AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Discovery’s Got a New Manager, a New Brand and a New Ad Model - Ad Age
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The times they are a-changin’ for Discovery. It’s got a new general manager, a new name for one of its networks and new ad model.
Jane Root, president-general manager of Discovery Channel and the Science Channel, left [...]

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UTA adds Vuze to digital stable

UTA has signed Vuze, a player in the nascent IPTV business, to its roster of digital media clients.
In its bid to differentiate from such competing peer-to-peer applications as Joost and Babelgum, Vuze hopes the talent agency will help lure independent content producers to supplement the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company’s stable [...]

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Studios Unveil DVD Copying Schemes; Aim To Provide Piracy Alternative — paid content
The good news: Movie studios recognize that strict DRM on DVDs helps make piracy and illegal downloading an attractive route for consumers so various schemes are now being rolled out to let users copy their DVDs onto multiple devices, including PCs and handheld [...]

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Amway Adds Entertainment to Product Line
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19 — Amway, the door-to-door peddler of vitamins and soap, wants to reinvent how Hollywood sells entertainment.
Stephanie Diani for The New York Times
The owners of the multilevel marketing company are pouring millions of dollars into a new online store called Fanista (pronounced fa-NEE-sta). The Web [...]

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Digital media won’t be a sideshow in the future - The Los Angeles Times
Downloading and other Internet-based modes are likely to account for a much larger share of the industry’s revenue.
Today’s puny sales of movie and TV downloads makes one wonder: Why are striking members of the Writers Guild of America so intent on getting [...]

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