This Just In
By Staff -- Multichannel News, 5/20/2007 8:00:00 PM
Items:
Horse-Racing Net TVG Sues Betting Rival
HBO’s 'Conchords’ To Take Flight Online
Brabson to Head Up TWC in Central Texas
'L&O: Criminal Intent’ Will Air First on USA
ESPN to 'Report’ With Magazine Series
HGTV Restructuring Effort Streamlines Creative Unit
Motorola Buys More IPTV Technology
Horse-Racing Net TVG Sues Betting Rival
Los Angeles — The TVG Network horse-racing channel is betting that a rival has infringed two of its patents covering interactive wagering systems.
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the 27 million-home TVG is seeking an injunction to prevent Magna Entertainment, which operates the HorseRacing TV network and XpressBet service, from continuing to use the patents.
The suit, filed against Magna, HRTV and XpressBet, seeks unspecified monetary damages as well.
Magna Entertainment senior legal counsel William Ford declined to comment, saying the company hasn’t had a chance to review the suit.
The two patents are U.S. Patent No. 6,089,981, issued in 2000, and U.S. Patent No. 6,554,709, issued in 2003. Both are titled “Interactive Wagering Systems and Processes,” and cover interactive wagering using off-track terminals that also provide video clips.
TVG, which is owned by Gemstar-TV Guide International, said it owns 17 U.S. patents covering interactive wagering systems, with more than 140 issued and pending patents worldwide.
HBO’s 'Conchords’ To Take Flight Online
New York — The debut episode of new HBO comedy series Flight of the Conchords will be available online until its debut on the premium network June 17.
HBO added that the episode will be portable via codes that allow users to embed it on blogs and Web sites and in social-networking profiles.
MySpace kicked off the campaign, featuring the episode on its Flight of the Conchords page through May 21 and promoting it throughout its network. HBO’s own site will soon join the fun.
In addition to MySpace, other online destinations participating in the Conchords promotion include iTunes, Yahoo TV, MeeVee, IFILM, Super Deluxe, blip.tv, Movielink and affiliate broadband sites Comcast.net and Roadrunner.com.
Brabson to Head Up TWC in Central Texas
Stamford, Conn. — Time Warner Cable promoted Kathy Brabson to president of its central Texas division.
Brabson had been vice president and general manager for the cable company’s system in Myrtle Beach, S.C., with approximately 220,000 customers.
Time Warner’s central Texas division serves some 440,000 subscribers, and Brabson will report to Wayne Knighton executive vice president for the operator’s Texas region.
'L&O: Criminal Intent’ Will Air First on USA
New York — Already part of USA Network’s encore lineup, fresh episodes ofLaw & Order: Criminal Intentwill join the characters network this fall.
In a windows-changing move, the first plays of L&O: CI will migrate from NBC to USA, which figures to fortify its position atop cable’s primetime-ratings heap. An encore will then be played on NBC. Traditionally, broadcast has been the home for original series before the installments move to local stations or cable for the syndicated window.
For the past six seasons, L&O: CI has run first on NBC and then had its second window on USA. It was unclear at press time precisely when the new schedules for the networks, both of which are owned by NBC Universal, would commence, but USA will get 22 episodes of the show next season.
The news came as NBC renewed the original Law & Order for an 18th season, joining the previously announced L&O: Special Victims Unit on the Peacock’s primetime lineup.
The move keeps alive L&O creator/executive producer Dick Wolf’s dream to have the original franchise surpass the 20-season run of Gunsmoke as TV longest-running drama. CBS aired the western from 1955 to 1975.
ESPN to 'Report’ With Magazine Series
New York — ESPN, at its upfront presentation to advertisers here last week, said it will jump into the sports-magazine genre with a working title of ESPN Reports, scheduled to debut Oct. 16.
ESPN correspondents Tom Farrey, Rachel Nichols, Lisa Salters, Jeremy Schaap and Michael Smith will serve as the reporters for what these journalists told the assembled media buyers would be a fast-paced show with a lot of different elements. In keeping with ESPN’s multiplatform zeitgeist, content will be distributed across several ESPN-owned vehicles.
Extending ESPN’s increased focus on fantasy sports, as evidenced by segments on Sunday NFL Countdown, Baseball Tonight and a Sunday-morning show on ESPN Radio and ESPNEWS, the latter will play home to a dedicated weekly one-hour show on Sundays debuting in August.
The company said it would add a new annual event from the ESPN X Games group with the Moto X World Championships, in which riders will compete in a variety of disciplines, including freestyle, super moto, best trick and step up. The first competition will take place next April at a site to be announced.
HGTV Restructuring Effort Streamlines Creative Unit
Knoxville, Tenn. — HGTV reorganized its internal divisions, merging marketing and creative services into a single unit called the marketing, creative and brand strategy department.
The new division is charged with executing promotions across all distribution platforms. Mike Boyd, senior vice president of marketing, will now be in charge of off-air marketing, press and public relations, online marketing and partnership as well as new business marketing. Jennifer Leitman was promoted to vice president of brand promotion, Chris Moore was named creative director and Paige Hardwick is now director of strategy and planning.
Motorola Buys More IPTV Technology
Schaumburg, Ill. — Stirring another Internet Protocol TV specialist into the mix, Motorola plans to acquire a picture-compression startup, Modulus Video, for an undisclosed amount.
Founded in 2002, Modulus develops MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding compression systems designed to deliver video content over IPTV, cable, broadcast and satellite networks.
Modulus has worked closely with Motorola since 2005 to jointly deliver MPEG-4 AVC encoders to telecommunications customers, including AT&T, Bell Canada and CenturyTel.
The deal is Motorola’s fifth IPTV-related acquisition in 18 months, following its deals for video-on-demand server maker Broadbus Technologies, IPTV set-top maker Kreatel Communications, IPTV encoding-equipment provider Tut Systems and digital-subscriber-line gateway vendor Netopia Systems.
Modulus CEO Bob Wilson said his company will give Motorola a “software-centric platform that ensures flexibility, reduced cost and fast development time.” Key investors in the 57-employee company include Thomas Weisel Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures.
Separately, Motorola last week disclosed that it changed the name of the business unit that serves the cable industry, dropping the Connected Home Solutions moniker in favor of Home and Networks Mobility.
The company made the change “to recognize that they also offer wireless and mobility services to cable providers, in addition to the traditional 'connected-home’ devices and network-infrastructure solutions,” Motorola said in a statement.
Dan Moloney remains president of the Horsham, Pa.-based unit. It sold a record 4.9 million digital set-top boxes in the first three months of 2007 and reported sales of $1.04 billion, up 42% from the same period a year prior.
Motorola expects the Modulus acquisition, subject to routine closing conditions, to be completed before the end of the third quarter of 2007. Motorola intends to maintain Modulus’ operations in Sunnyvale, Calif., and operate it as a wholly owned subsidiary within the Home and Networks Mobility unit. —Todd Spangler
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