TV Stations are up in arms over the delayed winter Sweeps. The sweeps, which were bumped to March due to the eventually botched DTV transition, are being called a "waste of time", as "there will be nothing to compare these ratings to, and ratings in a void are useless" said strategist Chuck Larsen.
Airing a commercial during the Super Bowl has apparently helped increase Hulu's traffic by 50%. The Super Bowl commercial starring 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin, paid for by NBC with credits, exposed Hulu to viewers with no previous knowledge of the streaming video site. Analysts now believe that the NBCU-News Corp venture may be receiving as many as 30 million uniques a month.
Controversy surrounding the Amazon Kindle's text-to-specch feature has led Amazon to change its position on the feature. Publishers claimed copyright infringement, noting that the computerized voice that reads passages violates copyright laws related to professional audio books. Amazon, who claims that the feature is 100% legal, said "we strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat."
In a box office surprise, Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail beat out The Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience for the number one spot at the Box Office this week. While Madea's take declined 60% in one week to $16.5 million, it still beat the Jonas Brothers by nearly $4 million dollars. Oscar victory helped Slumdog Millionaire increase its take, pulling in $12.2 million for the third place spot.
CBS College Sports Network, which extensively covers March Madness, now has more than 30 million subscribers. The network, which has a deal with DirecTV, has increased subs by more than 7 million in the past 3 months. The boost in subs comes as NCAA March Madness, one of the channels biggest draws, is set to begin.
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