REPORT: AMAZON AND VIACOM TO JOIN IN NEW STREAMING SERVICE

Amazon is expected to announce as early as Thursday a deal with Viacom to launch a new streaming video service that will compete with Netflix, Reuters reported today (Wednesday), citing two people familiar with the discussions. The deal would appear to give Amazon, which already operates a popular DVD-by-mail and streaming service in the U.K. [...]

WILL THE INTERNET ABSORB HOME VIDEO?

Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings predicted on Monday that “the era of broadcast TV is going to evolve to click-and-watch with the Internet.” Hastings made the comment in an interview with the London Independent as Netflix launched a low-cost streaming service in the U.K. and Ireland costing just £5.99 ($9.25) per month. Amazon-owned LoveFilm, [...]

BRITISH MUSIC RETAILER LAUNCHES VIDEO-ON-DEMAND SERVICE

HMV, Britain’s largest music and video retailer, is launching a beta version of its video-on-demand rental service today (Thursday) in the hope of offsetting slumping in-store sales. The retail chain said that it is partnering with FilmFlex, a joint venture between Sony Pictures TV and Disney that operates as a middleman — it calls itself [...]

AMAZON ADDS RIVAL NETFLIX TO KINDLE FIRE

Although it has acknowledged that the main reason why it priced the Kindle Fire so aggressively — at $199, it reportedly will sell for less than it cost to produce — was to attract users to its own movie sales and rental service, it said on Wednesday that a built-in app will allow Netflix subscribers [...]

DISNEY/ABC IN STREAMING DEALS WITH NETFLIX, AMAZON

Not playing favorites, Disney/ABC Television Group, has renewed and expanded its streaming deals with Netflix and Amazon. They will allow the two online rivals to offer hundreds of Disney-produced TV shows from ABC-TV, ABC Family and the Disney Channel, raging from Desperate Housewives to Hannah Montana. “We are thrilled to broaden the scope and extend [...]

AMAZON BEEFING UP U.K. VIDEO SERVICE TO COUNTER NETFLIX

A day after Netflix announced that it would be rolling out its streaming service in the U.K. and Ireland, Amazon said that it was beefing up its own LoveFilm disc and streaming rental service in those countries. Members subscribing to its Amazon Prime service would also receive free movie streams. The tight competition is clearly [...]

AMAZON ENTERS RING AGAINST APPLE

Amazon today (Wednesday) unveiled its new electronic tablet, the Kindle Fire, which analysts said may give Apple’s iPad its biggest challenge to date. The device, which can stream thousands of movies and TV shows from Amazon’s extensive catalog via a wi-fi connection, is priced at just $199 — far lower than the cheapest iPad, which [...]

NETFLIX: KICKED WHILE IT’S DOWN

Netflix rivals are ganging up on the leading online movie renter, following a string of PR debacles that have pummeled the price of its shares over the past month. This morning, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos announced that it had signed a deal with Fox to add “a broad selection of movies and TV shows” to [...]

SUNDANCE FILMMAKERS TO GET HELP FROM INSTITUTE

Hoping to provide a wider release for the films that are screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Institute on Wednesday unveiled a new program that will help filmmakers sell and/or rent their movies via the major video websites, including iTunes, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon.com and its own SundanceNow. Sundance will act as the agent [...]

HIGH-FLYING NETFLIX SHARES NOSEDIVE

Netflix shares continued to slide for a third day in a row today (Wednesday) as analysts reacted negatively to the company’s plans to force subscribers to choose between an all-disc or an all-streaming package — or choose both at a subscription-price increase of more than 60 percent. Shares in the company were down $7.87 to [...]

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