British Film Institute Adds A New Digital Head
Former Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI), Tiscali and Manchester City digital executive Richard Ayers has taken up a new role heading digital busine…
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The Future of Distribution: Thoughts From a Platform Agnostic
The Future of Film Blog, launched as part of the Tribeca (Online) Film Festival, features filmmakers and other experts in the film industry…
Movieclips Gains $3M for Clip Curation
Film clip provider Movieclips.com has raised a Series A round of $3 million in venture capital, will go towards increasing the site’s curation and content. But the site has also become valuable to its users as a discovery engine for new flicks.
Meet Our New Entertainment Editor
I’m pleased to announce that Andrew Wallenstein will be joining us to write about the digital-entertainment business, based in Los Angeles.…
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Lovefilm Adds Still More Digital Heads – Playfish’s Segerstråle Joins Board
Poised to capitalise on the new TV platforms that will take its movie rental service to millions of new customers, Lovefilm is making two in…
Apple Tries To Marry Music Recommendation And Retail, But No Streaming
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is trying to close the loop between music discovery and iTunes Store’s music purchasing, by injecting a brand new social…
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DCMS Cuts: Digital Film Access Scrapped To Save £2.5 Million
New culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced £73 million in cuts from the Department for Culture, Media & Sport’s budget.
They include…
Hulu’s Plans Include Embracing Any Mobile Device
Hulu, the second-most popular video streaming service after YouTube, has had an on-again, off-again view on mobile, and at the moment it’s b…
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Tesco Turning Movie Maker; Flicks Going Online?
Move over, movie studios: Tesco may start distributing original digital content soon. The retailer has announced that it is teaming up with…
Let’s Get Real: Why The Reporting On 3D TV Is Mostly Hype
Sit through one too many CES keynotes, press conferences, or pitches, and you just might leave Las Vegas with the mistaken idea that 3DTV is…
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PayPal Vet Selby Launches Digital Film Production, Distribution And Marketing Firm
Former PayPal SVP Jack Selby is getting into the film business: He’s funding and launching Horsethief Productions, a digital movie productio…
Movie Monitor: Find a Movie to Watch Online. That’s It.
Lately we’ve checked out sites such as Clicker, Yidio and SetJam, and that’s only the video aggregators that have launched or sent…
Weekend Vid Picks: The Good Trailer, Bad Trailer Game
I’ve mentioned previously that I’m a movie trailer junkie, and because I don’t get out to the movies that often, most of…
Corrected: ISPs’ Campaign Against Mandelson’s Disconnection Plans Grows Louder
Correction: In an earlier version of this post we mistakenly quoted Struan Robertson from Pinsent Mason – the views are now correctly attrib…
Hugh Hancock’s Top 5 Machinima: The State Of The Art
Machinima, the art of making films in computer games, is a fast-moving target these days, writes the movement’s leading exponent, Strange Co…
Cinema Admissions Rise 14.5 Percent During The Downturn
That old adage about people flocking to cinemas during recessions? Turns out to be true.
January-to-June UK theatre admissions rose 14.5 pe…
Blockbuster Outlines 'Transformation': Will Add Kiosks, Expand Streaming, Close Stores
*Blockbuster* will close as many as 960 additional stores through 2010, as the movie rental chain continues to struggle with losses and debt…
Microsoft's Xbox Talks Up Netflix Exclusivity
In the console wars, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has apparently scored a win. In announcing an update to its Xbox Live online service, which feat…
Confirmed: Lovefilm Considering Sell-Off Options
DVD-by-post rental business Lovefilm told us it is reviewing some kind of sell-off options, after earlier FT reports hinted at a deal. A spo…
Visual Effects Firm The Foundry Gets Management Buy-Out
A software company that developed visual effects tools used to make the Star Trek, Harry Potter and Dark Knight movies is changing hands in…
P.S. Saminathan Steps Down As Pyramid Saimira Chairman
Scam-hit Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that P.S. Saminathan, who was barred by the capital market regul…
@ GDC: Why Most Game-Based Movies Don’t Live Up To The Hype
Hollywood has been enticed with making video game-based films for almost 20 years, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie back in 1990…
Updated: Blockbuster Seeks Bankruptcy Advice, Report Says; Company Denies It
Updated: *Blockbuster* spokeswoman Karen Raskopf denied the claim, acknowledging that they’d hired the firm for refinancing — not bankruptc…
Gaming Roundup: GTA IV Downloads; Casual Games/Recession; Merscom/Lifetime; EA/G.I. Joe
–The Lost and Damned puts downloadable content in the spotlight: Xbox 360 owners will sink their teeth into a new chapter in Rockstar’s GTA…
Film Council Launches The UK’s ‘Google For Film’ Search Site
By Jemima Kiss: UK film buffs will be able to access a bespoke online search tool from today that will give cinema and TV listings, DVD, Blu…
The IFC Rebellion: Shareholder Activism Or Hedge Fund Aggression?
The rebelling shareholders of The Indian Film Co. Ltd, the AIM, London-listed speciality film investment firm part owned by Network18 Group…
Blockbuster To Bring Video To PCs And Mobile Devices In Q2
In what is being considered a defensive move against Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) said today it is going to start offering…
Electronic Arts Signs Up With UTA To Spark Movie, TV Deals
Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS), looking to transfer its video game titles into movie and TV deals, has signed on with Hollywood talent agency…
Broadband Content Bits: Sony; Tiger Delivers; Brightcove 3; Adobe; Dating Brad Garrett
— Sony launching Web-DVD project: Sony (NYSE: SNE) is launching what it intends to be the first of several Web-DVD hybrid film narrative pr…
Moving Pictures Company Ties Up With Startup Movico To Digitize, Promote Content
Film and television production house Moving Picture Company intends to digitize its library of rare archival footage, as per a release. The…
Mahindra & Mahindra To Set Up Entertainment Fund; Can’t Be Just $5 Million…
Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra has set up an entertainment media fund, reports IANS. There’s no formal announcement yet, but the company has…
Spotted In Canary Wharf: Nokia’s Small Cinema
Snapped by Robert right in the middle of London’s Canary Wharf, and mostly ignored by busy financial workers today, was what Nokia (NYSE:…
Movielink Redux: Five Studios Form PayTV and VOD Venture; Launch in Fall 2009
Among the strangest ways to announce a venture with big political ramifications across the entertainment industry: on Sunday morning. Viacom…
Short Film Distributor Cinelan Launches, Gets Funding From Arts Alliance
We missed this one earlier this month: Cinelan, a new New York City-based company hosting a library of professionally produced three-minute…
@ Berlinale: Netflix Not Planning Return To Europe, HP/Wal-Mart Movie Income ‘Peanuts’
As Berlin buzzed to visits from stars like Penelope Cruz and Sir Ben Kingsley tonight, I was on Arts Alliance Media’s digital media panel de…
Warner Bros MPI In A Post-Production Alliance With India’s Prime Focus
Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging has entered into a strategic alliance with Indian co Prime Focus; the latter will provide digital post p…
Archos Bringing Movie Download Store To UK
Media player maker Archos is bringing its French movie download service to the UK, going head-to-head with the imminent European launch of i…
Lovefilm Buying Two Of Amazon’s European DVD Rental Businesses
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is selling its UK and German online DVD rental businesses to London-based Lovefilm for an undisclosed sum and making a c…
Mobile Content Bits: Nuts TV Turns On, Film 24 Goes Mobile, Orange's 70,000 French iPhones
Latest European mobile content headlines from our sister site mocoNews.net…
— Turner Broadcasting System Launches Mobile TV Channels: Tu…
Writers’ Strike Spurs Producer To Fund Online Video Site KushTV
Two more Hollywood companies look to the web as the writers’ strike drags on… KushTV, an aggregator of original web video, has received a…
Warner In Alliance With Prasad Corporation For Film Digitization And Restoration
Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging and Chennai based Prasad Corporation have formed an alliance for the digital restoration of Hollywood an…
BT Trials Targeted Ad-Supported Free Movie Downloads
BT (NYSE: BT) will place unskippable adverts in movies downloaded from the BT Vision Download Store online, in a three-month trial allowing…
Head In The Sand, FICCI Wants DRM
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) believes that an ‘efficient digital rights management (DRM) system will g…
Adlabs Launches Mobile Ticketing
PVR Cinemas launched mobile ticketing over a year ago; now, another cinema chain Adlabs has announced the launch of a mobile ticketing appli…
Small Films Go 'Straight To iTunes'; Apple Still Trying To Kickstart Movie Collection
After a string of box office disappointments cooled distributors’ interest in his latest production, indie filmmaker Edward Burns will relea…
Vizumi Network Takes On Paramount Movie Roster
Paramount Digital Entertainment International has done what it says is its first UK online deal to distribute film downloads to own and rent…
BlinkBox Launches To Offer Movie, TV Scene Messaging
BlinkBox, a new London-based service that lets people send movie and TV scenes as messages to their friends, has gone in to a public beta th…
Industry Moves: Mark Jung Appointed CEO of VOD Service Vudu
Mark Jung, co-founder and former CEO of IGN and COO of Fox Interactive Media (NYSE: NWS) after FIM bought IGN, has finally surfaced in an ex…
Digital Music And Video Sales Up 80 Percent In A Year; Radiohead Shift 1.2 Million Rainbows
The size of the legal online music and video downloads market grew 80.6 percent to £112 million in the last year and is expected to reach
Digital & Mobile Media Distribution Firm Neurotic Media Receives Bridge Financing
Neurotic Media, an Atlanta, GA-based digital and mobile media and music distribution firm, has received an undisclosed amount of bridge fina…
GV Films Modifies Demerger Scheme; What Happened To Their Webcasting Portal?
BSE list GV Films had earlier approved its demerger into three entities: GV Films, GV Studio City and GV New Media Technologies. They intend…
Movie Downloads To Stutter, Music To Balloon By 2011 – Report
Online movie downloading will still be a minority past-time, web-based TV will eventually take off and digital music downloads will balloon…
The Collective Buys Bloody Disgusting
Talent management and production group the Collective has purchased horror movie site Bloody-Disgusting.com, according to Variety. The firm…
SeventyMM Plans To Offer Movie Downloads
Rumors of an acquisition by Reliance ADA Group haven’t subsided yet (some discussion on the topic here), and Bangalore based online movie re…
Apple Slip-Up A Further Hint At Imminent iTunes Movie Rental Offering?
An apparent slip-up on iTunes Store’s customer complaints facility seems to lend further credence to earlier reports Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) will…
Moser Baer Has Trouble Getting Tamil Titles For DVD Release
A number of content providers have mentioned to me their frustration in dealing with a fragmented film industry in south India when it comes…
Goldstone Acquires IPTV Rights To 3500 Video Titles From Echelon Studios
Goldstone Technologies, and IPTV content provider has signed a deal with LA based Echelon Studios for over 3500 video titles for its video-o…
Update 2: Movielink-Blockbuster Deal: Cash $6.6 Million; BB Paid Netflix $7M For Patent Dispute
Update 2: Aug 14th: The total purchase price is $6.6 million, according to a new 8-K filing by Blockbuster. “Blockbuster purchased all of th…
UFO Moviez Digitizes Movies From R.K. Films For Digital Distribution
Digital Cinema Co UFO Movies has digitized movies by R.K. Films, including
Blockbuster Buys Movielink, As Expected
So the deal is done, after long and hard months of negotiation and trying to get the studios on board: Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) has an online…
Questions On Movie Based Microsites
A few weeks ago, around the launch of the Harry Potter movie, AOL India created a microsite, and Zapak hosted a game. Now, around South Indi…
Shemaroo Licenses Video Content Rights To Goldstone For Digital Distribution
Shemaroo Entertainment has entered into a five year agreement with Goldstone Technologies, licensing over 500 Hindi movies, regional films a…
GV Films Gets Approval For Demerger; Separate Company For Webcasting
Chennai based GV Films has informed Bombay Stock Exchange that their board of directors has approved the demerger of the company into three…
Animation Dimensions Creating Animated Feature Films
Animation Dimensions has announced the launch of a number animated features over the next five years – a live action film called “Aiyyaiyyo…
UK Digital Content Distributor Harmony Media Group Nets $4.4 Million First Round
Harmony Media Group, a new UK-based holding company for two digital content distributors, has raised a first round funding of $4.4 million f…
Eros To Invest $33 Million In Joint Venture With Tamil Film Distributor Ayngaran
This just in: Eros International and Tamil film distributor Ayngaran have formed a joint venture – Ayngaran International – in which Eros ha…
Video Site Break.com Gets Funding From Lionsgate; $21 Million For 42 Percent Stake
Break.com, the online video site based in Beverly Hills, has received an undisclosed amount of investment from Lionsgate, the major independ…
UTV To Release “Fear” Online
Director Vikram Bhatt’s film Fear, being distributed by UTV is expected to be released on the Internet in August – and strange as its sounds…
Maharishi Group’s Picasso To Invest $9 Mln In Animation Education, Production
Delhi-based Picasso Digital Media Private Limited, which is promoted by the Maharishi Group, plans to invest around Rs $9 million, or about…
Movie Rental Firm Movie Gallery Considers Sale
Movie and video game rental chain operator Movie Gallery, which also earlier this year bought VOD service Moviebeam, is evaluating its strat…
ITV To Sell Movies Via BIBC Websites, TV Boxes
In UK, ITV is to begin offering movies from its ITV DVD and Rank Film subsidiaries for sale via British Internet Broadcasting Company (BIBC)…
Kerala Filmmaker Sights Audience For Pocket-Sized Films
What do you call a film format of just three simple shots without optical or computer graphic effects, no shot longer than 40 seconds, with…
Indian Animation Studios See Top Dollars In 2D To 3D Conversions
With a big chunk of new-age animation being three dimensional, some Indian animation studios are seeing a revenue opportunity in converting…
India Attracts Animation Business, But Where Are The Animators?
In the face of competition from animators in the Philippines, Korea and Taiwan, India will have to churn out at least 10,000 professional an…
Sivaji Monotones Hit 50,000 Downloads On First Day
The success of Tamil film superstar Rajinikanth’s recent film Sivaji has meant paydirt for AVM Productions on the mobile and the Internet as…
UFO Moviez Expands To UP; Has Global Plans
Digital distribution company UFO Moviez has expanded operations to Uttar Pradesh, and will now cover 250 cinemas, reports Business Standard.…
Tips Inks Mobile Content Deal With HandyGo
Looks like we missed this one earlier: Business of Cinema reports that Bollywood movie and music co Tips has inked a deal with mobile conten…
Moser Baer To Invest $125 Million In Entertainment Business
Indiantelevision.com has a rather comprehensive interview with Harish Dayani, CEO of Moser Baer’s entertainment business. The company intend…
Austin’s Online American Idol FameCast Gets $4.5 Million In Funding
Here’s another company vying to be a digital American Idol… Online talent show FameCast has secured a $4.5 million financing from Austin V…
SeventyMM Acquires Delhi Based DVD Rental Co Madhouse Media
Bangalore based online DVD rental company SeventyMM has acquired 100 percent stake in Delhi based co Madhouse Media for an undisclosed sum,…
Hollywood Video Gamer Brash Entertainment Launches with $400 Million Funding; Former Massive Execs
An unusually large financing for a video gamer… Brash Entertainment, a video game company that creates titles based on movies and TV shows…
BestBuy, Blockbuster To Enter Movie Downloads; Deals With Lionsgate
Someone needs to tell Lionsgate not to pre-announce its deals before the partners want it done (good for us journalists, though): in its ear…
@ D: George Lucas: Circus Vs. Art
George Lucas, speaking at the D conference, spoke about online video sharing sites like YouTube, vs making movies and professional shows: “T…
Palador Acquires Rights To 300 Films; No Longer With UTV
Palador has acquired rights to 300 films this year for distribution via Home Video, Theatre and TV in India, as per Indiantelevision. That t…
Mashing Up Star Wars — Legally
Happy anniversary to us. Lucasfilm is putting up some 250 clips from the six Star Wars movies on starwars.com Friday to celebrate the 30th a…
New Movie Players Arrive To Feed Appetite For Content
With so many new media channels down which to push (or even pull) content, more and more private equity groups and others are gathering up c…
UFO Moviez Targets 1000 Halls By Diwali; Hires CTO For UFO Intl
Digital film distribution company UFO Moviez has announced plans to expand its network of digital film distribution to 1000 screens by Diwal…
UK Digital Distributor Arts Alliance Buys Hart Sharp Video
We missed this one last week: UK-based digital distribution company Arts Alliance Media has made a U.S. acquisition: it has bought New York-…
Vudu Casts a Spell on NYT
Vudu, another new digital movies-to-tv service, gets a huge hype treatment on the front business page in Sunday NYT, so much so that the sto…
IA Upgrades In Flight Options With DVD Channel
All 42 Indian Airlines planes being supplied by Airbus June onwards will have an additional DVD channel, reports the Times of India. The cha…
Industry Moves: Netflix Taps ReplayTV Founder to Head Internet TV Group
Netflix has been making slow moves into online video, after launching its movie service earlier this year: it has named Anthony Wood, the cr…
MGM To Offer Movies on iTunes; Sales Not Ramping Up?
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios has signed a deal with Apple to provide its movies to Itunes, which builds the iTunes catalog to more than 500 m…
Reliance Entertainment To Invest $100 Million In Home Video Business
We had broken the story about Reliance Entertainment entering the home video business almost a month ago. Now the Economic Times reports tha…
Wal-Mart Sold 3K Download Movies In First Month; Akimbo On PCs
In a general AP story about offline retailers looking to start online movie services, a good factoid about Wal-Mart, which launched its onli…
Moser Baer’s DVD Play Ignites Price War
There is a price war happening on the home video front. Following Moser Baer’s aggressively priced DVD entry into the home entertainment mar…
AVM Productions Distributes Content Related To ‘Sivaji’ Via Galatta.com And Hungama Mobile
AVM Productions, has signed up Galatta.com and Hungama mobile for mobile content related to AVM’s movie “Sivaji, The Boss”, starring Rajinik…
Movie Distributor Image Entertaiment To Be Sold For $132 Million; Digital Division Included
Image Entertainment, the publicly traded movie distribution firm, has agreed to be sold to an investor group led by David Bergstein, in a tr…
Moser Baer Launches Home Video Titles In Hindi; Unveils Website For Ecommerce
Optical storage maker Moser Baer India has launched its national home video business with 101 Hindi titles. The titles are priced at Rs 28 f…
Xbox Gets An Elite Upgrade; New Studio Partners On Movie Downloads
Microsoft has give the Xbox360 an upgrade, called Xbox360 Elite, with a 120-GB hard drive and a souped up HD video connection, in a bid to b…
Hollywood’s Digital Cinema Standards Criticized At FICCI-Frames
Hollywood’s standards for digital cinema came in for much criticism at FICCI frames, reports Variety. Rajaa Kanwar, Vice Chairman of digital…
Apple TV Ships This Week; Mossberg Likes It
After a delay. Apple TV hits living rooms this week heralded by a rave review from the Journal’s Walt Mossberg. The $299 wireless set-top wi…
Media Rights Duo Connected To Endeavor Looks For Ways To Stand Apart
An intriguing look by Michael Cieply at the new, new Hollywood and why — despite all the high-tech bells and whistles and the MBAs — it st…
Industry Moves: Clickstar Loses CEO
Well, it doesn’t really help to launch a badly done service…and we got this tip a week ago, but the Clickstar PR never replied back. Varie…
Web18 Acquires Majority Stake In Movie Ticketing Company Bigtree
TV18 Group’s internet arm, Web18, has acquired a majority stake in Bigtree Entertainment, an automated movie and entertainment ticketing com…
Hachette To Shut Down ‘Premiere’; Will Try Online Only
The latest magazine to cancel its print version for a less expensive online model is — the envelope, please — Hachette Filipacchi Media’s…
Neeraj Roy On Mobile Entertainment; Amateur Content Vs Branded Content
Neeraj Roy, MD of Hungama Mobile talks to Business Standard about their push towards mobile entertainment. Mobile devices are evolving: incr…
Blockbuster In Advanced Talks To Acquire Movielink, Again
The Movielink acquisition talks are on again, and this time WSJ says it is in advanced talks to be sold to Blockbuster, for possibly less th…
Moser Baer Ties Up With Digital Cinema Chain Pyramid Saimira For Home Video Sales
Optical storage company Moser Baer has tied up with digital cinema chain Pyramid Saimira Theatre for attacking the potentially large home vi…
Roo Group To Buy P2P Distribution Firm Wurld Media
Roo Group, the OTC-traded online video aggregator, distributor and tech providers, which recently got investment from News Corp, has signed…
ABP Lauches Short Code And Site; Kaleidoscope Mobisodes In Four Weeks.
ABP has launched a short code service (56569) in collaboration with Bobby Bedi’s Kaleidoscope Entertainment with, well, the usual stuff – ri…
BitTorrent’s New Service To Launch Tomorrow; Service Rife With Restrictions
There are so many ironies in this that I feel bad for Cohen and his team: BitTorrent, the commercial company born out of the P2P software by…
Sony Pictures Imageworks Acquires 51% Stake In FrameFlow
US-based Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) has picked up 51 per cent stake in FrameFlow, a three year-old animation and visual effects company…
Moser Baer Home Video Launches In Karnataka With New Film Titles
For all of us who were speculating that Moser Baer’s DVD business is going to be hampered because they’re only going to have old titles, her…
Lionsgate Films On iTunes; Starts With 150-Plus Titles
Lionsgate and Apple finally have an agreement to put the studio’s films on iTunes. The arrangement starts today; more than 150 titles, inclu…
Nokia-Whistling Woods Mobile Film Contest; Nokia In Talks For Gaming Content
For the launch of the N93i, Nokia has announced a mobile film award in association with filmmaker Subhash Ghai’s institute Whistling Woods.…
Nimbus’ Big Bang Entry Into DVD Rental Biz Round The Corner
Nimbus Communications seems to be close to the launch of their DVD rental service. The company plans to set up 125 DVD stores in 69 cities i…
Amazon, TiVo Pair Up For PC-To-DVR Downloads
Amazon ups the download ante, at least among the 600,000 or so folks with TiVo hooked up to their home networks — well, actually a few hund…
India’s First 3D Animation Film Friends Forever To Hit Screens In April; Eros To Distribute
Friends Forever is India’s first full-length 3D animation film to blend animated characters with real life actors. The movie, which has star…
Lloyd Braun Resurfaces; Launching Multiplatform Production Firm With Gail Berman
That was quick, at least for the recently ousted Paramount president Gail Berman, among the most powerful women in Hollywood. She has quickl…
Moser Baer In Deal With Baba Films For 450 Telugu Titles
Moser Baer has signed a deal with Mumbai based film production company Baba Arts, giving it rights to market 450 Telugu titles in India for…
Indiabulls Chairman Sameer Gehalut Picks Up 25% In B.A.G Films
Indiabulls co-founder and chairman Sameer Gehlaut is investing in Delhi-based TV and film content company B.A.G Films. Gehlaut is buying aro…
Hungama Mobile, GSMA And Roamware Launch "Mobile Bollywood Initiative"
Hungama Mobile and Roamware have tied up with the GSM Association (GSMA) to launch a
Webs-tv Buys Blockbuster Taiwan
Webs-tv, a Taiwanese Internet content provider, purchased the island country
Reliance Entertainment President Rajesh Sawhney Discusses The Big Picture
Kamla Bhatt does an interesting interview with Rajesh Sawhney, President of Reliance Entertainment, which brings to light a synergy between…
GV Films To Launch Webcasting Division; Movie Channel In Singapore; Acquires Multiplex
GV Films has started the new year with new deals. The company has informed the BSE that they intend to launch their webcasting division on t…
UFO Moviez Raises $22 Million From 3i Group
Digital cinema business is happening. As the Pyramid Saimira public issue successfully hit the market, the Delhi-based digital cinema chain…
Moser Baer To Test Home Video In Tamil Nadu And Kerala
Business Standard reports that Moser Baer will begin test marketing its Home Video products in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, with 101 film titles.…
Digital Cinema Chain Pyramid Saimira, Mobile Content Aggregator Tanla Solutions Listed Today
Two digital media and technology companies listed today. One was Pyramid Saimira, a digital cinema chain. The company’s shares closed 60 per…
Rajshri Introduces Download To Own Option; Video Ads, Astrological Advice Soon
Rajshri Media is now allowing offering viewers at Rajshri.com an option to download movies to own them, reports Indiantelevision.com. I just…
UK Online Video Firm Opus Media Bought By Australian Company For Up To $8.8 Million
This is a bit of a surprise, considering the company was planning on a $85 million IPO which never happened: Opus Media, the UK-based online…
Magnet Media Asia Fund To Invest $25 Million In Movies; Digital Media
LA-based Regent MB and Hong Kong/Singapore-based Aquitaine Investment Advisors are launching the Magnet Media Asia Fund to finance film proj…
Short Film Starring Rahul Bose To Be Made Available On Mobile
Phonethics Mobile Media has tied up with Reliance Communications to make available on Reliance Web World Reliance Mobile World, their short…
Family-oriented Movie Download Service Axiom.TV Beta Set For January
Axiom Entertainment’s Axiom.TV plans to launch the beta version of its “family-friendly” movie download service Jan. 8 with the consumer lau…
Clickstar’s Kludgy Debut
To launch such a kludgy movie site in 2006-2007 is almost unpardonable. Yes, true to what I expected, Clickstar, the online movie service ba…
Toonz Animation To Invest $5mil In Gaming Division; $30-40 mil On Acquisitions
The Hindu Business Line reports that Toonz Animation India is looking to invest $5 mil in developing its gaming division over the next three…
$40 Million Not Enough For Netflix’s Digital Download Spend: Analyst
Netflix’s shares went south today after Bank of America analysts Brian Pitz and Brian Fitzgerald came out with a research report with concer…
Movie M-Ticketing Gets Barcoded
PVR’s M-Ticketing application has received an upgrade: They’re now piloting a barcode system of ticketing in Bangalore and Hyderabad, report…
Freeman’s Clickstar Adds Sony, Universal, WB Movies; Launch This Week
Morgan Freeman-based online movie service Clickstar, which I have criticized for indulging in too many vaporware announcements, has signed o…
Nimbus Plans Blockbuster Entry Into DVD Rental Business
This is one move an army of online DVD rental companies that have come up in India recently have to worry about. Nimbus Communications, the…
Rajshri’s Rights To Films Division Content Questioned; Rajjat Barjatya, MD, Rajshri Media Clarifies
The issue of the sale of telecom rights of historical speeches to Rajshri Media was raised in the Indian Parliament, reports DNA. I&B Minist…
BitTorrent Raises $20 Million in Funding
Updated: the company has officially confirmed the other reports, and has issued a release here, with the amount. Also, founder and CEO Bram…
BitTorrent Does Studio Deals; Delays Launch; Possible Big Funding Round
BitTorrent, the commercial version of the P2P swapping software, is on the slightly-vaporware PR offensive again: it has done deals with 20t…
Blockbuster May Launch Download Service; HD May Hinder Such Service
Blockbuster CEO John Antioco was speaking at the Reuters Media Summit today, and said that it may introduce a movie download service as soon…
Mobile Content Deals Blame Game At Film Festival In Goa
This IANS report (via Indian eNews) on a session on mobile entertainment at the International Film Festival of India being held in Goa, is r…
Warner Bros. Online Division Employees Moved To NEw tech Division
As we reported earlier this year, one of the first online movie-studio divisions, Warner Bros. Online, had been shut down, part of a series…
The Hype Called Clickstar
It would be one thing if the hype was there among the consumers, but this is just purely among Hollywood insiders, and even that, limited. T…
Chennai Based GV Films Looking To Acquire Film, Animation Content; Warner Brothers Eyeing Stake?
Chennai based GV Films is in the news for a stake sale and content acquisition. One deal apparently with Italian studio Mondo TV for acquisi…
Turkish Animation Co Marti To Set Up Shop In Chennai
Marti Animation, a Turkish animation company plans to set up an animation studio in Chennai by 2007. Ali Murat Erkorkmaz, Founder Marti Anim…
Miramax Intl. President Launching $75 Million Asia Fund To Invest in Movies For Multiplatform
Ian Jessel, the former Miramax International president, is launching an entertainment investment and production venture called Ambassador Me…
Lionsgate Has At Least 29 Digital Delivery Deals In Place; Digital Revs Up
Lionsgate Entertainment Corp. is “actually in business with 29 entities that are either now or will be engaged in digital delivery of some…
Lycos Hopes Two Web Trends Add Up To (Another) New Start
Remember Lycos? Early search engine; Barry Diller wanted to buy it and failed (although Diller’s Ask does provide the site’s paid listings n…
Starz Forms Overture Films; Studio Will Produce, Acquire “Quality” Films
With a business model that relies on OPM (other people’s movies), Starz LLC continues to look for ways to produce its own content. The lates…
Hungama Mobile And Dev Benegal Get Users To Create Content For Internet And Mobile
Film maker Dev Benegal’s 24×7 Making Movies and Hungama Mobile had conducted a contest last month for aspiring film makers. The participants…
@TiEcon 2006: Actors Satish Kaushik And Anupam Kher Seek Funds For Their New Venture
During the last session on Day 2 of TiEcon 2006, actors Satish Kaushik and Anupam Kher announced a new joint venture
@TiEcon 2006: Announcements, Previews And Rumours
Some previews, announcements, and rumours from TiEcon 2006
– Bobby Bedi of Kaleidoscope Entertainment gave a preview of a 90 second movie c…
Netflix CEO Hastings Again Talks Up Digital Plans
The on-again-off-again game from Netflix continues…in its Q3 earnings call Monday, CEO Reed Hastings again went in the other direction: t…
Indo-American Film Festival On Social Net Site
This is one way of promoting a social networking space. Kaneva, a social networking space with a 3D world, that also allows users to share t…
BitTorrent Content Site Delayed To Next Year; Asian OME Deals
BitTorrent’s efforts to transform itself from Web outlaw to solid corporate citizen have hit a delay, according to BusinessWeek.…
Moser Baer To Bring Home Video Prices Down
The Economic Times reports that Moser Baer is planning to enter the DVD business, and probably change the rules of the game by reducing pric…
JibJab Teams With Verizon, John Landis For Comedy Sketch Competition
MocoNews.net’s James Pearce has the the details of the latest from the brothers Spiridellis: Verizon Wireless and JibJab have teamed up wi…
@ Mipcom: Interview – Martin Blakstad, Head of New Media, Granada International
The end of Mipcom is in sight! My last interview was with Martin Blakstad, formerly of Sony Music, Columbia Tristar and Altavista amongst ot…
@ Mipcom: Todd Wagner: “Hollywood Isn’t Going Anywhere”
“Serial entrepreneur” Todd Wagner speaks with the kind of authority you’d expect from someone that made a lot of money by doing pretty innov…
Netflix’ $1 Million “Recommendation Tool Challenge”
Recommendation will play an increasingly significant role in online content and services – so much so that Netflix is offering $1 million to…
Apple and Wal-Mart In Talks Over Movie Download Revenue Share; Studios Wait Until Q4 End
So reports Variety: the intractable issue of how the DVD margins would get affected at a retailer like Wal-Mart if the movie downloads marke…
Warner Bros. Shutters Online Division
One of the first online movie-studio divisions, Warner Bros. Online, has been shut down, part of a series of cost-saving cuts at WaBo studio…
AOL Distributes Direct-To-Download Effort, Month Before DVD
And it is a Tara Reid movie, so it deserves not to get theatrical distribution. AOL is premiering Adam Shapiro’s new horror film, “Incubus,”…
Analysts Split The Apple: Is That It? Vs Apple Will Pull It Off
A flavour of the Apple reaction:
Charlie Wolf, Needham (via AP): Rampant speculation on Mac-fanatic sites meant investors anticipated the an…
Looking For A New Revenue Stream? Try Downloads Insurance
So here’s a whole new take on monetizing downloads. Nationwide, one of the UK’s biggest insurers, is offering a new home digital content ins…
Apple: The Wait Is Over
The royal audience, I mean press conference, is underway in San Francisco. Wish I could be there in person but am attending vicariously whil…
Waiting For Steve: T-Minus 12 Hours & Counting
At 1 p.m. eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific, CEO Steve Jobs puts the latest round of rumors to rest … or does he?
— Apple taking iTunes to the mov…
Apple’s Movie Service Chatter: Tuesday’s The Day; Disney On Board
Apple’s online movie service, through iTunes, is going to launch on Tuesday, if you can believe the chatter…it has an event planned forld…
Online Video Users Prefer Ad-Supported Sites And Short Format
Only one in five online video users have watched or downloaded a full-length movie or tv show, according to a poll of 3,000 people by AP and…
iTunes Movie Downloads Due To Launch Mid-September?
We’ve been on this story for a while: Apple plans to introduce movies downloads from the iTunes store in mid-September, reports BW, citing s…
Australian Broadband Service BigPond Rakes in AUS$30 Million in Yearly Revs; Sports Rights Renewal
Australia’s biggest telco Telstra’s Internet division BigPond is generating annual revenues of about AUS$30 million from its film, music and…
Guba Fishes For More Studio Deals With Price Cuts
The online video sharing and now movie retailing startup Guba has been experimenting with its prices for the past week, trying to work exact…
BT Vision Aiming For Restless Freeview Customers
So BT is hoping that its upcoming IPTV (and online) service Vision will be able to convert all those disillusioned Freeview customers. BT’s…
UTV To Invest $37million In Three Movies
The Economic Times and The Times of India separately (try to) shed some light on the deals with Fox Searchlight and Overbrook: ET says that…
Lions Gate Entertainment’s Digital Plans
Some talks about movie studio Lions Gate’s digital business and plans in its Q2 earnings, announced earlier this week. It said in the call t…
Movies, Anyone? Movies, From Everyone
So are the plans…you’ll see online stories left, right and center, just like the amount of online music stories. This WSJ story has some g…
BT To Launch Download To Own Service in UK
BT is to launch a broadband movie download-to-own service in UK…it will launch on Monday under the BT Vision brand, will offer initially a…
Earnings: Netflix Profit Nearly Triples in 2Q06; Spending On New Customers Up, Too
Netflix (NFLX) is beginning to sound a lot like a satellite radio company, leading its 2Q06 earnings release with word that its on pace to r…
CinemaNow CEO Audio Interview
We were having troubles with the audio quality of the interview I did yesterday with CinemaNow CEO Curt Marvis..it has been fixed now….go…
CinemaNow Gets $20.3 Million Fifth Round Funding, From EchoStar, Index
CinemaNow, the LA-based online movie/video service, has received $20.3 million in late stage (fifth round) funding, in an effort to ramp up…
Hollywood Recasts Its Download Allies
This is an interesting article, in light of CinemaNow’s funding (post below), about how studios are looking at other alllies in its digital…
Video Hype: Yahoo’s Lame New Show; Guba’s Sony Movies; BitTorrent’s Indies; User-Gen No Go
Time for some skewering:
— Yahoo Adds Up “The 9”: Yahoo has launched a new online show, called “The 9”, which is sort of circa-1996, geez-t…
UK Roundup: Universal-Wippit; MSN UK Restructures; Sky Mobile Recording
Some UK-specific news:
— Universal teams with Wippit for movie download service: Universal Pictures UK has teamed up with film/music downlo…
UK’s Channel 4 To Simulcast Shows Online, Starting Next Week; Launching Video Downloads As Well
So says this report..which makes Channel 4 the first commercial brodcaster in UK to do so (BBC does simulcast of some of its news shows). Re…
Movie Store on iTunes May Come By Year End
This is an obvious move by Apple, and expected for a while…the negotiations with the major movie studios are in various stages, and Apple…
Netflix To Offer Moviebeam-Like Box For Downloads?
So it seems like, from these comments by the newly hired Netflix VP of original programming Eric Besner, speaking at an LA event. He said th…
Starz Vongo Leaves Beta, Adds TV Library
Six months after its CES launch, Vongo, the download service from Starz Entertainment, is out of beta. One change — encoding has been upped…
That Movielink-Being-On-The-Block Thing
Is it me, or is BW absolutely desperate to whip up media buyout rumors, or rehash old ones? First it was the Facebook $2 billion valuation s…
Netflix Tries Different Kind Of Movie Distribution
New Netflix division Red Envelope Entertainment makes its entry into the movie distribution business this summer with IFC Films’ “Sherrybaby…
Bruce Springsteen Hooks Up With AOL Music For Exclusive Concert Video
Maybe it’s just the longtime Bruce fan in me but this actually broke through a growing fatigue with announcements of broadband “firsts” ……
CinemaNow Adds WB’s Movies and TV Shows In Download-To-Own Roster
Yep, CinemaNow is milking the press for all its worth…yesterday, the announcement with Disney for download-to-own movies. Today, it is War…
Industry Moves: Adrian Sexton To Leave Lionsgate For TAG
Now we can fill in the missing initial for TAG Strategic after confirming that the “A” is for Adrian Sexton, who will be leaving his post as…
Amazon’s Plans With IMDB; Part of Movie Downloading Efforts
If you were wondering what has Amazon.com done with IMDB since its acquisition a long time ago, or what are the plans going ahead, this is a…
European Film Online Charter Agreed Upon; Does It Mean Anything?
We mentioned about this two days ago, and now the European Film Online Charter, developed by European Commission and film and content indust…
Broadband Content Bits: Movielink Numbers; NBA Broadband; Digital Audio Books; French IPTV
— Movielink’s Selling 100K Movies A Month: So says this post by Scott…Movielink gets a million unique visitors a month, and sells about 1…
EU’s Charter on Movie Downloading, This Tuesday
Promise..the last bit of EU news for today. EU media commissioner Viviane Reding will be at the ongoing Cannes film festival to unveil a cha…
Starbuck’s Schultz Is Dead Serious About Hollywood; Testing Digital Fill-Up Stations
Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz tells USA Today the company is engaged every day in discussions with the highest levels of people in the e…
Warner To Help Wal-Mart Launch Movie Download Site and DVD Burning Kiosks
A nice profile of Kevin Tsujihara, the relatively-new head of Warner Bros.’ Home Entertainment Division, the person responsible for all of W…
Moviebeam Drops Box Prices in Promo
Moviebeam, the newly independent version of it outside of its disastrous adventure within Disney, has dropped its prices again. The box was…
Warner Bros To Distribute Movies Using BitTorrent
This is the first stateside commercial win for the commercial avatar of BitTorrent: Warner Bros. will become the first major studio to distr…
Earnings: Netflix In Profits; Revs Jump 47 Percent
Netflix has a Q1 profit on a 47% increase in subscriber revenue…net income was $4.4 million, copmpared to a loss of $8.8 million in the ye…
Online Video Recommendation Service Criteo Gets $3.7 Million Funding
Criteo, a French online video recommendation service, has raised about $3.7 million in seed capital from Paris-based investors, AGF Private…
Warner-Backed German Movie Download Service Launches
The Warner Bros.-backed online movie download service in Germany, In2Movies, has launched in beta. It is a JV between Warner Brothers Entert…
Denver Library Launches Movie Downloads
The Denver Public Library has become the first library (or so it says) in the country to offer movie downloads, through a partnership with O…
Blockbuster CEO Antioco Sees Digital Future
Ah well, lets humor him then: Blockbuster CEO John Antioco said the video rental chain has a digital future that may take it to a greater si…
More Video iPod, iTunes Movie Rumors
Think Secret is being told by its sources that Apple not only has a 4-inch touch-screen video iPod in the works, it’s in discussions with mo…
Apple Rumor Du Jour: iTunes Movie Downloads
A survey conducted this week by a Caifornia firm gauges interest in a potential iTunes movie download service, according to AppleInsider. Fr…
Indie Movie Portal Indplay Receives Investment From Eric Schmidt, Hearst & Others
SF-based inDplay.com, an online, indie media movie directory and global licensing and rights management platform, has received a round of fu…
UK Movie For Simultaneous Release On All Platforms
More in the collapsing windows: IN UK, the Channel 4 film “The Road to Guantanamo”, directed by Michael Winterbottom, is to be distributed i…
AOL Launches Movie Download Service in UK
AOL has launched a movie download service in UK, in association with UK DVD and download service LoveFilm (it has a similar deal in U.S. wit…
@ Media Summit: Movies On Demand: The Hot Button Issues of Internet vs Cable Vs Telco
Compared to the mobile music panel (see post below), this one was minimally moderated, and yet turned out to be a hugely enjoyable one (the…
BitTorrrent Gets Its First Commercial Deal; To Power NTL’s Movie Download Service
Well, the commercial avatar of BitTorrent had to go outside U.S. to get its first deal: it is going to power the movie and music download se…
“Bubble” Window Opens Early
During a Sunday outing to see “Capote” at Landmark Theaters’ Plaza Frontenac Cinema in suburban St. Louis, I noticed that “Bubble” was alrea…
Industry Moves: Former DreamWorks COO Appointed MGM COO; Multi-Platform Push
MGM has names industry veteran Rick Sands as its COO in the second high-profile hire in recent months that signals efforts to revitalize its…
Warner Bros. To Try P2P Movie/TV Service in Germany
This is Kevin Tsujihara at work: movie studio biggie Warner Bros. will sell movies and TV shows in Germany using P2P technology. Warner Bros…
@ NATPE 2006: Portable Movies: Studios May Be More Receptive But iTunes Model Poses Problems
Bruce Eisen, president of online movie service CinemaNow, has been running the studio gantlet. Asked during a session on the future of TV if…
Amazon Plans Movie Downloads; Might Start April End
Well, a week after my rather harsh criticism of Amazon.com’s digital media plans comes the news that it is close to entering the movie downl…
Netflix vs Movielink: Hastingspeak
In the Q4 conference call yesterday, Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, spoke at length about the online movie downloading market and the market…
Netflix To Invest $5-10 Million in Tech; Yo-Yoing Again
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is the king of indecisiveness, at least when it comes to his company’s digital plans. Over the last 2-3 years, he…
The Orchard Moves Into Indie Video, Films
The Orchard, the biggest U.S. distributor of indie music to online music stores, is expanding into indie movies and other video content, in…
Technology & Online’s Supporting Role At Sundance
A good story about how technology and online is playign a big role at the Sundance flim festival (starting today)…the Amazon.com show is a…
Internet Gold Acquires 51% Of Israeli Film Portal Seret
Israeli Internet-related holding company Internet Gold has acquired 51% of the shares of Seret Israel’s Movies Portal Ltd., the owner and op…
Industry Moves: Clickstar CEO Leaves; Ackerman Interim CEO
Clickstar, the much-hyped online movie service (a joint collaboration between Morgan Freeman’s company and Intel), has replaced its CEO eve…
@ CES 2006: Super Session: Entertainment Technology: View from Hollywood
Not exactly a barnburner of a session and not comepletely the view from Hollywood but some interesting comments about how the sector is evol…
Intel’s Plans With Content and Hollywood; Clickstar’s Windowless Release
There’s a lot of info crammed into this poorly-edited story, so read it carefully…this describes Intel’s efforts with its new Viiv technol…
CES: Akimbo, Movielink To Tie Up For Content; RCA For Hardware
Updated below: So we’ve heard from a well-placed source that the companies will announce it at this CES later. Internet VOD firm Akimbo, whi…
Initial Thoughts On Vongo Movie Service
These are very initial thoughts…I haven’t subscribed to the full service, and probably won’t unless the company gives me a trial pass.
Any…
Starz To Launch Portable Movie Download Service; Starz Ticket’s Mercy Killing
Updated: read below: Not deterred by the rather lackluster response to its online subscription movie service Starz Ticket, the cable TV co i…
Hollywood Opts Out of the “Google Economy”
i2, a NYC-based consulting firm, has come out with this white-paper/analysis of technological changes in Hollywood and the movie industry, o…
The New New Hollywood, And The New Power Players
Finally, Fast Company does a cover story which is worth something: a series of stories on how technology is changing the business of Hollywo…
MPAA, BitTorrent Reach A Deal; Links To Illegal Files To be Removed
Updated: read below:
So is the word..there is a press conference later today at 2 PM PST, at the American Film Institute here in LA.
MPAA Ch…
Wal-Mart Mulls Movie Downloads Through Kiosks
Wal-Mart already has music-burnings kiosks in some stores, so this seems like an extension of that…it has held discussions with Hollywood…
Starz’s Online Movie Service Costs
Liberty Media, which controls the Starz Entertainment Group, has released some basic fugures on the costs involved with Starz’s online movie…
Warner Bros. Digital Media Efforts
A good and detailed story about Warner Bros efforts to cut costs and other business efforts. And in it, details of its recent shakeup and fo…
Warner Bros. Retools Digital Operations
Not necessarily of Fox Interactive Media-formation proportions, but close: Warner Bros. is doing a major rehaul of its digital operations: i…
Bertelsmann Going Ahead With Its File-Sharing Service
Not necessarily new, since media giant Bertelsmann AG has been working on its P2P platform for a while now…it is now ready to launch. The…
Netflix Delaying Online Movie Service; Speaks Against Exclusive TV Deals
Netflix is delaying the test-launch of its still-vaporware online movie service…in the Q3 earnings call today, CEO Reed Hastings said a te…
Microsoft Media Center Gets A Tune-Up
This caught my eye because I’m considering acquiring a Microsoft Media Center.(Feel free to talk me into it/out of it in the comments.) Micr…
Web 2.0 Con: Cuban, Powell, Williams, Hastings Talk Entertainment
The Power of Entertainment session featured John Battelle querying Mark Cuban, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, Odeo’s Evan Williams and fo…
DCI Closes Shop
After 3.5 years, $8.4 million and the creation of a technical spec the six big studios hope will drive future growth of the film bizbiz, Dig…
Microsoft and Intel to Back HD-DVD
Just when you thought Blu-Ray was geting an upper hand, the HD-DVD consortium pulls the rug from under them…well, for now. Microsoft and I…
@ DH: Some Tidbits From The Conference
The first day of Digital Hollywood was the mobile-heavy day and hence our mobile-heavy coverage. Tomorrow will be a broadband-online one..so…
AMD: Going For The Gold In Tinseltown
AMD’s taking a run at Intel’s supremacy in chips as studios gear up for online movies…with studios at last willing to move forward with on…
BitTorrent’s Bid For Legitimate Media Play
BitTorrent, the P2P solution, is bidding for legitimacy these days with a media distribution play, and has been having negotiations with mov…
Indie Filmmaking and Digital Media
A very good story which lays out the whole indie movie market, and at the end talks about digital media. New tech companies such as Netflix…
Digital Cinema Standards Approved
The major Hollywood studios have agreed on technical standards for creating and distributing movies digitally, according to WSJ, ands the de…
CTAM Summit 05: Starz Ticket Prepares Relaunch
Granted, it had been a long day when I ran into a giant bunny at the Philadelphia Convention Center but I was pretty sure there was a good e…
Movielink Off The Sale Block
(via IPDemocracy) Movielink, the online movie service owned by five major studios, is off the auction block for now, according to this stor…
Using Broadband To Market Movies
A good overview stories on how studios are adopting technology that turns online promotions into a DVD-like experience. Sony is joining 20th…
California Universities Offer Legal Music, Movie Downloads
We missed this one earlier this week: The University of California and California State University systems have struck deals to offer their…
Apple’s Video Plans, Part 2: Movie Store?
Some more follow up on yesterday’s WSJ story about Apple’s plans for music videos. News.com reports that Apple is working on an online movie…
Fans Spy Netflix Media Player
Hacking Netflix had a screen shot of Netflix’s possible move into downloads (some good info in the comments too)…Netflix CEO Reed Hastings…
Opera Embedding BitTorrent Client in New Version
This is sure to get my favorite browser Opera into trouble, and a lot of geek love: the next version of Opera, 8.02, will have an embedded B…
Morgan Freeman, Intel Launch ClickStar Online Movie Service; Intel Invests
Correction: The logo we used (which was also used in a Yahoo News Story) was actually an unrelated Brazilian company…the logo for Clicksta…
The Online Movies Redux: The iTunes Comparison
Everyone conceptually understands that we need an iTunes for the movie industry…but everyone also knows it is more complicated to keep thi…
Target Rolling Out Music Service; Possibly Movies
A small bit of this news was buried in the NYT article over the weekend on movie studios’ increasing interest in movie download serviecs, an…
Studios Preparing For New Download Services This Fall
Hopefully, this will finally kickstart the online movies market: studios are digitizing and preparing more of their movies to be available t…
Liberty Global Plans VOD Movies Online
The European broadband Internet unit of Liberty Global will start offering movies on-demand, online. It will be rooled out through the compa…
Tivo's Movie Downloading Plans
Tons of speculations and some reality…it plans to offer movie downloads, likely in concert with Netflix. The two companies tied up last ye…
Movies on Nintendo Game Boy; WiFi For DS Portable
DreamWorks Animation has tied up with video game publisher Majesco to become the first studio to provide films for Nintendo’s line of Game B…
Blockbuster Plans Downloads Service In UK
This seems vaporware for now, but anyway: Blockbuster is considering building an in-store movie download system, according to Marketing maga…
Netflix CEO: Web TV, Not IPTV
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says cable, telecom, and satellite companies just don’t get the business model of the Internet, and that “the futu…
Tiscali Courting Movie Industry At Cannes
European ISP Ticali is making a determined push at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to persuade the film industry to take online media more…
iTunes and The Video Speculations
Apple has quietly released iTunes 4.8 for both Mac OS X and Windows, with support for video…for now, it seems as if the video has been add…
Industry Moves: Movielink Appts, AP Promotion
Couple of industry appointments and promotions of note:
Seems like Movielink is upping its business development (read content acquisition ef…
Tesco Eyeing Movie Downloads
Which is pretty much akin to saying it is all vaporware for now..Tesco, the biggest retailer in UK, with a huge presence online, is looking…
Fox Launches Broadband Channel For Movie Promos
An interesting way to use rich media: Twentieth Century Fox will promote five upcoming films using an interactive broadband video channel……
Movie Industry Needs To Move Past
(reg. req.): James Coates recommends this for Motion Picture Association, instead of suing the public: “Hire top programmers and instead of…
Golden Age for Online Films
No, this is not related to any lawsuits: Eric Hellweg believes that since the election season generated a creative outpouring–and enormous…
Full Details of the MPAA Lawsuits
Full details of the press conference announcing the lawsuits against movie filesharers…
The Unaware Torrent
Just a small tidbit from the Billboard Digital Entertainment Conference (slightly simplistic in the quality of discussions, but an otherwis…
Update: Film Industry Suing Swappers
MPAA has issued the official release on it: Lawsuits will be filed against individual file-swappers across the country beginning Nov. 16 by…
Film Industry Suing Computer Users
Well, this is big: taking a cue from the music industry, Hollywood is now planning to sue computer users they say are illegally distributing…
Hewlett-Packard Forms Profitable Partnership With Hollywood
Really? It is still a bit early to procliam that…but anyway, a good overview of how HP is trying to make inroads into the digital Hollywoo…
Netflix Cuts Rental Subscription Price
Netflix, which first announced intentions to cut its $21.99 rental price on Oct. 14, said customers can now rent as many DVDs as they want f…
CinemaNow Gets “Fahrenheit 9/11” Exclusive
Which doesn’t really mean anything, firstly because it is at a ghastly price of $9.95…
Secondly, you can easily find copies of the movies…
Dell Eyeing Movie Download Service
(via HLA): Well, not anything very radical, but it is exploring partnerships that would offer its customers access to movie downloads, simil…
More on McDonald’s DVD Rental Plans
I mentioned about McDonald’s DVD rental plans in May earlier…some more details on the supplying company DVDPlay: McDonald’s has been runni…
DivX Networks Touts New Studio Deals
Internet video bad boy DivX Networks already has a partnership with 20th Century Fox to encode films for an airline movie-rental service. No…
ow Netflix Rents 3 Million DVDs a Week to 2.2 Million Paid Subscribers
A ContentBiz case study…
AOL Boosts Movielink VOD Pact
(sub. req.): Broadband subscribers get 10 pics a month free — America Online and studio-owned Internet video-on-demand company Movielink ha…
Digital Movie Forecast: BitTorrential Downpour
The use of P2P sharing service BitTorrent is way up…BitTorrent’s growing popularity, and the way in which it works, may bode ill for the e…
Starz COO Robert Clasen on Movies and Beyond
A great inteverview with Robert Clasen, president and COO, Starz Encore Group, about increased competition, the promise of both video on dem…
Does Starz Have the Broadband Blueprint?
Starz, which launched its online movie service in June, is putting its neck on the line as a broadband pioneer. However, the fact that not o…
Netflix Sees Amazon.com Entering Into The Fray
If Netflix took two weeks to confirm this, and didn’t see it coming, they were either delusional, or had very poor intelligence capabilities…
Glickman to Film Industry: Nurture New Technology
Dan Glickman, the new head of the Motion Picture Association of America, gave his first major speech after taking office: he said the indust…
Movielink at 99 Cents For Students
Movielink, the online movie service, has kicked off the second annual Movielink College Film Festival. During October, students with a valid…
Grouper Raises MPAA Concerns
Grouper, a new streaming P2P sofwtare which has been getting some breathless praise recently, has raised some flags at Motion Picture Associ…
Invasion of the Movie Snatchers
Time magazine has a long story on movie sharing online and the opportunities movie studios should capitalize on…
Release windows complicat…
Start-Up Delivers Movie Downloads
A Boston startup called NetCableTV is trying to use P2P to legally deliver movies onto consumers’ hard drives…NetCableTV adds two layers o…
TiVo and NetFlix: Picture-Perfect Duo?
Their VOD deal looks promising, but issues of content, copyright, and competition make a happy ending less than certain…
Both companies fa…
Netflix and TiVo in Development Deal; Launch in 2005; No Merger
So Netflix and Tivo have formally announced: they are going into a joint development deal…”the two companies will develop technology and w…
Online Video Services: Niche Versus Broad?
( Listen to the clip here) At Digital Hollywood yesterday, online movie service CinemaNow’s CEO Curt Marvis made a subtle yet important poin…
Broadband Dreams and Multicast ‘Beams’
Vint Cerf says that the Internet is not ready to be a true entertainment medium. It cannot provide the instant gratification and quality con…
File-spoofing firm expands in Europe
Loudeye’s Overpeer service expands in Europe…Overpeer’s technology enables copyright holders to seed file-trading networks such as Kazaa w…
Movie Downloads in First Half 2004
The mirroring of movie downloaders along the line of online music downloaders not that big a deal…nothing revelatory about it.
The market…
MPAA Sues for Illegal Downloads
The Motion Picture Association of America sued a company that sells downloads of current movies like without permission. The trade group sai…
Netflix, Warner Bros. in VOD Test
Warner Bros. has agreed to license some films to Netflix as part of a test run of the Internet company’s upcoming movie-download service, ac…
Netflix Up On Renewed Speculation On TiVo Partnership
Shares of Netflix rose Thursday after speculation re-emerged on a potential partnership with TiVo…The stock closed at $17.09, up $1.19, or…
CinemaNow Adds Sony To Lineup
Online movie service CinemaNow has added Sony Pictures Television to its list of entertainment providers… CinemaNow already carries titles…
Movielink Offers Discount For Military
Interesting promo…others will surely copy it…
Great Discussion on Tivo-Netflix and First Sale Doctrine
A great discussion going on about the potential spoilers to the Tivo-Netflix deal…put in your two cents…
DivX’s View Of The World
The perennial underdog may just cme out as the winner…a detailed interview with DivX CEO Jordan Greenhall and President Shahi Ghanem…
“N…
CinemaNow Launches European Sites With Tiscali
CinemaNow, the online movie downloading site, has announced an agreement with Tiscali, one of Europe’s biggest ISPs, to offer movies from th…
Why A Netflix-TiVo Deal Is Irrelevant
The movie release windows complicates a lot of things for the possible tie-up between Netflix and Tivo. Starz, for example, already has long…
Picture imperfect for Netflix, TiVo
The share prices of both Netflix and Tivo have zoomed up on the rumor of their tie-up…but complex Hollywood licenses and technology limita…
Movie Stars
On possible Netflix-Tivo tie-up: “It’s an interesting model, to enable a distribution channel for video to a hard drive and circumvent the c…
Netflix And TiVo To Tie Up
The dream team is coming together…much as everyone wished, Netflix and Tivo are teaming up, according to this Newsweek story. Subscribers…
Digitizing The Multiplex
Recent breakthroughs in technology standards have brought the “digital cinema” transformation within shouting distance…Getting the the new…
Blu-ray Group Gets Behind Microsoft Tech
Backers of the Blu-ray DVD format are adopting Microsoft’s video compression technology, giving the software giant a secure foothold in each…
Film Group Turns To Secure DVD Players
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts will supply secure DVD players to voting members to prevent them from illegally copying film…
Professional BitTorrent For TV?
A startup, Atzio, is now claiming that they have the first P2P platform for television…it is a technology similar in concept to BitTorrent…
Jack Valenti On, What Else, Movies
Vintage Valenti, for whatever it is worth: “I have said, technology is what causes the problem, and technology will be the salvation of the…
Netflix Touts Vaporware Service, Again
(sub. req.): Netflix is touting its supposed launch of online movie download service, once again. Says it will be launched sometime in 2005.…
CD On One Side, DVD On The Other
A group of record labels have joined to introduce a new disc format later this year that combines CD and DVD technology. The DualDisc produc…
Video Island, ScreenSelect to Merge
In UK, online DVD players are bulking up to flank against bigger players like Blockbuter and Netflix, when they enter the market: Online DVD…
New Name, New Clients For Cdigix
Denver-based Cflix, which provides digital entertainment and educational media curriculum for college campuses, has changed its name to Cdig…
SBC, EchoStar Plot Online Movie Service
(sub. req.):
This is the fifth big U.S. online movie service–Movielink, Cinemanow, Starz, Moviebeam–being launched, or at least being pla…
Aussie Telco Giants Plans Movie Services
Telstra and Optus are going against each other in the online movie downloads market…Optus is hatching plans for video services with a new…
Microsoft Joins With 3 Partners To Bolster Movies on MSN Site
(sub. req.): MSN plans to offer links from its Web site to both Blockbuster, and CinemaNow, a movie-downloading site in which Microsoft and…
An Online Supplier for Your Desktop Cineplex
Reviewing the online movies-on-demand services on offer in U.S.: Starz Ticket, Movielink, CinemaNow and Movieflix.
Blu-Ray Versus Rest: Who Wins?
A war is going on among the Hollywood players for the next generation DVD formats, but as DVD sales slow, any delay of next-generation must-…
Blockbuster’s Online Service Launches
Blockbuster’s online DVD rental service has launched today…Blockbuster’s subscription plan will be tiered, letting customers keep up to th…
Rights Clearances Hobbles CinemaNow’s UK Selection
Well, I’m being slightly sensationalist here, but that’s a fact, anyway you want to spin it…CinemaNow, the online movie and VOD service, w…
Fox In an Online VOD Deal With T-Online Germany
(the German language release here…) Twentieth Century Fox has signed a deal with T-Online, Germany’s biggest broadband ISP, to provides it…
NetTV Is The New Buzzword In India
An IP-based TV network to launch in India…through Atlas Telecom…
Netflix and VOD
An interview with Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, on VOD, online delivery and others issues.
On online delivery: “We’re focused on downloadin…
CinemaNow Raises $11 Million; Plans Moving Into Europe, Asia
(sub. req.) Online movie service CinemaNow, based in Los Angeles, has received $11 million in a fourth round of venture funding. According t…
Blockbuster Vows to Go After Netflix
The proof is in the pudding, nothing more, nothing less…
Blockbuster CEO John Antioco: “There could be some upside to the whole rental mar…
Starz President on IP Delivery Of Content
Meanwhile, Starz Encore Group’s President and COO Robert Clasen is imploring cable marketing executives to recognize and embrace the coming…
Blockbuster’s DVD Rental Service Beta
A reader of mine passed me the tip on Blockbuster’s upcoming online DVD rental service’s beta website. Check the beta website here…
Hackin…
Netflix, Open Up Or Die
What Netflix needs to do to survive against competition: “Open up. Google did it, Amazon did, Apple did it, Netflix
Netflix Posts Smaller Q2 Profit
Online DVD rental service Netflix has posted a slightly smaller profit, citing compensation expenses, although revenue nearly doubled on sha…
Entone Enters VOD Partnership with CinemaNow
This is slightly old news, but a new interview with Entone CEO Steve McKay on the thinking behind his company’s new partnership with CinemaN…
P2P Booming As Users Swap Large Files
Data collected from a six-month study of Internet traffic shows that the exchange of films and software is booming, and that the vast majori…
UK Online DVD Rental Firms Movietrak And Qflicks Merge
In UK, online DVD rental firms Movietrak and Qflicks are to merge following the recent arrival of former BSkyB director Richard Brooke at Mo…
Film Industry “Needs An iMovies”
(Read the story below first): Legitimate movie download services could be an effective way of cutting down on internet piracy, according to…
Worldwide Internet Movie Piracy Study
The MPAA has released a new study which says that one in four people online has illegally downloaded a feature film–and it’s cutting into b…
The Flick Files
A nicle little profile of IMDB, now of course owned by Amazon.com. “The genius of the IMDb lies not in its architecture but in the idea behi…
Yahoo Shifts Moloshok To Hollywood Duties
(reg. req.) What does Jim Moloshok know about sports anyway? That’s the question I asked back in October last year. Now that question has be…
The Death and Rebirth of the Movie Industry
The future of the movie industry…
Advance Movie Download Service In Japan Begins
AM3, the company responsible for the Advance Movie Player, a Japan-only device that lets your Game Boy Advance play movies that come on tin…
TW, Disney, Viacom Lose $3.5 Billion to Film Pirates
U.S. movie companies lose $3.5 billion a year to piracy, not including the burgeoning trade on the Internet, according to the Motion Picture…
Starz Encore Group Revs Online Media Program
Starz Encore Group is poised to break an online campaign on July 1 to support its new Starz! Ticket on the Real Movies movie download servic…
IGN Buying Rotten Tomatoes Film Review Site For $10 Million
(sub. req.) According to Variety.com, online videogame media company IGN Entertainment is expanding its presence in the film space by acqui…
The Last Word on Netflix
“I’m not buying the notion that Netflix will be gobbled up and spit out by Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, and VOD…Netflix understands that happy a…
Portable Video Goes Mainstream, Sorta
(via Macworld) : While Apple continues to stress that it will not be introducing a video iPod, the market for portable video players is gath…
Closing Windows On VOD Etc
Buried in this story on Blockbuster is some interesting info on release windows for movies. Studios are providing movies to cable, satellite…
Packaged Media Here To Stay
The world’s biggest manufacturer of pre-recorded DVD, VHS, CD-ROM,and other packaged media has said that the DVD format is here to stay, des…
The Verdict: No Starz
A slightly unfair comparison of the new Starz Movie service with say BitTorrent: “If Hollywood wants to wean computer users from BitTorrent,…
Early Adopters Deserting DVD Rentals
(via LostRemote): According to a new report by ChangeWave Research, the movie industry shouldn’t rest on the laurels of DVD sales. Early ado…
More on Netflix’s VOD Plans
The 500th story on Netflix’s plans to launch online VOD next year…Netflix doesn’t plan on having all 22,000 movies available for download,…
Update on Starz-RNWK Service-IV
According to LA Times, the existing Hollywood contracts all but guarantee that Starz! Ticket will have several years to incorporate new feat…
Is Movielink Up For Sale?
(sub. req.) In a story about Steve Jobs selling out to Hollywood on the piracy issue (on consumers copying high-definition DVDs), an interes…
UK Online DVD Rental Firm Video Island Gets Funding
Video Island, an online DVD rental service in UK, has raised 6 million pounds in a funding round led by Cazenove’s private equity arm. The f…
Exclusive: Starz to Launch Online Movie Service With RealNetworks
TV network Starz Encore will launch an online movie service along with RealNetworks next week, paidContent.org has learned. The service will…
Movielink Moves Into Anime
Movielink, the online movie service which is now trying to position itself as the “broadband video-on-demand service”, has acquired the righ…
Movielink Does Not Violate Anti-Trust
The Justice Department has closed its antitrust probe of Movielink, saying the video-on-demand venture between five major movie studios is n…
Pay Cablers Fear DVD Burn
If it impacts cable subscription VOD, it is surely to affect online VOD directly…an intriguing struggle between HBO and Showtime on one si…
Blockbuster Expands All-You-Can-View Plan
Blockbuster has bowed into the Netflix effect…it has launched its own monthly subscription plan that lets customers rent an unlimited numb…
Cable on Demand?
Not yet…but here’s why you need to get your act together.
On release windows for on-demand movies: (a factor which also affects online mo…
McDonald’s Moves Into DVDs
McDonald’s is moving into DVD rentals… It will begin testing DVD rental kiosks at all 105 Denver stores. Smaller tests around Washington a…
Movielink, Charter Sign Online Film Pact
Online movie download service Movielink has signed its first cable MSO deal, tying up with No. 4 U.S. cable TV provider Charter Communicatio…
Screenwriters’ Movie Downloading Dilemma
(sub. req.) This controversy will perhaps grow bigger as VOD becomes bigger: compensating screenwriters for each movie downloaded through VO…
Netflix Loss Widens, But Outlook Raised
Online DVD renter Netflix has reported a wider quarterly net loss due to higher costs, but raised its earnings outlook because of rapidly ri…
iFilm Appoints New CEO
(sub. req.): iFilm, the online movie enthusiast site, has appointed its CTO Blair Harrison as its new CEO, replacing Adam Frank, who left se…
Softbank in a Movie TV Buy For Broadband
Japanese Net company Softbank plans to buy the TV distribution operations of Movie Television, giving the company access to video content as…
The Netflix Cult
I just discovered a new blog, HackingNetFlix, just about NetFlix…the site’s been going on for six months…
The company’s gotta be happy a…
The Format Independence
(via Lost Remote): You can either buy into Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ vision (see below), or you may believe in IBM’s vision, which sees as…
Netflix: On a Mission to Change the Economics of Hollywood
(reg. req.): Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings on competition from movie download services: “There’s a couple things to understand. The…
Streaming Companies Amercian IDC and ETC To Merge
Los Angeles-based American IDC has signed a letter of intent to merge with ETV Inc., a company that streams films and special interest chann…
MovieLink Inks Toon Pact
(sub. req.) (press release here…) MovieLink has signed a deal with Classic Media and its affiliate, Bullwinkle Studios, to bring episodes…
You Can Rent Movies Online, but Should You?
The WaPo reporter doesn’t like the current crop of online music service, Movielink and CinemaNow…”Who would want to put up with services a…
Internet Movies Not Ready For Prime Time
A report on a panel on digital movies at the Digital Hollywood conference earlier this week….fledgling Internet movie services need better…
DVD Business Threatened By Online VOD
Online delivery of movies could soon cause an across-the-board decline in retail selling prices for packaged DVDs, according to In-Stat/MDR.…
Netflix Script Spells Disruption
Netflix revolutionized how people rent movies. Now Wal-Mart and Blockbuster are scrambling to catch up. Who gets the happy ending?
Most anal…
CinemaNow to Be Streamed To DVDs
CinemaNow, the online movie download service, has tied up with two technology companies–Sigma Designs and KiSS Technology–to create the fi…
Movielink Hires Ad Agency
Things are moving, even if slowly, in the online movie arena: Movielink, the major-studio backed online movie servcie, has hired an ad agenc…
Movie Clips Out to Tantalize Web Surfers
This week, Warner Bros. is showing the first 9 minutes and 8 seconds of its upcoming thriller “Taking Lives” on Yahoo Movies, in an effort t…
Will Your PC Kill the Video Store?
A story on how Blockbuster is planning to compete against online DVD rental rivals like Netflix, or even movie download services like MovieL…
Piracy Fears Limit Film Downloads From Movielink
A rather damning indictment of Movielink, the major movie-studio backed movie download service…Movielink won’t disclose how many customers…
Cal Film Festival To Stream Movies Online
Cinequest, the film festival held in San Jose every year, is going for a first this time: it will be streaming movies which are participatin…
NTT West, Sharp to Begin Movie Download Service in Japan
NTT West Corp and Sharp Corp in Japan will begin a joint broadband-based service next Wednesday to allow users to download movies to watch o…
CinemaNow Offers Diane Sawyer’s Mel Gibson Interview For Download
Does this mean this is a subtle expansion of CinemaNow’s mandate: offering movie-related programs for download along with movies? Would be a…
Netflix to Offer Downloads in a Year
(sub. req.): In an otherwise scathing story in Barron’s, a point which Netflix has made earlier: CEO Reed Hastings says Netflix will offer d…
Intel, Movielink Co-star in Web Movie Push
Online movie provider Movielink and chipmaker Intel signed a deal to promote the digital distribution of films to multiple devices in the ho…
Regressive: Movie Replays
Movielink, the online movie subscription service, has released a couple of new features, which, if you were a movie fan, looks regressive……
Netflix: the Fly In The Ointment Of VoD
A very smart piece of analysis: One of the flies in the ointment in open or IP-based VoD, is that Netflix has been giving it a moving target…
Apple’s Show Time: Business Week’s Cover
BusinessWeek does a comprehensive cover story on Apple’s reason for success in the digital music market, and how it could end up with a big…
Netflix Considering Movie Downloads
(via LostRemote): Well, this was always on its horizon..it is only a matter of time. In its Q4 earnings announcement, CEO Reed Hastings said…
AOL To Offer 99 Cents Movie Downloads Through Movielink
Think of this as the mini “iTunization” of the movie business…America Online will launch a promotion Wednesday that lets its members downl…
Report From Sundance Online: Part 1
(by guest writer Romona Paden, at Sundance) : Four years ago Robert Redford�s annual Sundance Film Festival, based in Park City, Utah s…
Report From Sundance Online: Part 2
(by guest writer Romona Paden, at Sundance) : Movie stars and film industry executives aren�t the only ones making an appearance at thi…
AtomFilms Launches Hi-Def Film Channel With Maven
AtomFilms has launched what it is billing as the first online service to offer high-quality presentation of independent films…the “AtomFil…
CinemaNow’s Lasting Downloads
(sub. req.): In a significant move, CinemaNow has become the first major video-on-demand Web site to begin selling permanent downloads of fi…
Yale Sign Deal For Music and Movies Portal
Yale university has signed a contract with Cflix, a company that delivers educational and entertainment content to students online, for a pi…
Will the Film Industry Face a New Napster?
RealNetworks’ CEO Rob Glaser puts fear of God among the movie industry execs…”The rate of innovation [in the film and video industry] is n…
Microsoft Set To Launch Digital Movie Player
Microsoft will try to leapfrog archrival Apple today when it introduces the latest in media players – an iPod for movies. The Portable Media…
Movies Fair Game For Nintendo
Majesco Sales announced that Nintendo has approved its new technology that can put full-color movies and other audiovisual content on Game B…
Bollywood in Movie Download Deal With Kazaa
Not necessarily news, since the deal came out about two weeks ago, but some more details…some 35 Indian movie producers will be able to se…
KaZaa’s Movie Premiere
An Australian surf movie and a Indian Bollywood blockbuster have premiered as the first full-length feature films to be available–legitimat…
Video on Demand Not Yet a Big Movie Player
Services are off to a slow start, with film studios and the cable industry blaming each other for lackluster sales.
SBC Calls Action For Movielink Rentals
SBC Internet Services is promoting an online video-on-demand service from Movielink…a co-branded Web site of video downloads for subscribe…
MPAA Chief Predicts Movies Online by 2005
Americans could be watching newly released movies via the Internet as soon as mid-2005, Motion Picture Association of America chief executiv…
Kazaa to Sell Bollywood Films
Sharman Networks, makers of the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer (p2p) software, will sell a feature-length Bollywood movie through its service……
T-Online Germany Launches Online Movie Service
T-Online Germany has launched its online movie service, which includes movies from Dreamworks, MGM and Universal, as well as Germany’s Const…
Nothing So Strange’s Debut Online As a Download
Nothing So Strange, the award-winning faux documentary about the assassination of Bill Gates, will be the first feature film to have its wor…
T-Online in Internet Movie Deal With MGM
Europe’s largest Internet provider T-Online has closed a deal with Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to show MGM’s movies over IP…the d…
Movielink Gets Italian Movies
Movielink has tied up with Intramovies, which will allow it with a broad selection of Italian films for download to customers in the U.S. Th…
The Catch-22 of Movie Biz
Movielink’s Tyler Goldman: Movielink faces pressures not only from content piracy, but also from the fact that it’s not an early “window” in…
Movielink, Road Runner Unite On Net Movies
Movielink will offer a co-branded video-on-demand service to broadband customers of Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner, in a multiyear partners…
Movielink’s Ads Lure, Lampoon
Movielink, the online movie service, has launched an intriguing print campaign that mocks parental concerns about sexy, over-the- top movies…
Is Blockbuster Doomed?
Once the technology and marketing bugs get worked out, alternative home-viewing methods will pose some serious, and possibly devastating, ch…
Disney, CinemaNow Ink Net-Movie Deal
Disney agreed to license some of its feature films to movie rental site CinemaNow…it will sell viewing for nearly 100 Disney new release a…
Tipping Hollywood The Black Spot
The movie business is not doing enough to ward off the threat of digital piracy…Already as many as 600,000 movie files are shared each day…
U.K. Digital Film Project Hits Web Snag
The first online debut of a major film hit a snag, after failing to meet visitors’ bandwidth demands. The site, which was publicized widely…
Movielink Updates Service, Plans New Ad Campaign
Online movie download service Movielink on Wednesday unveiled an upgrade to its site software with a host of new features aimed at making th…
Lord of the Rings Adventure Card
Interesting DVD-Online Content promo combo…”Consumers who purchase The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on DVD or VHS will be able to log…
World’s First Online Movie Premiere
A British film claims that it will have the world’s first “e-premiere” when it is released on the Internet at the same time as in cinemas……
Movielink and BellSouth Launch Co-Branded Movie Rental Service
Movielink, the online movie download service has entered into an agreement with BellSouth, creating a customized version of Movielink’s movi…
Fox is Pushing PC Desktops to New Xtreme
20th Century Fox has launched a new desktop app. called Xtreme Desktop, which lets users do things like watch videos, find local showtimes,…
Why Apple Should Offer a Movie Store
“An Apple Movie Store…could serve as role model and test bed for selling legal digital video over the Internet [much like iTunes]….The k…
Movielink Signs On Disney
Movielink, the Internet movie-on-demand service, has signed on Walt Disney, and will offer Disney movies for download… the pact now gives…
Will Apple Start Selling Movies Online?
Some stir: Apple may have plans to extend its successful iTunes Music Store concept to sell films online, according to Bloomberg reporting o…
Was Intertainer’s Failure a Studio Plot?
An explosive and fascinating story about how Intertainer, the online movie service which closed down last year, might have been a plot by mo…
Movielink Launches Co-Branded Service With FeedRoom
Movielink, the online movie download service, has launched a co-branded version of its service with The FeedRoom.
Indian Firm Gets Rights to Webcast Over 5,500 Movies
Indian company Filmnasha TV Entertainment has acquired the rights to webcasting 5,500 movies in Indian languages (Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and o…
Sony’s “Self-Destruct” Movie Downloads
A subsidiary of the electronics maker Sony is to sell downloadable movie files that self-destruct after a given time. “Instead of saving the…
Intel Ties up Indian Actor to Promote Online Movie Streaming
In an interesting move, Intel has tied up with Indian actor Kamal Haasan, to introduce and promote digital entertainment in Indian movies. I…
Film Rentals, Downloaded to Your PC
NYT’s David Pogue reviews the two online movie subscription services: movielink.com and cinemanow.com.
CinemaNow, MGM Link Up For Movie Downloads
Online movie service CinemaNow has signed a licensing deal with film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, to offer new MGM movies and older library t…
Softbank Unit Sharpens Net Video Focus
Softbank’s Internet video-on-demand subsidiary Softbank Broadmedia is pushing a little-noticed technology that promises to stream DVD-qualit…
Movielink co-Stars on Hollywood.com
Movielink, the digital movie subscription service, has added Hollywood.com as another distribution vehicle for its downloadable movies servi…
CinemaNow Reels in Fox Movie Deal
In a significant move for online movie delivery, Twentieth Century Fox Film will begin licensing feature and library films to Internet film…
Rent A Movie From Your Sofa
Swedish broadband provider Bredbandbolaget and SF Anytime have launched broadband cinema across Sweden. 120 movies and a large number of TV…
CinemaNow Signs Deal to Expand
CinemaNow Signs Deal to Expand into Japan: Online movie and video-on-demand service CinemaNow has signed a deal to expand into Japan through…
Studio Copyright Battles Worthy of
Studio Copyright Battles Worthy of Hollywood Script: Licensing red-tape is preventing movies from being released online, and creating huge t…
CinemaNow Launches Enhanced Service: CinemaNow,
CinemaNow Launches Enhanced Service: CinemaNow, the online movie subscription service, has exoanded its subscription video-on-demand (SVOD)…
CinemaNow Launches International Network to
CinemaNow Launches International Network to Localize VoD Service: On heels of RealNetworks’ announcement with Starz, CinemaNow, another onli…
Real and Starz to offer
Real and Starz to offer movies online: Real and Starz today announced the intention to provide Starz movies over the internet via RealOne ne…
Hollywood Studios Launch Subscription Movie
Hollywood Studios Launch Subscription Movie Site: Five top Hollywood studios opened online box office Movielink, in an attempt to protect mo…
Movielink ready to roll: Movielink,
Movielink ready to roll: Movielink, a joint venture between 5 major movie studios, will launch on Monday after two years of development (mus…
Are Online Movies Ready for Prime Time?
News.com examines the imminent launch of online movie delivery service Movielink, a joint venture among MGM, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictur…
The Potential for Net-Delivered Movies:
The Potential for Net-Delivered Movies: News.com article on both the legal and customer challenges facing online movie delivery services suc…
Microsoft, Real featured on Movielink:
Microsoft, Real featured on Movielink: Video-on-demand site Movielink will use technology from both RealNetworks and Microsoft to run its im…
Now Enjoy Cult Movies, Online,
Now Enjoy Cult Movies, Online, for $6.95 a Month: International Broadcasting Corporation, a media company based in Santa Maria, has bought C…
Spanish Movies Online, For $4.95
Spanish Movies Online, For $4.95 a Month: Kanakaris Wireless, an online streaming movies provider through its site CinemaPop.com, has launch…
Lessons From Netflix
Rich Gordon draws some parallels between the Netflix online DVD subscription service and online content. “[N]etflix has done something that…
Entertainment Content Ready to be
Entertainment Content Ready to be Monetized: Film & Video magazine takes a look at paid content efforts by fledgling entertainment greenfiel…
Why Film Studios Won?t Be
Why Film Studios Won?t Be ‘Napsterized’: Microsoft’s head of its digital media division Will Poole offers his opinion on why he thinks movie…
Will Netflix Be the Digital Distributor
Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), the online DVD rental company, fancies itself as the online distributor of movies, when digital distribution of movi…
Ebert on Streaming Movies Online:
Ebert on Streaming Movies Online: Roger Ebert tests out some online streaming movie sites and end up with the conclusion: “[O]n-demand strea…
