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CBS Reups Les Moonves Through 2015 BENTONVILLE, Ark., Feb. 22, 2010 -- Walmart announced today a definitive agreement to acquire VUDU, Inc., a leading provider of digital technologies and services that enable the delivery of entertainment content directly to broadband high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players. The deal is expected to close within the next few weeks.
VUDU is a revolutionary service, built into a growing number of broadband-ready TVs and Blu-ray players, that delivers instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows directly through the television. Customers with broadband Internet access and an Internet-ready TV or Blu-ray player can rent or purchase movies, typically in high-definition, without needing a connected computer or cable/satellite service. New movies and features will be added continually, enabling customers to enjoy a product that continues to become more robust long after they have left the store.
"The real winner here is the customer," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman for Walmart. "Combining VUDU's unique digital technology and service with Walmart's retail expertise and scale will provide customers with unprecedented access to home entertainment options as they migrate to a digital environment."
VUDU has licensing agreements with almost every major movie studio and dozens of independent and international distributors to offer approximately 16,000 movies, including the largest 1080p library of video on-demand movies available anywhere. Via their broadband Internet connection, users have the ability to rent or buy titles and begin viewing them instantly.
VUDU will continue developing entertainment and information delivery solutions such as VUDU Apps, a platform that delivers hundreds of streaming Internet
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Beverly Hills, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 scientific and technical achievements represented by 46 individual award recipients will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation at The Beverly Wilshire on February 20, 2010.
There's no announcement by SAG, but Ken Howard in his capacity as the new Screen Actors Guild president is scheduled to speak at the 2010 International CES, the world's largest consumer tech tradeshow which promotes and interacts with the products and technologies shaping the consumer technology world. This year's runs January 7-10 in Las Vegas. Howard will hold forth at CES' UpNext, a new conference program "focused on ideas and strategies for producing, promoting and profiting from media content". Hmm, I wonder what he'll say about SAG's New Media contract with the studios/networks that Howard's SAG National Majority didn't bother to negotiate in the last go-round. 
TiVo just issued this statement regarding the contempt sanctions ordered by the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, in the lawsuit against EchoStar and Dish: "We are pleased by the Court's ruling to impose contempt sanctions of approximately $200 million against EchoStar for its continued violation of a Court-ordered permanent injunction, and to award TiVo its attorney fees and costs incurred during the contempt proceedings. This brings total damages and sanctions in this case to approximately $400 million through July 1, 2009, plus attorney fees, and is exclusive of potential further damages and sanctions. Additionally, we are pleased that the Court 'will seriously entertain the award of enhanced sanctions' if 'EchoStar is unsuccessful on appeal and nevertheless continues to disregard this Court's orders.' We are confident that this ruling brings us closer to final resolution."
Which is why I can't help thinking that Hollywood and its many partners in this might have been more forthcoming if it had the Screen Actors Guild contract behind it. After all, Big Media wouldn't want to give anyone the impression that they've got New Media figured out, would they? "The DECE guy basically said 'stay tuned' since they're not ready yet," my source says. "How it's taking longer to figure everything out and they're still working on format standardization, distribution, interoperability, etc." One insider did glean for me that DECE's so-called "digital locker" will not actually store content but rather just be an online clearinghouse for rights. So if you purchase the right to a movie download from Best Buy, then your purchase information would be held in this digital locker, allowing you to access your content (by streaming and/or download) at your convenience. But that's all the info available now. 
"Some of the other panelists pressed the DECE guy several times on a timeline but he wouldn't give one. The gist of it is that when they announce they want to be fully ready since they know that they'll be compared to Apple/iTunes right out of the gate. The DECE guy wouldn't ... 
(Remember how NBC yanked its content from iTunes upset with the deal it was getting from Apple, only to come crawling back with only a marginally better deal even after NBC launched Hulu?) Of course, the only major studio 
but already the 211 million viewers have surpassed the 209 million from the previously record-setting 1996 Atlanta Games. Here's the asterisk, though: this statistic doesn't account for the fact that there are more people and more televisions nowadays. So don't take it all that seriously even though it sure sounds swell. Meanwhile, think about what a lost promotional opportunity this was for NBC Universal because its fall primetime schedule is a wasteland when it comes to both quantity and quality of new shows and specials. (How pathetic that Christian Slater's lame "my evil twin is me" series was all that NBC had to market over and over ad nauseum during the games. It's already clear that Jeff Zucker's brilliant idea to save money by killing pilot season backfired big-time, and NBC will wind up in 4th place yet again.) Still, at a time when U.S. networks even have trouble attracting dougle-digit Nielsen ratings for shows, 
the Olympics is a big reminder that eyeballs and not just demographics do matter to advertisers. NBC reached a record $1 billion in ad sales before the start of this Olympics, and pulled in another $25 million after the games began. Which is why next time around NBC ... 
Its client Derrick Rose (pictured above), the freshman point guard for the Memphis Tigers, was the No. 1 pick and went to the Chicago Bulls, his hometown team. The others were Russell Westbrook, sophomore guard UCLA (4th pick; Seattle Supersonics); Danilo Gallinari, forward Italy (6th pick; New York Knicks); D.J. Augustin, sophomore guard University of Texas (9th pick; Charlotte Bobcats); Brook Lopez, sophomore center Stanford Cardinal (10th pick; New Jersey Nets); Anthony Randolph, freshman forward Louisiana State University (14th pick; Golden State Warriors); and Robin Lopez, sophomore forward Stanford Cardinal (15th pick; Phoenix Suns). 
FRIDAY UPDATE: I just heard from a knowledgeable source that the Mark Burnett-IMG deal may be as rich as $500 million -- $250M upfront, the rest earned out...
whose Wall Street private equity firm Forstmann Little back in 2004 acquired IMG which was founded by his legendary friend Mark McCormack. Forstmann keeps looking for Tinseltown deals so when the LBO prince was spotted having lunch in as public a venue as NYC's Michael's a month ago, it sparked that rumor about Burnett starting his own network. 
Plus, remember that last September Teddy brought HBO's fired Chris Albrecht to IMG as the president of global media and IMG entertainment, made him a special limited partner in Forstmann Little, and gave him a $250 million fund for showbiz content investments. It'll be interesting to see how much bigger Burnett's deal will be. And here's why IMG considers him so valuable: I'm told that, at a Beverly Hills entertainment conference just ... 
while dissing both sides behind the WGA strike. ) No, what really amuses me is that while the people running the parent companies play at all things Internet, the guys back in Hollywood running the offspring networks and studios are tech-challenged.
On yet another day when the stock market is tanking comes this Wall Street play: Time Warner announced that it's agreed on a plan to separate from Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 U.S. cable TV service provider. The move, which had been expected, is being billed in news reports as a chance for the companies to have more flexibility to compete in their respective fields and give investors a better choice how to allocate their assets. But, c'mon: a fat dividend for TWX and additional debt for TWC? Which side would you like to be on? And to think, it was Gerry Levin's cable play that got him the top spot at the company in the first place oh those many years ago. Of course, his successor Dick Parsons should have divorced cable but didn't have the balls. 
So again it falls to Parsons' successor TW boss Jeff Bewkes to do all the unpopular heavy lifting: he said today that, among other details of the transaction, Time Warner Cable will declare a dividend of $10.9 billion, of which Time Warner Inc. will receive $9.25 billion. Time Warner will distribute its stake in Time Warner Cable to TWX holders. and Time Warner Cable will have a single class of stock when the deal is done. I think TWC deserved a better divorce lawyer. 
EXCLUSIVE: Tory Metzger, one of the top motion picture agents at CAA, is leaving to head up the film division at Media Rights Capital, the leading independent film, television and digital studio and financing arm. 
At CAA, Metzger represented Tom Cruise, Ang Lee, Cameron Crowe, Spike Jonze, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, Peter Hedges, Callie Khouri, Nicole Holofcener, James Shamus, John Wells, Danny DeVito. Metzger began her career in Hollywood as a development executive and then joined United Talent Agency for two years before moving to CAA in 1992. Needless to say, there's now a feeding frenzy among rival tenpercenteries for her clients, but CAA does already have teams in place. MRC is owned by advertising agency WPP, AT&T, Goldman Sachs and Endeavor agency, one of CAA's strongest rivals. Though Endeavor has only a small ownership position, it's perceived to have big ties to MRC, whose co-CEO Modi Wiczyk is a former Endeavor agent. 
After 2 straight years of 
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