There are many other Fortune 500 CEOs in the same boat, and they certainly have plenty else to do with their time than post Facebook photos from Davos.

But non-Twittering CEOs are likely a dying breed, as transparency and authenticity in corporate communications come into vogue, and the younger generations move up through the ranks.

Google’s entire executive leadership is particularly anti-social for an Internet company, although unlike Page, Eric Schmidt, its CEO of the last 10 years, had the gumption to at least try Twitter and post updates every couple of weeks.

That their bosses decline to participate in what many see as the future of the Web is particularly grating for some young Google employees.

While the company circles around launching its own fully fledged social strategy, many Googlers feel that accountability for “getting social” starts at the top by leaders using the products themselves, rather than outright ignoring them.

Certainly, Page is incredibly private in all sorts of situations, both online and off. Here’s a memorable section from Ken Auletta’s book “Googled”:

“Larry Page is aggressively disdainful of marketing and public relations. In early 2008, Page instructed Google’s public relations department, which consisted of 130 people, that he would only give them a total of eight hours of his time that year for press conferences, speeches or interviews.”

That doesn’t seem like an approach that will go over well now that Page will be CEO of a company of Google’s stature, although perhaps he could save some time by crafting short tweets in lieu of full speeches.

While Page seems to be ignoring the social Web’s existence (he said Thursday he thinks it’s at the “very very early stages,” ceding comment on the topic to his co-founder Sergey Brin), the category has already had a significant competitive effect on Google.

The company says social is not yet negatively impacting its search business, but there are other ways it is creeping in: Through a significant talent drain to companies like Facebook, and a tarnishing of the company’s position as a tech leader.

In a way, part of the reason Page took control seems to be in response to the rise of Facebook, although there are clearly many other factors at play).

That’s because Page has now reinstated himself in a sacred position in Silicon Valley: The founder CEO.

One of the most impactful things the social Web has done is raised a new founder CEO to the tip-top of the tech industry: Mark Zuckerberg.

And, according to sources, the rise of Zuckerberg has been especially hard for Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to watch.

Zuckerberg was also just named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, an honor Page and Brin have never received.

And his company also just arranged a deal to raise money at a $50 billion valuation, making his own stake worth $15 billion, which happens to be the approximate net worth of each Page and Brin.

(As for Zuckerberg’s social media presence, he obviously uses Facebook quite actively, and also has a bare-bones LinkedIn profile and a Twitter account that hasn’t been updated in more than a year. And, like Page, he would not be considered a social butterfly in real life.)

So now Page has returned to presumably make Google innovative again with the passion of a founder. But with 10 years elapsed since he last had the job, he may want to go out and do a little personal market research on this whole social thing.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

At a very first glance, some of the new rules imposed by the feds might seem like they require the new company to offer up programming to any online player that wants to pay up.

And technically, they do. But the new rules have plenty of conditions and limits. So the bottom line is you’re not much more likely to get access to “30 Rock” via YouTube, or CNBC via iTunes, then you were before.

The new FCC and DOJ rules do give, say, Google the ability to buy access to some of NBC U shows or channels. But it would require Comcast’s competitors to do the same thing, first.

That is: Unless the people who are reluctant to put their stuff online because they don’t want to upset Comcast go ahead and put their stuff online, Comcast doesn’t have to, either. So it’s theoretically possible, but not probable.

And if it happens, it will happen haltingly. If Viacom sells someone online access to its MTV lineup of reality shows, that might require Comcast to offer up its reality show lineup on Bravo. But it wouldn’t entitle an online outlet to the police procedurals on USA.

The government also gives the option to, say, Netflix, to set up shop as another cable operator, and buy access to all of NBC Universal’s programming. But it would have to buy all of it–just like Time Warner Cable and Cablevision do when they make a carriage deal for NBC U’s shows.

And again, Comcast wouldn’t have to do that unless its peers did. Which means that if Netflix really wanted to set up shop as a direct competitor of the cable guys, it can do so. But it would have to operate exactly like the cable guys, just like the satellite guys did when they entered the market a couple of decades ago.

So if Netflix, or Apple or whoever really wants to offer a full suite of cable programming, at cable prices, it could. But that would be very, very expensive: Analyst Rich Greenfield estimates that the bill for NBC U’s programming alone would run a new entrant $1 billion a year.

Just as, or even more, important, is that those kind of bundled, take-it-or-leave-it deals are exactly the kind of thing that the cord-cutting crowd complains about.

They don’t want to have to pay for USA and Bravo and Syfy and MSNBC–they want to pick and choose channels, or shows. And pay a lot less.

“I don’t think cord-cutting was a major focus” of negotiations, Comcast EVP David Cohen said during a press conference this afternoon. And that may be true!

But the net result reads very much as if Comcast wanted to make sure the government didn’t force it to break its business model. And if that was the case, it got what it wanted.

Nvidia, which builds tiny computer processors to help devices display graphics, games, video and more on phones, will be found all over the show floor, demonstrating products in conjunction with wireless carriers, automotive makers, handset makers and others.

And for those looking for even more from Huang –and maybe a demo that works– he’ll be appearing on stage with my colleague Ina Fried at our own D at CES event on Friday.

The biggest partnership of all, however, was not announced–a rumored relationship with Microsoft that will likely be unveiled later today, Huang hinted. [Update: that news can be found here.]

What Nvidia was willing to talk about was its plans to build high-performance ARM-based CPU cores, designed to support future products ranging from personal computers and servers to workstations and supercomputers. Up until now, the project was code-named “Project Denver.”

However, Nvidia spent most of the time talking about its new Tegra 2 processor, which is designed to efficiently display Internet content and games–on par with the quality of a console–on a cellphone. That means a compact design that provides the same quality but helps preserve battery life.

Nvidia’s Huang demonstrated the capabilities of the chip with the help of LG, which made an appearance onstage to show off the new Optimus 2X, a new Android phone. Loaded with a Tegra 2, one of the head honchos from LG described the phone as “a beauty on the outside–a monster on the inside.”

Huang plugged the phone into a giant HDTV to demonstrate the chip’s capabilities. He played Angry Birds and navigated a few apps on the homescreen.

But one of the big pushes is in viewing Adobe Flash, and the demo gods were against them. The wireless network was slow, prompting Huang to ask the packed crowd of reporters to spare a bit of bandwidth for him.

“I feel like I am on 56K here,” Huang said. “Oh you guys suck,” he joked.

Huang said the company brought in technology to block others from hogging the bandwidth, but people were using it anyway. “You guys really suck,” he said to more laughs.

More demonstrations were made with videogames, and even other demos failed, including a video chat over Skype.

After it was all said and done, Nvidia served lunch.

However, the move has been in the works for some time, according to a source familiar with Microsoft’s development plans. Indeed, the source said that ARM support has been part of the company’s earliest planning for the next version of Windows, a process that kicked off before Windows 7 hit store shelves in October 2009.

Microsoft’s effort is far enough along to show a number of key programs running on ARM-based chips, something the company is expected to do at a 1 pm PT press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Despite that progress, though, it will be some time before the release of Windows 8, or whatever Microsoft will call the next version of the operating system, and Microsoft isn’t expected to commit to a date (or a name) here at the show. There’s still a lot of compatibility work that must be done, not only by Microsoft but by the people that create the hardware and software that runs on top of Windows.

Speculation that Microsoft might be headed in this direction has grown, heightened by the competition Windows faces from Apple and Android-based devices, as well as the fact that Microsoft and ARM signed an expanded licensing agreement last year that appeared to signal a closer relationship, though both sides were deliberately circumspect about the deal.

In focusing its energy on Windows, rather than on its Windows Phone operating system, Microsoft is taking a different tactic than either Google or Apple, both of which are betting that a new class of highly mobile devices needs a new operating system built from the ground up.

By contrast, Microsoft is wagering that users want and need all of the power that comes with Windows and would buy a Windows machine, if only it could better compete on issues such as battery life, where Windows today suffers by comparison. Adding the new processors will allow Windows to better fit into a wider range of devices, including slates and other highly mobile devices, Microsoft is likely to say.

And while it is eager to welcome Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments into the camp of Windows processor partners, expect Microsoft to put in a good word or two for its traditional chip buddies, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, which it is counting on both now and in the future, to provide plenty of chips for Windows-based machines.

So what does that mean for Hulu, which has already locked up exclusive rights to NBC’s Web video?

A couple of possible answers: Perhaps Federal Communications Commission head Julius Genachowski is trying to put a fork in Hulu. Or maybe the conditions he wants to place on the merger are so toothless that they don’t really count as conditions at all.

Background: Each of Hulu’s three partners/owners–GE’s NBC, News Corp.’s Fox and Disney’s ABC–has agreed to mutual exclusivity pacts. If you want to watch one of their shows for free online, you can see them on the networks’ own sites, or via Hulu–either on the main site itself, or via other sites that are taking Hulu’s feed. (News Corp. also owns this Web site.)

But one of the primary conditions Genachowski wants to place on FCC approval for the Comcast-NBC deal is that Web competitors will get access to NBC’s shows, according to the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Here’s the WSJ:

Comcast would be required to offer NBC Universal programming to any online video provider that has reached a similar deal for content with some of NBC’s competitors, such as Walt Disney Co. or Fox Television, a division of News Corp.

That’s a bit vague, so we won’t really know what Genachowski intends until he goes public with his proposed rules. But there are basically two ways to interpret what the Journal is reporting here. Either:

• The FCC wants to make sure that NBC doesn’t prevent Hulu from syndicating its content out to third-party sites, as it’s already doing with Yahoo, AOL and…Comcast. If that’s all Genachowski wants, that’s no big deal, and not really  a restriction at all. Because Hulu’s business plan is predicated on wide distribution. Or….
• The FCC is telling NBC that it has to offer its shows directly to other Web sites. That’s potentially devastating news for Hulu. If, say, Yahoo can license “The Office” directly from NBC, it may not want to bother cutting a deal with the joint venture site. And to be clear: The overwhelming majority of Hulu’s traffic comes from people watching shows from its big three partners.

So which is it? The FCC held a farcical press conference yesterday where it wouldn’t answer any specific questions about the deal. But it would be nice if it could clear this one up soon.

Completists will still need to hear from the Department of Justice, which is also reviewing the transaction, but since both Comcast and NBC announced yesterday that they expected the deal to close in January, it’s hard to imagine there’s much in the way of a surprise coming.

It would be great to tell you what restrictions the FCC wants, but the government agency won’t say so publicly, at least for now.

But since a document with the FCC’s proposed restrictions is currently being circulated to officials at Comcast and GE-owned NBC, the information should get out sooner than later.

The FCC also held a “background” press conference on the deal this morning, in which it asked participants not to quote government officials directly. That’s not uncommon in Washington, but that doesn’t make it any less astonishing: The FCC knows about Twitter, right?

Still, in this case, that works out just fine, since FCC officials didn’t provide direct answers to any questions.

Here are a few highlights:

• Half of all U.S. residential broadband connections fall below the minimum speed established by the Federal Communications Commission of four megabits per second down and one megabit up. That definition of what constitutes “broadband” is however all of six months old.
• The median download speed was three megabits per second and 595 kilobits up, and these have only improved a little bit since the 2009 survey. At the rate the U.S. is going it will take 60 years to catch up with South Korea, where broadband network speeds are legendary, averaging 34 megabits per second.
• Only one percent of broadband connections in the U.S. run at 50 megabits per second down and 20 up, meeting the FCC’s goal for the year 2015.

The report points out a few other findings from the FCC’s research: As many as 100 million people–roughly one in three–don’t have access to broadband at home, and of those, 24 million can’t get it if they want it, usually because they live on the wrong side of a seemingly arbitrary line on some map. Others say it’s too expensive or that they simply don’t know how to use it.

The 68-page report (PDF) goes on to break down the broadband situation in each state and a few U.S. territories.

The CWA released the report at a press conference in Washington, D.C., today, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was on hand to lend his support and talk about his plans to reform the Universal Service Fund so that besides funding telephone service in rural areas, which was the reason it was created, it can be used to help fund broadband deployments in markets where service is limited for one reason or another. He also talked about getting some of the hurdles out of the way of private companies, so that when they choose to build infrastructure they can move fast. Simply cutting red tape can reduce the deployment costs by 40 percent.

Below is a grab of the CWA’s speed map of the U.S. (Click on it to zoom in.)



Update: And here’s a video of today’s press conference at the National Press Club. Genachowski is the second speaker.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101215/if-speed-matters-why-is-american-broadband-so-slow/feed/ 5 http://allthingsd.com/20101202/zynga-buys-new-toy-to-expand-mobile-efforts/ http://allthingsd.com/20101202/zynga-buys-new-toy-to-expand-mobile-efforts/#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:41:48 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=57

Zynga hosted a press conference this morning to announce that it has acquired Texas-based Newtoy, a two-year-old mobile games company to help expand its games onto all mobile devices.

Terms of the deal, which marks the company’s seventh acquisition in seven months, were not disclosed.

David Ko, Zynga’s new head of mobile and former Yahoo executive, said Newtoy has been successful with such hits as “Words with Friends” and “Chess with Friends.”

The Newtoy offices will become “Zynga with Friends Studio,” and will be headed by the two founding brothers, Paul and David Bettner.

Ko: “Mobile is the next great frontier for social gaming. In only five months, Farmville has been downloaded seven million times, and we have more than 10 million people a month accessing Zynga games on a mobile phone. Our goal is to have Zynga games available to anyone anywhere, on any device.”

Newtoy’s hit title “Words with Friends” has been downloaded 12 million time across iPhone, iPod and iPad.

While the acquisition is being announced today, the two companies have been working together for some time under the code name Jet Pack. One of the two brothers said during the call that the name represented how the two will “move even faster toward our shared goal of connecting the world with shared games.”

Newtoy does not generate revenue today like Zynga, which relies on selling virtual goods. Rather, it’s focused on experimenting with paid and ad-supported models.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101202/zynga-buys-new-toy-to-expand-mobile-efforts/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101130/richard-bransons-ipad-app-2-99-instructions-included-youll-need-them/ http://allthingsd.com/20101130/richard-bransons-ipad-app-2-99-instructions-included-youll-need-them/#comments Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:29:26 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=26446 Richard Branson will hold a press conference in New York this morning to show off “Project,” his new iPad magazine app. But since it’s already live in Apple’s iTunes store, there’s really no need to wait. Pay $3, and you can see for yourself.

Should you? Depends: If you’re into iPad magazine apps, you’ll want to, because it’s a pretty good iPad magazine app, with some interesting deployment of art, video and live Web links. On the other hand, it’s pretty similar to most of the other iPad magazine apps you’ve seen so far.

Except more confusing–the navigation on all of these things changes from app to app, but this one seems even more random. Hence this one-page instruction manual (note to the guy who was confused – yes, this is an actual screenshot):



That said, if you do monkey around with this thing, you’ll find some cool stuff. My favorite so far is an ohmygodlookitathat photo of some nutjob kayaking off a waterfall. This image:



Expands into this image:



And then a link gets you to this astonishing Vimeo clip:

tyler bradt world record–Palouse Fall, Washington State tyler bradt world record–Palouse Fall, Washington State from Vagueo on Vimeo.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101130/richard-bransons-ipad-app-2-99-instructions-included-youll-need-them/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100910/meet-nokias-new-ceo-elops-boomtown-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20100910/meet-nokias-new-ceo-elops-boomtown-video/#comments Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:21:39 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=33607

Just as the chickens always come home to roost, BoomTown always has a video ferreted away of someone who makes it to the bigs.

In this case, here is a video interview I did in April of 2009 with new Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (pictured here), just a year after he had taken over as president of Microsoft’s Business Division.

I caught Elop just after he had given a speech where he talked about how the software giant had gotten the “open” religion and was becoming “the most interoperable company in the world.”

I am still not sure about Microsoft, but one thing’s for sure: Elop has turned out to be one of the most interoperable of tech execs.

Along with his stint at Microsoft (MSFT) running that powerful franchise, he has been COO of Juniper Networks (JNPR) and CEO of Macromedia, which was acquired under his tenure by Adobe (ADBE).

His new job at Finland’s telecom giant is going to be a big one, given how far Nokia’s star has fallen in the mobile market, with the fast growth of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone and the Google (GOOG) Android mobile operating system.

Elop also has five kids–including triplet 11-year-olds–so how do you say “babysitter” in Finnish?

Here’s my interview with him, as well as another video Elop ordered up while at Microsoft as part of an “Envisioning” series.

These “world of the future” videos were done by Microsoft Office Labs as part of a “Productivity Future Vision” series that sketched out a world of smartphones, touchscreens everywhere and a whole lot of innovative interacting.

It will be interesting to see if Elop can bring such a big vision to Nokia (NOK), where it is sorely needed.

Until then, enjoy Elop unplugged–as you will see, he is a very compelling dude.

(You can also watch the unembeddable–get on it, since sharing is big on phones now, Steve!–video press conference about his new job today at Nokia here.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100910/meet-nokias-new-ceo-elops-boomtown-video/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20100810/welcome-to-the-schminternet/ http://allthingsd.com/20100810/welcome-to-the-schminternet/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:59:47 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=31794

Although Google CEO Eric Schmidt (pictured here) took pains in a press conference yesterday with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg about net neutrality policy to distance the search giant from the idea that it could be part of any new “private” Internet, that did not stop a lot of pundits from crying foul.

And also making up one of the best monikers ever for the possibility of a new toll-heavy information superhighway.

That would be the Schminternet!

The term was a word coined by media blogger Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine, accidentally mangling Schmidt’s name perfectly when making a Yiddish joke in a post to Twitter: “The Schminternet=not the internet. Comes with new fees.”

It was only the beginning of the pointed tweets by Jarvis:

“If you take your iPhone from your wi-fi outside it moves from the internet to the schminternet?” and “So if you launch, say, a new video university, is that internet or schminternet?”

Indeed, the Google (GOOG) and Verizon (VZ) convoluted explanation of the plan left it open to such discomfort, because of the nagging notion that the public Internet would eventually get the shaft for a private one that had different rules.

Also left out of the Google/Verizon chit-chit: Wireless broadband, which is where all the action is happening today.

Would that be on the Schminternet? Or even multiple Schiminternets?

Noted Jarvis in a blog post today:

So, ol, grandpa internet may chug along giving us YouTube videos of flaming cats, but you want to get that while you’re out of your house? Well, that’s the nonnet. I can hear the customer “service” rep explaining this to us:

“Oh, no, sir. That’s not offered on the internet. That’s on the schminternet.”

You want something new? Anything created after 2010?

“Schminternet, sir.”

Jarvis and others are right to be questioning the Google-Verizon policy, since it seems to suggest a balkanization of digital distribution, which seems counter to Google’s stated interest in an open Internet system.

But, just in case, Jarvis–who penned the book. “What Would Google Do?”–has bought the Schminternet.net domain.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100810/welcome-to-the-schminternet/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20100524/liveblogging-yahoo-nokia-annoucement/ http://allthingsd.com/20100524/liveblogging-yahoo-nokia-annoucement/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 14:06:06 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=28719

As BoomTown reported last week, Yahoo planned to announce a partnership deal with Nokia this morning, centering on email and mapping.

At the announcement, the companies said Nokia will be the exclusive global provider of Yahoo’s maps and navigation services, integrating Ovi Maps across Yahoo properties and branded as “powered by Ovi.” And Yahoo will become the exclusive global provider of Nokia’s Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services branded as “Ovi Mail/Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo.”

This morning at 7 am PT, I liveblogged the event, which took place in New York, with Yahoo (YHOO) Carol Bartz and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of the Finland-based handset maker.

As you will see, it was over in a flash.

Last week, Yahoo sent out an invite for the press conference, which read:

“Please join Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz for an exciting announcement about providing global consumers with rich online and mobile experiences, and bringing forward a new era in keeping consumers connected.”

Nokia (NOK) is the largest manufacturer of mobile devices in the world, although it has lost ground in the key new arena to innovative smartphones, which are being pushed by Google (GOOG) via its Android operating system and in recent years, by Apple (AAPL) with its iPhone.

Here we go:

7:02 am PT: Nokia reminded everyone to “keep our cellphones on.” Get it? Ha. Ha. Ha.

It was Bartz of Yahoo and Nokia’s Kallasvuo on the line. It sounded–I was on the horn from California–a bit tinny, actually.

Just as I wrote, they unveiled a partnership related to Yahoo email going on Nokia devices, but also including Nokia maps on Yahoo.

Yahoo’s map offerings have been weak for a long time now, as Google and Microsoft (MSFT) mapping efforts have grown strong.

Both Bartz and Kallasvuo said very little about anything, except how great it all is.

I would include quotes, but they were really dull!

7:11 am PT: It then opened for questions, but it seemed BoomTown was somehow cut off!

Oh well, foiled again–which is to say, not at all, since we already scooped this deal last week.

Thus, some background:

The partnership–code-named “Project Nike” after the Greek goddess of victory and not the athletic footwear giant–has been under consideration for many years between the companies without result.

Yahoo has had a range of various mobile initiatives and has had many, mostly failed, partnerships with carriers and telecom makers.

But without its own phone or mobile operating system, the Internet giant is essentially nowhere in what has become the most important digital sector today.

Nokia, which makes more mobile devices than any other company, has also struggled to keep up the lightning-fast pace of innovation and has been looking for ways to compete as the landscape shifts dramatically.

Thus, the Nokia deal is likely to be a splashy centerpiece of Wednesday’s investor day by Yahoo in Silicon Valley, which will feature Bartz and her senior management.

Here is the entire press release:

Nokia and Yahoo! to Bring Integrated Web Services to Millions of Consumers around the World

Global Strategic Alliance Enables Industry Leaders to Leverage Strengths in E-mail, Instant Messaging, Maps and Navigation across PC and Mobile Devices

NEW YORK, May 24, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Nokia (NYSE:NOK), announced a worldwide strategic alliance to extend the reach of their industry leading online services and offer people rich experiences that keep them connected to their world and the world around them.

Building on more than five years of collaboration, Nokia and Yahoo! will leverage each others’ strengths in e-mail, instant messaging and maps and navigation services, to provide consumers with access to world-class experiences on both PC and mobile devices.

As part of the alliance:

* Nokia will be the exclusive, global provider of Yahoo!’s maps and navigation services, integrating Ovi Maps across Yahoo! properties, branded as “powered by Ovi.”

* Yahoo! will become the exclusive, global provider of Nokia’s Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services branded as “Ovi Mail / Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo!”

* Nokia and Yahoo! plan to work on ID federation between their services, beginning by making it easy for people to use their Ovi user IDs across select Yahoo! properties to easily access the online content and services they need.

“Delivering great user experiences–both online and on your mobile–is what this alliance is all about,” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia. “We’re enabling millions of Yahoo! customers in key markets including North America to discover the unique capabilities that Ovi Maps brings. Similarly, Yahoo!’s online expertise will bring exciting mail and messaging enhancements to millions of Ovi Mail customers across almost every country around the world, many of whom will have their first Internet experience on their mobile.”

“What a combination,” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo!. “We’re excited to expand the reach of our best-in-class Mail and Messenger services, bringing personalized experiences to more people across the mobile Web, particularly in emerging markets where we are seeding the next generation of Yahoo! users. At the same time, we believe Nokia’s strength and continued investment in maps and navigation will greatly enhance our existing products, enabling us to focus on areas that are core to our business.”

Together, Yahoo! and Nokia will continue to deliver compelling Internet experiences that address the core needs of consumers, developers, operators and advertisers. The companies will utilize their respective global distribution advantages and brand recognition across consumer audiences.

Select, co-branded service offerings are expected to become available from the second half of 2010, with global availability expected in 2011.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100524/liveblogging-yahoo-nokia-annoucement/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20100520/exclusive-yahoo-poised-to-unveil-project-nike-partnership-deal-with-nokia-at-monday-event/ http://allthingsd.com/20100520/exclusive-yahoo-poised-to-unveil-project-nike-partnership-deal-with-nokia-at-monday-event/#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 06:38:37 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=28620

Today, Yahoo sent out an invite for a press conference in New York on Monday with a mysterioso tone:

It read, vaguely:

“Please join Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz for an exciting announcement about providing global consumers with rich online and mobile experiences, and bringing forward a new era in keeping consumers connected.”

That’s all it took to get BoomTown on the horn to find out what that meant.

And, according to sources, that will be a deal with Finland-based mobile phone giant Nokia (NOK) to build Yahoo (YHOO) email, search and other applications and services into a range of its devices.

While the pair had once discussed Nokia making a Yahoo-centric phone, sources said that is unlikely to be part of this deal.

Such a partnership–code-named “Project Nike” after the Greek goddess of victory and not the sneaker–has been batted around for many years between the companies without result, even as Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) have grabbed the spotlight and business in the exploding smartphone market.

Yahoo has had a range of various mobile initiatives and has had many, mostly failed, partnerships with carriers and telecom makers.

But without its own phone or mobile operating system, such as Google’s Android, the Internet giant is essentially nowhere in what has become the most important digital sector today.

Nokia, which makes more mobile devices–mostly “feature” phones, not smartphones–than any other company, has also struggled to keep up the lightning-fast pace of innovation and has been looking for ways to compete as the landscape shifts dramatically.

That’s why the long-festering deal was placed again on the fast track, especially by Bartz, who has put a lot of emphasis of late on showing Yahoo to be more relevant and cutting-edge.

Thus, the Nokia deal is likely to be a splashy centerpiece of next week’s investor day on Wednesday in Silicon Valley, which will feature Bartz and her senior management, including Americas EVP Hilary Schneider.

Schneider has played a lead role in the Nokia deal, which sources said closed two to three weeks ago.

Bartz will also be appearing at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York next week, a speaker addition that will be announced soon, where she is likely to discuss the deal.

Yahoo has been on a bit of a deal tear of late, purchasing social publishing start-up Associated Content for $90 million earlier this week.

And while the Nokia deal will likely garner a lot of attention when announced, execution will–as usual–be key in determining if this works, especially since both companies are now in a much weaker position.

“Recently, Nokia has offered devices that people don’t want and Yahoo has launched mobile services that they don’t want,” said one person familiar with the talks. “Perhaps in working together, they will find a way to finally create some value.”

Yahoo declined to comment and Nokia has not responded to an email I sent tonight.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100520/exclusive-yahoo-poised-to-unveil-project-nike-partnership-deal-with-nokia-at-monday-event/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20100504/live-rupert-murdoch-talks-avatar-newspapers-and-pay-walls/ http://allthingsd.com/20100504/live-rupert-murdoch-talks-avatar-newspapers-and-pay-walls/#comments Tue, 04 May 2010 21:56:25 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=19044

Remember Rupert Murdoch’s plan to convince other media companies to join him behind a pay wall and offer their stuff only via subscription? It’s still around, in some form. We’ll hear more about it in “three to four weeks” Murdoch said today during News Corp.’s earnings call.

Just what Murdoch has in store isn’t entirely clear. Last year, he sent digital media head Jon Miller out to convince rival newspaper publishers to join News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal in the pay-to-play ring. But it appears that Murdoch may now be thinking of a subscription offering that extends beyond newspapers and into entertainment.

I’ve asked News Corp. if it has anything to add to Murdoch’s hazy comments this afternoon, but I’m not optimistic. I do think we’ll hear more about this before the press conference Murdoch plans for later this month, though.

Meanwhile, here’s some background on “Project Alesia,” the subscription/pay wall plan that may or may not be what Murdoch was talking about today.

Earlier

We’ve seen the numbers, so we know that News Corp. had a very nice quarter. Now let’s hear what Rupert Murdoch has to say about his company’s performance. I’m also interested to see how much ire Murdoch expresses for Google (GOOG) and how much ardor he has for Apple’s (AAPL) iPad, among other digital topics.

The following is a live paraphrase that includes my editorial notes; I’ll note direct quotes where appropriate.

Liveblog

Dave DeVoe going over numbers from the release.

Earnings include one-time items of three cents per share. [Should net that out of earlier reports when comparing to Wall Street expectations.]

Newspapers: Operating income up nearly five times. Higher advertising across nearly all markets. Forex helps, too.

“Other” (includes Myspace): Lower search and ad revenue, but costs are down.

Some balance-sheet talk: We’ve got a lot of cash on the books, and we know it. Some of it will get paid out to Jim Cameron and other participants in “Avatar.” But we’re working on ways to deploy the extra cash. We’ll get back to you on it by the next quarter.

Guidance: We’ve done better than anticipated in lots of our business for the last nine months, but our next quarter will be down. That’s because we expect the film business to be down $100 million, even including “Avatar” DVD releases (reason: We had very good quarter last year). Also, Fox Broadcast will be down. So we’re only bumping up guidance a bit.

Rupert Murdoch:

Exceptional results, “pretty much across the board.”

We’re psyched for five reasons:

1. Content. Really important, and we’re really good at it. Shout-outs for “Avatar,” Fox News Channel, newspapers, TV shows. “Fortune favors the bold,” etc. “We have the no. 1 national newspaper on all three continents.”

2. Technology: We’re good at that, too. The Apple iPad, “which I believe will lead a revolution in content consumption.” First month, 64,000 active users for The Wall Street Journal iPad app. “Unlike the Kindle, we keep 100 percent of the subscriber revenue from the iPad.” Innovative subscription model coming to deliver content to people whenever they want it (paging Jon Miller, James Murdoch).

[Apologies, lost the thread here. But Rupert is gung-ho about TV and other core businesses]

Q&A

Is there concern that you can’t keep growth in the next fiscal year? Can you?

Murdoch: Absolutely! Hedges on numbers. “We have a great slate of films coming up, but we don’t have an ‘Avatar’ in there.” If ad growth keeps up, “I think we can be very confident.”

COO Chase Carey: I agree! The ad market is actually picking up. Sports has been a little slower than other ad markets, and they’re now picking up. “Looks great.”

Question for Devoe: Please talk more about that big cash pile.

Murdoch: I can answer that! “We’re well aware that our balance sheet…is inefficient at the moment.” Increased dividends, stock buy backs, investing in our businesses, possibility of “opportunistic investments,” which we’ve been “nervous” about doing in past year but now we have some things we’re looking at. Cue M&A klaxons!

More color on the TV biz, please.

Carey: Strong recovery in most categories. Not just auto and telecom. Financial, insurance, all sorts of stuff. “It’s pretty broad.”

Murdoch: “We’re seeing pretty optimistic and expanded advertising budgets from the big advertisers.” Not sure when that money is coming, but would guess Q2, when they’re launching new cars. “There’s a lot of money out there on the boards.” And as free over-the-air audiences shrink–and ours is shrinking less–that money is finding its way to cable. So any show that can show any sort of advertising can attract money. “It feels good; that’s all I’m saying.”

Please talk about new retrans/carriage negotiations.

Carey: Fox News deals starting to come up. Will be staggered over a couple of years. “I think the Fox News network…is certainly–maybe with ESPN–second to none.” So pay up, cable guys! (And customers!)

Carey mounts a long defense of Sky Italia. I’ll refrain from transcribing.

Similarly, you’re probably not interested to read what he has to say about satellite TV in Europe.

Netflix is killing it. What does that mean for you guys? Good news because it says good thing about your library? Or maybe an opportunity for you to do more with your library?

Carey: Noncommittal answer. But: “There is a question whether the Netflix model is getting us fair value for our product.” So we’ll keep looking at windowing content and whether we’re getting paid enough for our stuff. “I think it’s a focus.”

Please talk about Fox Audience Network plans and MySpace/Google plans.

Carey: Google plan doesn’t affect FAN. Not going to comment on “rumors.” “I don’t think that’s productive.” But! The key is to build enough traffic to attract enough dollars. FAN has a done a good job.

Let me try to re-ask the same question regarding restructuring or spinoff of FAN.

Murdoch: Praises MySpace. In the past few years “we made some big mistakes,” but we have fine new management now. “Early indications, and they’re only indications, are that we’re getting new visitors, and they’re staying longer,” so ad dollars will follow.

[Sorry missed this question, but I believe it is about guidance.] Murdoch is not talking up the film slate, but indicates that he’s spending a bunch of money on movies, and the company will take hits on those initially before they see dollars come back.

Carey: The film business fluctuates from quarter to quarter. But our team is great, and we have great movies coming. “We couldn’t be more excited and positive about the film business.”

Murdoch: Our movie investors praise us.

Any film properties you’re interested in?

Murdoch: “We’d look if something real came onto the market,” but we don’t put MGM in that category, at least not at the price it’s asking. We prefer to invest in our own stuff, and that goes for TV shows as well. “Glee” is a big hit and we own it. Same goes for “Modern Family.”

More info on digital, please. What about MySpace profitability? What happens when Google deal ends w/MySpace?

Carey: “Clearly, MySpace is a work in progress.” [This is a familiar refrain.] But promising signs. Talking up “Glee” tryouts. Improved the platform, etc. By the end of 2010, we want a foundation installed that we can go forward with, and we want to have a cash positive business going into 2011. “The trends are better but they’re not what they need to be….A number of the key metrics are not going up, but they’re better than what they were.”

Are you getting retrans fees for Fox broadcast now?

Not yet.

Why isn’t TV station top-line growth showing up on overall segment results?

Has to do with way we present results. [Confusing and confused discussion about bookkeeping ensues.]

[Still going!]

Press Q&A! (Usually much more entertaining)

Question about Australian news story about…mining?

Murdoch: “Nothing to do with media.”

Same guy has a question about Australian football (?). Rupert professes shock about whatever the scandal was.

Eighty-one advertisers bailed on Glenn Beck. Now it seems as if the only ads are in-house and for gold. When will you stop subsidizing the show and require it to carry its own weight?

Rupert says the 81 number is wrong and that Glenn Beck show doing great.

More color on that subscription model, please.

Rupert: Press conference coming in three-to-four weeks.

But: We’re getting about $4 a week for The Wall Street Journal… [voice trails off].

So this would be about entertainment as well?

Oh, you bet. Everyone’s been talking about negotiating with Apple.

[Both Rupert and FT's Ken Li seem confused. Me too.]

How much did you invest in Wall Street Journal New York edition?

Rupert. “Happy to tell you. We invested nothing.” Maybe $1 million in it. But ti already covers its costs. The notion that we’re spending $30 million on it is “BS.”

[Sorry, missed next two questions.]

Soon to-be Murdoch employee Claire Atkinson has questions about TV ads and online video ads.

Murdoch: WSJ.com is up 11 percent. $100 million in digital revenue at Dow Jones. At Fox news.com, “absolutely thriving.” [If he answered TV question, I didn't hear it, but I think he passed on that one.]

That’s all, folks.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100504/live-rupert-murdoch-talks-avatar-newspapers-and-pay-walls/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100426/facebook-scribe-david-kirkpatrick-talks-about-zuckerbergs-world-which-we-all-just-live-in/ http://allthingsd.com/20100426/facebook-scribe-david-kirkpatrick-talks-about-zuckerbergs-world-which-we-all-just-live-in/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:34:55 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=27651

While at the press conference at Facebook’s f8 developers confab last week, BoomTown checked in with David Kirkpatrick, author of the soon-to-be-released book, “The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World.”

Pretty good timing for the former Fortune magazine writer, since the social networking site seems to be barreling through on its goal of being at the center of the digital universe, now reaching 500 million users worldwide with a $25 billion private-market valuation.

An IPO is expected sooner rather than later, although the innovative company seems more intent on colonizing the Web with “Like” buttons and its insidious Facebook Connect.

As Kirkpatrick wrote on the book’s Facebook fan page after the conference last week:

“Yesterday’s f8 represents a sea change for Facebook because for the first time the world finally sees its true ambition–to become the world’s Internet identity infrastructure. The implications are manifold, as I explain in my book.”

Well, as an aged member of the tech media who has seen true ambitions come and seen them go, often very quickly–Netscape Communications, AOL (AOL), Yahoo (YHOO)–I will reserve judgment on digital world domination for five years hence.

Nonetheless, it looks like “The Facebook Effect” will be well worth reading, given Kirkpatrick had cooperation from its execs, including CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg.



And I know how much the was-that-a-question tech wunderkind of Silicon Valley likes to answer queries, so kudos to Kirkpatrick for getting him to sing. Also, expect a lot of big players in the Web drama from Yahoo to Google (GOOG) to Microsoft (MSFT) to Twitter and more.

Here’s the video of my interview with Kirkpatrick about the book, which comes out in June (I did forget to ask him why Tintin’s silhouette posed for the cover):

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100426/facebook-scribe-david-kirkpatrick-talks-about-zuckerbergs-world-which-we-all-just-live-in/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100422/a-mean-video-boomtown-annoys-to-a-cavalcade-of-facebook-execs-at-f8/ http://allthingsd.com/20100422/a-mean-video-boomtown-annoys-to-a-cavalcade-of-facebook-execs-at-f8/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:15:38 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=27482

Here is a video BoomTown did yesterday at Facebook’s bustling f8 developers conference in San Francisco.

At a press conference at the Silicon Valley social networking event, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg–trying mightily not to answer a question I proffered about the competitive landscape–said I wrote “mean” posts.

Oh, Mark, man up or get a big dose of a sense of humor from your delightful sister, Randi.

In any case, I hope Zuckerberg enjoys these interviews about the innovations and partnerships announced yesterday that I did with many of his minions, including:

Biz dev guy and guerrilla hugger Bubba Murarka, latest Google (GOOG) refugee David Fischer, PR honcho Brandee Barker, deal dude Vaughan Smith, moneybags investor Jim Breyer of Accel Partners, engineering head Mike Schroepfer and product guru Chris Cox, on whom I might have developed a man crush for his good humor while I poked at him.

Which is not mean at all!

Here’s the video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100422/a-mean-video-boomtown-annoys-to-a-cavalcade-of-facebook-execs-at-f8/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100305/youtube-to-offer-captions-on-videos/ http://allthingsd.com/20100305/youtube-to-offer-captions-on-videos/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:30:29 +0000 Jessica E. Vascellaro http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=22187 Google Inc.’s YouTube said it will offer automatically generated captions for its entire video catalog, a boon for deaf users and those who want to watch videos in other languages.

At a press conference at YouTube’s San Bruno, Calif., headquarters, Google (GOOG) software engineer Ken Harrenstein demonstrated the feature and went through the reasons Google invested in the product–from expanding accessibility to crossing language barriers to improving search.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100305/youtube-to-offer-captions-on-videos/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100114/the-one-year-report-card-of-yahoos-carol-bartz-management-a/ http://allthingsd.com/20100114/the-one-year-report-card-of-yahoos-carol-bartz-management-a/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:04:40 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=22996

Yesterday, BoomTown wished Carol Bartz a happy one-year anniversary as CEO of Yahoo.

And today, it is time to shamelessly judge her tenure!

As I noted, in an interview with Bloomberg last week, Bartz gave herself a “B-minus in her first year.”

In the Bloomberg interview, Bartz explained that she gave herself a B- because she should have moved faster to reorganize Yahoo (YHOO) and to strike an online advertising and search partnership with Microsoft (MSFT), even as she noted that the management challenge at Yahoo “was a little tougher internally than I think I had anticipated.”

But an overall grade is too easy! Instead, over the next days, it’s time to drill down on specifics: Management, financials, product innovation, deal-making and, yes, moxie.



And for management, I give Bartz an A-.

Here’s why:

Pros: There is no question that the hard-talking Bartz took charge from the get-go, expertly grabbing the reins at Yahoo and hitting targets on her very first day like some kind of digital Annie Oakley.

At her memorable press conference on Jan. 13, 2009–lasting only 15 minutes and three questions–Bartz sternly admonished everyone to give Yahoo some “friggin’ breathing room” and noted that the company “frankly, could use a little management.”

It was a refreshing statement of the obvious, especially after the tough year suffered by outgoing CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang, who was pretty spent by the end of his tenure.

Thus, any leader who had any kind of kinetic energy was going to get noticed.

And Bartz? She is–and I mean this in the nicest way–a nuclear reactor set to high.

At the press conference, Bartz also described herself a “straight shooter.”

Finally, she said she thought it “nonsense” to think that Yahoo was not feeling great about itself, spitting out the word “nonsense” in that scary-mommy, end-of-discussion way, like someone who has kids and knows a thing or two about nonsense.

And, I would have to say, Bartz has pretty much kept up the necessary take-charge tone and followed it up with action.



She has projected firm leadership internally and to Wall Street, made cuts in staff immediately and restructured her top management quickly, rendered fast decisions about cutting or selling off the hairball units at Yahoo, and struck key partnerships with Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook.

And she has done so with little of the sentimentality that had long characterized Yahoo, going out of her way to tell people what she thought rather than doing the typical “Kumbaya” moves.

If her success in management could be boiled down, its essence would be this: Carol knows how to clean up a troubled company, Carol knows how to take charge and most of all, Carol makes decisions.

Cons: And that’s just where the minus comes in.

From the start and still today, I have heard many at Yahoo grumble that while Bartz has a terrific ability to make decisions, she might be too much about decisive decision-making than about making good decisions.

To be fair, that’s exactly what people who avoid making tough decisions always say.

Still, the worry about this has persisted, with many calling Bartz’s manner more showy than substantive, more brute force than finesse. Her tough style–especially when she starts to curse–definitely grates some.

There is obviously a whiff of sexism here–which any strong-speaking woman in tech is subject to and must find a way to completely ignore.

It is hard to do. Thus, I have heard Bartz negatively called by employees: Sarah Palin of the Internet (Maverick!), Al Haig of the Internet (I’m in charge here!) and Tony Soprano of the Internet (Badda Bing!).



Externally, while she has a lot of prominent supporters in Silicon Valley, more than enough major Internet execs have asked me sotto voce if the former Autodesk (ADSK) CEO knows enough about the Internet business–and not just software and tech, where she has loads of experience–to be an effective leader (I will get to that when I grade product innovation).

What’s interesting here is that for all those who don’t like her style, she also garners a rabid fan base at Yahoo and among investors, who are very glad someone is projecting leadership and putting the ducks in order at the company.

The bottom line, though, is that Bartz does not seem to care all that much about what anyone thinks of her.

On her first day, she said: “My focus is on turning the company around.”

And in this regard, she has most definitely kept that focus and that promise.

Of course, all of this depends on how Yahoo recovers financially and how its stock performs on Wall Street, which will be the next area to be graded.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100114/the-one-year-report-card-of-yahoos-carol-bartz-management-a/feed/ 7 http://allthingsd.com/20100113/happy-one-year-anniversary-carol-party-today-because-boomtowns-grading-begins-tomorrow/ http://allthingsd.com/20100113/happy-one-year-anniversary-carol-party-today-because-boomtowns-grading-begins-tomorrow/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:00:38 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=22943

In an interview with Bloomberg last week, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz gave herself a “B-minus in her first year.”

The anniversary of her arrival at Yahoo is, in fact, today. (Her first words as CEO at a press conference a year ago? “Yahoooo!” and “Friggin’.”)

In the Bloomberg interview, Bartz was less effusive, saying should have moved faster to reorganize and to strike the online advertising and search partnership with Microsoft (MSFT), even as she noted that the management challenge at Yahoo (YHOO) “was a little tougher internally than I think I had anticipated.”

Predicted Bartz about the Silicon Valley icon: “You’re just going to see Yahoo bloom more.”

That’s nice, especially since BoomTown loves getting pretty-smelling flowers!

But, ever the stickler, it is incumbent on this Yahoo-obsessed column to weigh in on grading too, starting tomorrow and drilling down a lot more specifically on Bartz’s overall performance in 2009.

Thus, I will be looking at five overall areas by which to render the CEO’s marks: Management, financials, product innovation, deal-making and, yes, moxie–or, if you want to be dull, inspirational leadership.

Until then, please enjoy the highlights video below from my most excellent interview with Bartz at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference last May, in which she both touched my knee and cursed me out.

Let me say, Bartz gets an automatic A-plus for that!

And here is the video of the full session, if you’re interested, clocking in at about 49 minutes:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100113/happy-one-year-anniversary-carol-party-today-because-boomtowns-grading-begins-tomorrow/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091215/comcast-launches-its-tv-everywhere-nationwide-with-an-awful-name-say-hello-to-xfinity/ http://allthingsd.com/20091215/comcast-launches-its-tv-everywhere-nationwide-with-an-awful-name-say-hello-to-xfinity/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:18:17 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=13997 As promised, Comcast is opening up the trial of its “TV Everywhere” program, which gives its subscribers–but only its subscribers–access to extra TV programming, streamed via the Web.

Comcast (CMCSA) will be holding a press conference shortly to walk reporters through this. But if you’re a Comcast customer who is paying for both digital cable and broadband–that’s something less than 14 15.7 million people nationwide–you should be able to check this out now, by heading to either Comcast.net or Fancast.

If things are working right, you’ll notice that Comcast has added an “xfinity TV” logo, which is the new service’s unwieldy new name. If you try to watch a show that’s included in the test, you’ll be guided through a download process that will install both a Move player and an Adobe (ADBE) AIR app, which the cable company says you’ll need to deal with only once to watch this stuff.

Once that’s done, you’ll actually watch the show via your Web browser. The login process I went through told me that I could authorize up three computers for the service.



I’ve played around briefly with the service, via a side door, and can confirm that it does indeed work. Hard to get a good grip on what the new service is offering subscribers, though, since the Fancast menu doesn’t really delineate what’s only available to subs instead of freeloaders.

But I was able to watch some of the last episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which is only available to subs who have Comcast digital cable and broadband and are paying for Time Warner’s (TWX) HBO–and it looked pretty good (as long you don’t fast-forward).



Comcast is starting its press conference now. I’ll update here if there’s anything of note:

• The cable operator says that once you’ve logged in, you’ll be getting a “personalized” homepage that knows what shows/movies different subscribers have access to.
• One important point: Sometime in the next year, Comcast says that simply being a Comcast subscriber will be enough to qualify you for the service, i.e., you won’t have to get your broadband from Comcast in order to watch this stuff. It’s a “dual-play” offering right now, the company, says, because that was the easiest way for it figure out the “authentication”/security element.
• Mobile device access? Nope. Maybe next year. International? Nope. But do note that you don’t actually have to be on a Comcast connection to watch the programming–as long as your computer is authorized, you can see it anywhere you can connect (in the U.S.).
• Key unanswered question: When will Nielsen (or someone else) figure out how to treat online views in the same way that it counts “regular” ratings–and convince advertisers to do the same? Because until that happens, you’re unlikely to see a whole lot of authorized TV on the Web, period.

And here’s the release (warning: Not much info here):

COMCAST MAKES ON DEMAND ONLINE VIDEO ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE AVAILABLE NATIONALLY

Comcast Brings Top Cable Television, Movie and Independent Programming to Customers At Home and On-the-Go for No Additional Cost

Philadelphia, PA, December 15, 2009 — Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), one of the nation’s leading providers of entertainment, information and communication products and services, announced today that it has made its On Demand Online experience available nationally in beta at no additional cost to customers. The innovative new service now called Fancast XFINITY TV, gives customers an “anytime anywhere” entertainment experience–at home and on-the-go–and expands the video content customers can watch online by giving them quick and easy access to thousands of hours of cable TV shows, movies and independently produced content.

“Fancast XFINITY TV is a win for consumers and content producers. We’re giving customers access to content they love in new ways and opening up new opportunities for established and independent producers to make their content available on-demand” said Matt Bond, Executive Vice President of Content Acquisition. “This new service brings consumers many movies and TV shows that have never been available online before.”

Both Comcast customers and non-Comcast customers across the nation currently have access to over 12,000 hours of great online content through Fancast.com–the company’s online TV site and a top TV destination on the web–for free. Now, as a benefit of their cable subscription, Comcast customers will enjoy even more access to thousands of titles from the cable channels in their subscription packages at no additional cost through Fancast XFINITY TV.

“This is a beta product only, but the consumer feedback has been great so far. We look forward to more feedback as we make it available to even more customers” said Amy Banse, President of Comcast Interactive Media. “We think Fancast XFINITY TV gets us one step closer to our multiplatform goal and is just the beginning of delivering an entirely new TV viewing experience.”

Beginning today, any Comcast customer with a digital cable and Internet subscription can visit www.comcast.net or www.fancast.com, sign-in with their Comcast email user name and password and watch their favorite subscription content at no charge.

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