Using existing broadband spectrum and the ATSC-M/H, an open broadcast transmission system developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the service will allow member companies to provide content to mobile devices — anything from live and on-demand video, local and national news (print and electronic), and sports and entertainment.

The program will complement the FCC’s National Broadband Initiative by reducing wireless broadband traffic via giving consumers mobile access to video content on another channel. The system will also be rigged to deliver timely emergency information to citizens on a local or national basis.

In a statement, Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernathy called the joint venture “the first step in forging cross-industry and company partnerships to deliver content to consumers.

The problem is that Hulu’s entire operation depends on their exclusive access to these media giants. But the bottom line is, two years after it launched, Hulu and its network parents are still trying to figure out their awkward relationship.

Many have speculated this tense relationship will go the way of a hollywood marriage. But Hulu doesn’t appear to be going down without a fight. The Silicon Alley Insider source was asked if it was a simple matter of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. His reply, “The left hand is trying to chop off the right hand.”

Through 30-second spots, user-initiated extended video trailers and branded radio stations, NBC will be highlighting its new hospital drama “Mercy” while EA promotes “The Beatles: Rock Band.”

In addition, EA will offer Pandora listeners a 30-second demo of its widely advertised video game. iPhone users with the popular Pandora application will be able to view trailers of “Mercy” and banners promoting the show’s premiere.

Pandora has dabbled with audio ads and more recently has featured display campaigns from Crate & Barrel and Becks among other companies.

The previously announced $5.5 million of this Series C round was from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, Incubic Venture Capital, and Monitor Ventures. The funds will be used towards increasing Greystripe‘s leadership in mobile rich media advertising formats. Greystripe’s product suite enables brand advertisers to communicate their brand message with a mobile audience, developers to gain advertising revenue by serving ads through their apps, and consumers to use apps and games for free.

“Greystripe consistently attracts larger advertising budgets because well-known brands consider the investment part of their digital buy and are no longer limited to their mobile budgets,” according to Michael Chang, CEO and Founder of Greystripe. “With this strategic alliance with NBCU, we plan to expand our sales team and roll out even more pioneering advertising solutions for our customers.”

Greystripe has raised a total of $17.6 million in funding since the company’s launch in 2006

NBC News’s iCue is built around hundreds of historical videos from the NBC News Archives. In addition to video, iCue includes games and activities correlated to courses in U.S. history, U.S. government and politics, and English language and composition, and more. Created by NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, iCue stands for Immerse, Connect, Understand and Excel.

“iCue is a groundbreaking digital media platform that combines both social networking and gaming with compelling NBC News video content in a free, online collaborative learning environment for students and lifelong learners,” said Adam Jones, senior vice president of network development NBC News. “Extending iCue to the social networks space is the next logical step in its evolution. Our partnership with appssavvy and its strong and experienced sales team focused on contextually-relevant and out-of-the-box creative campaigns is exactly the relationship we need to bring iCue’s marketing potential to leading brands and agencies.”

The Fox and NBC networks seem to be tearing a page from cable’s playbook, which released the pilot of Flight of the Concords on MySpace, iFilm and iTunes before it aired on HBO. And NBCU premiered season four of the wildly popular Battlestar Galactica on SciFi.com 10 years before it hit the air.

Microsoft’s Silverlight technology and rival Adobe’s Flash format are currently locked in a race over who delivers the world’s online video, but the ultimate prize may be who powers the next generation of Web software.

Using Silverlight, the NBC site offers a glimpse of what is possible with future Web applications because viewers are able to watch up to four videos at once or follow the action with an online commentary that runs alongside the video.

More than 40 million U.S. viewers have gone to NBC’s Olympics site to watch some of the 2,200 hours of live footage from the Beijing games. All those viewers need is a Silverlight player on their browser if they do not have one already.

By building up Silverlight’s user base, the world’s largest software maker is looking to win over developers who see Web platforms such as Silverlight and Flash as a new way to deliver powerful Web-linked programs incorporating rich graphics.

Currently, those platforms are mainly reserved for multimedia applications such as Google Inc.’s popular YouTube site, which runs on Adobe’s Flash technology.

“It’s quickly becoming a very popular way to build next generation applications. There’s a lot of interest in capturing the hearts and minds of developers,” said Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst at Forrester Research. “It’ll be a big business.”

Microsoft, which said nearly half the visitors to NBC’s site did not have Silverlight, plans to expand its reach to close the gap on Flash, which is already running on most of the world’s Web-connected computers and powers over 80% of the video on the Internet.

For Microsoft, keeping outside developers loyal is especially important at a time when there is a major shift in how people buy software.

After years of selling licenses for software that runs on a computer’s hard drive, Microsoft is facing a new batch of competitors providing software free as a service through the Web browser in exchange for online advertising.

Taking advantage of Flash, Silverlight and other more simple Web-coding technologies such as AJAX, a new breed of interactive Web software — known as rich Internet applications (RIAs) — has emerged.

Like other Web applications, RIAs are cheaper to deploy and maintain than traditional software, but they differ from more simple Web programs by employing rich graphics, running faster and creating a seamless experience that does not require the application to constantly reload or refresh.

For example, a financial institution may use Flash or Silverlight to build a program to instantly chart stock prices or receive a steady stream of stock prices that do not require a trader to repeatedly hit refresh on his browser.

But those applications have yet to gain momentum with large corporate technology customers.

ADOBE VS. MICROSOFT

Gartner analyst Ray Valdes said 90% of the top global 1,000 companies have yet to deploy any sort of RIA, while 90% of the top 100 consumer Web sites have already done so using the nonproprietary and more simple AJAX format.

That opportunity has Microsoft eyeing current leader Adobe for business that extends beyond Silverlight and into the sale of design tools along with server and database software to enable these new applications.

“We have a large and established customer base. There is no doubt in our minds that Microsoft is going after this space very aggressively, but we feel very strong and confident,” said Jennifer Taylor, director of Flash product development.

Historically, Adobe’s developer tools have focused mainly on design and creating for the Web. Now, it plans to extend that to more traditional software development with Flex, a system to help developers create and deploy applications.

Adobe plans to take the next step with tools called Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), which allow programs to run on the Web or offline on a computer’s desktop.

On the other hand, Microsoft is approaching Silverlight from the opposite direction. It plans to take advantage of its legions of outside developers experienced in writing for its ubiquitous Windows operating system.

The next version of Silverlight, being tested now and due later this year, will support Microsoft’s .NET framework — tools used by developers to create desktop applications that work on Windows.

“This is a logical extension of the investment that we’ve had in the development space for decades,” said Brian Goldfarb, group product manager for Microsoft’s developer division.
Microsoft introduced its first version of Silverlight a year ago, but Gartner’s Valdes said the second version is the first real form of Silverlight since the inclusion of .NET support turns the technology into “very different animal.”

Courtesy of Reuters Group.

Daisuke Wakabayashi is a reporter for Reuters.com.

Bob Jeffrey, chief executive of advertising agency JWT, said to Reuters, “I think this is really about tapping into both online and offline. I think that’s also a big part of what marketers want to do.”

Almost 25 million people have visited NBCOlympics.com, with 456 million page views and 22 million video clips watched, the firm has said that they have already experienced more page views than throughout the entire Athens games. Television ratings are currently second only to the Atlanta games.

As future games approach, there is sure to be improvements made, and further integration of traditional and online advertising. However, there is a precedent being set for major brand efforts with the amount of coverage being provided online, and the entire industry is rejoicing NBC’s success.

Domenic Venuto, VP of media and entertainment at Avenue A|Razorfish was quoted to say “It’s redefining how we look at video coverage online. But if NBC failed, it could have set the industry back years.”

NBC and its marketing partner will scoop up the most revenue from the online ad pie. Anmuth also predicts that Yahoo and AOL will get some serious play. Google, for once, comes in last. The Internet giant will likely get the most benefit from searches and Olympics-related YouTube activity.

About 97% of U.S. cable subscribers have access to The Weather Channel. Weather.com drew about 36.4 million uniques in May, putting it in the Net’s top 15 properties, comScore reports.

Time Warner, CBS Corp. and Comcast had all expressed interest in buying The Weather Channel when Landmark, a media company, put it up for sale in January. NBC already has a news and digital weather presence with NBC Weather Plus.