Here’s a handy helper for those following the fate of the Hulu premium online video service, whose noisy efforts to sell itself have gotten a lot of attention of late:

“In preliminary talks” = “hawking itself to one of a half dozen big moneybag tech companies who will visit with Hulu’s bankers and management to see its presentation at Morgan Stanley’s office in Century City in Los Angeles.”

Last Friday, for example, that meant a look-see for Microsoft execs, to show the software giant the story of how paying top dollar for the popular Hulu would be a great investment.

This week, sources said, Yahoo will get the expected gander at the books too, among the other companies targeted by Hulu as part of a sales process in its very early stages.

Among those companies on the short list, sources said, along with Microsoft and Yahoo are: Google, Verizon, AT&T and Amazon.

None of these should come as a surprise, since they all have a big interest in the digital distribution of content business.

Google is perhaps the most interesting and difficult of the group, due to both its massive YouTube unit and the even more massive interest by government regulators about its disturbing massiveness.

Amazon is the company that seems most suited as a Hulu buyer, since it already makes its business selling and distributing content. In addition, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar was a former exec — bringing a certain level of familiarity and presumably much less of the grumpy disgruntlement that he experienced with Hulu’s current media giant owners.

Microsoft seems like the longest shot and least enthusiastic, although it certainly could afford it.

As for Yahoo: Good lord, it needs something sexy to tell weary investors.

Not in the initial round, but other possible acquirers Hulu is targeting: Facebook, Netflix, Samsung and Liberty Media.

And definitely not among those kicking the tires: Disney, News Corp. and Comcast, the trio of partners who own Hulu, along with Providence Equity Partners.

The big question, of course, is whether media-focused Apple — a notorious buyer of almost nothing — would be interested in Hulu.

These blind dates with the best possible buyers will presumably give each insight into Hulu’s business and give Hulu information on what they are looking for.

Sources who have heard the pitch said Hulu is positioning itself as an inevitable competitor to cable, which seems an odd position to take, unless it can get regular access to the kind of top-drawer content that consumers want.

And that will be the most important issue for anyone buying Hulu: The time and terms of rights to the television and movie content on the site, which has been a critical part of its success.

Buyers I have interviewed said Hulu has to offer at least an 18-month license for its content and a pile of rights to hit shows to differentiate itself from competitors.

As Peter Kafka wrote, Hulu buyers would indeed get exclusive content, but with strings attached.

He also noted that the latest content licenses for Hulu’s owner/partners — Disney’s ABC and News Corp.’s Fox — have recently been completed, deals that will stay intact if Hulu is sold.

Unlike Netflix, which has had to pay top dollar for a small pile of premium content while deftly using a large archive of older content to attract subscribers, Hulu’s success has had a lot to do with more access to popular current shows offered by its media giant owners.

Those shows include TV hits such as “The Office” and “Glee.”

That access has become a point of contention with those owners, who have differed with Hulu management about what comes next for the mostly advertising-supported site, even though its slick product has been a clear hit with consumers.

Of course, some speculate that Hulu might not sell at all, just as it never went public as it had said it might do previously. In that case, it will be interesting to see what will become of Hulu once the music stops.

(And, if anyone would like to email me the Hulu presentation or notes on it, please do, so I can formulate a bid myself!)

But, until this deal churns slowly, leakily and loudly forward — let’s enjoy some apt Hulu content. As usual, the fun version of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” by the kids from “Glee” was not available on the site.

Thus, I selected frequent “Glee” guest star Gwyneth Paltrow belting out Joan Jett’s “Do You Wanna Touch Me” on the show, as a good alternate metaphor for the sales process:

As many know, BoomTown is a Belieber.

Which, loosely translated, means I love me some Justin Bieber.

Which is why this video of a woman who looks exactly like him is so obvi compelling. It’s both disturbing and hilarious.

Here’s Dani Shay’s parody of Bieber’s hit song “Baby”:

BoomTown scrambled the All Things Digital jet (aka, United Airlines, Seat 7A) late last night to get up to Microsoft’s big event for its online advertising clients today.

Called “Imagine 2011: Marketing Leadership Summit” and held at its Redmond, Wa. HQ, the two-day gathering is designed to wow peeps by trotting out a spate of strategery concepts those who buy advertising on Microsoft’s various digital offerings from its Bing search service to MSN to Xbox to Windows Phone 7.

Some program topics: “Elsewhere USA,” “Teens Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out” and “Audience Buying Goes Real-Time: True or False?”

Presumably the goal of all this heavy-duty thinkery is to get these marketers to buy more ads from Microsoft by warning them about being left behind on the platform as the train chugs inevitably off to the digital future.

And just in case that doesn’t work, there will be a free concert tonight featuring the hipster band Train for the Imagine 2011 attendees at Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project venue to open those ad wallets.

Hey, Geek Mister: Stop sending all those digital marketing bucks to Google and Facebook and give them to us!

Before a panoply of various social, design and anthropology experts pontificated, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the day with his patented loud and lovable Ed McMahon act, complete with the booming catchphrases.

Hey-Yo!

“You have to move forward or die!” (About the Web.)

“If you wanna get big, you have to think big!” (About the Windows 7 Phone smartphone deal with Nokia.)

I love the U.S. government, I don’t want to give it a hard time.” (About its crappy Web site, not the antitrust conviction thing.)

Ballmer outlined some key trends, which are not new to anyone paying attention over the last five years: Location; social; pervasive displays; ubiquitous connectivity; computers everywhere; cloud; data; and natural user interaction

He also joked about how there were 10 fake Steve Ballmers on Facebook, all using Steve Ballmer photos. Imagine that!

You’d think Microsoft’s badillion-dollar investment in the social networking site would get you a verified account!

Status: Monkey boy mad!

Actually, pissed off is more related to the fact that the person who conceived and organized the Imagine 2011 event was former global ad sales head Carolyn Everson.

But, she left the company in mid-February after only six months, for essentially the same job at Microsoft partner Facebook.

Since then Microsoft and Facebook have been wrangling over the talent raid, including Microsoft even considering legal action to block the move.

Nonetheless, the show must go on and it did in a pretty classy way.

But not without another road bump in today’s action–the news that Microsoft’s own marketing head, longtime company veteran Mich Mathews, was leaving the software giant later this year.

The departure had the halls buzzing about what happened and who will be taking over the big job with a $1 billion marketing budget.

Maybe some external CMO sitting right there in the audience or perhaps some internal Microsoft candidate such as Yusuf Mehdi or Capossela?

I suppose it’s time for some strategery stat!

Until it is all figured out, here is the music video for Train’s hit song, “Hey, Soul Sister”:

Last week, Zynga demonstrated that with the launch of CityVille, its latest social game, which follows other big–and more rural hits–like FrontierVille and FarmVille.

In the game, players build their dream city from the ground up, which draws on a lot of aspects from other games, like SimCity, where you build your own roads and buildings.

In just 24 hours, more than 290,000 people moved over to the big city, besting Zynga’s biggest game launch ever–FrontierVille. When FrontierVille launched, it attracted roughly 116,000 players in one day, and now has 6.5 million players daily. (Of course it helped that CityVille was Zynga’s first global launch.)

Other numbers Zynga was willing to spill:

The online and mobile gaming sector has been a hotbed of deal activity over the the last year, from the sale of Playdom for $750 million and Tapulous to Disney, to the acquisition of Playfish by Electronic Arts for $400 million, to the multitude of small developers being bought up by Zynga.

Most recently, Ngmoco was sold to Japan’s DeNA for $400 million.

So what’s the next to go? Several sources said that U.K.-based Chillingo, arguably the hottest of the downloadable game publishers–mostly via apps for the Apple iPhone and iPad–is close to a sale to a bigger company.

The likely acquirer: EA.

The price estimates for Chillingo range from $80 million to close to $200 million.

[UPDATED] EA confirmed the deal to me, noting:

I can confirm EA’s purchase of Chillingo for an undisclosed price.

By acquiring Chillingo, EA Mobile is increasing its market leadership on the Apple Platform as well as reaffirming its position as the world’s leading wireless entertainment publisher.

This acquisition will combine Chillingo’s expertise in cultivating the ideas of independent developers with EA’s global mobile publishing reach.

Chillingo remains committed to its promise of providing the optimal gaming experience for consumers and diligently listening to all its audiences in order to enhance the titles we bring to market.

A source close to the situation said the price was under $20 million in cash, but there were other elements, most likely incentives and earnouts.

[Back to the original post] There are a number of other companies that could be interested in Chillingo, such as Intel, Gameloft, Activision Blizzard, DeNA and even Microsoft’s gaming unit.

But sources said EA is the one targeting Chillingo, which says of itself that it “works with a global network of independent development studios and leverages its network of marketing channels and publishing strength to promote and distribute games.”

Among Chillingo’s biggest hit titles is Angry Birds, which was published by its Clickgamer division and developed by Finland’s Rovio.

Chillingo was one of the first to publish on the iPhone platform and is planning upcoming glames to be released on Google’s Android mobile operating system.

More recently, it released Cut the Rope, which was developed by Russia’s ZeptoLab. It sold one million copies in less than 10 days and is the No. 1 paid app in the App Store.

And Chillingo recently announced a half-dozen new games for the Apple App Store.

The company also has Crystal, an open social gaming platform for the casual gaming community.

BoomTown has calls into Chillingo and EA for comment.

When Microsoft introduced its refurbished search service called Bing two years ago–at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference, in fact–there were a lot of raised eyebrows about whether it could make any headway into a market in which it was a mere pip-squeak.

And, while it has been a costly effort, few can dispute the fact that the innovative, interesting and cleverly marketed Bing is a perceptual and perhaps even actual hit for the software giant.

Now, can Microsoft (MSFT) do the same with Windows Phone 7, which was launched yesterday?

It will be an interesting effort to watch, given how indisputably late Microsoft has been to the smartphone party now dominated by offerings from Google’s (GOOG) Android and Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone.

BoomTown is no reviewer, nor have I spent a lot of time using the Windows Phone 7.

That said, it seems to have been born in the same green-field spirit of Bing and looks like a welcome entrant into the arena.

And I love the whole cool font thing.

That’s the same way I felt about Bing when it was released, especially since the idea of Google dominating search so completely and dictating change is a prospect I relish about as much I do the idea of living in a small South American banana republic.

Which is to say, not at all.

So, bring on the much-needed competition, even it comes from a company that invented, patented and was sued silly due to the concept of monopolistic domination in tech.

And, for all the daily slog of it, Microsoft’s Bing has been a bright spot in tech and for the company.

The service, which was built from scratch, has improved market share, added a plethora of worthy features and has even made Google sweat a little bit and work a little harder.

And now, due to a search technology and online advertising partnership with Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft is poised to make some significant headway in its efforts to get into a strong No. 2 spot that could eventually give it the scale and size needed to make some bank.

Of course, the battle in the market for smartphones is even more uphill and difficult to pull off.

Microsoft needs developers to make apps, has to keep innovating on features and cannot acquiesce to wireless carriers, even as it must also get their cooperation for distribution.

And, of course, it has to convince consumers to switch, which is no easy task, and to feel the need for new phones to replace their recently new phones.

It’s a good thing then that Windows Phone 7 looks like Microsoft has at least anted up table stakes to play, delivering a phone that looks pretty good at first glance, much the same way I felt when I saw Bing for the first time.

“Microsoft did that? It’s so pretty,” I said to a long-suffering company exec when I got a demo. “It’s actually good good and not just Microsoft good.”

That was actually a compliment–one I hope to be able to pay again soon.

Until the reviews are all in and consumers have voted, here is a video of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announcing Bing at D7 in an interview with Walt Mossberg:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101012/is-microsofts-windows-phone-7-the-bing-of-smartphones/feed/ 9 http://allthingsd.com/20100928/cisco-does-doobies-so-whats-next-in-the-consumer-space/ http://allthingsd.com/20100928/cisco-does-doobies-so-whats-next-in-the-consumer-space/#comments Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:15:35 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=34288

Yesterday, BoomTown made a brief stop at what felt like an underground bunker in a hotel in San Francisco to see the Doobie Brothers.

Yes, the legendary band of indelible hit songs such as “Black Water” and “China Grove” and misspent youth way, way back in the day.

Except the group, which was founded in San Jose, Calif., in 1970, was performing at a Cisco (CSCO) television studio down south in Silicon Valley to launch its first album in a decade, called “World Gone Crazy.”

Cisco–founded in San Jose too, but in 1984–put on a 90-minute concert by the Doobie Brothers that was broadcast to 11 U.S. cities, helped by AT&T (T) and Marriott (MAR).

It was an odd event, because we were watching a concert on a big screen in what felt like a place more suited for a corporate retreat.

Still, in its ongoing attempt to push its telepresence technology into the consumer space, such a thing has become more typical for Cisco.

That’s why it will be interesting to see what the tech giant will announce at an event it is having on October 6.

The invite reads: “Come see a new Cisco consumer experience at an exclusive media event, hosted by Chairman and CEO John Chambers.”

What could the new consumer product be?

Perhaps Cisco has built its own version of Apple (AAPL) TV. Or perhaps a consumer-aimed home version of telepresence?

Until we all find out, here is a short video I did at the event yesterday:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100928/cisco-does-doobies-so-whats-next-in-the-consumer-space/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20100917/oscar-bouquets-for-the-social-network-as-zuckerberg-readies-for-the-brickbats/ http://allthingsd.com/20100917/oscar-bouquets-for-the-social-network-as-zuckerberg-readies-for-the-brickbats/#comments Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:14:43 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=33772

It’s just a post on the popular entertainment blog “Deadline Hollywood.”

But it’s a clear indication the makers of the movie about the origins of Facebook are gunning for maximum attention and Oscar buzz with only a few weeks to go before its debut.

In fact, awards columnist Pete Hammond was pretty much channeling the marketing plan of Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin for “The Social Network,” which has its premiere in New York on September 24 and its wide rollout on October 1.

Rudin–the volcano of a producer about whom I would like to see a biopic like the one he is sticking it to Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg with–has apparently been personally inviting every online chatterbox (not me!) and their mother to screenings of the film from the Sony (SNE) movie unit, Columbia Pictures, in recent weeks.

Writes Hammond:

It’s a smart strategy but even without a personal invitation from one of the film’s producers this is already the current must-see movie on every Oscar watchers list. As an example of that, one blogger actually got on a plane from Toronto to New York just to see Social Network, then headed immediately back to Toronto. His subsequent review was a rave declaring it the one to beat for Best Picture (a little premature on that I think). That’s just one example of the praise now starting to hit the Internet from Hitfix to Slashfilm to Chud and all cyber points inbetween.

A little premature perhaps, but it seems to have worked with Hammond:

I saw it at the first opportunity on Monday and would have to say fairly objectively that The Social Network is Sony’s best shot at Best Picture in years, a lock for Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards. And most importantly, Oscar nominations in every major category including Director for David Fincher, Writing for Aaron Sorkin, lead actor for Jesse Eisenberg (playing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg), Supporting Actor for both Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score, editing and so on. It also looks like it will be a major box office hit, hitting a nerve with the young demographic that are on the front lines of moviegoers…

Despite its high-tech bones, what Fincher and Sorkin have managed to do is tell a time-honored very human story, a social document for a generation that has as much relevance now as movies like On The Waterfront, Network, All The President’s Men, and The Graduate did in their time.

Expect more of the same from those who get sucked up into the marketing machine for “The Social Network” in the next weeks, even though it appears it will be devastating to the real-life version of its main subject, Mark Zuckerberg.

And really, really unfair, according to MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka, by taking one aspect of his personality–awkward arrogance or perhaps arrogant awkwardness–and twisting it into a much deeper malevolence.

I have no doubt in my mind that Zuckerberg pulled an epic geek sandbagging on the clueless Winklevoss twins by promising to work on their goofy concept for a social networking site at Harvard University, then not doing so and working on his own ideas instead.

And, for sure, he had a painfully typical start-up falling-out with his own early partners.

But let’s get real here–they all got paid off plenty for being present at the creation of something they themselves never could have created.

Does anyone honestly believe the Winklevii were capable of making Facebook, or any reasonable facsimile, any more than Zuckerberg was capable of rowing in the Olympics?

While hitting some right notes about Zuckerberg’s mannerisms–conversations with him can be very perplexing–the Mark of “The Social Network” is largely fictional.

Certainly, he has some glaring faults (and so do I!).

But they are no worse that other tech leaders’, from Bill Gates of Microsoft (MSFT) to Steve Jobs of Apple (AAPL) to Silicon Valley’s own twins, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google (GOOG).

Interestingly, the night before what turned out to be a very difficult onstage interview at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June, at a dinner just south of Los Angeles, Zuckerberg fretted to me about the film.

“It’s what a lot of people will think I am like, because it’s a movie and that has impact on their perceptions,” he said with a lot of concern in his voice.

I pooh-poohed his complaints and told him not to worry about it too much.

“It’s just a movie,” I said. “No one believes what they see at the movies anymore.”

But as this film chugs along–gaining Oscar velocity right onto the stage of the Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard on February 27, 2011–I can now see Zuckerberg might have been right all along.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100917/oscar-bouquets-for-the-social-network-as-zuckerberg-readies-for-the-brickbats/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20100902/video-apples-dad-chris-martin-of-coldplay-jams-for-apples-ceo/ http://allthingsd.com/20100902/video-apples-dad-chris-martin-of-coldplay-jams-for-apples-ceo/#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:01:27 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=33257 While I am sure there is a better video of this on the Apple site, here are the three songs that Coldplay frontman Chris Martin did at the Apple music event, held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco yesterday.

If you look carefully to the left, looking at the stage, you can see Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs grinning away at the performances of “Yellow,” “Viva La Vida” and a new one, which I think Martin said was called “Wedding Bells.”

In one of many very funny remarks he made onstage, Martin–who is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow and with whom he has two children, Apple (named after the fruit, not the company) and Moses–thanked Jobs and Apple iTunes for helping make some of his songs into hits, noting, “It proves you can market anything.”

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100902/video-apples-dad-chris-martin-of-coldplay-jams-for-apples-ceo/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100830/emmy-awards-channels-glee-plus-bruce-plus-natch-betty-white/ http://allthingsd.com/20100830/emmy-awards-channels-glee-plus-bruce-plus-natch-betty-white/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:15:18 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=33064

The clips from the 2010 Emmy Awards went up fast and furious all over the Internet last night, almost as soon as the acts were performed live on Sunday evening from Los Angeles.

That especially includes the one below from the opening, in which MC Jimmy Fallon enlists an odd mix of celebs, some from the cast of the television hit “Glee” for a take-off on, yes, “Glee.”

While NBC’s online site was not so quick with the clips from the broadcast–although it eventually had many–others were, which is pretty much how these events go now.

Here is the opener video, along with another of Fallon bidding goodbye to “24″ and “Law & Order,” a very funny spoof with the cast of the superb “Modern Family” and a Twitter shout-out by Fallon:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100830/emmy-awards-channels-glee-plus-bruce-plus-natch-betty-white/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100708/full-d8-video-hollywoods-steve-levitan-and-lloyd-braun/ http://allthingsd.com/20100708/full-d8-video-hollywoods-steve-levitan-and-lloyd-braun/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:40:43 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=30340

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Today, we check in with BermanBraun’s Lloyd Braun and Steve Levitan, co-creator of “Modern Family.”

The major topic in their interview was where premium content is headed in the digital age and how the entertainment industry is coping. Or not.

Braun is a longtime Hollywood player, who has also toiled extensively in the Internet space, from stints running Disney (DIS) broadcast network ABC to media at Yahoo (YHOO).

Levitan has worked his way up in the television business, to his current TV hit, “Modern Family.” (Today, in fact, the show garnered a passel of Emmy nominations, so congrats, Steve!)

Here’s the full video of the D8 session, which I moderated:

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: Comcast (CMCSA) COO Steve Burke.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100708/full-d8-video-hollywoods-steve-levitan-and-lloyd-braun/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100707/viral-video-dancing-soliders-in-war-zones-meme-gets-a-little-creepy/ http://allthingsd.com/20100707/viral-video-dancing-soliders-in-war-zones-meme-gets-a-little-creepy/#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:41:52 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=30292

Like the Hitler meme and others, the dancing soldiers of Afghanistan have set off a lot of military moves of the hip-swaying kind in online video.

Case in point, the latest one from a group of Israeli soldiers in the West Bank’s Hebron while on patrol with big and decidedly scary guns, using them as props in order to boogie to Ke$ha’s hit song “TiK ToK.”

There’s more controversy with this one, of course, given that it begins with a Muslim call to prayer in the background and those guns are part of the, well, fun. The incident is being investigated by the Israeli Defense Forces.

The holding hands move at the end was a nice touch though.

In any case, you apparently can’t stop the march of our armed forces.

Here’s the video, as well as the original video of the U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, shaking their considerable booty to Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100707/viral-video-dancing-soliders-in-war-zones-meme-gets-a-little-creepy/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100707/hulus-jason-kilar-talks-about-plus-ipo-renovations-and-more/ http://allthingsd.com/20100707/hulus-jason-kilar-talks-about-plus-ipo-renovations-and-more/#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:15:57 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=30277

This week on BoomTown’s grand summer tour of digital Los Angeles, I popped into the Santa Monica, Calif., offices of Hulu, the premium online video distributor that has been one of the few big and innovative hits for Hollywood in the digital sector.

As it turned out, Hulu was in the midst of renovations to its HQ, even as it tinkers with its longtime advertising-supported business model.

Just last week, in fact, the company unveiled its long-expected subscription offering, called Hulu Plus, which will offer users more access, devices, features and content for $9.99 a month.

Thus, it was a good time to get up into the ever-smiling grill of CEO Jason Kilar to talk about a wide range of subjects, from the new Hulu Plus to dealing with the company’s media-giant owners to his own commitment to building the service (Kilar has one year left on his contract) to a possible IPO scenario.

Of course, persuading Wall Street investors to buy in to Hulu could be a very tough sell, no matter what the financials look like.

That’s because Hulu is completely dependent on the participation of its three network owners–News Corp. (NWS), Disney (DIS) and especially NBC Universal, since it is soon to be owned by Comcast (CMCSA)–who have signed on to the joint venture for only a limited time. If any one of them decides to leave, the whole thing gets a lot less valuable.

But for now, Kilar’s main task, as he notes in this video interview, is to focus on providing the best consumer experience possible, especially with current season television episodes from the most popular shows, Hulu’s most entertaining bread and butter.

Here’s the video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100707/hulus-jason-kilar-talks-about-plus-ipo-renovations-and-more/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100624/toy-story-3-is-one-of-summers-few-big-movie-hits-and-another-win-for-apples-jobs/ http://allthingsd.com/20100624/toy-story-3-is-one-of-summers-few-big-movie-hits-and-another-win-for-apples-jobs/#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:01:08 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=29710

It looks like the iPad isn’t Steve Jobs’s only hit these days.

As it turns out, the hottest movie this summer–and one of the season’s few big successes–looks like it might be “Toy Story 3.”

The third in the innovative flagship film franchise, it was made by the Pixar Animation Studios unit of Disney (DIS). While he did not actually craft this film, as he does his “magical” devices, guess who is Disney’s largest individual shareholder, with a seven percent stake?

Yes, the Apple (AAPL) CEO.

While a string of prominent movie sequels is getting panned and performing weakly at the movie box office, “Toy Story 3” is garnering near-perfect reviews, as well as piles of money.

The animated flagship film–being shown in 3-D, as are all movies it seems like now–was No. 1. in North America this past weekend, hauling in just over $110 million in its debut. It is now at $141 million, picking up another $43.4 million internationally.

No wonder: It got a 98 percent rating on the Rotten Tomatoes movie review site, which is pretty unprecedented.

(Ironically, the free iPhone app for “Toy Story 3” is getting really poor feedback at the iTunes store.)

But the accolades for the movie are much deserved–BoomTown took the kids last night, and we were all blown away by its humor and heart, as well as terrific animation.

Also the tear-jerking, but happy, ending.

That kind of quality has been pretty typical for Pixar, which Jobs bought from movie icon George Lucas in 1986 for $10 million and sold to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion.

That deal left Jobs as Disney’s largest individual shareholder and one of its directors.

He’s also making bank, with Disney shares up 46 percent compared with a year ago.

Of course, that’s nothing compared with Apple stock, which has spiked 94 percent since last year.

Which is what Hollywood would definitely call a very happy ending.

Until you see the movie, here’s an interesting video about the new characters in “Toy Story 3”:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100624/toy-story-3-is-one-of-summers-few-big-movie-hits-and-another-win-for-apples-jobs/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20100503/viral-video-u-s-soldiers-do-lady-gaga/ http://allthingsd.com/20100503/viral-video-u-s-soldiers-do-lady-gaga/#comments Mon, 03 May 2010 09:36:06 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=27905

It’s hard not to love this entertaining spoof of Lady Gaga’s music video hit “Telephone,” redone by a group of U.S. soliders stationed in Afghanistan.

Titled “Telephone: The Afghanistan Re-Make,” it’s deeply compelling in its amateur charm.

And the beefy dude who looks like he could kill you with his bare hands can truly bust move.

It’s up to 2.6 million views of YouTube now.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100503/viral-video-u-s-soldiers-do-lady-gaga/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100309/remember-when-nbc-didnt-want-you-to-watch-lazy-sunday-on-the-web/ http://allthingsd.com/20100309/remember-when-nbc-didnt-want-you-to-watch-lazy-sunday-on-the-web/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:06:19 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=17172 Speaking of YouTube…

Remember when NBC was befuddled by the success of “Lazy Sunday” on YouTube, and tried to pull down the first viral hit?

Eons ago, in Internet time. Since then–the original “Saturday Night Live” clip ran in December 2005–Google (GOOG) purchased YouTube for $1.6 billion, a host of would-be YouTubes rounded up venture money (and then ran through it), and the broadcast networks assembled Hulu in an attempt to create their own YouTube.

And now, of course, every TV program goes out of its way to create viral clips. Or at least, try to create viral clips. As NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” did last night when it got Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg to reprise “Lazy Sunday” live.

Give the duo credit for doing more than just dragging out the old chestnut–they at least got The Roots, Fallon’s awesome house band, to create a new medley based on classic hip-hop. But the original still works just fine for me.

Bonus clip: Some old-timey hip-hop backed by a live band that still holds up some two decades (!) later.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100309/remember-when-nbc-didnt-want-you-to-watch-lazy-sunday-on-the-web/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091016/itunes-michael-jackson-policy-want-the-song-buy-the-album/ http://allthingsd.com/20091016/itunes-michael-jackson-policy-want-the-song-buy-the-album/#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:45:26 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=12138 Want to get Michael Jackson’s new single? You will be able to get it on iTunes this month, contrary to earlier reports. But there’s a catch: You’re going to have to buy some of the late singer’s other songs, too.

That’s the pact that Apple (AAPL) and Sony (SNE) have reached this week over the upcoming release of the Jackson’s newest stuff: Anyone who wants to buy a copy of “This Is It,” the song, via iTunes will also have to buy some extended-play version of “This Is It,” the album

Here’s the official word from Apple, following a couple days’ worth of erroneous and confusing reports (one of which I wrote):

We look forward to offering the new Michael Jackson album, as well as a digital-only EP with six previously unreleased tracks, providing fans a great way to get all of the new songs. The iTunes Store will offer the album-only single “This Is It” on both the album and EP starting October 26.

To spell that out: Apple will not be selling the single by itself.

That’s an unusual arrangement for Apple, which generally insists that labels sell their music on a track-by-track basis. If the labels had their way, they would consistently force customers to buy an entire album for $10 or more. No word on pricing yet, but it’s a fair bet to assume that even the six-song EP will sell for more than $1.29, Apple’s highest price for an individual song.

Apple does make an occasional exception here and there. For instance, many of the songs on iTunes soundtracks are only available as part of an album. But while “This Is It” does accompany a movie by the same name, it’s not technically a soundtrack, so that’s not what’s going on here.

Sony has sold a staggering amount of Jackson’s stuff since his death last summer, so it’s possible that Apple is simply trying to take advantage of what appears to be insatiable demand. But that doesn’t sound right to me: Even a huge hit on iTunes does very little for Apple’s books.

My guess: Apple maintains a vise-grip on the digital sales, but every now and then likes to throw the labels a bone. For instance, it used to insist that all of the labels sell all of their songs for 99 cents, but earlier this year, Apple changed its policy and now offers three different price points.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091016/itunes-michael-jackson-policy-want-the-song-buy-the-album/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090917/how-to-make-money-with-web-video-books-and-dvds/ http://allthingsd.com/20090917/how-to-make-money-with-web-video-books-and-dvds/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:28:16 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=11053 Eric  Spiegelman has a Web video hit on his hands. “Old Jews Telling Jokes,” a series of short clips featuring exactly what the name suggests, is popular, viral and cheap to make.

Alas, it’s not profitable. Spiegelman says he spends considerably less than $1,000 for each one-minute episode, and the 50 episodes he’s made so far have generated some four million views since February. But advertising for the series, sold via Web video distributor blip.tv, doesn’t cover his costs.

Spiegelman is pretty sanguine about this, but I find it a bit frustrating. We’re several years into the Web video era–almost three years after Google (GOOG) bought YouTube–and this is the kind of stuff that should work by now. It’s original, ad-friendly, and made on a shoestring budget. If that can’t work, what will?

In any case, Spiegelman can afford to wait a bit for things to right themselves. His company, Jetpack Media, is a unit of indie movie studio Greenstreet Films, so he has a bit of a cushion while he figures out how to crack the code.

And in the meantime, he’s hedging his bets by using his Web series as a way to get back into old media, where you can actually get paid for stuff you make, in advance.

Spiegelman has repackaged the first season of his clips into DVD form, which will be sold by First Run Features (you can pre-order the first disc for $19.95).

Next up: A book deal with Bertelsmann’s Random House, via its Villard imprint, with photos from Gawker contributor Nikola Tamindzic (anyone who follows the blog-to-book minimarket will not be surprised to learn that ICM agent Kate Lee brokered the deal).

And Spiegelman can imagine other ancillary products down the line. Perhaps an audio show based on jokes that people submit via a hotline. Use your imagination. Which I guess is what you have to do if you want to make a living making Web video in 2009.

Oh, the videos themselves? They’re a lot of fun. You may have heard of a few of the joke-tellers–former New York City Mayor Ed Koch is a contributor/performer, as is real estate mogul Harry Macklowe–but the rest are fairly anonymous types who have a way with a story and a punch line. Below, a quick interview I taped with Spiegelman last week, and below that, a few of the joke-tellers themselves (Warning! These feature a couple of judiciously chosen curses).

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090917/how-to-make-money-with-web-video-books-and-dvds/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090806/united-might-break-guitars-and-funky-wedding-videos-has-buzz-but-will-it-all-have-a-susan-boyle-ending/ http://allthingsd.com/20090806/united-might-break-guitars-and-funky-wedding-videos-has-buzz-but-will-it-all-have-a-susan-boyle-ending/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:30:48 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=17059

Oh, who doesn’t just love, love, love the two latest viral videos to hit the Web?

One, called “United Breaks Guitars,” is a very funny music video about an experience singer Dave Carroll had when the airline murdered his guitar and then refused to say sorry.

It has had close to 4.7 million views on YouTube.

The other, even better, is a joyful wedding dance of Minnesotans Jill and Kevin, along with their many grooms and bridesmaids, all of whom hilariously boogeyed down the aisle.

Current count: 17.1 million views.

While that’s all well and good, like a lot of these kinds of viral phenoms, neither is likely to go the distance in economic rewards.

While Google (GOOG), owner of YouTube, has been making noise about the wedding video causing a spike in sales of Chris Brown’s “Forever,” which is the music the wedding party shimmies to, this kind of one-off is not really a sustainable way to make video a true financial windfall.

And herein lies the problem–the Internet is most excellent at surfacing and distributing these delightful videos, but it still is not so good at revealing an organized, massive way they will all pay off.

That’s because much of it relies on buzz, which is simply unguessable.

And, even though more advertising efforts are being aimed at premium content on sites like Hulu, the revenue still remains much smaller than costs.

Consider the Susan Boyle sensation, which can doubtlessly be called 2009′s Web powerhouse. The video of her astonishing rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables” on the television show, “Britain’s Got Talent,” was a huge hit.

So far, the show’s YouTube post alone has 75.2 million views, but–due to a number of reasons–it did not make such sensational amounts of money.

Obviously, as consumers shift more and more time to watching Internet video, advertising allocations will be shifted too.

And, with media moguls like News Corp. (NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch making copious noise about charging for content, it’s likely the most popular videos might begin to get some lucrative gating at some point.

But for delightful hits like the wedding dance or “United Breaks Guitars,” it will be interesting to see if they ever become more than watercooler wonders.

In any case, please enjoy the videos gratis!

Jill & Kevin:

United Breaks Guitars:

Susan Boyle:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090806/united-might-break-guitars-and-funky-wedding-videos-has-buzz-but-will-it-all-have-a-susan-boyle-ending/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090729/viral-video-rocket-man-shatner-channels-maverick-palin-watch-out-tina-fey/ http://allthingsd.com/20090729/viral-video-rocket-man-shatner-channels-maverick-palin-watch-out-tina-fey/#comments Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:53:09 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=16650

In a genius pairing of subject and artist, here is the best online viral video this week from Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show,” featuring actor William Shatner reciting outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s recent farewell speech verbatim.

You simply can’t make this stuff up.

Done in Shatner’s perfect Captain James T. Kirk/”Rocket Man”-style, here is the video from NBC (as well as Shatner interpreting the Elton John-Bernie Taupin hit song, and also my favorite impression of Palin by Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live”):

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