AMAZON: MORE E-GADGETS TO FOLLOW KINDLE

Flushed with the success of its Kindle ebook reader, Amazon is planning to introduce a number of other e-commerce gadgets, including a smartphone that will produce 3D images without glasses, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Friday), citing people familiar with the company’s plans. The 4G device would also allow users to navigate through content […]

NEW TECHNICAL SNAFU HITS NETFLIX

One week after Netflix’s streaming service suffered a lengthy outage on Christmas Eve, the company’s DVD-by-mail service was hit with its own technical issues. But while last week’s difficulty was blamed on Amazon’s cloud-based storage and computing system, Netflix left unexplained what had caused its DVD site to malfunction on Monday. (The streaming service was […]

NETFLIX’S STREAM IS JAMMED AGAIN

Netflix subscribers in the U.S., Canada and Latin America were unable to stream movies or TV shows on Christmas eve and Christmas morning due to an unspecified problem at the company’s servers on the East Coast. It posted a message on Twitter saying, “We’re sorry for the Christmas Eve outage. Terrible timing! Engineers are working […]

NETFLIX’S LATEST LOSS IS AMAZON’S GAIN

Netflix’s streaming service seemed more like a television package than a movie collection Tuesday as it ended its exclusive deal with Viacom’s Epix cable network (it will still have non-exclusive access to the Epix library until next year). Rival Amazon moved in quickly to sign a licensing deal with Epix, which offers films from Paramount, […]

STORM SHUTS DOWN NETFLIX ON EAST COAST

Netflix subscribers may be considering the U.S. Postal Service’s motto that “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” will prevent their mail from being delivered, but a bad storm can disrupt their streaming service. An untold number of Netflix subscribers who dropped their DVD-by-mail service in favor of the streaming-only one discovered […]

UNIVERSAL SHOWS LOVE TO U.K.’S LOVEFILM

Amazon’s LoveFilm, which is competing against Netflix in the U.K. to provide low-cost movie rentals online, announced today (Wednesday) that it has struck an exclusive deal with Universal Pictures for dozens of films for its streaming service. The films won’t be available until at least a year after they hit theaters, but subscribers to streaming […]

STUDY: KINDLE FIRE SALES PLUMMET

John Paczkowski of All Things D, part of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, posted a column on Thursday illustrated by a drawing from the comic online greeting card company Someecards.com showing a child holding an electronic tablet on his knee. The caption reads: “The Kindle Fire is perfect for watching movie versions of books […]

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 […]

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