It looks like the death spiral that was the Bitbop mobile video service is finally no longer. PaidContent understands that the service—once built and owned by News Corporation (NSDQ: NWS) and sold, along with the rest of Fox Mobile, to IT services company Jesta when News Corp. couldn’t make a…

The struggling independent film sector believes it has stumbled onto an effective release strategy, combining various forms of online and cable VOD distribution that occur simultaneously with cost-efficient theatrical release. And mixing their respective peanut butter and chocolate together, digital cinema content company Cinedigm and New Video, a video label…

The legislative battle over SOPA highlights the cultural rift between Hollywood and Silicon Valley but one place where the two tribes seem to be playing quite nicely is in realm of independent film. That collaboration is on full display this week with the opening of the Sundance Film Festival.

As it seeks to launch nearly 100 new channels featuring professionally produced video, YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) has a key advantage over original video competitiors like Hulu and Yahoo: millions more viewers can see its promos.

YouTube’s ambitious—and expensive—original programming push got a little more steam this week with the Monday launch of new Hollywood-centric entertainment channels from Young Hollywood and a Penske Media-Ion TV partnership.

Hulu Plus has “materially exceeded” expectations, passing 1.5 million paying subscribers and heading closer to the point where the premium video service plus its younger sibling in Japan will help account for half of Hulu’s revenues.

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) subscribers appear to be spending far more time viewing the service’s streaming content than do users of any other online video destination. According to new data Netflix released today, its 20 million subscribers consumed 2 billion hours of streaming TV shows and movies in Q4 2011.

This is the last in a series of posts that highlighted key people, companies and trends to watch in 2012 in the sectors we cover most, from publishing to legal, and from mobile to advertising. Not too long ago, TV Everywhere was a bold concept being evangelized by Time Warner…

Facebook has super-charged a handful of lucky media companies selected to test-drive the social network’s frictionless sharing platform. But even though video-sharing site Hulu was on the early bird list, it failed to make a splash. Was this bad-luck or a botched strategy?

When you consider the internet, on-demand services, games consoles, mobiles, apps and [fill in your personal favorite here], we have more ways than ever before to watch TV content whenever and however we want. But despite the growth of services like Hulu, YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) and Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), it…

This is the last in a series of posts over this week that looks at the most significant developments of this year in the sectors that we cover, from publishing to mobile to advertising. Of the seven years I’ve been writing about our namesake topic here at paidContent, 2011 is…

With the growth of over-the-top services that let users access the video they want over the internet (and often, for free), those companies offering pay-TV have to look for more bells and whistles to keep fickle consumers interested in their services. The latest offerings in this area come from France…

When baseball great Albert Pujols signed a staggering 10-year, $254 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last week, he became over-the-top’s (OTT) new best friend. That’s right, everyone including Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), Hulu, YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) and Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), plus countless online-only content producers, should have…

Back in August, we wrote about how Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) had started to offer U.S.-based users of its Apple TV device the ability to stream shows purchased from iTunes via Apple’s iCloud. Now it looks as if that service is becoming available internationally.

Interactive TV, a phrase still used but painful to hear, grates like the name of an old girlfriend, conjuring up hopes long since unfulfilled yet still surprisingly fresh. Gratefully, it’s time to put old notions of interactive TV behind us because this week Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) will release a user…

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is picking up some more momentum for its UK and Ireland launch, scheduled for early next year. The streaming video company has now added film studio Miramax to its list of content partners, joining Lionsgate and MGM in providing films for the service. But unlike the other…

A new day, and a new device to challenge Apple’s iPad in the market for tablets.

It’s no secret that consumer electronics makers have long relied on content to help sell their devices. After all, people buy devices because of what they can do, or consume, on them, just ask Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), whose iTunes store is the linchpin to its iOS devices’ success. However, as…

Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) has been widely expected to reveal a new tablet at an event to be held in New York next Monday, and now we are starting to see some more proof of it. It will be going head to head with Amazon’s Kindle Fire, but laying…