How a late-night Luddite accidentally fought his way back into bedrooms (and computers, smartphones, and tablets) across America.
By Douglas Alden Warshaw, contributor
Conan O'Brien is in his bedroom. It's a little bit past 11 p.m., and he's shyly, hesitantly, nervously attempting to do his first webcast. But he keeps getting interrupted. And it's driving him crazy. "Get out of my room! Get out of my room! This is private!" O'Brien's embarrassed, and he's yelling at the top of his lungs. "Everybody get out!!!"
Okay, that's part of a skit from O'Brien's new late-night show, Conan, on TBS. But, almost exactly a year ago, more than a few people in the media business thought that O'Brien, freshly tossed off The Tonight Show by NBC after only seven months on the job, just might have to sit in his bedroom for a long time, and that performing a show on the web might actually be his only option. That was until more than a million people, most of them ages 18 to 49, started shouting, "We want Coco!" and the reinvention of Conan O'Brien from traditional television performer to multimedia brand began.
O'Brien's audience came to his rescue in a way that was inconceivable until it happened. In fact, it was inconceivable even while it was happening. More
A new study from NBC reveals how emotions generated from TV shows have mirrored American society. And 'judgment' is the current king of the charts.
Glee's Sue Sylvester, played by Jane Lynch
By Daniel Roberts, reporter
If you're on TV, whether in a drama or reality show, chances are that Americans are sitting on their couches, silently judging you. Those are the findings from a new study conducted by NBC Universal, which MORE
Dec 21, 2010 1:13 PM ET
The author responds to our Scott Woolley's review of his new book, "The Master Switch."
By Tim Wu, contributor
"Time has upset many fighting faiths" – Oliver Wendell Holmes
Image via Wikipedia
My book, "The Master Switch" asks a simple, age-old question: Is history destined to repeat itself? Is the great revolutionary medium of our times, the Internet, destined to follow the path of its ancestors, radio and the telephone, MORE
Nov 22, 2010 11:58 AM ET
It appears that the networks are letting some content through to GoogleTV users.
Yesterday, GoogleTV users were greeted with messages that ABC, CBS and NBC would not work. This morning however, I had a look around and was able to watch an episode of 30 Rock on NBC as well as a few minutes of Talk (my threshold, not GoogleTV) and Medium on CBS. Disney-owned ABC and Hulu are still blocked, MORE
Seth Weintraub - Oct 22, 2010 9:26 AM ET
Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.
Photo: Google
ABC, CBS and NBC are blocking TV programming on their web sites from being viewable on the newly-launched Google TV. (IT World)
HP is finally releasing a tablet, the Windows 7-loaded MORE
Steve Jobs, with the new Apple TV. Photo: Michael Copeland
This is the spot for our live coverage of Apple's (AAPL) Sept. 1 music event.
In sum, Steve Jobs delivered on most of the rumored new products and services. The headlines:
A new $99 Apple TV that streams (rather than downloads) $4.99 movie rentals and 99-cent TV rentals from ABC and Fox.
A new lineup of iPods, chief among them the iPod touch MORE
It's Amazon vs. Apple, according to the latest reports, with Netflix in the middle
Tuesday was busy day as two of the biggest names in online retail -- Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) -- jockeyed for position in the fast-evolving market for Internet-based television.
Both have been actively courting the major studios, including NBC Universal (GE), Time Warner (TWX), News Corp. (NWS) and Viacom (VIA-B), each for a different reason. Apple has MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 31, 2010 7:51 PM ET
Steve Jobs is not the TV networks' enemy. BitTorrent is.
Image: Showtime
The second episode of The Big C, Showtime's bittersweet hit comedy about a suburban mom with melanoma, aired Monday night at 10:30 p.m. Less than three hours later, a digital copy was posted on an Italian website, where it spread like crabgrass. By Wednesday morning, there were 3,387 "seeds" of The Big C, Season 01, Episode 02, on MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 25, 2010 10:46 AM ET
Rather than a "best of TV" subscription service, Apple will be streaming programs a la carte
[UPDATE: The event is actually scheduled for Sept. 1. See here.]
Fuzzy rumors about Steve Jobs' next move in the TV market have been swirling for the better part of a year, but the picture snapped into focus on Tuesday.
A report by Peter Burrows, a veteran BusinessWeek reporter now writing for Bloomberg Businessweek, lays out the MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 24, 2010 6:28 PM ET
CBS and Disney may join Apple's $30 per month TV service, says the Wall St. Journal
Photo: Apple Inc.
This could be totally disruptive. Or it could be another "hobby" like Apple TV that never quite takes off.
In a front-page story published Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that CBS (CBS) and Disney (DIS) are "considering participating" in Apple's (AAPL) plan to offer television subscriptions over the Internet.
It was the MORE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Citigroup Inc | 32.36 | -1.00 | -3.00% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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