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Past Editions

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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- April 5, 2002
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Subscribe for free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com

o Bertelsmann Seeking $30 Million Napster Buyout
o Search Engine Provider Overture Files Patent Suit Against Rival Google
o Xbox Sales Slow in Japan; Report Indicates 190,000 Sold to Date
o FCC Urges Faster Rollout of Digital TV
o Thomson's Technicolor Unit Acquires Australian CD Manufacturer
o Defunct Webcaster NetRadio Votes to Dissolve the Company
> Digital Media Wire Panel Series: Interactive Television | L.A., S.F., NYC
o Briefly Noted: Kazaa upgrade, IFilm - Ain't It Cool News, GameWorld -
Mforma, Microsoft - digital rights management - MP3 players, TiVo glitches
- Philips digital TVs
_____________________________________________

o Bertelsmann Seeking $30 Million Napster Buyout

Redwood City, Calif. -- Thomas Middlehoff, CEO of German media giant
Bertelsmann, told German newspaper Die Welt that the company is seeking a
buyout of file-sharing service Napster for up to a reported $30 million.
"Our solution is to take over Napster completely. We plan to buy out the
former owners, most of all venture capitalist Hummer Winblad Venture
Partners and some private investors like John Fanning, who is the uncle of
the founder Shawn Fanning," Middlehoff told Die Welt. John Fanning
recently filed suit in a Delaware court to have former CEO Hank Barry and
another venture capitalist from Hummer Winblad removed from the company's
board, citing a pending buyout offer for the company. Bertelsmann has
already invested an estimated $100 million into Napster, which is enabling
the company to continue to defend itself in its ongoing lawsuit with the
major record labels as well as to design a paid, subscription-based
service that would compensate artists' whose music is shared. Napster
recently once again pushed back the launch of a new service, citing
difficult negotiations with the major labels.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,679552,00.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-876824.html
http://www.welt.de/english/
_____________________________________________

o Search Engine Provider Overture Files Patent Suit Against Rival Google

Los Angeles -- Search engine technology provider Overture has filed a
patent infringement suit against rival Google with the U.S. District Court
in Los Angeles. The suit claims Google is infringing on its
pay-for-performance and bid-for-placement search result listing services.
Overture's claim does not target Google's mathematical algorithm-based
search technology that provides its primary results, but rather the search
results that appear on the sides and bottom of search results pages, for
which companies have either paid outright for or bid for the most
prominent result. Pasadena, Calif.-based Overture said in a statement that
it "intends to enforce its intellectual property rights against those who
use its patented inventions without authorization." The company filed a
similar suit against search engine Findwhat.com in January. Google
responded to Overture's suit in a written statement. "This does not come
as a surprise to us, since Overture is engaged in another lawsuit
concerning this patent with Findwhat.com. We have analyzed the patent and
determined that we do not infringe any valid claim that it contains."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020405/50168_1.html
http://www.overture.com
http://www.google.com
_____________________________________________

o Xbox Sales Slow in Japan; Report Indicates 190,000 Sold to Date

Tokyo -- Microsoft's Xbox has sold only about 190,000 units in Japan since
its launch on Feb. 22 in the country, Reuters reported on Friday. The wire
service quoted sales figures as reported by Japanese video game magazine
Enterbrain. The launch of Xbox in Japan was hindered by early reports from
consumers that the console was scratching game and DVD movie discs. These
reports prompted Microsoft to offer to unconditionally replace hardware
and damaged software in Japan. In March 2000, Sony's PlayStation 2 sold
980,000 units in three days in Japan, according to Reuters. Microsoft sold
1.5 million Xbox consoles in the U.S. during the six weeks following its
launch on Nov. 15 of last year.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/734627.asp?0dm=C13IT
http://www.enterbrain.co.jp/english.html
_____________________________________________

o FCC Urges Faster Rollout of Digital TV

Washington, D.C. -- With the widespread rollout of digital television
stalled, the FCC on Thursday challenged the television industry to meet a
more ambitious set of deadlines. FCC Chairman Michael Powell urged six
major broadcasters -- ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, HBO and Showtime -- to air at
least half of this year's fall primetime lineups in digital format, and
asked network affiliates in the 100 largest U.S. markets to be
digital-ready by 2003. The guidelines are voluntary. In 1997, Congress
mandated that the majority of broadcasters meet new digital guidelines by
2006. Toward that end, it granted them about $70 billion worth of new
television spectrum to carry out the plan. Since then, however, both
broadcasters and manufacturers have been slow to bring the technology to
the forefront, each blaming the other. Digital TV offers sharper pictures
and better overall quality than traditional television.
http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/powell/mkp_proposal_to_speed_dtv_transition.pdf
_____________________________________________

o Thomson's Technicolor Unit Acquires Australian CD Manufacturer

Paris -- Technicolor, a unit of French electronics firm Thomson multimedia
that provides manufacturing and duplication services for CDs, DVDs and
videocassettes, announced on Friday that it has acquired Australian
videocassette and optical disc manufacturing firm Southern Star Duplitek.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Technicolor
previously invested $19.5 million in Southern Star Duplitek in August
2000. Southern Star is Australia's leading optical disc manufacturer, with
$60 million in annual sales and clients including Warner Bros. Pictures,
Paramount, Universal and BMG. Camarillo, Calif.-based Technicolor
currently faces an illegal CD copying lawsuit filed this week by the
Recording Industry Association of America. Thomson and Technicolor said
the suit has no merit and intend to contest the claim.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020405/52031_1.html
http://www.southern-star.com.au/Index00.htm
http://www.technicolor.com
http://www.riaa.org/PR_story.cfm?id=500
_____________________________________________

o Defunct Webcaster NetRadio Votes to Dissolve the Company

Minneapolis -- NetRadio, formerly a provider of Internet radio stations,
has voted to liquidate its assets and dissolve the company, according to
filings made this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The
company offered 125 free streaming music stations, supported by
advertising and CD sales from the site. But as its audience grew its
bandwidth costs rose as well. A downfall in the amount of online
advertising dollars available also attributed to NetRadio's demise. "It's
very difficult for any business to operate entirely online," Jupiter Media
Metrix analyst Aram Sinnreich told Newsbytes. "And if you've got the
one-two punch of the costs associated with rich media -- meaning bandwidth
-- and an absurdly expensive licensing landscape, the number of successful
players is going to be very small at best."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175671.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20010701005643/http://www.netradio.com/
_____________________________________________

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> DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE PANEL DISCUSSION SERIES:
"iTV: New Interactive Services Fuel Big Expectations
Slow Market Penetration Raises Questions: How Big is iTV Going to Be?"

Register by clicking on the links below to join leading executives and
professionals at our upcoming iTV breakfast panels in Los Angeles, San
Francisco and New York.

LA: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/LAitv2.html
SF: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/SFitv2.html
NYC: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/NYCitv2.html

========================================================
LOS ANGELES: Tuesday, April 16, 2002, Four Seasons Hotel, Beverly Hills
========================================================
Moderator: Ken Rutkowski, Founder and CEO, KenRadio.com
Stephen Condon, SVP and CMO, Intertainer
K.C. Hildreth, COO, GoldPocket Interactive
Steve Hoffman, CEO, Spiderdance
Mark Kapczynski, Principal, Media & Entertainment Solutions Group,
Microsoft
David Nathanson, VP of Broadband Strategy & Channel Development, Fox Cable
Networks

Sponsored by: LARTA
For more information and to register for the Los Angeles event:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/LAitv2.html

========================================================
SAN FRANCISCO: Wednesday, April 17, 2002, City Club of San Francisco
========================================================
Moderator: Sean Badding, VP and Senior Analyst, The Carmel Group
Martijn Lopes Cardozo, VP of Product Management, GoldPocket Interactive
Mitchell Linden, Head of Operations - North America, BBC Technology
Bill Niemeyer, Founder, Centrimedia (former Director, Strategic Dev.,
Spiderdance)
Peter Schultz, Director of Business Development, PopTV Program, Liberate
Bridget Steele, Business Development Manager, Microsoft TV

For more information and to register for the San Francisco event:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/SFitv2.html

=========================================================
NEW YORK: Thursday, April 25, 2002, Cornell Club of New York City
=========================================================
Moderator: Art Cohen, SVP, Advertising, ACTV
Patrick Donoghue, VP, Interactive Television, Cablevision
Gerard Kunkel, President, WorldGate
Christopher S. Lucas, VP & Exec. Producer, Digital Media Group, Showtime
Networks
Rod A. Nenner, Director, TV & Entertainment Solutions Group, America
Online
Carla Sinatra, Vice President of Business Development, NBC
Todd Krieger, Senior Manager, Business Development, Microsoft TV

Sponsored by: WorldGate
For more information and to register for the New York event:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/NYCitv2.html

Sponsorships and Inquiries:
Ned Sherman at 323.464.0793 or esherman@digitalmediawire.com
Paul Sherman at psherman@digitalmediawire.com
______________________

o Briefly Noted:

(Sydney, Australia) Sharman Networks, operator of the Kazaa file-sharing
exchange, has released an upgrade to its software. The update includes a
"family filter" for adult content and a new feature that will recommend
various media files to users based on their preferences. Australia-based
Sharman also said that it will soon release Spanish, French and
German-language versions of the new version of Kazaa.
http://www.kazaa.com/en/kmdstart.htm

(Hollywood, Calif.) IFilm, a broadband movie entertainment site, announced
that it will provide streaming video content to Ain't It Cool News, a site
that provides gossip about anticipated movies currently in production.
Hollywood-based IFilm said that the video will be served through a private
labeled IFilm media player.
http://www.ifilm.com
http://www.aintitcoolnews.com

(Los Angeles) Wireless game developer GameWorld Technologies announced on
Friday a distribution agreement for three of its games with Seattle-based
Mforma, a wireless application platform and services provider for wireless
network operators. Los Angeles-based GameWorld, a division of game
creation technology developer PureVis, will offer a trivia, puzzle and
action sports game for SMS and WAP wireless platforms to Mforma.
http://www.gameworld.com
http://www.purevis.com
http://www.mforma.com

(San Francisco) CNET reported on Friday on new technology being developed
by Microsoft that would upgrade the Windows Media digital rights
management technology it offers for portable devices such as MP3 players.
The company said that the upgrade should make it more secure for major
record labels to release digital music that can be transferred to portable
players -- a feature that is either absent or severely regulated on
subscription services such as MusicNet, Pressplay and Rhapsody. The
upgrade will take advantage of features such as a "system clock" -- which
can regulate when a media file will "time out" -- that are being added to
the latest portable devices.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-876449.html

(London) U.K. technology news site TheRegister reported on Friday that
some owners of Philips brand digital televisions in the U.K. are
experiencing problems when they use the TV in conjunction with a TiVo
personal video recorder. "It looks like the TiVos are sending
idiosyncratic teletext data to the TV which confuse the TV's processor and
cause it to crash," one U.K. TiVo owner told TheRegister. "This has the
effect of muting the sound every 20 minutes or so, causing the TV to
switch itself off from time to time and totally blocking any signals from
the TV's remote control."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/24713.html
______________________

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Copyright 2002 Digital Media Wire