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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- November 17, 2000
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To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com

o Study Finds Cable Beats Broadcast In Drawing Viewers To Web Sites
o Wired News: Low On Funds, Riffage.com Looking For Buyer
o Major League Baseball Hires Outpost.com CEO For Advanced Media Unit
o ABC To Air Web Content Show On TV: "Dot Comedy"
o Briefly Noted: Yahoo Short Film Directory, Online Classics - Microsoft's
MSN, Indiqu - AT&T Wireless
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o Study Finds Cable Beats Broadcast In Drawing Viewers To Web Sites

Cincinnati -- Cable channels such as the Food Network and ESPN draw more
viewers to their websites than the major broadcast networks, according to
a study published on Friday by Burke, Inc. and NFO Interactive. A survey
asked television viewers with Internet access which network or program
websites they had visited during or after viewing the program on
television. The findings indicated that 33 percent of viewers had visited
the Food Network website, while 30 percent said they had visited ESPN's
website. By contrast, CBS drew 28 percent and Fox 21 percent of their
viewers to network websites. MTV, whose MTVi new media division recently
withdrew a planned IPO, drew only 20 percent of viewers to its sites.
Arguably, the recipes from Food Network programs that the network offers
on its website, and exhaustive sports statistics offered on ESPN's website
are more of a draw to television viewers than the content hosted on
network websites, with the exception of web-related shows such as "Big
Brother."
http://www.nfoi.com
http://www.burke.com
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o Wired News: Low On Funds, Riffage.com Looking For Buyer

San Francisco -- Riffage.com, a consumer music site that also owns a
record label and concert venue, is seeking out potential buyers in lieu of
sparse venture capital for digital media companies, Wired News reported on
Friday. After seeking potential merger partners, Riffage received several
offers from parties interested in acquiring the company. Riffage.com CEO
Ken Wirt said the company is likely to decide on an offer by the end of
the year. "You have to look at the environment, and right now the
environment is pretty hostile," said Wirt, in the article. "Unless you are
making money, you have to find funding. There are a few parties that we
are talking with about merging. We're playing survivor, and we're in the
Australian outback." Palo Alto-based Riffage.com allows bands to post
music on its site, and also offers music news and live webcasts. The
company's off-line assets include a program on the Burly Bear cable
network, which is broadcast on college campuses, and San Francisco's Great
American Music Hall, a concert venue.
http://www.wirednews.com/news/print/0,1294,40231,00.html
http://www.riffage.com
_____________________________________________

o Major League Baseball Hires Outpost.com CEO For Advanced Media Unit

San Francisco -- Major League Baseball announced on Friday that it has
hired Robert Bowman, former CEO of Outpost.com, as the head of its
Advanced Media unit. Bowman will oversee all aspects of Major League
Baseball's new media and Internet business interests, which include
MLB.com and 30 team Internet sites. In an interview with TheStandard.com,
Bowman said he will focus on ramping up e-commerce efforts for baseball
gear and memorabilia, and developing a subscription-based service to
stream video of baseball games and highlights to fans outside the market
where each game is played.
http://www.mlb.com/u/baseball/mlbcom/pressrelease/bowman_111700.htm
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,20274,00.html
_____________________________________________

o ABC To Air Web Content Show On TV: "Dot Comedy"

San Francisco -- ABC will soon begin airing "Dot Comedy," a program that
will feature interesting content from the web, CNET reported. The show
will be produced by Carsey-Werner and Oxygen Media, and will feature
humorous pictures and video that the program's creators find on the
Internet. "We hope to introduce the television viewing audience to the
Internet's best, brightest and most unique," executive producer Todd Yasui
said in a statement. "And in keeping with the spirit of the Internet we
are encouraging our viewers to provide us with content by sending us their
own creations --whether it's a funny MPEG, JPEG or just a great website."
The show will also air on Oxygen Media's cable network.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3729161.html
_____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(Santa Clara, Calif.) Yahoo has launched a directory of short films on its
site, through agreements with online film companies Atom Films, FilmFilm,
Hypnotic, Icebox and IFilm. Filmmakers and fans can also suggest shorts
from the Internet for inclusion into the directory, which currently lists
several thousand short films.
http://movies.yahoo.com

(London) Online Classics, a site that streams operas, ballets, musicals
and orchestral works, announced on Friday that it has partnered with
Microsoft's MSN. Under the deal, U.K.-based Online Classics will provide
entertainment content to MSN's European portal. The company said MSN will
feature Online Classics' 'The Three Tenors Christmas' during the month of
December.
http://www.onlineclassics.com

(San Diego) Indiqu, a developer of entertainment content for wireless
devices, announced that it has partnered with AT&T Wireless to develop an
action sports channel. San Diego-based Indiqu will provide news and event
schedules for skateboarding, snowboarding and BMX, as well as athlete
rankings and trivia games for action sports enthusiasts to AT&T Wireless'
"Edge Sports" channel.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001116/ca_indiqu_.html
http://www.indiqu.com
http://www.attws.com
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