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Blockbuster Staggers to a Sale
The wrangling over what should become of Blockbuster's carcass seemed to reach a resolution yesterday as the judge presiding over the company's bankruptcy approved its proposed auction process. For those who haven't been following the drama, potential acquirers - mostly a group of hedge funds - have been fighting with movies studios that are Blockbuster's creditors, over the company's fate, with some recently calling for an outright liquidation.
The Blockbuster story is a cautionary tale about what happens when companies don't pay attention to changing market conditions. No company was better positioned, and with a better brand, than Blockbuster, to take advantage of the shift to digital distribution. But Blockbuster was slow to adapt, its strategy and execution were flawed, and it had the bad luck of running into an extremely capable upstart in Netflix.
Here's a picture of the last Blockbuster in my area I snapped earlier this week; I'm guessing you've witnessed this scene in your neighborhood as well. You gotta love the irony of the tag line "THIS LOCATION ONLY."
Categories: Deals & Financings
Topics: Blockbuster, Netflix
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PwC's New Viewership Research Shows Vastly Changed Landscape
A industry friend passed me a copy of PwC's new research on viewership across platforms and by age groups this week, which shows a vastly changed landscape for entertainment consumption. On the top line, the research reports that consumers are watching 12.4 hours/week of TV and movies via download, streamed, digitally recorded and online, vs. 8.9 hours of TV and movies on network TV and basic cable. When looked at by three age groups, 18-34, 35-44 and 45-59, only the latter category watches more network TV/cable, and only for TV shows, not movies (see chart below).
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Movie Windows Back in the Spotlight
Movie windows were back in the spotlight this week as Hollywood executives continue to air out their anxiety over digital distribution's impact. In a pair of articles (here and here), Home Media Magazine covered remarks by Disney CFO Jay Rasulo and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes at the Deutsche Bank conference in Palm Beach, FL. Rasulo put his finger on Hollywood's challenge of how to "re-work release windows to generate incremental revenue, without cannibalizing existing revenue streams and upsetting distribution partners."
However, as Disney knows from its experiment last year of accelerating the DVD release of "Alice in Wonderland," which raised the ire of British theater owners, balancing these objectives is no easy feat. Meanwhile, as "Premium Video-on-Demand," an early window release plan for $30-$40 per movie approaches, theater owners' unhappiness will become even more apparent.
Categories: Aggregators, FIlms, Studios
Topics: Disney, Netflix, Time Warner
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Facebook-Warner Bros.: Big Deal or Little Deal?
Speaking of movies, this week brought news that Facebook was dipping its toe into Hollywood's waters, by offering Warner Bros. "The Dark Knight" for purchase and rental to its members. Though Warner positioned the move as an experiment, Netflix stock went into a free-fall as investors swooned over Facebook's possibilities. But as a former business school professor of mine was fond of asking his class, "Is this a BIG deal or a LITTLE deal?"
Categories: FIlms, Social Media, Studios
Topics: Facebook, Neflix, Warner Bros.
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Who Will Win the Chance to Watch Every 2011 MLB Game?
This past Monday night was the application deadline for "MLB Dream Job," a new web series that Major League Baseball and Endemol are creating, in which one lucky fan will be sequestered in a New York City apartment to watch every single game of the 2011 season and blog frequently about his/her experience. It's an attention-grabbing idea that, according to this THR article, had already attracted over 5,000 submissions, as of about 2 weeks ago. When I first read about the web series, my initial thought was, "wow, if only I were 22 again, what a great way to spend 6 months," but then that yielded to a memory of what happened to filmmaker Morgan Spurlock when he went on a McDonalds-only diet for 30 days in the 2004 documentary "Super Size Me."
Categories: Indie Video, Sports
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #91 - Mar. 11, 2011
I'm pleased to present the 91st edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for March 11, 2011.
In this week's podcast, Daisy Whitney and I discuss YouTube's acquisition of independent online video producer Next New Networks. As I explained in my post earlier this week, while it's tempting to see Google/YouTube becoming a content creator itself with the deal, instead I think of the move as taking a page from the cable industry's early playbook. YouTube is trying to play the role of "strategic catalyst" for online video creators, similar to what early cable TV operators did for early cable TV networks. Daisy doesn't see it quite the way I do however, which might suggest I'm giving YouTube more credit than they deserve. We'll see how it plays out over time.
Then we talk briefly about "ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit," a new 1-day conference I announced earlier this week. Note, just as I finish up inviting Daisy to participate, the gremlins attacked and the podcast recording unexpectedly stopped. For those of you interested in her response, she said "she'd be happy to join us, that is if she's not in Paris at the time." Ahhh, choices, choices.
Click here to listen to the podcast (13 minutes, 41 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!
Categories: Aggregators, Deals & Financings, Events, Indie Video, Podcasts
Topics: ELEVATE, Next New Networks, YouTube
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Two New NDS Products Aim To Turbocharge Content and Apps for Pay-TV Operators
Pay-TV technology provider NDS is introducing two products this morning that aim to turbocharge new content and applications offerings from pay-TV
operators. The moves are further evidence of how the line between traditional TV and over-the-top content/apps continues to blur. Last week, NDS's SVP of Advanced Products and Markets Yoni Hashkes and VP/Chief Marketing Officer Nigel Smith walked me through the two new NDS products.
The first, dubbed "Infinite TV Exchange" creates a marketplace for content creators/curators to interact with pay-TV operators who want to add specialized channels to their linear and VOD line-up. With Infinite TV Exchange, professional content providers can upload individual videos, which either they, or third-parties, can then curate into cohesive, branded programming packages or "channels." NDS has initial commitments from National Geographic, Revision 3, SPEED channel, Watch Mojo, Red Bull Media and others, totaling up to about 100,000 hours of content to be uploaded to the market.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Technology
Topics: NDS
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With Next New Networks Deal, YouTube Evokes Cable's Early Days
With Monday's announcement that YouTube is acquiring independent video producer Next New Networks, plenty of people have concluded that Google
and YouTube have officially become content providers themselves - something the companies swore they'd never become. While it's tempting to conclude this, my take is that YouTube is actually lifting a page from the cable industry's evolution - seeking to act less as content creator, and more as a "strategic catalyst" for the online video era. Let me explain.
Back in the early days of cable, its primary value proposition was purely improved reception. Many of the earliest cable systems were built in communities where over-the air broadcast signals were poor. Once those initial systems were built and then subsequently upgraded to have expanded capacity, the industry recognized that it needed to hang its hat on more than just the proposition of "better picture quality." Thus began a frenzied process of creating new specialty channels to appeal to specific audience segments. Initially these channels offered re-runs and other inexpensive shows they could get their hands on (who remembers that ESPN's early days featured ping-pong?). Eventually however, these channels would become original programming powerhouses in their own right.
Categories: Aggregators, Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators, Deals & Financings, Indie Video
Topics: Liberty Media, Next New Networks, TCI, YouTube
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