providers such as AT&T Wireless Group, KPN
Mobile, Hutchison Telephone, KG Telecommunications and Telecom Italia
Mobile, which will feature the games as they are created.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-4637228.html
http://www.nttdocomo.com
http://www.sony.com

(New York) Indie entertainment site sputnik7.com has announced that it
licensed the short films "Rocket Pants", by Andy Murdock for Mondo Media,
and "Freeware," by Alex Orrelle at the Sundance Online Film Festival. Last
week, New York-based sputnik7.com announced the acquisition of several
other films from the festival, including "Untitled001: Darkness", by
Belief, and "Webdreamer," by Erik Adigard. The company said it will
feature the films on its site as well as on DVD compilations released on
the new RES/sputnik7 DVD label, which will be distributed by RykoPalm.
http://www.sputnik7.com
http://www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.org/

(Scottsdale, Ariz.) DVDs will continue as the fastest growing consumer
electronics product in history, with sales exceeding 60 million units in
2004, according to a report published by Cahner's In-Stat on Monday. The
report also predicts that the number of DVD players sold in the U.S. will
equal that of VCRs in 2004, and that the European market will be equal to
roughly 80 percent of the U.S. market.
http://www.instat.com/catalog/cat-mm.htm#mm0021dv

(New York) Publisher McGraw-Hill Professional announced on Monday a
partnership with DigitalOwl, a distributor and digital rights management
provider for e-publishing. Under the agreement, New York-based McGraw-Hill
will distribute e-book titles such as "The Procrastinator's Guide to
Success" and "101 Best Cover Letters" through Florida-based Digital Owl's
online retail network.
http://www.digitalowl.com/NewsEvents/PR_Detail.asp?id=36
http://www.pbg.mcgraw-hill.com/

(Waterford, Conn.) Broadband content provider MeTV Network announced on
Monday that it will offer short films from San Francisco-based Eveo.com on
its service. Connecicut-based MeTV operates a content on-demand site with
movies, music, sports and TV that can be accessed through a television
using the company's proprietary software and remote control. MeTV's
technology is currently in a broadband consumer trial; the company plans a
full consumer launch in February.
http://www.metv.com
http://www.eveo.com

(Arlington, Va.) Washingtonpost.com announced on Monday the launch of MP3,
a section of its site where local musicians can post MP3 files of their
music for free, and those interested in local music can find downloads and
information.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010129/va_washing.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/mp3

(Alexandria, Va.) Streampipe.com, a provider of business-to-business
Internet broadcasting, announced on Monday the appointments of Joseph K.
Fisher as CEO and Kurt Krauss as chairman of the company. Both men
previously worked for public relations agency Burson-Marsteller.
Virginia-based Streampipe.com offers companies video encoding and hosting
services for stockholder meetings and training videos.
http://www.streampipe.com

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Job Postings:
===================================================
To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html

> Sonata, Director/VP Biz. Dev./Sales - Wireless Internet - New York City

Venture-backed wireless company specializing in the next generation of
location-based applications and wireless advertising seeks executive to
initiate, negotiate and close deals. Cultivation of business contacts,
structuring deals, negotiation of contracts and being part of an effective
business development team will be essential. Familiarity with advertising,
high-tech software or Internet products. Must have a passion for
emergingtechnology. Send resumes to hr@sonatainc.com.
http://www.sonata.com
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> Lucid Designs, Senior Web Designer - Los Angeles

This is an opportunity to join a young, growing company with established
high-profile clients. Should have a minimum of two years design
experience, and a thorough knowledge of web standard design software such
as Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. Experience with Dreamweaver, DHTML,
CD-ROM or print production are pluses, but not required. Position includes
benefits and generous salary. Send resumes and examples of on-line work to
jobs@luciddesigns.com
http://www.luciddesigns.com
_____________________________________________

> Static, Tech Writer - Los Angeles

Software company that transforms the desktop into a peer-to-peer
distributed network for businesses and consumers seeks writer to document
cool software. Needs to have moderate programming/coding skills
(especially C/C++), as well as clear, concise and creative writing skills.
Experience with some sort of document layout software is needed. Send
resumes and tech-writing samples to cooljobs@static.com
http://www.static.com
_____________________________________________

> Ruder Finn, TECHNOLOGY-Account Exec./Sr. Account Exec. - San Francisco

Global independent public relations agency seeks executives to help handle
explosive new business growth in dynamic and fast-moving office. Requires
excellent written/oral communication, organizational and problem-solving
skills, as well as a passion for client service. Sr. level positions
require strong program planning, client counseling and staff mentoring
skills. Great accounts, smart programs, competitive compensation and
benefits. Send resumes to careers@ruderfinn.com
http://www.ruderfinn.com

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Event Postings:
===================================================
To Post Events: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html

> Digital Media Outlook, April 2, 2001 -- New York City

Don't miss a beat. In a world of limited bandwidth, companies are
pushing technology and services that mesh data with formats like MP3
and MPEG while employing edge serving and IP multicasting to clear
a path to the audience. At Digital Media Outlook, learn where
the future lies for rich media services and infrastructure companies.
http://www.digitalmediaoutlook.com/home.html?e=DMO01Dwire
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