Showtime

Viral Video: Hulu’s Original “Paul, the Male Matchmaker” Set to Debut

Kara Swisher in Media on February 7 at 8:57 am PT

Once more into the Internet content series breach!

Netflix Doesn’t Want to Compete With Cable, Hulu, iTunes or GameFly. But HBO …

Peter Kafka in Media on January 26 at 8:35 am PT

Reed Hastings make his case, again: We’re just another cable TV network, and people seem to like that just fine.

The Louis C.K. Window

Peter Kafka in Media on December 12, 2011 at 3:00 am PT

Louis C.K. isn’t the first performer to sell directly to his fans using the Web. But if he wants to, he can keep working with Big Media, too. Clever.

Maybe Cord Cutting Isn't Here Yet. What About Cord Shaving?

Peter Kafka in Media on April 11, 2011 at 2:07 pm PT

Maybe cable subscribers aren’t dumping their service in favor of Netflix, Hulu, etc. But maybe they’re cutting back on HBO and Showtime. A new study says Web TV watchers are behind an eight percent drop in premium cable subs.

Showtime To Show Less On Netflix [UPDATED]

Peter Kafka in Media on March 22, 2011 at 6:37 pm PT

More evidence that Hollywood and the networks want to rein in Reed Hastings and Netflix: Showtime says it will pull some of its shows off the video service when a new pact kicks in this summer. But that pact hasn’t been finalized, so…

Flipboard Partners With Web Publishers for Full Content (and Full Disclosure: Including ATD)

Liz Gannes in Social on December 2, 2010 at 9:22 am PT

Yesterday, I wrote about Pulse, a news-reading app with innovative design, going social by integrating Facebook. Now Flipboard, a social news-reading app based around Twitter and Facebook, is adding publisher feeds. (Full disclosure: Including from All Things Digital.) One thing’s clear: There’s a lot of excitement and energy going into how the iPad can re-create content consumption.

Netflix Adds "Saturday Night Live," "Battlestar Galactica," More NBC U Shows to Web Service

Peter Kafka in Media on September 24, 2010 at 6:02 am PT

This could make a Web-only offering from Netflix that much more appealing: The movie service has signed an expanded rights deal with NBC Universal. The deal gives Netflix Web access to a long list of NBC U shows, from broadcast–every episode of “Saturday Night Live,” to cable–like Syfy’s awesome “Battlestar Galactica.”

Viral Video: "The Big C" Is Also a "Big D"–as in "Digital"

Kara Swisher in News on August 18, 2010 at 12:15 am PT

Showtime’s newest original series, “The Big C”–starring the superb Laura Linney, a tightly wound woman who reacts to a cancer diagnosis by living it up–premiered on the pay cable channel this week with almost 1.58 million viewers. That makes it a hit for a program on cable television, but what’s interesting to BoomTown is that the first episode’s online version, which has been available for weeks to gin up interest, has grabbed about that many views, too.

Is Netflix Ready to Announce a Big Money Deal With Epix?

Peter Kafka in Media on August 9, 2010 at 3:01 pm PT

Last month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told investors he’d be willing to pay real money to beef up his collection of online video offerings. Now it looks as if he’s ready to make good on his pledge: The Los Angeles Times says Netflix is in talks with Epix, the new pay cable competitor owned by Viacom and two other studios, for exclusive online rights to its movies–a deal worth perhaps as much as $1 billion over five years. If true, that’s a big deal. But we won’t know how big until we see the details.