Hulu should require viewers to have a cable subscription, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes suggested at the company’s Q1 2012 earnings report. “We think Hulu authenticating makes sense,” he added. “We think Hulu is heading in the right direction now and it might continue to be viable.” HBO Go is having “a significant positive impact” on Time Warner’s business and [...]
Digital content ownership ecosystem UltraViolet has been boosted by the ‘disc-to-digital initiative’ launched mid-April by US retail giant Walmart, according to senior industry executives and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. Speaking at Digital Hollywood in Marina Del Rey, California, NBC Universal digital distribution VP Michael Aaronson admitted to having made his first Electronic Sell Through (EST) purchases under the scheme. [...]
With Hulu reportedly planning to move toward requiring users to prove that they have a pay TV subscription, CBS says it will take another look at potential content deals with Hulu. “We will take a look at it under the authentication model,” said CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves, who has in the past questioned the wisdom of fellow media [...]
The conflicted loyalties of Hulu shareholders – they are all major content players reliant on pay-TV distributors – may result in it becoming a ‘TV Everywhere’ service only available to those with an existing pay-TV account. The New York Post reports that the plan lays behind Providence Equity’s decision to sell up its 10 per cent in the service. Disney, [...]
Australian home entertainment company Quickflix has formed a new partnership with Microsoft to stream Quickflix movies and TV series directly to the Xbox 360 console in Australia and New Zealand. The subscription streaming service will offer unlimited viewing of popular TV series and movies for a monthly fee, and will be available to Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers in Australia and [...]
Netflix has confirmed that it will be available on the Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) from 24th April. The Sony Entertainment Network can be accessed through selected Internet-connected Sony Bravia televisions, Sony Blu-ray players, Network Media player and PS3 devices sold in the UK and Ireland. Netflix will sit alongside other popular third party services on the Sony Entertainment Network including [...]
Ofcom has recommended that the UK’s Competition Commission maintain its original stance, which provisionally found that Sky’s control over pay-TV movie rights in was restricting competition between pay-TV providers, leading to higher prices and reduced choice and innovation for subscribers. Ofcom contends that the arrival of video-on-demand services such as Netflix and LOVEFiLM has not altered the broadcaster’s market dominance. [...]
US VoD service Hulu has made its first ever TV network-style programming presentation to US advertisers, unveiling original commissions from documentary film-maker Morgan Spurlock, Entourage’s Adrian Grenier and the creator of the popular video game franchise Assassin’s Creed. Hulu, the joint venture whose partners include News Corporation, Disney and NBC Universal, has built its video streaming service on buying rights [...]
Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL have suffered a further blow to plans to launch their own Hulu-like platform for watching TV shows soon after they air. The plan to aggregate their content on an ad-supported site was already opposed by regulators, on grounds of market dominance and now a German court has agreed with that assessment. This could give Hulu’s plans [...]
On Demand Group (ODG) and Power, the independent TV Producer, have signed a multi-screen deal to provide the latest Power TV movies and mini-series to ODG Subscription Video-On-Demand (SVOD) services in Latin America. Under the terms of the deal, consumers of ODG’s operator clients in the territories with SVOD access will be able to watch premium movies and TV mini-series [...]
