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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- March 17, 2003
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To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com
o Yahoo Launches Platinum Audio and Video Subscription Service
o Morpheus File-Sharing Network CEO Steve Griffin Resigns
o WSJ: Clear Channel Unit to Offer Data on Songs Traded on P2P Networks
o 3-D Chipmaker Matrix Semiconductor Raises $52 Million
o Loudeye Technologies Lays Off 35% of Staff
o Streamwaves, Excite Network Launch Co-Branded Digital Music Service
> DMW Publications: February Law and Policy Report
o Briefly Noted: Fox's "The Simpsons" - THQ Wireless, Kazaa - 200 million
downloads, Verizon - networks - interactive TV, Nokia - music products,
Altnet, Versaly Entertainment, Netflix, Jamdat Mobile, Midway, TV shows on
DVD, Person-to-person sports betting
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> Events: Games & Mobile Forum: April 28 | NYC
> Marketplace: Entertainment & Corporate Legal Services, Game Industry
Report, iTV Chronicle, Interest-Based Navigation
Full Classifieds located beneath "Briefly Noted" section below.
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o Yahoo Launches Platinum Audio and Video Subscription Service
Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Yahoo on Monday announced the launch of a new
broadband audio and video subscription service, Yahoo Platinum, offering
content from CBS, Fox, ABC, The Weather Channel and others for $9.95 per
month. The service will compete directly with RealNetworks' RealOne
SuperPass, which currently claims 900,000 subscribers. Included in Yahoo
Platinum are CBS "Survivor"-related content, Fox "American Idol"-related
content, NASCAR content and access to the first-ever Web broadcasts of
NCAA basketball tournament games through CBS SportsLine.com. For $16.95,
subscribers can gain access to live video of all 56 games from the first
and second rounds of the tournament, beginning on Thursday. Sunnyvale,
Calif.-based Yahoo said it soon plans to add programming from CNBC Dow
Jones Business Video, National Geographic and Warren Miller Entertainment
to the service, which will offer content in both RealNetworks and
Microsoft delivery formats.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030317/170104_1.html
http://platinum.yahoo.com
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o Morpheus File-Sharing Network CEO Steve Griffin Resigns
Nashville, Tenn. -- The CEO of StreamCast Networks, operator of the
Morpheus peer-to-peer file-sharing network currently being sued by
entertainment companies for copyright infringement, announced his
resignation from the company late Friday. The company said CEO Steve
Griffin left "to pursue other opportunities." Tennessee-based StreamCast,
which along with fellow file-sharing providers Grokster and Kazaa was sued
by most of the major movie studios and record labels, said it is currently
seeking a replacement for Griffin and that its management team will run
the company's operations in the meantime.
http://www.streamcastnetworks.com
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o WSJ: Clear Channel Unit to Offer Data on Songs Traded on P2P Networks
New York -- Premiere Radio Networks, a unit of radio giant Clear Channel
Communications, will begin offering data on the popularity of songs on
peer-to-peer file-sharing networks to its radio station subscribers, The
Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Los Angeles-based Big Champagne
will provide the P2P market research, which will let stations focus on
users whose music collections overlap substantially with their playlists,
as well as develop in-depth profiles based on users' searches, download
patterns and available music. Premiere president Kraig T. Kitchin told The
Journal the data is "valuable to the music industry and the radio
industry," while saying the company doesn't "condone" copyright
infringement.
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/030314/72/38y48.html
http://www.premrad.com
http://www.bigchampagne.com
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o 3-D Chipmaker Matrix Semiconductor Raises $52 Million
Santa Clara, Calif. -- Matrix Semiconductor, a manufacturer of 3-D chips
used in video game consoles and other products, announced on Monday that
it has raised $52 million in its latest round of financing. New investors
TeleSoft Partners, Benchmark Capital Europe, Integral Capital Partners,
and Seagate Technology participated in the investment round; existing
investors Benchmark Capital, Skymoon Ventures and Western Technology
Investment also participated. The round follows Matrix's announcement of a
$15 million investment from Nintendo, which it supplies with chips for its
GameCube video game console. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Matrix said it will
use the funds to ramp into high volume production of its products, the
first of which will ship this year. The company called its Matrix 3-D
Memory "a high-density, low cost non-volatile memory ideally suited for
the very large, highly price sensitive electronics markets."
http://www.matrixsemi.com
http://www.matrixsemi.com/files/10478799140.pdf
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o Loudeye Technologies Lays Off 35% of Staff
Seattle -- Loudeye Technologies, a provider of webcasting and streaming
audio song sample services, announced on Monday that it will lay off 35
percent of its staff, or 43 employees, as its recently-announced new
management team focuses on the company's profitable sectors. Last week,
the company announced the resignation of its chairman and CEO, themselves
having been on the job only five weeks as the company explored strategic
alternatives. "In this market we need to drive profitability and
aggressively manage costs. Our management team is committed to driving
profitable services to generate cash flow," said new Loudeye president and
CEO Jeff Cavins. Seattle-based Loudeye identified its streaming song
sampling service, which provides samples to a network of music retail
sites, as a key revenue source but said it will continue support for its
key webcasting and Web conferencing customers.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030314/sff027_1.html
http://www.loudeye.com
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o Streamwaves, Excite Network Launch Co-Branded Digital Music Service
Dallas -- Streamwaves, a provider of branded digital music subscription
services, announced on Monday that it will provide a co-branded version of
its service to The Excite Network, which operates the Excite and iWon
portals. The current service offered by Dallas-based Streamwaves gives
users unlimited access to streaming versions of songs, allowing them to
create custom playlists or browse pre-programmed channels, as well as
limited ability to burn songs to CD. Streamwaves has licensed tracks from
every major label except Sony for the service, which costs $14.99 per
month.
http://www.streamwaves.com
http://www.excite.com
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DMW Publications: February Law & Policy Report
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Published monthly. February issue on sale now!
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Briefly Noted:
(Los Angeles) Twentieth Century Fox, a division of News Corp., said on
Monday that it has licensed the wireless interactive rights to its hit TV
series "The Simpsons" to game developer THQ. Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based
THQ will develop ringtones, screensavers and other Simpsons content for
Fox that will begin distribution in the third quarter. "The fact that it
is in so many countries and so many languages, we think this will be
pretty successful for us," Doug Dyer, general manager of THQ Wireless,
told Reuters.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030317/media_thq_simpsons_1.html
http://www.thqwireless.com
(Sydney, Australia) Sharman Networks, distributor of the Kazaa
peer-to-peer file-sharing service, announced that the 200 millionth copy
of its software was downloaded on March 11, as tallied by CNET's
Download.com. The company reported its 100 millionth download seven months
ago.
http://www.kazaa.com/us/news/201.htm
(Bedminster, N.J.) Wireless network operator Verizon Wireless announced
that it has assigned five-digit codes to nine national and cable networks,
which will allow the television industry to offer interactive TV features
through wireless text-messaging. Networks can use the codes to prompt
viewers to vote, participate in contests or help determine a show's
outcome. "We're confident that the other U.S. carriers will join us and
commit to providing the major television networks with these specific
codes, which will allow wireless data to be used as a powerful audience
delivery and retention tool for television programming," said Jim
Straight, vice president of wireless data and Internet services for
Verizon Wireless.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030314/nyf063_1.html
http://www.verizonwireless.com
(New Orleans) Cell phone maker Nokia on Monday announced its FM Radio
Headset, a headset for its phones that features stereo earpieces and a
digital tuner that will enable the reception of FM radio stations. The
device will initially support the Nokia 6100 model and will ship in the
second quarter of 2003. Nokia also recently introduced its Nokia 3300
music phone, a device that combines an MP3 player, FM stereo radio and
cell phone. The handset features a 64MB music capacity and USB connection
for downloading, and will be introduced to the U.S. market in the fall.
http://press.nokia.com/PR/200303/894969_5.html
(Woodland Hills, Calif.) Altnet, a secure, authorized peer-to-peer network
that piggybacks on the popular Kazaa file-sharing service, announced on
Monday that it has signed over 75 million licenses with content owners who
have placed their music, video, software and games files available for
download on the network. Of these, about 18 million require payment for
download, while the remaining files are offered on a promotional basis.
Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Altnet, a unit of Brilliant Digital
Entertainment, also announced that its games and software category has
sold over 25,000 units, from a selection of 45 available titles.
http://www.brilliantdigital.com
http://www.altnet.com
(Seattle) Versaly Entertainment, a provider of wireless games and other
entertainment products, announced on Monday the launch of ForFones.com, a
retail sales web-to-phone service. The site will offer cell phone users
the ability to purchase and download ringtones, wallpaper and screensavers
from their PCs to their phones. Seattle-based Versaly's new service will
initially support phones manufactured by Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola and
Siemens.
http://www.versaly.com
http://www.forfones.com
(Los Gatos, Calif.) Netflix, operator of a mail order-based, online DVD
rental service, announced on Monday the opening of a new distribution
center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to serve the greater south Florida
area. Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix plans to open multiple shipping
centers this year so that by year's-end it can provide 70 percent of its
subscribers with generally next-day service.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030317/sfm080_1.html
http://www.netflix.com
(New Orleans) Wireless entertainment provider Jamdat Mobile on Monday
launched "Fudomyo," a multiplayer combat game for next-generation BREW-
and J2ME-enabled mobile phones. Los Angeles-based Jamdat also launched two
other titles: "Pitfall," based on the classic Atari 2600 title, and
"Jamdat Racing." All three titles will initially be available from
wireless network operator Verizon Wireless' Get It Now service.
http://www.jamdat.com
(Chicago) Video game developer Midway on Monday announced the release of
its "MLB SlugFest 20-04" for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Game Boy
Advance. The game's cover athlete is St. Louis Cardinals center fielder
Jim Edmonds.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030317/175610_1.html
http://www.midway.com
(Los Angeles) The Los Angeles Times recently report on the burgeoning
market for TV shows released on DVD, the fastest-growing segment of the
home entertainment business that is generating an estimated $800 million
to $1 billion a year. Fox's "The Simpsons" reportedly earned over $100
million from DVD sales last year, while HBO's miniseries "Band of
Brothers" has eclipsed $70 million in retail sales.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-dvd13mar13001437,1,5119657.
story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dtechnology
(Redmond, Wash.) MSNBC.com recently reported on online person-to-person
(P2P) betting systems, which are looking to attract customers by taking
the traditional bookmaker out of the process by allowing bettors to place
wagers directly with one another. While industry leader Betfair.com says
it arranges 12,000 wagers per minute from its customers in Europe and
elsewhere, few deal with American bettors because of laws outlawing online
gambling in the U.S. However, several companies including TradeSports.com
will test the U.S. legal system and look to attract U.S. gamblers as they
offer P2P betting on games during the NCAA college basketball tournament
http://www.msnbc.com/news/883180.asp?0dm=C19KT
http://www.tradesports.com
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Digital Media Wire Presents...Games & Mobile Forum
April 2003, New York City
Focusing on games and mobile entertainment opportunities and business
models. Panel topics will include "The Battle to Control the Living Room:
Is the Game Industry Winning?", "Mobile Games: Business Models & New
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& Entertainment."
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