Apple Movie Downloads - It's Showtime

Apple is poised to announce it will start selling films from four major Hollywood studios for download in the UK as part of its iTunes internet service at prices on a par with DVDs.

The company intends to unveil agreements with Disney, the studio behind the Pirates of the Caribbean series and Paramount, the company behind the Indiana Jones picture.

Exact pricing details were not available last night, but studio sources said that they ?would not want to undercut DVD prices?. That would imply prices ranging anywhere from �6 to �25.

Twentieth Century Fox, the studio owned by News Corporation, the parent company of The Times, and Warner Brothers, the Time Warner company that is behind the Harry Potter series and the Matrix trilogy are the other two majors to sign up.

Amazon and Play.com already sell DVDs on line. Sweeney Todd, the dramatisation of the familiar story starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter, and distributed by Warner Brothers and Paramount?s DreamWorks was on sale last night from Amazon at �12.98 and from Play.com at �12.99 ? an indication of the potential pricing via Apple?s film-enabled iTunes service.

It is the first time that Hollywood films have been available to Britons, although similar agreements have been struck for the United States already. Canada is also expected to be covered by the new agreement.

Films will be available both for outright purchase and for rent, along the lines of video on demand services already available on Virgin Media and Sky, the satellite broadcaster, 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation.

The exact date on which popular films will be made available is yet to be finalised, and the release schedule is up to the studios. However, the expectation is that studios will make films available for iTunes at prices that are compatible with movie rental for video on demand and with DVD for sales ? and popular titles such as the Warner?s Harry Potter series will be available within the next few months.

Smaller studios such as Lions Gate, the horror specialist, and MGM, the independent studio behind the James Bond series, are also understood to be party to the impending deal, leaving only Sony Pictures, the producer of The Da Vinci Code, and Universal Studios, home to King Kong, outside the anticipated agreement.

The Hollywood studios remain mindful of the need to protect the still large revenue stream from the area, although DVD sales declined by between 2 and 3 per cent last year. In the UK the DVD market was flat in 2007 by value, amid pricing pressure from supermarkets who are keen to sell films at a discount to woo consumers.

Studio executives believe that it is possible to increase revenues through downloading because there is evidence from the United States that extra promotion and the availability of films on multiple platforms boosts interest. They are also confident that Apple is willing to accept varying price points for films, even though the technology giant insists that music should be priced at 79p per song regardless of how much in demand it is.

Niche is the new bestseller

Long Tail. If you hang around the internet for long enough, this is a phrase you will almost certainly happen upon sooner or later. But what is it?

Well, if you're imagining yet another YouTube video involving cats, stop it! Seriously. Because you're probably just the kind of person that keeps forwarding me links of the damned things. I don't care how cute its tiny little fluffy paws are, my inbox is not, nor ever will be the submissions address for You've Been Framed. OK?

Anyway, leaving behind my pet hates, and moving on to the actual topic in hand, The Long Tail happens to be a book by Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine. The Long Tail of the title is the name he gives to the flat but infinitely long end of the demand curve, in which reside all those niche products that don't sell in huge quantities but thanks to the reach of the internet still find a market. We're talking things like Avant-Death-Metal or Glitchcore tracks on iTunes, CDs by barely known bands on Amazon, and the otherwise inexplicable continued availability of Battlefield Earth as a video download or DVD from almost any online movie rental service you care to mention.

By definition then, the items in the Long Tail are not bestsellers, but you might be surprised to hear that taken as a whole, sales of these products can easily match the total sales of all the bestsellers in a particular market. In other words, there is money at both ends of the demand curve: at the short steep head, and at the infinitely long tail. The book is about how this can be exploited.

For any regular business, this is near impossible. Stocking every item in the tail would be not only prohibitively expensive, but also utterly impractical - imagine HMV trying to stock every CD ever produced in each of its stores, for instance. Now imagine HMV, though - it's when we move into cyberspace that the implications of the Long Tail become clear.

To visit HMV is effectively, to set foot inside each and every one of its stores simultaneously - you can browse the extensive Grime inventory of one of its London branches, alongside Trip-Hop in Bristol, all from your laptop in Hull. No doubt also augmented by a central warehouse, the Long Tail is thus spread across all the stores.

Other online businesses have come up with even more elegant solutions to the problems of storing an infinite number of products. Ebay, for instance, cleverly has all its users store the products it sells - it doesn't even have to worry about posting things. But perhaps even better is the business model deployed by iTunes: namely, selling only products that don't even physically exist. Almost a licence to print money.

So why have record labels, movie studios (who've been down this lucrative road once already with home video), and publishers been so slow to cotton on to the opportunities of the Long Tail? After all, infinite, non-physical inventory - what could be better?

No idea, but perhaps they could learn from the YouTube videos I get sent: where there's a tail, there's always an audience.

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Netflix team up with FeedFlix

Feedflix is a relatively new service that socializes Netflix. We all know how popular socail networks are nowadays so this is a clever move by Netflix.

What do Netflix users GET?
They get a profile page, including connections to other similar Netflix members and an RSS feed for the member's account including checked-out movies, queued movies, and reviewed movies.

They also get little pie graphs showing things like the average amount of time they keep a movie checked out.


How does FeedFlix work?

FeedFlix parses data out of Netflix RSS feeds and turns Netflix into a rudimentary social network. Though, it's not really very social yet. Every Netflix user has an RSS feed that includes information about the movies in your queue, the movies you have out, and which you've reviewed or recommended. Feedflix parses those feeds and tracks your account activity to create some helpful data that can be used to get the most out of Netflix.

Probably the most helpful piece of data Feedflix gives you, is how long you keep your rentals on average before sending them back to Netflix. The data is presented in an easy to grasp pie chart and could certainly help people determine if they are getting the most out of their Netflix plan. Incidentally, Feedflix also keeps charts on their community as a whole -- so they have data based on a small sample of which are the most popular Netflix plans, how long people keep movies, etc.

What Feedflix also does is create a public profile page for every user (example) and can suggest other Netflix users who are waiting for the same type of movies as you. That adds something of a social element to the service, although they haven't yet built any real social interaction features around it.

That would be smart though. FeedFlix could theoretically build out a Flixter-like movie social network around Netflix. Clever!

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HD Film Downloads Truth

HD or High Definition (not an abbreviation for Harley Davidson!) is a complicated debate when it comes to downloads. Do HD Film downloads exist?


Question:
Is there such thing as high definition (HD) Downloads?

This question has created a divided community with people arguing that it simply is not 'high definition'. Some are even saying that BlueRay or HD-DVD won?t make it because HD downloads will simply be delivered over the Internet.


Answer:
No

The answer is no, there is no such thing as HD downloads. It is not HD that people receive when downloading a movie on their PC or Laptop via the Internet.

Why HD Film Downloads do not exist?

Just because it happens to be a high resolution, you will only be getting a video stream that?s 1.3 mbps (megabits per second) at best.

You can call it whatever you like and you can even claim it meets the minimum definition of HD because it?s 720p (1280�720) resolution but it is not High Definition (HD) for the simple reason that the bit rate isn?t enough.

A regular 480i DVD is either 2, 5, or 8 mbps and most modern dual-layer 8 GB DVD releases are at least 5 mbps but more likely 8 mbps. A typical DVD movie is approximately 6 GBs of data while a typical ?HD? movie you download is only about 1.5 GBs of data.

The best movie download on the net is Vizumi.com who are advertising HD Film Downloads.

I feel this is more of a 'street' name given to them because they are 'high quality' downloads rather than the blog standard downloads. Maybe then they should be called HQ Downloads!

How Do I get HD Movies?

At the moment, the only way to get high definition TV or HD films is via a HD or Blu Player hooked up to a HD Ready Television and subscribe to a service such as Sky HD or purchase Blu Ray or HD DVD disks to play on your player.

Further Information

A ZDNet post goes into further detail of why HD Downloads do not currently exist.

Tips For Downloads

Do you want to make the most of music and movie downloads, internet TV streaming and catch-up services? If so then take note of the following tips to ensure you have no surprising bills or painfully slow Internet connection speeds because you?ve exceeded your download limit or fair usage policy.

Set downloads or fair usage?
Broadband packages either have a set download limit, so that you know exactly how much you can download each month, or are advertised as ?unlimited?. However, as most people now know, ?unlimited? doesn?t really mean unlimited. You?ll have a fair usage policy attached to your package, and depending on your provider, you could have your download speed throttled, be upgraded to a more appropriate - and more expensive - package, or even have your service terminated if you regularly exceed your fair usage limit.

Those with set download limits will be charged for additional usage, varying from �3 for an additional 3GB with Pipex (www.Pipex.co.uk) to �1.75 per GB with Eclipse (www.Eclipse.net.uk) or �2 per GB with Madasafish (www.Madasafish.com).

Before you go mad with your downloads, check the small print on your contract to see what kind of package you have.

Pick the right ISP
Some providers, like Be Broadband (www.BeThere.co.uk), are designed with heavy downloaders in mind. Although its packages come with ?unlimited? downloads and fair usage policies, it is generous with its allowances and rarely enforces restrictions. It also offers the UK?s fastest headline speed at up to 24Mb, so downloads will be even faster.
Download at night

Traffic shaping, which slows down your connection and therefore your downloads, is applied by many providers during peak hours. So if you can do your downloading at night - usually from midnight onwards - your music and movie files will download a lot quicker.

You might even be able to set programs to start downloading after a delay so that you don?t have to wait up to do it.

Some providers like Plusnet, which doesn?t believe in advertising ?unlimited? downloads has set usage limits on all of its packages, ranging from 1GB on Option 1 to 40GB on Option 4. However, if you do your downloading at night, it won?t come out of your monthly allowance.

Turn off your peer-to-peer
Programs like the BBC iPlayer, Channel 4?s 4oD and Sky Broadband?s Sky Anytime (www.Sky.com), use peer-to-peer software to share files quicker between users. However, with many of these programs, if you simply close them, they will continue to run in the background uploading files to the sharing network. This not only slows your computer down but will also eat away at your download allowance as uploading files also counts.

Make sure that you fully exit the program each time you close it, and use your task manager to check that it?s not running any more.

Track Your Download Usage
If you have a set download limit, or you?re concerned about exceeding your fair usage agreement, then installing a free Broadband Download Monitor is a great way of tracking your downloads and you can even set alarms to alert you as you near your limit.

If you?re using a home network and downloading on more than one computer you?ll have to install it on each computer and add up the usage.

BBC iPlayer Downloads Now Very Popular

The BBC has revealed that its ever popular iPlayer has received more than 75 million requests to stream or download programmes.

The full BBC iPlayer version was launched on Christmas Day last year and has continued to go from strength to strength - and cause a stir among broadband providers - ever since.

Ashley Highfield, BBC Director of Future Media & Technology, revealed that the requests to download and stream programmes topped 21 million last month alone, up from 17.2 million in March - a 20 per cent month on month increase. "Make sure that you completely shut the program down and that it?s not running in the background"

The number of average users also continued to rise, reaching 1.4 million in April - almost double January?s average of 750,000 with Dr Who and The Apprentice proving the most popular.

Last month the BBC iPlayer was launched on Virgin Media's (www.VirginMedia.com) cable television allowing customers to watch missed programmes directly on their TVs for the first time.

A number of providers, such as Tiscali (www.Tiscali.co.uk) and Carphone Warehouse, owner of AOL (www.AOL.co.uk) and TalkTalk (www.TalkTalk.co.uk) voiced concerns last year about the strain that a free, quality internet TV streaming and download service such as the BBC iPlayer would have on their networks, saying that download allowances could become tighter as increasing numbers downloaded TV programmes from the internet.

Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, warned BBC iPlayer fans to keep an eye on their download limits to avoid be fined or having their connection reduced to dial-up speed.

?The BBC iPlayer - and its Channel 4, Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) and ITV counterparts all use peer-to-peer networks to upload and download programmes so if you?re not careful you could end up really eating into your download allowance without realising it.

?Make sure that you completely shut the program down and that it?s not running in the background, and it's also a good idea to install our free Broadband Download Monitor to ensure that you never exceed your monthly limit,? he advised.

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Woolworths New Download Store

Woolworths has overhauled its online download store to coincide with its decision to stop selling CD singles in-store.

Woolworths Download includes music, game, video and mobile downloads and replaces the former music-only .co.uk site. The company said every major music release will be available from a catalogue of over 1.2m tracks, while over 1,000 films and TV shows can also be downloaded.
Jim Batchelor, commercial director at Woolworths, said, "Digital downloading is now the true customer choice for listening and purchasing single music tracks. CDs are alive and well for album sales, but unfortunately the physical singles market is in terminal decline."

"Our customers are now starting to embrace the world of downloading which is why we feel the time is right to launch our new digital site."

For the first week the top ten music tracks will be 59p, with the top ten albums at �6.99. Regular tracks start at 77p, with videos from 97p and mobile content, such as ringtones and games, from �1.50.

Roku Review

Roku Inc., a small maker of Internet-connected media devices, this week introduced a black box that grabs movies and TV shows from Netflix, the DVD rental-by-mail pioneer.

You attach the Netflix Player to your TV, and connect it to your home broadband connection over Wi-Fi or a cable. Pick a movie using the included remote, wait a minute for the download to start, and then watch on your TV.

There are a couple of other boxes on the market that do the same thing, including the Apple TV. The Roku Netflix Player, which is half the size of a Nintendo Wii, isn't really better than any of them, but it has one tremendously attractive feature: its price. In a shaky economy, that's the kind of feature that seals the deal.

It costs just $99.99. Even more importantly, it's cheap to use. If you already subscribe to Netflix's DVD rentals, you pay nothing extra to watch as much Internet video as you want, as long as your monthly plan is $8.99 or more.

This makes the Roku-Netflix combination a far better deal than its competitors. Apple Inc.'s device costs $229 and lets you rent movies from iTunes for $2.99 to $4.99 each. Vudu Inc. sells an eponymous box for $295, with similar rental prices. Various TiVo Inc. digital video recorders will let you download movies from Amazon.com. The catch with all of these is that you have just 24 hours to watch a rented movie; if you need more time, you have to pay the rental fee again.

If you're the kind of person who sits down once a week to watch a movie straight through, that will cost you about $15 a month for four movies with either box. But if you watch those movies in half-hour segments four days a week, you're paying more like $60 a month.

Apple, Vudu and Amazon.com aren't directly to blame for their rental terms, which are set by movie studios. Vudu has managed to double the rental period on independent movies.

Netflix, on the other hand, manages to skirt these onerous rental terms entirely by licensing the movies from the studios not for downloading, but for streaming.

The downside to this model is that Netflix has fewer "big" movies available, and they take longer to show up after they leave theaters. But there are enough good flicks to give you your money's worth and more, like "Letters from Iwo Jima," "La Vie en Rose" and "Pan's Labyrinth." TV shows include "Dexter" and "Heroes."

You pick the movies on the Web site, using your computer, and place them in a "queue." Back at the TV, you pick among the movies in the queue with the remote. You can't access the entire instant-view catalog through your remote ? you have to preselect on the computer. I didn't find this to be a problem.

So how do the movies look? Good enough, in most cases. Everything is in standard definition, but the quality varies considerably from movie to movie, and with the speed of your Internet connection. At a download speed of 2.2 megabits per second, the maximum quality delivered by Netflix, "Heroes" looks as good as or better than a DVD. "Blade Runner" looks terrible at any speed, apparently because of low-quality source material.

Most of the content is watchable, but if your broadband line is medium-range DSL at 1.5 mpbs, the quality will be substantially less than if you have 3 mbps or more. The Netflix Player's one really annoying feature: reversing and fast-forwarding takes much too long.

For me, the low price was an effective dose of Gold Bond powder on this irritation. Starting a movie takes up to a minute? Yes, but hey, it's cheap!

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Roku Review

Roku Inc., a small maker of Internet-connected media devices, this week introduced a black box that grabs movies and TV shows from Netflix, the DVD rental-by-mail pioneer.

You attach the Netflix Player to your TV, and connect it to your home broadband connection over Wi-Fi or a cable. Pick a movie using the included remote, wait a minute for the download to start, and then watch on your TV.

There are a couple of other boxes on the market that do the same thing, including the Apple TV. The Roku Netflix Player, which is half the size of a Nintendo Wii, isn't really better than any of them, but it has one tremendously attractive feature: its price. In a shaky economy, that's the kind of feature that seals the deal.

It costs just $99.99. Even more importantly, it's cheap to use. If you already subscribe to Netflix's DVD rentals, you pay nothing extra to watch as much Internet video as you want, as long as your monthly plan is $8.99 or more.

This makes the Roku-Netflix combination a far better deal than its competitors. Apple Inc.'s device costs $229 and lets you rent movies from iTunes for $2.99 to $4.99 each. Vudu Inc. sells an eponymous box for $295, with similar rental prices. Various TiVo Inc. digital video recorders will let you download movies from Amazon.com. The catch with all of these is that you have just 24 hours to watch a rented movie; if you need more time, you have to pay the rental fee again.

If you're the kind of person who sits down once a week to watch a movie straight through, that will cost you about $15 a month for four movies with either box. But if you watch those movies in half-hour segments four days a week, you're paying more like $60 a month.

Apple, Vudu and Amazon.com aren't directly to blame for their rental terms, which are set by movie studios. Vudu has managed to double the rental period on independent movies.

Netflix, on the other hand, manages to skirt these onerous rental terms entirely by licensing the movies from the studios not for downloading, but for streaming.

The downside to this model is that Netflix has fewer "big" movies available, and they take longer to show up after they leave theaters. But there are enough good flicks to give you your money's worth and more, like "Letters from Iwo Jima," "La Vie en Rose" and "Pan's Labyrinth." TV shows include "Dexter" and "Heroes."

You pick the movies on the Web site, using your computer, and place them in a "queue." Back at the TV, you pick among the movies in the queue with the remote. You can't access the entire instant-view catalog through your remote ? you have to preselect on the computer. I didn't find this to be a problem.

So how do the movies look? Good enough, in most cases. Everything is in standard definition, but the quality varies considerably from movie to movie, and with the speed of your Internet connection. At a download speed of 2.2 megabits per second, the maximum quality delivered by Netflix, "Heroes" looks as good as or better than a DVD. "Blade Runner" looks terrible at any speed, apparently because of low-quality source material.

Most of the content is watchable, but if your broadband line is medium-range DSL at 1.5 mpbs, the quality will be substantially less than if you have 3 mbps or more. The Netflix Player's one really annoying feature: reversing and fast-forwarding takes much too long.

For me, the low price was an effective dose of Gold Bond powder on this irritation. Starting a movie takes up to a minute? Yes, but hey, it's cheap!

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Roku Netflix Movie Downloads Review

It is the big horse race in the gadget market this year: who is going to win consumers' hearts with a box that brings internet movie downloads to the TV set? Now we may possibly have a tiny box that deserves to be a winner or at least a leading contender.

Roku, a small maker of internet-connected media devices, this week introduced a black box that grabs movies and TV shows from Netflix, the DVD rental-by-mail pioneer.

You attach the Netflix Player to your TV, and connect it to your home broadband connection over Wi-Fi or a cable. Pick a movie using the included remote, wait a minute for the download to start, and then watch on your TV.

There are couple of other boxes on the market that do the same thing, including the Apple TV. The Roku Netflix Player, which is half the size of a Nintendo Wii, is not really better than any of them, but it has one tremendously attractive feature: its price. In a shaky economy, that is the kind of feature that seals the deal.

It costs just US$99.99. Even more importantly, it is cheap to use. If you already subscribe to Netflix's DVD rentals, you pay nothing extra to watch as much internet video as you want, as long as your monthly plan is US$8.99 or more.

This makes the Roku-Netflix combination a far better deal than its competitors. Apple's device costs US$229 and lets you rent movies from iTunes for US$2.99 to US$4.99 each. Vudu sells an eponymous box for US$295, with similar rental prices. Various TiVo digital video recorders will let you download movies from Amazon.com. The catch with all of these is that you have just 24 hours to watch a rented movie; if you need more time, you have to pay the rental fee again.

If you are the kind of person who sits down once a week to a watch a movie straight through, that will cost you about US$15 a month for four movies with either box. But if you watch those movies in half-hour segments four days a week, you're paying more like US$60 a month.

Apple, Vudu and Amazon.com are not directly to blame for their rental terms, which are set by movie studios. Vudu has managed to double the rental period on independent movies.

Netflix, on the other hand, manages to skirt these onerous rental terms entirely by licensing the movies from the studios not for downloading, but for streaming.

The downside to this model is that Netflix has fewer "big" movies available, and they take longer to show up after they leave theatres. Some of its 10,000 instant-view movies are exercises in obscurity, like the Italian horror movie Planet of the Vampires. But there are enough good flicks to give you your money's worth and more, like Letters from Iwo Jima, La Vie en Rose and Pan's Labyrinth. TV shows include Dexter and Heroes.

You pick the movies on the website, using your computer, and place them in a "queue". Back at the TV, you pick among the movies in the queue with the remote. You can not access the entire instant-view catalogue through your remote ? you have to preselect on the computer.

So how do the movies look? Good enough, in most cases. Everything is in standard definition, but the quality varies considerably from movie to movie, and with the speed of your internet connection. At a download speed of 2.2 megabits per second, the maximum quality delivered by Netflix, Heroes looks as good as or better than a DVD. Blade Runner looks terrible at any speed, apparently because of low-quality source material.

Most of the content is watchable, but if your broadband line is medium-range DSL at 1.5 mpbs, the quality will be substantially less than if you have 3 mbps or more.

I also found that if I connected the player to the internet using Wi-Fi, the speed of the download varied between 1 mbps and 2.2 mbps, with an attendant change in picture quality. When I connected the box to my internet router with a cable, everything came down at 2.2 mbps.

There is no surround sound, but if Netflix were to add that to its movies, the box would play it, according to Anthony Wood, chief executive of Roku. Wood also said the player is capable of high-definition video, if Netflix would provide it. HD would probably require a download speed of at least 6 mbps, and it might be tough to get it to work over Wi-Fi.

The Apple TV and Vudu are less dependent on the speed of your internet connection, because they contain hard drives that can store a movie for later viewing if the connection is slow. Each also has about 100 HD movies available.

The lack of a hard drive in the Netflix Player is part of the reason it is so cheap, but it is also behind its one really annoying feature: reversing and fast-forwarding takes much too long. Since it takes up to a minute for the box to "find its place" in a movie by downloading the content from Netflix, skipping back 10 seconds to listen again to a missed line can take much longer.

For me, the low price was an effective dose of Gold Bond powder on this irritation. Starting a movie takes up to a minute? Yes, but hey, it is cheap! The picture quality varies a great deal, and there is no HD? Yes, but you can not expect the world for US$8.99 a month.

Roku's box is just the first of what Netflix hopes is a whole family of products that get movies from its website. LG Electronics is planning to include the streaming capability in a Blu-ray DVD player later this year, and two other unnamed manufacturers are bringing out set-top boxes.

But I don't see a big reason to wait for them. Even if the Roku player sacrifices a few things to limbo under the US$100 price level, it is a no-brainer for the 8 million-plus Netflix customers out there. If you are not one, this is an added reason to become one.

CinemaNow: burn-to-DVD digital movies via Windows MC

Representing the latest effort to compete with iTunes in the burgeoning movie download space, CinemaNow is now offering a variety of paid content services through Windows Media Center. These include download-to-own movies, priced from $10 to $20; TV shows and music videos are priced at $2.

The company claims that download-to-own movies are available day-and-date of retail DVD release, but doesn't mention the breadth of the upcoming library (right now there are about 3,400 feature-length movies in CinemaNow's collection). The service will also offer 24 hour movie rentals priced between $3 and $4. Select Pay-Per-View titles are available day-and-date of retail DVD release.

CinemaNow also enables customers to legally download a DVD, play it back on their PC, and burn a copy to a blank DVD disc. The disc can then be played in virtually any DVD player with full remote control navigation and access to all of the special features. Burn-to-DVD movies are priced from $9 to $15.

The service will also take advantage of Microsoft's Internet TV Beta ? a U.S. offering within Windows Media Center that "allows consumers to choose from more than 100 hours of TV entertainment, music concerts, movie trailers, news, and sports content" ? and Online Media, which offers sports news and statistics from Fox Sports, XM Radio, HSN Vision, and Showtime TV.

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PS3 Movie Downloads Coming Summer 2008?

Sony could be taking on 360's Video Marketplace with its own film download service for PS3 as soon as this summer. That's according to the LA Times, quoting anonymous "studio executives familiar with the plan".

Sony is apparently currently in licensing talks, with plans to beam TV programmes and movies to PS3 units via PSN.

The report comes after Sony marketing boss, Peter Dille, spoke of the incoming video service on the PlayStation Blog. "Many of you have been hearing rumblings about a video service that will allow you to download full-length TV shows and movies via PlayStation Network for North America."

He continued: "While I don't have any new announcements here for the PlayStation Nation, it's already been confirmed that we'll be offering a video service for PS3 in a way that separates the service from others you've seen or used. Ultimately the goal of the PlayStation Network service will be to break through the overwhelming clutter of digital media to give you the TV, movies and gaming content you want."

While Dille promised "more on this very soon", Sony UK refuses to comment on the LA Times report. We say get those broadband connections ready for a video-fuelled battering real soon.

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Netflix launches movie download device

Online DVD rental company Netflix Inc. took another step into the home entertainment market Tuesday by unveiling a new set-top box that allows its subscribers to stream videos directly from the Netflix Website to their televisions.

Netflix said it developed the player with technology company Roku Inc. and will begin selling the device Tuesday for $99.99. The service will initially offer 10,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix's 100,000-title library.

The announcement of the new device helped send Netflix shares up $2.85, or more than 9%, to $33.85.

Customers will need what Netflix calls an "unlimited" subscription, starting at $8.99 a month, in order to use the Netflix player. The player itself comes with no other charges aside from the original pricetag.

Netflix said the device is about the size of a paperback book and works with wireless Internet connections.

The move is seen as the latest attempt by various companies to establish a footprint in consumers' living rooms with devices to bring content from the Internet and their computers to their televisions. Similar devices have come from Apple Inc.

Separately, Lehman Brothers analyst Douglas Anmuth raised his rating on Netflix's stock to overweight from equal weight, and also increased his 2008 earnings target for the company to $1.26 a share from $1.24. Anmuth said Netflix is showing signs of benefiting from growing subscriber trends

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Amazon's Unbox to Add HD Movies

Amazon's Unbox service will soon offer High-Definition TV shows and movies, according to an article by TV Week magazine.

The e-commerce site has offered movie and TV show downloads for several months, but only in standard-definition. The Unbox downloads are available at Amazon's web site and on TiVo DVRs that have Broadband connections, including the $299 TiVo HD set-top.

Jim Denney, TiVo's vice president of product marketing, tells TV Week that Amazon will soon add high-def programming. The executive would not offer a specific launch date, but said it would happen in "in the not too distant future."

Microsoft's XBox, Apple TV and the Vudu VOD set-top now offer high-def programming over the Net directly to the TV. For TiVo, the addition of Amazon high-def content would help the company's efforts to generate more subscribers in the growing HDTV audience.

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Hollywood wants $15 million from Pirate Bay Downloads

Hollywood wants $15.4 million in damages for copyright infringement from the people behind The Pirate Bay, according to a claim filed by industry organization the Motion Picture Association.

Pirate Bay is one of the most widely used BitTorrent trackers for music, movies and software. Previously the recording industry, computer game developers and local movie companies, have specified damages totalling $15.4 million dollars.

Included in the claim are "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "The Pink Panther," "Syriana," "Walk the Line," and 13 episodes from the first season of "Prison Break."

"The Pink Panther" is the most popular title among Pirate Bay users; the least popular, by a mile, is "Syriana." They have been downloaded 49,593 and 3,679 times, respectively, according to MAQS, the law firm which represents MPA.

The damages are based onper downloaded movie and every time someone had downloaded a copy of Prison Break. The sums are not unreasonable, because the distributed files didn't include copy protection, and were made available before the release of a DVD or a legal download, according to MAQS.

Included in the final sum is also interest, which will continue to grow, and damages for the harm Pirate Bay has caused.

Torrentspy.com fined $111 Million

A $111 million law suite has ruled in favor of 6 major Hollywood studios against file-sharing web site TorrentSpy.com

The web site was fined a total of $30,000 for almost 3,700 movie and television show downloads which were on offer.

Torrentspy.com was shut down in March and its operators Valence Media LLC have filed for bankruptcy protection in the UK asking for judgment on the ruling to be stayed.

In a major win for Hollywood studios, a California federal judge has ordered TorrentSpy to pay some $110 million in damages for infringing the copyright of thousands of films and TV shows through its BitTorrent search engine.

The Los Angeles judge, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, also issued a permanent injunction against TorrentSpy, which was once one of the most popular indexes of BitTorrent files before it shut down in March after a two-year copyright battle with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The company closed its site on March 24, citing financial hardship and a desire to protect the privacy of its users.

MPAA CEO Dan Glickman said the judgment should serve as warning to other search services of file-sharing applications.

"The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios and demonstrates that such pirate sites will not be allowed to continue to operate without facing relentless litigation by copyright holders," he said in a statement.

The judge ordered TorrentSpy to pay $30,000 per copyright infringement for 3,699 films and shows. That works out to be worth $110,970,000. How that amount will be paid is unclear. A call to TorrentSpy's attorney was not immediately returned. The judgment puts a fine point on another long battle between technologists and copyright holders.

The studios originally sued TorrentSpy in February 2006, alleging that the site promoted and contributed to online copyright infringement by helping people locate illegally copied films and television shows on the Internet. Last December, a federal judge sided with the MPAA by saying that TorrentSpy had destroyed evidence that would make a fair trial possible.

According to the court, TorrentSpy operators had intentionally modified or deleted directory headings naming copyrighted titles and forum posts that explained how to find specific copyrighted works; concealed IP addresses of users; and withheld the names and addresses of forum moderators. The company had previously been fined $30,000 for violations of discovery orders and were warned of severe sanctions if they continued to ignore the orders.

TorrentSpy's attorney, Ira Rothken, called that ruling "draconian in nature and unfair." He said he did not believe any data was intentionally destroyed, and that some actions were taken to protect the privacy of TorrentSpy users.

Rothken also said at the time that TorrentSpy would appeal any decision on damages.

Still, the permanent injunction prohibits Valence Media, operator of TorrentSpy, from engaging in any activity that "encourages, promotes or solicits, or knowingly facilitates, enables or assists, copyright infringement," according to the court.

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ISPs Must Tackle Download Piracy

Internet service providers, website operators and manufacturers of devices that are used by some to pirate content should play a part in stamping out that piracy, Sumner Redstone, chairman and controlling shareholder of both Viacom and CBS, said on Tuesday.

"It is obviously impossible to check every computer or look over the shoulder of every user around the world to see whether they have a license to use our content and we don?t want to do that," said Redstone in a keynote address to the Seoul Digital Forum. "So solutions turn on enlisting the aggregators - ISPs, device manufacturers, hosting companies, and site operators - in this effort. We're not ask for perfection. But we do ask that companies that become aware of piracy using their facilities, do something about it."

Redstone, who was on his first visit to South Korea, spent about one third of his keynote address at the event speaking about piracy and the damage it does to companies like his own.

"When you can instantly and easily download a high-quality, feature length film for free, with no repercussions, the incentive to purchase it quickly evaporates," he said. "If this sort of theft is allowed to continue unabated, the incentive to create programming will disappear."

While battling piracy content providers need to continue forging on into new media markets and utilizing new distribution methods to reach consumers, he said.

"Media companies, in turn, need to make it easy for consumers to obtain our content in a legal manner," said Redstone. "We cannot let the lack of perfect antipiracy tools keep us from forging ahead in providing the best, most innovative, creative content to the consumer over whatever medium they prefet, whenever and wherever they prefer it."

Content providers like Redstone's CBS and Viacom have been battling online piracy of movies and TV shows for several years.

First efforts involved a string of high-profile lawsuits against individual internet users but with so many people participating in file sharing and other forms of piracy the target of actions switched to site operators.

YouTube has been a major focus, and a chorus of complaints from TV stations and movie companies pushed the Google-owned site to introduce a watermarking system that seeks to block copyrighted material from being uploaded.

"They cannot get away with stealing our product," he said of YouTube. We cannot tolerate any form of piracy by anyone including YouTube."

But getting ISPs to monitor and filter traffic of their users has traditionally been a difficult thing to do. Most keep their hands off packets traveling through their networks and devices arguing that they are mere conduits and not responsible for the actions of their users. Today many ISPs in the US will act on copyright complaints but only after a claim has been made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA).

Redstone also called on regulators the world over to ensure copyrights are protected and infringements are punished.

In some nations the tide is turning against piracy thanks to new laws, he said, which were introduced not to help Hollywood but to prevent damage to emerging local content industries.

"The good news is: I am, increasingly preaching to the converted in piracy-prone markets around the world," he said. "Governments in China and India are starting to take an active interest in enforcing copyright, if only to protect their own homegrown content."

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Sky TV announce movie download service

Sky TV has announced a new download service that will be charged at $5 per month and offer members unlimited movie and TV programme downloads to their computers.

Starting next month, Sky TV will offer a movie and TV programme download service through its Sky Online website that will allow users unlimited downloads for $5 per month.

Users will need to be current Sky TV subscribers, and for movie downloads you will need to be a Sky Movies subscriber. Sky TV chief executive John Fellet says the available movies will closely mirror the Sky Movies offering. Sky Box Office movies will not be included in the service.

Initially, only movies and programmes that have already screened on Sky will be available for download, but Sky is negotiating with Hollywood studios to secure rights to sell movies online that have not been broadcast on the TV service.

Telstra Clear and Vodafone are underpinning the service and John Fellet says these ISPs are likely to offer special deals that will reduce the broadband data charges users will face.

Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen was not able to supply details and said that negotiations with Sky were still on-going.

Files will be delivered in the Windows Media format and will come with Microsoft's Advanced DRM 2.9. This means the file will be locked to the machine it is downloaded to and will come with a time-specific licence that may be anything from one week to a month.

Users can watch the movie or programme as many times as they like within the licence period. When the licence has expired, the user can log back in to the service to the renew the licence if it is still available.

Sky TV general manager Sam Morse said licences will remain current in much the same time frame that the same movies are playing on the Sky Movies TV service.

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Apple losing money on iTunes movie download service

It?s common knowledge that superstores sell many products at a loss to get you into the store, once your there, they hope you will buy many other products to make them a profit in total. Selling products at a loss also builds their brand and business by word of mouth. When it comes to online stores and Apple iTunes things are no different, they would sell certain services and products at cost or even make a loss to build the brand and hope for repeat business from you.

Today we are hearing that Apple may be losing money on the new iTunes movie download service, the hype surrounding this new service is the fact that the movie downloads are being made available on the same day as the DVD release. This has been setup with an agreement between Apple and film studios (this includes the six largest movie studios).

From this week you will be able to buy new movies for $14.99 on iTunes, but it has been reported that Apple are paying around $15.50 for each movie, that may only be a $0.51 loss but over millions of downloads (that?s a big loss). Now Apple must have a plan here, and I am guessing that if millions of movie downloads do happen, Apple will be in a position to demand a better price from the movie studios.

Apple to Sell Movie DVDs

Apple, maker of the iPod media player, said yesterday that it would start selling movies through its iTunes online store the same day they are released on DVD.

New releases from studios, including Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., will cost $14.99, Apple said in a statement. Previously, customers had to wait several weeks after the DVDs debuted. The service will start with such movies as "American Gangster" and "Juno" this week.

Chief executive Steve Jobs is counting on movies to increase sales of iPods, Macintosh computers and Apple TV devices, which let users watch downloaded films on their widescreen televisions. In January, Jobs said customers had bought 7 million movies, which was below his expectations. Apple began selling movies and television shows on iTunes in October 2005.

"People want to watch a movie as soon as it comes out, and they don't want to have to wait," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research in New York. "What Apple is doing is knocking down one more barrier for why you wouldn't want to buy a movie from them."

New titles will also be available from News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Co., Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.

The studios are betting that Apple will repeat its success in music with films, Gartenberg said. "They are feeling that iTunes is an important venue."

ITunes, with more than 6 million songs, is already the most popular site for legal music downloads, according to NPD Group in Port Washington, N.Y. Apple said last month that iTunes had surpassed Wal-Mart Stores as the biggest music retailer in the United States. Apple has sold more than 4 billion songs since opening the iTunes store in April 2003.

Apple offers more than 1,500 films, including 200 in high definition. Studios now sell older movies for $9.99 each and provide films for rental under a service Jobs introduced in January. Apple said yesterday that it has 1,000 movies for rent.

"The Internet is a growing channel and one that many believe is the ultimate future of entertainment distribution," said Ross Rubin, an analyst at NPD. "For Apple, it's another step in reaching parity with the retail DVD market."

With digital downloads and rentals, the studios still need to figure out how to make movies available without jeopardizing the more lucrative DVD sales, said Steve Diamond, an entertainment-law professor at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif.

At the same time, the studios want to put films online to stem the demand for pirated copies, he said.