AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

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Disney (NYSE: DIS) is merging its digital media unit Walt Disney Internet Group with its video gaming unit Disney Interactive Studios (DIS), into a new unit called Disney Interactive Media Group, we have learned. This new unit will be led by Steve Wadsworth, who was the president of WDIG prior to this. According to an [...]

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Silicon Alley Insider
Sony (SNE) announced its first-ever original series for the PlayStation, a video series about gaming produced by Future US (publisher of PlayStation: The Official Magazine). The series is called “Qore” and will be hosted by sorta-Web-celeb Veronica Belmont. Viewers will also be able to download and play mini-games. (And as commenter Cruiz Dwyer [...]

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Mashable
There is a rumor buzzing around Blog Hogwarts, Pottersphere and Snitch Seeker, three Harry Potter-focused news and forum sites, that Warner Brothers is working on an MMORPG for Harry Potter.
According to these fan-sites, Warner Brothers has said:
The notion of creating a Harry Potter multi-player online role playing game is something that we’ve been discussing at [...]

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Sir Howard Stringer is doing a star turn as chief salesman for Sony (NYSE: SNE). One of his top messages: Playstation 3, which was “sort of on life support before” is doing very well now. One reason: “It has a life beyond that of the video game.” The PS3 is a server, the Playstation [...]

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Advertising Age
Third Act to Produce Ideas for Brands and Manage Distribution Strategies
Digitas is formally getting into the branded-content game with the launch of a new offering called The Third Act.
Third Act will develop and produce branded-content ideas and manage distribution strategies for the content. It sits under the umbrella of Digitas, part of [...]

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The Wall Street Journal
Sports Illustrated Group has reached an agreement with Citizen Sports Inc. to develop and promote sports-related Web content, including a fantasy-football game that will be played on the Facebook Inc. Web site.
The move is, in part, an admission by the iconic sports brand, owned by the Time Inc. division of Time Warner [...]

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Conde Nast Portfolio
Activision C.E.O. Bobby Kotick bought Guitar Hero and became a star. But will competitors’ aggressive moves—like Electronic Arts’ hostile bid for Take-Two—knock him on his ax?
In 1990, Bobby Kotick bought 25 percent of failing videogame maker Activision for $440,000, with financing from his mentor, casino king Steve Wynn. Since then, the company has [...]

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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 [...]

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BusinessWeek
Owners of the game system will be able to stream the last seven days worth of TV shows with the broadcaster’s iPlayer online service
The BBC has announced its iPlayer online TV catch-up service is being made available for the Nintendo Wii.
Wii owners will be able to stream the last seven days of BBC shows on [...]

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The Wall Street Journal
Nokia Corp. is counting on people such as Rita El Khoury, who splurged on the Finnish phone maker’s €430 ($674) N81 handset so she could be an early user of the company’s N-Gage Internet service platform for videogames.
Nokia wants to draw customers to its feature-rich phones, like the Nokia N95 8GB, a [...]

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