Mediaboss Marketing

This afternoon we get a mysteriously sourced report that Apple is in talks with three major movie studios to stream their offerings on a future device (Apple TV, right?). Reuters' Ronald Groverreports, via unnamed sources, that Apple has opened discussions with Epix, a company backed by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, MGM, and Viacom's Paramount Pictures. We accept this news with the biggest grain of the strongest salt the bartender's got, because of that whole anonymous source thing and this little nugget of uncertainty: "Talks with EPIX are in the preliminary stages and no agreement is considered near, the source said." We also knowApple TV is the new iPhone 5 of rumors, with lots ofunsubstantiatedinformation coming out all over the place. But say it is true. That's something to get excited about.

For Apple to revolutionize the television industry, as Steve Jobs kind of sort of maybe said it would, Apple will need to pull an iTunes, scoring content deals that would create a whole new media viewing ecosystem. That's what we're all waiting for in the TV world. (No more boxes, please!) Few of the would-be revolutions in that industry have yet to go beyond that, however, providing new technology over old technology (cable) that we don't want. Apple, though, has done this sort of thing before. And this little rumor gives a dreamer a teeny-tiny smidgen of hope.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgreenfield at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

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Apple Might Be Making Apple TV Content Deals

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA, Mass.Before there was Ronco and the Veg-O-Matic, way ahead of George Foreman and his grill, back when infomercials were a gleam in a pitchman's eye, Chris Nahatis of Manchester was showing New England TV audiences how to chop, peel, grate, slice and shred as fast as he could talk and bang pans.

Anyone who watched local television from the `50s into the `90s couldn't miss the mustachioed Nahatis, who turns 90 this year, hawk the Saladmaster wares.

The great-grandfather recently celebrated 60 years selling the "not sold in stores" cookware from three-minute spots on pioneering TV stations in the 1950s to 30-minute pioneering paid presentations, and now, online marketing.

Still displaying his patented energy, charm and talkativity (minus the mustache and apron), Nahatis said he is "going strong" as president of the Saladmaster sales and distribution network for New England and six European countries, with an assist from his daughter, Stephanie, the sales director. He declined to disclose sales figures.

"Business is unbelievable," said the man who personified getting the proverbial foot -- and mouth -- in the door. During his career, Nahatis broke all sales records for the Texas-based company; his sales in 1956, for example, topped $5 million, earning a legendary spot in the annals of direct marketing and racking up 2.5 million miles in the air on behalf of Saladmaster.

Nahatis invented the infomercial in 1954, refining his spiel for the Saladmaster device on stations in Poland Spring, Maine -- where he appears to this day -- and Providence.

"I'd show up with a potato in one pocket, an apple in another and cut like crazy," he says.

Later that year, producers of the flagging "Daily Almanac" show on WBZ in Boston offered him a three-minute spot for $50.

"It was supposed to be their last show," recalled Nahatis. "The program director told me to fill the air. `Take your time, Chris,' he said. If management complains, I'll tell them my watch stopped."

The gambit worked. The show received 196 letters the next day about Nahatis, he said, and Saladmaster became a prime sponsor.

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TV sales pioneer says desperation spawned career

[Photo: AV Watch]Set your eyes to stun. Panasonic Japan just raised the game in the "mine is bigger than yours" battle by taking the wraps off its huge 145-inch 8k television, thus outdoing Sharp's 85-inch 8k set by a healthy margin.

The mammoth plasma set, made in partnership with Japan's public broadcaster NHK, has a sizable 7680-by-4320-pixel resolution and claims to be the world's first self-luminous display (that is, it doesn't need a backlight). By comparison, current HDTVs typically max out at 1920-by-1080-pixel resolution. Panasonic's also claims that its new TV is flicker-free, something difficult to achieve on a display of this size.

The "Super Hi-Vision" display, a technology also known as ultra high definition television, is currently only a prototype, with 8k technology still several years away from being ready for consumers. The long wait for TV sets of this magnatude is proabably a good thing, as it will give you plenty of time to save for a bigger house--something you're no doubt going to need in order to accomodate larger televisions like this.

The huge 145-inch TV will be shown in action next month at NHK's laboratories, and will then visit the US in June. If you're going, you may want to take a pair of shades.

[via Gizmodo UK / Photo via AV Watch]

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Panasonic's Newest TV Prototype Is Big for Your Living Room

28-04-2012 00:33 Let's talk about gossip on the internet and why it sucks balls.

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Internet Gossip 'n That - Video

The Internet contributes to nine percent of Vietnams gross domestic product (GDP), and 1.6 percent to its GDP growth of 14.4 percent, according to recent global survey.

The contribution is driven by private consumption of Internet-related goods such as broadband and mobile Internet spending, the ICTNews news website said Wednesday, citing a survey done by the US-based McKinsey & Company, Inc.

Theprivate consumption accounts for some 2 percent of Vietnams GDP but it is offset by the countrys large trade deficit in Internet-related goods and services, according to the survey report,Online and upcoming: The Internet's impact on aspiring countries. Results of the survey were announced at a seminar in Hanoi Wednesday.

It pointed out that the GDP contribution of the Internet in Vietnam is still lower than the two percent average for the nine aspiring countries that the company studied in detail.

However, Shaowei Ying, associate principal in McKinseys Singapore office, told the seminar, organized by the Vietnam Club of Information Technology Journalists, that the contribution will soon catch up with the average rate and be probably able to reach 2.5 percent in the future.

On the other hand, McKinseys survey found that e-commerce in Vietnam is still an untapped market with high potential for growth.

It said more than one-third of Internet users have visited an online shopping or auction site. Meanwhile, in another survey, 50 percent of Internet users said they believed that shopping online provides access to a wider variety of products, it added.

But concerns about payment security constrain e-commerce growth potential in Vietnam, according to the survey, saying that just 13 percent of Vietnamese Internet users believe that buying products online is safe.

Moreover, Vietnams foundations for e-commerce activity are low in comparison with more developed countries and regional averages, due to low online payment enablement, McKinsey said in the survey.

According to the survey, Internet users in Vietnam now account for 31 percent of the population which is low compared to neighboring aspiring countries like Malaysia, where the rate is 55 percent, and Taiwan with 72 percent.

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Internet contributes to 9 pct of Vietnam GDP: survey