Holiday Catchup Wire: Terra Olympics; Strike TV; Netflix Box; BigDownload; PwnorDie
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
Back after holidays, and some links that cropped up during the last week:
-- Terra gets Olympic Internet rights: For Latin America, that is. It has been awarded Internet and mobile rights..its Olympic Games site will go live Aug. 1. It will include 13 different channels where users can choose whatever event they want to see 24 hours a day. Terra is owned by Spain's Telefonica.
-- Strike TV strikes chord online: Strike.TV is about to make its formal commercial debut as an online venture designed to showcase the work of WGA members and pros from other guilds and unions...this started during the Writers strike, and hence the name. It will begin rolling out segments of more than 40 original series and other content bits.
-- Netflix's Online Movie Dreams: Roku player won't be limited to Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX). Later this year, a simple software update will allow the box to stream content from other "big name" providers.
-- WSJ.com Enjoying Significant Bump in Traffic: WSJ.com reached 16.2 million unique users in June, a whopping 94 percent increase versus the same month last year based on the company's internal traffic numbers. The site's total page views also surged 45 percent to 150 million in June when compared to last year...this while keeping its subscription model. of course, free stories help, and then better SEO.
-- Getty Images Buyout Complete: Its buyout by a private equity company for about $2.04 billion is now complete.
-- AOL Launches BigDownload Gaming Site: AOL (NYSE: TWX) has launched BigDownload.com, a free video game download site aimed at PC gaming enthusiasts. While AOL already offers a download service through its GameDaily site, the idea is to offer a more in-depth experience for serious gamers with the new gaming property.
-- Or Die Networks branches into videogames: Or Die Networks, best known for the Funny or Die website, announced plans to branch into videogames with PwnorDie.com. Pwn--gamer slang for great game play--is currently in beta testing and will formally launch by the fall.
By Rafat Ali