AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Variety
Exec named VP of marketing and content
MySpace has upped Jeff Berman to prexy of sales and marketing.
In the newly created position, he will work closely with advertisers to develop customized campaigns for the social network’s growing lineup of programming. He reports to CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe.
Formerly, he was exec VP of marketing and content. [...]

[Read more →]

The Wall Street Journal
Viacom, Lionsgate, MGM Set Venture For Fall of 2009
Pay-TV channels HBO, Showtime and Starz are about to get a new competitor in their lucrative and insular world.
Viacom Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Sunday announced a new joint venture to launch a premium channel, scheduled to debut in the [...]

[Read more →]

The Wall Street Journal
Web sites let you donate to charity just by doing searches or clicking on ad banners. And it doesn’t cost you anything.
Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Syed Karim learned early on that with charitable giving, even pennies could make a difference.
With his mother’s encouragement, he and his sister got into the [...]

[Read more →]

The Los Angeles Times
The company is attempting to stage a comeback in digital entertainment distribution
Will the third time be the charm for Sony Corp.?
The entertainment and electronics giant is preparing to launch an online video service through its game console PlayStation 3 as early as this summer, studio executives familiar with the plan say.
The company [...]

[Read more →]

The Los Angeles Times
Lights, Camera, InterAction turns firms’ employees into film crews in team-building exercises.
The idea that Hollywood has something to teach corporate America about good business practices might sound like the inspiration for a new comedy movie.
But that’s the quite serious premise behind Lights, Camera, InterAction. The Los Angeles firm turns groups of employees [...]

[Read more →]

Advertising Age
Agency Will Deploy HP Printing Technology for Other Clients
BBDO’s slogan is “The work. The work. The work” — which now includes working with Hewlett-Packard to improve the way the agency’s clients distribute and track their direct mail, packaging, point-of-sale materials and other marketing collateral.
One part of a new arrangement between HP and BBDO [...]

[Read more →]

Yahoo News
An acclaimed movie producer and the former head of Fox Television Entertainment have built a new kind of studio that taps into an aspiring community of moviemakers on the Web to cultivate the next great talents.
Deepak Nayar, behind such films as “Buena Vista Social Club” and “Bend it Like Beckham,” and Sandy Grushow, the [...]

[Read more →]