According to The Wall Street Journal retail giant Amazon.com may challenge the Netflix streaming product with a service of their own. Apparently the company has been in talks with NBC, Time Warner, News Corp. and Viacom to get content distribution rights to TV shows and film titles. If things fall into place, Amazon hopes to get the service launched this holiday season. Full Story
It’s hard to believe the company that opened thousands of stores nationwide and lead the movie rental business soon after launching in 1985 could possibly go belly up. But video-on-demand, kiosks, and movies-by-mail may have toppled the giant. Full Story
While the US team lost to Ghana in the Round of 16 matches at the 2010 World Cup, all was not lost if you consider how much this team has done for soccer in the US. Viewership of the FIFA World Cup has grown 68% since the tournament last took place in Germany in 2006. And, US top rated players have received much more attention than they have in the past, most noted is team captain Landon Donovan who has made late night appearances and may be asked to play for the English Premier League team Manchester City. Full Story
With Comcast and Time-Warner now moving forward with video paywalls, are the cable companies doing what Hollywood and the music industry couldn’t do? Profit from the Internet… by forcing viewers to keep their cable subscriptions? That reality is coming sooner than you think.
Bad hobbits habits die hard for big media companies, no matter how consumer tastes may change in regards to distribution of content or how savvy they might become to the more arcane practices of the industry. A case in point is the consumer and fan reaction to the recent Blu-ray release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy released by Warner Home Video/New Line. Full Story
Last week Comcast won a big victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals that threatens the F.C.C.’s ability to regulate the Internet (in this case, keeping it wide open via the guiding principal of network neutrality). Full Story
So, did you see those Samsung 3D-HD-LED TV ads for hours on end while some show called the “Oscars” got in the way with their worthless shilling for art over commerce? Really? How could you miss ‘em, they were everywhere… showing a beautiful coral reef’s worth of colorful fish (did you spot Dory and Nemo… great cameos) and a manta ray flying swimming over the heads of a family who can’t help but reach out to touch the nothingness that’s right before their eyes. They’re wearing expensive looking 3D glasses (small than those theater ones) and seem to be truly enjoying themselves, save for the fact that though story and character might remain completely unaffected by the 3D gimmick, it’s just oh so cool to touch a manta ray that’s not there. Funcity. Full Story
If you’ve ditched your cable recently amid the promise of free broadcast HD and Internet streaming, you were probably surprised yesterday if you are also a hockey fan who went looking for the much hyped USA/Canada Olympic hockey battle. NBC, in their infinite programming wisdom (cf. the recent Tonight Show fiasco), pushed out a hockey game that turned out to be a stunner and an upset victory for Team USA. However, if you went searching for it on your local NBC affiliate you got to view a series of uplifting sob-stories and then some ice dancing instead. Let me repeat: Ice Dancing. Prancing in frilly, rhinestone-studded costumes on skates. The Winter Olympics equivalent of synchronized swimming. A rather bloodless affair that carried no tension, no excitement, nothing really to cheer for unless you’re a huge Bob Fosse On Ice fan. Instead of flying hockey pucks you got frostbitten jazz hands, suckers. Full Story
There’s some hype going around about George Lucas planning to release 3D versions of the six Star Wars films in 3D. UK’s Telegraph reports that Lucas has already put a $10 million price tag on the conversion, and the article further cites a company in San Diego who says they can convert an older film into 3D in about 16 weeks. Full Story
CES 2010 went back to the future, much like the movie business these days. A gimmick from the 1950s has become the great hope for saving Hollywood from fiscal crisis (as for the ongoing creative crisis in Hollywood, no solution’s yet been found), and now the consumer electronics industry has given 3D presentations their bonafides by showcasing virtually nothing but HDTVs, Blu-ray players, a few computer displays and other gizmos geared toward providing consumers with the ultimate immersive experience from their living room sofas. In the quest for bigger, better, bolder— as well as smaller, superior and sleeker— the hottest hi-def products at CES will soon influence the home theater experience. But, with 3D enabled devices already trickling into the marketplace, is the time right to invest in this newest technology? Full Story
Yes it’s CES time for just about every major newspaper and tech-journal, but one announcement of importance this week hasn’t come from there, but directly from Warner Bros., which has announced it’s no longer going to immediately provide new releases to Netflix on their rental-ready street date. Instead, Warners is hoping to set a trend for other studios and content producers to follow by creating a sell-through only window for these new disc releases. Full Story
A press release from Comcast this week cites a Leichtman study showing close to 50 percent of US households will own an HDTV by the end of the year. But the ironic part is the same release says that only 36 percent of the HDTV owners were told how to get HD programming. A separate study done by Frank N. Magid Associates (from a recent MultiChannel article) says a whopping 14 million HDTV owners aren’t even viewing HD content — which amounts to a staggering 1/3 of HDTV owners. Full Story
As expected, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has finalized and announced the standards for the next generation BD players and, ahem, discs. That’s right– just when you thought it was safe to buy a format that might be around for a few years, Lo! the great gods of media formats have gone and created another video disc for you to buy– and it won’t play on your current Blu-ray player as intended– so there, nyah. Pffft. Full Story
Via the news wires this morning… Vivendi S.A. is now poised to give their blessing to one of the biggest media deals this decade: a merger of Comcast with NBC/Universal that would create a joint venture largely controlled by Comcast. What could this mean for VOD fans of online content that is now free for the viewing? Full Story
I’m not a fan of 3D in principle… I think it’s a gimmick that adds nothing to story or character and diminishes the cinematic art rather than truly expanding its possibilities. Regardless of my opinion, I’ve noticed many theatrical releases originally presented in 3D are now being released in 2D and 3D versions on Blu-ray. Full Story
- Limited Time
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