More Articles By Paul Sweeting

• OPINION: Use of fair
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda OCT. 3 | In the end, I suspect, the studios felt they had no choice but to bring a lawsuit against RealNetworks in an effort to shut down sales of its RealDVD copying program. More
  
• OPINION: Need this?
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda SEPT. 26 | Does the world need another physical format for music and video? That’s what analysts and commentators are wondering in the wake of announcements last week from SanDisk and Toshiba regarding the use of NAND flash-based memory cards for storing recorded music and downloaded video. More
  
• OPINION: Good, bad news
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda SEPT. 19 |  There was good news and bad news for the studios at last week’s HDTV 2008 conference sponsored by DisplaySearch. More
  
• OPINION: Question of legality
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda SEPT. 12 | On one level, RealNetworks ’ announcement last week of a software program for coping DVDs to a hard drive or portable storage medium— RealDVD —was no big deal. More
  
• OPINION: The art of treading lightly
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda SEPT. 5 | It has been a busy few weeks for Comcast Corp. , the country’s largest cable TV provider with 14.1 million subscribers and largest Internet Service Provider. More
  
• OPINION: Box battle
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda AUG. 22 | You have to wonder if this is what studio backers of Blu-ray Disc , during its long battle with HD DVD, had in mind. More
  
• OPINION: Apple's seed
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda AUG. 22 | The ever-active Apple rumor mill has been whirring since the company’s third-quarter earnings call last month, when chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer referred cryptically to a “future product transition that I can’t discuss with you today.” More
  
• OPINION: WB on VOD
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda AUG. 15 | On the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Warner Bros. shocked its long-time technology partner Toshiba by dropping its support for Toshiba’s HD DVD format and embracing Blu-ray Disc exclusively. However, Warner’s move may not have been such a ringing endorsement of Blu-ray, either. More
  
• OPINION: New window or new business model?
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda AUG. 8 | Would offering major studio releases through video-on-demand prior to their release on DVD and Blu-ray Disc represent a new business model for the industry? The question may seem academic, but the answer could turn out to be crucial for DVD retailers . More
  
• OPINION: Rental turnover
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda AUG. 1 | In reprise of its performance in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the video rental business seems to be weathering a gloomy economy better than other industry segments. More
  
• OPINION: Opposing VOD views
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JULY 25 |  The CEA ,  NATO and a consortium of consumer-rights groups urged the Federal Communications Commission to deny a petition by the  MPAA to relax the regulations barring the use of selectable output controls (SOC) on cable set-top boxes. More
  
• OPINION: Special delivery
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JULY 18 | At the E3 show in Los Angeles, both Microsoft and Sony made news with announcements of expanded movie and TV download offerings for Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, respectively. More
  
• OPINION: Testing ground
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JULY 11 | Despite the billions it has made for the studios over the past three decades, the home video business has never gotten a lot of respect, either from Hollywood or from the self-anointed “visionaries” who have been predicting the demise of packaged media since at least the Reagan Administration. More
  
• OPINION: Making the connection
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JULY 3 |   Were I a Blockbuster shareholder, I guess I’d be happy to see the company withdraw its bid to acquire Circuit City . The news sent the shares up more than 13% the day after the news broke, a rare good day for the beleaguered stock. More
  
• Keyes: Blockbuster will take leadership role
  JULY 2 | Expand product services with new technology, kiosks More
  
• OPINION: VOD in demand
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JUNE 27 |  Studio efforts to craft a limited, high-def video-on-demand window ahead of movies’ DVD and Blu-ray release hit a snag when the FCC extended the public-comment period on the MPAA’s petition to block digital video recorder recordings of the early showings. More
  
• OPINION: Moving Up
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JUNE 20 | SPEAKING AT the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference last week, Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders acknowledged the obvious : relatively inexpensive upconverting DVD players pose a threat to the industry’s efforts to market Blu-ray Disc. More
  
• Kaleidescape goes upscale
  JUNE 18 | FROM CONTENTAGENDA: Claims new player upconverts DVDs to full 1080p More
  
• OPINION: Upping the ante
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda JUNE 6 | THE JAPANESE press has been full of speculation in the past week over purported plans by Toshiba to introduce a super up-converting DVD player that surpasses current up-converters and produces images from existing DVDs that are virtually identical to Blu-ray Disc. More
  
• OPINION: Facing the cost of filling up
  Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda MAY 30 |  Pull into  Blockbuster and fill ’er up. That’s the basic idea behind the in-store download kiosk that Blockbuster chairman/CEO Jim Keyes unveiled in New York this week during the company’s annual meeting of shareholders. More