Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. But in the last three years its economy has collapsed. Hunger has gripped the nation for years. Now, it’s killing people and animals that are dying of starvation. The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it!!! Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are also dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year. Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country - 7% of the population.
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Study: Only 14 Percent of Cable Customers Satisfied; 73 Percent Want a la Carte


Study: Only 14 Percent of Cable Customers Satisfied; 73 Percent Want a la Carte

PwC finds that though customers want changes, they aren't willing to pay much for them: "With TV in such a state of flux, companies must revisit their business models," says PwC analyst Matthew Lieberman.

A la carte television programming is a popular concept among consumers who presume they'd save money by ditching channels they don't watch, but given that only 38 percent would be willing to pay more than $3 per channel each month, it's not likely the idea will catch on with TV providers who aren't inclined to stray from bundling. Not at that price.

Hollywood, Take Note: Here's What TV Viewers Really Want (Guest Column)

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman Doesn't Expect A La Carte Cable Law

A new study out Wednesday from PricewaterhouseCoopers says that 44 percent of consumers would like a total a la carte system and that 73 percent of consumers would prefer a la carte or at least more customization of packages than is currently offered. Only 14 percent are satisfied with the status quo.

When it comes down to it, though, even customers who want such changes aren't willing to pay much for them. Sixteen percent, for example, say they won't pay more than 99 cents a month for a channel they want, while 24 percent will pay $1.99 and 22 percent will pay $2.99.
At $8 a month per channel, the highest option offered in the PwC survey, only 5 percent say they'd pay up.

The survey also indicates that 57 percent would not pay more than 99 cents a month for access to an individual show each month, while 20 percent would pay $1.99 and 12 percent would pay $2.99. Only 2 percent would pay $8 a month for a show.

Despite the lowly amounts that surely would be dismissed as unfeasible by distributors and content providers alike, TV executives would be wise to note the popularity of the a la carte concept, says PwC entertainment, media and communications analyst Matthew Lieberman.

GUEST COLUMN: Hollywood, Take Note: Here's What TV Viewers Really Want

"With TV in such a state of flux, companies must revisit their business models," says Lieberman. "The winners will be those that offer custom services or curate content in the most appealing ways."
For its study, PwC also held focus groups. "I have a bunch of channels that just sit there," one participant said. "If they could take them off and lower my bill each month, that would be great."
If given the a la carte option, 65 percent say they would subscribe to 10 or more channels, the most popular being basic cable offerings, followed, in order, by premium cable, sports, lifestyle, news, premium sports and children's programming.

The comprehensive PwC report also explores ways that consumers currently watch television, how they discover new shows and the amount of advertising they're willing to view in lieu of subscription fees. In regard to the latter, the rule is simple: The smaller the screen, the fewer the number of ads viewers will tolerate.

TV online is dominated by Netflix to the tune of 63 percent, while 49 percent go to the websites of the TV networks for their online viewing, 35 percent to Hulu, 28 percent to Amazon Prime, 25 percent to iTunes and 24 percent to HBO Go. Three percent go to Pirate Bay.

Only 14 percent say they prefer a web service for their TV viewing, but 31 percent acknowledge that the availability of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and others decreases the value of television to them.
PwC found that 55 percent of TV viewers use their mobile devices while watching television and, of those, 56 percent use them for activities specific to a particular TV show.

Lieberman said focus groups revealed that consumers want more programming guidance from TV service providers. For now, 59 percent say they find new shows through recommendations from friends or family, 45 percent through channel flipping and 42 percent via advertisements. Only 4 percent discover new shows through social media.

Not surprising, DVRs are hugely popular, with 57 percent of consumers saying they record most of their shows for later viewing. Ten percent say they engage in "binge viewing" and 7 percent acknowledge that they often record shows but never watch them.

PwC surveyed 1,008 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 59. Seventy percent of the respondents have cable TV, 41 percent have Netflix, 26 percent subscribe to satellite, 18 percent use Amazon Prime, 16 percent use iTunes and 8 percent use Hulu.

"This study shows that during the next five years, an even greater portion of viewing of and interaction with TV and film content will take place on multiple screens and devices," says Lieberman. "Hollywood must adapt accordingly."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

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Saturday, September 8, 2012

U.K. Freesat TV Venture to Offer Paid-For Content


The satellite TV venture of the BBC and ITV is launching a VOD service called Free Time.

LONDON - Freesat, the U.K. satellite TV joint venture of the BBC and commercial broadcaster ITV, said Tuesday that it will launch a VOD service called Free Time and is looking to add paid-for film, TV and music content offers from partners yet to be announced.

Netflix, Amazon.com's LoveFilm, Vevo and BSkyB's Now TV are possible partners for those offers.
On-demand TV programming via the BBC iPlayer and the ITV Player is coming to the service and will be followed by on-demand content from Channel 4 and Channel 5. Users will be able to scroll through the electronic programming guide to watch past shows up to eight days after they aired.

The service will be available via a new set top box, which will cost £279 ($443) and be available later this month.

"TV is a simple pleasure that technology can make even better, not more complicated," said Emma Scott, managing director of Freesat. "We want to help viewers find something great to watch the minute they sit down, so they can spend less time searching and more time watching the TV they love."

Freesat was launched in 2008 as a free-to-air offer to rival pay TV giant BSkyB, in which Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. owns a 39 percent stake. Freesat currently has signed 2.6 million customers.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

More info: www.hollywoodreporter.com
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Saturday, August 25, 2012

U.K. Commission Confirms BSkyB Has No Material Advantage in Pay TV Movies


UPDATED: The Competition Commission cited the rise of streaming video providers Netflix and Lovefilm in the field it was asked to review, but it also signaled that BSkyB may have "too much" power overall.

LONDON - The U.K. Competition Commission on Thursday confirmed its recent provisional findings that pay TV giant BSkyB has no material advantage in pay TV movies these days.

BSkyB Acquires Parthenon to Distribute Its Original Content Abroad

BSkyB Study Finds U.K. Pay TV Giant Contributes $8.4 Billion to Economy

The organization also confirmed that it would not suggest any regulatory action after in late May citing the rise of streaming video providers Netflix and Lovefilm in revising its stance from last summer.
"The Competition Commission has decided that Sky's position in relation to the acquisition and distribution of movies in the first pay window does not adversely affect competition in the pay TV retail market," it said in its final report Thursday.

But it suggested that BSkyB's has a dominant role in the broader pay TV market in the U.K. "Together with Sky's large number of existing subscribers deriving from its historical position (Sky's incumbency advantage) and the restricted geographical coverage of Sky's main historical competitor, Virgin Media, it appeared to us that these factors resulted in Sky having too much market power in the pay-TV retail market," the Commission said.

It was only asked by Ofcom to look at pay TV movies though, and on that front the Commission was happy with the level of competition. It wasnt immediately clear if any of the comments in the final report could trigger calls for a look at another aspect of BSkyB's market power.

"In its final report, the CC has concluded that Sky Movies, which currently offers the first pay movies of all the big Hollywood studios, is not a sufficient driver of subscribers' choice of pay TV provider to give Sky such an advantage over its rivals when competing for pay TV subscribers as to harm competition," the Commission said in a summary of its findings.

BSkyB acknowledged the final report in a statement. "Sky considers there to be overwhelming evidence that U.K. consumers are well served by strong competition between a growing number of TV providers, including those offering movies," it said. "As this dynamic marketplace continues to evolve, we remain committed to innovating for customers so that U.K. consumers continue to benefit from choice, value and innovation."

The agency has looked at BSkyB, because it holds film rights from the six major Hollywood studios in the first subscription pay TV window. This led competitors and critics to argue that the company, in which Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has a 39 percent stake, has too much market power.

The Competition Commission now believes that the competitive landscape has changed with the market entrance of streaming video providers Netflix and Amazon.com's LoveFilm. As a result, BSkyB "no longer has a material advantage" over rivals, the CC said in May.

Laura Carstensen, chairman of the CC's inquiry group, said: 'We have seen significant change in pay TV movie services in the course of our inquiry and have considered the implications of these developments carefully in reaching our final views. It is clear that consumers now have a much greater choice than they had a couple of years ago when our investigation began."

She added: "LoveFilm and Netflix are proving attractive to many consumers, which reinforces our view that consumers care about range and price as well as having access to the recent content of major studios; and the launch of Sky Movies on Now TV, which ends the requirement to buy Sky Movies alongside a basic pay TV subscription, is a further significant development. Overall, we do not believe that Sky's position with regard to first pay movie content is driving subscribers' choice of pay TV provider."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

More info: www.hollywoodreporter.com
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Monday, October 17, 2011

Actress sues Amazon/IMDb for revealing her age

It seems impossible to get IMDb to change the information. Finally, someone has sued them.

http://tinyurl.com/6ctld8m

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Friday, September 2, 2011

Netflix Price Increases Take Effect yesterday...

Customers who use streaming video and get DVDs by mail may see 60 percent price hikes.
Netflix's long-planned price changes went into effect today, meaning the company's many customers who subscribe to the $9.99 a month plan for one DVD and unlimited streaming will be seeing a 60 percent price increase.
OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS

'Mad Men' Begins Streaming on Netflix

4 Ways Amazon vs. Netflix is Good

In July, Netflix announced it was phasing out the $9.99 a month plan in favor of two separate plans: one for unlimited streaming for $7.99 a month and one for one DVD at a time for $7.99 a month. Customers were notified by e-mail that unless they actively made a change to their subscriptions before September 1, they would be enrolled in both plans.
A survey in July of nearly 1100 Netflix users by Wedbush Securities found that 22 percent planned to cancel their Netflix subscriptions and migrate to Hulu, Redbox and Amazon's streaming video service.

Other companies that have been struggling recently, like Blockbuster, are jumping at the chance to scoop up new customers. The company sent out taunting tweets such as "Dear Netflix, we're offering special prices & 30-day trials of Blockbuster Total Access to your members."
And rumors abound that Amazon, which bought the European version of Netflix, called Lovefilm, at the beginning of 2011, may be planning to migrate the service into the U.S. sometime soon.
It's still too early to tell how Netflix's price hike will affect the company, but comments like this one from @eliasdylan may leave executives nervous: "After 5 yrs I have canceled the disc part of my #netflix account. Don't think streaming will live up to Blu-Ray. Might cancel all next month."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter


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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Amazon Instant Video Streaming Service Now Offers More Than 100,000 Movies...

Recent content deals with CBS Corp. and NBCUniversal have also expanded the lineup of Amazon Prime as the e-tailer competes more aggressively with Netflix in the streaming video space.

NEW YORK - Amazon.com said Thursday that its iTunes-type Amazon Instant Video service now offers more than 100,000 movies and TV shows, while its subscription-based Amazon Prime service has more than 9,000 movies and TV shows available for streaming.

The Amazon Prime content milestone was reached based on previously announced content deals, such as ones with CBS Corp. and NBCUniversal.

Meanwhile, Amazon Instant Video has content from all major studios and networks and regularly adds more titles as they become available. Earlier this summer, Amazon had reported that Amazon Instant Video had 90,000 content items available.

Amazon, led by CEO Jeff Bezos, has been expanding its streaming video programming lineup as it has competed more aggressively with video streaming powerhouse Netflix.

Amazon Instant Video offers new releases and classics for purchase or rental on an a la carte basis starting at $3.99, while Amazon Prime is a $79 a year shipping service that has been packaged with video offers.

"We are focused on offering our customers the very best selection and are always working to expand our already extensive list of great video content," said Steve Oliver, director of video at Amazon. "The 100,000 titles on Amazon Instant Video range from new hit blockbusters to old favorites, with more than 15,000 of those titles available in HD, and popular TV shows available the day after they first air."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

What is the best way to distribute an independent movie on iTunes, Netflix, etc.?

For an independent film maker that made a movie a few years ago and now wants to distribute it on the web via iTunes, Netflix and any other venues available.

What is the best way to achieve this?

1- In addition to Indieflix you can try Distribber. They charge a flat fee to get you up and include Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand and Cable VOD.

2- Assuming that the filmmaker still controls the rights to the film in the territories those services provide, they have a number of options.

There are aggregators out there who gather indie film projects and distribute them on various channels.

One for example is Indieflix who, in addition to their own download and subscription service, feed content to Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes. They take 30% of the net and give 70% to the filmmaker.

Netflix will require DVDs to be supplied to them for circulation. iTunes is more of a mystery. Apple are definitely more comfortable with MPAA rated studio films. MPAA ratings are expensive to procure and will certainly aid the filmmaker in persuading channels to take (and position) the film. Apple do show unrated independent features, but there appears to be a selection process, a G-rated trailer seems to be a help.

http://indieflix.com/pages/filmmaker/

ndieflix is not alone, there are others. For example apparently New Video only take 15% of the Netflix revenue but I am unaware of what other channels they have access to.

http://www.newvideo.com/about/about-new-video/

You should be able to create a mix which gives the best deal across the various channels for the film.

Most of these have their filmmaker agreements online or easily available.

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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Amazon's deal with NBCUniversal could open doors for new tablet...

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Amazon Pacts With Universal to Stream Movies to Subscribers...

Competing with Netflix, the online retailer now offers 9,000 TV and film titles to its Prime customers who pay $79 annually.

Continuing its chase of Netflix, Amazon.com struck another licensing agreement for streaming content, this time with NBC Universal for movies.

CBS, Netflix Sign Two-Year Content Agreement

The deal announced Thursday comes a week after it struck a similar one with CBS and after Netflix re-upped with NBCU in a deal involving TV shows.
While Amazon and Universal wouldn't disclose the number of titles involved – or any financial metrics – the arrangement puts the number of movie and TV titles that Amazon makes available to its Prime Instant Video subscribers above 9,000.

Some of the licensed film titles involved in the deal announced Thursday include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Billy Elliott, Babe, Fletch and Notting Hill.
Amazon's offering is free to subscribers of its Prime discount shipping service, which is $79 a year. Netflix charges $96 a year for unlimited streaming. Netlix, though won't say how many titles are available, except that it is "vastly more" that what Amazon offers.
"We are very excited to offer Prime members popular Universal films at no additional cost," Cameron Janes, director of Amazon Instant Video, said in a press release Thursday. "Our customers love movies and now we offer them more than 2,000 movies to choose from with Prime Instant Video."

When Amazon announced a week ago a deal with CBS for TV shows like Frasier, Cheers, Star Trek and The Tudors, it boasted of 8,000 titles for Prime streamers, suggesting that the arrangement disclosed Thursday involved up to 1,000 Universal movies.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter


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Analysts Warn of Possible Downside of Digital Boon for Entertainment Giants...

While such Hollywood conglomerates as CBS and Viacom beat earnings expectations due to deals with the likes of Netflix, BTIG's Richard Greenfield warns that the "love affair with digital licensing may not play out as anticipated."

NEW YORK - Digital distribution deals for library content with the likes of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.com boosted CBS Corp.'s, Viacom's and Comcast-controlled NBCUniversal's latest quarterly financials, which they reported this week.

Wall Street analysts agreed that a good part of the upside earnings surprises particularly of the two Sumner Redstone-controlled entertainment giants was due to digital revenue and profit. But some of them also wondered whether there will be a risk and long-term downside to the boon in the quarter.

"Digital drives the upside," Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang said about Viacom's Friday results.

BTIG's Richard Greenfield estimated the entertainment giant's quarterly revenue boost from content deals with Netflix and Hulu at around $70 million. And Wang said: "The upside in the quarter was driven by high-margin digital revenues, for example deals with Netflix and Hulu, which accounted for 10 cents per share, or around 80 percent, of the variance with our earnings per share estimate."

Similarly, Barclays Capital's Anthony DiClemente highlighted that CBS reported "a very strong second-quarter in part driven by incremental revenue from its digital media deal with Netflix."
"Of the media companies that have reported this week, Viacom, CBS and Comcast handily beat expectations in part due to the high-margin flow-through of new deals with Netflix and/or Hulu," Nomura analyst Michael Nathanson summarized in a report late Friday. "Two other companies – Discovery and Time Warner – have resisted these "big" jumps into the online water and did not produce the same sized domestic surprise."

DiClemente added that Time Warner has the largest TV library with over 50,000 episodes and could be next to do deals. "Given the deals that CBS and NBC have struck with Netflix and Amazon, we anticipate TW would tee off a similar deal shortly," he said. "Management indicated ongoing discussions with all of the digital outlets."

Greenfield cautioned though that industry CEOs shouldn't be blinded and argued that too much availability of TV content online could ultimately affect TV viewership.
The title of his comments late in the week: "Media's Online Gold Rush or Catch-22? Who Are The Losers? We Cannot Believe Everybody Wins."

"As the U.S. multichannel video market matures and home entertainment revenues fall, media companies have a new best-friend, called digital licensing," he said. After skepticism about digital distribution just a few years ago, when former NBCUni CEO Jeff Zucker spoke of digital pennies for analog dollars, it now feels "as if everyone in Hollywood's new favorite drug is called "digital" and it appears to be quite addictive."

Greenfield's conclusion: "We would love to think that digital is all incremental - viewing and profit-wise, but our gut says the market/press love affair with digital licensing may not play out as anticipated. Just a matter of when that becomes clear and who gets hurt first/most."
Nathanson similarly highlighted that Wall Street loved the digital boon reported by Viacom, CBS and Comcast/NBCUni. "These digital dollars helped drive 2012 earnings revisions higher," he said.

Just like Greenfield's, his warning contained a mention of a potential negative effect of online availability of content on TV viewing. But he also included a reference to the music industry.
"The swing amongst analysts from fearing digital deals to welcoming them as sources of upside surprise reminds us of a time in our previous lifetime," Nathanson wrote. "From 1998 to 2004, we had the glorious chance to cover the global music industry -the first consumer media industry that was being affected by the emergence of the Internet."

Nathanson recalled that back then most on Wall Street had negative views on music companies as the CD market matured and piracy took its toll. When Steve Jobs and Apple the iPod and iTunes, "for a brief period, the parabolic growth of digital music downloads combined with a short term "improving" decline in CD sales (due to folks converting their favorite CD to their iPods) actually produced a temporary positive inflection in U.S. music sales," he explained.

But music fundamentals continued to suffer. Nathanson continued: "Record stores went out of business as it was hard to compete with 99 cents downloads delivered electronically versus $14 albums. Music companies suffered due to that self-inflicted deflationary act." Meanwhile, Apple saw its stock price grow from $8 to over $350, he added.

"The current content licensing deals make a ton of sense as lower valued shows are now being sold to a greater number of buyers," Nathanson concluded before sharing some advice with Hollywood conglomerates: "Our hope remains for media execs to continue to be vigilant and broker future deals that will efficiently monetize library content, rather than follow an ideal that all digital deals are good."

He even outlined the likeliest near-term risk - viewers changing their TV behavior, which could be "adversely affecting networks that don't offer live, exclusive or premium content."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Music labels lash out at Amazon's cloud service...

Amazon is in a battle royale with music labels over its digital music locker service.

Launched on Monday, Amazon's Cloud Player is drawing criticism from record companies chagrined that the Seattle company did not secure music licenses from labels and publishers before releasing its service.

Sony Music Entertainment said in a statement, "We are disappointed that the locker service that Amazon is proposing is unlicensed by Sony Music, and we hope that Amazon will resolve the situation quickly by agreeing to a license with us. We are keeping all our legal options open."

Sony's spokesperson, Liz Young, declined to define "legal options" and whether the company's statement suggests Amazon's service violates any sort of copyright law.

On Tuesday, Amazon fired back that it didn't need licenses to launch its Cloud Player, which lets users upload songs and play the music from any Web browser or device that uses Google's Android operating system.

Because the files belong to users, Amazon isn't required to obtain licenses to be able to store them on its servers and make them accessible to users. But that requires users to upload their music, a process that could take hours if not days for large song collections.

Competing services such as Rdio, which has licenses from the major record labels for a locker service, scan a user's computer to take an inventory of songs on the hard disc drive, a process that takes minutes if not seconds, and instantly make those songs available to stream.

Amazon continues to negotiate with record labels for locker licenses, according to an executive with a major record label. But Amazon's preemptive strike in launching the service without those licenses have irked the record companies. One executive told Billboard that Amazon's service was "third-rate."

Sony has hesitated to jump on board with so-called cloud services because of concerns about users uploading pirated songs to the lockers, along with legitimately purchased music, according to executives familiar with the negotiations.

If this tune sounds familiar, it's a variation on another kerfuffle the online retailer had last year with book publishers. Amazon triggered an uproar last year by insisting that Kindle versions of new releases be sold at $9.99. Publishers rebelled, saying the low price cannibalizes sales of hardcover bestsellers, priced at $25 to $30. The upshot? Amazon caved in, allowing some publishers to set the retail prices for Kindle versions of their titles.

Can't we all just get along?

Thank you Los Angeles Times


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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Amazon Streaming Service No Threat to Netflix, Analyst Says...

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Friday, March 4, 2011

Industry news: Amazon Taking on Netflix With New Unlimited Streaming Initiative...

Netflix, which charges $7.99 a month for a similar service, saw its stock drop after the announcement that Amazon Prime customers will be able to stream movies and TV shows for no extra charge.
Netflix on Tuesday struck a deal to make dozens of CBS shows available for on-demand streaming, but investors seemed more interested in an announcement earlier in the day from Amazon.com, which has suddenly become a wealthy and powerful competitor.

CBS, Netflix Sign Two-Year Content Agreement
Amazon to Take on Netflix With Purchase of Lovefilm
Amazon to Launch Rival to Netflix
The giant online retailer said that its Amazon Prime customers, who pay $79 a year to get deep discounts on shipping, will now also be able to stream, for no extra charge, movies and TV shows on their Macs, PCs and numerous devices for putting the content on television screens.
The initiative pits Amazon head-to-head with Netflix, which charges $7.99 a month for similarly unlimited streaming. The Amazon offering works out to $6.58 a month, and the shipping discounts remain the same. The discounts alone were enough to convince an estimated 4 million people to sign on to Amazon Prime, while Netflix has 20 million subscribers to its DVD and streaming business.
On Day 1 of Amazon's new service, which was Tuesday, it had 1,600 movie titles available and 4,000 TV episodes, compared with Netflix's 20,000 TV episodes and movie titles.
In an online letter announcing the new Amazon Prime benefit, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos listed such movies as Amadeus, Chariots of Fire and March of the Penguins alongside such TV shows as Doctor Who, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Fawlty Towers. He also touted a one-month free trial.
If the titles seem a little dated, that's intentional on the part of the rightsholders, studio executives told The Hollywood Reporter. As Amazon dips its toe into this new water, studios are excited to have a new bidder but aren't inclined to license their most popular and current content just yet.
Shares of Amazon fell 3% on Tuesday, roughly in line with the NASDAQ Stock Market on which it trades, but Netflix shares dropped 6%, perhaps on the news that a rich new competitor is basically giving away its wares for free.
Amazon has been in the business of digitally delivering movies and TV shows to consumers on an a la carte basis since 2006, but this marks its first foray into the subscription model. Five years ago, Amazon called its movie-download service Unbox, then changed it two years ago to Amazon Video on Demand when it added streaming movies and TV shows. On Tuesday, it changed the name again, this time to Amazon Instant Video.
Asked whether the all-you-can-eat video service would be untethered from the Amazon Prime delivery discount product any time soon, Cameron Janes, the director of Amazon Instant Video, demurred.
"I'm not going to speculate on what we'll do in the future," he said.
Cameron did, though, acknowledge that Amazon intends on beefing up its offerings in short order through more licensing deals with content owners.
"We're definitely looking to expand and grow our selection," he said.
Netflix didn't respond to requests for comments about Amazon's new service. It said in a statement that its deal with CBS is a two-year, nonexclusive arrangement for full seasons of such classic shows as Cheers, Frasier and Family Ties as well as episodes of Medium, Flashpoint, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show and others.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter
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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Industry News: Amazon Launches Streaming Video Service...

In a challenge to Netflix, the company is bundling its Amazon Prime service with 5,000 movies and TV shows from such content companies as Warner Bros., Sony and the BBC.

NEW YORK – Amazon.com has officially launched a much-awaited competitor to Netflix's streaming service, which has made the company the second-largest U.S. subscription media business.
Amazon, led by CEO Jeff Bezos, now is promoting its commercial-free, unlimited streaming video service featuring 5,000 movies and TV shows as part of its Amazon Prime shipping service, which carries an annual subscription fee of $79. Initial product consists mostly of library film titles from Warner Bros. - Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has long argued that Netflix won't be the only streaming content provider of note and would have to pay up for current Hollywood product - and Sony along with BBC TV series.

Tech blog Engadget had last month discovered a screen shot of an ad that briefly previewed the service, but now Amazon is officially promoting the service on its site, including a one-month trial.

Some observers had wondered whether Amazon had enough content deals in place to launch the service early in the year, while others said it would initially likely focus on library product and smaller films.

Among the films Amazon lists on its Web site as being part of the service are Syriana, Amadeus, The Ant Bully, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Batman Returns, Best in Show, March of the Penguins, Hairspray, McG's Charlie's Angels, The Last Emperor and the Swedish version of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. Among TV shows, it lists such U.K. series as Skins, The Office, Fawlty Towers, Torchwood, but also The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett previously said that with its own streaming offer, Amazon "could become Netflix's first meaningful streaming competitor." The bundled offer "highlights the potential for Amazon to "superset" Netflix, or offer Netflix's core streaming feature as part of a more valuable, broader package," Crockett argued.

Amazon Prime's $79 price tag for one year compares with Netflix's streaming-only subscription of $95.88. Amid a broader stock market decline, Netflix shares fell 5.9 percent Tuesday to close at $221.60.

Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell said Amazon may not be a major streaming contender yet with the initial content offers. "The risk is whether Amazon adds more new U.S. movies," he said.
"For Big Media, we view the announcement as "good news/bad news"," said Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang. "On one hand, competition for Netflix and another bidder for digital content is a positive. However, longer term, we remain concerned that proliferation of over-the-top services could lead to cord cutting. Should this happen, cable network economics could be hurt by lower affiliate and ad revenue, as pay TV subs decline. While studios may benefit from OTT providers acquiring digital rights, the issue for media firms is that cable network profit dollars are much bigger than studio profit dollars and the Street applies a higher multiple to the former."
For Netflix, rising competition could have effects on its subscriber growth and content costs, which may rise, Wang argued. "That being said, we are increasingly confident in Netflix's ability to execute and highlight Netflix's early lead and scale advantage, in terms of subscribers (20 million+) and content partnerships (20,000 streaming titles in the U.S.), which should continue to fuel Netflix's virtuous cycle," he said.

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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Industry News: Amazon poised to launch online movie service to rival Netflix [Updated]...

February 2, 2011

Amazon.com is gearing up to be the first direct competitor to Netflix's popular online movie service.

The Web's biggest retailer has held talks with the Hollywood studios and several independent companies about acquiring library content for a subscription movie streaming service similar to Netflix, according to people familiar with the matter.

The online retail giant has already scooped up rights to some independently produced movies but has yet to strike a deal with any of Hollywood's big six studios, those people said.

Amazon has told studio executives that the company wanted to launch the service in early to mid-February but has delayed those plans until at least later in the month to deal with some technical glitches and to acquire more content. It is still unclear when the service will go live.

Studio executives say they are weighing several issues as they consider signing up with Amazon, including whether the retailer will be willing to pay as much for content as Netflix, and how it might affect the sale of DVDs and the value of current and future distribution deals with cable networks.

A spokeswoman for Amazon, which already rents and sells digital copies of movies and television shows on an individual-transaction basis, declined to comment.

Amazon is not the only Web-based company looking to take on Netflix, though it does appear to be the farthest along. Online television distributor Hulu has talked to several studios about adding films to its subscription service Hulu Plus, according to people close to the situation. Netflix has a growing amount of TV content, which has already put the two companies into competition. [Update, 3:55 p.m.: Hulu Plus currently has a small number of movies.]

Many potential competitors have been eyeing the success of Netflix, which added 7.7 million subscribers in 2010, bringing its total to 20 million, and saw its stock price more than triple in the last year.

A spokeswoman for Hulu declined to comment.

Both Amazon and Hulu are looking primarily at older movie titles that have completed their runs on pay cable networks such as HBO, Epix and Starz, meaning it would be at least seven years after their theatrical release. Acquiring rights to movies currently airing on pay cable, as Netflix has done in deals with Epix and Starz, can be very expensive. Netflix is paying Epix up to $1 billion over five years.

As previously reported when Amazon first began seriously considering launching an online offering similar to Netflix's last summer, the service will be part of the company's Amazon Prime. People who pay $79 a year for unlimited shipping would also get free access to streaming movies. That's less expensive than even the cheapest Netflix plan, which costs $95.88 a year but includes significantly more content than Amazon is likely to initially have.

While Amazon has yet to set a launch date, a screen shot featured on the technology blog Engadget this past weekend showed what appeared to be a subscription streaming option for the movie "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest." It appears that "Hornet's Nest" distributor Music Box Films will be part of the Amazon service when it launches.

Thank you Los Angeles Times

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Industry News: Amazon Previews Rival Streaming Service to Netflix...

February 1, 2011

An ad for the service, which would be bundled with Amazon Prime, briefly appeared on the e-tail giant's site.
NEW YORK – Netflix's streaming service, which has helped make the company the second-largest U.S. media subscription service and boosted the firm's market value, may finally get competition from Amazon.com.

Amazon, led by CEO Jeff Bezos, has been rumored to work on a streaming video service offer bundled with its Amazon Prime service, which for an annual subscription fee of $79 a year gives users unlimited free two-day shipping, for a while. Tech blog Engadget
over the weekend showed a screen shot of an ad that has since disappeared and mentioned content from BBC America and PBS.

"Your Amazon Prime membership now includes unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows at no additional cost," the screen shot, which featured the film The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, said.

"The link quickly disappeared, so we don't know if it was a real video service in progress, a test, or vaporware," Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett said. "Still, the possibility that this is real is a provocative statement of how Amazon could become Netflix's first meaningful streaming competitor."

Indeed, the bundled offer "highlights the potential for Amazon to "superset" Netflix, or offer Netflix's core streaming feature as part of a more valuable, broader package," Crockett argued. "Amazon Prime includes free shipping for purchases and costs $79 per year, versus a Netflix streaming-only sub at $95.88."

The renewed talk about a likely Amazon streaming offer comes after the e-tailer recently said it was acquiring full control of Lovefilm, which has been called the European version of Netflix.

But the timing of Amazon's streaming service bundle launch likely depends in part on how much access to major content it can negotiate. "We suspect Amazon Prime is not launching in the immediate future as the service description of 5,000 movies and TV shows does not appear to match up with the aforementioned content we saw," BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield said. "This implies that Amazon is still working on its movie/TV content deals with all the majors."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter


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