Margins Check: Premium video, Facebook, free Web sites and more

Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.
–Google confirmed plans to shut down its 19-month-old premium video service, which sold and rented videos online. The search giant now plans to concentrate on an advertising system to monetize its online video efforts. The news could signal major headaches for those mobile companies hoping to sell video clips and other TV- and movie-style fare to wireless users.
–Online social-networking firm Facebook had some of its source code distributed through the Internet. The site blamed a bug on one of its servers that made its source code available to a small group of users. The action stands as a warning to all high-tech firms, including those in the wireless industry, that will have to deal with an increasingly tech-savvy user base, and the potential problems that situation poses.
–News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch has said he might make the Wall Street Journal’s Web site free, following News Corp.’s bid to acquire WSJ owner Dow Jones. The owner of the Finanical Times may follow suit. The news could boost traffic to WSJ’s Web site, which could also boost the fortunes of those mobile content companies associated with the business newspaper.
–The Federal Trade Commission subpoenaed a number of food, beverage and fast-food advertisers, seeking information on how they market to children. The information, to be used in a congressional report, is to be submitted to the FTC by Nov. 1. Such requests could eventually hit the wireless industry as it focuses on younger and younger users in an effort to push wireless penetration levels beyond 80%.
–Internet telephony company Vonage said it suffered a drastic drop in the number of new subscribers it recorded in the second quarter, although the firm is still growing. The news, following the shutdown of rival VoIP provider SunRocket, casts a pall over the Internet telephony space.