a web (not paper) magazine

MySpaceTV, the video wing of the online community network, late on Sunday unveiled its first original Web series to give its users a television-like experience with the interactive benefits of the Internet, according to a Reuters report.

“Roommates” will track the lives of four women in their 20s who have recently graduated from college and are living together in Los Angeles. The Web show debuts on Monday, October 22, and runs through December 21 for a total of 45 episodes. A new, three-minute segment will play each day, Monday through Friday at 4 p.m. EDT. Fans are expected to engage characters online and influence the plot.

“Roommates” will utilize a real-time “polling tool” in which viewers’ opinions on characters and plot developments will be sought. Fans can chat online, as well as post comments on the characters’ individual Web profiles. The information will be scrutinized and the plot changed, accordingly. According to sources, MySpaceTV and the show’s producers, Iron Sink Media, have enough episodes to get the program started, and future segments would be taped as it progressed. Iron Sink has produced several Los Angeles-based Web series, including “WeHoGirls” and “VanNuysGuys.”

With the success of video-sharing sites like YouTube, the Web is seen as an emerging medium where advertisers can find viewers who previously might have been drawn to TV. Web shows like “LonelyGirl15″ and “Prom Queen” have built loyal followings among teenagers and young adults. MySpace is owned by media giant News Corp, which also operates the Fox TV network, and most U.S. TV networks are rapidly ramping up production of short “Webisodes” to recapture viewers they may be losing to the Web. “Roommates” will be sponsored by Ford Motor Co’s 2008 Focus automobile. The car will appear in episodes and ads will be on the show site.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has bought the travel guide publisher, Lonely Planet, it was announced today.

Lonely Planet, founded by Tony and Maureen Wheeler in 1972, publishes around 500 titles that are widely used by backpackers.

The purchase fits in with BBC plans to grow online revenues and expand operations in America and Australia. Lonely Planet also produces travel programmes and its web site receives 4.3 million visitors a month.

The Wheelers, who owned the business along with John Singleton, will retain a 25% shareholding in the company. The amount paid was not disclosed. The BBC said that the deal would strengthen Lonely Planet’s visibility and growth potential. It would also allow Lonely Planet users to access BBC content - such as Michael Palin’s New Europe.

After travelling overland from Europe to Australia, the Wheelers produced their first book, Across Asia on the Cheap, from their kitchen table. Today, Lonely Planet has offices in Melbourne, Oakland and London, with more than 500 office employees and 300 plus on-the-road authors.

Related Links >
http://www.bbcworldwide.com

http://www.lonelyplanet.com

A US newscaster refused to lead her program with a story about Paris Hilton, arguing she was fed up with media attention given to the controversial Hollywood socialite.

Mika Brzezinski tore her script to pieces on the air and then put another one through a shredder Friday morning when she was asked by her editors on MSNBC cable channel to lead the newscast with an item about Hilton.

“Listen, I just do not believe in covering that story, especially not as the lead story in a newscast when you have a day like today,” Brzezinski said on the air.

Footage documenting her revolt is now making the rounds on the Internet, and has since been viewed on the video exchange Web site YouTube more than 870,000 times.

Hilton, a 26-year-old hotel chain heiress, was released from a Los Angeles, CA, jail Tuesday after serving 23 days for driving with a suspended license.

Millions of TVs and videos will be dumped following the switch-over to digital television, a survey suggests

Eight million machines, enough to fill 100 Olympic swimming pools, will be ditched, it estimated, based on a poll of 2,500 UK adults, BBC reports.

Almost half of households do not know video players will not work in the same way when the analogue signal stops. One in five video recorders will be abandoned, possibly causing environmental damage, says uSwitch.com. When the signal changes viewers will no longer be able to watch one channel while recording another, the independent switching service explains. The company estimates that the cost of replacing these VCRs with digital recorders will exceed £1.1bn.

Of the 25 million TV sets yet to “go digital”, nearly five million are incapable of receiving a digital signal. The national bill to make TVs work will exceed £2.2bn. Fifteen per cent of households plan to throw their old sets away, the poll of 2,599 UK adults shows.

Steve Weller, head of communication services at uSwitch.com, says: “Not only is the switch-over costing the nation significantly more than the low cost of a Freeview box, but the potential environmental impact of the discarded VCRs and TVs is shattering.”

Authorities need to educate people about the change plus set up collection and recycling schemes, he adds. Whitehaven in Cumbria will be the first place in the UK to switch to digital in October.

From the Skype and Kazaa founders

The founders of VoIP software Skype and peer-to-peer application Kazaa announced that they would allow users to watch TV for free on the Web.

Users will watch TV through a special programme they will have to download. The programmes will also include advertisements. Joost has struck deals with Warner Music, Endemol and September Films, among others. The trial edition will be available to a limited number of users, featuring comedies, sports, music and documentaries, stated its Managing Director Frederic de Val. Joost belongs to TCP Holdings SA, stationed in Luxembourg but has also offices in New York, London and Leiden, Holland.

Originally, the programmes will begin to be aired from a small number of file servers and then distributed automatically from user to user through peer-to-peer software.

Scandinavian entrepreneurs Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom are behind the new global broadband and television service. They became famous with the popular Kazza exchange archives service and free telephone calls over the Internet before selling Skype to eBay for $US2.5 billion in 2005. Their names are a guarantee for attracting interest in Joost, especially after the successful video services of You Tube and Google Video.

In parallel, more telecommunication companies are planning to offer their services on Web TV, using IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) technology.