In the Interactive Fiction category, the recently completed Star Wars Uncut beat outDexter‘s extended digital experience and the Glee Coinicident.TV player for the award. Created by Casey Pugh, Star Wars Uncut was the only independent web production nominated this year.

Excerpt from NewTeeVee. Read the full article here.

You get what you give. And the best relationship with audiences is based on reciprocity.

“[T]here will never be something that I put before my fans,” said Lady Gaga in September’s Vanity Fair  (always the best issue of the year, the arrival of which is bittersweet as it heralds the last of summer).  “I have a relentless pursuit in me to give everything in me to my fans to make them feel good about themselves. And if you don’t like it, well, then don’t come to the party.”

You’ve gotta love the attitude in her gratitude.

The Lady knows which side her bread is buttered on. “[Y]ou were nominated for five Grammy Awards,” she said when she thanked her little monsters (Gaga fans) on hearing the news from the music academy.

Her shout-out is refreshing at a time when the entertainment industry is still notoriously conflicted about its fans. At its worst, the corporate celebrity complex’ reactions to fandom run the gamut from lawsuits to blocking simple social network activities. The Information Society Law Project of the Yale Law School nicely sums up this profound ambivalence when it comes to fans in a recent article on copyright and Glee.

And with Glee set to rake in up to 19 Emmy Awards on August 29^th, in large part because of its interplay between music and mashups, there is no question that it is time to overhaul the law when it comes to fan tributes.

Even smart animals know the real power an audience wields. Dumb bulls see the cape; smart bulls the matador, but the brainiest bovines acknowledge the spectators. This week, noted George Jonas in the National Post, a brilliant bull made this leap from spectacle to spectator. Right. Into. The. Bleachers. Somehow this bull understood the key thing that makes the bullfight tick: the fans.

True, musicians and the music industry have a better history of acknowledging fans than, say, do TV stars and the television business. But Gaga’s deep respect for her audience may mark a tipping point in the conflicted relationship between entertainment and fans.

From bankrollers to spectators to viral marketers, fans drive entertainment’s perpetual motion machine. And that’s no bull.

The slow shift of consumers spending more time with online video has already begun. The report explains some private video advertising networks admit to securing at least seven-figure budgets from major TV advertisers. Ad networks like Tremor, and those producing proprietary content like Adconion or BBE, could benefit from the transition. The bottom line, according to Piper Jaffray analysts, points to numerous Internet companies like Apple, Google and Yahoo, as well as Rovi, also capitalizing on this move.

Excerpt from MediaPost.com. You can read the full article here.

Even so, broadcast revenues increased three per cent to $14.4 billion, mostly as a result of the specialty and pay television sector.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (or CRTC) said in its report that overall revenue reached $55.4 billion last year, up about two per cent.

The CRTC says the media and communications sector accounts for nearly five per cent of Canada’s total gross domestic product.

Excerpt from Media Caster Magazine. Read the full article here.

“We have to figure out how we are going to pay for this quality content… I do not think that it is a foregone conclusion that content should be free on the Internet.”

Excerpt from NewTeeVee.com. Read the full article here.

The deal will see Disney obtain Playdom–which was founded just two-and-a-half years ago–and its properties for $563.2 million. Additionally, Playdom shareholders can expect a “performance-linked earn out of up to $200 million” on top of the previous financial figure, according to Disney. The deal is expected to be complete by the end of Disney’s 2010 fiscal year.

Playdom is famous for its casual Facebook games, which include Social City, Sorority Life, Market Street, and Bola. Additionally, Playdom’s label reportedly collects 42 million active players each month.

Excerpt from Gamespot.com. Read the full article here.

The company already offers more than 17,000 movies and TV shows through its Internet-based Watch Instantly service. For $9 U.S. per month, subscribers in the U.S. can watch as many of those movies and TV shows as they want, all commercial free and on-demand.

The company has revealed very little details about its Canadian expansion, except to say Monday it will be available this fall. Canada will be the first market outside of the U.S. to get access to Netflix.

“We have aspirations to expand internationally. We chose Canada because of its proximity to the U.S., the available content we are acquiring and the broadband penetration (high speed Internet) is very strong,” said Steve Swasey, vice-president of corporate communications. “It was just a natural choice.”

Excerpt from Vito Pilieci’s article in the Ottawa Citizen. You can read the full article here.

The nominees for the Emmy Award for Creative Achievement in Interactive Media: Fiction are:

Viacom filed a $1 billion suit against YouTube back in March 2007.

The original complaint claimed 160,000 unauthorized clips were available on YouTube and those clips had been viewed 1.5 billion times.

This is hardly the end of this battle — Viacom says it’s going to appeal this ruling.

In the three years since the suit was filed YouTube has gone to great lengths to identify all the clips on its site and to monetize those clips for the content owners. While YouTube has gotten a range of media giants on board—from Disney to the Associated Press to CBS, Viacom has remained firm in its opposition.

Excerpted from Julia Boorstin’s article in CNBC’s Media Money. You can read the article in its entirety here.

The popular video site is working to finalize agreements with content owners and hoping to wrap them up in the coming days, these people said.

The service, which is being referred to as Hulu Plus, marks a new effort from the Web venture to address the shifting Web strategies of its three big-media owners, General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney Co.

The service would initially be a “preview,” available only to invited users, said the people briefed on the matter. Those users would pay a monthly fee of around $10 for access to additional content on top of Hulu’s free offerings, and also get the ability to watch Hulu on Apple Inc.’s iPad and possibly other devices, said one of these people.

This person cautioned that the timing could be pushed back and some details could change.

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal.