$60 TO RENT A MOVIE? IS THAT A TOWER HEIST?

How much will consumers be willing to shell out to watch a movie while it is still playing in theaters? Universal apparently believes that $60 sounds like a reasonable figure. It will soon find out. They’ll be making their Eddie Murphy-Ben Stiller comedy Tower Heist available via video-on-demand at that price beginning on November 23 [...]

PARAMOUNT TO OFFER LATEST TRANSFORMERS MOVIE ON OWN SITE

In a landmark antitrust ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948 (United States vs. Paramount Pictures) motion picture studios were barred from owning the theaters that showed their movies. Since then, they have operated through distribution companies (most of which they own themselves) that are essentially middlemen between themselves and theater owners. A similar [...]

BLU-RAY TO SURPASS DVD NEXT YEAR

By next year, Blu-ray will surpass DVD as the preferred home video format in America, and by 2014 it will account for 41 percent of total home entertainment spending, according to a study by the research firm Futuresource Consulting. By that year, DVD spending will be down to 26 percent of combined entertainment spending, with [...]

HULU WON’T LOSE ANY OWNERS BUT WILL UNDERGO CHANGE

The three media conglomerates that own Hulu — News Corp, Disney, and Comcast’s NBCUniversal — are going to stick with the online video site — contrary to what several analysts have been predicting — but they might allow fewer shows on Hulu’s free service, restricting them to its monthly Hulu Plus subscription service, the Wall [...]

MICROSOFT BUYS SKYPE FOR $8.5 BILLION

In its biggest deal ever, Microsoft announced today that it had purchased Skype, the company that permits users to make audio and video phone calls over the Internet, for $8.5 billion. But it was not clear what the company plans to do to make Skype profitable. While it said that it would merge the company [...]

COMCAST NOW OFFERS VOD FROM ALL NETWORKS

Throw away the TV guide. If you’re a Comcast subscriber, you’ll be able to watch many network television shows any time you wish. Comcast said on Wednesday that it has become the first cable-TV provider to offer programs from all four major television networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, on its video-on-demand service beginning the [...]

MOVIE TO DEBUT SAME DAY IN THEATERS AND VOD

Passion Play, starring Mickey Rourke, Bill Murray and Megan Fox will be available on video-on-demand on May 6, the same day that it debuts in theaters, DISH Network said on Wednesday. Moreover, it won’t bear a premium pricetag. DISH said the movie can be viewed in high definition for $5.99 or $4.99 in standard definition. [...]

MAGNOLIA PICTURES OFFERING VOD ON SAME DAY MOVIE DEBUTS

Mark Cuban’s Landmark Theatres chain does not seem at all concerned about movies becoming available for video-on-demand at the same time they’re in theaters. One of the reasons may be that the chain is a corporate sibling of Magnolia Pictures, also owned by Cuban, which already has offered to allow cable and satellite companies to [...]

NEW ONLINE RENTAL SERVICE HIT BY MPAA LAWSUIT

The motion picture industry has acted quickly to shut down a new movie rental service called Zediva, which was launched last month. Here’s how it works: A customer pays a fee to rent a DVD player and a movie, and Zediva then plays the movie for the customer. While playing it to one customer, the [...]

EXHIBITORS OUTRAGED BY STUDIOS’ VOD PLANS

Like yelling fire in a crowded theater, four movie studios set off panic among exhibitors attending the convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners with word, first reported by Daily Variety, that they plan to launch a premium video-on-demand program called Home Premiere that will allow subscribers to the DirecTV satellite service to watch [...]

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