Gamar Chatimah Tovah. MediaBytes will return as scheduled tomorrow morning.
Time Warner is reportedly ready to begin looking into selling its magazine business. Shareholder Gordon Crawford noted that TW is “going to sell their print division, they are going to spin off AOL and they’re just going to be Warner Brothers, HBO and the Turner Networks.” A sale of its Time Warner’s non-core magazine business, would rid the company of outside business, focusing its efforts on its production and content distribution networks.
Truckers are looking to gain exemption from a bill that would make texting while driving illegal throughout the country. The American Trucking Association believes that while smartphones and mobile phones pose the threat of distraction to drivers, truckers, who often use computers, should be not banned from using the devices while on the road. The organization noted that use of computers helps interstate commerce by helping truckers shave minutes of their haul, and that a ban including truckers would be “overkill.”
Google and Warner Bros. have finally signed a deal that will bring Warner Bros. recording artists to YouTube. The agreement puts a rest to a saga, which found Warner’s pulling music videos by Madonna, Green Day and U2 from YouTube. WB is reportedly also in similar talks with Vevo, whom Universal Music Group recently reached a deal with, to bring its content to what some are calling the “Hulu of Music.”
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Verizon may be interested in purchasing DirecTV. The Journal speculates that acquiring DirecTV could give Verizon a boost in their effort to deliver video content over fiber optics. Purchasing DirecTV would bolster Verizon’s burgeoning cable business, making it the number 2 provider of cable behind Comcast.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs held onto its position at the top of the box office. The Sony-3D films, which earned $24.6 million in its second weekend, topped Disney’s “Surrogates,” which stars Bruce Willis. Sony 3-D is accounting the success of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to good reviews and grass-roots word of mouth promotion, an undeniable power in the marketing of a film.