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Wiegel Broadcasting is taking its low-power, Baby Boomer-focused Me-TV national. Weigel started the channel almost six years ago with a reverential approach to vintage programming and morphed into a digital subchannel complementing WCIU-Ch. 26.
This time Me-TV — which ostensibly stands for Memorable Entertainment Television — is set to transform into a nationally distributed network with programming from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ‘80. A formal announcement is set for noon Tuesday.
Biz Stone, the co-founder of popular microblogging site Twitter, is eager to harness the vast quantities of information that it helps its users share to create a news network, he told Reuters Monday.
A Twitter news network would not necessarily be run by Twitter itself but would be in partnership with several existing news organizations, and would be open, Stone said. Get the full story »
Netflix introduced a new plan Monday that, for the first time, relies solely on video streamed over the Internet rather than the DVDs that it has mailed to customers since the company was founded more than a decade ago.
The shift demonstrates how quickly consumers have transitioned from physical media players to digital entertainment that can be browsed, watched again, or discarded without ever having handled a disk. Get the full story »
Amazon.com Inc. has begun allowing customers to give its Kindle e-books to others.
Before, customers could only give gift certificates to cover the cost of an e-book. Get the full story »
Chicago-based daily deals company Groupon said its Web site is back to normal after the combination of an Oprah Winfrey mention and a popular deal with retailer Nordstrom Rack caused traffic problems.
The site had been experiencing intermittent slowness in the morning for users depending on their location, said Groupon spokeswoman Julie Mossler. Get the full story »
Tower Ticker | The reorganization of Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.’s interactive division, recently rechristened Tribune Digital, is continuing to take shape under its new management and, according to a staff memo sent this morning, under new marching orders. Get the full story »
From The New York Times | Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, publicly apologized on Thursday for comparing NPR executives to Nazis.
Comcast Corp. on Thursday named several executives who will hold top jobs at NBC Universal after the cable company takes control of the broadcaster and movie studio.
Former Showtime President Bob Greenblatt will be chairman of NBC Entertainment, responsible for prime time and late night programming, business affairs and NBC Universal Media studios. Get the full story »
From the New York Post | Oprah Winfrey yesterday toured a $68 million mansion for sale on the grounds of the former Frick estate in Alpine, N.J. before heading north to look at another property a few miles north in Snedens Landing. Get the full story>>
Google has signed an accord with France’s biggest book publisher Hachette Livre on the scanning and sale of out-of-print books, which grants the publisher wide control over pricing and content. Get the full story »
Amazon.com is launching Amazon Studios, a new website that lets users upload scripts and sample movies and then use community tools to evaluate and edit each others’ work.
Internet video company Hulu slashed the price of its subscription service Hulu Plus, which made its official debut Wednesday. Hulu knocked down the monthly cost to $7.99 from the preview price of $9.99. Users who subscribed to the preview service, which was available in June, will receive a credit for the price difference, the company said. Get the full story »
Jerry Agar and Shawn “The News Junkie” Wasson are off the WGN-AM 720 schedule, and former Chicago Bear Glen Kozlowski is back with a weekend revival of the long-running “Sports Central” program.
NCR Corp., which operates Blockbuster Express DVD rental kiosks, has agreed to delay rentals of 20th Century Fox DVDs until 28 days after their release, in its second such deal with a studio.
NCR’s competitors, Coinstar Inc-owned kiosk company Redbox, and Netflix, have also agreed to 28-day delays from several studios.
But NCR said its agreement with News Corp.’s movie studio also allows the kiosk operator to test premium-pricing in select markets for renting out Fox DVDs the same day those titles hit stores. Get the full story »
Dow Jones & Co. and the Chicago-based financial news service Briefing.com have agreed to a settlement of a copyright lawsuit, in which the latter has admitted to misappropriating “hot news” and headlines for its website.
Briefing.com agreed to pay an unspecified sum to Dow Jones, a unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and admit to liability for infringing Dow Jones’ copyrights in published articles. Dow Jones called the payment “substantial.” Get the full story »
