By Jessica Toonkel and Tom Dotan June 14, 2019 | As companies like WarnerMedia and Apple prepare to market new video services to consumers, they are racing to develop hit shows. But as vital as good programming is, figuring out how to sign up and keep subscribers is just as important. To do so, media companies are tapping new types of executives...
By Todd Spangler June 12, 2019 | Row8, a fledgling digital movie service, is looking to take on transactional VOD players like Apple and Amazon with a focus on movies — and a few pricing twists. The L.A.-based startup has inked licensing deals with four major studios — Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. — for rights to...
By Ben Munson June 12, 2019 | The reaggregation of video services (or Pay TV 3.0) has become a common consumer demand. But it won’t be easy to bring everyone back under one roof. Dwayne Benefield, head of PlayStation Vue, said the challenge will be convincing juggernauts like Netflix to join platforms like Amazon Prime Video Channels, the Roku Channel and Apple TV. And...
By Thomas K. Arnold June 9, 2019 | Universal Pictures Home Entertainment aims to drum up consumer awareness of Blu-ray Disc and DVD bonus content, which the studio believes is a key selling point for its physical product. Beginning with the urban horror film Us, which arrives on Blu-ray Disc, DVD and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on June 18, the studio is introducing...
By Eric Johnson June 10, 2019 | Every pay-to-stream video company is fighting a “battle royale” for your attention, and not all of them will make it. Former Amazon Studios strategist Matthew Ball says Netflix and Disney are safe bets to land on the winners list, but now as an outsider looking in, he thinks there’s a strong argument that Amazon...
By Lillian Rizzo and Joe Flint June 6, 2019 | AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia is discussing plans to package HBO, sister channel Cinemax and its vast Warner Bros. TV and movie library into a streaming service costing between $16 and $17 a month, according to people familiar with the matter, a strategy aimed at keeping the media giant competitive against lower-priced offerings in a...
June 4, 2019 | Investment analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson examine WarnerMedia’s direct-to-consumer plans in a May 29 report informed by a recent interview they conducted with WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey. The pair size up the competitive situation for WarnerMedia as promising, but not without challenges: AT&T, like Disney, will have to forgo high margin licensing revenue (and...
June 4, 2019 | LOS ANGELES -- NBA great and TV personality John Salley recommends Father's Day gifts, including 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players and movies, and digital movie purchases, during a nationwide satellite media tour from Los Angeles this morning. DEG coordinated the promotion, with the support of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), Paramount Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros....
By Wendy Lee and Suhauna Hussain June 3, 2019 | When the iTunes Music store debuted 16 years ago, digital music meant buying a CD and uploading it to a computer or illegally downloading a song from a file-sharing service. Apple changed all that by charging customers 99 cents for a song they could take with them wherever they went. Over...
By Sahil Patel June 3, 2019 | At the center of the retail giant’s plans is Vudu, a video service and storefront the company acquired in 2010. Vudu offers more than 8,000 movies and TV shows for viewers to watch for free (with ads), as well as a library of more than 150,000 movies and TV titles that people can purchase or...
