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Amazon Kicks Off Its Kindle Tablet Week With Fox Deal
Amazon has announced a new licensing deal with Fox that will bring "24," "Arrested Development," "The X-Files," "Ally McBeal," "Buffy the VampireSlayer" and "The Wonder Years" to its $79/year Amazon Prime service (all of the titles except the latter are already available on Netflix streaming). The Fox deal comes just ahead of a press conference Amazon will hold this Wednesday, in which it is widely believed to unveil a new color Kindle Tablet that will play video and compete head-on with the iPad.
Categories: Aggregators, Broadcasters
Topics: Amazon, Kindle, Netflix
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DreamWorks Gives Netflix A Much-Needed Lift, But Not Until 2013
DreamWorks Animation's new output deal with Netflix gives the beleaguered streaming-only provider a much-needed lift, but unfortunately not untilDreamWorks' 2013 movies are released. Under the deal, Netflix may pay up to $30 million per movie, an increase from the $20 million that HBO is believed to have been paying DreamWorks. The press release also notes that some of DreamWorks' catalog movies such as "Kung Fu Panda," "Madagascar 2," "Chicken Run" and "Antz" will also be included over time. The DreamWorks deal comes on the heels of last week's news that Netflix licensed library programs from Discovery Communications.
Categories: Aggregators, Studios
Topics: DreamWorks Animation, HBO, Netflix
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New Blockbuster Movie Pass Features DVDs in Starring Role
Irony was on full display at the Dish Network press conference announcing the new Blockbuster Movie Pass, as the very first benefit CEO Joe Clayton pointed to was access to 100K+ DVDs by mail (with no extra charge for Blu-ray). That's right - despite Netflix's willingness to practically blow up the company in its belief that "streaming is the future," good old Blockbuster is returning to its roots, emphasizing physical media's primacy, at least for now. That Blockbuster was outgunned by Netflix's own superior DVD-by-mail service years ago just adds to the sense that "all that's old is new again."
Categories: Aggregators
Topics: Blockbuster Movie Pass, DISH Network, Netflix
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Netflix Now Conceding Price Hike Is Also Hurting Q3 New Subscriber Acquisitions
Just when you thought things couldn't get worse for Netflix, here's a tidbit of information that could have significant consequences for the company: in aQ&A session at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference on Wednesday (replay here), CFO David Wells conceded that while cancellations due to the price increase announced in July accounted for most of the 1 million downward revision in end of quarter subscribers, the change has also adversely impacted new subscriber acquisitions (though he declined to quantify by how much). I believe this is the first time a Netflix executive has acknowledged a double whammy resulting from the price increase - both higher than expected churn and a slowdown in additions.
Categories: Aggregators
Topics: Netflix
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Investors Stay Bullish On Video As Vidyo and Visible Measures Raise New Rounds
Investors continue to be bullish on video-related companies, with news this morning of two more significant financings: Vidyo, an HD video telepresence provider has raised a $22.5 million Series D round (for a total of $97 million since inception), and Visible Measures, a social video advertising and analytics provider, has raised a $13 million Series D round (for a total of $45 million to date). The Vidyo financing was led by QuestMark Partners and the Visible Measures round by DAG Ventures and new strategic partner Advance Publications, parent of Conde Nast and other magazines. Each company's existing investors participated their financings as well.
Categories: Deals & Financings
Topics: Vidyo, Visible Measures
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MyDamnChannel Shows That Persistence Pays When Pursuing Brand Dollars
MyDamnChannel's CEO Rob Barnett was the featured speaker at last night's Multi-Screen Mix-Up in NYC and his short presentation and Q&A with Tubefilter's Josh Cohen underscored how persistence pays when it comes topursuing brand dollars. Rob was pretty candid is explaining that in the beginning it was nearly impossible for MyDamnChannel to attract brand attention, so it settled for low-five figure deals to get the ball rolling and develop its content model. Flash forward to today and Rob says he and the team are now getting in to see chief marketing officers at Fortune 500 companies (and sometimes even the CEO himself/herself) to discuss brand entertainment projects.
Categories: Branded Entertainment, Indie Video
Topics: MyDamnChannel
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NATPE Brand Innovation Summit is Tomorrow
A limited number of tickets are still available for NATPE's Brand Innovation Summit in NYC tomorrow, Sept. 22nd. NATPE has a great lineup of speakers spanning brands, publishers, agencies and content creators. There will be sessions on branded entertainment, social media's role in the marketing mix, how to measure advertising success in this noisy landscape and much more. Discounted registration is still available for $195 using the code "INNOVATE" when prompted. Hope to see you there!Categories: Events
Topics: NATPE
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New Social TV Network "Vidblogger Nation" Rolls Out On VOD
Independent video producer SimplyNew Studios has unveiled "Vidblogger Nation," featuring 3-5 minute episodes from video bloggers in 10 local marketsaround the U.S. Each of the video bloggers is creating 12 episodes for the first season of Vidblogger Nation which will be carried by Comcast On Demand Local. The idea is for the video blogger to each tap into their social networks to help generate audience and engagement.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Indie Video, Video On Demand
Topics: Comcast, SimplyNew Studios, Vidblogger Nation