DVD

Reed Hastings’s Expensive Year

Peter Kafka in Media on April 20 at 11:43 am PT

The good news: He got a raise in 2011. The bad news: He lost a couple hundred million dollars.

Surprise! Walmart’s Cloud Movie Service Is Pretty Good!

Peter Kafka in Media on April 20 at 5:37 am PT

“Disc to digital” still doesn’t make much sense as a concept — who wants to drive to Walmart and pay to put their movies in the cloud? But if you do want to do that, it works very well.

Amazon SVP of Worldwide Digital Media Steven Kessel Taking Time Off

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on April 13 at 5:27 pm PT

Amazon has confirmed to All Things D that Steven Kessel, a 13-year veteran responsible for the company’s Kindle business, is taking time off.

Walmart’s Disc-to-Digital Hard Sell Will Be a Hard Sell

Peter Kafka in Media on March 13 at 8:19 pm PT

Walmart will move your movies to the cloud, if you bring your discs to their stores and pay up. But it won’t work with Disney films, Android machines or iOS downloads. Interested?

Viral Video: Bella Is Now a Sparkly Vampire

Kara Swisher in Media on March 13 at 12:26 am PT

It’s not easy being undead.

Why the Web Hasn’t Hurt TV

Peter Kafka in Media on March 3 at 7:28 am PT

A story in two charts.

Netflix, Whitney Houston and the Great Streaming Video Outrage That Didn’t Happen

Peter Kafka in Media on February 20 at 3:11 pm PT

That story about an evil Hollywood studio pulling “The Bodyguard” away from Netflix, so it could sell more DVDs? “Completely bogus.”

Netflix (Still) Really Doesn’t Want Your DVD Money

Peter Kafka in Media on February 17 at 7:35 am PT

If you try hard, Reed Hastings will let you pay him for access to DVDs by mail. But he’d be happier if you stuck with streaming.

Voices

Four Weird Things the Internet Is Doing to Our Understanding of Television

Eric Spiegelman, Contributor, The Awl in Voices on February 16 at 3:21 pm PT

People seem really intent these days on fusing television with the Internet. On one level this makes no sense.

Netflix Bounces Back With a Q4 Beat, but Says Amazon Is Coming

Peter Kafka in Media on January 25 at 1:24 pm PT

Reed Hastings’s numbers are much better than Wall Street expected. But he warns that he won’t turn a profit in 2012.