50 Cent Accuses 'Empire' Creators of Copying His 'Power' Marketing Tactics

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If you listen to 50 Cent‘s rhymes, he’s made it clear that he doesn’t tolerate snitches, but there’s also another thing the rapper-turned-mogul can’t stand: a copycat.

Fif, who is the executive producer behind the Starz original scripted drama ‘Power,’ took to Instagram to blast the creators of the Fox TV series ‘Empire’ for stealing his marketing tactics.

“POWER Season 2 is unbelievably good trust me,” 50 wrote in an Instragram post accompanied by video of a ‘Power’ spot. “I have the best writers and show runner. I like Terrence Howard and Taraji Henson. I don’t like that They would copy the Marketing.”

Both shows feature leading black male characters who struggle with balancing the street life and building their legacies the legit way via the entertainment industry. While Lucious Lyon, played by Howard, is handed a terminal death sentence and must decide which son to leave his record label to in ‘Empire,’ ‘Power’ focuses on the double life of a drug dealer-turned-nightclub owner who wants out of the drug game.

50 Cent could be on to something given the drug, music, money and sex aspects of both series, but he ultimately left it up to fans to judge.

Just minutes before calling out Howard and Henson, Fif posted a split image of Howard and Omari Hartwick of ‘Power,’ asking his female followers which show they preferred.

‘Power’ will return to Starz for season two in 2015, meanwhile ‘Empire’ will premiere on Fox on Jan. 7, 2015. Will you be #TeamPower or #TeamEmpire or tune into both? Watch the trailers for each below.

Watch the Trailer for ‘Empire’

Watch the Trailer for ‘Power’ Season 1

See 10 Rappers & Singers Promoting Unexpected Products

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Comic-Con: Once Upon a Time Creators Take Fans to New Worlds

Once Upon a Time creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz were indeed busy Saturday morning, presiding over back-to-back panels before a rowdy Ballroom 20 crowd. Kitsis and Horowitz insist that viewers need not know anything about the original series to get the most out of their Wonderland spinoff, though the pilot does start things off in Storybrooke.

First, the audience got to see a 19-minute sneak peek of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. The visual effects were quite stunning, an encouraging sign as not-so-hot CGI has often plagued the original series. The presentation focused on a young-adult Alice (Sophie Lowe) and her star-crossed romance with Cyrus (Peter Gadiot), a dreamy genie with whom she travels the world before they're tragically separated by the Red Queen (Emma Rigby). Alice is aided in her quest to reunite with her lover by the roguish Knave of Hearts, played by Being Human's Michael Socha.

Based on the footage we were shown, the tone of the series seems slightly more earnest and less irreverent than that of the parent show. In the early episodes of Once Upon a Time, Emma greeted Henry's insistence that magic is real with kind skepticism, while Alice is thrown into a terrifying asylum for saying the same sorts of things. Once character that didn't appear in the Comic Con preview but who looks to play a major role in the action is the evil genie Jafar, who will be played by Lost's Naveen Andrews.

You won't need to know what's happened in Storybrooke to follow Wonderland, but they do exist in the same universe. Kitsis and Horowitz left the door open to the return of Sebastian Stan's Mad Hatter, and said we'd see what Wonderland was like after Regina's cursed was unleashed. The first season of Wonderland will tell one entire story and will end. If it's a success, the second season would tell an entirely new tale.

After a short break, Kitsis and Horowitz took the stage again to preview Season 3 of Once Upon a Time. Most of the action will take place in Neverland, where the show's heroes and villains have all banded together to find the kidnapped Henry. When asked whether Peter Pan would be the season's main villain, the creators said that Pan's motivations are "complicated" but allowed that many will find him to be "frightening." Tinkerbell will be introduced and will have a 'surprising connection" to one of the following characters; Snow, Charming, Emma, Hook, Gold, Regina, Neil or Belle.

The producers were happy to announce that Season 3 will air its first eleven episodes on consecutive Sundays starting in the fall, take a winter hiatus, and then resume in spring with its final eleven episodes. A hilarious Jane Espenson-penned "Good Morning Storybrooke" video with spoof commercials was also shown, and included Community's Yvette Nicole Brown as Goldilocks, a role she tweeted about yesterday. Just as the panel was breaking up, the audience was shown a brief teaser in which Grumpy encounters a a red-haired mermaid with an interest in human cutlery. Yep, it looks like Ariel will be arriving in Storybrooke soon.

Season 3 of Once Upon a Time begins September 29th, while Once Upon a Time in Wonderland will premeire on October, 8th, both on ABC

Advertising: Online Video Creators Focus on Spanish-Speaking Consumers

Among the participants during the Digital Content NewFronts in New York this week — 17 presentations, from Monday through Friday, under the aegis of the Interactive Advertising Bureau — was Univision Communications, which took part in the NewFronts for the first time.

Univision executives on Wednesday discussed initiatives like Uvideos, a digital video network that offers original Web series as well as clips about the popular telenovelas that are the mainstays of the Univision broadcast network. (The clips are said to be spoiler-free; telenovelas are all about the cliffhangers.)

Some general-market media companies devoted bits of their presentations to the original digital content being created for Hispanics. For instance, on Tuesday, Hulu touched on Hulu Latino and CBS Interactive, part of the CBS Corporation, previewed plans to introduce in the fall a version of CNET for Spanish-speaking consumers.

Many presenters from the media mainstream “actually have a decent to strong-and-growing multicultural strategy,” said Marla Skiko, executive vice president and director for digital innovation at SMG Multicultural, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group unit of the Publicis Groupe.

“But they have so much to announce during the NewFronts, it gets only a mention,” Ms. Skiko said. “I think they could blow it out and make it bigger; it’s a story waiting to be told.”

Randall Rothenberg, president and chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, who attended the Univision presentation, said the Hispanic market is “indicative of the opportunity, and challenge, for digital.”

“Unlike other media, digital media can do everything because, by definition, you have global reach and theoretically unlimited programming and advertising inventory,” Mr. Rothenberg said.

At the same time, “the challenge is how to pick your shots,” he added, “and decide what to promote to whom at what time.”

Jim Lanzone, president of CBS Interactive, said in an interview that he was eager to introduce the Spanish-language version of CNET, which “will be its own distinct site” and offer Hispanics “a multimedia experience across all platforms.”

“It will not just be a machine translating our English content into Spanish,” he added, but rather will offer culturally specific content aimed at the 50 million person audience in the United States as well as Spanish-speakers in Latin America and elsewhere around the world.

And CBS Interactive is working on a Spanish-language version of GameSpot, Mr. Lanzone said, which is its Web site with content aimed at video game players.

The goal to beef up Spanish-language content at CBS Interactive is part of an ambitious agenda to add a variety of original content across its portfolio of more than two dozen disparate Web sites. For instance, the site devoted to CBS television shows, cbs.com, will add online series meant to complement two of the network’s dramas: “Baker Street Irregulars,” based on “Elementary,” and “Person of Interest: Animated,” based on “Person of Interest.”

“Even our musical act was one of our shows,” Mr. Lanzone joked, referring to the performance by the rock band Phoenix that concluded the presentation at the Hudson Theater in Midtown Manhattan. The band’s 45-minute set doubled as a webcast of the cbs.com original series “Live on Letterman,” which typically is streamed live from the Ed Sullivan Theater after that evening’s taping of “Late Show With David Letterman.”

At the Univision Communications presentation, at the Brasserie restaurant, the focus was on expansion. The company’s executives discussed original Web series, including “Salseras,” being introduced with the Web music company Vevo, about a fierce collegiate salsa-dancing competition; five channels being added to Uvideos, devoted to cooking, comedy, celebrities, fashion, beauty and lifestyle; and a new digital platform, to be called Flama, aimed at younger Hispanics who are part of the so-called millennial generation.

And Univision is opening an “idea lab,” said Cesar Conde, president of the Univision Networks division of the company, “dedicated to the creation of made-for-Web content, in Spanish and English.”

Univision will also offer advertisers opportunities at “transmedia storytelling that transcends platforms,” Mr. Conde said, combining content in genres like reality competition and sports that will be on television, on radio, online and in social media.

It was “very important for us” to take part in the NewFronts this year, Mr. Conde said in an interview after the presentation, to underline that “everything we’re thinking about, we’re thinking about with our digital hat on.”

“Univision, as a leader, has to be here,” he added, because “Hispanics overindex on everything technology.” His reference was to Nielsen research indicating that, for example, 72 percent of Hispanics own smartphones and they watch 62 percent more online video than white non-Hispanic Americans.

Ad spending for online video was estimated last year at $2.9 billion, a fraction of the $64.5 billion in ad spending on television, but it is growing at a far faster rate than its traditional counterpart. In 2013, according to eMarketer forecasts, the totals will increase to $4 billion for online video, up 41.1 percent from 2012, and $66.4 billion for television, up 2.8 percent from 2012.

The potential for online video was further underscored on Wednesday when, at the Condé Nast Entertainment presentation during the NewFronts, executives announced additions to their digital video network. The channels inspired by magazines like Glamour and GQ will be joined by channels suggested by Epicurious, Style.com, Teen Vogue, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Wired.

Also on Wednesday, AwesomenessTV, a YouTube-based video channel aimed at teenagers, agreed to be acquired by DreamWorks Animation SKG for about $33 million in cash and up to $117 million in possible additional payments.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 2, 2013

A picture caption with an earlier version of this column misstated the day of the band Phoenix’s performance. It was Tuesday, not Wednesday.

TECHNOLOGY: TimesCast Tech | Content Creators

September 19, 2012 By Emily B. Hager, Nadia Sussman, Vijai Singh and David Gillen

Companies sharpen their focus on content creators. | Paperless Post pushes the envelope, literally. | Digital etiquette dos and don’ts.

Metal Gear Creator’s Fox Engine to Be Shown Next Month

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima will show off the Fox Engine next month. In an interview on the PlayStation Blog, Kojima commented that “although the Fox Engine is not finished we are ready to show what it can do… on August 30th in Japan to be more specific.”

Kojima commented that the engine is “nearly finished, but the only way to be sure it works is to create a game at the same time and improve the engine with our tools as we go along.” The original plan was for that game to be Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, “but a lot happened along the way and instead it is being made with the engine they have at Platinum Games.”

The Fox Engine debuted at E3 2011. We last heard that it was running on PlayStation 3 and Vita during TGS, and Kojima commented that an actual game using the engine “may take a while.” Kojima Productions later posted job listings for “engineers to help develop next-gen game engine technology for use with the FOX Engine.”

For now, only the engine is confirmed to be making an appearance rather than an actual new game, though with rumors about Metal Gear Solid 5 swirling, anything is possible. Check back to IGN next month for full details on the Fox Engine presentation.