Archive for June 12th, 2008

The National Basketball Assn. has been taking a lot of heat, and sweating out the details, regarding former referee Tim Donaghy, who parted company with the league last year around the time an FBI investigation alleged he had bet on games. Donaghy pled guilty to two federal charges relating to the investigation, but now is alleging that other issues, such as fixing games and giving stars preferential treatment, took place among other unnamed refs. (The NBA has denied all such allegations.)

Just in time, the NBA confirmed it has signed a multi-year deal that makes Right Guard the official deodorant of the NBA. Right Guard also confirmed it has signed all-star guard Chris Paul as spokesman to appear in print and TV, via Energy BBDO, Chicago, including a spot now running during the NBA finals on ABC. Financial terms were not disclosed. Many parts of the deal were unveiled by Terry Lefton, Sports Business Journal, in May.
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‘Til Death and Everybody Loves Raymond actor Brad Garrett will star in and produced a new online dating series on Sony Pictures Television’s original Web entertainment hub Crackle.com.

The upcoming reality series, Dating Brad Garrett, will see the sitcom veteran go on 10 blind dates with women who have submitted videos of themselves to crackle.com/datebrad. Those videos will be vetted by a panel of experts, including Garrett’s ex-wife and urologist, who will decide which 10 women will get a chance at love with Garrett.

Besides Crackle, Dating Brad Garrett will be syndicated across numerous Web video outlets, including YouTube, AOL Video and Hulu.

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MUMBAI: Social networking site Bebo has announced the next generation of its online drama commissions, to be produced by Universal Music UK’s production arm Globe Productions in partnership with Monkey Kingdom and set amongst the real-life workings of the music company’s West London headquarters.

The Secret World of Sam King revolves around a junior ’facilities’ employee at Universal Music who secretly founds his own start-up label in the post room. Producers will draw on real-life experiences along with cameo appearances from Universal artists to bring additional authenticity to the setting and story.
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MOJO HD is brewing up a new original series based on a marketing campaign for the beer brand Dos Equis.

Set to debut this fall, the five-episode reality series MIA: The Most Interesting Assistant, will seek out an adjutant for The Most Interesting Man in the World, the fictional spokesman for Dos Equis.

CNN.com entertainment correspondent Shanon Cook will host the program, which is being developed and produced by MOJO HD and Creative Bubble Productions, in conjunction with Euro RSCG.

MIA is an extension of a multi-platform media campaign developed for Dos Equis by its agency of record, MediaVest.

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Yesterday we learned that a bunch of Disney movies will be available for free online, each for a limited time, this summer. Now, because everyone wants in on the streaming video game, Fox Searchlight has also put up three of its own films for free. Sideways, 28 Days Later and Quills can now be watched in full on the studio’s website or on Hulu, which is hosting the videos. Hulu, known best as one of the premier streaming sites to watch TV episodes, is also hosting some movies from Searchlight parent Twentieth Century Fox, as well as from Lionsgate, Universal, MGM, Salient Media and FEARnet.

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NEW YORK To jump-start sales for a new video game created for The Bourne Supremacy, Horizon Media decided to take product integration to a new level when it introduced the game on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last Friday night.

The media agency doubled up on integration, inserting Guillermo, the security guard who often stars in comedic skits on the show, into the video game.

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TNT has created an animated character dubbed RaceBuddy to hype online content, including alternate camera angles, during its six NASCAR races this season.

RaceBuddy made his on-air debut during TNT’s coverage of the Pocono 500 last weekend. Sporting a TNT cap and sunglasses, the character appears on screen and quickly wheels out of sight driving an imaginary stock car. Four screens of the Mosaic View alternative camera angles of the race appear in his wake, while the announcers talk about the character and alert viewers to the online content.

“The people from the creative side thought there was room for something that would engage the audience,” said Jenny Storms, TNT senior vice president of marketing. “It’s a marketer’s dream.”

So far, it’s paying off: TNT served up 700,000 streams of the alternative camera angles at http://www.nascar.com/tnt during the Pocono race, according to Storms. Its online audience peaked at 65,000 streams for a pit road camera view during the six races it carried last year..

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Retail chain Steve & Barry’s has been making news with its $19.99 and under exclusive collections from such celebrities and athletes as Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Bynes, Venus Williams, Stephon Marbury and Laird Hamilton. But the company has not forgotten it’s bread-and-butter roots: licensing deals to put popular icons and logos on T-shirts, hats and other apparel.

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Well la-di-da your highness. Katherine Heigl, star of ABC’s hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, has officially withdrawn her name from Emmy consideration for her role as Isobel Stevens on the show, reports The Los Angeles Times.

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The Warner Bros. Television Group has announced a string of distribution deals for the company’s recently launched Web video reincarnations of The WB brand.

New sites TheWB.com and KidsWB.com, which rolled out in beta form back in April , will now make a selection of their long- and short-form content available on  the video aggregators Joost, Veoh and DailyMotion, as well as on the TV platforms of DVR pioneer TiVo as well as Sling Media. WB-branded channels on these properties are set to debut this September.

With the new deals, The Warner Bros. Television Group is clearly embracing the prevailing Web video strategy of the moment, i.e. delivering content to users via multiple properties across the Internet. Already the company has launched similar channels on AOL as well as an application on Facebook.

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