French media conglomerate Vivendi (EPA: VIV) saw Q1 revenue up six percent to €6.9 billion compared with last year - and it’s easy to see why. Vivendi told analysts last month it’s putting a “growing focus on subscriptions”, which have grown to comprise more than three quarters of the group’s…

Remember 12 months ago, when YouTube, negotiating music rates with European royalty collectors, yanked official music videos from its site in the UK and Germany? By the summer, YouTube had forced the UK’s PRS For Music to halve its on-demand music stream rate, leading to YouTube’s reinstatement. But, in Germany,…

A Federal Communications Commission rule change has granted two big wishes to the Hollywood film studios on Friday. Rejecting pleas from cinema operators, the FCC’s Media Bureau issued a waiver allowing movie studios to deliver first run theatrical releases via video-on-demand systems, The Wrap reported. On top of that, the…

In keeping with the general trend of cable companies getting through the recession largely unscathed, Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA) posted solid revenues and profits in Q1, thanks in large part to healthy performance at shopping network QVC. Meanwhile the Starz unit was a bit mixed. The Starz group’s revenue was…

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		EPS*	Rev. vs Q109	Net Inc. vs Q109
		N/A	{rev}%	{ni}%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Playboy (NYSE: PLA) is planning a mix of new sites that it hopes will appeal to a variety of readers and advertisers, company execs said during its Q1 earnings call. In addition to expanding its mobile presence, Playboy is working on a “free, safe-for-work site” its calling TheSmokingJacket.com, as well…

Last quarter, Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr scolded Apple for introducing variable track pricing too late and eagerly predicted a new wave of subscription digital music services “dwarving” the iTunes Store on which labels depend so much. This quarter, he’s full of praise for Cupertino, ahead…

No one expected that Playboy (NYSE: PLA) CEO Scott Flanders would have an easy time in his first year on the job. But the media company appears to be benefiting from the aggressive cost cutting Flanders undertook, as the he warned that ad declines at the flagship magazine would likely…

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		EPS*	Rev. vs Q109	Net Inc. vs Q109
		N/A	{rev}%	{ni}%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Some encouragement at Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), as digital sales have now hit 30.1 percent of total income - but this may also be contributing to an overall sales dip... In WMG’s January-to-March Q2, at constant currencies, digital revenue grew strongly by 11.8 percent from last year‘s period, to…

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		EPS*	Rev. vs Q110	Net Inc. vs Q110
		N/A	{rev}%	{ni}%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

AT&T (NYSE: T) rechristened its eight-month-old video entertainment site as “U-verse Online,” setting the stage for the telco’s plans to offer a TV Everywhere authenticated-content service later in 2010 to U-verse TV subscribers. The company in September 2009 launched the AT&T Entertainment site, which provides free-to-consumer streaming TV shows, movies…

“Cloud TV” provider ActiveVideo Networks has bought streaming games provider Tag Networks. Terms weren’t disclosed. The deal will help San Jose, CA.-based ActiveVideo broaden its entertainment offerings to cable operators, while Tag Networks gets wider distribution. Release

GoTV Networks, an Los Angeles-based mobile video company, has bought a handful of assets from Hands-On Mobile. The new chapter for Hands-On Mobile must be a bit of a let down after once being the fourth largest U.S. mobile game publisher. The company had raised more than $100 million in…

Maybe Ross Levinsohn had a worst-case scenario where nearly five years after the acquisition of MySpace for $580 million, top News Corp (NYSE: NWS). execs told analysts MySpace was a “work in progress” with a goal of being cash positive next year. Maybe, but if that was the case, I…

It’s not even a rounding error but one of the numbers Rupert Murdoch seemed to really enjoy tossing out during the News Corp earnings call: more than 64,000 active users for the Wall Street Journal iPad app after its first month. “Unlike the Kindle, we keep 100 percent of the…

Avatar didn’t bring home the Oscar for best picture but it helped News Corp (NYSE: NWS) to a win for its FYQ3—revenue up nearly 19 percent to $8.8 billion and a profit of $839 million. The cable networks also gave a big assist, including the best quarter ever for Fox…

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		EPS*	Rev. vs Q0109	Net Inc. vs Q0109
		N/A	{rev}%	{ni}%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

A milestone in the transition to alternate video rental models: Movie Gallery, the second largest video rental chain in the U.S., is closing all of its shops. The WSJ says the company will shut down the locations over the next several months; no comment from Movie Gallery yet. The move…

RealNetworks’ GameHouse is launching a new social gaming platform designed to transform single-player games into connected experiences—and to make it easier for developers to publish games across gaming portals and devices. It’s supposed to be able to “massively” scale for hundreds of millions of players. The first example of GameHouse…

Five months after buying the web-based music service, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is now shutting Lala, in what is likely preparation for a web- or subscription-centric upgrade to its own iTunes Store. The site has stopped accepting new sign-ups and will shut to existing users on May 31, says a message…

Global recorded music sales shrank by 7.2 percent, from $18.3 billion to $17 billion, through 2009 - meaning the industry has scored fewer sales each year since 1999. Digital sales grew 9.2 percent and now make up over a quarter of all music income… But the extra $363 million brought…

By Mark Sweney: Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has struck a deal with the Premier League for the UK online highlights for the 2010 to 2013 seasons. From the start of next season in August, Yahoo, which is in final contract negotiations with the Premier League, will run a five-minute highlights package…