Disney has started offering a free preview of its Disney Family Movies service from Thursday, September 2 through Monday, September 6. “Pocahontas,” “Muppet Treasure Island,” “A Bug’s Life,” and the Disney-Pixar animated short “Monster Truck Mater” are some of the films the subscription-based video-on-demand (SVOD) service will show during the preview. Full Story
The company may launch a competing streaming video rental service through YouTube property.
According to the Financial Times, Google is in talks with Hollywood to launch a streaming video-on-demand service. The service would put Google in competition with video services from Netflix, Apple and Hulu, offering titles the same day as DVD releases. The Google video-rental initiative would be launched off YouTube, and apparently developers are thinking global. Full Story
CBS and Comcast have signed a ten-year television distribution agreement that will last until 2020, the companies announced today. The agreement includes Showtime Networks, Comcast’s launch of the Smithsonian Channel (also a CBS network), and expanded distribution of CBS College Sports programming. Full Story
Verizon has added video-on-demand content from WealthTV in 3D throughout its FiOS service network. The channel, called “the premier luxury lifestyle and entertainment network,” has launched its first 3D content with an episode of “Wealth on Wheels Classic.” Full Story
Relativity Media, the studio that brought recent films such as “Robin Hood,” “Get Him to the Greek” and “Grown Ups” to theaters, has made an agreement with Netflix to distribute titles during the “pay TV window,” the time during which studios have usually disallowed Netflix streaming of certain titles in favor of agreements with premium pay channels. Full Story
Dish Network is still offering Alice in Wonderland, Green Zone, Hot Tub Time Machine and She’s Out of My League for .99 cents from July 1 through July 7 on their DISH Cinema pay-per-view service. The movies are available in both standard and high-definition at 1080p resolution and can be purchased on channel 501 or through the DISH On Demand menu on your DVR. Full Story
DirecTV has completed their promised launch of three dedicated 3D television channels which includes n3D, a linear channel powered by Panasonic featuring the NASCAR Coke Zero 400 race in 3D, DIRECTV Cinema which is offering IMAX titles Deep Sea 3D and Under the Sea 3D, and the previously launched EPSN 3D now covering the FIFA World Cup. Full Story
Epix is launching widespread online viewing of content for Cox and Mediacom customers on EpixHD.com. The service provides Epix subscribers with a full lineup of movies via the website, including over 150 HD and SD movies per month. In July, the company plans on launching the service for Charter Communications subscribers. Full Story
Sony and HBO have agreed upon distribution of HBO original TV programming through Playstation 3 and PSP portable devices — the only caveat being you’ll have to wait 11-months for the HBO content to become available. And, you’ll be be paying a bit more for the content than you would other network TV Dramas which cost between 99-cents and $1.99 per episode. 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.
Big box retailer Best Buy doesn’t plan on watching Apple and Amazon dominate the online movie sales business, or sit back waiting for Walmart’s Vudu service to take off. The company will begin selling movies via internet this month through CinemaNow, an online distribution service acquired by Sonic Solutions in 2008.
Full Story
FiOS TV subscribers will be able to get Time Warner’s Turner networks programming on their PCs in June, and in the near future on their mobile devices. Shows such as “The Closer,” “Southland,” “Leverage,” Lopez Tonight” will be available 24 hours after they premiere on broadcast television — a time-delay common for prime-time content offered on demand. Full Story
Comcast rolled out 9,000 more on-demand movie choices this week in their Xfinity markets in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, increasing their VOD library by 450-percent. 3,000 of Comcast’s now 25,000 on-demand title library are available in HD. Full Story
As an addendum to our earlier HD Report article on MLB.TV for PS3… let’s get in a quick review of this thing (watching Red Sox v. Texas on the NESN feed right now).
First off… no disc is required. This is a PS3 download (requiring a software update via the PS3’s broadband), and requires you to have a valid MLB.TV subscription (either one will do). The download takes up 16mb of space, and installs quickly. From there you enter your MLB.TV login info and off you go! Full Story
The Los Angeles Times reports that Hulu will begin billing itself as the “online video service formerly known as free.” Though an actual announcement by Hulu representatives has yet to be made, and all we have is the Times’s confirmation of sources familiar with the plans, this has been long rumored and speculated about. Full Story
- Limited Time
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