Report: Heads to roll at CBS News
According to the "Inside the Beltway" column in the Washington Times, four or five CBS News employees face dismissal as the network prepares to release the independent investigation it commissioned of the pre-election "60 Minutes Wednesday" story which accused President Bush of shirking his Air National Guard duties - - a story based on documents which turned out to be almost certain forgeries. Dan Rather, who voiced the report, has already announced plans to step down next March as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," although CBS has insisted that is an unrelated event.
Harveys endow Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago is a bit closer to getting its new building built. Veteran ABC Radio star Paul Harvey and his wife, Angel, have contributed $1 million to the museum's capital campaign. Angel Harvey has been a director of the museum since 1985 and the couple have given more than $2 million to the museum in recent years.
Two set for Georgia Hall of Fame
The Georgia Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame has selected two individuals for induction - - radio broker, former station owner and one-time sportscaster Stan Raymond Sr. and Lowell Register, who built his family's Register Communications (radio and TV group) and developed Register Data Systems, a computer systems company for radio and television.
Speed Channel launches interactive TV campaign
Speed Channel has teamed with Proteus Inc., of Washington, DC, to develop an interactive television experience for the network's January 2005 coverage of the 34th Annual Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction.
The interactive feature will allow viewers to take part, making "Fantasy Bids" on the ultimate sales price of upcoming vehicles via wireless device or Internet. Speed talent will promote 24 feature cars during the broadcast, giving viewers an opportunity to guess the sales price prior to the car being auctioned off the block. Responses will be tabulated in real time and shown in the broadcast shortly after each car is sold.
Viewers will be given some info about each car on-air, but also can register at SpeedTV.com to get fact sheets to assist in making an educated Fantasy Bid. The list of cars and their descriptions are also available on barrett-jackson.com. Through the relationship with Proteus, Speed will be able to tabulate both wireless and Web votes, provide closest estimates and establish leader boards.
Speed Channel's coverage of Barrett-Jackson begins 1/27 at 8 p.m. with four hours of live auction action from Scottsdale, Ariz. Coverage continues Jan. 28, Jan. 29 and Jan. 30. The 24 hours of live coverage over four days increases Speed's commitment to the Barrett-Jackson event by nearly 10 hours.
Travertine Entertainment introducing SMS-TV
On January 25th at NATPE Travertine Entertainment is introducing "SMS-TV," real-time, interactive programming for broadcast television, and anyone with a text enabled cell phone can participate. See at www.travertine.tv. The company will be at NATPE booth 1250.
blinkx unveils search engine for TV
blinkx, announced the availability of blinkx TV, the first search engine that allows you to search TV across news, sports and entertainment programming. blinkx is the first search engine to make such TV programs fully searchable on demand. Because blinkx captures and indexes the entire video stream directly from the television, consumers can get straight to the exact clip they want. blinkx TV can be accessed at http://www.blinkx.tv .
By entering a few words into the query box, consumers are automatically linked to the exact clip they're looking for -- for example, entering "Ocean's Twelve" into the search box would take users to Julia Roberts multimedia files, even if the specific search term wasn't mentioned in the bulletin title.
Video Smart Folders enable users to create intelligent folders that continuously populate themselves with multi-media content, based on the parameters set by the user. The result is that users have on demand access to relevant content. Each Video Smart Folder contains content from multiple sources that is specifically relevant to each individual, and acts as a persistent query.
"Today's consumers deserve an easier way of finding multimedia online," says blinkx CEO, Mark Opzoomer. "Rich media, like video, is the next step in the evolution of search from Web, to desktop, to living room. Using smart, contextual search, blinkx links users to relevant clips anywhere in the video stream, delivering video content straight from the television to the consumer's PC."
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