All fans of US TV shows who live outside of the US are frustrated by the fact that these shows come to their countries months after their broadcast in the US, if at all.

It seems like Singapore's mio TV, a 24-hours pay-TV service, introduced by SingTel, has come up with a solution.

Acccording to Asia One, as of September, mio TV, is introducing a Season Pass, which allows viewers to watch episodes of more than 50 prime-time hits within 24 hours after they first air in the US.

The line-up includes titles such as Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Prison Break...

Hopefull this model will spread to other countries.

A recent survey conducted by CinemaNow (read: your skeptic hat should now be firmly in place) suggests that 87% of Americans surveyed agreed that "renting DVDs at the video store or through mail service will become a thing of the past," and 94% of those same folks reportedly felt that movie downloads were just "better for the environment."

[via engadgetHD]

"Last year, Nettwerk Management uploaded the official Girlfriend video to YouTube. Twelve months later, thanks to a coordinated fan campaign, the video has clocked up almost 100m hits from around the world.

And where there are page-views, there are ad-views.

Even after YouTube takes its cut, "there's about a $2m (£1m) cheque waiting for her for all her YouTube plays," Nettwerk Management CEO Terry McBride explained to MusicTank.

"Insiders say the search company has adopted a more accommodating approach toward Hollywood, and that it's finally starting to pay off. Last week, Lionsgate struck a content agreement with YouTube in a deal that calls for unprecedented cooperation between a major film studio and the Web's largest video-sharing site.

That agreement is likely only the beginning. Other big media companies are in talks with Google about similar deals, say sources with three different entertainment companies. They detailed the ways Google has become more flexible in talks about sharing revenue and helping protect films and TV shows against piracy."

Samsung and Reactrix move beyond touch screens and try to make hand waving the next big computer interface. [via Technology Review]

"There could be a revolution brewing in billboard advertising. Instead of simply presenting a static image, why not let people interact with the advertisement? This is the vision of electronics giant Samsung and interactive advertising company Reactrix Systems.

The two companies have partnered to bring 57-inch interactive displays to Hilton hotel lobbies by the end of the year. These displays can "see" people standing up to 15 feet away from the screen as they wave their hands to play games, navigate menus, and use maps."

CW took Gossip Girl off its site in an effort to boost television viewership, but it failed to have the desired effect.

[via NewTeeVee]

"Tivo will introduce a “product p

Owners of TiVo video recorders will see, in TiVo’s various onscreen menus, links to buy products like CDs, DVDs and books that guests are promoting on talk shows like “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The Late Show With David Letterman” and “The Daily Show.”

Researchers at Microsoft Research who published their novel pixel design in Nature Photonics say that their design is also simpler and easier to fabricate, which should make it cheaper.

LCDs corner half of the global TV market and are the most popular technology for cell phones and flat-panel computer monitors. But for several reasons, they do not boast the best image quality.

"In a bid to create a system that can support huge audiences, P2P Next's SwarmPlayer draws on the widely used BitTorrent peer-to-peer technology.

In such a system those watching a video share the data they are downloading with others, peers, who want to watch the same show.

The SwarmPlayer lets people download TV shows to watch later, lets them watch video as it is being downloaded and can even cope with live broadcasts.

The P2P Next project now wants thousands of people to install the software to see how it handles large audiences and whether picture quality suffers as the numbers of users rises.

... The EU has put 19m euros into the project hoping the software the team creates will become a Europe-wide standard for broadcasters."

"... A fine of up to £1,000 ($2,000) can be given to anyone found to have broken the law by failing to buy a £139.50 ($278) licence.

TV Licensing officials can detect which of the UK's homes do not have a licence through a database holding details of more than 29 million addresses. "

This is wild. Switched caught an edited version of the graphics of "Mad Men", season one on iTunes, where the cigarette had been removed. The cigarette then magically reappeared.

An advertising world first has been launched in London - pitvertising. Ananova reports.

"The innovative new concept uses digital TV screens built into the armpits of shirts.

A hired team of 'Pitvertisers' was sent out into the streets of London to test the new medium."

SnagFilms is a great idea for getting documentary films in front of more people, writes Walt Mossberg. It's a new service that allows anyone with a blog, a Web site, or even a page on a social-networking site, to open a virtual movie theater and show these documentaries, free.

[via The Wall Street Journal]