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	<title>AllThingsD &#187; TV Guide</title>
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		<title>Another TV Guide for Web Video! But Shufflr Wants Your Friends to Do the Work</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20101116/another-tv-guide-for-web-video-but-shufflr-wants-your-friends-to-do-the-work/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20101116/another-tv-guide-for-web-video-but-shufflr-wants-your-friends-to-do-the-work/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:30:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Kafka</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=25913</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So let's say you do want to watch Web video from your couch. Who's going to find the good stuff for you? A new start-up says it can--by getting you and your friends to do the heavy lifting.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/11/shufflr.png"><img src="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/11/shufflr-275x176.png" alt="" title="shufflr" width="250" height="160" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-25931" /></a>Smart people are sure that you&#8217;re going to watch more and more Web video from the comfort of your couch.</p>
<p>But if that&#8217;s the case, how are you going to decide what to watch? The world of Internet video is exponentially bigger than the 500-channel universe you already have, and usually ignore, via your cable box. Who&#8217;s going to help you navigate that?</p>
<p>Lots of people, it turns out. In fact, that&#8217;s one of the most popular ways to attack the Web video business: Try to create what will turn out to be the Web&#8217;s version of TV Guide, and make money by selling content or advertising once you&#8217;re big enough.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s really what Boxee is up to, if it can get scale. Ditto for Clicker. And Google TV and Apple TV, really. And really, if you think about it, that&#8217;s what Hulu would like to do, if Jason Kilar could get his way. Etc.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s yet one more competitor: <a href="http://shufflr.tv/">Shufflr</a>, a newish start-up run by Bangalore-based Althea Systems. Althea has rounded up $3 million via a Series A round from Intel Capital, and is using the money to build out its product, a browser that works on laptops and, soon, phones running Google&#8217;s Android platform.*</p>
<p>Shufflr&#8217;s pitch is pretty simple: They sort through lots of video feeds&#8211;from everyone from YouTube to Comedy Central to Blip.TV&#8211;and offer up suggestions about what you&#8217;d like to see.</p>
<p>They&#8217;re based in part on what you&#8217;ve said you like on Twitter and Facebook, and in part on what your friends have said they like, by forwarding a link. And Shufflr plays the video for you&#8211;using the original distributors embedded advertising&#8211;on its own player.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s an interesting concept, but the problem with all of these machine-based recommendation engines is that they&#8217;re more clumsy than you&#8217;d like.</p>
<p>Shufflr, for instance, can figure out that I like &#8220;comedy,&#8221; but then it spits up everything that anyone has ever thought is funny. And there&#8217;s a whole lot of not-funny stuff there. At least in my humble opinion.</p>
<p>I think that&#8217;s not that much of a problem when you&#8217;re sitting on a laptop, idling for a few minutes between meetings and just want to watch&#8230;something. If you don&#8217;t like it, you flip away very, very quickly</p>
<p>But on your couch, which is the use case Shufflr is pushing here, I think your standards are higher. Or different, at least: I&#8217;m happy to flip through dud channels on my own, but if some software suggested stuff that I didn&#8217;t want to see, I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;d stick with it very long.</p>
<p>And I&#8217;m sure that, statistically, I&#8217;m much more likely to enjoy something that one of my Facebook friends likes, or that someone I follow Twittered about. But that&#8217;s a very big group, and the truth is, I probably only care what a very small number of them say about what to watch on the Web. (I&#8217;m still angry at Clicker CEO Jim Lanzone, for instance, for raving about &#8220;Kick-Ass,&#8221; which I ended up renting on VOD. You owe me $4.99, dude.)</p>
<p>But that&#8217;s the problem that <em>most</em> recommendation sites and engines have, no matter what the topic is: You really don&#8217;t care what everyone you know says about everything&#8211;you care what a few people say about something very particular.</p>
<p>In any case, Shufflr is less than a year old, so they&#8217;ve got a bit of time to get better. But they&#8217;d best do it quickly: Plenty of other folks are trying to crack the same code.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a demo video, followed by a video Q&amp;A I did with co-founder Rajnish (that&#8217;s his full name):</p>
<p><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/12667928?byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="380" height="304" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/12667928">Shufflr &#8211; A Social Video Browser</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user4075466">Shufflr</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p><div class="video-wsj"><object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="flashvars" value="videoGUID=FA6EA20E-FBF2-4596-A2CD-0C8D3DBB069E&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/"name="microflashPlayer"></param><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoGUID={FA6EA20E-FBF2-4596-A2CD-0C8D3DBB069E}&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/" name="microflashPlayer" width="640" height="360" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br />[ See post to watch video ]</div></object></p>
<p>*Shufflr runs on Adobe&#8217;s Flash, which is why it won&#8217;t be available on Apple&#8217;s iPad/iPod/iPhone platform for a while&#8211;the company will need to spend a little time porting its software into an Apple-approved version.</p>
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		<title>Newsweek&#039;s Deal Is Done; Employees Gather to Hear Their Fate</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20100802/newsweeks-deal-is-done-employees-gather-to-hear-their-fate/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20100802/newsweeks-deal-is-done-employees-gather-to-hear-their-fate/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:17:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Kafka</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=22098</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sidney Harman buys the struggling magazine for $1 and takes on some of its liabilities.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>And now it&#8217;s really official: The Washington Post has handed over Newsweek to speaker magnate Sidney Harman, finishing <a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100505/washington-post-announces-a-one-time-fire-sale-for-newsweek/">a fire sale that began in early May</a>. The paper hasn&#8217;t disclosed a sale price, but the <a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/deal-for-newsweek-close-to-completion/">New York Times</a> pegs it $1, plus an agreement to take on all or most of Newsweek&#8217;s &#8220;considerable financial liabilities&#8221;&#8211;i.e. many millions of dollars.</p>
<p>Make that <em>some</em> of the liabilities. Here&#8217;s the Post&#8217;s official description of the price: &#8220;The Washington Post Company retains the pension assets and liabilities and certain employee obligations arising prior to the sale. The resulting gain or loss at closing is not expected to be material&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>The official release is at the bottom of this post.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://twitter.com/learmonth/status/20154818011">Ad Age&#8217;s Michael Learmonth</a> reminds us, the $1 + debt price point is the new standard for dying print pubs: That&#8217;s what the current owner of TV Guide paid for that pub, while Bloomberg paid a comparatively rich <a href="http://twitter.com/erickschonfeld/status/20168003073">$5 million plus liabilities</a> for <a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20091026/businessweeks-fire-sale-nets-mcgraw-hill-5-9-million/">BusinessWeek</a>. (Sorry about lowballing the Bizweek price in a previous edit.) Serious question: What does Allen &#038; Co. get for brokering the Newsweek deal?</p>
<p>The magazine&#8217;s employees have an all-hands meeting at 4:30 Eastern to hear about their fate. But here&#8217;s the quick and dirty version:</p>
<p><strong>The good news:</strong> Their new owner apparently impressed Washington Post (WPO) Chairman Donald Graham with his pledge not to carve up the magazine, as most buyers would have done. So many of them are likely not to lose their jobs in the near-term&#8211;or even undergo the kind of wrenching overhaul that Bloomberg has put BusinessWeek through.</p>
<p><strong>The bad news:</strong> It&#8217;s hard to see how Harman or his heirs (he&#8217;s 91 years old) will be able to avoid doing that, eventually. The reason that Graham gave away Newsweek is that he couldn&#8217;t figure out how to make it stop bleeding red ink. And Graham ran a big media company that could, theoretically, offer lots of assistance to a struggling magazine. Harman is just going to own Newsweek, which has lost lots of money for many years.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone there.</p>
<blockquote class="memo"><p>WASHINGTON&#8211;(BUSINESS WIRE)&#8211;The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO &#8211; News) announced today that it has signed a contract to sell Newsweek to Dr. Sidney Harman.</p>
<p>“In seeking a buyer for Newsweek, we wanted someone who feels as strongly as we do about the importance of quality journalism. We found that person in Sidney Harman,” said Donald E. Graham, chairman and chief executive officer of The Washington Post Company. “He has pledged not only to continue to produce a lively, compelling and first-rate news magazine, but also an equally dynamic Newsweek.com – and he intends to keep a majority of Newsweek’s very talented staff.”</p>
<p>Dr. Harman said, “Newsweek is a national treasure. I am enormously pleased to be succeeding The Washington Post Company and the Graham family and look forward to this great journalistic, business and technological challenge.”</p>
<p>The terms of the asset purchase agreement were not announced; however, The Washington Post Company retains the pension assets and liabilities and certain employee obligations arising prior to the sale. The resulting gain or loss at closing is not expected to be material to the financial position of The Washington Post Company.</p>
<p>Allen &#038; Company advised The Washington Post Company on the transaction. Dr. Harman was advised by Guggenheim Securities, LLC. Covington &#038; Burling LLP served as lead counsel for The Washington Post Company, and Williams &#038; Connolly LLP represented Dr. Harman.</p>
<p>Dr. Harman’s biography is attached.</p>
<p>Dr. Sidney Harman</p>
<p>Sidney Harman, one of the pioneers who began the audio industry, is Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Harman International. He served as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce from 1977-78; founded the Program on Technology, Public Policy and Human Development at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; and was President of Friends World College, a worldwide experimental Quaker college, from 1970-73. He is the author of Mind Your Own Business (2003) and, with Daniel Yankelovich, co-author of Starting With The People (1988).</p>
<p>Dr. Harman holds a Presidential Chair at the University of Southern California and is the first Isaiah W. Hellman Professor of Polymathy. The Chair is named for one of the three founders of the university. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; a member of the Executive, Program Strategy and Trustee Affairs Committees of The Aspen Institute; Trustee Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Carter Center of Emory University; and a member of the Board of Trustees of Freedom House. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; President of the Harman Family Foundation; a member of the Board of the Leadership Institute of USC; and former Chair, Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Public Agenda. He is the founder of The Harman Center for the Arts and of Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, DC, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of The Shakespeare Theatre Company. For many years he served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Board of Business Executives for National Security and on the Corporate Fund Board of The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Any Good Live Video on the Web Right Now? Ask Clicker.</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20100504/any-good-live-video-on-the-web-right-now-ask-clicker/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20100504/any-good-live-video-on-the-web-right-now-ask-clicker/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 May 2010 17:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Kafka</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=19006</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Web video guide Clicker is adding real-time streams to its catalog. But just the legal ones. You'll have to get pirated World Cup feeds on your own.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/tv-cat.jpg"><img src="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/tv-cat-225x300.jpg" alt="" title="tv-cat" width="225" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-4835" /></a></p>
<p>For a bunch of reasons, Web video tends to work better when it has already been recorded. But here&#8217;s one way to make live Web video more palatable: Make it easier to find.</p>
<p>Clicker, the <a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100218/more-money-for-web-video-sure-clicker-raises-another-11-million/">would-be TV Guide for Web video</a>, is now <a href="http://www.clicker.com/live/">indexing live video streams</a>, too. Legal streams, that is&#8211;if you&#8217;re trying to find pirated streams of the Mets or a World Cup game, Clicker won&#8217;t help you.</p>
<p>But if you want to know if C-Span is up and running or when the next installment of <a href="http://twit.tv/">Leo Laporte&#8217;s show</a> is going up or when <a href="http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index">ESPN 3&#8242;s</a> next soccer game goes live, the service should help. Exactly how much, though, will be up to the people who make the live streams and supply the metadata Clicker uses to help sort and categorize the shows.</p>
<p>For instance, it&#8217;s nice to know when Kevin Pollak&#8217;s chat show (surprisingly watchable) is airing. It&#8217;s even nicer to know who Pollak&#8217;s guest is going to be. But Clicker can&#8217;t provide that information until Pollak&#8217;s show does.</p>
<p><a rel="lightbox" href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/05/ClickerLive.Keving-Pollaks-Chat-Show.jpg"><img src="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/05/ClickerLive.Keving-Pollaks-Chat-Show.jpg" alt="" title="ClickerLive.Keving Pollaks Chat Show" width="350" height="237" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19020" /></a></p>
<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: <strong>All Things Digital&#8217;s</strong> Katherine Boehret reviewed Clicker back in November. Check out <a href="http://solution.allthingsd.com/20091124/a-clicker-to-watch-tv-online/">her review here</a>.</em></p>
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		<title>Clicker&#039;s Jim Lanzone Talks About TV on the Web (And Shows Off L.A. Digs)</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20100415/clickers-jim-lanzone-talks-about-tv-on-the-web-and-shows-off-l-a-digs/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20100415/clickers-jim-lanzone-talks-about-tv-on-the-web-and-shows-off-l-a-digs/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:58:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=26741</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[During my recent sojourn in Los Angeles, BoomTown dropped in on the Melrose Avenue HQ of Clicker, the Web site trying to make search sense of premium video on the Web.

I had a chat with Jim Lanzone, former CEO of fourth-ranked search engine Ask about whether such a service could survive with giants like Google around.

He is certainly trying to differentiate Clicker, which aims to steer clear of both copyright issues and huge bandwidth costs by simply being a helpful friend to consumers in search of good video.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/02/clicker.png"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-16432" title="clicker" src="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/02/clicker-275x82.png" alt="" width="250" height="74" /></a></p>
<p>During my recent sojourn in Los Angeles, BoomTown dropped in on the Melrose Avenue HQ of Clicker, the Web site trying to make search sense of premium video on the Web.</p>
<p>I had a chat with Jim Lanzone, former CEO of Ask, the fourth-place search service owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI), about whether such a service could survive with giants like Google (GOOG) around.</p>
<p>Lanzone is certainly trying to differentiate Clicker, which aims to steer clear of both copyright issues and huge bandwidth costs by simply being a helpful friend to consumers in search of good video from television, movies and the Web itself.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://solution.allthingsd.com/20091124/a-clicker-to-watch-tv-online">Katherine Boehret&#8217;s review of the Clicker service</a> in November described it:</p>
<blockquote class="memo"><p>[Clicker is a] free Web site that aims to be the TV Guide for all full episodes available to watch on the Web. It searches over 1,200 sources, so it can index some 400,000 episodes from 7,000 shows. Results include television programs as well as &#8220;Web originals,&#8221; or shows that are native to the Internet and are of broadcast quality. Clicker either plays the video on its site or links you to where this content is shown on another hosting site&#8211;like NBC or Hulu. If a show isn&#8217;t available online, Clicker tells you so you don&#8217;t have to keep hunting all over for it.</p></blockquote>
<p>To try to improve its Web search efforts, Clicker <a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100218/more-money-for-web-video-sure-clicker-raises-another-11-million/">raised another $11 million in venture funding</a> in February in a round led by Jafco Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures. The funding follows an $8 million round announced last fall.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the video of my interview with Lanzone, who also gave me a short tour of Clicker&#8217;s HQ:</p>
<p><div class="video-wsj"><object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="flashvars" value="videoGUID=84929007-960A-43B9-ACF0-8076493EA80F&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/"name="microflashPlayer"></param><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoGUID={84929007-960A-43B9-ACF0-8076493EA80F}&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/" name="microflashPlayer" width="640" height="360" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br />[ See post to watch video ]</div></object></p>
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		<title>More Money for Web Video? Sure: Clicker Raises Another $11 Million.</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20100218/more-money-for-web-video-sure-clicker-raises-another-11-million/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20100218/more-money-for-web-video-sure-clicker-raises-another-11-million/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:01:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Kafka</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=16420</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How do you launch a Web video start-up without getting crushed by lawsuits and bandwidth bills? Launch a Web video search engine.

That's the thesis behind Clicker, a would-be TV Guide for Web video, which has raised an $11 million B round led by JAFCO Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures. The funding follows an $8 million round announced last fall that was actually raised in 2008.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/02/clicker.png"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-16432" title="clicker" src="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/02/clicker-275x82.png" alt="" width="250" height="74" /></a>How do you launch a Web video start-up without getting crushed by lawsuits and bandwidth bills? Launch a Web video search engine.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s the thesis behind Clicker, a would-be TV Guide for Web video, which has raised an $11 million B round led by JAFCO Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures. The funding follows an $8 million round announced last fall that was actually raised in 2008.</p>
<p>I assumed the money would be targeted to build up a sales and marketing team for the 32-person company, which launched in October but has no revenue to speak of. In fact, CEO Jim Lanzone says the money will go in the start-up&#8217;s bank account for now.</p>
<p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t need the money yet,&#8221; he says. &#8220;But we had multiple firms interested, and we had the opportunity to pick the best one for us and get it done. It was kind of a no-brainer.&#8221;</p>
<p>Clicker is a clever Web video play because it takes advantage of Web video&#8217;s popularity without getting clobbered by the cost and copyright problems that have felled start-ups like <a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090630/here-comes-the-video-shakeout-joost-scales-down-ceo-mike-volpi-steps-out/">Joost</a> and <a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100211/veoh-finally-calls-it-quits-layoffs-yesterday-bankruptcy-filing-soon/">Veoh</a>.</p>
<p>Clicker doesn&#8217;t have to pay to produce or stream Web video because it doesn&#8217;t make or host its own clips, though it will run embedded clips from other services. And it doesn&#8217;t have copyright problems because it only indexes professionally produced stuff. (Here&#8217;s <a href="http://solution.allthingsd.com/20091124/a-clicker-to-watch-tv-online/">Katie Boehret&#8217;s review</a> from last November.)</p>
<p>The service doesn&#8217;t have significant traffic yet&#8211;comScore (SCOR) reports 226,000 unique visitors in January, though Lanzone says his internal numbers show 750,000&#8211;but it is getting a warm reception from the traditional TV business, which likes the idea of central hub for &#8220;legitimate&#8221; content.</p>
<p>And the industry needs one if it&#8217;s going to get users to embrace its &#8220;TV Everywhere&#8221; strategy. Again, viewers shouldn&#8217;t care if they&#8217;re watching &#8220;The Pacific&#8221; on <a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100217/hbo-go-is-nice-but-it-wont-help-cord-cutters/">Time Warner&#8217;s (TWX) HBO Go or via Comcast&#8217;s (CMCSA) Fancast</a>&#8211;they just want to find the show.</p>
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		<title>HBO Go Is Nice, But It Won't Help Cord Cutters</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20100217/hbo-go-is-nice-but-it-wont-help-cord-cutters/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20100217/hbo-go-is-nice-but-it-wont-help-cord-cutters/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:29:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Kafka</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=16379</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[HBO's new site is nice, but you can already get the same programming on the Web via Comcast's Fancast--if you're already paying for HBO on your TV. But what if you want to pay for HBO without paying for cable TV? Not happening.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/02/HGO_Series_Pacific.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-16381" title="HGO_Series_Pacific" src="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2010/02/HGO_Series_Pacific-275x185.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="168" /></a>The new &#8220;HBO Go&#8221; site, which lets you watch some 600 hours of the pay cable service&#8217;s programming on the Web, looks nice.</p>
<p>And if you&#8217;re a Verizon (VZ) Fios TV subscriber and you pay for HBO, you&#8217;ll get access to it for free starting tomorrow. But if you don&#8217;t want to wait&#8211;and you&#8217;re both a Comcast (CMCSA) and HBO subscriber&#8211;you can go to Comcast&#8217;s Fancast.com and watch the same programming there. It&#8217;s all the same stuff.</p>
<p>So to be clear: HBO Go isn&#8217;t really a new service. It&#8217;s a new site and player*, which perches on top of the same &#8220;TV Everywhere&#8221; strategy parent company Time Warner (TWX) has been pushing for a year or so. Which you can boil down to: If you pay the cable guys to watch it on TV, they&#8217;ll let you watch it online, too.</p>
<p>You can debate the merits of this strategy and whether the programming guys would be better off selling their stuff directly to consumers and skipping the cable middlemen altogether all you want. But the cable-first strategy isn&#8217;t going to change anytime soon.</p>
<p>HBO&#8217;s aim is to be both &#8220;consumer friendly&#8221; and &#8220;affiliate friendly,&#8221; HBO co-president Eric Kessler explained today. Translation: The company wants to make sure it gets paid by the cable guys, who get paid by you and me.</p>
<p>But couldn&#8217;t there be some fee I could pay HBO to just go directly to the Web, even at a premium of the price for a regular TV subscription? Nope, says Kessler, who then repeats something you often hear from the cable TV industry:</p>
<p>&#8220;The scale of the audience that wants to watch HBO that isn&#8217;t buying television, it&#8217;s a very small audience.&#8221;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, HBO Go points out the difficulty would-be online competitors like Netflix (NFLX) and Apple (AAPL) et al will have providing consumers with what they want when they want it: A lot of the digital rights to the stuff they want are already locked up by the likes of HBO during various &#8220;windows.&#8221;</p>
<p>One other point: Networks like HBO and cable providers like Comcast both want to be the viewers&#8217; gateway to online video, for obvious reasons. But viewers won&#8217;t care whether they&#8217;re watching &#8220;Curb Your Enthusiasm&#8221; on HBO&#8217;s site or via Fancast; they just want to watch that episode where <a href="http://tastybooze.com/2009/11/marty-funkhouser-tells-seinfeld-a-joke/">Marty Funkhouser tells Jerry Seinfeld a really dirty joke</a>.</p>
<p>So someone&#8211;it could be the cable guys themselves or a start-up like <a href="http://www.clicker.com/">Clicker</a>&#8211;needs to build a comprehensive TV Guide for the Web. And then hope that they&#8217;re right about all those people who are happy to keep paying for TV.</p>
<p>*Because you now need to ask this with every consumer tech rollout: No, HBO Go won&#8217;t work on the iPad. Because the site&#8217;s player is built with Adobe&#8217;s (ADBE) Flash, and <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20100217/adobe-cto-kevin-lynch-demos-flash-on-tablets-and-smartphones-including-the-apple-iphone/">Apple wants nothing to do with Flash</a>.</p>
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		<title>A Clicker To Watch TV Online</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20091124/a-clicker-to-watch-tv-online/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20091124/a-clicker-to-watch-tv-online/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:43:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katherine Boehret</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://solution.allthingsd.com/?p=934</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Katherine Boehret looks at Clicker.com, which helps viewers find their favorite shows online faster.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Finding TV shows online can be a major hassle. If you can remember which network hosts the show, you then must hunt through a maze of listings of several other television shows on that network&#8217;s Web site to find it. The show you want to watch might not even be available since many networks rotate only a handful of recent episodes online at a time. And if you do finally find the correct episode, you may be required to download a special media player to watch it.</p>
<p>Some services make this process a little easier. Hulu holds episodes from 1,200 television shows, but is still missing many. Apple&#8217;s (AAPL) iTunes Store offers over 50,000 episodes, but unlike network sites or Hulu, it requires viewers to pay to download and watch them (though they are commercial-free). Video search engines like Truveo browse the entire Web, returning an often-overwhelming number of results. And while YouTube is the king of Web video, it can too easily return a search result that isn&#8217;t a complete and genuine episode of the show you&#8217;re seeking. </p>
<p><div class="video-wsj"><object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="flashvars" value="videoGUID=D1797892-419A-49CB-99D5-7745FD8E2386&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/"name="microflashPlayer"></param><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoGUID={D1797892-419A-49CB-99D5-7745FD8E2386}&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/" name="microflashPlayer" width="640" height="360" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br />[ See post to watch video ]</div></object></p>
<p>This week, I&#8217;ve been testing <a href="http://www.Clicker.com">Clicker</a>, a free Web site that aims to be the TV Guide for all full episodes available to watch on the Web. It searches over 1,200 sources, so it can index some 400,000 episodes from 7,000 shows. Results include television programs as well as &#8220;Web originals,&#8221; or shows that are native to the Internet and are of broadcast quality. Clicker either plays the video on its site or links you to where this content is shown on another hosting site—like NBC or Hulu. If a show isn&#8217;t available online, Clicker tells you so you don&#8217;t have to keep hunting all over for it. </p>
<p>I like Clicker and found it to be a quick resource for finding all sorts of shows online. In many cases, it directed me to find the episodes I wanted to watch and saved me the hassle of less efficient searching. It also suggested shows I might like and offered a playlist where I could subscribe to receive episodes as they became available or save available videos to watch later. </p>
<div class="media-CENTER" style="width:360px;"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AS576_MOSSBE_OR_20091124221750.jpg" rel="lightbox" title="MOSSBERG_d1"><img src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AS576_MOSSBE_OR_20091124221750.jpg" width="360" height="384" style="float: none;" alt="MOSSBERG_d1" /></a></p>
<p>Clicker makes descriptive pages about each show</p></div>
<p>Though it has a search box, Clicker feels more like a directory than purely a robotic search engine that relies mainly on algorithms. In fact, Clicker created a descriptive page for almost every show, and these pages can be edited or created via user submissions, which Clicker will review before posting them to the site. And because it&#8217;s focused on TV shows or Web originals, it won&#8217;t clutter your results with kids&#8217; birthday parties or cats on skateboards.</p>
<p>The site is still rather new, so it has some kinks to work out—like links to videos that didn&#8217;t actually play if, for example, they were pulled by the network. But these were rare, and for the most part, if a video wasn&#8217;t available, a clear, brief explanation was displayed at the top of the page. Also, if Clicker sends you back out to a network&#8217;s site and that network uses a special player for videos, you&#8217;ll still have to download that player.</p>
<h5 class="subhed">Filtering Results</h5>
<p>Clicker&#8217;s program pages contain a description of the show, and a way to filter results by season, airdate or popularity. And the site shows the actual airdate of each video—something that not many other sites do. A column on the right side of each page displays several related shows, like the suggestion of &#8220;Modern Family&#8221; for fans of &#8220;How I Met Your Mother&#8221;; and &#8220;Roswell&#8221; and &#8220;Dead Like Me&#8221; suggested for people who like &#8220;Heroes.&#8221; In December, these recommendations will become even more personalized.</p>
<p>Some of Clicker&#8217;s sources include NBC, Fox, ABC, PBS, the Food Network and Web original content (i.e. &#8220;The Onion&#8221;). It also can search movies and music videos; the movies can be watched free in some cases, or paid for via Amazon&#8217;s (AMZN) Video on Demand or Netflix (NFLX) Instant Streaming. In January, Clicker plans to incorporate shows and movies from iTunes, using Apple&#8217;s pay-and-download method. </p>
<p>Clicker is especially handy when you&#8217;re looking for a show that isn&#8217;t where you think it should be. &#8220;Seinfeld,&#8221; for example, is on TBS rather than NBC, where it originally aired, and only nine episodes are available at once before they rotate out and are replaced by nine more. &#8220;Friends&#8221; is found on <a href="http://www.theWB.com">theWB.com</a>, rather than on NBC&#8217;s site. &#8220;Damages&#8221; isn&#8217;t available on its network site, FX; instead, it can be found at <a href="http://www.Crackle.com">Crackle.com</a>, another video-hosting site. It&#8217;s easy to understand why people settle for missing an episode rather than trying to find a show online. </p>
<div class="media-CENTER" style="width:360px;"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AS574_mossbe_G_20091124222857.jpg" rel="lightbox" title="mossbergJ"><img src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AS574_mossbe_G_20091124222857.jpg" width="360" height="240" style="float: none;" alt="mossbergJ" /></a></p>
<p>Clicker finds over 400,000 television and Web-original episodes so you can search less and watch more.</p></div>
<p>Clicker also comes in handy when you&#8217;re querying something or someone you need to learn about. By typing in a term like &#8220;Thanksgiving travel,&#8221; I get news results from NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Nightly News with Brian Williams,&#8221; the &#8220;CBS Evening News&#8221; and the Associated Press. I also get tips for traveling during this busy time of year from an AOL Travel online video, as well as a 1968 episode of &#8220;The Beverly Hillbillies&#8221; called &#8220;The Thanksgiving Spirit.&#8221; </p>
<p>Clicker isn&#8217;t the site to use if you want to find the hot video clip that everyone is watching. When I searched for &#8220;Whitney Houston&#8221; the morning after the American Music Awards, the most recent video I found was the singer performing on &#8220;Good Morning America&#8221; in September—not the one showing her singing during the awards show the night before. </p>
<p>But the fact that Clicker can find Whitney Houston on &#8220;Good Morning America&#8221; is useful in itself. A search for Warren Buffett&#8217;s most recent appearance on the &#8220;Charlie Rose&#8221; show can be conducted in a similar manner—either by typing his name into the box at the top of the page or by opening the show&#8217;s page and searching within that show for anyone who has appeared as a guest. Performing a search within a show like this anywhere else is nowhere near as easy as on Clicker. </p>
<h5 class="subhed">Playlist of Your Shows</h5>
<p>Clicker can be used as a TiVo (TIVO) of sorts if you create a username on the site or simply sign in using Facebook Connect, which I did. </p>
<p>Users can make playlists where they can add just one episode, all episodes, or new episodes to this list—subscribing to receive all new episodes in the playlist as they become available. I added episodes of &#8220;The Amazing Race&#8221; and &#8220;It&#8217;s Always Sunny in Philadelphia&#8221; to my playlist. This list can be accessed anytime, and it&#8217;s helpful for people who don&#8217;t have enough time to watch a show that they found. In December, email and Facebook notifications will be added to tell users that new episodes are in their playlists.</p>
<p>If you spend a lot of time in front of your computer and find yourself searching all over the Web for the TV shows you&#8217;d like to watch, Clicker will be a huge help. And even if your show isn&#8217;t available, you might find something similar—or better—in Clicker&#8217;s recommendations. </p>
<p class="tagline">Edited by Walter S. Mossberg. Email  <a href="mailto:mossbergsolution@wsj.com">mossbergsolution@wsj.com</a></p>
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		<title>BusinessWeek's Pitch to Investors: Buy Us, Then Fire Us</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20090915/businessweeks-pitch-to-investors-buy-us-then-fire-us/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20090915/businessweeks-pitch-to-investors-buy-us-then-fire-us/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Kafka</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=10976</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How do you sell a business magazine that lost $43 million last year? Convince buyers that they could fire 20 percent of the staff without missing a beat.

That's part of the pitch Evercore Partners has been making to investors on behalf of McGraw-Hill, which wants to dump BusinessWeek. Look out, copy editors!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2008/11/clint-escapes.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-740" title="clint-escapes" src="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/files/2008/11/clint-escapes.jpg" alt="clint-escapes" width="285" height="206" /></a>How do you sell a business magazine that lost $43 million last year? Convince buyers that they could fire 20 percent of the staff without missing a beat.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s part of the pitch that Evercore Partners has been making to investors on behalf of McGraw-Hill (MHP), which wants to dump BusinessWeek.</p>
<p>The New York Times&#8217;s Stephanie Clifford gott her hands on the offering memo Evercore has been circulating to potential bidders, who are supposed to submit offers by today. Reportedly in the mix: Bloomberg; ZelnickMedia; New York Magazine owner Bruce Wasserstein; OpenGate Capital, which bought TV Guide last year for $1 plus debt; and Platinum Equity, which is bidding for the New York Times&#8217;s (NYT) Boston Globe.</p>
<p>In a story published yesterday, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/media/14bizweek.html?_r=1&amp;pagewanted=all">Clifford reviewed the magazine&#8217;s financials</a>, which are miserable. Ditto for the magazine&#8217;s Web site. Today she points out Evercore&#8217;s plan to entice buyers: <a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/details-of-proposed-20-percent-business-week-layoffs/">A ready-made layoff plan</a> that would lop off 20 percent of the magazine&#8217;s staff.</p>
<p>The Evercore memo says the layoffs are actually &#8220;in process,&#8221; an assertion that seems to surprise BusinessWeek&#8217;s staff, which has seen no sign of layoffs. So best to interpret these numbers as suggestions, not plans. That said, here are Evercore&#8217;s suggestions:</p>
<blockquote class="memo"><p>In editorial, 55 of 217 positions are supposed to be eliminated. Of sales, 9 of 69. Of marketing, 6 of 26. Of technology, 8 of 33. Of circulation, just one of 19. And in the “other” category, 6 of 57. That’s a total of 85 eliminations among 421 jobs &#8211; about 20 percent &#8211; leaving 336 BusinessWeek employees.</p>
<p>“BusinessWeek will establish a leaner, entrepreneurial staff without affecting the brand, positioning of the franchise or revenue outlook. The eliminations of editorial staff are primarily in editorial support operations (makeup and copy desk), but also include a reduction in the number of journalists to reflect the smaller folio size of the publication. The positions eliminated in sales are primarily for sales support, but also include some consolidation of integrated sales account managers. The remaining positions eliminated are in other business support functions.”</p></blockquote>
<p>A logical question: If these cuts are so easy to make, why hasn&#8217;t McGraw-Hill made them? I know that this strategy isn&#8217;t uncommon in auctions: Many moons ago, Time Warner (TWX) held off making cuts at its music unit so that a new buyer could do it itself, and that&#8217;s exactly what Edgar Bronfman Jr. and crew did once they got their hands on Warner Music Group (WMG). But the practice still baffles me. Anyone?</p>
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		<title>BusinessWeek Explains Why BusinessWeek Is for Sale: It's a Money Pit</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20090724/businessweek-explains-why-businessweek-is-for-sale-its-a-money-pit/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20090724/businessweek-explains-why-businessweek-is-for-sale-its-a-money-pit/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:44:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Kafka</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=9685</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Earlier this year, a top BusinessWeek editor assured me that McGraw-Hill wouldn't part with the publication--because even if it was losing money it was still a trophy asset for the publisher. But perhaps my source didn't comprehend how much money his employer was actually losing.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/20/files//2008/12/dark-knight-burning.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1583" title="dark-knight-burning" src="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/20/files//2008/12/dark-knight-burning-247x300.jpg" alt="dark-knight-burning" width="164" height="200" /></a>Earlier this year, a top BusinessWeek editor assured me that McGraw-Hill wouldn&#8217;t part with the publication&#8211;because even if it was losing money, it was still a trophy asset for the publisher. But perhaps my source didn&#8217;t comprehend how much money his employer was actually losing.</p>
<p>Now we know. BusinessWeek&#8217;s Jon Fine talks to people who have seen the black book for BusinessWeek, which McGraw-Hill (MHP)  has indeed put on the block. The numbers are brutal. <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jul2009/db20090723_350469.htm">Fine</a>:</p>
<blockquote class="memo"><p>The data state that BusinessWeek lost around $20 million on revenues of $147 million in 2008, and that slightly smaller losses are projected in 2009 on revenue of around $135 million. These losses do not, however, include key corporate overhead items, such as rent and certain infrastructure-related costs. When all those items are factored in, the total loss figure essentially doubles, said two executives who saw the data.</p></blockquote>
<p>Not surprisingly, those numbers seem to have scared off every traditional publisher that might be a logical buyer. The list of nonacquirers includes Time Warner&#8217;s (TWX) Time Inc., News Corp. (NWS) (which owns this Web site), Bloomberg and Thomson-Reuters (TRI).</p>
<p>So who does want this thing? Fine suggests that Open Gate Capital, the private equity firm that bought TV Guide for $1 plus debt last year, may be up for a similar transaction. Another possibility: Billionaire Bruce Wasserstein, who&#8217;s already shown a penchant for high-profile properties, like New York magazine.</p>
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		<title>Macrovision&#039;s Take for TV Guide: A Single Dollar</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20081015/macrovisions-take-for-tv-guide-a-single-dollar/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20081015/macrovisions-take-for-tv-guide-a-single-dollar/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:04:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Savitz</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=4999</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, this would explain why they didn't want to disclose the price.
In a filing with the SEC, Macrovision (MVSN) disclosed the price tag for the sale of TV Guide to OpenGate Capital, and it's a stunner: a single dollar, along with the assumption of liabilities. (Like the need to fulfill current subscriptions.)]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Well, this would explain why they didn&#8217;t want to disclose the price.</p>
<p>In a filing with the SEC, Macrovision (MVSN) disclosed the price tag for the sale of TV Guide to OpenGate Capital, and it&#8217;s a stunner: a single dollar, along with the assumption of liabilities. (Like the need to fulfill current subscriptions.) Macrovision even agreed to provide the buyer with a loan of up to $9.5 million.</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2008/10/15/macrovisions-take-for-tv-guide-a-single-dollar/">Read the rest of this post</a></p>
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		<title>Welcome Rupe! How&#039;s That Gemstar Deal (Not) Working Out?</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20071213/welcome-rupe-hows-that-gemstar-deal-not-working-out/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20071213/welcome-rupe-hows-that-gemstar-deal-not-working-out/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:02:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071213/welcome-rupe-hows-that-gemstar-deal-not-working-out/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Wall Street Journal gave a big hello to its new owner, Rupert Murdoch, who takes over Dow Jones (owner of this site) today, by publishing this tough piece also today on the disaster of News Corp.&#8217;s investment in Gemstar-TV Guide International. It comes from breakingviews, an online financial commentary Web site that the news [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2007/12/mi-ao254a_bview_20071212192214.gif' alt='gemstar' /></p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal gave a big hello to its new owner, Rupert Murdoch, who takes over Dow Jones (owner of this site) today, by publishing <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119750443877725163.html?mod=yahoo_hs&#038;ru=yahoo">this tough piece also today on the disaster of News Corp.&#8217;s investment in Gemstar-TV Guide International</a>.</p>
<p>It comes from <a href="http://www.breakingviews.com/BreakingStories.aspx">breakingviews</a>, an online financial commentary Web site that the news organization regularly adds to its print paper and online site. Dow Jones also is a minority investor in the site, which was writing about the recently announced deal for Macrovision to buy Gemstar, in which News Corp. owns a 41% stake.</p>
<p>Money (or, more precisely, non-money) quote:</p>
<blockquote><p>But in gross terms, Mr. Murdoch looks to have paid $1.6 billion&#8211;after selling the magazines in 1991 and receiving cash from Mr. Malone in 2000&#8211;for the first half of his Gemstar stake. He paid $6 billion in News Corp. stock for the other half. That is nearly $8 billion for an investment valued at $1 billion today.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Ouch!</p>
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		<title>Well, That Was $2.8 Billion Well Spent &#8230;</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20071207/macrovision/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20071207/macrovision/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:08:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Paczkowski</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20071207/macrovision/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Copy-protection vendor Macrovision&#8217;s decision to acquire Gemstar impressed investors about as much as one of the &#8220;Welcome Back, Kotter&#8221; reruns listed in Gemstar&#8217;s flagship magazine, TV Guide. Macrovision shares dropped 24%, to $19.66, and Gemstar lost 18%, to $4.91, on news of the $2.8 billion deal. Seems the market&#8217;s not too keen on Macrovision spending [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&amp;sid=aSwCdXiaZrFU&amp;refer=home">Copy-protection vendor Macrovision&#8217;s decision to acquire Gemstar</a> impressed investors about as much as one of the &#8220;Welcome Back, Kotter&#8221; reruns listed in Gemstar&#8217;s flagship magazine, TV Guide. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/12/07/macrovision-gemstar-update-markets-equity-cx_ml_1207markets16.html">Macrovision shares dropped 24%, to $19.66, and Gemstar lost 18%, to $4.91,</a> on news of the $2.8 billion deal.</p>
<p>Seems the market&#8217;s not too keen on Macrovision spending that much money on <a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/12/gemstar-sold-murdochs-nightmare-over.html">Rupert Murdoch&#8217;s worst investment</a>, even if it will allow Gemstar to offer copyright-protected libraries of shows, movies and music on TVs, mobile phones and the Internet.</p>
<p>In a conference call, Macrovision CEO Fred Amoroso assured investors that the deal makes good business sense. &#8220;Look, I recognize this is a complex transaction, no kidding,&#8221; <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/macrovision-buy-gemstar-28-billion/story.aspx?guid=%7B5C366BF4-5115-4C65-8E31-176B9F1D49F4%7D">Amoroso said</a>. &#8220;You&#8217;ve got a little company, you&#8217;ve got $800 million of debt, there are certainly questions, the debt markets haven&#8217;t been the most robust and all of that. But you know what? We don&#8217;t make decisions as a factor of what the immediate first-day market reaction is going to be &#8230; I have a confidence and a high expectation that as we continue to work over the next few months on integration&#8211;and beyond that after closing&#8211;that this is going to be an enormous value for our stockholders.&#8221;</p>
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