Month: December 2011

Video Streaming Another Netflix bubble burst: On Monday, its shares soared more than 6 percent on reports that Verizon was in talks to acquire the video streaming and DVD-by-mail company. By the closing bell Tuesday, the shares had given back nearly all of those gains after several analysts shot down the initial reports. Still, hope springs Read More …

Consumer Spending Hollywood is not having a very jolly holiday season so far. Last weekend not only was the worst weekend of the year in terms of total box-office grosses, it was the worst since September 2008. Dividing the weekend’s grosses by the average ticket price, in fact, suggests the number of Americans actually going to Read More …

Legislation Senator Ron Wyden probably isn’t invited to the MPAA Christmas party here in Washington this year. The Oregon Democrat single-handedly held up passage of the PROTECT-IP Act by placing a hold on bill, preventing it from coming to the floor for a vote, and is co-author, with Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, of the Read More …

Programming Lots of grumbling out of the UBS Media & Communications conference yesterday over the soaring costs of cable TV programming. As usual whenever the subject of programming costs comes up, much of the ire was directed at ESPN, which squeezes an estimated $4.69 per subscriber from cable and satellite operators — orders of magnitude higher Read More …

Digital Living Room Microsoft will roll out a major makeover of Xbox Live Tuesday, adding a raft of new OTT video and music services. The update will also deliver a new user interface and enhanced voice-recognition capability for the Xbox Kinect platform, enabling Kinect owners to control their Xbox Live experience through a combination of voice Read More …