NBC’s Smart Attempt at Building Audience
July 21, 2006
Netflix to Distribute NBC Debuts | www.tvweek.com
Netflix and NBC have announced a deal to have Netflix distribute DVDs that provide subscribers with an advanced viewing opportunity for "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Kidnapped."
The DVDs contain the episodes in their entirety as well as trailers for other debuting fall series.
Beginning August 5 and running through to September 17, subscribers will be able to request the DVDs when they request other DVDs via the online rental service.
Encountering the Third Dimension
July 21, 2006
Happy ‘Returns’ in China | www.variety.com
Superman Returns set a one day one venue box office record in China at the Shanghai He Ping IMAX on July 15, 2006 with $19,360 as the take.
It is remarkable given the US $7.50 ticket price and the fact that pirated movies on DVD can be bought in China for approximately 65¢.
The article indicates that 62% of the people that saw Superman Returns on 35 mm film in Beijing would pay the US $7.50 to see the movie again in IMAX.
This movie contains approximately 20 minutes of footage that has been converted from 2D to 3D stereo. It is expected that Superman Returns will play at the Shanghai and Beijing IMAX theaters until Sony’s Open Season plays there in September.
July 19, 2006
Movielink Inks Deal With Sonic Solutions | www.homemediaretailing.com
Movielink has signed an agreement with Sonic Solutions and has secured studio approval to begin offering movies for sale from their web site via a download to burn to DVD option. This will enable users to download movies, burn them on to DVD and then to play them on their standard DVD players, thus freeing them up from the requirement of watching the movie at their computer.
It is expected that CinemaNow, the leading competitor of Movielink will make a similar announcement soon.
This will greatly open up the market for future digital distribution to the consumer.
TiVo Continues to Develop New Products to Compete
June 9, 2006
TiVo to Offer Web Video Through Its TV Boxes | www.tvweek.com
TiVo invented the market for digital video recorders. Their latest announcement is to bring exclusive content from the internet to their set top box and to the TV. This is called TiVoCast service.
This new service is available to TiVo’s 400,000 customers who have high speed internet service. TiVo’s basic service is available over traditional phone lines.
This concept, also known as internet TV is the “holy grail” of the future of content delivery. It accomplishes the goal of bringing a wide array of content on demand to the television.
Watching content on TV as opposed to the computer monitor is a business that many others, including Microsoft and Intel are developing.
Move to New Media Causes Changes All Around
June 7, 2006
Ad Firms Wait to Get TV Spots | www.latimes.com
The ad agencies, which historically have placed ads for the fall TV season by May, have not made the same level of commitments for the Fall 2006 season. Instead, they are re-thinking their buying of ads for the forthcoming TV season, with many holding off until later, due in large part to wanting and needing to allocate some of the ad budgets across all forms of media.
This is particularly important given the many announcements in the past 9 months generally and the past month more specifically, about the various online media initiatives from the networks and the major studios.
It is too early too say what will happen in the end. If too many advertisers delay decisions until later in the year, it may impact the entire flow of TV product from development to pilot to the air and, of course, to new media deployment.
Eisner’s Back Handed Compliment
May 30, 2006
Eisner Has Much to Say to Successor | www.latimes.com
Michael Eisner, no longer CEO or Chairman of The Walt Disney Company, has a TV talk show on business channel CNBC.
The latest installment of the periodic broadcast features Robert Iger, current CEO of Disney being interviewed by his former boss.
They cover a lot of topics in their relatively short discussion including Eisner’s reported poor relationship with Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple and former head of Pixar, which Disney recently acquired for $7.4 billion.
Eisner indicates that he had a fine relationship with Jobs, but they failed to agree on various money matters, all related to the lucrative distribution of Pixar movies by Disney.
Following Mr. Eisner’s departure form Disney, Mr. Iger worked out an arrangement to buy Pixar as a means of upgrading the Disney in-house animation business, a business at which Disney excelled for many years, dating back to Mr. Disney himself.
Michael Eisner tells his hand picked successor that “it probably will work out,” referring to the Pixar acquisition.
Eisner continued with “There are occasions when you spend a lot of money and the quality starts to evaporate that it doesn't work out. So it is a big bet.”
In the end, the essence of the Iger interview and its key implication is whether the Pixar deal is financially viable.Competition In The Digital Cinema Roll Out
May 23, 2006
Sony debuts sharper digital projector | www.dailynews.com
Sony has unveiled a digital cinema projector that is currently being tested by Sony in several US theaters that can project images at 4K resolution.
The key implications are:
·Cinema quality digital projectors to date have been at 2K resolution;
·4K will look better than 2K on the screen, with 2K a much better and steadier picture than current film projection.
·A successful roll out of digital cinema to the nation’s 36,000 theaters and approximately 3 – 4 times that number in the rest of the world will save studios billions of dollars annually by not having to prepare film prints for each theater.
·Several of the larger theater circuits have yet to commit to a projection system, leaving room for a fairly and competitively priced offering from Sony.
·Digital enables theater operators to show movies in 3D stereo with the use of additional equipment.
The release of the 4K projector raises the bar considerably. Theater owners are hoping that the superior images will attract movie goers to their theaters.
Comcast Moving Towards Being the King of VOD
May 18, 2006
Ad-Sponsored TV-On-Demand Gets Trial Run | www.forbes.com
Comcast is once again taking a leading position in its development and deployment of Video on Demand (VOD) with the recent announcement that it will join CBS and General Motors by presenting two shows, “Survivor Finale” and “Survivor Reunion” free of charge to digital cable customers.
General Motors has agreed to be the only sponsor, thus allowing the presentations to be provided to customers for free. Commercials will be limited to the beginning, middle and end of the show.
The presentations were started this past week and will run until the end of August.
The shows will only run in markets where CBS has owned and operated stations, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit, because affiliates may be negatively impacted by this VOD service. Other cities with CBS O&Os are not in areas where Comcast is the primary or dominant cable provider.
Comcast, the US #1 cable provider, has been active in the VOD market and has been testing various business models.
Dueling In A Potentially Changing Market Might Be Costly
May 10, 2006
Dueling Online Ads | www.homemediaretailing.com
Netflix, the company leading the online based DVD rental industry, is going head to head with Blockbuster Online in an online advertising campaign.
The article analyzes how rapidly the prices changed as the competing ads were reviewed at various sites including MSN and Yahoo, all within a relatively short time span.
According to the article ““We’re price-testing,” a Netflix spokesperson said. “We have been for several months. We’ve got a number of different price point tests going on at any one time to test the elasticity. To give any more detail about the price-testing could bias the test.””
Both companies are spending considerable sums to attract and hopefully retain the nation’s DVD renters in the hope that the “right” price point and related rental quantities will appeal to the consumers not yet using one of the services.
The article will lead one to believe that not only are the ads attempting to attract new customers, but are also aimed at each other.
Another Step Toward Tipping Point
May 8, 2006
Innertube launched - CBS unveils broadband Web channel | www.variety.com
CBS, in a move that follows ABC, has announced the formation of Innertube, an online, ad supported channel that will offer programming developed for the internet, library titles and soon, pending negotiations with affiliates, first run programs. As with the ABC programming, Innertube is offered through the CBS web site.
Initially there are 10 made for broadband shows with more to be developed. A full line up of content is forthcoming according to the announcement.
Besides the potential for broadening its advertising base and bypassing network in some cases and cable, the potential to test concepts before committing to a full scale, costly network development process will most likely reap some benefits.
CBS is also negotiating with Apple to have their content available on iTunes. ABC and NBC already have content on iTunes.
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