20% of subscribers to Vongo, the internet movie service owned by the premium cable channel Starz, do not have cable service in their homes. (via The Rocky Mountain News)...
The huge potential for dollars from downloads may explain why Starz is suing Disney claiming that their online initiatives with Apple and Wal-Mart violate exclusive distribution rights during certain windows. (via Variety)...
AOL will soon offer downloadable movies from Fox, Sony, Universal and Warner at ten to twenty bucks a pop. (via The NY Times)...
Movie Gallery decides to join the online DVD rental business, after apparently losing a bunch of customers to Blockbuster and Netflix. (via Reuters)...
Blockbuster CEO Jon Antioco decides to leave the online DVD rental business and settles for a lump sum payment of $5 million, far less than the $13.5 million Antioco believed he was owed. (via Blockbuster's Press Release)...
Antioco's chief online rival, Reed Hastings - CEO of Netflix, was named as a new director to the board of Microsoft. We can only speculate that this means new upgrades to Windows will soon be delivered to most Americans within one business day. (via Barron's Online)...
Hastings himself is interviewed in today's Wall Street Journal in their "Boss Talk" column. He paints a rosy picture of a world without DVDs, in which Netflix remains a dominant player in the delivery of movies to your laptop, cell phone and television...
Meanwhile, back in Gotham, The New York Post reports that The Brooklyn Public Library (the nation's fifth largest) wants to do a deal with Netflix and use the service to deliver free DVD rentals directly to its members. Netflix spokesman, Steve Swasey, however, seemed completely surprised by the notion...
Perhaps he was just on vacation and missed the memo. According to The San Jose Mercury News, the folks who work at Netflix can take as much vacation as they like, provided their work gets done. The liberal policy applies to those who work in the corporate office in Los Gatos, CA. only, not the distribution centers...
As we've noted before, the proprietary nature of iTunes means that a lot of legitimately acquired video content can't be played through Apple TV, the new device from Apple Computer that promises to get video from your PC to your TV wirelessly. BusinessWeek Online says, "The best thing about Apple TV is that it tries to do for video what the iPod has done for music. The worst thing about Apple TV is that it tries to do for video what the iPod has done for music."
That Kim Kardashian sex tape is now available online and on DVD, following a short delay, during which Vivid Entertainment co-chairman Steven Hirsch tried to iron out differences with Ms. Kardashian regarding its commercial release. The explicit video features Kardashian and R & B singer Ray J. (via Adult DVD Direct 4 Less)...
Jeremy Piven, the Bad Boy of HBO, has reportedly been barred from all Nobu restaurants after a skirmish at the Aspen branch of the posh eatery. He asked for a table for twelve in the packed restaurant, but wasn't happy with the table they found for him and made his displeasure known on his way out. His alleged shenanigans also included leaving a DVD of "Entourage" as a tip for one of the waiters. (via The NY Daily News)...
A college student with a blog (that really narrows the field) insists that "downloading movies for free isn't really illegal." We can't quite follow the logic, but it seems to have something to do with the fact that you may already have paid to see the movie in a theater. (via I Want To Fit In)...
Oh, and just for the record... we sneer at those pathetic videos of Diet Coke and Mentos! What our readers really want to see is a DVD destroyed in a microwave oven. (via YouTube)...
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