Wal-Mart - Warner Music - MTV Networks - Nielsen - Golden Globes - MediaBytes 12.28.2007

WAL-MART has shutdown its video download service less than one year after launching. This marks Wal-Mart’s second failure in new distribution paradigms for video. The retailing giant canceled its online DVD rental service two years ago.

WARNER MUSIC will join the march away from DRM by offering its tracks protection-free on Amazon’s MP3 download service. The company is also in talks with Apple to offer unprotected music via iTunes. Of the Big Four music labels, SONY BMG is the only one still clinging completely to DRM.

MTV NETWORKS delivered 1.2 billion video streams during 2007 on MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com. That’s a 30% increase over 2006 streams, while the mobile versions of the sites experienced triple-digit growth. The top video for ‘07 was Britney Spears performing “Gimme More (Live).”

NIELSEN data says that Google’s dominance of the search engine market has increased from around 50% to over 57% during 2007. Those numbers align closely with recent figures released by comScore. Nielsen says that Yahoo has slipped to 18% of searches, while Microsoft’s search offering takes in 12% of the market.

THE GOLDEN GLOBES broadcast is increasingly in doubt, with writers threatening to picket outside the event and Hollywood stars promising to skip it if their glamorous red-carpet walks will include shouting throngs of writers. The broadcast is scheduled for January 13th. However, if situations deteriorate it may be webcast or simply held at a private event.