Apple fans rejoice. CEO Steve Jobs is expected to inject fresh excitement into the iPod line today, at a time when defections by partners are revealing cracks in the iTunes digital music dominance.

Will the new iPods, expected to make their debut at around 1 pm EDT, feature a larger touch screen a la the iPhone? Will the new Nano be the squat, miniaturized version of the regular iPod making the rounds in the blogosphere? Shuffle Red?

Apple hasn’t said what Jobs will announce in San Francisco, but there is also speculation that he could pull a surprise out of his sleeve and show off iPods that can buy and download music wirelessly, or finally announce the addition of the Beatles’ music catalog to the iTunes online store.

Plan on catching the play by play on Gizmodo.
(Reuters)

Keep an eye on: 

• Big media is seen giving Apple a hard time as some contracts to offer shows on iTunes approach expiration. Could TV shows disappear from iTunes altogether? Forrester’s James McQuivey’s take: “If there isn’t any video you want to watch, the device itself is worth less money.” (Reuters)
• Facebook to open up to public search. The social network will begin notifying members they have a choice over whether to keep their listings private or to make their name and picture available when outsiders search the site. (Reuters) (GigaOM)
• Time Inc has decided to shutter its Business 2.0 magazine, which has suffered a decline in advertising revenue, rather than sell it. The New York Times said that Time turned down offers from Mansueto Ventures, owners of the rival magazine Fast Company, and other prospective buyers. The magazine will shut after its October issue. Last week the publication was rumored to be on the block, with Joe Mansueto, chairman of investment research company Morningstar Inc, seen as a top bidder.
  (NY Times) (NY Post)
• NBC Universal has reached a deal to sell television show downloads on Amazon.com, just days after NBC pulled the plug on a contract with Apple’s iTunes. Amazon will sell NBC shows such as “The Office,” “Heroes” and “30 Rock” through its Unbox digital video download service. Individual episodes will cost $1.99 on Amazon, the same as they had on iTunes. (Reuters)
• Microsoft does not rule out the Zune-phone as a competitor to the iPhone. (Reuters)

Cracks in the Apple empire? First Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, and now GE’s NBC Universal. The New York Times says NBC will not renew its contract to sell TV shows on iTunes because they can’t agree on pricing. The contract is expected to end in December.

NBC the top supplier of digital video to Apple’s online store, accounting for about 40 percent of downloads notified Apple of its decision late yesterday, according to the Times, which cites an unnamed source.

This is just the latest in a history of gripes media companies have with the reigning iTunes. The music industry, reeling from declining CD sales, has pushed for variable pricing. Apple, for its part, maintains that consumers want simplified pricing. iTunes Japan is one of the few markets where Apple sells tracks at different prices.

With Amazon, Wal-Mart and others on its back, will Apple finally relent?
(NY Times)

Keep an eye on:

• Apple’s getting into the ringtone business, realizing finally that paying $3 for a 15-second clip of a song is a far better business than the entire track at 99 cents. Rumblings of this bounced around the blogosphere as early as June. (NY Post) (ZDNet)
• Amazon inching closer to September launch for its iTunes rival, after first talking about this in May. (NY Post) (Reuters)
• Baidu eyeing Japan expansion. South Korea next? (Reuters)
• Yahoo researching social networking site Kickstart (CNET)

Apple iPhone’s imminent launch in Europe has put the fear of God in, well, just about everyone in the global cellphone market. Nokia, which sells a third of all cell phones in the world, sought to secure its lead in the market with the debut of a flurry of new devices — including the 8GB slider phone, the N-81, (at left), and a new wireless music service to go with it.  Also, Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said the company would start to sell touch screen phones — Nokia’s answer to Apple’s iconic iPhone handsets — using its popular S60 software next year.

Too little too late against Apple’s ironclad grip on the digital entertainment market? At least one analyst thought so.

Forrester analysts Charles Golvin and Paul Jackson comment:

This service isn’t sufficiently differentiated to make a major impact in terms of convincing consumers to either start using legal download services, or wean them off of Apple’s service and dedicated music devices. We further don’t believe that the phone will be the interface that consumers will opt for to purchase music (or as Nokia suggests, entirely replace dedicated music players). The PC is the best experience and mobile will be for isolated impulse buys — and even then this use model requires operators to offer flat rate data access services on high speed networks, and requires consumers to be willing to pay for them.

Nokia also mounted its third attempt at reviving the N-Gage games label with a new global gaming service. The move was met with a moderately positive reception.
Jupiter’s Michael Gartenberg on his blog: (Typos below; give the guy a break, he blogged from his phone. Words in parenthesis are ours.)

The re-vamped strategy makes sense. the goal is no longer to take on nintendo or sony in the mobile console spce (space) but to up the level of java or brew titles and fit that mid tier for gaming. titles are priced between DS games and low emd (end) java games. there’s also a commuinty aspect and trial service that makes it easy to try games beforr  (before) buying. overall, a good strategy for casual mobile games but potentially inhibited by the costs of the handsets that are n-gage compatible.

(Nokia press)
(Engadget)
(Reuters)

Keep an eye on:

• FTC clears News Corp.-Dow Jones deal. Dow Jones & Co. and News Corp. said Tuesday that the Federal Trade Commission has given antitrust clearance for News Corp.’s $5 billion acquisition of The Wall Street Journal’s publisher. (BusinessWeek)
• NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker said on Tuesday that any troubles in the U.S. economy have yet to carry over to advertising, and there was still “incredibly strong” demand for TV commercial time. (Reuters)
• Apple Inc. will use a special media event on September 5th to introduce a new array of digital media offerings, according to digital invitations issued to analysts and members of the media Tuesday afternoon. New iPods. (AppleInsider)
• Several European phone companies plan to announce significant expansions of Internet protocol television, or IPTV, this week, led by Deutsche Telekom, which is spending 3 billion euros and has linked about 4 in 10 German households to broadband TV. (CNet)
• Fall films brings Oscar buzz to Hollywood. “3:10 to Yuma” and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” aspire to be frontrunners. (Reuters)

Time out for a sports story.

After all, pro sports teams are more than just scores and images on a TV screen — in many cases they are strategic pieces of a media conglomerates master plan. (e.g., Tribune owns the Cubs, Liberty Media has the Atlanta Braves, etc.)

If you are a frustrated New York Knicks fan, you know that the team hasn’t had a winning season in 6 years, and hasn’t reached the NBA playoffs since 2004. That means fewer playoff tickets revenue for team owners Cablevision, not to mention lost advertising revenue on its MSG Network cable station, and none of the beautiful people sitting on the sidelines of games.

Chin up! The company said in the second quarter, it scored higher combined revenue for the Knicks and Rangers (Hockey Team, which made the playoffs) and higher adjusted operating cash, thanks to Rangers ticket sales and lower spending on team personnel.

Cablevision executives, on a conference call suggested the best is yet to come, especially with addition of new player Zach Randolph — who missed the end of the ‘06-’07 season after undergoing surgery to repair ligaments and remove bone fragments in his right hand.

“Both the Knicks and Rangers continue to build on their strategy for long-term success. The Knicks sold out 17 of their last 20 regular season games….
We expect these trends to continue for the upcoming season.”

In the end, profits are up, but will long suffering Knicks fans have to wait a little longer to get a taste of the playoffs?

They call it a “hit record,” but these days vinyl has nothing to do with what’s hot in musical entertainment.

Recording industry bible Billboard this week said it will supplement its “Hot 100″ singles chart with information about songs streamed over the Internet. That’s right — songs not bought at a store or downloaded onto a digital music player or heard on the radio. These are songs available through Web sites like Yahoo Music or AOL Music.

The move comes two years after Billboard succumbed to the 800-pound gorilla called iTunes and baked digital downloads into its charts.

“In the new Billboard Hot 100 formula, radio audience will average about 55 percent of the chart’s total points. Digital sales will account for about 40 percent, and streaming media will determine 5 percent. Physical singles — in line with the music industry’s retreat from that product over the past decade — will account for less than 1 percent of the chart’s new formula,” Billboard said.

You’d be hard pressed to find a physical copy of Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah”, or Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” in a record store, since big music knows there is big money in digital media, including the next medium Billboard may start to track — ringtones.

This makes me wonder. When is the last time you bought a physical CD or a single? (I’ll answer first: I bought a CD this year — one CD.)

THQ, maker of the “Ratatouille” video game and plenty more, gave a glimpse into their outlook for interactive game hardware sales this year, and Nintendo’s combined roster turns up as the big winner.

That’s not really a surprise, since it’s been hard to avoid the hoopla over Nintendo’s Wii, not to mention the hand-wringing over price cuts for Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. But what may startle some is the news that quietly, sales of Nintendo’s DS handheld device are booming.

Here are THQ’s U.S. expectations for console sales in 2007:

Xbox 360         4.5-5 million
Nintendo Wii   6-6.5 million
PlayStation3    3-3.5 million
PlayStation2    3-3.5 million
Nintendo DS 9.5-10 million
PSP                  3 .5-4 million

In Europe and related areas:

Xbox 360 2.5-3 million
Nintendo Wii 4.5-5 million
PlayStation3 3.5-4 million
PlayStation2 4.5-5 million
Nintendo DS 8-8.5 million
PSP                 3-3.5 million

THQ executives delivered a few other tidbits on their conference call:

* It is working on a new version of the game “Red Faction” for the fiscal year 2009.

* It expects the Disney/Pixar film “Wally” to have “strong video game appeal.”

Their public fight-for-the-right-to-marry has tended to overshadow the fact that XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio must keep their businesses running.

You know: making radios, keeping Oprah happy, wooing customers, etc.

That’s why it’s a treat when they report quarterly results — for the satellite radio grist, set apart from the “what monopoly?” testifying and the “we are good for consumers” lobbying.
Like XM, Sirius said it shrunk its second-quarter loss, helped by a big boost in subscriptions from users whose radios are built into their cars. And from Sirius’ conference call came some other interesting tidbits…

* About 10 percent of Sirius’ 7.1 million subscribers are cars on dealer lots, as yet unsold to, you know, people. (Sirius counts radios sold to deals as subs, but doesn’t count revenue until the cars are sold.) Sirius CFO Dave Frear told analysts, “On the percentage of OEM gross adds that are sitting out on the lot…it’s a number that’s been bouncing around 9 to 10 percent.” Doing the math, one analyst put that at about 700,000 cars, er, subscribers.

* Sirius said it expects to introduce the next version of its top-of-the-line portable “wearable” radio — call the “Stiletto 2″ — later this year. Sirius and XM’s commitment to high-end, buy-it-over-the counter models is closely watched since so much of the business is shifting to car units.

* Sirius is “preparing for the launch” of aftermarket backseat TV products, which will complement the rollout of the service in 2008 model year Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles.

* Timing of the newly announced sports or family or music radio channel packages? Around Fathers Day 2008.

* The pick-your-own channels service, a-la-carte option? Christmas 2008.

* The “interoperable” chip that allows a user to get both services on a single radio? “Between one year and two and a half years” after the deal is done, according to Jim Meyer, Sirius’ President, Operations & Sales

If a CEO promises to quit once a combination is completed, but checks out months before the t’s are crossed, does that suggest the deal is a lock — or perhaps on the rocks?

In the case of XM Satellite’s Hugh Panero,  who this week said he’d exit next month rather than later this year, many initially said it was a good sign. But Wedbush’s William Kidd on Thursday said its a sign XM wants to groom a new CEO fast, and not be caught flat-footed with a lame duck should the deal flop.

“If there is any subtle message to be inferred, it is that the early departure was possibly preparation for the company in the event that the merger was denied.”

In a candid moment on XM’s quarterly conference call, Panero, 51, renewed his belief that the deal will go through, but, refreshingly declined to toss out a cliche and blame the decision on say, his family.

“It was pretty obvious that the CEO slot would be taken by (Sirius CEO) Mel (Karmazin). I worked on the merger, meeting with regulators … and I felt that the merger had hit a number of milestones. Understanding there was going to be one CEO at the end of it, it was time to move on. That’s my short answer rather than to say I was going to ’spend more time with my kids’ or ‘explore other options.’”

Other highlights from XM’s conference call with analysts:

Nate Davis, XM’s COO (and Interim CEO when Panero leaves), answered a question about whether XM has a plan should the merger not go through. He said they have “some specific thoughts”: for one, control spending — like merger related legal costs.

“That won’t continue in the long run. (Also) We know that we want to find a way to continue to either be flat-or-marginally-down on programming expenses.”

If the merger goes through, it is possible that the pick-your-favorite channels options promised this week by Karmazin, might find their way into radios made for cars also, Gary said.

“As we become more (automobile centric) you can guarantee that we will be looking after our (car) partners in any of these types of products. I think that we will able to work effectively with them to make them competitive on all of those fronts.

Satellite Radio providers XM and Sirius picked up one heavenly endorsement on Friday:   one of God’s top guys.

Ok, maybe that’s going a bit too far. But His Eminence Edward Cardinal Egan, the Archbishop of New York for the Catholic Church, for sure is a heavyweight holy man in the United States, and he thinks the proposed merger — whose opponents range from radio industry bigwigs to members of Congress — is a good idea. So much so that he devoted an entire op-ed to the topic on Friday in the New York Post.

“From my perspective (the merger) offers a unique opportunity to extend the reach and breadth of religious programming. It is also an unmatched opportunity to strengthen this new medium and position satellite radio to compete with the ever-growing list of audio entertainment providers.”

The endorsement by Cardinal Egan — a contributor to “The Catholic Channel” on Sirius — comes one day after another influential voice, from the (ahem) church of Wall Street, jumped off of the Satellite Radio merger bandwagon. On Thursday, Bernstein Research media analyst Craig Moffett pulled the plug on his coverage of both XM and Sirius, with a note that seemed to suggest that he had something else to focus on.

In a note to clients, Moffett said he rated XM at “Outperform” and Sirius at “Market-perform” but that Bernstein was “terminating coverage of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio as our team shifts its focus to other incremental coverage.”

(Photo: Reuters File)