MICROSOFT DROPS OUT OF MSNBC.COM

Hit the delete key on the “MS” in MSNBC.com. Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, has acquired from Microsoft the 50 percent of the news website that it didn’t already own and has renamed it NBCNews.com. The entertainment conglomerate agreed to pay $300 million to gain full ownership of the site, the New York Times reported […]

NBC TO BUY ALL OF MSNBC.COM — CONVERT IT TO NBCNEWS.COM

NBC’s long-rumored plan to buy from Microsoft the 50 percent of MSNBC.com that it doesn’t now own will materialize within days, media reporter Howard Kurtz reported on TheDailyBeast.com, citing people familiar with the matter. The network plans to rebrand the site NBCNews.com. For years the site has had to contend with the association with cable […]

TV COMPANY ACCUSED OF ETHICS BREACH DECLARES BANKRUPTCY

A U.K. TV production company, FBC Media, has gone “into administration” — the British equivalent of bankruptcy — following revelations that it produced programs for the BBC about Malaysia while receiving £17 million (about $26 million) from the Malaysian government to promote its image, the London Independent reported today (Friday). The newspaper said that NBC […]

HULU OFFERS BUYERS FIVE-YEAR PROTECTION WARRANTY

Although the three media giants and the investment company that together own Hulu, the online video site, have said they are resolved to sell it, they have thus far been able to attract little interest from buyers — largely because of the impression that some of the owners just might decide to pick up their […]

NETFLIX NOT INTERESTED IN BUYING HULU

Although top executives of Hulu have confirmed that they’re looking for a buyer and that several media companies have expressed interest, Netflix, the media company that would appear to be a logical bidder, has expressed no interest thus far, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Monday). The newspaper said that the potential suitors for Hulu […]

SUPER WI-FI TEST SET FOR BRITAIN

While the FCC continues to prevaricate on the use of “white spaces,” the frequencies between TV channels designed to keep one from interfering with another, Britain appears set to launch a white-spaces test in Cambridge that would use the spectrum for a kind of wide-area wi-fi. In a statement some of the U.K.’s largest media […]

MICROSOFT BUYS SKYPE FOR $8.5 BILLION

In its biggest deal ever, Microsoft announced today that it had purchased Skype, the company that permits users to make audio and video phone calls over the Internet, for $8.5 billion. But it was not clear what the company plans to do to make Skype profitable. While it said that it would merge the company […]

APPLE’S ITUNES STORE DOMINATES ONLINE DVD SALES, VOD

Apple’s iTunes Store effectively held off challenges from rivals seeking to sell DVDs online and/or “rent” them via time-limited downloads, according to industry researchers Screen Digest. Combined with other video sites, including Microsoft’s Zune, Wal-Mart’s Vudu, and Amazon Video on Demand, the market for on-demand video sales and rentals increased more than 60 percent in […]