Allen Weiner

After walking halfway down the aisle with Google in 2008 in a proposed (and then scrapped) search-advertising pact, Yahoo! has inked a 10 year deal in which Microsoft will power Yahoo! search and sell self-service keywords through AdCenter while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. The [...]

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You can stop singing the blues for the future of the U.S. cable television industry. Those clever purveyors of head ends, set top boxes and often questionable customer service have entered the online broadcast space. In a deal with MLB and YES (the Yankees’ broadcast network) Cablevision will, beginning July [...]

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The long-anticipated deal in which Hulu adds ABC’s prime time shows to its lineup, as well as its daytime soaps and programming from ABC Family, Disney Channel and SOAPnet is official. Besides licensing content, Disney is taking an equity stake in Hulu, with Disney getting three seats on the Hulu board that will be filled [...]

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A few weeks into my TV 2.0 project ,where I set up a viewing center sans cable or satellite, I successfully completed the digital transition by attaching a Samsung digital converter box and Radio Shack indoor antenna to my Sharp 32-inc TV. At first, it was a total fail, but because my TV had not [...]

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As a part-time resident of Austin, Texas and music/movie/interactive sort of guy, it’s fairly obvious I will be at SXSW. It will be my first time at this megaevent, so as a conference veteran, I know somewhat to expect, but in Austin “weird happens” (which is why we love it), so it could hold many [...]

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Thanks to some reliable technology, I am finally prepared to embark on my TV 2.0 project. After five years of faithful service, our Pioneer HDTV landed us a rebate of $350 from the original warranty we purchased with the set. The store gave us until the end of February to use the credit against any [...]

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In the research that led to our report, “Publishers Explore Digital Editions, Devices as New Channel Opportunities,” Mike McGuire and I debated/handicapped the merits of various e-reader devices and their chances of becoming the go-to gadgets for reading books, magazines and newspapers. Our conclusions were, well…inconclusive. With recent events, those inconclusive conclusions are even more…well… [...]

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I have watched Hulu’s coming- out party ad (see here) several times, both live during the heartbreaking SB 43 (yes, I live in Arizona) and then online where it will live forever to be cheered, jeered and even possibly revered. As someone who has followed Hulu since before this forward-thinking online venture between NBC and [...]

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Yahoo’s Q4 and 2008 full-year earnings call yielded few surprises in the wake of the economic downtown: Revenue is down, expenses are being controlled and the company will continue to focus on core strengths while offering cautious guidance for Q1 2009. Yahoo watchers know the call was less about dollars and cents and search share [...]

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Even though U.S. broadcasters are ready and 95 percent of consumers are ready, the fabled Digital Transition, scheduled for February 17, the Senate, at the urging of President Obama, voted to delay the full switch from analog to digital TV for four months. Citing data from Nielsen, some 6.5 million households would go dark if [...]

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