archives

o Microsoft Launches Xbox Game Console in Europe, Australia
o Report: 7.2 Million U.S. Homes Have Cable Modem-Based Broadband
o MusicCity.com to Offer Rights-Managed File-Sharing for Artists
o Report: More Networks to Offer Enhanced TV Programming
o Mobile Services Software Developer DynamicSoft Raises $18 Million
o Briefly Noted: Google news search, Yahoo - Artisan Entertainment,
Codeonline - Maygay - "Subbuteo," Gemstar-TV Guide - Mediacom, Comcast -
HDTV, IFilm - Miramax, WildFire - "hummed" ringtones, Wink Communications
- Charter, Universities - file-sharing, Mossberg - digital copyrights
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o Microsoft Launches Xbox Game Console in Europe, Australia

Redmond, Wash. -- Microsoft on Thursday launched its Xbox video game
console in Europe and Australia, following last month's launch in Japan
and the North American launch over the holidays. Microsoft plans to ship
1.5 million Xbox consoles to European retailers by June. The Xbox will be
available in 700 stores in Australia for about $340, and for about $423 in
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland,
Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the
United Kingdom. A total of 20 games are available today, with a total of
60 titles promised by the end of June. Microsoft will look to avoid
problems it had with the launch of Xbox in Japan, where some consumers
reported the game was scratching game and DVD discs. The company
eventually promised to unconditionally replace Xbox hardware and damaged
software in Japan.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020314/sfth025_1.html
http://www.xbox.com
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-859549.html?tag=cd_mh
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o Report: 7.2 Million U.S. Homes Have Cable Modem-Based Broadband

Washington, D.C. -- A total of 7.2 million U.S. households now subscribe
to cable modem-based high-speed Internet access -- or 17 percent of all
homes with PCs passed by cable systems -- according to figures recently
released by cable TV trade group the National Cable and Telecommunications
Association (NCTA). More than 875,000 new high speed cable modem
subscribers signed up for the service during the fourth quarter of 2001,
up from 750,000 reported during the third quarter, and surpassing fourth
quarter 2000 growth by 100,000 customers. "Deployment of, and demand for,
advanced broadband services continued to experience strong growth during
the fourth quarter of 2001, despite general economic uncertainties, the
bankruptcy of Excite@Home and the related conversion of its customers to
cable-provisioned networks," said NCTA president Robert Sachs.
http://www.www.ncta.com/press/press.cfm?PRid=238&showArticles=ok
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o MusicCity.com to Offer Rights-Managed File-Sharing for Artists

Franklin, Tenn. -- StreamCast Networks, distributor of the Morpheus
file-sharing software, announced on Thursday a new feature on
MusicCity.com that allows independent artists to distribute their music
through Morpheus while controlling rights and collecting payments as they
determine. The company also announced a distribution agreement with
CDBaby.com, an online retailer of more than 17,000 independent artists'
CDs. Tennessee-based StreamCast developed CintoA, a "digital wrapping"
application on music files, that lets artists determine variables such as
the length of a sample or limit the number of free listens to a downloaded
song before requiring purchase. The new MusicCity.com features will launch
in April, along with a new version of the Morpheus software that runs on
the Gnutella file-sharing network.
http://www.musiccity.com
http://www.cdbaby.com
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o Report: More Networks to Offer Enhanced TV Programming

Boston -- The number of television networks offering enhanced TV
programming, which allows viewers to interact with shows either through
interactive TV services or with a PC on the Web, is expected to grow by 14
percent in 2002, according to a new report from Massachusetts-based
research firm Trace Strategies. The report found that 40 networks will add
enhanced content to programming in 2002 -- including MTV Hits,
NicktoonsTV, The USA Travel Channel and The WB Network -- which are
plotting an initial enhanced programming strategy and launch this year.
The most popular enhanced feature to be added to TV shows in 2001,
according to Trace, was additional show information such as biographies of
guests/actors, photos and locations. Industry executives surveyed for the
report ranked PBS as the most aggressive programmer of enhanced TV
content, followed by The Weather Channel and CBS.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/220732390&ticker=
http://www.tracestrategies.com/market/desc_landscape.html
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o Mobile Services Software Developer DynamicSoft Raises $18 Million

East Hanover, N.J. -- DynamicSoft, a developer of mobile services
infrastructure software, announced that it has raised $18 million in its
latest round of venture capital funding. Participating in the round were
new investors Sun Microsystems and Siemens Venture Capital, as well as
previous investors ComVentures, The Sprout Group, UBS Capital and
VantagePoint Venture Partners. New Jersey-based DynamicSoft develops
software that mobile network operators can use to deliver instant
messaging, interactive games, multimedia messaging and location-based
services.
http://www.dynamicsoft.com/news/press/ds_18mil_funding.html
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UCLA ANDERSON FORECAST CONFERENCE:
"Entertainment: LA's Most Important Industry"

This conference looks at the business of entertainment, the impact of the
industry on the Los Angeles economy, and the forces that are altering how
the business is organized. UCLA economists will also release their
quarterly forecasts for the nation, state, and Los Angeles region.
Speakers include Mayor Jim Hahn and Jeff Berg, Chairman/CEO of
International Creative Management as well as confirmed panels of industry
leaders.

Wednesday, March 27, 2002. 9:15am - 3:00pm at The Anderson School at UCLA.
Contact: forecast@anderson.ucla.edu or (310) 825-1623
http://www.uclaforecast.com

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STREAMING MEDIA WEST 2002 - April 23-26, Los Angeles Convention Center

INTERACTIVE BROADCASTING FORUM: April 24. The Interactive Advertising Bureau will be hosting a series of compelling discussions on how
Interactive Broadcasting is rapidly emerging as the next generation
advertising platform.

MPEG-4 FORUM: April 25. In association with the M4IF, these sessions
dedicated to MPEG-4 will educate and inform attendees on the current
specifications of MPEG-4, guidelines for it's use, and it's significance
to business.

For your FREE Exhibition pass or to save $200 on your full Conference pass
visit http://www.streamingmedia.com/west
Or contact register@streamingmedia.com or 888 301-8890

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o Briefly Noted:

(Mountain View, Calif.) Search engine provide Google has released a beta
version of its planned news search service, which will offer headlines
updated each hour collected from a variety of news sources. News will be
grouped into categories including world, U.S., business, entertainment,
technology and sports. Stories will be culled for the service using solely
a mathematical algorithm, and will be archived in the search engine for
seven days.
http://www.google.com/help/about_news_search.html
http://news.google.com/

(Sunnyvale, Calif.) Yahoo on Thursday announced the opening of an office
in Santa Monica, California. The new office will house the company's
Entertainment division, supporting the Yahoo Movies and Yahoo TV sections
of the portal with sales, production, business development and marketing
services. It will also house the employees of Launch Media, the music
entertainment site acquired by Yahoo last year. Sunnyvale-based Yahoo also
announced a marketing program with Artisan Entertainment to promote the
film studio's upcoming release, "National Lampoon's Van Wilder."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020314/140074_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020314/140073_1.html

(London) Codeonline and Springtoys, a developer of wireless entertainment,
announced on Thursday that it will develop a version of the popular table
soccer game "Subbuteo" for mobile phones. Hasbro, which owns the rights to
the game, will work with U.K.-based skill-with-prizes game developer
Maygay to create a soccer trivia version of the game, which will offer
cash prizes for high-scoring players. Finland-based Codeonline recently
acquired wireless game developer Springtoys. The company will market
Subbuteo for mobile phones to European wireless operators.
http://www.springtoys.com
http://www.codeonline.com
http://www.maygay.co.uk/

(Pasadena, Calif.) Gemstar-TV Guide International, a provider of
interactive program guides for digital television, said on Thursday that
it has signed a seven-year agreement with cable TV operator Mediacom to
deploy its guides in "substantially all" of Mediacom's cable systems.
Pasadena-based Gemstar's TV program guide will include support for
video-on-demand and personal video recorder features. The company
announced a similar agreement on Wednesday with Korea-based Broadband
Solutions, Inc.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020314/140278_1.html
http://www.gemstartvguide.com
http://www.mediacomcc.com

(Philadelphia, Penn.) Cable TV operator Comcast announced on Thursday that
it will make HDTV (high-definition television) broadcasts available in
major markets by the end of 2002, beginning with Washington Metro/Virginia
region this summer. HDTV programming from major broadcast networks and
cable services including HBO and Showtime, as well as over 200 sporting
events on Comcast SportsNet, will be offered on Comcast cable systems.
Pennsylvania-based Comcast rolled out HDTV broadcasts in Philadelphia last
year.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020314/phth007_1.html
http://www.comcast.com

(Hollywood, Calif.) IFilm, a broadband site offering short films and
promotional movie clips and trailers, announced on Thursday that it has
formed an advertising, marketing and research partnership with Miramax
Films. Under the agreement, Miramax will be able to test creative concepts
and materials associated with the release of their movies with IFilm's
online audience.
http://www.ifilm.com
http://www.miramax.com

(Waltham, Mass.) WildFire Communications announced on Thursday a new
service that allows cell phone users to create personalized ringtones by
singing the tune into their phones. The sung or hummed tune is then
translated into a ringtone by the WildTones service and sent back to the
user as a ringtone in the form of an SMS message. Massachusetts-based
WildFire also develops voice-activated virtual assistant technology.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/220732360&ticker=
http://www.wildfire.com

(Alameda, Calif.) Interactive television provider Wink Communications
announced on Thursday that cable TV operator Charter Communications will
make its enhanced broadcast technology a standard offering for Charter's
near one million digital cable subscribers. Alameda, Calif.-based Wink's
technology allows viewers to purchase items, access additional information
and play interactive TV games using their television's remote control.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020314/sfth038_1.html
http://www.wink.com
http://www.charter.com

(San Francisco) CNET on Thursday reported on how colleges and universities
are managing the massive amount of bandwidth that their students are using
to download media via file-sharing services like Morpheus and Kazaa.
Instead of banning file-sharing outright, many universities have installed
bandwidth filters and monitors offered by companies including Packeteer
and NetReality. Such products can allow use of peer-to-peer networks only
during certain hours, or give priority to school-related applications.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-859705.html?tag=cd_mh

(New York) Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Mossberg on Thursday took
up the issue of digital copyrights, and the steps being taken by Hollywood
to protect their copyrights as well as those being taken by technology
firms to ensure that consumers will still be interested in devices that
limit use of media they've purchased. The column also mentions
DigitalConsumer.org, a new consumer advocacy group made up of technology
executives that aims to protect consumers' "fair use" rights.
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20020314.html
http://www.digitalconsumer.org
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