Producer of The Ring and Mulholland Drive releases new horror movie as an iOS app
Neal Edelstein, producer of hit movies like The Ring and Mulholland Drive, has a new film project: A film delivered in chunks directly through an iOS app. Read more »
Star Wars meets the mouse: Disney buys Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion
Disney is acquiring George Lucas’s Lucasfilm, including the “Star Wars” franchise and associated technology, for $4.05 billion. “Star Wars Episode 7″ is slated to be released in 2015, with more films to follow every two to three years afterwards. Read more »
More streaming video for Amazon Prime: Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica
Amazon Prime Instant Video and NBCUniversal expanded their content licensing agreement to include new shows like “Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood” and “Battlestar Galactica.” Read more »
Netflix will need deep pockets to raid BSkyB’s movie locker
The company has free rein to repeat its bullish declarations that it will out-bid incumbent BSkyB for UK movie rights. But what exactly will that take? Let’s compare the two outfits’ abilities to spend on premium digital content as they vie for European customers. Read more »
Netflix is already a huge threat to Amazon’s Lovefilm
Netflix’s first disclosure of European subscriber numbers shows it has quickly become a big competitor to local incumbent Lovefilm, thanks to heavy marketing outlay. Read more »
Media store wars: iTunes vs Amazon vs Google Play
Google now activates one million Android devices per day and has 400 million devices in the wild, but its media store efforts have lagged. Google Play now has more digital content types, so here’s a look at how it compares to iTunes and Amazon’s digital store. Read more »
Fan service Moviepilot steams into Hollywood with $7m round
The Berlin-based IMDB rival Moviepilot, which is already working with film studios to give them better understanding of their projects’ fanbase, has secured funding to put a sales team in LA Read more »
Watch for falling formats — Walmart shows off its new UltraViolet cloud service
DVD sales may not be what they were, but the road to Hollywood riches still goes through Walmart’s Bentonville, Ark. headquarters. Fortunately, to see a demo of the retailer’s new UltraViolet cloud service, we only had to drive to Rosemead, Calif. Read more »
Is Fox facing a blackout on iCloud and UltraViolet?
Universal has reached an agreement with HBO, relaxing rules that limit cloud storage of movies. That leaves Fox out in the cold as the only major restricted from all the cloud-based fun. Read more »
Kaleidescape Loses Another Round In The Courts — Will It Be The Last?
It’s doubtful that the U.S. Supreme Court will ever hear digital movie server maker Kaleidescape’s case against the studio backers of DVD’s… Read more »
Netflix's Latest Original Programming Bet: Horror Series 'Hemlock Grove'
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is eager to steer its core business away from mere movie rentals to an operation that resembles, to some degree, premiu… Read more »
Fandango To Become Online Ticket Seller For Yahoo Movies
Fandango will be an online and mobile movie-ticket seller for Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Movies, according to a new partnership between the two comp… Read more »
Only Content Industries Can Create Content People Want, Says MPAA's Attaway
photo: VIPDesignUSA / Shutterstock
“Our industries do something that no one else can do,” the Motion Picture Association of America’s Fritz Attaway said at the Association of… Read more »
How Netflix's Hastings Could Get BSkyB Off An Anti-Trust Charge
The UK inquiry in to whether Sky Movies’ exclusive first-run subscription VOD deals with six major Hollywood major studios is anti-competiti… Read more »
UltraViolet Studios: HBO Blackout Will Lift In Time For Wal-Mart Launch
Don’t worry, we’ll work this out in time for the big dance. That is the essential message from top home entertainment officials who are stil… Read more »
Analysts: Netflix Has Fully Recovered From Its Qwikster Debacle
In 2010, people couldn’t say enough good things about Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) — it was the darling of the digital entertainment world. Then la… Read more »
Wal-Mart Will Start Selling Cloud Storage At 3,500 Stores Next Month
photo: Wal-Mart
We told you it was coming — and it did. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has formally announced its support for Hollywood’s struggling UltraViolet movi… Read more »
Roku Needs To Raise $50 Million To Go Global
Internet TV box service Roku is prepared to take on a big and high-risk new investment to support its international ambitions. Read more »
Epix, ABC Family Launch on iOS; So What About Their Hulu, Netflix Deals?
photo: Shutterstock / Angela Waye
Say this about TV Everywhere — it’s not making the complicated world of TV video streaming any easier to figure out. On Tuesday, cable netw… Read more »
Chinese VOD Rush Continues – Lionsgate Signs Latest Deal
photo: Shutterstock / Chiyacat
Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) became the latest Hollywood studio to make an online movie distribution deal in China, announcing Monday that it has r… Read more »
Can't Say We Saw It Coming: Redbox Re-Ups Universal Deal With 28-Day Window
photo: Eddie Does Japan
Yesterday, we suggested that video-rental chain Redbox might have to cave on its demand for 28-day release window with Universal, and wind u… Read more »
Buy A Nook, Get Advance Hunger Games Tickets (While Supplies Last)
photo: Barnes & Noble
May the odds be ever in your favor: In a partnership with Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) is offering a number of Hunger G… Read more »
Why Redbox Might Have To Agree To 56-Day Windows, Too
photo: Eddie Does Japan
The last year has been pretty good to Redbox. The rental kiosk chain is about to embark on a new streaming venture with Verizon, and has bee… Read more »
Netflix Stock Spirals As Company Enters Tricky Stretch
photo: AP Images
After last fall’s shareholder revolt, Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) recovered somewhat in December and January. But that momentum has slowed this mon… Read more »
Say Goodbye To Blockbuster Stores
photo: Shutterstock / Chris Green
The Blockbuster brand emerged from the ashes of bankruptcy to have an impact on the bottom line of its new owner, Dish Network (NSDQ: DISH).… Read more »
Coinstar Investors Propose $6 Million Settlement Over Redbox Stock Dive
photo: Eddie Does Japan
Investors have filed to settle a lawsuit that claims Coinstar wrongfully juiced its share price by failing to disclose that some studios had… Read more »
Comcast Gives Subscribers One More Reason To Quit Netflix
photo: Comcast
Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) is rolling out a new streaming on-demand offering called Xfinity Streampix, which will bring more library content to s… Read more »
Netflix Gets Streaming Rights To Oscar Favorite, Other Weinstein Titles
photo: Warner Bros / The Weinstein Company
With its content deal with premium cable channel Starz set to expire next week, Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is moving quickly to fill the void of p… Read more »
Paramount Sues Puzo Estate Over ‘Godfather’ Sequels
The studio behind the famous Godfather trilogy is asking a court to make the franchise’s literary heirs an offer they can’t refuse. Read more »
The Most Important Thing About Bridesmaids’ $40 Million In VOD Revenues
Universal Pictures put a lot of palms on foreheads this week when it announced that its summer comedy hit Bridesmaids has taken in $40 milli… Read more »
Windows Work? ‘Harry Potter’ DVD Sales help Drive Time Warner’s Q4 Profits
Delaying DVD and Blu-ray rental releases to outlets including Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) and Redbox made the magic of Harry Potter even more poten… Read more »
Jersey Shore, Dora, iCarly To Amazon Prime Instant In Viacom Deal
photo: MTV
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is expanding its Prime Instant Video library in a deal with Viacom (NYSE: VIA), bringing the total number of streaming v… Read more »
A New ‘Stream Team’? Verizon And Redbox Take On Netflix
photo: Eddie Does Japan
Offering perhaps the most defined threat to streaming movie leader Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) so far, Verizon and Redbox parent company Cointstar… Read more »
Have The Hollywood Studios Finally Beaten Down Kaleidescape?
In the mid-2000s, a technology called Kaleidescape was all the rage among the Hollywood intelligensia. Fillmakers like Brett Ratner and high… Read more »
Farewell, Yahoo Apps, We Hardly Knew Ye: Deals, News Plus Eight Others Gone
photo: Yahoo Livestand
Looks like new CEO Scott Thompson is wasting little time starting to get Yahoo’s house in order: just a few weeks into the new CEO’s tenure,… Read more »
Netflix Sees Overseas Losses Doubling To $118 Million This Quarter
photo: Robert Andrews
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) expects overseas losses to double in just three months, as it spends more and more on vital local video content and mar… Read more »
British Film Institute Adds A New Digital Head
photo: Manchester City FC
Former Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI), Tiscali and Manchester City digital executive Richard Ayers has taken up a new role heading digital busine… Read more »
Netflix Stock Jumps More Than 20%, Equity Analysts ‘Bullish’ Again
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) stock jumped over 20 percent, with a number of equity analysts bumping up the movie rental company’s price target follo… Read more »
Netflix’s Hastings: ‘We’re Done Promoting Our DVD Service’
photo: Robert Andrews
It won’t happen as fast as you can say Qwikster, but Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) plans to slowly edge its way out of the DVD rental business. Read more »
Analyst To Studios: It’s Time To Force Early VOD On Theater Chains
With both the theatrical and home video channels in revenue decline, and amid panic that digital piracy will soon crest into a tidal wave, B… Read more »
