Time Warner’s second-quarter earnings beat analysts’ expectations. But that’s not saying much, really. Profits fell 34 percent to $519 million, or 43 cents a share, from $792 million, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue was down nine percent to $6.8 billion.
Now that Sony has completed its transformation from disruptive innovator to struggling consumer electronics player, it’s embarking on its next big corporate makeover: reinvention as “a global provider of networked consumer electronics and entertainment.” And so it’s begun offering a video-downloading service for its PlayStation 3 videogame console.
Hollywood is finally embracing day-and-date film releases.
Yesterday, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeffrey Bewkes said that Warner Bros. plans to experiment with VOD releases day-and-date with DVD later this year. And now this morning, Apple (AAPL) announced that a number of major and independent movie studios have agreed to make their films available on iTunes day-and-date [...]
The next-generation DVD format war was a costly one–for Sony (SNE). In addition to the untold funds the company spent on pro-Blu-ray propaganda, it also reportedly spent quite a bit to buy the allegiances of Hollywood.
The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that Sony paid Warner Bros. as much as $400 million to throw its support [...]
The next generation DVD format war has become a format funeral. Toshiba (6502.TO) said today it is pulling out of the HD DVD business. The company will cease production of its HD DVD players and recorders immediately and shutter the business entirely by the end of March.
“This was a very difficult decision to make … [...]
What do you get when you cross a cowboy, a construction worker, a biker, a soldier, an American Indian and a police officer? Why, the Village People, of course. But throw in a Web Sheriff and you’ve got a lawsuit: The aging disco group has teamed up with the U.K.-based antipiracy outfit to sue [...]
Woolworths has declared a winner in the next generation DVD format war and it’s not HD DVD. Yesterday, the British chain said it will stock only Blu-ray discs, becoming the first major retailer to drop HD DVD.
Woolworths’ decision came after it found Blu-ray movies outsold HD DVD by 10 to 1 in its 820 stores. [...]
Reports of HD DVD’s death may have been exaggerated, but reports of its fast-declining health have not.
Though Paramount Pictures has denied reports that it plans to abandon the next-generation DVD format, news of an escape clause in its HD DVD contract allowing it to release films on Blu-ray has the industry wondering aloud about [...]
From top to bottom, Blockbuster is deliberately and willfully infringing on our patented methods. Netflix invented a 100 percent better mousetrap that Blockbuster copied.
- Netflix spokesperson Steve Swasey, April 5, 2006
Apparently, Blockbuster isn’t as hopelessly tethered to its VHS rental-business past as you might think. Yesterday, the video-rental retailer acquired studio-owned movie download [...]
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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