China presents one of the single biggest opportunities for mobile companies looking for more growth, and it’s no surprise that companies like Apple are doubling down on their investments there. But similarly, Chinese mobile players are looking at ways of exporting their products and playing on their brands abroad, and…

FilmOn, the premium-content internet streaming site that met controversy earlier this year over lawsuits involving CBS (NYSE: CBS), CNET, and copyright, is expanding its line up, adding two new sports channels for NCAA Basketball and NCAA Football.

With the growth of over-the-top services that let users access the video they want over the internet (and often, for free), those companies offering pay-TV have to look for more bells and whistles to keep fickle consumers interested in their services. The latest offerings in this area come from France…

Is Rovio’s floatation ever going to happen? For some time now, we’ve been reading chatter about an imminent IPO. The latest date is 2013, the latest market is Hong Kong. And, this time, the company itself is making bold on-the-record plans…

More mobile movements from Facebook today: it has bought the check-in social media service Gowalla, according to a report in CNN.

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is picking up some more momentum for its UK and Ireland launch, scheduled for early next year. The streaming video company has now added film studio Miramax to its list of content partners, joining Lionsgate and MGM in providing films for the service. But unlike the other…

Disney (NYSE: DIS) President and CEO Bob Iger has agreed to join Apple’s board of directors, filling the vacancy left by the death of co-founder Steve Jobs last month. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) also named current board member Art Levinson as non-executive chairman of the board.

It’s a wild world these days at the intersection of traditional television business models and all the new ways that people are consuming content online and across different devices. Panelists at paidContent Entertainment 2011 grappled with the implications of that shift by emphasizing the need for quality: quality metrics, quality…

In last week’s earnings call, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) said it will continue to push hard into streaming video. Now, in a new licensing deal with Disney-ABC (NYSE: DIS) Television Group, Amazon Prime members can stream shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Lost and Spider-Man for free.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and games like ‘Angry Birds’ are some of the most popular applications on smartphones today, but it is only recently that we have started to see a critical mass of children’s social networking games entering the mobile business, too. Today, Club Penguin, the…

Pre-IPO Zynga continues to lure execs from competitors. The latest, paidContent has learned: Adam Sussman, who is leaving Disney (NYSE: DIS) Interactive Media Group for the social gaming company. A Disney spokesperson confirmed the move.

UK tournament rightsholder ITV (LSE: ITV) will try to reach rugby fans at the office and on mobile because this year’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand takes place way outside of UK prime time.

Big news for mobile TV pioneer MobiTV: the company has filed for an IPO worth up to $75 million, as it looks for funds to expand internationally, develop its products and potentially size up acquisitions.

Hulu’s first offering outside the U.S. is live: Hulu Japan, a subscription service with “hundreds” of films and thousands of hours of TV. For ¥1,480 a month or roughly $18.50, Japanese subscribers can watch across an array of devices just like U.S. subscribers of Hulu Plus with one exception—Hulu Japan…

When Facebook announced that it would be folding Places check-ins into status updates, some took it as a sign that the company was bowing to Foursquare as the dominant “check-in” service in mobile. But one app developer tells us that based on the activity on his apps, this is far…

Watching movies on Facebook isn’t new—Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX), Paramount and Universal each are trying variations on the theme. But today, paidContent can report, Miramax is launching the largest-scale Facebook streaming movie venture yet, the latest in a series of moves to mine the most ore possible from its rich…

A small but significant acquisition for Disney-owned sports network ESPN: it is buying Australian company ExtraCorp Pty. Ltd, owners of the fantasy league and sports tipping site footytips. The deal gives ESPN (NYSE: DIS) a leg up in the world of sporting social media, specifically helping it grow in sports-mad…

Last soccer season, ESPN (NYSE: DIS) debuted ESPN Goals, an iPhone and Android app that, for £3.99 per month or £29.99 annually, offered mobile video highlights within minutes of goals being scored.

When a section was cut from Stanford mathematics professor Keith Devlin’s new book The Man Of Numbers, Devlin could have pitched it as an article to Scientific American or Wired. Instead, he decided to self-publish it as an e-single, “Leonardo & Steve: The Young Genius Who Beat *Apple* to Market…