OPINION: Box office boon
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda MARCH 13 | The recent, unexpected surge at the theatrical box office could provide the industry an opportunity to observe a rare natural experiment.
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OPINION: Web wars
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda FEB. 20 | There is war brewing in the emerging-market territory of online video.
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CBS Interactive returns fire
CBS Interactive, the parent company of TV.com, has stuck back at Hulu after the News Corp./NBC joint venture pulled its content from TV.com's Web streaming portal.
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Some charges dropped in Pirate Bay case
Prosecutors stunned the court in the Pirate Bay case in Sweden Tuesday by dropping half the charges against the four defendants just two days into the trial, according to Swedish media reports.
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OPINION: DVD tent pole
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda FEB. 13 | Concern over declining DVD sales is now driving creative decisions.
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Ad slump, DVD sales batter Viacom Q4
Viacom Inc. on Thursday became the latest media conglomerate to show the effects of the advertising downturn and declining DVD sales, posting sharply lower fourth-quarter earnings.Revenues in the fourth quarter of 2008.
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OPINION: Ups and downs
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda FEB. 06 | Cyclical, or secular? That is the question preoccupying studio minds these days as they stare into the abyss of plunging DVD sales.
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OPINION: Biz building
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JAN. 30 | Netflix provided a rare bit of good news last week amid the gathering economic gloom.
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Discovery finds Signiant
Discovery Communications has been making news lately for its creative repurposing of its vast library of non-fiction video footage on digital platforms. Signiant Inc. wants you to know how Discovery does it.
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Win for the U.S. in WTO case against China
The U.S. got much of what it wanted from a ruling handed down today by the World Trade Organization (WTO) against China concerning copyright and trademark enforcement in the People’s Republic.
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OPINION: Changing times
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JAN. 23 | Not a good month for media and technology companies.
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OPINION: Device management
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JAN. 16 | The Associated Press came out with a review last month of the new Blockbuster MediaPoint set-top box made by 2Wire. The verdict: It’s no Roku.
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Zune apocalypse strikes at midnight
Sometime around midnight Pacific Time last night, 30GB Zune players around the world began freezing up for reasons unknown.
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OPINION: Mixed Year
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda DEC. 31 | The fact that Las Vegas hotels were slashing their Consumer Electronics Show room rates a month before the annual technology fair was scheduled to open next week can’t have been a good sign for the venerable tradeshow or the industry it’s meant to showcase.
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OPINION: Next for Blu
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda DEC. 23 | Having staggered through a long and bruising format war with HD DVD, it would have been no real surprise had Blu-ray Disc crumpled like a spent fighter when hit with an abrupt slowdown in consumer spending in that latter part of 2008.
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OPINION: Standing out
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda DEC. 12 | Recommendation engines have long been a feature of online retail sites, from Amazon.com to Netflix to iTunes. Yet for the most part, they’ve been regarded as a tool for customer retention and improving the user experience. Rarely have they been the focus of a competitive arms race themselves.
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OPINION: DMCA redux
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda DEC. 5 | Blockbuster’s roll out of a set-top box for playing digitally delivered movies will inevitably draw comparisons with Netflix and its partnerships, but the two DVD retailers’ approaches to digital delivery are not the same, reflecting both their different histories and different views of life without DVDs.
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Tough times for Viacom
Media giant Viacom Inc. on Thursday announced across-the-board job cuts as part of a sweeping restructuring meant to align the company’s organization and overall cost structure with the rapidly changing media landscape and the deteriorating economic environment.
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OPINION: Big Blue's big box
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda NOV. 25 | Blockbuster’s roll out of a set-top box for playing digitally delivered movies will inevitably draw comparisons with Netflix and its partnerships, but the two DVD retailers’ approaches to digital delivery are not the same, reflecting both their different histories and different views of life without DVDs.
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