THE DISNEY-ABC TELEVISION GROUP has officially announced Stage 9, a new digital media studio. The studio’s first project is “Squeegees,” an online comedy show about a group of bumbling window washers. The 5-minute episodes will be released on Mondays and Fridays on both YouTube and ABC.com. However, this “new media” studio made a decidedly “old media” move by disabling the embedding of episodes. Disney seems bent on losing the benefit of word-of-mouth, as users cannot add the shows to blogs or social-networking profiles. It doesn’t take long to copy an episode, upload it to YouTube on a regular account, and embed it anywhere on the web — without the Toyota banners and pre-rolls that currently support the show. Disney should avoid this fate and simply allow embedding.
NBC canceled the show “Quarterlife” after its first episode debuted to incredibly low ratings. Bravo will reportedly run the full 13-episode Internet series instead. Creator Marshall Herskovitz tempered his earlier caustic comments about the experiment by releasing a statement saying he was “deeply grateful” for NBC’s effort.
SAG announced that it will not start formal negotiations with the AMPTP until April at the earliest. Until then, the Guild will hold internal meetings to prepare its proposal. The Guild also needs to resolve the details of joint bargaining with AFTRA.
CABLEVISION and TICKETMASTER are reportedly in talks to acquire 49% of AEG Live, the country’s second largest concert promoter. The deal would connect major concert venues across the country (including Madison Square Garden), Fuse TV and more with Ticketmaster’s market dominance and AEG’s promotional engine. Live Nation, another concert promoter, recently broke off a partnership with Ticketmaster to start its own ticketing business.
PLUS: YouTube will add live video sometime in 2008, according to co-founder Steve Chen. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has a new online show in the works that will be distributed by Google. And earlier this week Nielsen canceled its ambitious Project Apollo, which tested Arbitron’s people meters for use in tracking a combination of media consumption and purchasing habits.