Monday was surprisingly busy as normal this is setup day, but many international broadcasters made their appearances today. Sony, Harris and Grass Valley along with Panasonic seem to be the heavy hitters this year. Many vendor appear to be much more price conscience offering more value for the money. 
Sony Make.believe logo dominates the booth. Find full report of technology findings here shortly.
According to the labels, record sales would have burgeoned if not for the existence of file-sharing site Napster. The labels’ optimistic forecast comes in the form of a chart included in a trial brief for their case against LimeWire.
The above chart was born out of a case brought by major labels like Sony Corp.’s Arista Records and Warner Music Group Corp.’s Atlantic Records against LimeWire. The trial is scheduled to begin May 2.
In the brief, the labels say:
“The evidence will demonstrate that there has been a $55 billion decline in record industry revenue over the last decade. Plaintiffs and Defendants disagree as to whether mass filesharing through peer-to-peer services has been the primary cause of this decline (Plaintiffs’ position), or just one of several causes (Defendants’ position). But even if LimeWire caused only a fraction of this decline, Plaintiffs’ damages would still be in the billions of dollars. Plaintiffs will offer evidence at trial demonstrating that far greater than a fraction of this harm was caused by LimeWire.”
Verizon claims the policy change is taking place because the “greater majority of customers sign up for a two-year contract.”
The nation’s largest wireless provider (at least until that AT&T/T-Mobile deal is approved) previously offered users the ability to sign one-year contracts or contract extensions in lieu of the standard two-year agreement. Customers who opted for the one-year contract were still able to purchase new equipment at a discount, albeit a lesser discount than the subsidized two-year agreements.
In an email to BGR, Verizon reiterated that its contract-free month-to-month plans would still be available to consumers.
Meanwhile, according to draft circulars obtained by DroidLife, Verizon may be introducing a new month-to-month prepaid plan that offers users unlimited voice and text for $50 a month. Data will cost extra (reportedly $30 a month for unlimited data).
AT&T recently increased the early-upgrade price on some of its smartphones and feature phones.
Google’s purchase of ITA Software, a travel and airline software company, has been given a thumbs-up by the U.S. Department of Justice — with a few important stipulations.
The DOJ had subjected the deal to some eight months of scrutiny to determine whether the search giant’s foray into travel and flight search might pose antitrust issues.
The sale was first made known to the public via media reports about a year ago, and Google confirmed the acquisition in July 2010
ITA‘s flight search technology powers the company’s public airfare search engine, Matrix. Its QPX airfare shopping system is used by airlines and travel distributors around the world, and the company is also offering a new airline passenger reservation system.
Since ITA’s software powers many other businesses, the DOJ is requiring Google to continue “to develop and license travel software, to establish internal firewall procedures and to continue software research and development.” QPX and ITA’s other travel search products will continue to be licensed to other companies, even companies that might be competing with whatever travel search app or apps Google might introduce.
In this way, the Department hopes to keep competition for travel search fair. Department reps said that the original deal terms “would have substantially lessened competition among providers of comparative flight search websites in the United States, resulting in reduced choice and less innovation for consumers.”
Looks like the Google juggernaut continues…
NBC has picked up Betty White’s Off Their Rockers, a new hidden-camera comedy show hosted and executive produced by Betty White. The series of 12 half-hour episodes will be produced by Chris Coelen’s Kinetic Content.
Known throughout Europe as Benidorm Bastards, Betty White’s Off Their Rockers follows a band of seven senior citizens who make it their mission to play pranks on unsuspecting younger people. “Betty White is a comedic genius who escalates hilarity in any situation,” said Paul Telegdy, NBC’s EVP Alternative Programming. “Viewers will thoroughly enjoy watching her pull one over on the unsuspecting youth of America.”
Said White, “People have been telling me that I’m ‘Off My Rocker’ for years — now I can prove it.”
The deal reunites White with NBC, where The Golden Girls ran successfully for seven seasons. More recently, White’s hosting gig on NBC’s Saturday Night Liveearned her an Emmy. White remains one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood. Having just turned 89, she continues to star won TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland, which has been picked up for a third season. In addition, her new book If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t) will be released May 3. The original series by Shelter in Belgium, Benidorm, swept the 2010 Rose d’Or Awards, winning the Best Comedy Award as well as the Golden Rose for Best Program of the entire competition. In addition, the show won Best Comedy Format at the 2010 FRAPA Format Awards. The NBC version will be executive produced by White, Coelen, Kinetic’s Matilda Zoltowski and Shelter’s Tim Van Aelst.
Google detailed on Wednesday its Google Fiber Internet service, which will launch first in Kansas City, Kan., promising free broadband Web access for schools and speeds 100 times faster than the current average.
“In about 1995, 15 years ago roughly, everyone was living on 56 kilobits, and it was awful,” said Patrick Pichette, Google’s chief financial officer. “And then somebody invented a 5-meg modem, and everybody was saying, what are you going to do with 5 megs. … Think what you’re going to do with a gigabit; 1,000 megabits.”
Pichette spoke before a packed auditorium at Kansas City’s Wyandotte High School about the possibilities for consumers with 1-gigabit, fiber-optic connection. Also on hand were Google’s vice president of access services, Milo Medin; Kansas City, Kan., Mayor Joe Reardon; and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.
The anouncement was streamed live on Google’s YouTube channel.
Speaking before a crowd that looked to be made up mostly of adults despite taking place in a high school, Gov. Brownback envisioned doctors at the University of Kansas Medical Center using such high speeds to monitor patients over the Web, rather than having to bring people in for appointments.
Medin and Pichette said the “ultra-fast” connections could lead to technologies not yet developed or even imagined.
Mayor Reardon said his son was excited about the prospect of being able to play video games online with friends without interruption.
“He hugged me; he’s a PS3 gamer, and he said, ‘You mean it’s not going to freeze up on me anymore? You need to get that done tomorrow,’ ” Reardon said, eliciting laughs from the audience.
But although Kansas City, Kan., has been selected as Google Fiber’s launchpad, an exact launch date has not been set, Medin said.
“We’re not exactly sure until we get the engineering and planning done but [are] hoping to offer service in 2012,” he said, likely disappointing the mayor’s son.
One detail Google has yet to get into for its Google Fiber service is just how much it will cost consumers. But once Google does roll out its broadband service, the differences in speed will be impressive, Pichette said.
“Speed matters, speed matters immensely,” he said. “Speed is like oxygen; when you have it you take it for granted. Once you don’t have it, you realize it’s everything.”
Although Kansas City, Kan., is set to be the first to get Google Fiber service, the plan is to roll it out to more cities and get the nation up to broadband speed. Most U.S. homes currently paying for high-speed Internet connections are receiving data at less than 10 megabits a second.
John Travolta is set to play John Gotti Sr., the mobster known as the Dapper Don, in the indie pic Gotti: Three Generations.
Nick Cassavetes will direct the screenplay by Leo Rossi, which focuses on the relationship between John Gotti Sr., the head of the Gambino crime family who died in prison in 2002, and his son John Gotti Jr., who took over the family business for his father, served time in prison, but then successfully escaped conviction in four subsequent racketeering trials.
Marc Fiore is producing for his Fiore Films. Marty Ingels, the former comic turned talent broker, has come on board the project as executive producer.
Gotti Jr., who’s given his blessing to the project, plans to join the producers, Travolta and Cassavetes at a press conference on April 12 at the Sheraton New York Hotel.
If AT&T’s $39 billion bid to acquire T-Mobile passes regulatory scrutiny, it will push the new conglomerate past Verizon as the largest cellular provider in America. To understand AT&T’spotential gains, consider the audience breakout of visitors to T-Mobile’s site for account holders. The bulk of visitors to T-Mobile’s site came from web-users in the largest major metropolitanareas, with an especially large segment of visits to the site coming from the New York DMA.
It’s worth noting that T-Mobile’s strength in New York, LA and Philadelphia may help AT&T Wireless compete in these key markets where Verizon Wireless is currently winning a slightly higher share of traffic
iPad2 first weekend sales data
– 400,000 to 500,000 iPad 2s sold this weekend estimated Gene Munster and his team at Piper Jaffray (note: they overestimated first weekend sales of iPad 1 by 100%)
– 300,000 iPad 1s sold in first weekend in 2010
– iPad 2s sold out on day 1 (unlike last year which sold out over the weekend)
– Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore reported his team called 100 stores (50 Apple Stores, 20 Best Buy and Wal-Mart and others) and got same result as Munster’s team at Piper Jaffray – 100% stock out rate
Data on iPad2 buyers
– 70% of iPad2 buyers were new to iPad (that’s significant and testimony to the impact of the user experience of the first iPad)
note: 23% of iPhone 4 buyers were new to the iPhone at launch
– 51%/49% Mac/PC uers (iPad is extending Apple’s reach beyond its own “ecosystem”
note: 74%/26% original iPad 1 Mac/PC user ratio
– 47% buying a 3G model (meaning they had both Wifi and 3G capability to connect)
– 24% own a Kindle
– 63% of those who own a Kindle plan to use both
– 6% plan to read books with their iPad
– The vast majority plan to surf the web, check e-mail and watch video with their iPad (and play games)
So what is next? Stay tuned….
What Apple took away, Amazon has restored. 
I’m talking, of course, about Lala, the pioneering digital music service that Apple purchased in December 2009 and shut down more than a year ago. The first thing Apple did, almost immediately after purchasing the company, was to disable its Music Mover feature, which allowed Lala members to upload their personal music collections to a cloud-based locker where they could play it from any web browser.
Yesterday, with the double-barreled launch of its Cloud Drive storage service and the tightly linked Cloud Player, Amazon brought that capability back to a mass audience. They’ve executed their strategy brilliantly, and they’ve painted the recording industry and their archrival Apple into a corner.
As far as I’m concerned, Amazon just moved the needle significantly on the music industry. Yes, the recording companies are whining already. I have no doubt that legal teams from all of the major record labels are in war-room mode right now. But their legal case is nonexistent. Why? No sharing? No legal case.
For the full story:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/how-amazon-has-outsmarted-the-music-industry-and-apple/3074
studio systems group 