Revision3 will continue making their own web shows, which hit about 100 million streams per month. Discovery will eventually find out ways to sync up their own content into Revision3.

“We want them to continue doing what they’re doing, and to continue developing native digital talent,” stated Discovery’s digital head JB Perrette.

“We produce content on a $500,000 to $750,000-an-hour scale,” Perrette says. “Producing something at a tenth of that cost means it has to be very different.”

Discovery owns a few educational cable TV stations such as Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. “The new lawsuit was brought because the patents at issue in the original lawsuit were recently assigned to Discovery Patent Holdings LLC,” stated a Discovery spokeswoman.

Discovery Communications was issued the patents in 1999 and 2007. The case was filed at the U.S. District Court in the District of Delaware, No. 09-00178.

[Reuters]

The abstract of the patent states:

“A viewer for displaying an electronic book and providing for electronic commerce. In conjunction with viewing an electronic book, a user can view information about products and services, view an on-line electronic catalog, and receive samples of products available for purchase. By entering a purchase request, the user can purchase products or services. In the case of a digital product, the user can download the purchased product directly into the viewer. The viewer also records statistics concerning purchase and information requests in order to recommend related products or services, or for directing particular types of advertisements to the user.”

The picture in the patent reveals that Discovery may have a partnership in place with Fodor’s and U.S. News & World Report. Discovery’s e-book reader will be competing with the Amazon.com Kindle and the Sony Reader. The Discovery e-book reader will have line in and out jacks, coaxial in and out jacks, and a high-res LCD screen.

Now that the two companies are suing each other over patents, it will most likely be settled and perhaps a partnership will come out of it.  This is what happened between Microsoft and TomTom.

The problem with patents is that a lot of them are too general and they are overly abused.  BusinessInsider pointed out that Apple has a patent on multi-touch mobile UI technology which the Palm Pre has as a feature.  But Palm has a lot of patents and Apple may inadvertently be violating them.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware.  The lawsuit is in regards to a patent for an encyption system used for e-books.  Discovery is seeking triple damages and “continuing royalty” for the device.

Amazon.com’s Kindle has become very popular with the recent release of the second version with a text-to-speech feature.

“The Kindle and Kindle 2 are important and popular content delivery systems,” stated Joseph A. LaSala Jr., general counsel of Discovery. “We believe they infringe our intellectual property rights, and that we are entitled to fair compensation.”

Discovery filed for a patent in 1999 that was titled “electronic book security and copyright protection system.”  They were awarded the patent in 2007.

[via WSJ]

Discovery Communications Inc. announced today that they will acquire HowStuffWorks.com for $250 million. HowStuffWorks receives roughly 3.8 million unique U.S. visitors per month. HowStuffWorks also has 11 million users globally.

HowStuffWorks is known to be a website for answering through-provoking questions such as How Roller Coasters Work, How Submarines Work, How Your Brain Works, etc. HowStuffWorks claims that the acquisition by Discovery Communications for HowStuffWorks is a giant experiment to test whether its possible to combine the best things about TV and about the Web to create something that is a sum greater than its parts.

HowStuffWorks’ text content will be embedded into Discovery Channel’s 100,000 hours of documentaries and video footage. Discovery Communications has over 100 networks that reaches 1.5 billion viewers across the world interested in learning more about science.  There is a sample of media integration between Discovery and HowStuffWorks on the page about How Shark Attacks Work.

HowStuffWorks was founded by Marshall Brain, a professor at North Carolina State University in 1998. The Convex Group acquired HowStuffWorks in 2002. The Convex Group is an investment company founded buy Jeff Arnold, former CEO of WebMD. Carl Icahn also owns stake in HowStuffWorks. Carl Icahn is in the top 100 world’s richest people, net worthed at $8.7 billion, generated by his own hedge fund and ownership in various companies.

Information Source:
[1] Wall Street Journal: Discovery Plans to Buy Web Site

Since Al Gore brought awareness to global warming effects on planet Earth through means of his movie and sponsored concerts including Live Earth.  TreeHugger.com is no exception when it comes to addressing the nature-related issues.  TreeHugger is known for their blogs, daily newsletters, videos, radio programs, news, and user-generated content.

And I best know the Discovery Channel for covering humans connection with nature.  One of the best known celebrities to appear on the screens of the Discovery Channel includes Steve “The Crocodile Hunter” Irwin whose life was cut short when sting ray attacked him in the Great Barrier Reef when filming a segment called Ocean’s Deadliest.  Irwin was also a voice actor for hit movie, Happy Feet.

A program that I also enjoyed that was produced by The Discovery Channel is Jeremy Piven’s Journey of a Lifetime.  Piven travelled around India to see tour the strets of Bombay, visits some gurus of Yoga, and participated in a candle-lighting ceremony at the Ganges River.  Piven is most well known for his role as power-agent Ari Gold in HBO’s Entourage.

TreeHugger was founded in 2004 by Graham Hill. “Discovery Communications, with its global reach and high level of commitment to Planet Green, is launching the most significant effort in green media to date — and we’re excited to be part of it,“ stated Hill. “Discovery’s worldwide presence via TV networks, websites and mobile services opens the way for us to reach a larger audience as we work to bring about major changes in the health of our planet. This new partnership with the world’s most trusted brand means we can better fulfill TreeHugger.com’s mission, while remaining true to our vision.”

References:
[1] BusinessWire: Discovery Communications Acquires TreeHugger.com
[2] alarm:clock – Eco-Trend Designers At Treehugger Cash In W/$10-$15M Buyout By Discovery