A federal court has issued a preliminary injunction against Zediva, essentially ordering a shutdown of its streaming-DVD-rental service. The decision comes less than six months after the launch of the service, which aimed to avoid licensing fees by renting and streaming DVDs over the Internet. Read more »
Fans of Amelie, Pulp Fiction and Clerks can soon watch these titles on Hulu Plus, thanks to a new licensing agreement between Miramax and Hulu. And there is good news for freeloaders as well: About 15 Miramax titles will be available ad-supported on Hulu.com. Read more »
PlayOn users will soon get a lot more content options, as the software maker has opened up its API, enabling users to build channels for their own favorite content sources. Already users have developed 20 new channels, including some for Food Network, Lifetime and TV Land. Read more »
Starz and Disney are suing Dish Network over a year-long free promotion it offered, claiming the satellite TV provider can’t distribute its channels without payment from users. The giveaway also coincides with Starz renegotiating its Netflix deal, which could take away some of its negotiating leverage. Read more »
For Silicon Valley startups, good timing can be just as crucial as good technology. Just ask Bunchball, the six-year-old, San Jose, Calif.-based, social gaming, software startup. In 2005, when the company debuted its software platform, the current industry buzzword “gamification” hadn’t even been coined yet. Read more »
» Ahead of Earnings Next Week, Demand Media (NYSE: DMD) Shares Drastic Dip Due to Googley Panda-Monium. (AllThingsD)
» … Read more at paidContent »
Word leaked earlier this week that YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) was going to start renting out premium movie content, putting it in a position to co… Read more at paidContent »
Surprise! New video rental service Zediva is being taken to court for copyright infringement. The MPAA filed suit Monday on behalf of six Hollywood studios, claiming that Zediva illegally streams their films over the Internet without licensing the content from rights holders. Read more »
Business and IT leaders now face significant opportunities and challenges with big data — that is data sets that are so large they are difficult to store, manage and analyze. This report explores the rapidly evolving big data business and technology ecosystem. It examines big data in the context of several different industries: financial services, health care, sports, travel and media. We explore the different big data technologies — from Hadoop and NoSQL derivatives to cloud-based collaboration tools — and their various benefits for enterprises. And we examine some of the existing challenges big data poses, and what enterprise IT leaders can do to overcome them. Companies mentioned in this report include Amazon Web Services, Google, Teradata, IBM and Cloudera. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Today on the Net: Apple & Disney may just be a tad too cozy, HBO Go is coning to Samsung TVs and U.S. viewers only like Al-Jazeera if they’re told it’s CNN. Read more »
News Corp COO Chase Carey and Disney CEO Bob Iger might leave Hulu’s board of directors soon, according to a Wall Street Journal report. But more independence might not be a good thing as it seeks to renegotiate deals with its media partners and stakeholders. Read more »
Disney discussed its digital strategy at its Investor Conference, announcing an initiative called Studio All Access and citing the need to experiment with different digital distribution platforms and strategies. At the same time, it is raising the rates it charges DVD rental firms for its discs. Read more »
More exciting than examining the previous quarter is looking forward into the next 12 months and using the trends of 2010 to predict the realities that will surface in 2011. Throughout this past December, GigaOM Pro’s curators did just that, making trend predictions, pointing out companies to watch and even telling us what not to expect. Connected Consumer curator Michael Wolf’s thoughts, analyses and predictions are compiled here in a single report. Companies mentioned in this report include Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Apple and Boxee. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With enterprise data volumes growing, business and IT leaders face significant opportunities and challenges from big data. Using cloud-computing technologies, organizations are experimenting with distributed data stores, cloud compute capacity for data analytics, hosted data integration and even operational databases in the cloud. Hadoop/MapReduce, meanwhile, has moved past test and development stage to become a viable extension or alternative to traditional relational databases. Though the space is not without its obstacles, including plenty of privacy concerns, there are numerous sales-growth opportunities and new business models finally surfacing in 2011. Companies mentioned in this report include Google, IBM, Apple, Oracle, Salesforce and VMware. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Today on the Net: Disney expresses concerns about the conditions the FCC plans to levee against Comcast as part of its takeover of NBC Universal. Also: Fast Company profiles YouTube and Bitbop parent Fox Mobile Group has rebranded as Jesta Digital and gotten a new CEO. Read more »
It’s important to dispel potential myths and market misunderstandings when it comes to consumer electronic devices and trends. For 2011, that includes paid video chat, Apple dominating the living room and the misinformed belief that Google will rule the e-book space. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Netflix is getting a whole bunch of content from ABC and ABC Family, including shows like Scrubs, Ugly Betty and The Secret Life of the American Teenager under a new agreement with Disney announced today. The deal also introduces a new 15 day window. Read more »
The live-stream video market is entering an upturn in the typical hockey stick growth chart. Tens of millions of desktop viewers use browser-based players to find live-streaming content on an ever-increasing number of web sites and mobile devices. Raw viewership will grow fastest in the consumer segment, where sites like Justin.tv and Qik are focused. Those like Kyte, Livestream, Ustream and BitGravity, meanwhile, primarily offer platforms to commercial content providers seeking a mass audience. And as the market grows, both in terms of viewers and of the number and type of content providers, it will support both those with a diverse, one-stop-shop approach and those who specialize in particular content and audiences. Additional companies mentioned in this report include YouTube/Google, Sony, HTC, Vivu, Facebook and Apple. To see a full list of companies and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
On Disney’s earnings call yesterday, CEO Bob Iger said the decline in DVD sales is not necessarily due to a down economy, but a shift in how users consume content and entertainment choices available to them. That’s particularly true for titles like Toy Story 3. Read more »
Tomorrow, when Pixar’s Toy Story 3 becomes available on DVD and Blu-ray, any consumer who buys a disc at Walmart will receive a code to download the film to their VUDU-enabled device. According to VUDU, “The future of media has officially arrived, and it is awesome!” Read more »
Today on the Net: Netflix’s average revenue per subscriber continues to decline as it pushes the $8.99 per month plan, Disney and Warner Bros. won a $400,000 judgment against an advertiser on a pirate site and startup VYou enables users to create a video conversation. Read more »
The tech industry has a new favorite sport: guessing who Apple will buy with its $50 billion-plus cash hoard. Since October 18, when Steve Jobs mentioned the company was keeping its powder dry for possible deals, speculation over potential Apple acquisitions has run rampant and even ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Movie studios are keen on creating a new window enabling viewers to watch recently released films without going to the movie theater. With a “premium” VOD service, studios hope to capture the at-home viewing audience while still maintaining the high cost of the big screen. Read more »
Today on the Net: Disney CEO Bob Iger says affiliates should expect to pay more of their retrans fees to ABC, Lionsgate is getting into web video with 24 episodes of a new web series and Comcast shuffles its digital team ahead of the NBCU deal. Read more »
Today on the Net: A third of young Netflix users substitute the service for pay television, Jeffrey Katzenberg lashes out at 3-D skeptics, Project Canvas incorporates as YouView and Time Warner could lose subscribers in the third quarter. Read more »
Today on the Net: Sony has added the BBC iPlayer app to its Sony Bravia TVs, the Yahoo Connected TV platform is now available on Toshiba TVs and Disney has rolled out a new Muppets web series. Read more »
Disney and Time Warner Cable have settled their retransmission negotiations, finalizing a deal that will keep ABC, ESPN and Disney networks on Time Warner Cable systems. But the big news for online video is that Disney is creating its first authenticated video service for ESPN networks. Read more »
Hollywood studios are riding high on record box office receipts, despite the lowest attendance in five years. Those record revenues are mostly the result of higher ticket prices for 3-D and other premium films showings, but come as theaters have raised prices for nearly all films. Read more »
Today on the Net: online video is reportedly at the center of the Disney-Time Warner Cable dispute, the BBC will enable U.K. residents stream iPlayer video even when they’re traveling abroad and CBS Sports will stream the U.S. Open from the third round through the finals. Read more »
Today on the Net: Lionsgate releases a slew of DVDs exclusively at Best Buy weeks before they’re available for sale anywhere else, Disney launches ABC On Demand services in Europe and LoveFilm has added hundreds of classic movies from the MGM library to its service. Read more »
We first reported that Apple was in discussions with TV networks to make episodes available for rental at a new 99-cent price point six weeks ago, but a new report provides more detail on how those discussions are going and when the service will launch. Read more »
Today on the Net: Disney CEO Bob Iger is liking the iPad, Apple is going back to its roots with a new name for its Apple TV device, Ustream is going to Hollywood, DIRECTV is partnering with Google for TV ads, and more. Read more »
Today on the Net: The Weinstein Brothers were unable to buy back Miramax from Disney, Vevo’s traffic has grown 62 percent since launch and My Damn Channel has unveiled a lineup of 10 new channels, three of which will debut this summer Read more »
The battle between Time Warner Cable and Disney over retransmission fees required to carry ABC and ESPN channels is heating up, with both companies already appealing to the public through websites designed to sway opinion in their favor. But where does online video fit in? Read more »
Walt Disney has made a major foray into the world of social games, by agreeing to pay as much as $763 million to acquire Playdom, a leading maker of games such as Mobsters and Sorority Life. It is the fourth largest game maker on Facebook. Read more »
Here we go again: Time Warner Cable has resurrected its “Roll Over or Get Tough” marketing campaign in advance of an upcoming carriage fight with Disney and ABC. With a deadline of Sept. 1 to finish a deal, the early relaunch suggests negotiations could get messy. Read more »
Today on the Net: Dish Network sues the FCC over requirements to carry high-definition feeds of non-commercial channels, Disney releases an iPad app to allow users to purchase and download movies and Comcast has rolled out its multiroom DVR service in more than 20 markets. Read more »
Today on the Net: Comcast and NBC Universal received the blessing of ABC, CBS, and Fox affiliates — but with some conditions, Brand.net raised $14 million amidst some strong sales growth and Dish has dropped four Disney HD channels due to a carriage dispute Read more »
Over the past year, 3-D has been good to Hollywood, but Disney president and CEO Bob Iger warned that the industry shouldn’t go overboard with the technology, and should take care not to “kill the goose that laid the golden egg.” Read more »
Ooyala has rolled out the first known test of its micropayment capabilities, with a system that allows media companies to charge viewers who wish to pay for the latest episodes of certain shows. As pointed out on TechCrunch yesterday, ABC Family is testing out a pay-per-view […] Read more »
