The top news and charts for week ending October 19, 2007 .
Halo 3 boosts Xbox 360 to record sales month Retailers push next-gen DVD with HDTV sales Movie Gallery files Chapter 11 bankruptcy |
"EVAN ALMIGHTY" leads Top DVD Renters Chart "EVAN ALMIGHTY" leads Top DVD Sellers Chart "EVAN ALMIGHTY" leads Top HD DVD Sellers Chart "FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER" leads Top Blu-ray Sellers Chart |
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SWEETING: OPINION: Filtering YouTube |
Retailers push next-gen DVD with HDTV sales
OCT. 19 | Consumer electronics retailers seeking to boost their profit margin as HDTV prices drop are increasingly looking to sell accessories—including high-definition DVD players—to go with the new family TV set.
Full Story
Movie Gallery stock to be delisted by Nasdaq
OCT. 18 | Movie Gallery's stock will be delisted as of Oct. 25, because of the company's bankruptcy and other problems.
Full Story
Disney promotes two-for-one Blu-ray deal
OCT. 18 | Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment this week pushed its Blu-ray Disc slate with a two-for-one deal at leading retailers, including Amazon and Best Buy. Select titles include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (pictured).
Full Story
WaxWorks builds Blu-ray promotional kit
OCT. 18 | Distributor WaxWorks VideoWorks is offering accounts a meat-and-potatoes promotional kit to help explain next-generation DVD technology Blu-ray Disc to consumers. The company will not offer a similar promotional kit for HD DVD.
Full Story
Blockbuster hires energy exec as general counsel
OCT. 16 | Blockbuster’s corporate shuffling continues with the appointment this week of Eric H. Peterson to executive VP general counsel and secretary.
Full Story
Analyst upgrades Blockbuster stock
OCT. 16 | A day after giving Netflix shares a rating boost, analyst Michael Pachter has upgraded Blockbuster shares to “strong buy” on the expectations that it too will benefit from the bankruptcy of rival Movie Gallery.
Full Story
Movie Gallery files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
OCT. 16| Movie Gallery this week finally filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankrupcty. The company’s more than $1 billion in debt, which had been a chief source of its financial problems, will be restructured.
Full Story
Analyst upgrades Netflix stock on Movie Gallery woes
OCT. 15 | Netflix is benefiting from the misfortune of Movie Gallery after an outspoken analyst upgraded the online DVD rental company to “buy” based solely on the demise of its bricks-and-mortar rival.
Full Story
OPINION: Filtering YouTube
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda
OCT. 19 | The digital-rights management wars more or less officially entered a new phase this week with the unveiling of Google’s long-promised content filtering system for YouTube.
Full Story
Nelvana draws DVD pact with Universal Canada
OCT. 19 | FROM VARIETY: MONTREAL -- Nelvana has inked a deal with Universal Studios Home Entertainment Canada.
Full Story
Universal broadens Mummy with DVD premiere prequel
OCT. 18 | Universal Studios Home Entertainment is intending to squeeze a few more dollars out of its Mummy franchise with a fourth Mummy offshoot that will go straight to DVD under the studio’s DVD Originals brand.
Full Story
Disney promotes two-for-one Blu-ray deal
OCT. 18 | Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment this week pushed its Blu-ray Disc slate with a two-for-one deal at leading retailers, including Amazon and Best Buy. Select titles include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (pictured).
Full Story
UFC cleans up DVDs to better showcase fights
OCT. 18 | Starting with Sept. 25 release UFC Vol. 70: When Nations Collide, Ultimate Fighting Championship is featuring all UFC-branded live event DVDs in widescreen, and the menus have been redesigned to better capture the starring matches.
Full Story
Magnolia branches out with McAllister comedy
OCT. 17 | Magnolia Home Entertainment is complementing its high-brow fare with some low in the first quarter, with the DVD bow of Moving McAllister. The DVD supplier hopes the teen comedy will help diversify its portfolio.
Full Story
Media, tech companies call for filtering standards
OCT. 18 | FROM CONTENT AGENDA: A group of major media companies and platform providers released a “statement of principles” regarding the protection of copyrighted content on user-generated video platforms—and it’s quite an eyeful.
Full Story
Live Free DVD offers downloadable movie files
OCT. 16 | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will include on its Live Free or Die Hard DVD a digital file of the movie that can be downloaded from the disc to a PC or portable device. Fox’s announcement was the second in a week regarding studio efforts to marry digital file distribution and packaged media.
Full Story
Genius Products Inc. to split stock for NASDAQ listing
OCT. 16 | To secure its listing on NASDAQ, Genius Products Inc. is preparing a reverse stock split. Genius’ board of directors has approved the split of the company’s stock in order to ensure that its shares trade above $5 per share.
Full Story
BBC asks fans to vote for Torchwood box art
OCT. 16 | BBC Video is asking fans to help choose the box artwork for the Jan. 22 release of Torchwood: The Complete First Season.
Full Story
New YouTube tool axes unauthorized video
OCT. 16 | FROM VARIETY: After nearly a year of delays, the Google-owned online video powerhouse is launching its Video ID service, through which media companies can "claim" videos that have been uploaded to YouTube without permission.
Full Story
Writers Guild strike talks stick on digital revenue
OCT. 15 | FROM VARIETY: Accounting for digital revenue has emerged as a major sticking point during the three months of contract negotiations between companies and the Writers Guild of America.
Full Story
AACS still trying to manage copying
OCT. 15 | FROM CONTENTAGENDA: The AACS Licensing Administrator has finally wised up and stopping giving estimates of when it might finish work on a final DRM license. The eight member companies of AACS-LA met in Japan last week, where they inched the ball forward but still have much to do.
Full Story
Retailers push next-gen DVD with HDTV sales
OCT. 19 | Consumer electronics retailers seeking to boost their profit margin as HDTV prices drop are increasingly looking to sell accessories—including high-definition DVD players—to go with the new family TV set.
Full Story
Disney promotes two-for-one Blu-ray deal
OCT. 18 | Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment this week pushed its Blu-ray Disc slate with a two-for-one deal at leading retailers, including Amazon and Best Buy. Select titles include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (pictured).
Full Story
$399 PS3 on sale Nov. 2
OCT. 18 | Sony Computer Entertainment America confirmed it will introduce a stripped-down, 40GB model of its PlayStation 3 priced at $399 on Nov. 2, as expected, and at the same time dropped the price of the more robust 80GB model to $499.
Full Story
WaxWorks builds Blu-ray promotional kit
OCT. 18 | Distributor WaxWorks VideoWorks is offering accounts a meat-and-potatoes promotional kit to help explain next-generation DVD technology Blu-ray Disc to consumers. The company will not offer a similar promotional kit for HD DVD.
Full Story
Meijer offers only Blu-ray on Web site
OCT. 16 | For now, Blu-ray Disc has an edge at regional mass merchant Meijer, which began offering Blu-ray titles exclusively on its Web site in mid-September.
Full Story
Videogame downloading revenue to triple in 2007
OCT. 19 | Online downloading for videogame consoles is exploding in popularity, with revenue tripling to $583 million in 2007 from $133 million last year, according to research firm IDC.
Full Story
Halo 3 boosts Xbox 360 to record sales month
OCT. 18 | Halo 3 generated an impressive halo effect for the Xbox 360, as the videogame console sold 527,800 units in September for a record month in 2007 sales. Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the month, according to the NPD Group, topping the Nintendo Wii’s 501,000 in unit sales; Nintendo DS, 495,800; PlayStation Portable, 284,500; PlayStation 2, 215,000; PlayStation 3, 119,400; and Game Boy Advance, 75,000.
Full Story
$399 PS3 on sale Nov. 2
OCT. 18 | Sony Computer Entertainment America confirmed it will introduce a stripped-down, 40GB model of its PlayStation 3 priced at $399 on Nov. 2, as expected, and at the same time dropped the price of the more robust 80GB model to $499.
Full Story
Wii powers Nintendo past $85 million
OCT. 15 | FROM VARIETY: Nintendo zipped past ¥10 trillion ($85 billion) in market value on Monday as strong demand for Wii game consoles, DS handhelds and software titles tripled the company's value in less than a year.
Full Story
OPINION: Filtering YouTube
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda
OCT. 19 | The digital-rights management wars more or less officially entered a new phase this week with the unveiling of Google’s long-promised content filtering system for YouTube.
Full Story
Media, tech companies call for filtering standards
OCT. 18 | FROM CONTENT AGENDA: A group of major media companies and platform providers released a “statement of principles” regarding the protection of copyrighted content on user-generated video platforms—and it’s quite an eyeful.
Full Story
Live Free DVD offers downloadable movie files
OCT. 16 | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will include on its Live Free or Die Hard DVD a digital file of the movie that can be downloaded from the disc to a PC or portable device. Fox’s announcement was the second in a week regarding studio efforts to marry digital file distribution and packaged media.
Full Story
New YouTube tool axes unauthorized video
OCT. 16 | FROM VARIETY: After nearly a year of delays, the Google-owned online video powerhouse is launching its Video ID service, through which media companies can "claim" videos that have been uploaded to YouTube without permission.
Full Story
Writers Guild strike talks stick on digital revenue
OCT. 15 | FROM VARIETY: Accounting for digital revenue has emerged as a major sticking point during the three months of contract negotiations between companies and the Writers Guild of America.
Full Story
OPINION: Filtering YouTube
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda
OCT. 19 | The digital-rights management wars more or less officially entered a new phase this week with the unveiling of Google’s long-promised content filtering system for YouTube.
Full Story
Nelvana draws DVD pact with Universal Canada
OCT. 19 | FROM VARIETY: MONTREAL -- Nelvana has inked a deal with Universal Studios Home Entertainment Canada.
Full Story
Retailers push next-gen DVD with HDTV sales
OCT. 19 | Consumer electronics retailers seeking to boost their profit margin as HDTV prices drop are increasingly looking to sell accessories—including high-definition DVD players—to go with the new family TV set.
Full Story
Universal broadens Mummy with DVD premiere prequel
OCT. 18 | Universal Studios Home Entertainment is intending to squeeze a few more dollars out of its Mummy franchise with a fourth Mummy offshoot that will go straight to DVD under the studio’s DVD Originals brand.
Full Story
UFC cleans up DVDs to better showcase fights
OCT. 18 | Starting with Sept. 25 release UFC Vol. 70: When Nations Collide, Ultimate Fighting Championship is featuring all UFC-branded live event DVDs in widescreen, and the menus have been redesigned to better capture the starring matches.
Full Story
Magnolia branches out with McAllister comedy
OCT. 17 | Magnolia Home Entertainment is complementing its high-brow fare with some low in the first quarter, with the DVD bow of Moving McAllister. The DVD supplier hopes the teen comedy will help diversify its portfolio.
Full Story
Media, tech companies call for filtering standards
OCT. 18 | FROM CONTENT AGENDA: A group of major media companies and platform providers released a “statement of principles” regarding the protection of copyrighted content on user-generated video platforms—and it’s quite an eyeful.
Full Story
Live Free DVD offers downloadable movie files
OCT. 16 | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will include on its Live Free or Die Hard DVD a digital file of the movie that can be downloaded from the disc to a PC or portable device. Fox’s announcement was the second in a week regarding studio efforts to marry digital file distribution and packaged media.
Full Story
BBC asks fans to vote for Torchwood box art
OCT. 16 | BBC Video is asking fans to help choose the box artwork for the Jan. 22 release of Torchwood: The Complete First Season.
Full Story
Meijer offers only Blu-ray on Web site
OCT. 16 | For now, Blu-ray Disc has an edge at regional mass merchant Meijer, which began offering Blu-ray titles exclusively on its Web site in mid-September.
Full Story
AACS still trying to manage copying
OCT. 15 | FROM CONTENTAGENDA: The AACS Licensing Administrator has finally wised up and stopping giving estimates of when it might finish work on a final DRM license. The eight member companies of AACS-LA met in Japan last week, where they inched the ball forward but still have much to do.
Full Story
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