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Tag: movies

  • shomi is Coming to All Canadians this Summer

    shomi is Coming to All Canadians this Summer

    shomi-canada

    Canada, make room on your couch and time in your schedule – shomi is moving in! Following a successful beta launch in November 2014 to Rogers and Shaw Internet or cable customers, shomi is now coming to all Canadians across the country this summer.

    The comapny is moving in and unpacking “great stuff” to watch – including exclusive series not available on other streaming services, celebrated Canadian content, human-curated collections, plus fun kids and family programming.

    shomi has exclusive content deals for some of the most buzz-worthy TV series being produced today. Canadian exclusives such as Golden Globe-winner Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle, and Catastrophe; exclusive day-and-date releases of hot new series including iZombie and multiple award-winning Jane The Virgin; top-notch Canadian content including Vikings, Rookie Blue, and Mr. D; and past-seasons of some of the most popular shows on television, featuring Modern Family and Sons of Anarchy – these are just a few of the series that are coming this summer with shomi.

    Beyond TV binges, shomi offers hand-picked movie favourites plus great kids-and-family content, including Thomas and Friends, Blue’s Clues, Johnny Test, Scooby Doo, and Boy Meets World.

    shomi is accessible across the variety of platforms – tablet, mobile, online, Xbox 360, Apple TV, Chromecast, as well as set-top boxes for Rogers and Shaw TV subscribers; the service is also on offer to other distributors.

  • Hulu in 2012: $695M Revenue, 3M Paying Subscribers

    2012 has been a huge year for Hulu. The following article will go over the progress the company made over the past year, its current and future expansion plans and also what is in store for Hulu in the upcoming years.

    Hulu Revenue Update

    In the year 2012 Hulu earned $695 million dollars in revenue. This number represents a 65% growth in revenue over the past five years, which is high for general industry as well as tech companies.

    New Subscriber Numbers

    Hulu has expanded its subscriber base substantially in 2012, with around three million current users. These Hulu Plus subscribers represent users that pay to access Hulu and represent a revenue stream separate from the company's advertising based revenue model.

    How Has Hulu Content Changed in 2012?

    2012 has brought a plethora of new content to Hulu streaming video service. Total titles available have grown by 40% and much of the new content comes from premium, established media companies like Viacom, CBS, and World Wrestling Entertainment. The content additions have done a great deal to make Hulu more competitive with other streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.

    Hulu Advertising Changes in 2012

    This fiscal year has brought a large increase in the number of advertisers who work with Hulu. In 2012 Huku has worked with over a thousand different advertising firms which represents a 28% increase over the same advertising partnerships from one year ago. Not only are advertisers who work with Hulu becoming more diverse, they are being drawn to the company by the ability to effectively target an audience and reduce the amount of wasted commercial impressions.

    One big project that Hulu will be focusing on in 2013 will be to expand into the Japanese market with special Japan-only programming and production of domestic Japanese shows for usage on the Hulu Japan site. This expansion combined with the solid revenue and content numbers bodes well for the future of Hulu in the online content streaming industry.

  • Universal Adds iPhone/iPod Features to Blu-ray Titles


    Universal Studios has announced plans to add a series of iPhone and iPod touch-enabled features on its upcoming Blu-ray releases.

    These will enable access to exclusive interactive content through the mobile devices – starting with the Blu-ray release of the box-office smash Fast & Furious on July 28th.

    The free app will be available from Apple’s App Store on the same day and will give users the ability to control interactive content on web connected Blu-ray players.

    One of the features, Virtual Car Garage, will give users360-degree views of the cars in the movie, as well as the ability to call up exclusive technical specs.

    Later this year, Universal will extend the features to allow access to bonus content on Blu-ray discs, which will be downloadable to the iPhone/iPod touch to watch features on-the-go.

    The devices will also be able to be used as a virtual remote to control Blu-ray disc features and/or access additional detailed information about the film, its cast and more while watching the movie.

    Releases will also integrate with social network applications or sites such as Facebook and Twitter to allow users to update their friends about movie-related activities.

  • Vudu Extends Content To 3rd Party Hardware


    Vudu is to make its 14,000-plus movie library available on Entone set-top boxes and DVRs.

    The deal is the first time Vudu’s content, including around 1,500 HD movies, has been made available on third-party hardware.

    Entone supplies set-top hardware to smaller regional US telco video providers, many of whom have limited or non-existent video-on-demand offerings.

    Users of Entone units will only require a software upgrade to add the entire functionality of the Vudu BX100, including on-demand access to HD and HDX movies.

    While Vudu has cut the price of its entry-level box to USD $149, the possibilities offered by extending its pay-per-view content to a much wider audience are huge.

    By moving from being a box manufacturer to a service provider, Vudu could extend itself into network-enabled consumer electronics.

    This would allow it to join the likes of Netflix and Amazon Video-on-Demand as a supported feature in everything from HDTVs and Blu-ray players to home theater systems and game consoles.

    Entone said Vudu-compatible Entone set-top boxes are expected to get the software upgrade sometime this summer.

    It should include all the features available on the existing Vudu hardware, including the Vudu Labs features that include access to YouTube and Flickr.

  • BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand Coming Through TiVo


    Blockbuster is to be the latest online video-on-demand service to appear on TiVo DVRs.

    The pair announced today that they are working to make Blockbuster’s service available on all TiVo Series2 and Series3 DVRs (including the HD and HD XL models) in the second half of 2009.

    The deal means TiVo’s hardware will appear on the shelves of local video rental stores, while Blockbuster’s service will get exposure to millions of new users.

    It also means that TiVo adds Blockbuster to a list of available streaming video that already includes Netflix, CinemaNow and more.

    In November, Blockbuster launched a movie rental service via set-top boxes.

    It offered a STB made by 2Wire that plays downloaded movies.

    Jim Keyes, Blockbuster chairman and CEO, said working with TiVo enabled subscribers to access movies not only through his company’s OnDemand service but also from their stores and by-mail service as well.

    "Regardless of a film’s availability – through VOD or on DVD – we want to work with TiVo to provide their subscribers unprecedented access to movie content," he said.

    Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo, said joining with Blockbuster made TiVo a "one-stop shop" for any content thru broadband or linear distribution straight to the TV.

  • HD Movies Now For Sale on Apple's iTunes Store


    HD movies are now available for purchase from iTunes for playing on Macs and PCs.

    Until now, high def movies had only been available to Apple TV owners.

    HD Movies will be sold for USD $19.99, while HD rentals will be priced at USD $4.99. Both are in H.264 compressed 720p quality and will come with an HD file and an iPod/iPhone SD file.

    Apple said "Transporter 3" and "Punisher: War Zone" are among the titles available immediately.

    Preorders are being taken for "Twilight" (set for a March 21 release) and "Quantum of Solace" (March 24).

    Interestingly, Apple TV has now gone from having exclusive access to all non-podcast HD content from Apple,then HD TV shows were made available generally in September and now that has broadended to include movies.

    Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services, was confident HD movie purchases would be popular.

    "Customers have made HD content on iTunes a hit, with over 50 per cent of TV programming being purchased in HD when available," he said.

  • On Demand Group Wins Greek VoD Contract for IPTV launch


    On Demand Group has won the VOD and subscription VOD contract from OTE for its upcoming IPTV service in Greece.

    ODG is Virgin Media TV’s content management partner for its VOD service in the UK, which is the largest VOD service outside of North America with over 50m views per month.

    Tony Kelly, CEO of ODG said the TVOD and SVOD offering would help kick-start the IPTV launch.

    "The range of movies, TV series, kids programming, documentaries and music videos will help to underpin the successful launch and regular and sustained viewing of VOD in Greece,” he said.

    OTE’s FilmExpress transaction VOD (TVOD) service includes blockbuster movies from major Hollywood studios including Disney-ABC-ESPN Television, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.

    Subscribers to the service can select a movie of their choice for a 24-hour rental period with full DVD-like features including control to pause, fast forward, rewind or watch over again.

    OTE’s FilmClub subscription VOD (SVOD) service includes a wide range of TV series from CBS, HBO, HIT, Lions Gate and Warner Bros, as well as documentaries from National Geographic.

    The SVOD service also includes library movies from HBO, Lions Gate, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros, and hundreds of international and local music videos from EMI, Universal Music and Sony Music.

    Subscribers will also receive more than 30 digital broadcast channels.

  • Growing Appeal of Memory Card Movies For Mobiles


    Watching movies on smartphones has in the past had its drawbacks – picture quality, screen size and memory limitations among the most obvious.

    Those are fading rapidly but it seems that delivering video content to mobiles is occupying a lot of people’s attention.

    In the US Alltel Wireless is offering buyers of the new touchscreen Samsung Delve a free 2 GB microSD memory card if they buy the handset before April 16.

    What makes the offer interesting is that Paramount Pictures will put the Mission: Impossible trilogy on the card.

    At last week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, smartphone-biz-news spoke to Marine Desoutter, marketing manager with Mobilclip, about its video compression technology that puts movies on memory cards.

    She said the French company has distributed over 100 movie titles worldwide on Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung handsets.

    "Mobile video consumers have not had an optimal experience with video quality on their devices," she said.

    "To change their perception and really deliver on expectations that video quality on mobile devices must match TV or PC quality, the same experience needs to be delivered."

    Desoutter said Mobiclip memory card movies provided full screen display on QVGA handsets (320×240 pixels), 25 frames per second and highly optimized codec for lower battery consumption.

    The memory cards can be used on any handset with a card slot running Symbian S60, Windows Mobile, Palm or Linux operating systems.

    Certainly the quality of the video can’t be faulted but whether movie deals bundled with mobiles will become a standard feature in the near future remains to be seen.

    A survey just released suggests that embedded content is an increasingly strong influence in swaying consumers’ mobile purchase decisions.

    So perhaps the offer of some blockbuster movies on a memory card will be equally persuasive.

    We’d be interested in hearing if you think that’s so.

  • Vudu Halves Cost Of Basic Player


    The cost of VUDU’s basic 250GB VUDU HD player has been halved to USD $150.

    According to the on-demand internet provider the move is not a sign of looming financial problems.

    It stresses that the dramatic price cut is due to positive factors.

    These are cited as a combination of lower component prices, higher movie revenues and increased content demand following strong holiday sales.

    In October, VUDU launched a new video format to rival Blu-ray called HDX.

    It delivers full 1080p at 24 fps to screens 40 inches and up via web distribution using VUDU’s TruFilm compression technology.

    As well as the VUDU HD, the company is reducing the price of its home theater, VUDU XL, to USD $499 and adding in a connectivity pack that previously cost more than $100.

    VUDU’s content library now runs to more than 13,000 movies and TV shows – including what it claims is the world’s largest HD library of more than 1,300 titles.

  • Amazon Video On Demand Brings New-Release Movies To Roku


    Roku has agreed a deal that will give its set-top box users access to Amazon’s video on demand (VOD) content.

    The agreement means owners of Roku digital video players will be able to instantly purchase, rent and watch digital movies and TV episodes from the Amazon service.

    Currently the Roku player only supports Netflix.

    Amazon’s VOD service has more than 40,000 commercial-free movies and television shows, including instant access to new release movie titles.

    Rental prices range from USD $0.99 to $3.99 per view.

    The deal with Amazon, which will kick in during Q1 2009, is part of an effort by Roku to widen its content offering.

    Tim Twerdahl, Roku’s vice president of consumer products, said Roku owners should expect more content to become available in the first half of 2009.

    “We’re looking to create an open platform for a number of different business models and content types,” he said.

    With Netflix providing a subscription-based model and Amazon a transactional one, Twerdahl said the company was now working hard to get ad-supported video on the Roku player.