ITV

Tag: PHOENIX

  • Porn star, publisher “get hot” over reality show

    Porn star, publisher “get hot” over reality show

    MUMBAI: Things aren’t exactly cosy between the sheets for American porn star Jenna Jameson and New York publisher Judith Regan. Jameson’s book How to Make Love Like a Porn Star was a bestseller for Reagan.

    However, now Jameson has asked a federal judge in Phoenix to block publisher Judith Regan’s claim to a financial stake in a reality TV deal.

    Reagan has filed a countersuit that claims that Jameson signed an agreement last April giving Regan Media the exclusive right to negotiate with TV networks on any project involving Jameson.

    The complaints will be heard in Phoenix Federal Court, near Jameson’s home. Regan is preparing to move her Regan Books imprint to Hollywood in the hope of building a bigger TV and movie operation.

    Jameson’s real name is Jenna Massoli. Jameson says in court papers that her husband, John Grdina, negotiated for months with A&E – before last April – to do a reality series based on her everyday life.

    Regan’s counter suit says that the 2004 agreement with Jameson gives Regan Media the exclusive rights to negotiate with TV networks for a reality show. The countersuit says that Jameson violated the agreement by negotiating a contract with A&E without Regan Media.

  • 21 arrested in satellite TV scam in US

    21 arrested in satellite TV scam in US

    MUMBAI: Phoenix Maricopa County sheriff’s investigators arrested 21 people Thursday in connection with a scam to steal satellite television services.

    Working with DIRECTV officials, investigators lured the suspects to a store in Phoenix and sold them $50 access cards designed to steal programming, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is quoted as saying. They purchased the cards despite being advised that they were illegal.

    The suspects are accused of stealing $5,000 per month of programming, say reports.

  • Crown Media posts $ 51 m net revenue for Q3 ’03

    Crown Media posts $ 51 m net revenue for Q3 ’03

    MUMBAI: Crown Media, the parent company of Hallmark in India, has posted net revenues of $ 51 million in the third quarter of 2003, 27 per cent over that of last year’s corresponding figure.
     

    Advertising revenues for the quarter totaled $20.8 million, a hike of 15 per cent from Q3 2002, reflecting increased distribution, an enhanced programming schedule, higher ratings for the channels and higher advertising rates, specifically in the US and the United Kingdom. For the nine months ended 30 September 2003, revenues jumped 16 per cent to $138.4 million, from $118.9 million for the prior year period. Year-to-date ad revenues showed a climb of 30 per cent to $66.8 million, from $51.6 million in the first nine months of 2002, according to a company release.

    Subscriber fee revenue in the third quarter increased four per cent to $17.5 million, from $16.9 million in the prior year’s quarter, as a result of increased distribution of the channel internationally. Licensing fees for the Crown Media library increased to $12.6 million during the quarter, from $5.0 million in the prior year’s quarter, due to increased sales and the timing of license period start dates.

    While the channel may still be struggling to find an increasing viewer base in India, Hallmark Channel subscribers increased 16 to 111.2 million worldwide as of 30 September 2003, from 95.7 million subscribers as of last year. The channel ended the quarter with 54.6 million subscribers in the United States and 56.6 million international subscribers across 122 countries, the release claims.

    The US channel expand its reach in the third quarter with new launches in Phoenix, Arizona; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; and several markets in Hawaii. The channel has added 1.4 million new subscribers on Time Warner systems alone in 2003, the release says. With the recent announcement of an affiliation agreement with Comcast, the US channel now has a long-term agreement with every major cable and satellite distributor in the country, accounting for nearly 95 per cent of domestic cable and satellite TV homes.

    Hallmark Channel US again ranked number one in year-to-year growth in total day household delivery among the 50 ad-supported cable networks, the release says. The channel more than doubled its year-to-year delivery of households in total day and tied its all time high household rating in both total day and prime time for the third quarter of 2003 as compared to 2002. The company claims that original programming and the addition of several classic series in the US drove ratings and expanded the demographics of the viewing audience.

    International markets continued to sustain their positive momentum for 2003. The UK channel delivered its highest ratings to date for the third quarter and September, with a 50 per cent increase in ratings for September 2003 as compared to last year. The UK channel was the fourth most-watched channel among women and fifth among all adults. Hallmark Channel has moved up in its top ten ranking at the end of September in several other countries, including Poland, South Africa and the Czech Republic, the release says.

  • BBC Urdu’s new series to examine US post 9/11

    LONDON: BBC Urdu is launching a 10-part weekly series Uncle Sam ka Des (The Land of Uncle Sam) starting on 10 August 2003. The main focus of the series is to take a closer look at how the United States has changed in the two years since 9/11.
    The show looks at how Pakistani immigrants from rich professionals in Houston to struggling taxi drivers of New York – feel about their adopted country and how they are coping with the new realities.
    The series looks at the US’ history with special reference to native Americans, issues of race and poverty and the apparent growing influence of religion in American society. Interviews for the series were conducted over a three week period in June 2003 in Boston, New York, Washington DC, Phoenix and Houston.
    Most of the Pakistanis interviewed said they had been investigated by the FBI at some point. Physicist and former consultant at NASA’s Johnson Space Center Dr Bashir Ahmed Saeed said, “They showed up at my office one day and asked questions for 90 minutes on nuclear technology and my views on Al-Qaeda.” Interestingly he is a green card holder and has been living in the US for over 30 years.
    Therefore it is not surprising to note that many economic migrants, living mostly in the New York area, complained of worse treatment. One of them claims that earlier this year, FBI agents broke into the houses of a number of suspected illegal immigrants.
    In the series it also comes out that thousands of people were detained and then denied access to their lawyers. Many have either been deported or had to be released after months of unlawful detention because the authorities could not find anything against them.
    Pakistan’s Honorary Counsel General in Boston for 27 years Barry Hoffman noted that, “America has always been a country of immigrants who came here for freedom, liberty and a better future,” remarked Barry Hoffman. But the way present administration has targeted a particular group of immigrants in the name of homeland security, that’s going too far. It’s un-American!”
    Responding to allegations of an anti-Muslim bias, US officials point out that those who carried out the 9/11 attacks did slip through the immigration network, came from a particular region and claimed to be acting in the name of a particular religion.

  • Adsertion, Limelight Networks team for radio broadcasts online

    PHOENIX : Limelight Networks which claims to be the price-performance leader in IP transport services, has announced a new agreement with Adsertion Technologies the leading provider of targeted advertisement insertion technology. This new alliance provides an all-in-one Internet broadcast package that enables terrestrial radio stations to expand audiences and provide a new revenue source by extending broadcasts to the Internet. The alliance also creates a turnkey way for Internet-only broadcasters to lower delivery costs as well as capture online advertising revenues.

    Competition from digital, satellite and Internet-only radio stations is challenging many terrestrial radio stations to expand their audience base via Web transmissions. Stations have discovered that adding Internet broadcast capabilities can require new royalty payments, investments in technology, and present unique challenges since radio stations are typically not allowed to retransmit advertisements from their terrestrial broadcasts online.

    Adsertion Technologies provides technology that offers truly seamless ad insertion that can be achieved without cumbersome downloads of a player to the users’ PC. Adserstion’s solutions are compatible with various platforms including Windows NT and Macintosh. The company’s proprietary audience tracking and reporting technology assists in generating reports now required as a result of recent changes in the law.

    Improving upon industry-standard media-encoding technology (Windows Media and Real), Adsertion allows traditional and Internet broadcasters to create new ad inventory with Adsertion’s interactive, targeted flash-media advertising. Adsertion targets and delivers interactive gateway/channel start and in-stream advertisements within the audio broadcast, thus avoiding end-user downloads and minimizing audio level fluctuations and “ad firing” delays. This not only provides broadcasters with increased ad inventory, but also enables advertisers to reach their target audience with greater accuracy. Adsertion couples the interactive flash-media ad insertion with Limelight Networks’ distributed streaming services from multiple delivery locations around the Internet.

    Limelight Network’s innovative IP Transport solutions utilise the Edge of the Internet to improve the delivery of rich media. The EdgePrism family of products enables customers to deliver an extraordinary Internet experience while controlling costs and simplifying complexity. The robust technology behind Limelight Networks installs quickly and provides customers with the most cost-effective method of adding richer, more engaging features to their Web sites without change to existing Web server code.

    Limelight Networks claims that its technology is becoming the first choice for the Internet radio space. The combination of price/performance and proven track record enable broadcasters to expand their audience and reduce delivery costs and infrastructure complexity. The company claims to be delivering nearly half of the traffic in terms of hours listened for the top 10 Internet radio networks according to Measurecast reports. The company is seeing great momentum in this space, where controlling costs is critical.

    Adsertion states that its proven technology provides truly seamless ad integration. This means that customers avoid truncated ads, dead air space, and media player downloads due to constant revisions. Adsertion’s patent pending techniques accommodate the chaotic environment associated with traditional radio stations providing ad transitions that are imperceptible from a listener perspective.