Comcast to Enable Movie Purchasing in Early EST Window...

Comcast to Enable Movie Purchasing in Early EST Window...

Comcast is expanding from renting to selling movies from major studios by the end of the year, sources confirmed.

The nation's largest cable operator will join digital streaming platforms such as Apple's iTunes and Vudu in allowing users to purchase films in an evolving new window leading into the traditional home-video window, known as "early EST" or as studios recently agreed to call high-definition copies, "Digital HD."

Comcast declined to comment, as did reps from several studios. News was first reported by The Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

Early EST is not to be confused with the controversial premium VOD, which involves movies bowing in tandem with or shortly after the beginning of the theatrical window. Early EST comes after hotels and airlines get films, or several weeks before the traditional three-month separation between theatrical debut and home video.

More and more big movies have launched in that window including "The Heat," "Iron Man 3," "The Great Gatsby" and "Star Trek Into Darkness." Titles are available for approximately $15.

With the major studios recently agreeing to adopt the Digital HD brand for all HD movies available in the early EST window, the addition of a broadly available distributor like Comcast provides yet another shot in the arm for driving the value of ownership to U.S. consumers. While rental transactions outnumber movie purchases, the latter category is of huge importance to the studios because they have a much higher profit margin than the former.

Comcast intends to make movie ownership available through its Xfinity TV platform, which allows access to a huge trove of rental titles regardless of whether they are being accessed on TV, mobile or PC to authenticated subscribers. A cloud-based locker would be built into the Xfinity platform where the content could be accessed.

Comcast has more than 20 million cable subscribers in the U.S. The MSO reported a loss of 129,000 subs in the third quarter.

Currently, Comcast offers its subscribers 36,000 titles through its set-top VOD service and 270,000 videos online. About 70% of digital video subscribers use VOD monthly.

Comcast is currently in talks with Netflix to add the streaming video service to its cable boxes and new X1 product. X1 is a cloud-based service, introduced last year, that Comcast hopes will attract new customers with its user-friendly interface, better search functionality and enhanced DVR.

Overall, Comcast's third-quarter net profit slipped 18% to $1.73 billion, while revenue declined 2.4% to $16.15 billion.

Thank you Variety

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Apple prepping movie cloud service...

Apple Inc. is preparing to put movies in the cloud, entering a market in which it may be both competitor and ally to a similar offering backed by most Hollywood studios.

Representatives of the iPhone and iPad maker have been meeting with studios to finalize deals that would allow consumers to buy movies through iTunes and access them on any Apple device, according to knowledgeable people who requested anonymity because the discussions are private. The service is expected to launch in late 2011 or early 2012.

The talks come as the first movies from the multi-studio venture known as Ultraviolet are launching this week: Warner Bros.' "Horrible Bosses" and "Green Lantern."

People who buy DVDs or Blu-ray discs for those and other upcoming titles, including Sony Pictures' "The Smurfs" and Universal Pictures' "Cowboys and Aliens," will have access to digital cloud copies they can instantly watch on their Internet-connected TVs, smartphones and tablet computers. Ultraviolet purchases via the Web, without discs, are expected to come in 2012.

Every major studio except Disney is working on Ultraviolet with a large group of retailers and electronics companies that notably does not include Apple.

The studios are eager to boost purchases of movies, which have flat-lined in the face of competition from less expensive video on demand and Netflix and Redbox rentals. Sales of DVDs and digital downloads are still crucial to the studios' bottom line, as they are much more profitable than rentals.

However, despite the increasing popularity of digital distribution, online movie purchases are on track to bring in only $231 million this year, about the same as in 2010, according to IHS Screen Digest.

Storing digital films in the cloud, instead of making buyers manage the digital copy themselves on a computer or other device, could help spur online purchases by making it easier for people to access the movies on any device.

On Wednesday, Apple began rolling out an update to its operating system for mobile devices, called iOS5, which enables users to access music, photos, and some other media from the cloud, but not yet movies.

Though studios have spent years building Ultraviolet, people familiar with the thinking of several studio executives say they'd be happy to see Apple join as well, since it accounts for 66% of online movie sales and rentals.

"This is going to be a huge boost to a struggling online movie business," said Arash Amel, digital media research director for IHS. "Apple is going to make it work right off the bat."

Building a cloud movie business without iTunes would be difficult, Amel noted, as it accounts for 66% of online movie sales and rentals.

Under the plan Apple is proposing, users could stream movies they buy via iTunes on any device the company makes, such as the Apple TV, iPhones and iPads, as well as on PCs.

In addition, though Apple is not part of Ultraviolet, its devices could be compatible. The people who have talked to Apple representatives said the company is considering allowing people who buy and store movies with Ultraviolet to easily watch them on Apple devices via apps. That would be a big help to Ultraviolet, as Apple dominates the market for tablets and is one of the top two players in smartphones.

Movies bought on iTunes, however, would continue to work only on Apple devices and computers. That's because the company makes its biggest profits on hardware and wants to encourage people to keep buying its digital devices.

A spokesman for Apple declined to comment.

Thank you Los Angeles Times

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Apple discontinues 99-cent TV rental program...

Apple Inc. has pulled the plug on its 99-cent rentals of television show episodes after making a push last year to persuade TV networks to sign on to the low-price plan.

Consumers, the company ultimately discovered, were just as willing to pay $1 or $2 more to purchase an episode -- even when presented with the discounted rental option.

"iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows," Apple said in a statement Friday. The company said the introduction of the iCloud service allows customers to store content they've purchased online, then watch it whenever they want on any Apple device.

The 99-cent download program faced too many hurdles, said Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors. It required people to have an Apple TV device to view the episodes on their living room TVs, or be forced to watch the programs on a much smaller screen.

"It's very simple. People want to watch shows on their TVs -- not on their computers," Vorhaus said. "Besides that, the competition is intense and much of the competition is free."

From the beginning, the 99-cent rental struggled for traction. Major television studios, including Warner Bros., NBCUniversal and CBS, refused to offer popular shows through Apple at such a discount. They didn't want to set such a low price point and undermine the still-nascent market for digital purchases.

Apple's former Chief Executive Steve Jobs lobbied aggressively a year ago to get the television industry onboard, but only Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and News Corp.'s Fox signed up. Jobs stepped down as CEO this week, to serve in a more limited capacity as the company's chairman.

ABC had an incentive to participate because Jobs is Disney's largest shareholder. News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch agreed to experiment with the 99-cent downloads because he was interested in launching his company's digital news magazine, The Daily, which runs on Apple's iPad.

"After carefully considering the results of the rental trial, it became clear that content ownership is a more attractive long-term value proposition both for iTunes customers and for our business," a Fox spokesman said in a statement.

News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey was more blunt earlier this month during an earnings call with analysts.

"We want to make sure we are vigilant about attacking practices that undervalue our product, like $1 rentals," Carey said. "Our priority [is] just to make sure we're thoughtful and do not allow a quick buck to jeopardize the longer-term value of our product."

Thank you Los Angeles Times


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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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iTunes Replay for Movies Held Up by HBO? No Studio Deals in Place Yet

iTunes Replay for Movies Held Up by HBO? No Studio Deals in Place Yet

iTunes Replay has been the target of several reports claiming that it will be delayed. Few have said much outside of the fact that the whole cloud-based movie and TV streaming service seems to hinge on contracts with the six large Hollywood studios. Well, it now seems that HBO, part of Time Warner, is what might be holding things up.

Why you ask? Well, first off, it's HBO, that should be enough. This is the pay-cable company that requires you to have a subscription to their channels so you can stream the content online (LAME!).

HBO, Gatekeeper to Movie Studios

HBO is also the gatekeeper to several other major studio properties for digital delivery (according to CNET) including 20th Century Fox , Warner Bros and Universal.
What seems to be going on is that HBO has first option on exclusive electronic distribution. This means that no legal digital distribution of any kind can be done without consent of HBO.
While it might seem strange that a cable channel has those rights, you have to think about it in the historical sense and the fact that HBO generally does get first air on many films, meaning they thought ahead to include this into their contracts.

It's also probably why HBO Go is cable-channel-subscription-restricted. They are protecting their own window and subscription base by making sure you cannot, ever get those films anywhere else, without paying them their pound of flesh.

Well, that, and they paid a lot of money for those rights and want to make sure they get a return (or a continuing return) on those payments as well as continue to be in a position to profit from them in the future. So they won't go frivolously offering up contracts that would then compromise their ability to be a competitor in the future.

Enter Apple, who suddenly wants to sign contracts with the six majors, including the three that HBO is the gatekeeper for, and you see their dilemma.

HBO needs to maintain the price point from how they see it. They don't want to be undercut which could then eat into their profits, especially not because they softened on their position and allowed someone to go ahead with a service that, while not competing direct with them in the beginning, eventually evolves to do so. It's just plain business smarts.

On the part of Apple, they might threaten that if HBO doesn't play ball for the Replay service, they can't have their content on the iTunes store. It would be a risky gamble on Apple's part since HBO does have a large amount of content there and pulling it all in hopes of bluffing their way into the HBO digital distribution window, could backfire and not only mean a serious depletion of the video library, but also serious consumer backlash.
What About the Other Big Three Studios?

The others probably won't be so hard to persuade. First off, Steve Jobs owns a lot of Disney, so that deal is all but done, really. Second, Sony loves digital distribution and needs all the cash they can get after three consecutive losses, this year being around $3B in the red. Finally, Paramount, part of Viacom, might simply take a Sotheby's approach to it all and let all the streaming services, cable and satellite operators duke it out in a no holds barred auction for the licenses to their content.That could stand to be a major windfall for them, and in the meantime, while they all fight over it, Paramount can just make the cash on their current deals or offer up the content themselves.
Benjamins Down the Rabbit Hole

Let's face it, this is all high-tech meets Hollywood and anytime these two sit down to the tea party, it's going to be numbers exponentially larger than the Mad Hatter's hat sizes. While dealing out sugar to one company, someone like Apple might also be slipping something noxious into the cups of others just to make sure they have the upper hand when the queen walks up and yells Off with their heads!
Honestly, the only real losers I see here are the consumers as we have to wait while they all sip their tea, eye up the competition and get down to the basics of it: money. Then, regardless of what they come up with, they will turn to the consumers with hands stretched forth and expect payment because, after all, they're obviously doing us a favor with all of this, right?
Yet, I still can't help but wonder, do we even need YAVSS? As in `Yet Another Video Streaming Service,' pay-per-view, subscription or otherwise. Honestly, how many places do we need access to Loverboy, Dirty Dancing and the Last Action Hero?

Thank you Hollywood Reporter


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Industry News : Fox to put awards screeners on iTunes for SAG members

January 8, 2011

Fox to put awards screeners on iTunes for SAG members

The Hollywood awards screener is finally catching up with the digital age. In a first for the industry, Fox Filmed Entertainment will make three current releases from its Fox Searchlight movie unit that were nominated for Screen Actors Guild awards -- "Black Swan," "127 Hours," and "Conviction" -- available as free downloads from Apple Inc.'s iTunes to all of the acting guild's nearly 100,000 voting members.

The move could mark the first step in an industry-wide shift toward making digital copies of movies available to voters for all awards, eventually ending the costly, time-honored practice of producing and sending physical copies of their DVDs.

Fox co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos said his studio is also in talks with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members vote for the Oscars, and with the British Film Academy, about making iTunes downloads available to their voters as well even though they have already been sent DVD screeners.

SAG members will get a code they can use to download the three Fox Searchlight films in high definition and watch them on a computer, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, or on television via Apple TV. As with any iTunes rental, films can be watched as many times as the voter wants during a 24-hour period. They will be available from Jan. 7 until Jan. 28, the day votes are due. The SAG awards will be presented Jan. 30.

Studios regularly send DVDs with watermarks -- which identify the video as belonging to a specific person in case it leaks onto the Internet -- to voters in various awards groups. However, Gianopulos said his studio had never before found a way to get screeners to SAG members.

"When you're dealing with this large a number of voters, it's extremely difficult in terms of logistics and would be cost prohibitive to produce and ship screeners to every SAG member," he said, adding that it would likely cost "many millions of dollars" to do so.

The deal, which Gianopulos pitched to and struck with iTunes chief Eddy Cue, will quite possibly prompt other studios to make screeners available via Apple or other digital outlets. That could particularly be true for those whose films are also nominated for SAG Awards and that may feel at a competitive disadvantage.

Screeners have always been controversial in Hollywood, as studios have weighed competing worries about piracy and desires to promote their films to awards voters. In 2003, the Motion Picture Assn. of America unsuccessful attempted to ban screeners. Some studios later participated in a failed test to send Oscar voters special DVD players that could play screeners with stronger copy protection than normal DVDs.

More recently, studios have returned to sending normal discs along with watermarks to crack down on any members who allow their copies to leak online.

iTunes downloads feature much stronger copy protection than DVDs, however, and can only be watched during a 24-hour period, making it easier for studios to showcase their films to voters securely. Gianopulos noted that they could also be useful for people who want to watch a movie on a portable device or before watermarked discs have been produced.

"This could eventually be an alternative for all awards voters to give them access to our films at an earlier stage or while they are traveling," he said. "It's what technology is all about: Giving people more choices to view films while still recognizing that we would always prefer that they see it in a theater if possible."

SAG members will receive an e-mail from the guild and a postcard from Fox Searchlight with instructions on accessing a download code from the studio's website.

--Ben Fritz

Thank you Los Angeles tTmes

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