Following their breakthrough agreement with EMI, YouTube has signed a deal with Hearst-Argyle Television.Under the pact, Hearst-Argyle stations will receive a licensing fee whenever content from member stations is viewed on YouTube. It represents the first such deal involving local TV stations, andshows the way YouTube is being viewed by the media. Hearst-Argyle is a major player in the local television market, owing 29 stations across the U.S., and reaching almost 20% of Americanhouseholds. Its stations are associated with all three of the major networks. Company stations from Boston, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and elsewhere will begin posting content on YouTube to dedicatedchannels on YouTube. “We’d been looking for a way to expand our footprint online and rapidly expand into new markets,” said Terry Mackin of Hearst-Argyle. “With this deal,we’re really trying to say this station group is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” YouTube and Hearst-Argyle will split revenue from the content, but the percentages haven’t beendisclosed, and the two companies have yet to decide when ads will be aired within the content. It’s a major step as an old media force signs up to new media, and a sign that YouTube iseager to play ball with established media companies to increase its content.
Tag Archive: Sacramento
YouTube Inks Deal With Local TV Giant
Yahoo and CBS Ink Local News Video Deal
If you think your quirky local TV anchor has the stuff to become an Internet celebrity…he or she might just have gotten their change. In an interesting move, Yahoo and CBS have inked a video syndication agreement to put local news video from 16 CBS-owned stations on the Internet via Yahoo’s enormous Internet presence. The agreement goes into effect October 17th, and is the first time network-owned stations have entered a video-sharing agreement with an Internet news outlet. The venture will be ad-supported, with CBS and Yahoo splitting the revenue; no other financial terms of the deal were disclosed.
MySpace Partners in Darfur Aid Campaign
The words “MySpace” and “genocide” don’t often appear in the same sentence—usually it’s just “stalking” or “school bomb threat”—but today social networking giant MySpace announced a partnership with humanitarian organization Oxfam and nearly two dozen bands to raise awareness of—and funds for—the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region. The Rock for Darfur campaign will feature more than 20 concerts across North America on October 21, online interactive promotions, and a public service announcement featuring actor Samuel L. Jackson which will appear in theaters in front of selected 20th Century Fox films, as well as on cable and online outlets.
Sony Goes Hip Hop to Promote PSP
Sony’s PSP is hitting the road for a cross country promo tour which will start Oct. 28 in Sacramento, CA and finish in New York City in December. Co-headlining the tour, which is also a concert called the PlayStation Presents Breed Love Odyssey Tour, are hip-hop artists Mos Def and Talib Kweli.
These two hip-hop artists, Sony said, will be joined “by an eclectic line-up of up-and-coming hip-hop artists including Pharoahe Monch, K’Naan and Jean Graeâ€. At each stop, fans will get the chance to play with the Playstation Portable and check out its multimedia abilities as well as games.
Verizon Broadband Covers Greater SF Area
Verizon Wireless announced today it has expanded its BroadbandAccess wireless Internet service to the greater San Francisco Bay area, including nine area counties and offering a coverage area extending from Gilroy, CA, in the south to as far north as Healdsburg.
The expansion makes the service, announced in August 2005, the largest broadband wireless in the United States. Verizon claims that BroadbandAccess now covers more than 140 million Americans in 171 markets (which it classifies as cities of more than 100,000 citizens with more than 50 percent coverage) and 68 airports across the U.S. Verizon plans to expand BroadbandAccess in California along the Interstate 80 corridor, which runs from San Francisco toward the state capital Sacramento.
Verizon Intros Wireless Broadband & Video
Verizon Wireless today announced the immediate availability of new wireless services, dubbed BroadbandAccess and V CAST. Both services utilize Verizon’s EV-DO (Evolution Data-Optimized) wireless broadband network, available in 60 major metropolitan markets and 64 airports within the United States. ED-VO is backward-compatible with CDMA, enabling graceful transitions when users leave EV-DO coverage areas.
EarthLink Hooks Up To Wireless Broadband
The partners will sell a cobranded service at speeds of up to 384 kilobits per second or up to 1 megabit per second for $21.95 a month or $29.95 a month, respectively. Digitalpath will provide the connectivity, while EarthLink will bundle in its Web software, such as a pop-up blocker and a spam-filtering tool, the companies said.
The wireless broadband service is expected to launch in Chico, Sacramento and Redding–the Northern California markets already served by Digitalpath. The companies did not say when the service will debut.
Read more at News.com
Intel’s Chipset Has Built-in Wi-Fi Router
One of its more intriguing features will be a built-in Wi-Fi router. Rather than buying and installing a separate router to set up a home wireless network, users can plug their Internet cable into the back of the PC and the computer acts as its own router, linking up with other wireless devices in the house, said Bill Leszinske, marketing and planning director for Intel’s digital home initiative.
He said that will allow people to set up their own home networks with about four clicks of a mouse button, much simpler than the procedure involved when installing a separate router.
Broadband To Dominate In Large U.S. Markets
From comScore’s press release:
comScore’s research revealed that San Diego has become the first metropolitan market in which a majority of Internet users connected to the Web through a broadband connection rather than a narrowband service. Further, the analysis found that among the largest 50 markets, San Diego, Boston and New York led the nation in the usage of broadband connections.
Comcast sets sights on DVR market
But the devices, which record shows onto a computer-style hard disk and allow individuals to pause and rewind live television, have been slow to win the hearts and dollars of consumers despite a cultlike devotion.
On the market since 1999, only 3.8 million of the devices will be in U.S. households by the end of this year, according to the Yankee Group, compared with more than 90 million VCRs.
That may soon change, experts say.
By the end of the year, Comcast Corp. will begin providing Sacramento, Roseville and Stockton customers with a cable box that includes a built-in DVR for $9.95 a month.
