AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Disney delays Stage 9 - The Hollywood Reporter
Disney’s ABC has indefinitely postponed the debut of a unit charged with launching original online series.
The unit, known as Stage 9, planned to distribute its first offering in February with one of four shortform episodic programs scheduled to roll out this year. A Disney spokeswoman declined comment.
Disney isn’t [...]

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Over the coming three months, ABC.com will be streaming mini-webisodes of the hit show Lost that add more details to the plot and help fill in backstory. As the NYT reports, these episodes, dubbed “Lost: Missing Pieces”, were developed under a special agreement between the studio and the WGA that addresses many of the complaints [...]

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Questions for Michael Eisner–The Media Mogul — NY Times Sunday Magazine
As the former C.E.O. of Disney and the founder of a privately held company that invests in the digital future, you were recently speaking at a conference when you used the words “stupid” and “insanity” to describe the Writers Guild strike. Can you explain? What [...]

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Hollywood Schmoozer Meets Internet Geek — LA Weekly
Agents 2.0: The new generation of dealmakers at UTA Online
By GENDY ALIMURUNG
One day not long ago, three best friends from a Berkeley suburb pick up a video camera and film themselves acting stupid in their parents’ living room. They crank out the videos and post them on the [...]

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Reelz rolls out latenight show
‘Dailies’ to air weeknights, also on Variety — Daily Variety
Movie-centric network ReelzChannel is expanding its program day, adding an edition of its signature “Dailies” program to latenight.
“Dailies Late Night” will air weeknights at 11:30 p.m. on the East and West Coasts starting Monday. Show will be a slightly reworked version of [...]

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Star commits to ‘Girlfriends’ from YouTube - The Hollywood Reporter
“Sex and the City” creator Darren Star has teamed with CBS to develop a comedy based on the Web series “We Need Girlfriends.”
The network has handed out a script commitment to the project, which would be written by Steven Tsapelas, Angel Acevedo and Brian Amyot, [...]

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