Home Media Magazine - June 22-28, 2008 - (Page 13)

www.homemediamagazine.com ELECTRONIC DELIVERY BRIEFS I WARNER TV GROUP INKS ONLINE DISTRIBUTION Warner Bros. Television Group has signed distribution agreements with several Web sites that call for the September launch of branded broadband channels featuring new and library ad-supported TV programming and movies. The channels at Dailymotion.com, Joost.com, Sling Media, TiVo and Veoh Networks also include TheWB.com, KidsWB.com and two new destinations featuring classic Warner TV series and science-ﬁction. – Erik Gruenwedel Panel: Electronic Sellthrough at Crossroads By Erik Gruenwedel idespread consumer adoption of electronic sellthrough is years away and in jeopardy unless digital files can be played on the TV, said a panel of industry experts. Speaking June 16 at the seventh annual home entertainment summit, presented by Home Media Magazine, panelists said without cheaper and easier access of digital content across multiple devices, electronic sellthrough is destined to remain a niche market. “From a domination standpoint, we are years and years away, if [it happens] at all,” said Russ Crupnick, VP and senior analyst with The NPD Group. David Cook, president and COO W of CinemaNow, said the service had spent the past year repositioning itself to be embedded in consumer devices more likely found in the living room than the PC. CinemaNow expects to bow select enabled devices later this year. “We’re probably a couple years away before there are enough of those devices in the market that creates a compelling use case for consumers to start adopting in mass,” Cook said. Tony Knight, senior product manager at Macrovision, said electronic sellthrough would take off only if the user experience replicated DVD, which he said could happen in the next five years. Jason Kramer, chief strategy officer with Interpret LLC, a consumer research firm specializing in technology and entertainment, said electronic sellthrough has been around for 10 years, but there’s no sign it’s going to generate traction among consumers. Citing internal research that compared consumer attitudes about electronic sellthrough in 2006 and 2008, Kramer said little had changed. In addition, Interpret found that consumers expected electronic sellthrough movies to retail for less than DVD, and less than what Apple ($14.99), CinemaNow (from $17.99) and others charge. The company found consumers would pay about $7.75 for new movie releases electronically. Kramer said the download industry should clearly determine what it wants from consumers, who don’t consider a digital file as “owning” a movie. Crupnick said Apple’s iPod proved successful largely because consumers could transport their CD collections onto the device. He said such an experience is not available for video. “Ninety percent of what is on the average iPod in America is not bought from iTunes, Amazon or anybody else,” Crupnick said. “It’s from [the consumer’s] music catalog.” Panelists said electronic rental transactions and ad-supported content appeared to have stronger legs going forward. I BACKSPACE IPTV TO OFFER MOBILE STREAMING IPTV company Backspace Communications has expanded its offerings to the mobile market. Backspace demonstrated new technology to stream live content to mobile phones at NXTcomm in Las Vegas June 16-19. – Billy Gil STUDY: ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT INVESTMENT TO RISE BY 20% By Erik Gruenwedel STUDY: YOUTUBE VIDEO VIEWS DECLINE By Erik Gruenwedel V enture capitalists expect investment in distribution of original entertainment via mobile and social media services to increase by as much as 20% over the next two years, according to a new report. Created by KPMG LLP, an audit and tax advisory firm, the study polled 300 venture capitalists and found that 52% believe investment in online digital entertainment will increase substantially. About 25% of respondents said investment would surpass 20%, with respondents evenly split whether investment would target professional or user-gener- ated content. About 59% of respondents said they expect an increase in mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity between technology and entertainment industries, including 18% who expect M&A activity to soar more than 20%. The report said 31% of investment dollars would be earmarked toward mobile devices, 26% for technology enablers and 20% for social networking services and related Web sites. “Activity in the market clearly indicates that the mobile space has become a significant area of opportunity for venture capitalists,” said KPMG partner Brian Hughes. O nline video juggernaut YouTube in April continued to dominate monthly market share (38%) despite posting a 4.5% monthly decline in the number of videos viewed, according to a new report. ComScore Inc. said more than 4.1 billion videos from Google Inc. — which owns YouTube — were viewed, compared to 4.3 billion in March. YouTube accounted for 98% of all videos viewed on Google properties. The report found that 18- to 34-year-olds (predominantly male) watched the most videos, about 287 minutes per viewer. Nearly 135 million U.S. Internet users viewed an average of 82 videos, compared to 139 million users and an average of 83 videos in March. About 71% of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online videos in April, compared to 73.7% in March. Overall, nearly 11 billion videos were viewed, down 4.5% from 11.5 billion in March. Andrew Lipsman, analyst with comScore, said March had one more day (31) than April, which he said accounted for the difference. “March was an abnormally large [viewing month], but is not indicative of any trend or that video viewing is slowing down,” Lipsman said. “It is consistent with growth trends.” I FILMAKA ANNOUNCES COMPETITIONS Filmaka, a digital entertainment studio and online ﬁlm community, has partnered with WhatOnEarthIsGoingOn?, a multiplatform media company aimed at promoting social change, to host competitions for Filmaka’s online community on the WhatOnEarthIsGoingOn? Filmaka channel, launching in August and distributed through MSN. The competitions will take place every quarter and award 15 ﬁnalists a prize of $1,500, among other monetary prizes. Submissions are currently being accepted at Filmaka.com. – Billy Gil TOP 5 RANK TITLE E LE C T R O NI C SELLT H R OUG H Week ended June 14, 2008 RELEASE DATE VIDEO LABEL GENRE TOP 5 RANK TITLE E L E C TRO N I C S E L L THRO U GH Week ended June 15, 2008 RELEASE DATE VIDEO LABEL GENRE 1 2 3 4 5 Jumper The Bucket List Rambo The Other Boleyn Girl Cloverfield 6/10/08 6/10/08 5/27/08 6/10/08 4/22/08 Fox Warner Lionsgate Sony Pictures Paramount Sci-Fi Comedy Action Drama Sci-Fi Source: Movielink 1 2 3 4 5 Jumper Caligula: Imperial Edition Meet the Spartans Justice League: The New Frontier National Treasure: Book of Secrets 6/10/08 10/2/07 6/3/08 2/26/08 5/20/08 Fox Image Fox Warner Disney Sci-Fi Drama Comedy Animated Adventure Source: CinemaNow TOP 5 RANK TITLE E LE CT R O NIC D OW NLOAD S Week ended June 14, 2008 RELEASE DATE VIDEO LABEL GENRE TOP 5 RANK TITLE E L E C TRO N I C DO WN L O A DS Week ended June 15, 2008 RELEASE DATE VIDEO LABEL GENRE 1 2 3 4 5 Charlie Wilson’s War Cloverfield Bella Hero Wanted The Golden Compass 6/5/08 6/4/08 6/4/08 6/13/08 5/29/08 Universal Paramount Lionsgate Sony Pictures New Line Drama Sci-Fi Drama Action Fantasy Source: Movielink 1 2 3 4 5 National Treasure: Book of Secrets Cloverfield Hitman Mama’s Boy The Golden Compass 6/4/08 6/4/08 4/9/08 6/3/08 5/29/08 Disney Paramount Fox Warner New Line Adventure Sci-Fi Action Comedy Fantasy Source: CinemaNow June 22–28, 2008 Home Media Magazine 13 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://TheWB.com http://KidsWB.com http://Filmaka.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - June 22-28, 2008

Home Media Magazine - June 22-28, 2008 Contents News In Focus TV DVD Cine Mercado Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - June 22-28, 2008

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