Surfing Movies with Jinni – Public Beta Opens with Netflix Support

Hacking Netflix has a short report on hooking up the web 2.0 film content browser Jinni with your Netflix account. Now that the service is open for a public beta, you can try it out. Here’s the word:

I’ve been playing with the beta of Jinni, a movie and TV show recommendation website that integrates nicely with your Netflix account. I’m always looking for new movies and shows to watch, and Jinni takes a different approach, letting you search for movies based on mood or plot.

Looks pretty slick. Makes you wonder if Netflix will gobble them up or try and form their own type of recommendation system. Read the full story at Hacking Netflix – Jinni Recommendation Site Launches Public Beta.

Comcast to Expand Streaming VOD

Comcast looks to expand the streaming service out to PCs, as long as you’re getting your internet through them too. Dig it:

Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) On Demand Online will move from trial to reality later this year but not as the TV Everywhere wonderland all the hype might lead subscribers to expect: the streaming on demand will be limited to some cable shows and movies, access will be limited to in-home computers—and, at first, access will be possible only through Comcast’s own ISP, barring anyone who does not pay Comcast for video and broadband. But, as promised, the actual service will be free to cable subscribers; access will bethrough Comcast.net or the company;s video portal Fancast.

Sounds pretty weak. If you’re a Comcast subscriber, read the full story at PaidContent – Comcast Will Expand Streaming On Demand This Year; Not Quite TV Everywhere.

Day-and-Date for Disc Based Media and VOD Strategy is Working

Sure, maybe it is a bad example because it’s “Twilight”. It’s something you wouldn’t understand unless you’re a teenage girl. However, Summit Entertainment is reporting that their fears of digital copies taking precedence over the obsolete disc formats are still not yet a reality. Observe:

When Summit Entertainment released the vampire hit simultaneously on DVD and video-on-demand, it broke the oldest taboo in home entertainment: No other studio had released a pic grossing more than $100 million at the domestic B.O. that way, fearing VOD transactions would cannibalize disc sales.

As the entertainment biz inevitably moves toward a day when discs will give way to product delivered directly to TVs and computers, the business is poised somewhat uneasily on a tightrope. Summit and some majors like the day and date VOD and DVD release strategy; others are worried it will cut into DVD sales.

But that didn’t happen with “Twilight”: The March release became — and still is — the year’s top home entertainment title. Almost 8.5 million copies have been sold on disc or via download on sites such as iTunes, while rentals have exceeded 14 million transactions on all formats, with VOD accounting for a healthy portion of that.

Summit Home Entertainment prexy Steve Nickerson is convinced the release strategy paid off in greater overall coin.

The article goes on to explain more on the decline of DVD sales and where the market is at. It’s a good read, so check out the full article on Variety – The upside of a DVD and VOD day-and-date release.

Fox Gets In the Digital Content Game

Finally seeing the light, Fox has jumped on the bandwagon to begin developing and producing original digital content for “new audiences”. The poop:

Fox Digital Studios, announced Monday, will develop, produce and distribute original and spin-off programs for the Web and emerging digital platforms, the company said.

[...]

Fox Digital Studios will serve as a centralized unit that leverages the studio’s storytelling and production expertise to bring content to Web, mobile and gaming platforms, he said.

All I can say is good. Read the full story on VidBiz – Fox launches digital content development unit.

The End of the Line for Hollywood, What On-Demand Means for Studios and Cable Companies

Recently there’s been a slew of articles outlining the future of VOD and the doom it spells for the Hollywood studios and the cable companies alike. The first article is an interesting one pertaining to some anti-piracy reforms currently going on in the MPAA camp and some of the major Hollywood studios’ slow reaction time to the rapidly changing VOD market. Here’s a snip:

But if you’re really inclined to wag a finger, there is nothing disrupting your business more than the Internet. The MPAA has worked hard to force file-sharing sites out of business or push them to the Web’s fringes. At first, the studios tried to kill file sharing with lawsuits. Then they hired security firms, such as MediaDefender and MediaSentry, which promised to discourage file sharers by blocking or slowing the sharing process. None of that worked.

Maybe that’s one reason the MPAA overhauled its “antipiracy” operations three weeks ago. CNET reported on Friday that the studios’ trade group decided to change the name of the “antipiracy” unit to “content protection” and fired three leaders, including the MPAA’s general counsel.

Read the full article over at Cnet – End of the world as Hollywood knows it.

The second article pertains to TV specifically, attacking the outdated distribution and revenue model for the shows. The main point that the author is making, albeit indirectly, is that viewers value two things above all else: quality and convenience. Quality is two-fold: that’s to say the artistic quality of the show (why you like it) and the visual quality of the content (HD). Convenience is a no-brainer. It is far easier for people to pirate a show and watch it at their convenience without interruptions (commercials) than it is to catch it on the tube or deal with using a Tivo. Here’s a snip from that article:

What I’m doing is downloading TV shows and sending them to a media player near my TV. I’m doing this because there exist two separate infrastructures that interface imperceptibly at one key point – the official cable and online distribution networks and the shady underworld of pirate distributors. Right now that interface is a trickle, but it will soon be, pardon the pun, a torrent.

The first infrastructure is the studio system. While I’m talking specifically about TV here, we can also extrapolate to talk about movies and music. This infrastructure is based on the advertising or distribution model in that they make all their money placing advertisements around their content or by placing their content onto physical media. But what is important to note is that the TV industry is in a completely different business from the music and movie industry. They’re not “selling” a product. They’re selling the space around a product. They they commission artists to make that product better in hopes of raising the price of the space around that product. They sell DVDs, sure, but that’s a sideline.

I think the true testament to all of this is the fact that it is no longer (or maybe never was) a faux paux to admit you’re pirating TV shows and films because “everybody else is already doing it”. Indeed. Read the full article at CrunchGear – What “on-demand” media really means and why your cable company should be scared

“Stingray Sam” Premieres Tonight Online @ 7pm PST!

A new independent feature film entitled “Stingray Sam” is premiering tonight at 7:00 pm PST for FREE, following a live Q&A with the film’s creators. Imdb describes Stingray Sam as a “Musical/Sci-Fi/Western/Comedy” – sounds interesting enough to us! The film can also be purchased in a few different formats, including an iPod version and a HD quality file. Trailer after the jump.

… Continue Reading

Nostalgia for Rental Shops: Time Says “Netflix Stinks!”

Netflix has grown so quickly that you can’t be surprised some are still left clinging to the old ways of getting content to your eye balls. A writer for Time is one of them and this is what he has to say:

Beyond the mail delays and the botched orders, the lack of human interaction is the big problem with Netflix and its cyber-ilk. Thanks to the Internet, we can now do nearly everything–working, shopping, moviegoing, social networking, having sex–on one machine at home. We’re becoming a society of shut-ins. We deprive ourselves of exercise, even if it’s just a stroll around the mall, until we’re the shape of those blobby people in WALL•E. And we deny ourselves the random epiphanies of human contact.

Getting movies by mail is, Netflix hopes, just a stage between the Blockbuster era of video stores and the imminent streaming of movies. You can already get 12,000 Netflix titles on your TV (if you have a Blu-ray player or spring for a $100 Netflix box). So, O.K., soon there will be no more waiting for DVDs. But it’ll come at a price. You’ll be what the online corporate culture wants you to be: a passive, inert receptacle for its products.

I don’t really agree with most of it, but if there’s anything to take away from the article it’s that Netflix’s recommendation system could use some more work, and you’re a mindless lump of lard if you embrace simplified, direct, and active choices for accessing the one thing that really matters: content. Full article over at Time.

ScreenPlay Plans to Offer Full-Length Films Online with Metadata Standard

ScreenPlay has been offering film trailers for quite a while, but now they plan on making the leap over to full films. One other important note is their plan to standardize metadata for digital content. Check it out:

ScreenPlay CEO Mark Vrieling said the company plans to streamline digital movie delivery from studios to digital retailers the same way the company streamlined the process for movie trailers.

ScreenPlay has deals with all the major studios for digital movie trailers, which it puts into a standard digital format and distributes online to customers that include IMDb, Best Buy, The New York Times and others. It also handles all Disney trailers in most regions of the world. ScreenPlay has a deal with a smaller supplier it won’t yet name for full-length films, but plans to fully roll out the service with other partners in the fourth quarter.

For full-length movies, the digital distribution process is tedious, requiring studios and other suppliers to create different digital formats for each movie service, because there are so many formats and copyright technologies being used.

“It’s becoming a bit of a headache for all of them,” Vrieling said. “What Netflix wants for a digital file is not the same as what Apple wants, which is different again from what Amazon wants, which is a whole different process from what CinemaNow wants.”

Vrieling said ScreenPlay could make the process more economical for studios, which currently get their digital masters from DVD replicators and then make a different master for each digital retailer.

The company plans to house digital masters from the studios on servers, which could then be transferred in real-time and in the necessary format to the various retailers.

For now, Vrieling is calling the new service Digitally-bonded Warehouse, noting that the company is already bonded by the Motion Picture Association of America.

ScreenPlay also plans to handle metadata information on those files for studios. Metadata—the film summary, cast list and other information about a film—has become another area of frustration for studio and digital retailers because there is no standard. Studios all include different information, each in their own file format. And retailers all require different levels of information for their sites, some including a full cast list and other just key actors, for example.

Thanks to VidBiz.

Only 15% of Video Downloads are Legal, According to Study

Furthering the sentiment of the slow uptake of VOD for American consumers, a recent study suggests that only 15% of the video content downloaded is legally purchased. Among some of the “solutions” are more versatile forms of DRM and the often cited notion of watermarking content. The dirt:

The majority of those films are likely downloaded and shared through peer-to-peer online sites by a small subset of broadband households. But rather than go after those households with lawsuits, treat them as criminals or lobby legislators for more copyright protection, In-Stat said studios could instead convert them into legal purchasers by making it easier for them and other consumers to watch movies when and where they want.

[...]

He predicts that as consumers become more used to watching content when they want it, more people will fall into the group of heavy users that do use P2P networks to watch shows when they can’t find them legally.

“These represent the next generation of consumers,” Nissen said. “Content holders should be watching these people. If you set up strategies for monetizing online video or video in general, and you satisfy this group, then you’re setting yourself up for long-term success.”

By converting illegal viewers into paying customers, Nissen projects that content holders could generate $1.4 billion in subscription revenue and $1.1 billion in advertising revenue.

Nissen said simply making movies available on Netflix’s streaming service would make it appealing enough for most P2P users, many of whom are already Netflix subscribers, to just watch there rather than use illegal file-sharing networks to get downloads.

But beyond that, the way to satisfy P2P downloaders, Nissen said, is to include watermarks on downloads that note who owns the download and what rights they have. Nissen said the technology is already available to use DRM to let users pay different amounts depending on what they want to do—studios, for example, could charge one price for a simple rental as they do now, more for a permanent download, more if a user wants to watch that download on a TV or mobile device and more if they want to use a clip from a TV show to make a mash-up video for YouTube.

Full report over at VidBiz.

Zip.ca to Offer Streaming Content Online

Zip.ca, Canada’s answer to Netflix, has announced that they plan to deliver digital video service by the end of the year. The details:

Sonic Solutions is partnering with Canada’s leading DVD-by-mail rental company, Zip.ca, to deliver its Roxio CinemaNow digital movie service to the great white north, the companies announced today.Zip.ca will introduce the digital movie service to customers by the end of the year, offering movie and TV show downloads both on its Web site and embedded in consumer electronics devices.

The companies will announce later what movie and TV content will be available on the service. Although Roxio CinemaNow has deals in the U.S. with every major studio, to deliver content, it must negotiate new deals for the Canadian market.

Zip.ca is exploring both a la carte rentals and purchases and a subscription model for what will be the first large-scale movie download service in Canada.

Good news for Canuckians. Thanks VidBiz.