The three month, multi-media campaign titled “The Video Store Just Moved In” will shine a spotlight on the burgeoning movie on demand category, according to operator and studio executives. The campaign, which began last night (Tuesday) with a spot on Fox’s American Idol, will focus on the fun and ease of ordering and watching top theatrical movies at home as compared to trudging out to rent movies from the local home video store, according to campaign officials.
]]>The three month, multi-media campaign titled “The Video Store Just Moved In” will shine a spotlight on the burgeoning movie on demand category, according to operator and studio executives. The campaign, which began last night (Tuesday) with a spot on Fox’s American Idol, will focus on the fun and ease of ordering and watching top theatrical movies at home as compared to trudging out to rent movies from the local home video store, according to campaign officials.
The campaign launches as more studios are debuting top box office titles via on demand at the same time they hit video store shelves. Over the last two years there has been more than a seven-fold increase in the number of day-and-date titles offered to digital cable customers nationally, according to VOD content aggregator In Demand. More on Multichannel.
]]>In the interim, the company is currently looking into selling off its international operations as way to ease the heavy debt burden.
Blockbuster is also remaining cautious in terms of pursuing the rental download model and video-on-demand. It has already closed several hundred retail outlets, while at the same time, it’s added 2,000 new Blockbuster Express kiosks. The company plans to rapidly expand that kiosk business to 7,000, which it considers riskier than downloads and VOD. The Blockbuster On-Demand service remains small, with MSO partners including Mediacom and Suddenlink.
During Blockbuster’s earnings call last month, chairman and CEO Jim Keyes said he was encouraged by Netflix’s and Redbox’s agreements with Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) on holding new releases for a 28-day window. If the other studios embrace that same window-release time frame, Keyes believes it will strengthen Blockbuster’s retail outlets, because most consumers’ activity around new DVDs tends to stick closely to the release date and then quickly drop off.
Related
]]>Gray wrote: “It’s a new world in the media, and it’s a new world at Variety. Our content will remain basically the same, but the financial structure will change. We’ve already started making money from the paywall, events and conferences, licensing, etc etc. While these are new areas, the primary concern is this: What can we give Variety readers that they need, and what can we do better than anyone else? Believe me, these new areas are not done lightly or arbitrarily.”
Gray assured his remaining staff that “today’s changes won’t be noticed by readers ... “it doesn’t make economic sense to have full-time reviewers.” That may be so but it’s hard to imagine the critics’ departure will go unnoticed—unless they take him up on the offer to become freelance reviewers.
His advice: “Ignore the bloggers (who obviously are trying in vain to steal our readers and our advertisers), ignore the obits for Old Media, ignore the negatives and the craziness that this economy has created. The people in the Depression bounced back, and so will all of us who are going through this crisis. I cannot repeat this often enough: Variety is in profit, which means we’re here to stay.”
Trade vet Anne Thomson’s take is far less optimistic. Thomson, ex-Hollywood Reporter and Variety, writes of watching Variety staffers struggle with cost-saving tech during the Oscars and laments the loss of the staff critics that to her made “the paper a global industry must-read.” As if to answer that Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert tweeted that he was canceling his subscription: “Variety fires Todd McCarthy and I cancel my subscription. He was my reason to read the paper. RIP, schmucks.”
But Gray and the others at Variety are after a different kind of reader, the one who subscribes for its business coverage, not its reviews. What will that reader notice?
Related
]]>Meanwhile, the FCC wants everyone to know it’s watching out for consumers (LAT has the full statement)—and those consumers are starting to show their frustration with both companies.
5:15 p.m. update: ABC’s response to queries about arbitration: “Instead of issuing statements about arbitration, it would be more constructive for Cablevision to deal with the offer that we have on the table.”
5:40 p.m.: Cablevision is trying to appease subs by making all its VOD movies free today—including three best picture nominees. In the “so much for corporate synergy” department, instead of focusing on Newsday‘s Oscar coverage which should be available to its ISP subs, Cablevision has hired New York Post vet Paula Froelich to live blog the Oscars.
More as warranted.
]]>Call them friends with benefits including a private discussion thread; quick links to his free-standing “special pages for Twitter” and occasional members-only pages; select tweets from his prolific @ebertchicago; advance notice of Eberfest tickets; and more. The list includes “helping enormously to support this web site”—which may sound whimsical but could be the biggest “benefit” of all for some. The price is less than a movie ticket, small enough to be an impulse buy and large enough to possibly create some meaningful income without creating a lot of extra work for Ebert. (Heck, I just stopped writing long enough to sign up.)
]]>Call them friends with benefits including a private discussion thread; quick links to his free-standing “special pages for Twitter” and occasional members-only pages; select tweets from his prolific @ebertchicago; advance notice of Eberfest tickets; and more. The list includes “helping enormously to support this web site”—which may sound whimsical but could be the biggest “benefit” of all for some. The price is less than a movie ticket, small enough to be an impulse buy and large enough to possibly create some meaningful income without creating a lot of extra work for Ebert. (Heck, I just stopped writing long enough to sign up.)
Ebert’s explanation and introduction to the club doubles as a survey of paid content models. He recalls being used by Nicholas Negroponte in the 90s as an example, along with Gene Siskel, of how micropayments might work at two cents for two reviews. It would take 250 micropayments to make the same $5 Ebert is charging now.
He writes: “As you know, micropayments went nowhere. In 2009 Google (NSDQ: GOOG) unveiled a plan to run them through Google Checkout. We will see. The web that we surf every day is not paying for itself, and we sure as hell aren’t paying for it. You read me for free, and I read everybody else for free. This is not news. To save you the bother of reading to the end of this entry, I don’t have a brilliant new scheme for changing things.”
Despite his prominence and influence, Ebert doesn’t get big Hollywood money either. “Yes, I have ads. Quite a few over the course of a year. Distributors who actually open good films (you know the kind I mean) have been kind to me. But have I run a single ad this year from an Oscar Season campaign? I believe not.”
If micropayments and advertising aren’t the answer and a pay wall is out of the question, that leaves adding value for users: “Keep the site free for everybody, and find out how many readers might be willing to pay a little extra for an additional resource.” Ebert would have to hit it very big for this to make major money; then again, he launched the club the same week he was on Oprah so you never know. Longtime reader Marie Haws will oversee the newsletter; she should have a good grasp on what adds value to the Ebert experience.
For those considering similar models, read the comments from Ebert’s fans here and towards the bottom here. Very educational.
]]>The more interesting effort it is launching revolves around digital screenings: It is launching Tribeca Film Festival Virtual (TFFV), with a free and premium offering. The free part will have short films from past festivals, conversations with filmmakers, red carpet coverage, and a highlight reel of the biggest moments from TFF in NYC.
]]>The more interesting effort it is launching revolves around digital screenings: It is launching Tribeca Film Festival Virtual (TFFV), with a free and premium offering. The free part will have short films from past festivals, conversations with filmmakers, red carpet coverage, and a highlight reel of the biggest moments from TFF in NYC.
The premium pass, which is priced at $45, gives users access to movies premiering simultaneously at the festival in New York, shorts, an HD player and live webcasting of panels/Q&A from the festival, among other features, for the duration of the festival, from April 23-30. As far as movie subscription services go, it is on the higher side, but considering the niche appeal, topicality and the extras, probably appealing enough to the target.
Tribeca has done some previous digital efforts, including a deal in 2008 with Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) to sell/screen 500 indie films, but TFFV is its biggest effort yet.
Related
]]>Wishful thinking? Under Keyes, Blockbuster has been talking about a digital reinvention for almost two years now—and plans for a wider rollout of the ‘Rock The Block’ prototype stores that Keyes mentions so enthusiastically have been scuttled because of the company’s lack of cash. But Keyes does do a strong job at countering the doubt thrown at him by CNBC’s anchors.
Related
]]>Sony is developing a new lineup of handheld products, including a smartphone that would be capable of downloading and playing PlayStation games, as well as connecting to Sony’s online media platform, reports the WSJ, which quotes people familiar with the matter.
]]>Sony is developing a new lineup of handheld products, including a smartphone that would be capable of downloading and playing PlayStation games, as well as connecting to Sony’s online media platform, reports the WSJ, which quotes people familiar with the matter.
The Japanese electronics giant is clearly feeling the heat from new consumer electronics, ranging from Apple’s iPhone to other devices like e-readers and netbooks. The project under way would create one device that would be capable of handling multiple functions, much like Apple’s upcoming iPad, according to the sources. Sony’s interest in building a smartphone doesn’t necessarily mean that its handset joint venture with Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) will be completely left out of the picture. In fact, the sources say Sony Ericsson will be working on the new handset, but that Sony will be taking a more active role, given how important smartphones are becoming to the company’s overall strategy.
The new products are expected to launch this year, although there’s still a lot of unknowns, including price or device specifications. A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment for the story.
Just recently, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs made a point to say that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is now a larger mobile devices company than Sony, Samsung and Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Indeed, Sony Ericsson has struggled recently, and has seen global shipments drop 41 percent in 2009. In addition, Sony slashed forecasts for PSP shipments last month.
Sony’s media platform, which for now is called Sony Online Service, is expected to launch in the U.S. later this month. The iTunes-like service will offer movies and TV shows and older game titles originally released for the PlayStation console.
Related
]]>]]>
In his statement, acting CEO Robert Kimball once again talked about the need for Real to focus on its “core” business—a constant thread over the last few months as Real plans to spin off Rhapsody America, among other steps—and to placate the studios: “Until this dispute, Real had always enjoyed a productive working relationship with Hollywood. With this litigation resolved, I hope that in the future we can find mutually beneficial ways to use Real technology to bring Hollywood’s great work to consumers.”
As part of the settlement, Real also will:
—cover the studios’s costs and fees to the tune of $4.5 million; those suing included movie studios owned by Disney (NYSE: DIS), Sony (NYSE: SNE), NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), and Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) The DVD Copy Control Association also was a party. In his statement, Jacob Pak, the president of DVD CCA, called the legal message clear: “Making a DVD copier is a breach of the CSS license.”
—Turn off a metedata service feeding DVD cover art and info to the roughly 2,700 exiting RealDVD customers and refund there money.
RealNetworks launched RealDVD in September 2008 and the squawking commenced. By Sept. 30, Glaser was suing the studios claiming antitrust and the MPAA was suing Real; by early October, a temporary restraining order was in place. The notion of challenging the studios’ lock on how copyrighted content is delivered wasn’t all bad but it was a distraction Real didn’t need. Next time they could just try Bejeweled. Release.
Here’e's the full order courtesy of Digital Daily.
Related
]]>The latest is ivi.ru, a Russian portal that launched at the end of February with 9,000 hours of video content including films and television series, all ad-supported and free to view. Oleg Tumanov, the head of owners Digital Access Holding, even says the site was intentionally created as an “analogue” of Hulu, according to Vedomosti. (via Ria Novosti).
]]>The latest is ivi.ru, a Russian portal that launched at the end of February with 9,000 hours of video content including films and television series, all ad-supported and free to view. Oleg Tumanov, the head of owners Digital Access Holding, even says the site was intentionally created as an “analogue” of Hulu, according to Vedomosti. (via Ria Novosti).
Digital Access is a music portal that used to be owned by Warner Music and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music, among others, which was sold to ru-net II, a division of the investment firm ru-net Holdings, in February 2009. Digital Access also sells the ads on the site.
The site also streams content from the Russian broadcasts of networks like TNT and MTV. Vedomosti notes that 100 content owners have signed up to the service so far.
Looking at the similarities between Hulu and ivi.ru, it’s surprising to think there haven’t been more companies litigating to protect their web site designs as extensions of their own brands, particularly those companies that ultimately have international ambitions.
Russia has track record…
—The main page for the search engine Yandex, of which ru-net is also a shareholder, owes a lot to Google’s minimalist approach.
—Rutube, on the other hand, doesn’t look like YouTube, but certainly rhymes with it. (The site, owned by the media division of the energy giant Gazprom, is also a video uploading portal).
Maybe it’s hard to win copy-cat cases across international boundaries. Facebook lost a case against StudiVZ in Germany last year, in which it claimed that the site ripped off its look and some of its code. Meanwhile, Groovle.com, a Canadian site that lets users customise their search pages, won a case brought against it by Google (NSDQ: GOOG), when the search giant said Groovle’s domain name was too similar to its own.
]]>What’s missing: online streaming sources like Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) and Hulu. Neither of them are downloads; also the former is tough to breakout revenue-wise separately as the DVD packages bundle in streaming, and the latter, which doesn’t have a lot of movies, is ad-supported. But these two could also explain some of the slower growth trend: as the number of free options to online streaming video increase (TV network shows and other short form), users are entertaining themselves by other means than conventional movies. Another reason, according to SD analyst Arash Amel: “The reason has been a failure by content owners to grow consumer interest in the digital product.” Meaning they haven’t marketed it well. “We don’t believe the 2009 experience was seasonal, or purely economy related…we consider the problem to be endemic.”
And the analyst doesn’t see anything major changing the equation in the next five year, and “we’re taking a 30 percent+ chunk out of our 5-year forecasts for the total movie downloads business, until we see signs that [download] proposition are being given unconstrained strategic priority by Hollywood.” That means from a forecast of $1.5 billion in 2014, it will now barely reach $1 billion by then, the firm believes.
US online movie downloads market
2007
Download-to-own: $98m
Internet VOD: $24m
Total (DTO+IVOD): $122m
2008
DTO: $144m
iVOD: $69m
Total (DTO+IVOD): $213m
2009
DTO: $199m
iVOD: $92m
Total (DTO+IVOD): $291m
2014
Total (DTO+IVOD): $943m
The news was a contrast to what was otherwise a strong, across-the-board quarterly performance at Liberty Media. The breakdown of results at Liberty’s many units: Liberty Interactive posted a 14 percent jump in revenue to $2.7 billion—driven by strong sales at home shopping channel QVC. The company’s smaller ecommerce business, which includes Backcountry.com and Bodybuilding.com, posted a 17 percent increase in revenue.
Sales at Liberty Starz, which includes the Starz premium networks and broadband service, were up six percent, although operating income dropped slightly because of production costs of original series like Crash. And Liberty Capital, which includes the Starz production and distribution units, saw its revenue jump 18 percent, although operating income was down in part because of expenses associated with Overture Films and Starz animation. Overture’s titles include Capitalism: A Love Story and Sunshine Cleaning.
Related
]]>Blockbuster has already closed several hundred retails outlets, while at the same time, it’s added 2,000 new Blockbuster Express kiosks. The company plans to rapidly expand that kiosk business to 7,000. The Blockbuster On-Demand service remains small, with MSO partners including Mediacom and Suddenlink. Keyes: “If the other studios follow suit on the 28-day window agreement with Redbox and Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), that would make sense to keep stores open. We’re not just about rentals, we have a strong retail sales business. So if everyone has to keep to that 28-day window, we would be in a good position.
Asked if Blockbuster a being a bit too conservative in its approach to the digital VOD business, Keyes responded, “This is an industry that is going to experience more dynamic change over the next six months. These times demand a conservative approach.”
On the digital and international end, executives said that Blockbuster is looking for strategic partners in other companies to digital and retail stores. CFO Tom Casey said, “You wouldn’t want to see 10 different Blockbuster digital solutions worldwide. We want one bridge to digital. If someone wanted the digital assets and not the stores, we could do a straight sale. But mostly, we’re looking at this as a shared partnership. But it will depend on the buyer and on the price.”
Asked about Wal-Mart’s purchase of Vudu, Keyes said that all the activity in the VOD space will work in our favor. “We think the Wal-Mart deal is ultimately a good thing. Best Buy has declared as well. You have to understand, they’re not just going to stock their own brand. They’re going to have to stock the leading brands, and that will include Netflix and perhaps Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) as well. And Wal-Mart is in a perfect position to work with consumer electronics companies to press them on VOD streaming capabilities. As for the competition, we’re not worried. The Blockbuster brand is so well-known. Netflix is much more longtail. We’re known for hit movies. So this is all very good to us.”
While Blockbuster might be moving too slowly on its overall digital business, Keyes said he believes that mobile is a space it can take the lead on. He expressed disappointment that the company didn’t get much traction for its announcement this month it would provide on-demand video services to the HTC HD2 smartphone. “Netflix has said that it is not interested in going into mobile. So we think we’ve got a nice head start in mobile.”
]]>No financial terms are being disclosed but reports put it around $100 million, which is a bit shocking as I explain below in Vudu’s history; Walmart says the price is “not material” to its earnings. Vudu will become a wholly owned subsidiary.
Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman for Walmart, explained the move in the announcement: “Combining Vudu’s unique digital technology and service with Walmart’s retail expertise and scale will provide customers with unprecedented access to home entertainment options as they migrate to a digital environment.” Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) gains access to titles from nearly every major studio and to some 16,000 titles, including, the companies claim, the largest available 1080p VOD library.
]]>No financial terms are being disclosed but reports put it around $100 million, which is a bit shocking as I explain below in Vudu’s history; Walmart says the price is “not material” to its earnings. Vudu will become a wholly owned subsidiary.
Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman for Walmart, explained the move in the announcement: “Combining Vudu’s unique digital technology and service with Walmart’s retail expertise and scale will provide customers with unprecedented access to home entertainment options as they migrate to a digital environment.” Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) gains access to titles from nearly every major studio and to some 16,000 titles, including, the companies claim, the largest available 1080p VOD library.
The NYT reported earlier Monday that a deal was imminent, citing unidentified sources. The news of the talks was first reported by Mediamemo last month.
Vudu launched three years ago as a separate video delivering set-top box (and I dubbed its launch “Idiots In The Box, Part Deux”, back then), but quickly realized, much like others in the space, that a separate box was going to be a no-go. Since then it has moved to become a software/firmware layer embedded within existing boxes like connected DVD players, and TV players like LG, Sanyo, Toshiba and Sharp. Earlier at CES last month, Vudu launched an apps store to add to its streaming service, in effect becoming more like the newer competitor Boxee. Is Boxee next?
Based in Santa Clara, CA and funded by Benchmark Capital and Greylock Capital, Vudu has skirted with a sale for a long time, even under previous CEO Mark Jung, who left in late 2008.
Staci adds: The top exec for Vudu quoted in the joint press release is Edward Lichty, EVP of strategy and content. I’ve confirmed that he is supposed to make the move but no official word yet on the fates of Chairman and CEO Alain Rossmann or Tony Miranz, co-founder and EVP of sales & biz dev. The LAT’s Company Town quotes sources who say Rossmann “is stepping down as part of the deal, but will continue to serve as a consultant” but a Vudu spokesman wouldn’t answer questions about top management.
The last entry on the company’s blog is Feb. 10, bragging about a “rave” review by the NYT‘s David Pogue. Vudu also managed two brief logo appearances from Vizio during the TV manufacturer’s Super Bowl ad.
Related
]]>In return for giving up the suit, Warner has promised to offer Redbox reduced product costs and extended access to Blu-ray DVDs. Warner Brothers Home Video and redbox will be implementing delayed availability during the month of March and will reach a four-week window by March 23 with the release of The Blind Side. The new agreement will run through January 31, 2012. Redbox has also agreed to destroy Warner Brothers’ content following its lifespan in kiosks. Release
Related
]]>Related
]]>The precedent-setting decision flies in the face of the three-strikes laws being formed in other markets like neighboring New Zealand, and further afield in France and the UK, under which ISPs would acknowledge some role by warning, warning again and then disconnecting file-sharers from their networks.
]]>The precedent-setting decision flies in the face of the three-strikes laws being formed in other markets like neighboring New Zealand, and further afield in France and the UK, under which ISPs would acknowledge some role by warning, warning again and then disconnecting file-sharers from their networks.
The case was brought against iiNet by a group of 34 studios and broadcasters that included Disney (NYSE: DIS), Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Pictures, who alleged that iiNet effectively authorised copyright infringement by not sending out warnings to its users, who use peer-to-peer sites like BitTorrent to download illegal copies of films.
The ISP claimed that such warnings would violate privacy laws in the country and that chasing users down would be akin to “suing the electricity company for things people do with their electricity.” (via Sydney Morning Herald)
In his summary, Justice Dennis Cowdroy said: “While I find that iiNet had knowledge of infringements occurring, and did not act to stop them, such findings do not necessitate a finding of authorisation. I find that iiNet did not authorise the infringements of copyright of the iiNet users…”
This may have been the first case of its kind: “As far as I am aware, this trial, involving suit against an ISP claiming copyright infringement on its part due to alleged authorisation of the copyright infringement of its users or subscribers, is the first trial of its kind in the world to proceed to hearing and judgment.”
The case evidence centered around a group called the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft. Acting on behalf of the 34 plaintiffs, the AFACT hired a private investigator to monitor iiNet’s traffic for peer-to-peer traffic using the BitTorrent protocol. The group then sent the results to iiNet, with a request to act on them. The ISP is one of the smaller providers in Australia, with 750,000 customers taking a mixture of broadband, telephony and dial-up services.
The judge accepted that there was evidence of copyright infringement, “However, in reaching that finding, I have found that the number of infringements that have occurred are significantly fewer than the number alleged by the applicants.”
Huge use of Twitter to monitor the case as it happened. From the summary: “This proceeding has attracted widespread interest both here in Australia and abroad, and both within the legal community and the general public. So much so that I understand this is the first Australian trial to be twittered or tweeted. I granted approval for this to occur in view of the public interest in the proceeding, and it seems rather fitting for a copyright trial involving the internet.”
]]>This could definitely speed the transition to alternative film distribution models—like Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) and Redbox—although as commenters pointed out when we wrote about Movie Gallery’s woes last month it could also provide a boost to Blockbuster.
]]>This could definitely speed the transition to alternative film distribution models—like Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) and Redbox—although as commenters pointed out when we wrote about Movie Gallery’s woes last month it could also provide a boost to Blockbuster.
Movie Gallery still doesn’t seem very interested in pursuing any alternative distribution models of its own—saying its goal is to emerge from restructuring with a new business model “centered on a smaller base of profitable stores.”
Here are all the filings.
Related
]]>]]>
Not so fast, says YouTube. A company spokesman tells the NYT—which first reported the number—that the experiment “exceeded our expectations given all the barriers.” Unsurprising: Those expectations were never made public. The company is however going ahead with its plans to add a “small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries” as well as from other indie filmmakers.
Related
]]>