Disney Pays $763 Million for Social Games
Posted by Steve Fravel on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 · 
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According to observers, the social gaming business is booming. Disney’s initial payment of $563.2 million places the Walt Disney Co. squarely into social gaming as the largest Hollywood operator. The deal is reportedly structured to include additional payments of nearly $200 million should Playdom achieve significant undisclosed growth benchmarks.
The concept uses simple games that include ”virtual retail” opportunities for players to purchase everything from clothing and spa visits to refreshments for their game characters. Playdom is one of a group of game developers that are part of the rapid expansion of social game growth in network environments like Facebook.
NY Times Profiles ‘Big TV Brawls’
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, July 12, 2010 · ·
The New York Times published an interesting article yesterday which highlights the escalating programming war between content providers and carriers – and the simultaneous conflict for subscriber eye balls between telcos and cable providers.
Over the weekend Verizon took aim at Time Warner Cable, noting that Time Warner’s contract with Disney – supplier of ESPN, ABC and the Disney Channel – will expire on September 2. Verizon ran two high-profile ads which urged customers to preemptively switch to Verizon’s FiOS service to retain programming. Read more
Dish Network Drops 4 HD Channels
Posted by Steve Fravel on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 · ·
In a dispute with Disney and ESPN, Dish Network had dropped Disney Channel HD, Disney XD HD, ABC Family HD and ESPNNews HD. According to a report filed in MultiChannel News, Dish Network claims that proposed carriage fees for the four channels are too high. Disney has countered with the assertion that Dish Network does not have “a deal in place” to support distribution of the four channels.
Dish Network noted in the article that the company recently began offering all its customers, “HD Free for Life.” Dish Network has indicated that they will continue to negotiate with the Walt Disney companies until an agreeable rate can be reached. Continuation of the HD Free for Life arrangement is dependant on low-cost carriage fees, according to Dish Network.
Cablevision and Disney Reach Tentative Agreement
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, March 8, 2010 · ·
Cablevision and the Walt Disney Co. engaged in a very public battle this past weekend over retransmission fees. The two media giants reached a tentative truce yesterday evening, just after the start of the Oscars.
Early Sunday morning, Disney pulled its ABC station from Cablevision, a hard-line tactic intended to force Cablevision to negotiate and settle the contract dispute or risk stranding its three million cable customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut without access to the Academy Awards.
The two companies finally found some common ground at 8:44 p.m. Eastern time, the same time that the signal for the local ABC station was restored to Cablevision’s customers. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, although people familiar with the matter said the terms were still quite tentative.
Disney to Charge for Online Content via Subscriptions
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, July 27, 2009 · ·
Disney plans to offer a broad array of its content, including movies, TV shows and games, online to those willing to pay for it — possibly at a single Web site that requires a subscription, president and CEO Robert Iger said Wednesday.
“The notion of going online at some point as a subscribe-to, robust entertainment experience is pretty attractive to us,” Iger said. “We are developing such an experience.” Read more
AT&T Launches In-Car Entertainment Platform
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, June 8, 2009 · ·
In early June, AT&T announced the nationwide launch of its in-car entertainment platform, AT&T CruiseCast. AT&T is partnering with Broadcasting Corp. (RBC) to offer the service which utilizes satellite technology to overcome line-of-sight obstacles.
Subscribers now will have access to 42 channels — 22 broadcast video and 20 radio — available on their existing rear-seat entertainment systems. Programming includes a variety of channels including CNN Mobile, MSNBC, Disney, Discovery and ESPN Mobile. Read more
