THE DOWN LOW   

The image of the super-connected teen abandoning the stodgy old television set for a life of online video watching? A false one, according to one recent report. A college student, on the other hand…

U.S. teenagers are watching about 6% more TV than they did five years ago, Nielsen said in a report released last week. The average teen spent more than 10 minutes watching live TV per every minute watching online video and DVR playback...Read More

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Just asking, as usual, Netflix says.

The largest U.S. movie-rental chain via mail is polling its subscribers on how interested they would be having Netflix's video-streaming titles playable on televisions through Nintendo's Wii videogames console.

Netflix is trying to find out whether customers are anywhere between "very likely" and "very unlikely" to order a free disc that would allow Nintendo Wii owners to order from Netflix's inventory of more than 12,000 digital titles, Web site HackingNetflix.com reported last week.

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FUNimation is back from a brief hiatus from its Web portal (www.funimation.com). Fans can now stream the newest episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The site now has more bandwidth, and the company said it will have other new features and functionality. They want fans to let them know about any issues by posting on this thread:  http://community.funimation.com/tt.aspx?forumid=40.

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Think of it as the X-Games for the scholastic set, only with competitive eating included.

CBS Sports next month will start offering video-on-demand productions of the 2009 Alt Games, which took place in Colorado and California this month and last month and included sports ranging from snowboarding to beach volleyball to, yes, competitive eating.

The Alt Games: College Action Sports Championships will start airing July 8 and will continue through September, CBS Sports said in a statement this week. Coverage of the games, which included more than 500 athletes from 45 schools, is co-hosted by 1998 Freestyle Skiing Gold Medalist Jonny Moseley and entertainment reporter Adrianna Cos...Read More

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Could Tweeting be fleeting?

While the microblog was the fastest-growing Web over the past year, Twitter saw its user growth rate flatten last month while the amount of time a typical user spent Tweeting actually fell.

More than 18 million people used Twitter last month, more than 15 times the 1.2 million unique visitors a year earlier, Nielsen said in a study released yesterday. The typical Twitter user almost tripled the amount of time spent on the microblog, according to Nielsen.

Still, Twit...Read More

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Strawberries and cream at Wimbledon may cost the equivalent of about $4, but videostreams from the All England Club over the next couple weeks will be free, says NBC Universal.

NBC Sports, which will be broadcasting the tennis event for the 41st straight year this year, will offer its 38 hours of live broadcasts over nine days on both NBC.com and Wimbledon.org, NBCU said in a statement yesterday.

Additionally, viewers can videostream events from as many as four courts simultaneously while having access to daily highlights and different camera angles of the day's matches, N...Read More

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The Anime Network is getting serious about its online videos, launching a new online player yesterday and boosting its high-def offerings.

The site claims it now has more than 40 hours of free content as well as more than 300 hours of anime, live-action films and J-rock videos available in the premium package.

The high-def content, including actioner Appleseed and arthouse item Place ...Read More

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Companies looking to pick up sales stemming from airline broadcast video and broadband connection will find the skies a little more friendly over the next few years, according to at least one report.

U.S. airlines and their passengers will spend almost $250 million on live-broadcast video in 2009, almost double last year's sales, as more airlines are equipped with broadcast and Internet capabilities, research firm In-Stat said in a report released late last week. LiveTV will be the biggest provider of direct broadcasts to airplanes, followed by Panasonic, In-Stat says.

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Zillion TV, the latest startup that plans to launch a free set-top later this year to stream movies to the TV, grabbed a couple headlines the last couple days when CEO Mitchell Berman boasted to entertaiment news site TheWrap.com that Zillion had signed a deal with an unnamed studio to stream some movies for free with ads the day they debut on DVD.

Quite a coup, if they do.

Zillion's spokeswoman downplayed the move when I called to confirm yesterday, saying that Berman did say that they had a deal, while also calling it all "highly speculative." OK. At the same time, other media report that Zillion is promising an announcement in the next 30-45 days o...Read More

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Universal Music has made a deal with Virgin Media in the U.K. to partner on an unlimited music download subscription service. According to our sister publication Variety, users of the service will be able stream and download music, and transfer the digital files to any device they want.

Sounds pretty perfect for the consumer. Variety says the user all will be able to keep the songs for as long as they like.

Could this ever happen with movies and TV shows? I'm not sure we'll ever see it, but who knows.

Netflix seems to have found success with its streaming subscription service, but the true test will be if they break out the ...Read More

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Microsoft said this week that it formed a consumer panel of teenagers and parents designed at informing families about how to keep videogame habits from getting out of control.

Microsoft, whose Xbox is the second-most popular U.S. videogame platform to Nintendo's Wii, chose 10 teens and their parents for the panel as part of its Get Game Smart campaign, the company said in a statement this week. The panelists were chosen based on videos they submitted showing how they approach gaming as a family.

Tips fr...Read More

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Viz Media is getting its own channel under the new Anime category on the PlayStation Network video delivery service. The Viz Media Channel is launching with episodes of Bleach, Death Note and Naruto at $1.99 each for download via PS3 or PSP systems.

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