The top news and charts for week ending March 3, 2008.
Blu-ray revs up its marketing Netflix boosts subscriber estimates I Am Legend to carry digital file |
Cops turns 20 Cops creator John Langley (r.) with John Shanks of the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, which received a $10,000 donation from Fox at the Auto Club 500 at the California Speedway on Feb. 24. Fox released a 20th anniversary DVD of the reality TV show on Feb. 19. Click for more industry photos. |
"AMERICAN GANGSTER" leads Top DVD Renters Chart "AMERICAN GANGSTER" leads Top DVD Sellers Chart "MICHAEL CLAYTON" leads Top Blu-ray Sellers Chart |
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SWEETING: Traffic jams on broadband |
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RED STATE, BLUE STATE: One @#$% angry early adopter |
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DISC DISH: Raisin ripe for release |
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DVDIALOG: Hi Bob (Newhart)!, Part II |
Wattles seeks ouster of Circuit City’s board
FEB. 29 | FROM TWICE: Dissident investor and Ultimate Electronics owner Mark Wattles wants to unseat all 12 of Circuit City’s sitting directors and replace them with the five board candidates he nominated earlier this week.
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Anchor Bay, Kmart partner for fitness
FEB. 28 | Anchor Bay Entertainment has partnered with Kmart on a fitness promotion hyping its DVD titles. To support the promotion, dubbed “New Day Your Way,” Kmart has launched a social networking site at www.kmart.com/newday where Anchor Bay fitness experts will be contributing healthy lifestyle tips.
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Movie Gallery closer to comeback
FEB. 28 | As court proceedings continue largely in its favor, Movie Gallery is moving closer to exiting from Chapter 11 and implementing its reorganization plan without much interference.
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Best Buy restructures management team
FEB. 28 | FROM TWICE: Best Buy has made a series of executive changes designed to aggressively capitalize on growth opportunities, the company said.
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Redbox will add kiosks at 1,800 Walgreens
FEB. 27 | Redbox will add kiosks at about 1,800 Walgreens stores in the U.S. by the end of next year, allowing the largest U.S. movie-rental kiosk operator to lengthen its lead over competitors Moviecube and DVDPlay. Redbox tripled its kiosk count last year and currently has about 6,800 machines in the U.S., including about 250 Walgreens machines, the company said in a statement.
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Netflix boosts subscriber estimates
FEB. 27 | Netflix said that its subscriber count will be about 3% higher than previously forecast because of price increases from rival Blockbuster and cheaper online advertising rates. The company also said it would quadruple its Blu-ray selection this year and hinted at a possible partnership with Microsoft.
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Wattles seeks to stack Circuit City’s board
FEB. 26 | FROM TWICE: Dissident investor and Ultimate Electronics owner Mark Wattles plans to nominate five directors for election to Circuit City’s 12-member board of directors at the retailer’s 2008 annual shareholder meeting in June.
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Netflix doubles online spending
FEB. 26 | Netflix doubled its online advertising spending last month as it capitalized on higher prices from rival Blockbuster while trying to stave off other content delivery services, such as video downloading, according to one survey.
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I Am Legend to carry digital file
FEB. 29 | I Am Legend will mark Warner Home Video’s second DVD release with an embedded digital copy, as the studio and others experiment with files for a widening selection of media platforms. Like Warner’s first file-embedded DVD, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Legend will carry the embedded file only on its special-edition standard DVD, due for release March 18.
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Strike takes toll on TV DVD
FEB. 29 | TV writers may have ended their strike and gone back to business, but TV DVD titles will likely feel the lingering effects of the prolonged work stoppage. Fewer completed scripts mean certain disc sets will be a few episodes—or more—short of a full season when they are released.
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Anchor Bay Mad for star vehicle
FEB. 29 | Anchor Bay Entertainment will begin its exclusive U.S. DVD agreement with sister company Overture Films by releasing the Diane Keaton-starring Mad Money on May 13. The comedy, which also stars Katie Holmes and Queen Latifah, is Anchor Bay’s largest release ever, from both a box-office and marketing standpoint.
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New Line remarkets Bardem-starrer Cholera
FEB. 29 | Love in the Time of Cholera is getting a second chance to click with audiences, courtesy of leading man Javier Bardem. New Line Home Entertainment has switched packaging and marketing materials for the March 18 DVD release to spotlight Bardem, who won an Oscar for his supporting turn in Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men.
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Fox gets in ring with WWE
FEB. 26 | UPDATE: World Wrestling Entertainment is hoping to turn its brawlers into Hollywood stars, partnering with 20th Century Fox in a multi-title theatrical and straight-to-DVD deal. Starting in 2009, WWE will be producing annually at least one theatrical project and up to four made-for-DVD titles for Fox distribution.
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Sony unveils two Blu-ray Disc players
FEB. 26 | UPDATE: Sony’s debut Web-enabled Blu-ray Disc set-tops will start hitting retail in the next several months. The manufacturer’s first such BD Live player, the BDP-S350, will launch this summer as ‘ready’ to handle Web-enabled features.
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Warner Bros. gobbles up New Line
FEB. 28 | FROM VARIETY: The colorful 40-year run of New Line is coming to an abrupt end, costing the jobs of most of the company’s 600 staffers.
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Anchor Bay, Kmart partner for fitness
FEB. 28 | Anchor Bay Entertainment has partnered with Kmart on a fitness promotion hyping its DVD titles. To support the promotion, dubbed “New Day Your Way,” Kmart has launched a social networking site at www.kmart.com/newday where Anchor Bay fitness experts will be contributing healthy lifestyle tips.
Click for Full Story
Paramount done with HD DVD next week
FEB. 28 | The March 4 releases Into the Wild and Things We Lost in the Fire will be Paramount Home Entertainment’s last titles in the HD DVD format, the studio confirmed. The studio pulled the plug on the HD DVD versions of other titles that had been announced for the format, including DreamWorks Animation’s Bee Movie, due March 11, and Sweeney Todd, due April 1. Their standard DVD versions will come out as planned.
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Disney joins Band wagon
FEB. 28 | FROM VARIETY: Disney Interactive Studios unveiled plans for Ultimate Band, a new music simulation it plans to launch in the fall that will compete with Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
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NBC’s Quarterlife heads to iTunes
FEB. 26 | FROM BROADCASTING & CABLE: Quarterlife, the hour-long drama series that began its life on MySpace and will make the jump to NBC Tuesday, will make episodes available for download on Apple iTunes the same day they debut on NBC.
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HBO creates YouTube channel
FEB. 26 | FROM MULTICHANNEL NEWS: HBO will now stream promotional content on its own branded channel on YouTube.
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Popcorn picks TVN as distribution partner
FEB. 25 | Popcorn Home Entertainment, which three weeks ago said it would provide Cablevision subscribers with some on-demand movies the same day they debut on DVD, chose TVN Entertainment as its distribution partner.
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Oscar winners slated for DVD
FEB. 25 | Best Picture standout No Country for Old Men leads a large batch of Oscar-winning films soon headed to DVD and/or are already available at retail.
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What’s streaming worth to writers?
FEB. 25 | FROM BROADCASTING & CABLE: With the strike settled, the WGA won residuals for content streamed over the Internet beyond an "initial streaming window" of 17 days (24 days for first-year shows). But how much is this still-new revenue stream worth? More important, how much will it be worth in the future?
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Audiences see the Point
FEB. 25 | VARIETY BOX OFFICE REPORT: Moviegoers switched their gaze from Presidents Day holdovers yesterday to Sony’s Vantage Point.
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European actors dominate Oscars
FEB. 25 | FROM VARIETY: No Country for Old Men, a dark cat-and-mouse tale involving a sheriff and his search for a serial murderer, received four Academy Awards Sunday night at the 80th annual ceremony, including best picture, direction and screenplay — awards it shares with last year’s homage to hardcore violence, The Departed.
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Blu-ray revs up its marketing
FEB. 29 | Having knocked down HD DVD, Blu-ray Disc supporters now are positioning their advanced format as the one to beat standard DVD, cable and satellite for high quality video delivery.
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Sony unveils two Blu-ray Disc players
FEB. 26 | UPDATE: Sony’s debut Web-enabled Blu-ray Disc set-tops will start hitting retail in the next several months. The manufacturer’s first such BD Live player, the BDP-S350, will launch this summer as ‘ready’ to handle Web-enabled features.
Click for Full Story
Paramount done with HD DVD next week
FEB. 28 | The March 4 releases Into the Wild and Things We Lost in the Fire will be Paramount Home Entertainment’s last titles in the HD DVD format, the studio confirmed. The studio pulled the plug on the HD DVD versions of other titles that had been announced for the format, including DreamWorks Animation’s Bee Movie, due March 11, and Sweeney Todd, due April 1. Their standard DVD versions will come out as planned.
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Microsoft stops HD DVD player manufacturing
FEB. 26 | Microsoft said it will stop making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 consoles a week after Toshiba said it would discontinue the next-generation DVD format. Microsoft also cut the price of the add-on by more than 60%.
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Onkyo officially drops HD DVD
FEB. 25 | FROM TWICE: OSAKA, Japan—Although widely rumored to be in the works prior to Toshiba’s announcement to pull the plug on its HD DVD format, Onkyo officially disclosed late Thursday that it too will discontinue development and production of Onkyo-branded HD DVD players.
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Disney joins Band wagon
FEB. 28 | FROM VARIETY: Disney Interactive Studios unveiled plans for Ultimate Band, a new music simulation it plans to launch in the fall that will compete with Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Click for Full Story
Microsoft stops HD DVD player manufacturing
FEB. 26 | Microsoft said it will stop making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 consoles a week after Toshiba said it would discontinue the next-generation DVD format. Microsoft also cut the price of the add-on by more than 60%.
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EA lays out Blueprint division
FEB. 26 | FROM VARIETY: Electronic Arts has started a division called Blueprint, focused on developing, at low cost, original intellectual property that can spread across multiple media.
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EA still game for Take-Two
FEB. 26 | FROM VARIETY: The battle for the future of Take-Two Interactive broke out Monday, as Electronic Arts took its $2 billion acquisition plan to investors but the Grand Theft Auto publisher's leadership team urged them to reject it.
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EA bid rejected by Take-Two
FEB. 25 | FROM VARIETY: Electronic Arts is going public with a $2 billion offer for Take-Two Interactive that the Grand Theft Auto publisher's board has rejected.
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I Am Legend to carry digital file
FEB. 29 | I Am Legend will mark Warner Home Video’s second DVD release with an embedded digital copy, as the studio and others experiment with files for a widening selection of media platforms. Like Warner’s first file-embedded DVD, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Legend will carry the embedded file only on its special-edition standard DVD, due for release March 18.
Click for Full Story
NBC’s Quarterlife heads to iTunes
FEB. 26 | FROM BROADCASTING & CABLE: Quarterlife, the hour-long drama series that began its life on MySpace and will make the jump to NBC Tuesday, will make episodes available for download on Apple iTunes the same day they debut on NBC.
Click for Full Story
HBO creates YouTube channel
FEB. 26 | FROM MULTICHANNEL NEWS: HBO will now stream promotional content on its own branded channel on YouTube.
Click for Full Story
Popcorn picks TVN as distribution partner
FEB. 25 | Popcorn Home Entertainment, which three weeks ago said it would provide Cablevision subscribers with some on-demand movies the same day they debut on DVD, chose TVN Entertainment as its distribution partner.
Click for Full Story
What’s streaming worth to writers?
FEB. 25 | FROM BROADCASTING & CABLE: With the strike settled, the WGA won residuals for content streamed over the Internet beyond an "initial streaming window" of 17 days (24 days for first-year shows). But how much is this still-new revenue stream worth? More important, how much will it be worth in the future?
Click for Full Story
Onkyo officially drops HD DVD
FEB. 25 | FROM TWICE: OSAKA, Japan—Although widely rumored to be in the works prior to Toshiba’s announcement to pull the plug on its HD DVD format, Onkyo officially disclosed late Thursday that it too will discontinue development and production of Onkyo-branded HD DVD players.
Click for Full Story
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This message was sent to cheryl.cheng@reedbusiness.com.
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