USA Swimming announced that it will ban Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Phelps from competition for three months. Phelps also lost his endorsement deal with Kellogg's over photos of him smoking a bong. More proof that in a networked environment there is absolutely no expectation of privacy, especially if you are in the public eye.
The "Performance Rights Act" has been introduced to the Senate and the House. The bill, which would force Radio stations to pay artists whose music is played on the radio, is being championed by the RIAA and fought by broadcasters. Currently, on terrestrial radio, the only person paid royalties for having their song on the radio is the songwriter, as opposed to satellite radio broadcasters, webcasters and cable networks who have to pay both the recording artist and the songwriter.
comScore issued a report noting that US web surfers watched 14.3 billion viral videos in December. The number was up 13% over last year. comScore notes that a 150 million Americans watched 96 videos during December, and it should come as no surprise that most of them were on YouTube.
News Corp. reported a $6.4 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2008. The main cause of the fiscal decrease was its acquisition of the Wall Street Journal, which the company paid over $5 billion for. A bright point in the News Corp. financial report was that cable networks posted a 27% increase in operating income.
Warner Music Group increased its net profit to $23 million for the quarter, up from $16 million this time last year. The sale of its stake in Front Line Management accounted for the increase. If Warner hadn't sold its portion of Front Line, the company would have posted a lose of 9 cents a share.
Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net
