. 
NYC-based software developer Boxee has raised $4 million from Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. The company makes software that enables web content from video sites like Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central and Last.fm to be viewed on TV.
In 2009, Boxee's goals include further developing its software, to launch publicly in beta and have one million users by the end of the year.
The online television network just reported raising $5.2 million in a regulatory filing about its second round of financing according to PEHub.com. Announced last month, no details on the
amount invested were provided at that time.
digitalmediawire
Previous:
> Blip.tv Closes Second Round of Funding
In a recent edition of New York Times' Tech Talk, reporter Brad Stone talks to New Yorkers about the one gadget they carry regularly as part of a discussion about the convergence of television and the Internet. To hear the full podcast, click here.
WNBC NY's Web site www.nbcnewyork.com launches today. News and lifestyle programming on the Web site comes from WNBC's redesigned newsroom which is now called a "content center."
In a memo to staff obtained by the Daily News, station general manager Tom O'Brien provided information on the new cable channel. More of a lifestyle channel, it will be a mix of WNBC-produced programming, new and rerun material from L.X. TV, the program producer owned by NBC, and may also include programming produced for the soon-to-be launched New York Web site.
No formal date for the launch was included in the memo, but O'Brien did say it would "probably be in December". Meanwhile, WNBC is focusing on getting its new content center up and running. The center will allow for the creation of WNBC's NY Channel.
New York Daily News
Previous:
> NBC To Start 24-Hour NY News Channel
This morning at the Samsung Experience in the Time Warner Center, Fred Graver, best known for his role in the creation of VH1's Best Week Ever, Sarah Bernard, president of 23/6, Sam Reich, director of original content at College Humor, and Lou Wallach, senior vice president, original programming and development at Comedy Central, discussed comedy and media on a panel moderated by Time Out New York's Jane Borden for the New York: Media Information Exchange Group (NY:MIEG).
The panelists covered a number of topics such as Sarah Palin's selection as John McCain's vice-presidential running mate and how the selection has benefited comedy writers, how comedy works differently on the Internet, and the age demographic of visitors to online comedy Web sites.
Residents in the 12,271-unit Parkchester housing development in NYC will soon have access to FiOS TV and Internet service as the result of an agreement made between two members of the complex's board of directors and Verizon. Verizon will be competing against Cablevision in the condominium complex, the largest in the U.S. at 129 acres.
The NY-based network's second round was led by Bain Capital Ventures. Its first was closed in June 2007 with Ambient Sound Investments, a team of venture capitalists that comprises Skype's founding engineering team. The amount obtained in this round was not disclosed according to TechCrunch.
Previous:
> What Should Internet Television Be Called?
For the past year, Time Warner Cable has been preparing for Verizon's entry into the local cable market with a multitiered approach almost complete in Staten Island, the first NYC borough where FiOS has been made available, and underway in Brooklyn and Queens.
It includes:
The company has also been promoting its International OnePrice plan that allows customers to make calls to more than 100 countries for $19.95 per month to try to encourage adoption of its home-phone service. Multichannel reports that one-third of the 50,000 customers who have signed up for it are NYC area residents. Time Warner Cable has also increased local NY1 coverage, opening new bureaus in Staten Island and Queens.
Previous:
> Verizon Provides Sneak Peak of FiOS
> Time Warner Cable Launches NYC Ad Campaign
> Is Verizon Gambling With FiOS?
We just heard via e-mail from Freepress.net that on Monday, September 29, the City Council has scheduled a hearing regarding the use of "white spaces", the empty frequencies between analog television channels and their use in delivering broadband to NYers who otherwise can't get high-speed Internet access. We've written about Google's and Microsoft's interests in these frequencies before.
Currently, a resolution sponsored by Councilmember Gale Brewer and Speaker Christine Quinn is pending that devices using these frequencies would disrupt wireless microphones in use by Broadway theaters.
The hearing, open to the public, will be taking place at 10 AM in the City Hall Committee Room. The entrance is at the intersection of Centre and Worth Streets.
Previous:
> Google, Microsoft Battle Broadway Theaters
