hollywood

Wal-Mart this week ushered in a high-profile outing of Hollywood's UltraViolet scheme for digital streaming of movies and TV. And it's the same old song it ever was: complicated, restrictive DRM with a big side helping of "pay me again."

In theory, UltraViolet gives you an easier--or at least, legal--way to digitally stream your movies to multiple devices. The UV standard, developed by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, offers dizzying promises of an easy-to-access digital library, "total freedom" to view your UV-enabled movies on any device, and future-proof DVD buying where every disc includes … Read more

Folks interested in buying movies can either get them at brick-and-mortar stores or online. Now the film studio Twentieth Century Fox is trying a new tack aimed at combining the two, albeit in a convoluted fashion.

Fox has partnered with Taubman Centers, which operates shopping malls across the country, to create virtual storefronts in Taubman's physical shopping malls.

The storefronts are "wallscapes" that feature photos and titles from Fox movies. Users can scan a QR code found on the wall using iPhone or Android phones that will direct them online to finalize their purchase. After that, the … Read more

Wal-Mart Stores debuted a service today that executives say will encourage DVD ownership while also giving consumers ubiquitous access to their film libraries via the cloud.

The megaretailer announced that customers can bring their DVDs into their local Wal-Mart, and pay $2 to get access to each title via Walmart.com's cloud service, powered by the UltraViolet platform. The $2 only supplies a user with access to a copy in standard definition; a high-definition copy will cost $5.

Dan Rayburn, an analyst who has covered streaming media for more than a decade, broke the news about Wal-Mart's announcement … Read more

Wal-Mart, the country's largest retailer, is expected to announce today that it has adopted the UltraViolet cloud video platform.

Dan Rayburn, an analyst for research firm Frost & Sullivan, is reporting that Wal-Mart plans to charge between $2 and $4 to customers who want cloud access to the movies they've purchased on DVD. Customers would be required to cart their discs into Wal-Mart brick-and-mortar locations, said Rayburn, citing discussions with studio executives. Wal-Mart's cloud would be UV compatible.

The cloud is the term used to describe the process of storing digital information on a third party's … Read more

Google can't seem to get the hang of selling music and movies over the Internet--a goal that has similarly befuddled Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, and others.

Google TV was dead on arrival. YouTube's video-rental service is at best an also-ran, and that service also faces a possible exodus of major record labels to rival Facebook sometime next year. Google Music no longer exists as a standalone service. Last week, the search company folded the three-month-old music store into the newly revamped Android Market.

Google's misfires illustrate just how hard it is to become a major media player. In … Read more

Not all of the major Hollywood studios are participating in Apple's new iCloud feature that enables users to store their movies and TV shows on Apple's servers.

Apple announced upgrades to its Apple TV system at its iPad press event yesterday. Among them were 1080p support, better navigation and the ability to re-download video from Apple's iCloud.

AllThingsD reported yesterday that Fox and NBC Universal are holdouts and that the reason has to do with exclusive licenses that those studios have with Time Warner's HBO.

This is the same contractual obligation that plagued the UltraViolet platform … Read more

Apple still has no subscription video service, and without it, Apple TV is nothing to get excited about, one industry analyst says.

As part of Apple's press event for the iPad today in San Francisco, the company announced that Apple TV would get an upgrade. The system will support 1080p movies and TV shows. Navigation was improved. Movies and TV shows will be supported in iCloud so they can be accessed from iPads and iPhones as well.

Dan Rayburn, principle analyst for research firm Frost & Sullivan, is unimpressed. He argues that Apple TV could be so much more, … Read more

Ordinarily, I would write that Aereo, the Internet video company slammed yesterday by lawsuits from nearly every major TV broadcaster in New York, is doomed.

I would write that Aereo is headed for the same gloomy ending as ivi.TV and Zediva. These were goofy, legal-loophole plays that were shut down by the courts faster than you can say permanent injunction.

But hold up.

Aereo is supported by some very smart people. Barry Diller, one of the savviest media tycoons around, is an investor and is on the board. There's no doubt that he and the company anticipated a … Read more

The big film studios have made a pile of money by controlling where their movies are distributed and for how long.

A similar strategy has begun to attract supporters among big-name music acts. The idea is to debut music at Apple and Amazon and force subscription services such as Spotify and Rhapsody to the back of the line. According to the acts that have complained about subscription services, they are less profitable and also allegedly cannibalize iTunes sales.

Already, some acts, including Coldplay, have debuted tracks at iTunes and then later distributed them through subscription sites.

Critics say this will … Read more