Fox and NBCUniversal have both separately sued Dish Network in a Los Angeles federal court over its new service that lets consumers skip TV ads. Dish's AutoHop service, which debuted earlier this month, has “irked” entertainment executives, according to the Associated Press.
Fox attacked Dish in fairly harsh terms in a statement today.
"We were given no choice but to file suit against one of our largest distributors, Dish Network, because of their surprising move to market a product with the clear goal of violating copyrights and destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem," the statement read. “Their wrongheaded decision requires us to take swift action in order to aggressively defend the future of free, over-the-air television." Read more | Comments
from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/fox-nbcuniversal-sue-dish-over-ad-...
New submitter Direwolf20 writes "The Red Power 2 mod for Minecraft has recently been updated, and it adds a fully emulated 6502 processor that can be programmed in assembly, but comes with a Forth interpreter. From the article: 'Eloraam calls it the 65EL02, because "it supports all the 6502, 65C02, and part of the 65C816 instruction set" as well as "a set of completely new instructions and two addressing modes. Since the 65EL02 is an 8-bit CPU, Eloraam didn't have as many options for programming environments as we have on today's 64-bit computers. While it's possible to program the 65EL02 in assembly language, for general use she chose to implement a Forth interpreter. Further technical information about RedPower Control's 65EL02 is available on Eloraam's blog RP Control Internals, and on the RedPower wiki's page for Red Power Control.' (Fair disclosure: The video linked in the article is mine.)" Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
from Slashdot http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/05/23/217204/minecraft-mod-adds-emulated-6...
Despite a 27% dip in viewers for Wednesday’s American Idol finale compared to last year’s, the reality TV singing competition managed to break or set new social TV records.
Viewers generated 1.2 million comments across social media websites during the two-hour finale, making it the most talked about season finale ever, according to data from Bluefin Labs.
The season 11 Idol finale’s numbers catapulted over finales for Pretty Little Liars (804,000 for season two), The X Factor (391,000 for season one), The Voice (370,000 for season two) and The Bad Girls Club (289,000 for season eight).
Idol also incited the most comments for a full TV show season with 5.9 million. The Voice netted 2.7 million.
“Reality singing competitions are definitely a key driver in social TV,” Bluefin spokeswoman April Conyers told Mashable. “This format is a sweet spot for social engagement.”
SEE ALSO: Summer TV Guide — 20 Social Shows to See | ‘Top Model’ Adds Online Voting
Idol crowned Phillip Phillips as champion and set the stage ablaze with performances from the finalists as well as Aerosmith, Rihanna, John Fogerty, Neil Diamond, Reba McEntire, Jennifer Lopez, Jordin Sparks, Fantasia and Jennifer Holliday. Check out Bluefin’s data below to see the moments that got viewers chatting online.

More About: american idol, celebrities, Entertainment, Facebook, Music, social tv, the-voice, TV, Twitter 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/05/24/american-idol-finale/?utm_source=feedburner&ut...
Gaming-focused video programmer Machinima has received another round of funding, this one totaling $35 million and led by distribution partner Google.
While Google has given what amounts to seed money to its video production partners in the past, this contribution marks the first time the company has offered major capital backing for one of them.
Redpoint Ventures and MK Capital also contributed to the Los Angeles-based production company’s fourth funding round. Through three previous rounds, all led by MK Capital, Machinima raised $14.6 million.
Machinima has emerged as Google-owned YouTube’s third most popular video channel, commanding 23.1 million unique viewers in April, according to research company comScore. Notably, Machinima offers better engagement than any other top YouTube channel, with viewers, on average, spending 65 minutes in April viewing it, comScore said.
Machinima said the funding will be invested into its “content and global sales operations, international expansion, distribution strategies, and product and technology initiatives, as the company strives to create a global video programming brand that transforms the way a new generation.”
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro: Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial. 

from GigaOM http://paidcontent.org/2012/05/21/google-leads-35m-funding-round-for-machinim...
Buried in the announcement revealing actor Samuel L. Jackson as the host for the 12th Annual BET Awards were brief descriptions of the ceremony’s first mobile app.
Mashable, however, got an early demo last week of the massively interactive app. It’s sprinkled with gaming elements tied to voting for the award show’s nominees or predicting the order of performers during the July 1 shindig.
The Black Entertainment Television Awards honors African-Americans in music, movies and sports. Last year, producers integrated social media heavily on air and on location through a star-studded “social media lounge.”
The slick, colorful app comes out in June and will reward users with prizes and online prestige such as displaying the high scorer’s Twitter handle prominently on one of the game’s main interfaces.
Aside from the gaming aspects, the app will feature a clickable timeline of the BET Awards, in-depth artist profiles, curated tweets and videos. A “Tweetmap,” meanwhile, will show where app users are tweeting from and let them zoom in to view user profiles and tweets. It resembles the network’s app for its 106 & Park show.
“We knew we wanted to make voting fun,” Brandon Lucas, BET’s VP of mobile, recently told Mashable, adding that production on the app began five months ago.
One game, Too Big to Pick, lets users vote for nominees by shooting disks into a moving goal with the slide of a finger. The more disks a user makes into the goal, the more votes that user will tally. Players can see how their Facebook friends fared in the game, too.
Another game, The Line-Up, is a fantasy sports-style game in which people predict the order of the show’s performers and then compare their lists with friends and celebrities.
Both games allow players to share their scores and line-ups to Facebook and Twitter.
SEE ALSO: BET Makes Social Media Blitz Ahead of 2011 BET Awards
On Tuesday, BET Networks also unveiled the first two confirmed performers: Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown.
“We have many more acts to come,” says Stephen Hill, president of music programming and specials at BET Networks. “The Shrine Auditorium will be shaking for the R&B stalwarts Maze featuring Frankie Beverly as they receive the Cadillac Lifetime Achievement Award. We’re just getting started and already the show is living up to its slogan: It’s too big to miss.”
Kanye West, who is no stranger to going on entertaining, multi-tweet tirades, snagged the most nominations with seven. Beyonce, who has been revamping and boosting her digital presence as of late, received six nominations.
Here is a full list of nominees for this year’s show:
Best Female R&B Artist
Marsha Ambrosius
Beyonce
Mary J. Blige
Melanie Fiona
Rihanna
Best Male R&B Artist
Chris Brown
Bruno Mars
Miguel
Trey Songz
Usher
Best Group
Bad Meets Evil
Diddy-Dirty Money
Maybach Music Group
Mindless Behavior
The Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West)
Best Collaboration
Beyonce f/ J. Cole – “Party”
Big Sean f/ Kanye West & Roscoe Dash – “Marvin & Chardonnay”
DJ Khaled f/ Drake, Rick Ross & Lil Wayne – “I’m On One”
Drake f/ Lil Wayne & Tyga – “The Motto”
The Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West) f/ Otis Redding – “Otis”
Wale f/ Miguel – “Lotus Flower Bomb”
Best Male Hip Hop Artist
Big Sean
Drake
J. Cole
Lil Wayne
Rick Ross
Young Jeezy
Best Female Hip Hop Artist
Diamond
Nicki Minaj
Brianna Perry
Trina
Video of the Year
Beyonce – “Countdown”
Beyonce – “Love On Top”
The Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West) – “N***as in Paris”
The Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West) f/ Otis Redding – “Otis”
Usher – “Climax”
Video Director of the Year
Beyonce & Alan Ferguson
Benny Boom
Chris Brown & Godfrey Tabarez
Kanye West
Hype Williams
Best New Artist
A$AP Rocky
Big Sean
Diggy
Future
Meek Mill
Best Gospel
Yolanda Adams
Kim Burrell
James Fortune & FIYA
Fred Hammond
Trin-I-Tee 5:7
Best Actress
Angela Bassett
Viola Davis
Taraji P. Henson
Regina King
Zoe Saldana
Best Actor
Don Cheadle
Common
Idris Elba
Kevin Hart
Denzel Washington
YoungStars Award
Astro
Diggy
Jacob Latimore
Keke Palmer
Willow Smith
Best Movie
Good Deeds
Jumping The Broom
Laugh At My Pain
Red Tails
The Help
Subway Sportswoman of the Year
Skylar Diggins
Brittney Griner
Candace Parker
Serena Williams
Venus Williams
Subway Sportsman of the Year
Carmelo Anthony
Kobe Bryant
Victor Cruz
Kevin Durant
LeBron James
Coca-Cola Viewer’s Choice Award
Beyonce – “Love On Top”
Chris Brown – “Turn Up the Music”
Drake f/ Lil Wayne & Tyga – “The Motto”
Mindless Behavior – “Hello”
The Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West) f/ Otis Redding – “Otis”
Wale f/ Miguel – “Lotus Flower Bomb”
Centric Award
Common
Estelle
Robert Glasper
Robin Thicke
Tyrese
Best International Act: Africa
Camp Mulla (Kenya)
Ice Prince (Nigeria)
Lira (South Africa)
Mokobe (Mali)
Sarkodie (Ghana)
Wizkid (Nigeria)
Best International Act: UK
Estelle
Labrinth
Emeli Sande
Sway
Wretch 32
BET Awards Social Media Lounge
 D'banj (@iamdbanj), who was winner of Artist of the Year at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009. Click here to view this gallery.
More About: bet awards, BET Networks, celebrities, Entertainment, Music, social tv, TV 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/05/22/bet-awards-app-samuel-jackson/?utm_source=feed...
The Leaders in Digital Series is supported by Samsung. Follow Samsung USA on Google+ and Twitter, and like it on Facebook.
On Monday, Hulu revealed a slate of 10 original shows it plans to premiere on the site this summer.
The news followed a slew of announcements from the likes of Yahoo, AOL and other big media companies that are now developing original video content for the web — much of which looks much like traditional television (Mashable also recently premiered its first episodic series, Behind the Launch).
Earlier this month at Mashable Connect, we caught up with Wilson Cleveland, who is the creator and executive producer of Leap Year, a scripted series that debuted in 2011 and will go live with its second season in June. We chatted with Cleveland about what’s behind the sudden boom in premium web video content, why advertisers are jumping on board (Leap Year is funded by Hiscox insurance) and how audience consumption habits are changing.
Check out the interview above. You can also watch the first season of Leap Year on Mashable Video.
Series presented by Samsung
The Leaders in Digital Series is supported by Samsung. Follow Samsung USA on Google+ and Twitter, and like them on Facebook.
More About: features, leaders in digital series, mashable, mashable connect, mashable video, TV, web video For more Entertainment coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/05/22/tv-web-video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium...
President Obama’s 2008 campaign is seen by many as the first successful online campaign, and while his Republican rivals are certainly beginning to master the social side of campaigning, Obama’s 2012 team is doubling down on digital with a new platform being released Wednesday.
The new platform, called Dashboard, will attempt to bring nearly everything that a brick-and-mortar field office does into the digital space. Obama’s volunteers will be able to use the service to make calls to recruit others to join the team, organize campaign events such as voter registration drives, and communicate with leadership — all from their desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone devices, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Dashboard is our online field office — a hub for campaign volunteers and supporters to communicate with each other and become members of neighborhood teams,” Katie Hogan, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, told Mashable.
Dashboard, which will feature a Facebook-style interface, introduces social and data-driven elements, reflective of the Obama campaign’s love affair with metrics. Obama volunteers will be able to use the platform to connect with other supporters and join local volunteer teams with specific missions, such as LGBT for Obama groups, which are tasked with reaching out to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters.
On the staff side, campaign leadership will be able to set and track specific goals for individual Obama supporters and volunteer groups. Those supporters and groups will engage in friendly competition with one another to achieve those goals — a hallmark of the 2008 Obama campaign.
“Supporters can use the tool to set goals, communicate those goals and see what other supporters are doing,” added Hogan. “Supporters who want to be engaged can go to Dashboard, message other supporters in their area and have a conversation about how to get started, it provides a good volunteer experience online that is directly tied to our field operation goals.”
Dashboard, which has been in development for nearly a year, builds upon similar software and MyBarackObama.com, which was used during Obama’s 2008 run to help volunteers perform some tasks, such as phone banking, from the comfort of their own home.
SEE ALSO: Republicans Launch Facebook App to Defeat Obama
Keya Dannenbaum, founder of ElectNext, welcomes the new platform.
“[The Obama campaign] is making political advocacy social and mobile and that is a move that can only expand the pool of people who will get engaged and involved, and that’s great,” said Dannenbaum. “I would fully expect something similar from the Romney campaign.”
Mitt Romney’s digital team is indeed doing something similar: they’re using “MyMitt,” a similar in-house social network that lets Romney supporters connect with one another and volunteer for the campaign. Republicans as a whole, meanwhile, are engaging their supporters on Facebook with the Social Victory Center, a Facebook app that allows right-leaning voters to connect with one another directly on the popular social network.
Zachary Green, a political Twitter consultant, noted something missing from the new service.
‘Social media actions are curiously absent from the Dashboard, and Obama’s campaign has never quite done it right,” said Green. “They have built a page to Tweet your Representative, as though anyone in D.C. would change their vote based on a Twitter feed.”
Would you use a presidential campaign’s social network to get involved with politics? Sound off in the comments below.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, PeterPhoto
More About: 2012 presidential campaign, barack obama, Politics, trending, US 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/05/23/obama-online-tool/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_m...
Dish Network has partnered with Roku to launch a new, streaming-only service that will be sold to customers across the U.S., regardless of whether they’re subscribers of Dish’s pay TV offering or not, both companies announced Wednesday morning.
DISHWorld, as the service is called, will offer a number of international packages that bundle Brazilian, Arabic, Hindi and other foreign language content. Bundles go for as little as $5 a month, and all the way up to $44.99, but customers have to mix and match bundles to spend at least $19.99 per month.
Some of the bundles simply offer foreign news stations, while others include movie channels and music TV. Among the networks included in the various bundles are Sony Entertainment Television India, Al Jazeera, Willow Cricket and BBC Arabic. Viewers have access to live TV and can catch up on any of the shows that aired within the last 48 hours on any of the networks they subscribe to.
A press release also hinted at additional offerings targeting other expats in the future, and it suggested that Roku decided against becoming its own operator, partnering with Dish instead:
“Additionally, Roku selected Dish to manage the launch and expansion of future foreign language channels and content on the Roku platform.”
The partnership is a big deal for Roku; the set-top-box has been offering subscription access to a number of foreign channels and packages for some time. But in most cases, these are sold separately by smaller companies, some of which reside outside of the U.S.. Having Dish as a trusted brand to manage and promote these kinds of subscriptions could give Roku a big boost.
But it’s also a remarkable deal for the pay TV world in general. Over the last few months, there have been many rumors that one of the big pay TV providers would eventually decide to go online and target Internet users located outside of its local market with streaming-only packages — an idea that folks in the industry have been dubbing a virtual cable company. Today, this kind of virtual pay TV future became reality — for folks speaking Hindi, Arabic or any other of the targeted languages, anyway.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro: Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial. 

from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/video/roku-dishworld-expat-tv/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_me...
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