Main Stories
o NBA Gets Estimated $400 Million From Five Video Game Publishers
o U.K. Games Firm Eidos Gets Offers From SCi Entertainment, Elevation Partners
o RIAA Settles Lawsuit Against StreamCast Networks Over Web Radio Service
o Report: DVD Sales Will Maintain Growth to Reach $76.5 Billion in 2009
o HP to Acquire Snapfish Online Photo Service
o Report: Chinese Online Games Market to Reach $2 Billion in 2009
o Spoken Word Audio Content Distributor MediaBay Raises $35 Million
o Interactive TV Games Firm PlayTV Acquires Pixel Technologies
o Mobile Search Service 4INFO Raises $8 Million in Funding

o Briefly Noted: Sirius Satellite Radio, Bertelsmann's Arvato, General Motors - Apple iPod, Yamaha - XM Satellite Radio, MusicNow, MonsterMob - Upper Mobile Ltd., GoldPocket Interactive - HSN, ICTV - U.K., Tribune Media Services - Microsoft, On Command, "The Matrix Online," Sony Computer Entertainment America, Electronic Arts - John Milius, Atari, Sony Online Entertainment, FunMail - "Mutts"
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New York -- The National Basketball Association (NBA) on Tuesday announced the signing of non-exclusive video game licensing agreements with five game publishers, bucking the recent trend for exclusive licenses granted by the NFL and MLB. The NBA granted Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Sony, Midway Games and Atari the rights to continue to develop and publish titles featuring NBA teams and both current and retired players, adding that it will promote the games through the league's various assets, including NBA TV and NBA.com. Reuters cited analysts who estimated the five and six-year deals to be worth a combined $400 million. "It's been our experience that relative competition among the (publishers) has inspired a tremendous amount of creativity," Sal LaRocca, senior vice president of global merchandise for the NBA, told Reuters. NBA Entertainment president Adam Silver added, "We got to a dollar number which is a significant increase off our current deals but at the same time we're able to maintain relations with our current partners." Under the agreements, EA, Take-Two and Sony will be allowed to develop NBA simulation titles every year, while EA and Midway will alternate years when releasing their arcade-style titles, "NBA Street" and "NBA Ballers."
http://tinyurl.com/3l9v7 
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o U.K. Games Firm Eidos Gets Offers From SCi Entertainment, Elevation Partners

London -- U.K. video game developer SCi Entertainment Group on Tuesday offered 53.6 pence per share, or about $145 million for Eidos, its troubled U.K. rival. Earlier on Tuesday, Eidos agreed to a $135.1 million takeover bid by Elevation Partners (EP), a U.S.-based venture capital firm that focuses on media, entertainment and consumer-oriented companies. EP's partners include John Riccitello, a former president of EA; Fred Anderson, the former CFO of Apple; and Bono, the lead singer of Irish rock band U2. With the news of SCi's rival bid, Eidos shares jumped by as much as 28% to 55 pence in afternoon trading on the London Stock Exchange, its largest gain in nearly five years. Eidos, which produces the popular "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" and "Championship Manager" franchises, has been shopping around for a buyer since last August, only two months after revealing that full-year figures would not meet expectations.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050322/225430_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050322/225542_1.html
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=7554 
http://www.sci.co.uk 
http://www.elevation.com 
http://www.eidos.com 
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o RIAA Settles Lawsuit Against StreamCast Networks Over Web Radio Service

Los Angeles -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has settled a lawsuit it filed against peer-to-peer file-sharing provider StreamCast Networks, which accused the company of making thousands of unauthorized copies of songs -- for an online radio service the company never launched, the Los Angeles Times reported. The settlement does not affect the major record labels' separate lawsuit against StreamCast and Grokster, another file-sharing network, which will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court next week. StreamCast CEO Michael Weiss told The Times that the company accepted a "ridiculously low settlement offer" from the labels to end the "nuisance lawsuit." RIAA senior vice president Stanley Pierre-Louis told The Times, "We certainly were satisfied with where we ended up."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-settle22mar22.story
http://www.streamcastnetworks.com 
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o Report: DVD Sales Will Maintain Growth to Reach $76.5 Billion in 2009

Scottsdale, Ariz. -- Worldwide DVD sales are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.2% to $76.5 billion in 2009, up from about $33 billion in 2004, according to a report from Arizona-based market research firm In-Stat. The firm doesn't expect digitally-delivered entertainment or the coming format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD high-definition discs to impede DVD sales. "HD DVDs will appear later this year, to take advantage of the growing installed base of HDTV sets in the U.S. However, we expect Blu-Ray products to take off in Asia in 2006, and in Europe and the ROW during 2007. Music videos, DualDisc products and locally produced DVDs will account for 20% of the market value by 2009," said In-Stat analyst Gerry Kaufold. In-Stat also predicts point-of-sale kiosks like those made by Rimage will catch on, enabling retailers to offer their customers the ability to burn DVDs on demand, without maintaining a large inventory.
http://www.instat.com/catalog/Ccatalogue.asp?id=212 
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o HP to Acquire Snapfish Online Photo Service

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Hoping to capitalize on the growing market for online photo printing, Hewlett-Packard announced that it has signed a deal to acquire San Francisco-based Snapfish, operator of a popular online photo service. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Snapfish has more than 13 million registered members and is growing at a rate of more than 500,000 members per month. The acquisition is expected to close in April. Snapfish offers photo products and services, including online photo sharing, editing tools, print ordering and more than 70 personalized photo products, such as calendars and mousepads. The company also provides infrastructure services to retailers, internet service providers and wireless carriers, allowing them to offer these same products and services to their own consumers. HP said that the services are complimentary with its own expertise in digital imaging and home printing.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050321/215856_28.html 
http://www.snapfish.com 
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o Report: Chinese Online Games Market to Reach $2 Billion in 2009

San Francisco -- The Chinese online games market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33.8%, from $467.8 million in 2004 to $2 billion in 2009, according to a report from San Francisco-based market research firm Niko Partners. The number of online gamers, who mainly play while patronizing one of China's 350,000 Internet cafes, is expected to grow from 28.8 million in 2004, to 55.5 million in 2009. "The online game platform is an excellent solution for the Chinese market, meeting the consumer demands for social interaction, entertainment, and intellectual stimulation," said Niko Partners managing partners Lisa Cosmas Hanson. "It also meets the needs of publishers because revenue is earned from fees gamers pay to play games, rather than from purchases of game software units that have long been the victim of piracy in China."
http://www.nikopartners.com 
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o Spoken Word Audio Content Distributor MediaBay Raises $35 Million

Cedar Knolls, N.J. -- MediaBay, a provider of spoken word audio content, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $35 million in a recent round of funding from several institutional investors. The company said the proceeds would go to help fund its digital distribution strategy; MediaBay holds a library of 75,000 hours of audio content, which it sells both on CD and cassettes, and as downloads through various digital services. MediaBay has recently struck agreements to distribute its content through both XM and Sirius Satellite Radio, as well as Microsoft's MSN and Loudeye. The company also partnered with talk host Larry King on an upcoming audiobook club. "Today we have distribution agreements to deliver our programming on satellite radio, via digital downloads on our partner's storefronts and our own celebrity-endorsed storefronts, and to cell phones via ringtones," said MediaBay CEO Jeffrey Dittus. New Jersey-based MediaBay said it will use the proceeds first to pay off debt, after which its cash reserves are expected to stand at $16 million.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050322/nytu026_3.html 
http://www.mediabay.com 
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o Interactive TV Games Firm PlayTV Acquires Pixel Technologies

New York -- PlayTV, a publisher of interactive TV games, announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Pixel Technologies, a developer of cross-platform entertainment technology. While PlayTV said it raised an undisclosed amount of new funding for the new company, financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 2002, New York-based PlayTV provides subscription-based interactive TV games for cable and satellite TV systems, based on properties including "Monopoly," "Scrabble," "Asteroids" and "Reader Rabbit." Israel-based Pixel Technologies has provided cross-platform, multiplayer interactive TV game software to customers including EchoStar, Liberate, OpenTV and Microsoft. The new company will be headquartered in New York and will be renamed PixelPlay.
http://www.pixelplay.com 
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o Mobile Search Service 4INFO Raises $8 Million in Funding

Palo Alto, Calif. -- 4INFO, a developer of services that allow users to search for information on their mobile devices, announced that it has raised $8 million in a new round of venture capital funding led by U.S. Venture Partners. Draper Fisher Jurvetson also participated. San Mateo, Calif.-based 4INFO's free service -- which works with all major wireless carriers -- allows users of cell phones and PDAs to search for such information as sports scores, weather, flight information, movie times and stock quotes. Users also can access a comprehensive database of stores and businesses, broken down by neighborhood. For instance, a user can send "starbucks palo alto" to 44636 and the service will return the addresses and phone numbers for all of the locations in the city.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050321/215273_1.html 
http://www.4info.net 

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PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2004-2008 is the leading global entertainment and media industry forecast, including in-depth global analyses and five-year growth projections for 14 industry segments covering every major global region. The complete 550-page book, is available in print or electronic format. The 50 page "Global Overview" (available in print or electronic format)or any of the 14 individual industry segment chapters (electronic format only) can be purchased separately for $95. For sample content and to order, click here.
 

(New York) Sirius Satellite Radio, a provider of satellite-delivered digital radio programming, announced on Tuesday that it will sell $250 million of senior notes due in 2015. New York-based Sirius said that, not counting proceeds from the offering, it believes it has sufficient cash on hand to cover its estimated funding needs through cash flow breakeven, expected to occur in 2007. The company will use about $63 million of the proceeds to redeem other outstanding senior notes, with the rest going to general corporate purposes.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050322/nytu103_3.html 
http://www.sirius.com

(Gutersloh, Germany) Arvato, a unit of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, announced on Tuesday the launch of a white label service that ISPs, TV stations and wireless carriers can use to distribute movies, music and games to their subscribers using peer-to-peer technology. In addition to distributing legally licensed content directly to consumers, the GNAB service will allow users to purchase and download content directly from one another's computers or cell phones, shifting the costs of storage and data transmission to customers.
http://www.arvato.com/index.php?LANG=en&PAGE=news_detail&param=72

(Warren, Mich.) General Motors announced that it will begin offering radios with a front-mounted auxiliary input jack -- to better connect devices like Apple's iPod to car stereo systems -- as a standard feature on several of its 2006 model year vehicles. GM said it will include such receivers on its Chevy HHR, Impala and Monte Carlo; Saturn VUE and ION; Pontiac Solstice; Buick Lucerne; and Cadillac DTS beginning in late spring.
http://i-newswire.com/pr11244.html

(Buena Park, Calif.) Yamaha Electronics announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with XM Satellite Radio to develop a line of receivers and "home theater-in-a-box" systems enabled for satellite radio reception. The manufacturer will release two 6.1 channel and two 7.1 channel receivers, which connect to the $49 XM home antenna, in addition to a line of XM-ready home theater receivers to be priced between $349 and $849. Yamaha said the first XM-ready receivers will become available at retailers in early April.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050321/dcm028_3.html 
http://www.yamaha.com

(Chicago) MusicNow (formerly FullAudio), a unit of electronics and media retailer Circuit City that provides a digital music subscription service and download store, on Tuesday announced the launch of a new version of the service, offering new personalization and organization features. They include user profile pages, "hotlists" that update playlists when additions are made to an artist's or genre's offering, and the ability to scan a user's hard drive for songs from the Web-based MusicNow interface. Chicago-based MusicNow has licensed all the major labels and offers over a million songs for both streaming, and as purchased downloads.
http://www.musicnow.com

(London) MonsterMob, a U.K.-based mobile entertainment publisher, announced on Tuesday that it has signed an agreement to acquire Upper Mobile Ltd. (UML), for $36 million in stock. UML is the owner of Information Gateway (IG) -- a mobile content and entertainment company based in the Philippines -- and Creative Minds, a content development and production company based in Singapore. "Monstermob will work in partnership with UML and IG to increase the breadth and depth of its network services activities in Southeast Asia," said Monstermob CEO Martin Higginson. "In parallel, UML and IG will take advantage of Monstermob's relationships in the U.K. and Europe."
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/050321/15/3ream.html

(St. Petersburg, Fla.) GoldPocket Interactive, a provider of interactive TV programming, announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with InterActiveCorp's Home Shopping Network (HSN) to create an interactive TV shopping application for U.S. cable TV systems. The service will enable viewers with active HSN accounts to purchase items showcased on the network using their television's remote control.
http://www.goldpocket.com 
http://www.hsn.com

(Los Gatos, California) ICTV, a developer of a platform for the delivery and distribution of interactive TV content, announced this week that it has opened a new office in the U.K. Los Gatos, Calif.-based ICTV, which has announced deployments and pilots in Europe and the U.S., said it would provide international sales, marketing and customer support activities from the new office in Surrey, England.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050321/215803_1.html

(Chicago) Tribune Media Services, a unit of the publisher that provides TV program listings and movie showtimes, said on Tuesday that it has extended an existing licensing deal with Microsoft. Under the terms of the new multi-year agreement, TMS will continue to provide Microsoft with listings for its analog, digital and HDTV interactive program guides in the U.S. and Canada, while Microsoft will also now incorporate them into other offerings, including its Windows XP Media Center Edition, MSN.com and MSN TV.
http://tms.tribune.com

(Denver, Colo.) On Command, a provider of video-on-demand and other entertainment services in hotel guest rooms, announced on Tuesday that it has expanded its Just Missed TV feature, which lets guests view certain TV programs on-demand, within two hours of their original airing on broadcast TV. Denver-based On Command's system now allows guests to time-shift programs including Discovery's "American Chopper" and Showtime's "The L Word" and "Fat Actress."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050321/lam096_3.html 
http://www.oncommand.com

(Burbank, Calif.) Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and game publishing partner Sega announced on Tuesday the release of their "The Matrix Online" massively multiplayer online game, based on the sci-fi film trilogy. The title was developed by Monolith Productions in collaboration with the Wachowski brothers, who created the film trilogy, and features voice talent from many of the trilogy's cast. The game will also feature a live events team at Monolith, who will assume the role of Matrix characters within the game through choreographed interaction with players.
http://www.thematrixonline.com

(Foster City, Calif.) Sony Computer Entertainment America on Tuesday shipped its "World Soccer Tour 2006" title for PlayStation 2 to retailers. Developed at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's London Studios, the game features more than 935 international and club teams, as well as the ability to insert a player's own likeness into the action via the EyeToy USB camera accessory for PlayStation 2, and Sony's "Digimask" technology. Tim Howard, goalkeeper for the English Premiere League's Manchester United, will serve as cover athlete for the game. Separately, Sony on Tuesday released "God of War" for PlayStation 2, developed at Sony's Santa Monica Studios by the creator of the "Twisted Metal" game franchise. Sony is currently offering those who purchase the title a free download of the game's original score from its Connect online music store.
http://www.us.playstation.com/pressreleases.aspx?id=266
http://www.connect.com/gow

(Redwood City, Calif.) Electronic Arts announced on Tuesday that it has signed screenwriter John Milius to create the storyline for its "Medal of Honor: European Assault" game. Milius co-wrote "Apocalypse Now" and has also written and directed films like "Dillinger," "Conan the Barbarian" and "Red Dawn." The title is expected to ship for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube this summer. Separately, Electronic Arts also said it shipped its "TimeSplitters Future Perfect" title for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube to retailers. The time-traveling first-person shooter was developed by U.K.-based Free Radical Design and produced by EA Partners.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050322/225264_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050322/225327_1.html 
http://www.moh.ea.com 
http://www.frd.co.uk 
http://www.timesplitters.ea.com

(Beverly, Mass.) Video game publisher Atari on Tuesday shipped its "Dragon Ball Z: Sagas" title for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube to retailers. Atari said its games based on the Japanese children's animated series have cumulatively sold more than 8 million units since 2002.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050322/nytu020_2.html
http://www.atari.com/dragonballz

(San Diego) Sony Online Entertainment on Tuesday shipped its "Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade" game for the Sony PSP to retailers. Developed and published by San Diego-based SOE, the original title will launch alongside the PSP in North America on Thursday.
http://www.untoldlegends.com

(Pleasanton, Calif.) Wireless entertainment publisher FunMail said on Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with syndicator King Features and cartoonist Patrick McDonnell, to publish a mobile comic version of McDonnell's "Mutts" comic strip.
http://www.funmail.com 
http://www.muttscomics.com 

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