The new box also includes two tuners so that you can record two shows at once. This is a much anticipated upgrade for DirecTV subscribers who were promised equipment of this caliber years ago. If you still have the service and you want these capabilities, it’s here and it’s available now.

In an advertising campaign for DirecTV, Peyton and Eli Manning have teamed up to fight crime with nothing but their rocket arms and a couple of black footballs.

DirectTV has launched the season one trailer for “Football Cops” on YouTube and also put up the official site for the show. “Nobody escapes the long arms of the law,” reads the tagline.

Here’s the official show description from DirecTV –

Peyton and Eli Manning star in this action-packed drama about two former pro football players who bring their unique brand of law enforcement to one of the country’s toughest neighborhoods. Mike Tahoe (Peyton Manning) was living the dream as a big league quarterback, until a personal tragedy brought him back to the mean streets of his childhood. Vowing to bring those who wronged him to swift justice, he enlists the help of his best friend, and biggest rival, C.J. Hunter (Eli Manning). Both grew up together as orphans in a home for wayward boys. Both overcame the odds to become huge sports stars. Now both are the only hope for the rugged streets they once again call home.

Sounds better than half the cop dramas currently on TV.

The trailer itself does not disappoint, as the brother quarterbacks impale the bad guys with footballs, all while gloriously mustached.

Of course we can’t expect the Manning brothers to actually star in a football themed cop drama, but I would totally watch this if it were real. Maybe DirecTV has plans to turn it into a very short web series? The site shows 3 separate episodes upcoming for season 1.

However, If they did in fact turn this into a true feature-length show they would have to work on the realism. Eli doesn’t throw one interception in the whole clip. Pfffft.

Ian Dennis Miller runs a site called localshow.tv, a nifty music video player. He also writes on a personal blog, of which he released an article titled – “Petite Lap Giraffes: Real?” In the article, he writes about research he conducted to find out if Petite Lap Giraffes are real or not. He cites some specific research, concerning the Petite Lap Giraffe site’s URL registration, by way of a WHOIS query, and this photo which originated from a stock photo website.

The story becomes particularly interesting when Miller discovers that LongIslandPress.com used his research to release their own article , without a creditable link directed towards Miller’s website. As any blog owner would do in his situation, he called LongIslandPress out on their exclusion. He did so by posting a comment on the article, getting straight to point without being nasty.

Let’s see if you can guess what LongIslandPress did next, after Miller called them out. Did they:

A.) Admit to the link exclusion, apologize, and keep the story up on their site since it’s sort of funny in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way.

B.) Retract enough information from the original article so they could use information that is attainable through easy means.

C.) Take the article offline, and wash their hands of any wrong doing. Even after search engines crawled their site for content.

Sorry, it’s a trick multiple choice test. Answers B.) and C.) are both correct. The original article written by LongIslandPress included Miller’s research regarding the stock photo image. However, Miller kept up with the article and discovered the stock photo information was taken down. However, the WHOIS domain information, which can be discovered easily by anyone was left up.

Miller’s story caught a bit of steam, and was eventually posted on Slashdot. All the negative attention lead LongIslandPress to take down the story.

Go ahead and file this story under “Newspaper sites that aren’t ready for the internet“. While LongIslandPress is a regional paper and doesn’t have the attention of other major newspaper sites, it paints a portrait of how the needless fight between newspaper sites and blogs rages on. Miller could have really made more of his story, but instead had a bit of fun with it and kept everyone updated with the proceedings. The remarkable part of the story is all of this could have been avoided if they just posted a single link to Miller’s site.

If you haven’t seen the latest DirecTV commercial with the Petite Lap Giraffe being featured, here’s the YouTube video. It’s really quite genius.

UPDATE: It looks as though LongIslandPress.com has seen enough heat from the internet, and have now posted the article with creditable links attached.

UPDATE (04/18): The official Petite Lap Giraffe website has received a rather interesting update. The original video posted on the front page featured a recording, which could have easily have been doctored. They’ve now added a live feed, which has an up-to-the second time code in the top left corner.

The caption below the feed reads: See what our Bull Vladimir do around farm! If not see him, don’t worry he come back.

If people were ready to believe in Petite Lap Giraffes before, imagine how they’ll be fooled by a seemingly live video feed.

DirecTV and Google have entered into an ad sales partnership involving Google TV ads. It would be very interesting if the relationship between these two companies evolved to include a Google TV partnership, which would give that platform (along with Android) potentially much greater reach, building on Google’s existing relationship with Dish Network.

Google and Verizon have dominated the tech web headlines this week with news and discussion around their "open web" proposal. Facebook has weighed in on the subject, indicating that they’re on a different page with the companies’ stance on wireless networks.

Google announced a new beta version of Chrome with more speed, a new user interface, and a new autofill feature.

Google is also sharing a case study from Samsung about how it has utilized AdMob mobile ads to target male sports fans, increasing purchase intent.

Gizmodo points to a Firefox add-on that provides an alarm every time "Google spies on you". It screams at you and shows you an alert when personal information is sent to Google servers. "Since this happens almost everywhere—thanks to spying bugs like Google Analytics, AdSense, YouTube embeds, Google API calls, and who knows what else—you may just want to look at the demo," writes Jesus Diaz.

Ars Technica has a startling story about how cars can be hacked into through wireless tire sensors, which could potentially give those with malicious intent the ability to annoy drivers or even endanger them.

Under the deal, Google will become the sales representative for a broad selection of advertising inventory on several networks carried on DirecTV.

DriecTV national satellite inventory on Bloomberg, Fox Business, Centric, Fuel, G4, Current, Ovation, Fit, Sleuth, Chiller and TV Guide will be available via the Google TV Ads system across all dayparts, including primetime. Google TV Ads customers will be able to reach up to 30 million satellite households through both DirecTV and exisiting partnerships.

"We are delighted to partner with Google and embark on this initiative together," said Bob Riordan, Senior Vice President, DirecTV Advertising Sales.

"Google TV Ads is an excellent advertising tool and will be a tremendous complement to DIRECTV’s existing suite of innovative assets."

DirecTV reaches 18.7 million TV households, which will allow Google TV advertisers to reach a variety of TV viewers.
 

If correct, cable companies are likely losing millions of subscribers that are instead getting their TV fix from online sources, such as Hulu. The problem? Online TV watching doesn’t generate anywhere near the revenue of cable programming.

If we all switch to watching TV via Hula et al, what happens to the quality of the programming? If we continue down this path, we’d better figure out a way to make online video ads successful–and fast–or we may see the end of quality shows such as LOST and House.

Comments

Clearwire Finds Partners

The agreement will allow both satellite companies to offer Clearwire’s high-speed Internet service to their customers. Clearwire will be able to offer the video services of one or both satellite companies to its customers.

The three companies will be able to offer high-speed Internet, video and voice in all Clearwire markets. The launch is planned for later this year.

DIRECTV and EchoStar will be able to sell Clearwire’s services on a stand-alone basis.

"By expanding the reach of our services through DIRECTV and EchoStar, and by incorporating direct-to-home satellite video services in our own distribution channels, we believe we have an opportunity to significantly expand our business opportunity," said Perry Satterlee, Clearwire president and chief operating officer.

"By choosing this bundle option, DIRECTV customers will now be able to enjoy Clearwire’s fast, reliable and secure wireless broadband network that works great at home and on the go," said Bruce Churchill, president of New Enterprises, DIRECTV.

Even while they work out the details of this one, it’s clear that Google has decided that advertising for the entire world is their goal. They’ve now got search, contextual, email (gmail), print, radio, cable and now satellite advertising working for them.

I suppose at some point, we’ll all be wearing those futuristic v-neck jumpsuits, like everyone in the future seems to be wearing, and undoubtably they’ll be Googlesuits with embedded imaging on the torso running some sort of a ‘google wear’ property. Of course if this does happen I’ll expect my idea money in the form of a Google check (sans advertising please).

Yahoo Inks Deal With Viacom (Techmeme).

Danny Sullivan seems to think this one is just another deal that Yahoo had in the works that really has nothing to do with a Panama feather-in-the-cap, but the Yahoo! press release does mention Panama.

The only reason to mention Panama, frankly, feels like a means of giving investors some spin that Panama is making this possible. It’s not — as said, Yahoo’s had deals like this before pre-Panama.

Either way, good news for both companies. Kudos to the teams in charge…

Comments

Tag:

The last mile and who controls it has been a mounting concern among the major "network-less" players like Google, Yahoo, and eBay. The concern rises from suspicion of the telecommunications industry, and its control over chokepoints.

Two bands of spectrum, expected to bring anywhere from $10-$30 billion, are expected to be auctioned off soon in a spectrum auction. The 700 MHz wireless spectrum is the most pressing, and the one the aforementioned online giants are immediately concerned with. In 2009, analog TV stations will be required by the government to go digital and give the 60 MHz spectrum back to the government. But the 700 MHz is best suited for broadband Internet.

The coalition will not be bidding on the spectrum, according to reports, but are leery of these access points being controlled by companies like AT&T or Verizon. This is largely a protective measure, it would seem, amid antitrust concerns.

Om Malik quotes Matt Coppet, a strategist for UBS Global Media:

‘Network-less’ content aggregators (Yahoo, Google) and online transaction companies (EBay) have been concerned about potential last mile toll for the customer to access their services, for the coalition providers, the only way to protect their unencumbered access to the consumer could be to build a third data [sic] own network.

One outcome they appear to be seeking is not just an evaluation of auction conduct, but an outright exclusion of incumbent providers. And based on current industry conditions, Multichannel says exclusion is a real possibility:

…the Federal Communications Commission, which will supervise the auction of broadcast spectrum, might decide to bar cable and phone companies from acquiring licenses inside their local service territories.

The exclusion of incumbents is not unheard of. In 1997, the FCC banned cable and phone companies from holding in-region Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) licenses for three years in order to promote competition in video and data markets.

Chase Carey, president and CEO of The DIRECTV Group, will now oversee day-to-day operations of DIRECTV and Mr. Stern’s direct reports will report to Mr. Carey. DIRECTV does not intend to replace Mr. Stern, who joined the company in December 2003.

“While we considered 2004 a transition year, DIRECTV achieved a tremendous amount under Mitch’s leadership,” said Mr. Carey, “most notably, more new subscribers chose DIRECTV last year than any other pay television service in the country. I want to take this opportunity to thank Mitch for all his efforts and contributions and wish him well. DIRECTV is well positioned to go forward and build on its leadership position in the pay television industry.”

“Serving as DIRECTV’s president was very rewarding and I am very proud of all that we accomplished in the last year,” said Stern. “DIRECTV is a great success story and a fabulous business with a very promising future. While it was exciting to be part of such a dynamic organization, the time was right for me to move on.”

Mr. Carey was named president and CEO of The DIRECTV Group in December 2003. Under Mr. Carey’s leadership, The DIRECTV Group has sold its non-core assets and is focused on its satellite television businesses in the United States and Latin America. Mr. Carey serves as a director on the boards of The DIRECTV Group and News Corporation.

WebProNews | Breaking eBusiness News
Your source for investigative ebusiness reporting and breaking news.