Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - (Page 9) www.homemediamagazine.com ELECTRONIC DELIVERY Warner, Paramount Films Added to MOD’s SD Cards By Chris Tribbey OD Systems’ partnership with Toshiba and NCR Corp. to deliver content via downloads to SD cards now has major studio backing: Warner Bros. and Paramount Digital Entertainment. “MOD Systems offers a new avenue for consumers looking to access Paramount Pictures movies on the go, with a solution that is quick, convenient and compatible across a wide range of devices,” said Alex Carloss, EVP of digital distribution for Paramount Digital Entertainment. Anchor Bay, First Look and Image had already signed on with MOD, which is aiming to install retail kiosks where consumers can get movies and music downloaded to SD cards. MOD puts its title count at 4,000 so far. “These agreements validate our commitment to be at the forefront of developing solutions that offer rights management, interoperability and content protection,” said Mark E. Phillips, CEO of MOD Systems. “Digital downloads to SD cards via interactive kiosks from our partner NCR give retailers a new way to increase content and device sales and ultimately better compete.” Blockbuster Entering Realm of Web-Enabled TVs By Erik Gruenwedel he ability to rent and buy movies, video games and TV shows from Blockbuster Inc. will be incorporated into a variety of Web-enabled TVs showcased at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Speaking Jan. 6 to an investor group in Phoenix, Jim Keyes, chairman and CEO of Dallas-based Blockbuster, said access to Blockbuster. com had been incorporated into a widget developed and marketed by Intel. “You can order movie rentals and purchases right from the TV screen,” he said. Keyes said that in spite of the emergence of new digital opportunities to receive entertainment in the home, consumers in the near term would continue to buy and rent physical discs. The CEO said the projected $2 billion on-demand market by 2012 would be dominated by cable VOD, and not third-party services from Amazon, Apple, CinemaNow and others. He said the slower-than-expected adoption of digital distribution has been due to the inability of most U.S. homes to receive a feature-length-sized file BRIEFS I NETFLIX STREAMS SHOWTIME SERIES PREMIERES Netflix Jan. 8-18 will stream for free to subscribers the premiere episode of the Showtime Networks series “United States of Tara,” starring Toni Collette and John Corbett, developed by Diablo Cody. The company Jan. 18 also will stream season premieres of Showtime series “The L Word” and “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” the same day as their network debuts. The streams will be available on PCs, Intel-based Macs and TVs connected to any of a number of Web-enabled devices, including select LG and Samsung Blu-ray players, the Xbox 360 and TiVo. – Erik Gruenwedel M T on their available bandwidth. “You need a minimum of 20MB per second, which is in a fraction of U.S. households, to make this a seamless viewing experience,” Keyes said. “That won’t happen for quite some time.” He said he’d heard the DVD business characterized as a melting iceberg. “I would define it as a melting glacier,” Keyes said. “This is your classic cash cow. Yes, the DVD is someday going to go the way of the VHS tape and 8-track, but it is going to take a long time for that evolution to occur.” He said the chain is prepared to carry its 60 million annual customers into the digital age as it evolves. The CEO said the Blockbuster brand is well positioned to be a partner or collaborator with burgeoning digital distribution models devised by telecommunication and cable operators. He lauded Netflix for doing “a wonderful job penetrating” the by-mail segment, which he characterized as a $2 billion market, compared to the $22 billion in-store market. I MYTVPAL HAS HD STREAMS Full 1080p Internet streaming with 5.1 channel surround sound is now available on MyTVPal.com, thanks to a partnership with IPTV technology firm MatrixStream. – Chris Tribbey I NPD KIDS STUDY Macrovision Bows Digital Delivery Function By John Latchem LAS VEGAS — Macrovision Jan. 8 unveiled a new capability to bring digital content directly to Internet-connected televisions through the company’s Consumer Electronics Interactive Program Guide (CE IPG), which is available on 58 million CE devices worldwide. The CE IPG previously was used for on-screen program listings. The new functionality lets viewers select Web content ondemand with their television remote control. In a demonstration at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, Macrovision’s CE IPG accessed select content from CBS, including episodes of “CSI.” The intent, according to Macrovision, is to let viewers choose what content they want when they want it through a single source. According to ABI Research, the number of Internet-connected digital TVs, game consoles and set-top boxes will exceed 200 million by 2013. Macrovision previously formed an alliance with CinemaNow to bring downloaded movies to the television. An NPD Group report, Kids & Digital Content III, found that the use of digital music, instead of CDs, by kids ages 2-14, has increased 10% since 2007, while gaming and movies continue to be mostly a physical product. – Chris Tribbey I YANKEE CES A consumer entertainment survey from the Yankee Group finds that 17.9% of handheld game system owners watch videos on them too, for an average of more than half an hour a day. – Chris Tribbey iTunes Moves Closer to DRM-Free Music By Chris Tribbey pple CEO Steve Jobs wasn’t there, but Tony Bennett was. There was no big iPhone-like hardware announcement, but there was DRM-free iTunes music. Apple’s final appearance at the Macworld trade show Jan. 6 was highlighted by Jobs’ absence, and the announcement that by the end of March, all iTunes music would be free of digital rights management. “Starting today, we will offer 8 million songs, DRM-free … and by the end of this quarter we will offer 2 million more, and all songs will be DRM-free in iTunes,” said Phil Schiller, Apple senior product marketing executive, who delivered the hour-plus keynote in Jobs’ stead. The music will also be offered in a higherquality 256 kbps AAC encoding. A new pricing model for iTunes music also was unveiled: Starting in April, music will be sold for 69 TOP 5 RANK TITLE ELECTRONIC SELLTHROUGH Week ended January 4, 2009 RELEASE DATE VIDEO LABEL GENRE cents, 99 cents or $1.29 per song, at the music companies’ discretion. Amazon.com began offering DRMfree music in mid-2007, but remains No. 4 in music sales behind iTunes, Wal-Mart and Best Buy. “We’ve worked with all the major music companies, as well as thousands of independents, and over the last six years we’ve had one pricing model for all songs: 99 cents,” Schiller said. “And the music companies have told us they want more flexibility. “We know already that more songs are going to be offered at 69 cents than $1.29.” Schiller started the keynote by speaking about how successful the Apple stores are — 3.4 million visitors per week — which might be one of the reasons this will be Apple’s final Macworld. “That’s 100 Macworlds going on around the world every week,” he said. Independent analyst Rob Enderle said Apple did itself a favor by negotiating with the music companies to offer DRM-free music. “An awful lot of iPod users were getting music from CDs or free sources, and they wanted to move their music around freely,” he said. “By removing DRM, Apple will boost its own sales.” Shares of Apple were down $1.56 to $93.02 at the end of afternoon trading Jan. 6. On the eve of Apple’s final keynote at Macworld, Jobs released a letter to the Apple community, allaying fears about his health that had hurt the company’s stock since it was announced Dec. 16 he would not deliver the keynote. Blaming his weight loss on a hormone imbalance, Jobs, wrote that he has begun treatment, and that it may take until the spring before he regains the weight he lost. 1 2 3 4 5 The Dark Knight Fred Claus Sex and the City: The Movie Get Smart Speed Racer 12/9/08 11/25/08 9/23/08 11/4/08 9/16/08 Warner Warner Warner Warner Warner Action Comedy Comedy Comedy Action Source: CinemaNow TOP 5 RANK TITLE ELECTRONIC DOWNLOADS Week ended January 4, 2009 RELEASE DATE VIDEO LABEL GENRE 1 2 3 4 5 Hancock Get Smart Deception The Women Hellboy II: The Golden Army 12/30/08 11/18/08 10/22/08 12/21/08 12/25/08 Sony Pictures Warner Fox Warner Action Comedy Thriller Comedy Universal Fantasy Source: CinemaNow January 12–18, 2009 Home Media Magazine http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.MyTVPal.com http://www.Amazon.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 Contents News Cine Mercado Reviews Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - (Page 1) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - (Page 2) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Contents (Page 3) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - News (Page 4) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - News (Page 5) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - News (Page 6) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - News (Page 7) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - News (Page 8) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - News (Page 9) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Cine Mercado (Page 10) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Cine Mercado (Page 11) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Reviews (Page 12) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Reviews (Page 13) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Reviews (Page 14) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Reviews (Page 15) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Top 20 DVD Sellers (Page 16) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 17) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 18) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 19) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 20) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 21) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 22) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 23) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 24) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 25) Home Media Magazine - January 11, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 26)
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