on demand

Sunday’s Super Bowl Means Lena Dunham Today

Peter Kafka in Media on January 28 at 1:43 pm PT

You were fretting about the Joe Flacco/Lena Dunham showdown? Worry no more!

Start-Up Scribr Wants to Help Your Twitter Feed Survive the Coming Web-pocalypse

Drake Martinet in Social on January 6, 2012 at 10:05 am PT

Scribr is trying to keep your Facebook profile from becoming like the lost GeoCities of Atlantis.

Is Jason Kilar Trying to Get Fired?

Peter Kafka in Media on February 3, 2011 at 1:05 pm PT

Did the Hulu CEO just channel Jerry Maguire? Or did he think his future as a TV manifesto would sway his network owners? It may not matter.

News Corp. Gets Ready to Say Goodbye to Myspace

Peter Kafka in Media on February 2, 2011 at 1:31 pm PT

Myspace’s time with News Corp. is coming to an end. Then again, it’s been headed that way for quite some time–it’s just that News Corp. is now being that much more forthright about it.

Comcast Bringing Live TV to Your iPad (In Your House)

Peter Kafka in Media on January 5, 2011 at 7:57 am PT

Here’s a logical, and cool, marriage between your iPad and your TV, brokered by your cable guy–with some strings attached.

News Byte

Blockbuster Hangs "For Rent" Signs on 187 Stores

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 20, 2010 at 3:57 pm PT

Blockbuster plans to close 182 stores over the next few months as it tries to emerge from bankruptcy, reports Bloomberg. The once-dominant movie rental chain faces competition from Netflix and, increasingly, from alternative video-on-demand providers. The store closures are in addition to the 1,000 locations shut down during the past two years. Next year, the company expects to emerge from bankruptcy with the help of new owners, including shareholder activist Carl Icahn.

News Byte

AT&T Buying Qualcomm’s FloTV Spectrum for Nearly $2 Billion

Ina Fried in Mobile on December 20, 2010 at 8:23 am PT

After failing to find a big enough market for its mobile television service, Qualcomm announced Monday it is selling to AT&T the one part of the service that is truly valuable–the spectrum that it had acquired to run FloTV. AT&T will pay $1.93 billion for the wireless capacity, which is in the lower 700 MHz range and should help the carrier offer additional next-generation services, like video. Qualcomm had said it would shut down FloTV next March and would give customers their money back. It had also said it was exploring strategic options, including selling off the spectrum.

Qualcomm to Give FloTV Users Money Back

Ina Fried in Mobile on December 10, 2010 at 9:29 am PT

Looking to move on from its painful foray into mobile television, Qualcomm says it will offer rebates to those who bought its FloTV mobile TV units. It had previously announced it would shut down the service in March.

Netflix Adds More Disney/ABC Shows–But Not the Ones You Missed Last Night

Peter Kafka in Media on December 8, 2010 at 9:08 am PT

A familiar trade for Netflix: It gets more content for its Web streaming service, but agrees to wait longer to show off some of it. Want to watch TV shows that ran yesterday? Go somewhere else.

News Byte

J.P. Morgan on Amazon's DVD-VOD Combos: Netflix Has Nothing to Fear

Voices in News on November 2, 2010 at 1:02 pm PT

Amazon’s move today to expand its Disc+ On Demand offerings to 10,000 titles may help with the instant-gratification demographic, but the benefit to the company will likely be incremental, according to the collective wisdom of J.P. Morgan’s analysts. The appeal of the combo deal–which gives a DVD buyer immediate access to the movie online via Amazon Video on Demand–will be limited by Amazon’s relatively small footprint in the living room, the analysts said. And, they noted, “A single DVD purchase under the program costs, in most cases, more than a month-long Netflix subscription,” which offers thousands of titles for streaming.