AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

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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The Hollywood Reporter
Focus on adult-oriented, alternative, subversive content
The creators of HBO’s “Taxicab Confessions” have relaunched the video site CrushedPlanet.com with a focus on subversive, alternative and adult-oriented content.
Curated by Joe and Harry Gantz, the site features 15 channels with videos covering sexuality, relationships, the environment and other topics told through comedy, animation and documentary genres. [...]

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The Los Angeles Times
The online entertainment store reels in one of the last holdouts among major channels, agreeing to a rare pricing concession to land hit shows like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City” and “The Wire.”
Apple Inc. has scooped up Time Warner Inc.’s HBO to feed television shows to its online iTunes store, reeling [...]

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The Wall Street Journal
A year ago, Chris Albrecht was on the receiving end of a very public dismissal from a very lofty perch in the entertainment world.
After a night of heavy drinking in Las Vegas, the longtime creative chief of Time Warner Inc.’s HBO and driving force behind the likes of “The Sopranos” and “Sex [...]

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HBO hails ‘Taxi’
Network picks up TV rights to documentary

HBO has picked up pay TV rights to the controversial Oscar-nommed doc “Taxi to the Dark Side,” after Discovery Channel opted to hold off from running it.
The pay cabler negotiated with Discovery Communications to assume the first TV run of the doc, which will bow on HBO [...]

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HBO breaks with tradition - Variety
Great packaging still secures filmmaker deals
If HBO is known as the belle of the docu ball, prexy Sheila Nevins is the undisputed queen of the castle, a tastemaker who comes to fests like Sundance not to ogle, not to acquire, but to inspire envy.
“We rarely buy during the festival. [...]

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HBO’s Web Service to Offer Video Downloads - The Wall Street Journal
Time Warner Inc.’s HBO is testing a new online-video service that would let its subscribers watch the pay-cable network’s shows on their computers — or download them to watch on the road.
HBO is starting a trial of the service, called HBO Broadband, in Wisconsin [...]

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HBO’s ‘Wire’ plugs in VOD vignettes - The Hollywood Reporter
“The Wire” is going back in time to promote its future.
The critically acclaimed HBO series has given a multiplatform launch to three filmed shorts produced by “Wire” creator David Simon that explore the backstories of some its characters.
The three “prequels” already have launched on Amazon.com [...]

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