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CBS partners with community sites, social application providers

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cbs.jpgCBS Interactive announced that it is partnering with leading community-building websites and social application providers to add greater user functionality to the CBS Audience Network. The announcement includes deals with new companies as well as expanded relationships with existing CBS Audience Network partners. Through these online properties and social application providers, users can easily incorporate CBS clips into their profiles, websites, blogs, widgets, wikis, and community pages. This enables them to discover and personalize CBS content and to use it to communicate with others. At the same time, CBS gains promotional value online while learning about its audience.

“Today, we are taking the CBS Audience Network directly to the user,” said Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive. “In launching the CBS Audience Network we solidified our position as the most widely distributed professional content provider on the Web thanks to our great video distribution partners. We now want to empower our audience to be creative and deepen their experience with our content by allowing them to share and embed CBS-provided clips to their blogs, wikis, widgets, community sites and whatever else gets thrown our way. We are delighted to have so many quality partners — established and start ups — helping to bring CBS content to the online community.”

New online partners adding increased functionality to CBS Audience Network include: Automattic, Clearspring, DAVE Networks, Goowy Media, Meebo, MeeVee, MuseStorm, Ning, RockYou!, Slide, VideoEgg, Voxant, and vSocial. [Read more…]

Originally posted on May 24, 2007 @ 4:28 pm

Amazon.com acquires Brilliance Audio

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brilliance.jpgOnline retailer Amazon.com announced that it has acquired Brilliance Audio, the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the United States. The acquisition will enable Amazon to work closely with the book publishing community to further expand the number of books produced in audio format and provide customers with an even greater selection of audiobooks to find, discover and buy.

Amazon.com subsidiary CustomFlix also announced that it now supports both standard CD and MP3-CD audiobook formats via its Disc on Demand service. CustomFlix complements the acquisition of Brilliance Audio by providing publishers and authors an easy and economical way to introduce new titles on an inventory-free basis, or to keep physical formats of audiobook titles available that may otherwise go out of production.

“Brilliance Audio has been delighting customers for more than two decades with their world-class audiobook capabilities,” said Greg Greeley, vice president of books at Amazon.com. “With this acquisition we can make it more efficient for authors and book publishers of all sizes to expand the number of titles produced in increasingly popular audio formats, offering customers a much broader selection.”

Originally posted on May 23, 2007 @ 11:03 am

Somagirls.tv launched

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SomagirlsSoma Management LLC, a digital media and entertainment company that focuses on original lifestyle content for young girls and women, announced the launch of Somagirls.tv. Somagirls.tv offers young women of diverse backgrounds and interests a variety of online media offerings, including branded video channels, covering topics such as health, beauty, travel, fashion, modeling, celebrity news and entertainment.

Through the use of interactive online video, somagirls.tv provides young women with a vehicle which encourages positive self-image and inspires them to live their dreams. “Our mission is to deliver a full and meaningful experience that enriches young women’s lives,” said E.C. Morgan, CEO and President, Soma Management. “Also, as consumers move from broad reaching destinations like MySpace, to more niche destinations, somagirls.tv gives advertisers and content providers the means to reach a specific demographic and directly appeal to their specific interest or lifestyle.”

International distribution partners include Mediazone, BitTorrent, Hutch Telecom, BT Vision, Oasys Mobile and Whyville. Other partners include Doubleclick and YuMe Corp, which allows advertising across somagirls.tv multiplatform content.

Originally posted on May 22, 2007 @ 4:24 pm

Illegal downloading among youth drops

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The results of a recent nationwide survey released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) show that illegal downloading of digital copyrighted works by youth (ages 8 to 18) has dropped by 24 percent in the last three years. The survey, first conducted in 2004, indicated that 60 percent of survey participants reported downloading software, music, movies, or games without paying for it; in 2006 the percentage of those who downloaded without paying dropped to 43 percent; and in 2007 the percentage decreased to 36 percent. Youth report that parental oversight is a significant motivator and key influencing factor in their online behavior.

When the young survey participants were asked what worries them about downloading digital copyrighted works, such as software, music, movies or games, from the Internet without paying, the top responses were fear of accidentally downloading a computer virus (62 percent), getting into legal trouble (52 percent) and accidentally downloading spyware (51 percent). Fear of getting in trouble with parents ranked fourth at (48 percent), increasing from 40 percent in 2006. [Read more…]

Originally posted on May 23, 2007 @ 10:46 am

GlobalTec launches first online TV network dedicated to stock traders

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wtv.jpgDallas-based GlobalTec Solutions is joining the online TV revolution by launching the first online TV network featuring 12 hours of live, in-the-market programming every trading day.
 
Dubbed as Wizetrade TV, the subscription-based online TV network allows viewers to call or e-mail their stock picks to have them analyzed on-air by professional traders-turned-teachers, several of whom began trading in the pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade.  The network will also serve as a public platform for traders looking to swap trading strategies on-air with fellow traders.
 
“Our aim with Wizetrade TV is to take the online trading experience to a different level,” said John Dankovchik, president of GlobalTec.  “Where other traditional financial networks offer broad coverage of the markets, Wizetrade TV focuses exclusively on the technical analysis of the trades our viewers are currently engaged in, or are considering engaging into.  As investors continue to rely more heavily on their PC for their trades as opposed to the traditional bricks and mortar of a broker, it only seemed natural to create this type of programming to assist our viewers.”

Originally posted on May 21, 2007 @ 3:00 pm