South Korea
Back in October we noted that Time Warner-owned Warner Bros. was still hopeful of reclaiming some lost ground in the broadband-rich-but-piracy-ridden Korean movie market by releasing films on demand two weeks before their DVD release, and this despite Sony, Paramount, Universal, Buena Vista and 20th Century Fox having shuttered domestic operations due to lagging sales.
The latest NBA expansion covers two growth areas for the league: international and broadband. NBA League Pass Broadband International is now available in 19 countries. The subscription includes access to 40-plus live games a week with play-by-play in English and VOD for 24 hours after they air. Some live games will be blacked out. Pay options include full season ($85 through Nov. 11; $100 after), monthly and daily. The international version follows
ComScore said Thursday it had more than double the number of sites it reports on worldwide, giving greater insight into the "long tail" of the Internet. The biggest increases in sites measured come in Russia (244%), South Korea (234%), Australia (183%), the Netherlands (180%) and France (179%).
eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) announced two acquisitions—spending over $1.3 billion altogether—this morning designed to shore up its other parts of its business in the face of declining profits and stagnant traffic at its primary online auction site. The company also finally addressed layoff rumors and said that it is indeed cutting 10 percent of its 15,000-person workforce.
Even though Sony (NYSE: SNE), Paramount, Universal, Buena Vista and 20th Century Fox have all shuttered domestic operations in South Korea following years of sagging sales, Warner Bros. thinks it can reclaim some lost ground in the market by releasing films on demand two weeks before their DVD release.
Although WPP Group and its ad holding company rival Publicis Groupe have been concentrating more in Asia and other emerging markets for their digital acquisitions lately, it seems there are still a few independent targets to be found in the U.S. One of the remaining ones was Seattle's PBJS, which was just picked up by Publicis. Terms weren't disclosed. The five-year-old shop concentrates on on "multichannel events" and branded entertainment, including webcasting and video production.
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) News is doing more and more original content, something it planned to do when Lloyd Braun came in to do that for the whole Yahoo Media group, and then pulled back after he left....now it is picking up the baton once again, this time as a series of high profile video/text interviews with world leaders, as AFP points out.
eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) is in talks to acquire a minority stake in GMarket, a South Korean online auctioneer. The talks are with Interpark Corp., the Korean portal that owns 37 percent of the company. A spokesperson from eBay told AP that there was no certainty a deal would be reached or that it would be approved by South Korean regulators—eBay already owns a South Korean competitor, the aptly named Internet Auction.
