Digital Music Growth Re-Accelerated In 2011 Thanks To New Services
The six-year slowdown in digital music’s commercial growth rate ended in 2011, when digital trade revenue grew eight percent to $5.2 billion… Read more »
New Video, Cinedigm Form Digital Film Distribution Alliance
The struggling independent film sector believes it has stumbled onto an effective release strategy, combining various forms of online and ca… Read more »
What A Facebook Deal With Vevo Could Unleash
Facebook is lagging in the video-streaming race, with YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG), Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) an… Read more »
Microsoft On Target In Fourth Quarter But Windows Sales Still Sliding
photo: Flickr / Dru Bloomfield
Microsoft’s fourth-quarter earnings came in about where Wall Street had expected, but the decline of its Windows business continued during a… Read more »
ITN Unifying Ad Sales For Multi-Platform Video Syndication
UK TV video news producer ITN is unifying its online ad sales platform as it expands into a burgeoning number of online destinations. Read more »
Cuban Teams With Seacrest, AEG To Relaunch HDNet as 'ESPN For Pop Culture'
photo: Flickr / Staci D. Kramer
Struggling for leverage with cable distributors as the operator of an independent network, Mark Cuban may have found a way forward for one o… Read more »
Updated: Zynga Confirms Recent Purchases Of Four Mobile Gaming Companies
Now that it’s a public company, Zynga can start throwing more cash around. The online gaming company has recently acquired four small mobile… Read more »
YouTube Fails To Convince Ad Regulator The Web Safeguards Kids Like TV Does
photo: Getty Images / Brian Kersey
Two contrary advertising watchdog rulings against the same movie company highlight how video advertising to children is handled differently… Read more »
Updated: In-App Purchases To Overtake Sales From Paid Apps By 2013
photo: Google Android
The consumer draw of free apps over paid apps has been well-documented, and so has the rise of in-app payments as a route to making money fr… Read more »
Kindle Startup Focuses On Interactive Fiction For Adults
photo: Coliloquy
Coliloquy, a Palo Alto-based publisher focusing on interactive fiction for adults, launches its first four serial titles today on Kindle. Th… Read more »
Microsoft SkyDrive 'Confuses Naked With Nude', Art Account Frozen
photo: Michael Ohajuru
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has an image police – but an arrest they have made may be mistaken. A blogger using its SkyDrive cloud storage servic… Read more »
Why UltraViolet Produced More Questions Than Answers At CES
The UltraViolet initiative left the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week with an important new retail channel in Amazon (NSDQ: A… Read more »
Sweet Success For Cut The Rope: An Interview With ZeptoLab's CEO
Games rank as the most popular form of mobile content today — 68 percent of tablet and smartphone app users who downloaded an app in the pa… Read more »
Manchester City Has Got A New Head Of Digital
TV and online exec Russell Stopford is the new head of digital for one of the world’s richest soccer clubs, Manchester City. Read more »
Silicon Valley Taunts NYC Over Tech Aspirations
photo: Victoria Peckham
It looks like Silicon Alley has a way to go before it’s taken seriously by its west coast counterpart. This weekend, the San Jose Mercury Ne… Read more »
Updated: Twitter UK Poaches BBC Sport Social Media Editor As Olympics Nears
photo: Twitter
Twitter looks like it is ramping up its staffing and operations in the UK: today it was announced that the company will be making a new hire… Read more »
paidContent 2012, NYC: New Speakers; Last Chance For Early Registration
Our acclaimed one-day event, paidContent 2012, returns to The TimesCenter in New York City on March 1. Now in its third year, paidContent 20… Read more »
@ CES: YouTube Thinks Web Video Is Big, Also Pretty Sure Sun Rises In East
photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) didn’t do a whole lot with a precious hour of airtime at CES 2012 on Thursday, reminding us all that video delivered ov… Read more »
Hollywood Lambasts Sky Movies Ruling, But Open Access Gains Favour
photo: AP Images
Six Hollywood studios have urged the UK’s competition watchdog to throw out its assertion their Sky Movies deals are anti-competitive. But s… Read more »
The CES Lowdown: 1-12-12
Here’s a look at what’s been going on at the giant electronics show that is CES:
» Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Could Sell 37 Million Windo… Read more »
After Starting Streaming Race, Starz Now Lags Behind HBO And Showtime
The evolution of premium cable TV beyond the living room took another step this week, with Showtime introducing a streaming app to rival HBO… Read more »
What The Burst Of Hollywood A-Listers Will Mean For Online Video
photo: Getty Images / Jason Merritt
Tom Hanks. Louis C.K. Lisa Kudrow. Kevin Spacey. David Fincher. Bill Maher. Jennifer Lopez. Judy Greer. Steven Van Zandt. Morgan Spurlock. E… Read more »
Research: Small Screens Better For Content; Bigger Screens For Productivity
The tablet market is still in its relative infancy and has been largely dominated up to now — both in sales and basic concept — by the iPa… Read more »
Chinese Video Site Youku Makes Movie Deal With Twentieth Century Fox
photo: Youku
Chinese online video giant Youku (NYSE:YOKU) today announced that it has inked a deal with none other than Twentieth Century Fox (NSDQ: NWS)… Read more »
Ultraviolet Movement Picks Up New Backer: Samsung
Samsung has rolled out a new line of Blu-ray players that support Ultraviolet, thus joining the ranks of entertainment brands that support t… Read more »
The Bleeding In The Home Entertainment Business Slowed In 2011
photo: AP Images
The home-entertainment business has been pummeled in recent years, with revenues falling for seven years in a row, in one year a full 8 perc… Read more »
Game Group Issues Warning After Poorer Christmas Game Sales
photo: Game Group
The UK’s leading video game retailer again finds itself looking forward to another console upgrade cycle, after Christmas sales came in 12.9… Read more »
China Round-Up: E-book Wars, Digital Music Opportunity And Games Go Large
photo: Robert S. Donovan
It is a busy week for digital media news in the Far East, ahead of the Chinese New Year on January 23. Notably, more new e-book services are… Read more »
Coldplay Will Warm To Streaming After Unit Sales Ebb
In October, Coldplay withheld its new album from streaming services like Spotify, Rdio , We7 and Mog.
But that absence is not indefinite. Read more »
@ CES: Microsoft Mails In Last Keynote Appearance, Wasting Everyone's Time
photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) used its hallmark spot on the CES 2012 schedule to prove just how pointless it is to put on a million-dollar keynote… Read more »
@CES: Samsung Hat-Tips Kinect On Smart TV Gesture Controls, Content Bonanza
photo: Microsoft Xbox Kinect
Samsung, on a high after releasing some strong mobile numbers last week, today became the latest consumer electronics brand to hang its name… Read more »
Can Tom Hanks Really Deliver The 'Comic-Con Crowd' For Yahoo?
photo: Getty Images / Kevork Djansezian
Looking to ramp up star power for a push into original video content, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) formally announced Monday that it’s teaming with ac… Read more »
Interview Part 2: Netflix's Hastings Hurt By Criticism But Over Transition
photo: Robert Andrews
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings tells paidContent the company has emerged from the “pain” of a consumer and investor backlash, after… Read more »
Interview Part 1: Netflix's Hastings Aims To Challenge BSkyB
photo: Robert Andrews
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) fancies bidding against News Corp-controlled BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) for Hollywood movies and TV shows, even though internati… Read more »
Use of Brands In Video Games Is Free Speech — EA Lawsuit
photo: psd
In a new lawsuit, Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) says free speech rights permit it to use brand name helicopters in the hit game Battlefield 3… Read more »
HMV Sees Physical Content Crash Slowing Down, Despite Christmas Crunch
HMV’s CEO says the slowdown in plastic music and movie sales is itself slowing down – even though its Christmas was nearly a tenth worse tha… Read more »
Netflix Has Launched In UK, Price War With Amazon's Lovefilm
photo: AP Images
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) executives launched the service in the UK and Ireland on Monday morning with pricepoints of £5.99 ($7.79) and €6.99… Read more »
What To Expect At CES: Tablets, TVs, And Transition
photo: CES
The biggest spectacle in the tech industry kicks off Sunday evening, when an estimated 150,000 people will flood into Las Vegas not to place… Read more »
Report: Sony's Hirai Promoted To President, Stringer Still Chairman And CEO
In a move that further sets up Kazuo Hirai as the heir apparent at Sony (NYSE: SNE), the company has promoted him to president, taking that… Read more »
Netflix Faces Higher Prices For HBO, Agrees To Doubled DVD Delays From WB
photo: Shutterstock / S.Dashkevych
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is facing changes to its DVD business with two Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) programmers after months of CEO back-and-forth a… Read more »
