nbc

What Happens to '30 Rock' Jokes Now That Comcast Is Buying NBC?

Noah Robischon — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:45:08 -0500

Hulu's Competitors: The Wild World of Web TV

Dan Macsai — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Partners

MYSPACE, YAHOO, AOL, MSN - Portals that distribute Hulu content on the Hulu player and share revenues.

Outliers

BOXEE - Assembles Web and users' digital content -- but no longer Hulu streams -- in one free application. A potential game changer.

Veoh - Streams mostly clips -- with a few episodes from other sites, including Hulu -- for free.

Can Hulu Save Traditional TV?

Chuck Salter — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Even for Hollywood, where long odds and high stakes are staples of storytelling, the plotline is a doozy: A couple of old business rivals facing the threat of a lifetime agree to put aside their differences and join forces on a half-baked experiment that makes them laughingstocks. (We're thinking Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.) And who do they put in charge? A young guy, a newbie to the biz. He promptly cleans house and hires an even younger guy who's halfway around the globe. These renegades throw out the rule book -- and they pull it off. Their idea kills.

NBC Plans to Pump Up Olympics Audio for Sled-Heads

Erica Westly — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:10:09 -0400

Hardcore luge freaks, are you holding on to your skin-tight unitards? NBC has announced that for its coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, it's firing up surround sound that'll make the luge and bobsled events sound as loud and crisp as NASCAR on Fox.

Strategic vs. Traditional Investors: The Lowdown From a Venture Capital Vet

Paul H. Lee, Senior Vice President, Peacock Equity Fund — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:06:51 -0400

Every so often, I hear an early-stage venture capitalist warn a roomful of entrepreneurs about the pitfalls of taking money from strategic investors. There's too much influence involved or strings attached, or there are misaligned incentives. The end result is usually lower valuations in the next round, lower acquisition price, lower IPO range, etc.

Comcast Denies Reports It's Buying NBC-Universal

Chris Dannen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:51:20 -0400

Will the cast of 30 Rock soon be making fun of a new corporate overlord? M&A bankers for General Electric may have reached a deal Tuesday to sell NBC-Universal to Comcast, reports TheWrap. Both companies have denied any deal.

Andrea Wong Wants to Reinvigorate Lifetime. (Step One: Steal Project Runway)

Danielle Sacks — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:00:00 -0400

If Project Runway had a needlepoint challenge, the show might find itself with an unlikely contestant. "About a year ago, I started needlepointing," confesses Andrea Wong, CEO of Lifetime Networks. She is perched on a chair in her Los Angeles office, wearing a black Yves Saint Laurent pantsuit. "It completely relaxes me." Well, usually. There was that time she was stitching a cushion for her boyfriend. "I was needlepointing while doing conference calls. It practically killed me."

Introducing Guest Blogger Dev Patnaik: Innovation Meets Empathy

Alissa Walker — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:22:44 -0400

If you should need any evidence that Dev Patnaik, the CEO and founder of Jump Associates, is marching to the beat of a different drummer, consider what he does when he's not in the office. Since 1999, Dev has been teaching a popular course at nearby Stanford University called Needfinding. In it, students draw upon methods from anthropology, design research and business planning to discover new insights about ordinary people and create new products for them.

NBC Doesn't Understand Community

David Lidsky — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:31:54 -0400

Hulu Gets 'Lost' With Disney's Equity Stake

Chris Dannen — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:40:51 -0400

Walt Disney Company is taking an equity stake in Hulu.com, the Web's third most popular pit stop for video, according to the AP. The site, originally a joint venture between NBC Universal and Fox parent News Corp, will now have access to hundreds of television episodes and movies from Disney and its ABC network.

Can NBC Brand Itself as the Green Network?

Ariel Schwartz — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:06:36 -0400

Would you watch a TV network just because it is somehow "greener" than the others? NBC Universal is betting on it.

In Only One Year, Hulu Becomes Fourth Largest Video Site in U.S.

Lynne d Johnson — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:33:56 -0400

Brains! That must be the secret to Hulu rocketing up to being the fourth largest video site in the U.S. in February, right? That's what Alec Baldwin told us in this creative Super Bowl ad, which may also have had something to do with the video site's healthy traffic bump last month.

Seven Tiny Tech Stories That Will Be Huge

Chris Dannen — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:30:06 -0400

Progress isn't all breakout products and scientific coups. In fact, some of the most salient indicators of the direction of technology come in re-directions of products and services we use every day. Here are seven subtle changes to the tech landscape that hint of bigger things to come.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Goes All Online

ZillionTV May Be the Set-Top Streaming Box You've Been Looking For

Kit Eaton — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:06:02 -0500

Web-based television content streaming is hot in the news at the moment, courtesy of events like the Hulu-Boxee shut down. And now there's the new ZillionTV set-top box to add to the mix, and it's a pretty interesting little gizmo.

Netflix, the Cable Killer?

Chris Dannen — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:07:37 -0500

Netflix [NFLX] is considering a feature that would stream cable TV to its users. Wait a minute: wasn't Hulu supposed to be the Web's cable-killer?

A 90-Foot Ramp, the East River, and Shaun White: Who Will Win?

Mark Borden — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:18:16 -0500

ComScore Sees the Bigger Picture

Bill Barol — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:45:07 -0500

Tania Yuki
Senior Product Manager, Video Metrix

comScore
> New York, New York

Tania Yuki, 29, works with comScore clients such as CBS, Google, Microsoft, and NBC to gauge who their online video content is actually reaching.

The Business of Being Shaun White [exclusive video]

Mark Borden — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:30:06 -0500

My cover story on Shaun White was bound to take one of two angles. White either has a super shrewd manager directing his business decisions while he floats in his own jet stream—a strong possibility considering the world of star athletes as check cashing product pushers. Or less likely, the 22-year old skate and snowboard phenom runs his own show and employs what I imagined to be an entourage with a brain.

Could White be the architect of the diverse portfolio of companies his brand is aligned with—from HP to Burton to Target? Could he be the one who leads his team and makes the final call when answering the tempting come-on of bogus, yet lucrative partnerships? Given the folly of youth and corporate America’s fat checkbook, it didn’t seem as though a story on Shaun White As Identity Auteur had much of a chance. To the surprise of many around our office, and most likely beyond, it turned out to be true.

College Football's Billions

Fast Company staff — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:30:02 -0500

The 2008-2009 college football postseason kicks off December 20 with the EagleBank Bowl in D.C, the first of 34 Division I bowl games. It may not be the pros, but college ball is posting some big-league numbers.

The College Football economy is worth an estimated yearly $6 BILLION, and in 2007, the 619 SCHOOLS competing in NCAA FOOTBALL tallied a total attendance of 48,751,861.

Apple's "Let's Rock" Event Run-Down

Chris Dannen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:54:48 -0400

Yesterday in San Fransisco, Apple [NASDAQ:AAPL] announced a slew of music-related device and software updates for the iPod and Macintosh. Some are big and some are small, but as a collective whole, the updates are an effective reiteration of why Apple is so strong in the personal music space.

NBC, The Olympics and Online Video

David Mullings — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:43:35 -0400

My experience so far with NBC's video website for Olympic content has been less than stellar and I would not recommend it to anyone - stick to regular television.

The improvements are easy to see and there will be countless blog posts about how they should have done it. Instead of focusing on what they should improve, I want to share my idea for what they should have done in the first place since I think the entire strategy is the old media way of thinking.

Old Media Approach

Who Gets "It"? Most Broadcasting Companies Sound Off and I Shut Down

Alder Crocker — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:44:24 -0400

It's been an accepted practice for many years, but the time has come for broadcast companies and their advertisers to change the "tricks" they play on us TV viewers.

Because they are losing eyeballs and therefore potentially lucrative sales.

I am talking about how most channels increase the volume as soon as the show goes on commercial break. And the increase isn't just a few decibels, it's deafening in many cases.

Hulu: YouTube Killer? No, The Internet's Nick at Nite

April Joyner — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:21:00 -0400