Last month, MyCE broke the news that Dish was shutting down five Blockbuster shops in New Jersey. Turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg. By June, the company will close an additional 495 U.S. stores, leaving just 1,000 open. At this rate, Blockbuster could become a fond memory - like the VHS tapes that helped build its empire - by next year.
Contrary to popular belief, the Motion Picture Association of America doesn't hate the Internet, just the illegal file-sharing, counterfeiting and copyright infringement perpetrated over it daily. Big difference.
The holy grail for bewildered movie studios facing down a sea change to streaming video rentals, Ultraviolet is off to a solid, if unexceptional start. More than 800,000 customers have signed up for the digital movie platform since its October debut, says market researcher IHS. The firm estimates that the current attach rate among the nascent service's early supporters sits at 1.25, for more than one million digital movie downloads.
A UK court sided on Monday with Sony Music, EMI and several other major record companies in a case against six major Internet service providers which could push The Pirate Bay further onto the fringes of the Internet. The London High Court's Justice Arnold stated that he believes the infamous Swedish torrent site actively engages in wide-scale copyright infringement.
The specter of cord-cutting continues to haunt major television companies. According to a new study from research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey, the growing popularity of portable media tablets could lead to a new round of cord-shaving -- pay-TV customers cutting back on their monthly cable bills to spend more time watching content on the smaller second screen.
Anonymous isn't just crashing websites. The group decided to physically invade the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars while simultaneously attacking the website for the Spanish film academy.
The costly 3D TVs are not selling, the 3D movie tickets are being passed up for cheaper 2D ones, and the poor quality of most 3D film conversions have caused the overused three dimensional fad to drop off significantly.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has offered up a solution to myriad consumers’ request to be able to burn copies of movies that they already own: buy another one or pay to watch it somewhere else.
A new study out of Stanford Graduate School of Business asserts that most major movie studios routinely inflate opening weekend box office revenue. The analysis, "Inflation in Weekend Box Office Estimates," reveals that misreporting numbers is no new trend for Hollywood.
On January 16, 2012, an academic study concluded that not only does the US box office not suffer any loss of sales due to piracy, but also that Hollywood’s delayed release dates drive piracy, at a seven percent box office loss, internationally.
A class-action lawsuit alleging streaming video giant Netflix retained customer records for two years after service cancellation has ended with the company admitting no wrongdoing, but paying out a hefty $9 million to make the case go away.
Most Netflix members pay $8/month to stream movies and TV shows to PCs and game consoles. That low price is partially what helped the company become a household name. Saskatchewan native John Gibson, however, managed to rack up over $10,000 in costs during a recent vacation.
Major movie studios Universal, Warner and Sony Pictures have thrown their weight behind UltraViolet - a legal video locker system that provides those who purchase a Blu-ray movie with a digital copy. The Walt Disney Company, however, isn't convinced the platform will succeed.
If a new round of Blockbuster store closures in New Jersey last month wasn't bad enough, Redbox this week has purchased the company's line of rental kiosks. What's left of the former rental king is a dwindling number of brick-and-mortar shops, an archaic by-mail rental business and a streaming service limited to Dish TV customers.
Kiosk movie rental company Redbox and telecom Verizon are teaming up to launch a full-featured disc rental and streaming video service due later this year. While the new home entertainment platform lacks a name, its eventual chief rival is obvious. The two companies are gunning for Netflix.
Two weeks after cyberlocker Megaupload was seized by the U.S. Justice Department, the folks behind popular torrent site BTJunkie have opted to voluntarily pull the plug in the hopes they won't also be dragged through the legal system.
