News Byte
Peter Kafka in Media on January 26 at 12:01 am PT
Streaming music service Rhapsody, which has only been available in the U.S. for the last 11 years, has finally made it to Europe. The service has finished a deal to buy one-time competitor Napster’s operations in the U.K. and Germany; last fall, Rhapsody bought Napster’s U.S. assets. Rhapsody competitor Spotify isn’t in Germany yet, but industry sources expect that to change soon.
John Paczkowski in Mobile on November 28, 2011 at 3:40 pm PT
Pent-up demand for the iPhone 4S in Great Britain has carried the device straight to the top of the country’s sales charts.
News Byte
Peter Kafka in Media on November 16, 2011 at 12:01 am PT
Miramax will distribute its movies, like “Good Will Hunting” and “Pulp Fiction,” in the U.K. via Netflix when the streaming service opens up there next year. Netflix has also recently announced U.K. content deals with
Lionsgate Entertainment and MGM. Miramax, which spun out from Disney a year ago, has signed Netflix distribution pacts for the U.S. and Latin America, as well.
News Byte
Peter Kafka in Media on November 10, 2011 at 3:57 am PT
James Murdoch, News Corp.’s deputy chief operating officer, is once again testifying before the U.K. Parliament about his role in this summer’s PhoneGate scandal. Lawmakers are accusing Murdoch — who at one point had been the presumed successor to his father, Rupert — of not being truthful during
the two men’s July appearance. You can watch the event live via this
Webcast; News Corp. also owns this Web site.
News Byte
Peter Kafka in Media on October 24, 2011 at 4:04 am PT
Netflix
says it will bring its streaming video service — but not its DVDs — to the United Kingdom and Ireland in “early 2012.” The announcement confirms earlier reports and speculation that the company would target the U.K. after a Latin American expansion in 2011; other reports have the company
moving into Spain as well. Unlike other Netflix expansion moves, in the U.K. the company will run up against its first entrenched digital competitor:
Amazon’s LoveFilm, most often known as “the Netflix of Europe.”
Netflix reports Q3 earnings this afternoon.
Kara Swisher in Commerce on August 25, 2011 at 3:02 pm PT
Facing a barrage of negative press about its upcoming IPO, Groupon CEO and co-founder Andrew Mason took up a pen to counter critics of the social buying service in a pugnacious email to employees.
Peter Kafka in News on August 11, 2011 at 6:35 am PT
“When people are using social media for violence we need to stop them.”
Kara Swisher in Media on July 19, 2011 at 6:36 am PT
News Corp. CEO and majordomo Rupert Murdoch tells British lawmakers he is sorry on the “most humble day of my life”, survives a surprise attack and loses his jacket.
Other than that, the hearing turned into a what
didn’t the Murdochs know and when
didn’t they know it Q&A session.
Kara Swisher in Media on July 11, 2011 at 4:26 am PT
The Huffington Post Media Group, AOL’s fast-moving content unit, is launching a celebrity site called HuffPost Celebrity today, as well as another called HuffPost Culture.
HuffPost Celebrity, which ate AOL’s former celeb-focused site Popeater, is in a very crowded arena online, with competitors such as Yahoo’s omg!, Time Warner’s People magazine Web site, as well as AOL-owned TMZ.com.
