Blockbuster Dangerously Close To Going Under
Blockbuster, the $500 million video rental chain, has been in a long battle to remain relevant in the Internet-enabled age–lately by attempting to strike a deal for online content distribution. But the company’s Internet leap may be too late: An FCC filing has revealed that the company is in deep trouble.
The filing, made to the Securities and Exchange Commission late yesterday, shows that the company is unsure whether it can continue doing business. Specifically, Blockbuster may not survive the months between a planned $250 million loan deal arranged last week and when the agreement goes into effect on May 11. Blockbuster management say there’s "no assurance" the company can meet the requirements of the deal.
In effect, the company is saying it’s within days or weeks of having to close up shop–postal, online and brick-and-mortar.
The latter of those categories is mostly to blame, of course. In an age when music and movies are easily downloaded at a few moments notice, companies stream content over your phone lines to TV set-top boxes on demand, and even waiting for the postman to deliver a NetFlix envelope with your next DVD is beginning to seem slow, driving to a real store to rent a movie or game just isn’t convenient. Managing and funding the company’s physical assets must have become a real burden as its business eroded. Compare that to NetFlix, which doesn’t have to worry about storefronts with its warehouse-centric distribution model, and online streaming systems like Hulu, which have barely any overhead at all.
Blockbuster’s recent announcements that it would be partnering with TiVo, and get its content onto Apple devices, now just rings hollow. It was the right move, but taken far too late to have the needed impact on the company’s fortunes.
See the full article at Fast Company.
Boxee Continues To Innovate With API And New Alpha Version
Free entertainment hub Boxee keeps on getting better and better. A couple of hours ago, the venture-backed startup released a full API that allows developers to build applications for the open-source platform using a set of API calls in Python and writing the GUI using XML. At the same time, the company is laying the groundwork for a richer App Box, which it refers to as an open application store where they are not the gatekeeper (like Apple for its iPhone App Store) but rather a facilitator.
Heck, they’re even prepared to act as middleman for connecting freelance web developers with companies looking to leverage their API. Hard not to love that type of company.
Boxee is today also introducing a new test version of the Boxee alpha version for Mac and Apple TV (get it here for Intel Mac OS X 10.4+), adding two applications that were built using the brand new API. The new Boxee alpha comes with a lot of music goodness as it includes both Pandora, the popular music streaming service, and RadioTime, which enables their users to access over 100,000 traditional radio stations from across the globe.
This comes right off the heels of the introduction of a (basic) iPhone application.
See the full article at TechCrunch.
Report: Disney in talks to join Hulu
The Walt Disney Company is discussing a deal to take an equity stake in Hulu in exchange for providing the video portal with ABC programming, according to a published report.
Citing unnamed sources, news blog PaidContent says that it’s not clear how much of ABC’s content would be involved, but a final deal could include ESPN, the sports cable behemoth that has been a goldmine for Disney.
Representatives from Disney and Hulu were not immediately available.
The talks between the two companies reportedly are "serious," but a final deal has not been reached, according to two of PaidContent’s sources.
In the year since launching, Hulu has quickly risen to the top ranks of online video. The site is currently backed by News Corp., parent company of Fox and NBC Universal.
Source: CNET News
Detailing Netflix’s Streaming Costs: Average Movie Costs Five Cents To Deliver
While Netflix is not yet giving out a lot of details on their costs associated with their streaming video service, they have given out enough data for us to have a pretty good idea of their costs when it comes to their streaming delivery costs for the XBOX 360 and other devices. Here’s what we do and don’t know and how it all breaks down.
We know that the average encoding rate for video streamed to the XBOX 360 is about 2000Kbps. That means one person watching a two hour movie would transfer roughly 1.8GB of data. For high definition movies, the average encoding bitrate is around 3200Kbps and one user would transfer about 3GB of data. Based on the high volume of movies Netlfix is doing each month, they are getting a very good rate in the market. I estimate they are paying on average about $0.03 per GB delivered across Limelight and Level 3 and potentially have even a slightly lower rate.
Based on the three cents per GB assumption, that means it would cost Netflix about $0.06 to deliver one SD movie and $0.09 to deliver one HD movie. Those numbers would be about 25% lower if the length of the movie were ninety minutes instead of two hours. It would also be a little lower or higher depending on the exact bitrate since some movies are streamed higher and some lower and Netflix only has about 400 movies available in HD. Taking all that into consideration the average cost to Netflix to stream to the XBOX 360 is about five cents per movie. Streaming to the PC is a lot cheaper, about half that cost, as the bitrates are much lower.
Based on those numbers, their streaming offering looks like it would save them tons of money and make them a lot more profitable since Netflix spends about 78 cents out and back for standard pre-sort first class mailing of their DVDs. But the one problem is that these streaming costs do not yet include the licensing costs from the content owners. It’s the costs associated with licensing the content that really makes or breaks their streaming service, not the cost of bandwidth.
See the full article at StreamingMedia.com.
P Diddy Becomes the Newest Celeb to Use Ustream.tv
More and more celebrities seem to be adopting live video as a way to interact with their audience. It’s an easy way to engage fans and answer questions from the comfort of their homes. The newest pairing? P Diddy and Ustream.tv.
P Diddy launched his Ustream channel just yesterday, but has already racked up 19,000 views and over 2500 viewer hours. His uStream show, named P.TWITTY TV, makes full use of his Twitter account to inform users of broadcasts and his mobile phone to stream from the clubs that he visits. His Ustream page even has a Twitter search widget showing recent @replies to P Diddy.
There has been a steady trend of celebrities and public figures using Ustream as their live streaming platform. Leo Laporte, the host of the popular This Week in Tech podcast, was once exclusive to the Stickam video platform, but is now streaming his shows regularly on Ustream. Lil Wayne is another celebrity who has utilized Ustream, even using it to stream at the Grammys via mobile phone.
We think live video is a great way for celebrities and fans to interact more intimately. It’s easy for celebrities to answer fan questions from video chatrooms and Twitter @replies. It also gives fans a glimpse into the lives and homes of their favorite people. What’s more, Twitter integration makes it easy to announce impromptu shows to fans.
With the kind of reach and interaction live streaming platforms provide, it’s probably a safe bet that we will see more celebrities, politicians, and other high-profile individuals utilizing live video products like Ustream to interact with a wider audience.
Original article at: Mashable.
