A report on CNET News notes that the popular video site has recently reached agreements with companies including Sony Pictures, CBS, MGM and others that will lead to entire films and episodes of TV shows being made available to viewers.
The technology news website quoted YouTube executives as saying that the site will soon feature a "shows" option where people can browse shows using a variety of different categories, as well as a "subscriptions" tab for premium content.
Elsewhere, a report by the New York Times provides some insight into the importance of the deal for YouTube and the potential for expanded revenues that it brings. According to the newspaper, YouTube is expected to lose about $470 million in 2009, largely due to the costs of bandwidth and storage.
The Times also notes that part of its deals with the entertainment companies will result in advertisements that can be seen before, next to and during the videos that are being shown.
By Steve Monfort
Momentum for credit card reform legislation continues to grow, with President Obama highlighting the issue this week during a visit to New Mexico.
Obama focused largely on credit card issues during a town hall meeting in Rio Rancho that was held on Thursday. This was the president's latest opportunity to express support for legislation to enact various reforms on controversial credit card practices like sudden interest hikes and unreasonable late fees.
"Americans need a durable and successful flow of credit in our economy, but we can't tolerate profits that depend upon misleading working families. For too long, credit card contracts have been deceptively complicated, often leading consumers to pay more than they reasonably expect due to unfair practices," said Obama during the event.
The Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights passed the House recently but has been facing a less certain passage in the Senate. Still, political support appears to be strong among lawmakers and the public in general for such legislation.
The White House notes that Americans pay about $15 billion in penalty fees on their debts, and has laid out criteria that a final plan must meet, such as banning unfair rate increases and fees, while providing more market transparency and protections for younger consumers.
By Bill Laforme
It was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), who divested
themselves of it in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. It is owned and operated by the NASDAQ OMX Group, the stock of which was listed on its own stock exchange in 2002, and is monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). With the completed purchase of the Nordic-based operated exchange OMX, following its agreement with Borse Dubai, NASDAQ is poised to capture 67% of the controlling stake in the aforementioned exchange, thereby inching ever closer to taking over the company and creating a trans-atlantic powerhouse. The group, now known as Nasdaq-OMX, controls and operates the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York City -- the second largest exchange in the United States. It also operates eight stock exchanges in Europe and holds one-third of the Dubai Stock Exchange. It has a double-listing agreement with OMX, and will compete with NYSE Euronext group in attracting new listings.
The final "American Idol" performance episode could be the weirdest concert ever televised.In one corner, there's over-the-top Adam Lambert, the dominating presence who transformed Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" into a sitar-infused spectacle and tackled "Whole Lotta Love," the first-ever Led Zeppelin tune performed on Fox's "Idol." From the outset, he's been the ambiguous rocker next door, most comfortable — but not scary — in eyeliner and studded leather.
Then, there's Kris Allen, always at home in jeans with his guitar. The only fashion risk he's taken is that smidge of blue nail polish spotted on his thumb during a visit home to Conway, Ark. Allen garnered the most praise with his daring song choices, like singing "Falling Slowly" from indie musical "Once" and reinventing Kanye West's robotic "Heartless" as a wistful singer-songwriter joint.
"Kris' appeal is that he has an honesty and a sincerity when he performs, and that he has never tried to change who he is," said judge Kara DioGuardi. "He's like a steady ship in the night. He never changes his clothes because everybody else around him is. He never does a song in a way that is sort of overcooked because everyone else around him is."
The mixture of Allen's subtly and Lambert's showiness — only to be broken up with a performance by fourth-season champ Carrie Underwood — will likely make for a kookier-than-usual show Tuesday, especially considering that Allen's slot in the final two has been perceived as a come-from-behind victory for the 23-year-old college student.
"It's going to be a strange and interesting juxtaposition on Tuesday night," said Michael Slezak, who blogs about "Idol" for Entertainment Weekly magazine's Web site. "Kris and Adam are so different. Calling them apples and oranges doesn't go far enough. They're almost from different planets. It's like comparing a root vegetable to a sea creature."
If there's anything they have in common, it's consistency.
The only time the men were in the show's dreaded group of bottom-three vote-getters was after their Rat Pack-themed performances, yet Lambert has long been considered the front-runner. After host Ryan Seacrest revealed last week that only 1 million votes separated Allen from the 27-year-old theater actor, the competition could be closer than expected.
"These guys have been doing a great job already, so I don't have much to tell them except to be true to themselves and really engage the home viewers through the cameras," advises sixth season runner-up Blake Lewis. "As far as finale week goes, they just need to stay focused and try to balance themselves through the chaos. It's really stressful."
The winner's fate may lie in the dialing fingers of the fans who had been supporting Milwaukee church music director Danny Gokey — and keeping him out of the bottom three until his dismissal last week. DioGuardi believes that Tuesday's episode "will be about forming a connection with the audience, and it's really about who's gonna get those Danny votes."
Still, most imagine the "Idol" title is Lambert's for the taking.
"I think this is going to be a walk in the park for Adam," said Rickey Yaneza, who blogs about "Idol" at Rickey.org. "Judging from the traffic on my site, everyone is more interested in Adam. Kris simply can't compete with Adam's vocal calisthenics. Kris just has to be himself. Wow. That sounds like something Paula Abdul would say, doesn't it?"
AP Entertainment Writer Erin Carlson in New York contributed to this report.
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By Stephanie Nebehay Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) – A flawless vivid blue diamond weighing 7.03 carats sold Tuesday for a record 10.5 million Swiss francs ($9.49 million), the highest price paid per carat for any gemstone at auction, Sotheby's said.
The rectangular-shaped blue stone, the rarest to enter the international market this year, went to an anonymous buyer bidding by telephone after hectic bidding see-sawed between two callers for 15 minutes.
It was the centrepiece of its semi-annual sale in Geneva, conducted by David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby's jewelry department in Europe and the Middle East, who said the results showed the market's resilience despite the economic downturn.
"This is already a new world record price for a fancy vivid blue diamond and a new world record per carat for any gemstone (at auction)," Bennett told reporters.
"It is fantastic in this market and shows that these rare things are very much in demand," he said.
The final price includes a commission paid by the buyer to the auction house. The stone sets a record price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction of $1,349,752, Sotheby's said.
The previous record price for a fancy vivid blue diamond was $7.9 million, including commission, for a stone weighing 6.04 carats at sale in Hong Kong in October 2007, also by Sotheby's.
The new owner will have the right to name the stone, which is mounted in a platinum ring. The pre-sale catalog estimate was 6.8 million to 10 million francs, excluding commission. The hammer price excluding commission was 9.3 million francs.
It was put up for sale by London-listed Petra Diamonds, which extracted it last year from the historic Cullinan mine in South Africa, the world's most regular supplier of blue diamonds of size and quality. Blue are the rarest of the diamond family after reds.
"To have a stone mined last year and cut the early part of this year so it is absolutely virgin coming straight from the mine has never happened before," Bennett said. "This is one of the extremely rare substances in our universe."
The sale fetched a total of 39.5 million swiss francs ($35.7 million) for 266 lots which found new owners, while another 80 pieces were stranded on the block.
"In this general economic environment to see $35 million worth sold in a session shows a lot about the resilience of fine jewels no matter what the climate," Bennett said.
Fresh stones to the market, including coloured diamonds, fetched good prices, the Briton said.
(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Jon Boyle)
