In the midst of the P2P craze, Hollywood has hoped to get ahead of the curve and nip unauthorized movie file-sharing in the bud. Its first initiative in that regard was the creation of a consortium called Movielink that would deliver authorized online movies to paying customers.
But, according to this piece in The Deal, the studio-backed company is having a hard time making a go of it and has actively shopped Movielink around.
Technical limitations are one problem hindering the success of Movielink — the films can’t be transferred from any device other than the original PC. But, competition from DVD rental companies and the emergence of rival online ventures such as Morgan Freeman’s Clickstar, could be the primary reasons the five studios (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros.) are tiring of Movielink.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 1:20 PM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBackOnline video news is the hottest topic among mainstream media companies and MSNBC.com issued a press release today claiming the top spot for itself in this category. The Microsoft-backed web service cites Nielsen/NetRatings data, saying that it drew 23.8 million unique visitors during June 2005, topping next ranked contender CNN, which generated 21.4 million unique visitors.
The company is squarely laying the credit for this success on its online video services.
“Online video is becoming more and more mainstream,” said Charlie Tillinghast, General Manager and Publisher of MSNBC.com. “One out of every five visits to MSNBC.com includes a video play and we’re reaching audiences that traditional broadcasters are struggling to reach. The enormous number of MSN Messenger users will extend this reach and further solidify NBC News as the leader in video news, regardless of the platform.”
MSNBC.com claims that during the July 7 bombing crisis in London, users watched 4.4 million NBC News videos on the site.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 1:08 PM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rural and small town broadband company iTown is making a splash in the press this week with its recent deal to bring 100 Mbps service to small towns in West Virginia. USA Today’s Leslie Cauley has a piece on iTown’s deal to deliver the turbo-charged service to the communities in Beckley-Bluefield and Wood County, WVA.
That arrangement, like all of iTown’s initiatives, is premised on private-public financing, with iTown putting up $30 million to build the fiber-based communications network, and state revenue bonds paying for the rest of the project.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:53 AM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBackThe New York Times has an adoring piece today penned by Sarah Boxer that reviews the land of video blogs or vlogs. The articles reviews the efforts of the Das Vlog, The Steve and Carol Show, and our favorite, the 05 Project, among other noteworthy vlogs.
One thing all the vlogs have in common is that they’re funny. Genuinely humorous.
In any event, the question everyone grapples with is: what are these things? Boxer has an answer. Vlogs are television.
Right now it seems that video bloggers can’t agree what vlogs are exactly, and some of them want to keep it that way. “What’s the rush to define it now?” Mr. Verdi [Michael Verdi, author of Vlog Anarchy] asks in his video manifesto. “It would be like trying to pick a career and a mate for a newborn.” But indeed, the newborn seems to have picked its mate. Congratulations. It’s television!Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:58 AM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Courtesy of Om Malik, the South Florida Sun Sentinel has a piece today on the plans by a group of municipalities to launch Wi-Fi along Florida’s Gold Coast.
Communities such as Boynton Beach, Coral Gables, Delray Beach, Hollywood, Miami Beach, Pembroke Pines, West Palm Beach and Wilton Manors are among dozens of local governments throughout the state bringing, or planning to bring, wireless Internet to their cities and towns.
But a recent law signed by Governor Jeb Bush could make it difficult to get muni-wi-fi off the ground. The law requires the cities to first turn to telecom carriers for bids on the wireless broadband projects. Only if all the phone companies in the state turn down the project can the cities build Wi-Fi networks themselves.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:20 AM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Courtesy of Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, a new device is on the horizon that records one month’s worth of all TV programming, not just the choices the viewer programs in advance.
The prototype demo’ed at London’s OpenTech conference works with all channels aired in the UK, but it isn’t a stretch to imagine something like this working with all channels —broadcast and cable?—in the U.S.
What the Promise does is grab the entire broadcast TV multiplex — all the channels being broadcast in the UK — slices them up according to the free, over-the-air electronic programming guide, and stores an entire month’s worth. Why program a TiVo to get certain shows for you when you can record every single show on the air, all at once, and then use recommendations, search, a grid, or any other means you care to name to figure out which of those thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of programming you want to watch.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:09 AM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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