AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

At his old jobs — running Paramount, and then Disney — Michael Eisner was paid to pick winners, and he did a very good job. But that track record doesn’t mean much in the world of Web video. Eisner started out on the Web with a hit: With a push from MySpace, and then Veoh [...]

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NewTeeVee
Quarterlife creator Marshall Herskovitz and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, so when I introduced myself to him at the Digital Media Summit in Hollywood, I wasn’t sure if he’d shake my hand or pop me in the face. Turns out Herskovitz was a nice guy and has been very thoughtful — almost meditative — about [...]

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Variety
HBO is getting into bed with Will Ferrell’s FunnyorDie.com Internet vid venture.
Pay cabler has bought a small equity stake in the 2-year-old comedy website and has commissioned 10 half-hours of programming from Funny or Die as part of the deal.
The wide-ranging pact also envisions the two sides partnering on a host of future projects, from [...]

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STOCKHOLM — Culture Minister Brian Mikkelsen will open the Danish Film Institute’s $8.5 million underground vault in Hillerod, north of Copenhagen, home to its library of 6,800 fragile nitrate films, on Thursday. The collection, including classics by helmer Carl Theodor Dreyer and D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance,” will be preserved at a constant temperature of minus 5 [...]

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Disney.com announced today that for the first time ever the site will stream full-length movies online, featuring selections from the Wonderful World of Disney. The films will first air on ABC as part of the network’s weekly Wonderful World of Disney presentation on Saturday nights throughout summer 2008. The full-length films will then be available [...]

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AdAge.com
The worst-kept secret in the media industry is a secret no more: Former Aegis Media chief David Verklin has taken the reins of Project Canoe as its new CEO.
After 30 years on the agency side, the last 10 of which were spent at Aegis, Mr. Verklin has gone from media buyer to media distributor [...]

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New Tee VeeHere’s one take on the Webby nominees announced this week. Follow the links in the post to see the enormous array of sites.

Maybe it’s really old media of me to say this, but if the New York Times says you’re the “Oscars of the Internet,” that’s probably what you are. (Of course, the [...]

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New Tee Vee
Video search company blinkx is expanding into the Internet TV platform space with the launch of BBTV, a hybrid P2P service that promises to combine television watching and web surfing into one experience. That is, if you don’t mind a download, are on a PC and enjoy indie films.
A standout feature of the [...]

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LA Times online.
Sony Pictures Television officially launched C-Spot today, a new web TV channel that will be home to a 13-week season of online comedy. There will be six new scripted shows, one “airing” each day of the week. Going along with the conventional wisdom about online audience-building, C-Spot will play on a [...]

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Wall Street Journal
Civil servant Mark Thompson wants to turn the British Broadcasting Corp. into an empire on which the sun never sets.
To do that, the BBC’s 50-year-old chief executive is determined to get the world to watch more British drama, comedy and news online. His push has required radical job cuts and new business strategies [...]

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