IOC stalls decision on Winter Games additions - Board Games

ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has delayed until next year a decision on adding new events, including women's ski jumping, to the Winter Games.
The IOC's executive board (EB) was expected to ratify the addition of women's ski jumping, which has been campaigning for years, at a meeting in Acapulco Monday but said it wanted more time although it was "looking favorably at the inclusion."
The board said the final decision would now be made in April, after the next round of world championships, and the verdict would be made solely by IOC president Jacques Rogge.
"Before taking a final decision the EB said it would like to consider the outcome of the respective world championships which will take place during the winter season in 2011," the IOC said.
"The EB has empowered the IOC president to take the final decision on its behalf."
The board said the other events up for consideration were: ski halfpipe (men and women), ski slopestyle (men and women), snowboard slopestyle (men and women), biathlon mixed team relay, figure skating team event and luge team relay.
"The IOC Olympic Program Commission analyzed all the requests put forward by the International Sports Federations, based on established criteria, and submitted its findings to the EB," the IOC said.
"The key positive factors included whether the changes would increase universality, gender equity and youth appeal, and in general add value to the Games.

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Facebook celebrity game borrows from fantasy sports - Celebrities

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Your ability to predict whether a celebrity's star power will rise or fall is about to come in handy.
Launching on Sunday is FanSwarm, a Hollywood version of fantasy sports for Facebook users. But in this case your team consists of a group of celebrities who score points based on what's being said about them in tweets and on blogs.
Whether an actor scores a major role or freaks out in a hotel, it doesn't much matter, because players are scoring points whenever news is generated.
"We use an algorithm that reads the heat of the social graph to figure out if a celebrity is hot or not," said Doug Levin, president and CEO of nascent developer Ayeah Games. "You can gain points by betting on Charlie Sheen's and Lindsay Lohan's crazy careers."
It's not limited to actors, either. At launch, FanSwarm's data base will have about 2,000 names from which to choose including Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly and President Barack Obama.
FanSwarm users will compete to become king or queen of the entire userbase: the "Swarm." Additionally, they can build teams or leagues and compete on a smaller scale.
Players also earn points by playing mini games like TV trivia and by nominating new celebrities that are accepted into the data base.
FanSwarm will aggregate news content around the celebrities and encourage commentary.
Players choose a group of celebrities and put them into 20 different "scenes," the selection of which also increases or decreases points. Putting Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in the "beach" scene is a wise move, for example, but not if Jennifer Aniston also is there.
Levin said he got the idea for FanSwarm when he was disappointed that George Clooney didn't win an Oscar this year for "Up in the Air," but he had nowhere to go online and vent. And he knew he was on to something when he observed women reacting to Sandra Bullock's marital problems with Jesse James.
"The environment is a highly structured way for people to express themselves, and we encourage user-generated content," Levin said. "Leave a comment, get points, play with friends, map out your predictions about celebrities. Our research says people are interested in these ideas."
Levin has raised one round of angel funding for the company and next month begins raising venture capital. The business model includes micropayments for virtual goodies, and he intends on selling data to PR executives, talent management and anyone else interested in the blogosphere's opinion of a celebrity.
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TV networks want fair payment from cable, Web TV - Entertainment News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The entertainment chiefs of five major U.S. television networks said on Tuesday they need to be fairly compensated if their shows are retransmitted on cable or Google Inc's Web TV, calling it a key industry issue.
"Everyone of these businesses is building these services out on our product," Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said about devices like Google TV at an industry panel discussion in Los Angeles.
Last week, Fox network parent News Corp blocked Fox shows for Cablevision Systems Corp subscribers in a dispute over fees paid to it for the right to retransmit free-to-air broadcast signals of its network shows. It was the latest in a series of stand-offs between pay-TV operators and U.S. networks.
Reilly called the issue of retransmission fees "probably among the most important" facing network TV, saying it was crucial "to get fairly compensated for the programs we make."
CBS Entertainment chief Nina Tassler agreed. "We invest a tremendous amount of time and money in making great shows and we should be justly compensated," she said.
Walt Disney Co's ABC, General Electric Co unit NBC Universal and CBS Corp's last week blocked the Web-based versions of some of their shows from Google's new TV service.
Tassler, whose network has some of the most popular U.S. shows including the "CSI" franchise and comedy "Two and a Half Men," said TV networks were the creative minds behind hit programing.
"There is great value to it and we have to protect that. It is important to provide (content), but we just have to be compensated," she said.
ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee called retransmission fees, the advent of Web TV, and the growth of online streaming "a critical moment in broadcasting."
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