Items tagged with VOD
In a recent Spanish interview, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings offered a rather controversial perspective on content piracy via the Internet. In the interview, Hastings stated that while a great many may consider piracy to be a problem, the truth is that it has served a purpose in helping to create a public that is savvy about viewing best-quality content on demand via the Internet. Spain has long been a particularly sharp thorn in the paw of producers and distributors of entertainment products, with a raging culture of Internet file-sharing piracy borne of a dearth of good legal alternatives. Despite this, Hastings thinks Netflix's upcoming Spain launch will be one of the company's most successful...
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Sony released “The Interview” in select theaters as well as on YouTube and Google Play despite a massive data breach and terrorist-style threats that were meant to stymie the project. Thanks to the publicity that stemmed from the attack on Sony Pictures, “The Interview” has become Sony’s most successful online movie by raking in $15 million in sales though Saturday. According to Sony, The movie was rented or downloaded over 2 million times since it was released on Tuesday. It is Sony’s highest grossing online release of all time, far outpacing successes such as “Snowpiercer” with $7 million and “Bachelorette” with $8.2 million. Meanwhile, the limited theater release earned...
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Dish Network has a new “PrimeTime Anytime” feature that’s part of a whole-home DVR service called “Hopper”. The service lets you access Fox, NBC, CBS, and ABC primetime content from the last eight days on demand and record up to six programs simultaneously with a storage capacity of up to 2,000 hours of content. However, one little bonus feature called AutoHop has a team of broadcasters hopping mad. Simply put, AutoHop automatically skip commercials on recorded content, unlike typical DVR programming that requires the user to fast forward with the remote control. Apparently, Fox, NBC, and CBS think that AutoHop isn’t so much a handy DVR feature as it is unlicensed...
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Can't say it's surprising, but theater owners are getting ready for a battle when it comes to Video-on-Demand. For years now, movie theaters, movie makers, and DVD resellers have been growing increasingly wary over VoD. Why? Because the window of time between a cinema release and a VoD release has been shrinking, and all the while, movie ticket prices have been skyrocketing. It's nothing to spend over $15 per movie ticket in a major city these days, which is comical when you think that these tickets were far, far cheaper just a decade ago. What's changed? Technology, and instead of embracing it, movie theaters have pumped up ticket prices, kept popcorn prices laughably high, and resisted the...
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How much will you pay for instant gratification? Time Warner is hoping you'll pay $30 to $50 for the privilege of watching a new movie from home just days or weeks after it makes its debut in theaters. Big Hollywood studios and pay-TV carriers have been considering the idea of premium on-demand offerings for some time. Now, Time Warner is ready to give the idea a try. The new service could be available as soon as this summer. During an earnings call recently, Time Warner's CEO Jeff Bewkes told investors and analysts that his company is getting close to having an agreement with distributors regarding when these premium video-on-demand offerings will be available and how much they will cost. Variety...
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Vudu, a Video On Demand (VOD) service with a claimed over 1,100 HD titles available, supposedly leads Apple TV, Netflix, and Xbox Live for the broadest selection of HD movie content. We just like the looks of their player on its own but there's more to like here.As a Vudu user you have the option of viewing your selections streamed to their Vudu Box ($299.00) available for purchase online and at Best Buy, or the high end Vudu XL ($999.00), available through authorized installers. A stream to computer option is not available. Movie rentals cost from $0.99 to to $3.99, and select movies may be purchased from $4.99 to $19.99 "Indeed, a quick examination of competing services seems to bear...
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Great, free Video-on-Deman (VOD)! Wait, I have to watch commercials?In association with cable company Cox, it's testing a new video-on-demand feature that won't let viewers fast forward through commercials. We'll be the first to say it: this is dumb. While it may make a few more people watch commercials, it won't make them happy about it. And, given just how many other options there are these days, the end result might be that people just choose not to watch such ABC programming at all, let alone the commercials.Yet various ABC executives seem to think that by offering this product, they can stop people from buying DVRs. Anne Sweeney, the president of the Disney-ABC television group, claims:...
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