ESPN has set up a new Web site to market Mobile ESPN, the sports giant's mobile services package. The site, called the "Sporture Chamber," features a sports quiz and sweepstakes, with prizes that include Mobile ESPN handsets. Users have to perform well on the quiz in order to obtain information about Mobile ESPN product offerings. ESPN executives told Adweek that the quiz and the site were meant to build awareness for the product launch, but also to generate leads in the form of home and e-mail address registrations. ESPN also plans to promote the launch through its in-house e-mail list. …

Carriers Set Rating System, Presumably for Mobile Porn NYTimes The major cell carriers yesterday agreed on a rating system for the content they sell on cell phones, which could lead to the sale of pornography on mobile devices, The New York Times said. Initially, there will only be two classifications, general interest and 18 and over, and they will be voluntary, suggesting that the ratings have been developed specifically for those who want to sell content appropriate for adults. The carriers said the content ratings system was developed to mimic the classifications set for movies and video games. Among …

A new series of wireless companies is going after the young, early adapter tech set, running marketing campaigns to arouse interest among this small but lucrative audience. These new companies, called mobile virtual network operators, operate over high-speed mobile networks, which will effectively provide consumers with broadband speeds on their mobile phones. As The New York Times points out, one of the new mobile companies, called Amp'd, is pitching its new cell phone as a reason to live: "Try not to die. Amp'd Mobile is coming." Amp'd uses Verizon Wireless' high speed network, which will allow its consumers to download …

Microsoft believes it's at a crossroads, according to a Wall Street Journal report. In an Oct. 30 e-mail sent to top executives at Microsoft, Chairman Bill Gates said the company needs to better address the trends that are now making money on the Web. He called the shift in the landscape "the next sea change." The e-mail highlights a memo from Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief technology officer, who cites several missed opportunities by the software giant that were taken instead by Google, Salesforce.com, and Skype Technologies. The memo provides insight into Microsoft's announcement last week that it was taking its …

Grokster, the one-time file sharing network that ultimately lost a landmark case in the Supreme Court against it by Metro Goldwyn Meyer studios, is moving on to become a legitimate source of songs and movies now, signaling, perhaps, the end of an era when piracy was close to mainstream. Grokster's conversion settles a case which was more about the future of the entertainment industry than the right to not be held accountable for what other people use your product for (which was ultimately the only reason they used it in the first place). However, as the Los Angeles Times …

Sumner Redstone is moving Viacom into the video game business, just before he rides off into the sunset as chief of one of the world's biggest media companies, which he will soon split between the current heads of its broadcasting and cable and movie businesses. Slate reports that Redstone recently described the video game biz as "the hottest part of the entertainment industry." However, Redstone recently turned down a proposal for Viacom to buy Electronic Arts, the world's biggest and most successful video game developer, instead purchasing middling Midway Games, publisher of the popular Mortal Kombat series game series. The …

Behavioral targeting continues to gain publishing and advertising customers, but a new study shows that advertiser interest is cooling faster than publisher adoption of the ad format. The 24/7 Real Media study says that publisher participation in behavior targeting in the second quarter of the year was 289 percent higher than the fourth quarter of 2004, while first quarter participation was 181 percent higher than Q4 '04. Meanwhile, advertisers spent 129 percent more in the second quarter of this year than the fourth quarter 2004, after having spent 147 percent more in the first quarter of 2005 than the last …

Google, Yahoo! and sometimes Microsoft are all over the media these days for kicking the pants off the older media guys in terms of earnings, growth prospects and all-around coolness. The difference between now and a year ago is that even mainstream old media publications like Time, USA Today and Newsweek are getting it and jumping on the Web revolution bandwagon. A piece in U.S. News & World Report discusses the phenomenon, chronicling the rise of "the new media elites," and asking analysts where these elite ones are going to take us next.

FeedBurner, a management firm for RSS feeds, launched an RSS advertising network on Monday, while Feedster, a purveyor of another RSS ad network, announced a function that lets publishers join the network on their own, ClickZ reports. Both Feedster and Feedburner allows advertisers to buy ad space on RSS readers in categories like technology, business, current events, and entertainment. Feedburner's subscriber base has reached 150,000, most of which are subscribers to the business category. Ads are being sold on a CPM basis, priced at between $4 to $7 per-thousand impressions. Creative is limited to 190 characters, or around four lines …

The "wired" generation is coming to a cubicle near you--but perhaps they've already made it there. A force of approximately 70 million strong, Generation Y is the future of this country, and they're all under 30, which means they're just now embarking on their careers. According to Bruce Tulgan, who heads up a think tank called Rainmaker Thinking, Gen Yers are vastly different from previous generations. The most defining characteristic of Gen Y--which comes as no surprise--is the ease with which they use and adapt to technology. Aside from this, they're fiercely competitive--but they also see their colleagues as primary …