More Articles By Danny King

• Blockbuster Q4 earnings rise on subscription sales
  MARCH 6 | Blockbuster’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings quadrupled as the company edged closer to profitability for its online-subscription program by raising prices and slowed its decline in same-store sales. More
  
• TiVo Q4 loss narrows on lower marketing costs
  MARCH 5 | TiVo’s fiscal fourth-quarter loss narrowed by 67% as hardware costs were cut in half from a year earlier, when the company gave away standard-definition digital-video recorders as part of a holiday promotion. More
  
• EMA backs pending anti-piracy measure
  MARCH 3 | The Entertainment Merchants Assn. is supporting a proposed federal government measure that would increase a crackdown on illegally duplicated movies, videogames and other forms of content. More
  
• Viacom income jumps 16% on films
  FEB. 28 | Viacom’s fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts’ expectations as its Paramount Filmed Entertainment unit’s profit jumped on theatrical releases such as Bee Movie and home video titles including Transformers and Shrek the Third . More
  
• 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. More
  
• Netflix boosts subscriber estimates
  FEB. 27 | Netflix said today 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. More
  
• 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. More
  
• 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%. More
  
• 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. More
  
• Netflix, Blockbuster users choose No Country
  FEB. 21 | Like its anti-hero, Anton Chigurh, blowing through the Texas countryside, No Country for Old Men will lay waste to its competitors at the 80th annual Academy Awards on Sunday, according to subscribers of Netflix and Blockbuster. More
  
• Cheaper movies feed kiosk boom
  FEB. 21 | UPDATE: Technogeeks may argue over whether Unbox or Vudu provides the best film-downloading service, while others may debate Blockbuster versus Netflix, but the common man just wants a $1 movie for the night, says Tim Belton, CEO of movie-kiosk operator The New Release. More
  
• Best Buy lowers earnings forecast
  FEB. 20 | Best Buy lowered its earnings and same-store sales expectations for fiscal 2008 on lower post-holiday revenue from some of its home entertainment products. More
  
• GameStop earnings beat forecast
  FEB. 20 | GameStop’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings beat its forecast on better-than-expected January sales in both the U.S. and overseas. More
  
• Toshiba will drop HD DVD
  FEB. 19 | Toshiba, officially conceding the format war to rival Sony and its Blu-ray Disc, will discontinue production of its next-generation DVD player and discs and expects to be out of the HD DVD business by next month. Universal Studios, the only studio that has supported HD DVD exclusively since its launch, quickly jumped on the Blu-ray bandwagon. More
  
• NPD to track online-gaming
  FEB. 13 | Research firm NPD Group will start publishing an online-subscription gaming quarterly report in an effort to track U.S. revenue and participation in the rapidly growing “massively multiplayer online” industry. More
  
• Ed Begley Jr. to host green DVD club
  FEB. 14 | Ed Begley Jr. will host a collection of ecologically-based short films that will be part of a subscription service launched today by a Santa Fe, N.M.-based film-distribution company. More
  
• Online video viewing jumps 34% in December
  FEB. 13 | U.S. online video viewing in December jumped 34% from a year earlier as the lack of new TV programming due to the Writers Guild of America strike caused people to spend more time on the Internet for entertainment, ComScore Networks reported. More
  
• Lionsgate forecasts 6% DVD revenue rise for fiscal 2008
  FEB. 12 | Lionsgate’s home entertainment revenue for fiscal 2008 will rise about 6% based on record current quarter DVD sales from releases, such as of War and 3:10 to Yuma , and an expected boost in high-definition content sales from the emergence of a single format. More
  
• MovieFlix offers unlimited downloads for monthly fee
  FEB. 12 | Internet movie download site MovieFlix.com has added a download-to-own option that offers customers an unlimited number of downloads for a $9.95 a month subscription fee. More
  
• Amazon to buy back 3.2% of shares
  FEB. 11 | Amazon.com said last week it will buy back as much as $1 billion in stock by the end of next year. The world’s largest online retailer also will repurchase about $1.06 billion in debt. More