Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » NBC

NBC Loots Apple’s Xcode Icon For Their Reality Show Website

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:51:02 +0000

NBC is working on a new reality television show called Home Transformers. To find candidates for the TV show, they created a website called hometransformers.tv. On that website, it appears that they were using an icon that was designed by Apple for Xcode, the software used for designing iPod, iPad, iPhone, and Mac apps. After face-palming themselves, they took the image down after TheNextWeb.com noticed it.

Hulu Planning To Raise Additional Funding For Expansion Into Original Programming

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:36:18 +0000

Online TV service Hulu.com, the company that is owned by ABC, NBC, and Fox is intensifying their competition against Nextflix and they are planning to raise money to expand into more original programming. Hulu is releasing their first scripted show “Battleground” on February 14th and is weighing an option to raise cash this year according to chief content officer Andy Forssell.

“We have a very healthy business,” stated Forssell. “When you have a healthy business, capital is not a problem. There are plenty of people who want to help.” Last year Hulu cancelled a sale and postponed an IPO. Hulu also ordered 10 new episodes of Morgan Spurlock’s “A Day in the Life,” a documentary series that is returning in March.

Hulu Plus customers pay $7.99 per month and they can watch shows in high-definition and they can access programs on mobile devices. Last year Fox started restricting when new TV show episodes will become available to nonpaying viewers. Hulu hit $420 million in total 2011 revenues.

[Bloomberg]

Hulu Makes $420 Million In 2011 Revenues

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:23:56 +0000

Hulu.com, the joint venture video streaming company of NBCUniversal, Fox Entertainment Group, and Disney, has reported their 2011 numbers and they are BIG! Hulu has grown 60% from 2010 to $420 million in revenues despite the slow economy, which directly affects the advertising market. Hulu’s ad business grew aggressively and Hulu Plus helped their revenues shoot up from between $200-$300 million in 2010.

Hulu Plus has about 1.5 million paying subscribers and their numbers are growing at a rapid pace. Hulu Plus is attracting more than 2 times the number of subscribers each day when compared to the same time last year. In 2012, Hulu is planning on spending about about $500 million in content on behalf of their users.

“At scale, our model allows us to profitably pay content owners approximately 50% more in content licensing fees per subscriber when compared to other similarly priced online subscription services. We believe our approach will enable us to secure more valuable content for our users and to secure content in more attractive windows than would otherwise be possible. To that end, we are excited to invest approximately half a billion in content in 2012 on behalf of our users,” stated Hulu CEO Jason Kilar on the company blog.

This Year’s Super Bowl Can Be Streamed On The Internet and Mobile Devices

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:03:20 +0000

The Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, and NBC’s wild-card playoff games will be streamed on the Internet and on mobile devices for the first time announced the NFL yesterday. The games can be streamed online on NBCSports.com and NFL.com through SNF Extra, which has an HD broadcast, DVR-style controls, additional camera angles, highlights, live stats, and other interactive features.

NBCSports.com and the NFL has been streaming games since 2008 with SNF Extra, but this is the first time that playoff games will be streamed.

“We don’t want to limit ourselves to people not in front of the TV,” stated NFL VP of NBC Sports Digital Media Rick Cordella. NFL Mobile from Verizon will stream the broadcasts for the first time on a mobile platform. The Super Bowl is on February 5 in Indianapolis.

Amazon Signs Another Video Deal, This Time with NBC

Riley Kennysmith — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:23:25 +0000

Amazon now has deals with CBS and NBC for streaming video content. With last week’s deal with CBS and this week’s deal with NBC, Amazon now offers 7,000 tv programs and 2,000 films. Mashable reports that Amazon also has a stake in UK internet-tv platform YouView.

Facebook and NBC Partner To Host Republican Presidential Debate

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:00:16 +0000

Facebook and NBC have made a partnership to broadcast the U.S. GOP presidential debate before the primary next year. The debate will air as part of a special broadcast on NBC’s Meet the Press. The broadcast will be moderated by David Gregory. This will also be streamed on Facebook.

This Monday, users will be able to start discussions and post questions for the debate on the Meet The Press website or on the debate’s Facebook Page. Some of the questions will be answered live on the air.

Facebook first started covering the debates in 2008 when they partnered with ABC. Facebook users participated in Debate Groups and was able to view behind-the-scenes footage.

“Voters expect to be able to learn about and interact with candidates on Facebook,” stated Facebook’s VP of U.S. public policy Joel Kaplan.

[Mashable]

Hulu Close To Extending Content Deal

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 13 May 2011 06:45:45 +0000

Hulu is currently in negotiations to extend the right to stream TV programs on their website provided by NBC, Fox, and ABC. This would be an extension to a deal that News Corp., Disney, and NBCUniversal signed two years ago.

The deal is being negotiated with Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and executives from News Corp. and Disney. NBCUniversal gave up their Hulu board seats as part of the Comcast merger agreements. Providence Equity Partners also has a vote in the discussions.

[AllThingsD]

NBC Employee Fired For Posting 1994 Clip Of Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric Asking What The Internet Is [VIDEO]

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:52:04 +0000

An employee over at NBC was fired for posting a video clip from The Today Show archives with Bryant Gumble and Katie Couric discussing what the Internet actually is. It is funny to see Gumbel talk about how weird e-mail addresses are. Check out the video above.

Comcast Allowed To Acquire NBC, But Not Control Hulu

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:40:46 +0000

The federal government is allowing Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to merge with NBC, but there are limitations. Comcast will not be allowed to sabotage Hulu.com when buying NBC. Comcast’s acquisition of NBC was worth about $30 billion. Media industry executives were interested to see how Comcast would influence Hulu.com. NBC Universal helped create Hulu and owns about 30% of the website.

“Comcast has an incentive to prevent Hulu from becoming an even more attractive avenue for viewing video programming because Hulu would then exert increased competitive pressure on Comcast’s cable business. If the proposed transaction were to be consummated without conditions, [Comcast] would hold seats on Hulu’s board of directors and could exercise their voting and other governance rights to compromise strategic and competitive initiatives Hulu may wish to pursue,” stated the U.S. Justice Department in a court filing.

FCC To Allow Comcast-NBC Merger If Show Exclusivity Stops On Hulu

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:35:31 +0000

In December 2009 Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) made a deal to acquire NBC from General Electric. This deal is facing scrutiny from the government. The FCC said that one of the proposed conditions if they allow the deal to take place is that NBC would no longer have the exclusive rights to their shows on the Internet. This means that Hulu would not be the only web video service that has the rights to stream NBC shows. The three owners in Hulu are NBC, ABC, and FOX. [AllThingsD]