Tag Archives: VOD

News, Politics, Government

Sports And Contest Shows Are The Only Things That Matter On Live TV Now

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By Dorothy Pomerantz, Forbes Staff

As it gets easier to watch shows we love outside of the broadcast prime time schedule, the whole concept of live television is starting to seem a little old fashioned. The most buzzed about shows right now are on and HBO. Just look at the recent rundown of Emmy nominees. HBO scored 108 nominations. Thanks to VOD and HBO To Go, it doesn’t matter when shows like Game of Thrones and True Blood air. You can watch, or binge on them, whenever you want. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Media Digest (4/29/2013) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

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By 24/7 Wall St.

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The form of taxation that is applied to a Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) buyout of the 45% of Verizon Wireless that Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) owns may decide the deal. (Reuters)

The global economy continues to rely on central bank aide to prop up gross domestic product. (Reuters)

China’s move to 4G will give some equipment suppliers huge contracts. (Reuters)

Tough European sales may start to badly damage U.S. corporate earnings. (WSJ)

The government blocks cash payouts to some General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) executives. (WSJ)

The number of people in the U.S. looking for jobs fell to its lowest level since 1979 because of retiring baby boomers. (WSJ)

Fred Hassan leaves as the chairman of Avon Product Inc.’s (NYSE: AVP) board. (WSJ)

A move to dividend-paying stocks may be causing their prices to move too high. (WSJ)

More Republican members of Congress will support a tax on online sales. (NYT)

Cable firm AXS TV will start to run programming from AOL Inc.’s (NYSE: AOL) HuffPo Live. (NYT)

Passengers may well shy away from flying the Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) 787, which recently fixed battery problems. (NYT)

Chat applications will continue to hurt revenue from texts, which have helped telecom earnings. (FT)

More Europeans may modify their positions on the value of austerity. (Bloomberg)

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) ups its commitment to $20 phones as it loses market share to smartphones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung. (Bloomberg)

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, AOL, AVP, BA, GM, NOK, VOD, VZ

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Cinedigm Acquires Broad Based Digital & VOD Distribution Rights to Australian Broadcasting Corporati

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Cinedigm Acquires Broad Based Digital & VOD Distribution Rights to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Television Library for U.S., Canada and Latin America

Deal for Over 1,000 Episodes of Award-Winning Television Signals Concentrated Push to Bring International Content to Digital Marketplace

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Cinedigm (NAS: CIDM) has acquired broad-based digital/VOD rights for US, Canada and Latin American to over 1,000 episodes of television from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) library. The deal, which encompasses both existing episodes and future inventory and includes all genres spanning contemporary and classic programs, represents a major push into the international marketplace for Cinedigm, a leader in the digital media revolution.

The deal includes such brand name titles as Correlli (starring Hugh Jackman); the classic An Audience with Dame Edna series; Outland, the outrageous 2012 series about a gay science fiction fan club; Double the Fist, the acclaimed Australian slapstick comedy and At Home with Julia, the romantic comedy/political satire about australia‘s first female Prime Minister.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is australia‘s national public broadcaster providing premier television, radio, online, and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional australia, as well as overseas through the Australia Network and Radio Australia. ABC presents programming produced both in house and sourced from independent producers as well as the catalogues of Screen Australia, The Australian Ballet and Opera Australia. Its scope of programming includes current affairs, comedy, children’s, arts and music, science and technology, sports, lifestyle, entertainment, history, education and drama.

“This acquisition reflects the remarkable fluidity of today’s international entertainment marketplace and the ever-growing importance of efficient, cost-effective delivery of digital content worldwide,” said Chris McGurk, Cinedigm’s Chairman and CEO. “ABC has a reputation for superb, varied product and our audiences will now have the opportunity to enjoy that programming in their own regions via devices of their choosing.”

“ABC Commercial is delighted to be working with a company with the experience and market reach of Cinedigm and we look forward to audiences in the USA, Canada and Latin America having access to our award-winning, quality ABC productions,” said Robert Patterson, Director of ABC Commercial.

“We’re thrilled to be working with ABC as Cinedigm continues its focus on delivering outstanding, award-winning product to audiences across the widest variety of current – and emerging – digital platforms,” said Mark Kashden, VP Acquisitions for New Video/A Cinedigm company.

The …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Noteworthy ETF Outflows: VGK, BP, VOD, TOT

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By ETFChannel.com

Looking today at week-over-week shares outstanding changes among the universe of ETFs covered at ETF Channel, one standout is the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (AMEX: VGK) where we have detected an approximate $162.2 million dollar outflow — that’s a 2.8% decrease week over week (from 118,815,217 to 115,516,196). Among the largest underlying components of VGK, in trading today BP p.l.c. (NYSE: BP) is off about 0.8%, Vodafone Group plc (NASD: VOD) is up about 0.4%, and Total S.A. (NYSE: TOT) is higher by about 0.2%. For a complete list of holdings, visit the VGK Holdings page » …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Sweden's Com Hem Chooses SeaChange's Adrenalin Software Platform for Video-on-Demand

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Sweden’s Com Hem Chooses SeaChange’s Adrenalin Software Platform for Video-on-Demand

ACTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– SeaChange International (NAS: SEAC) , a leading global multi-screen video software innovator, today announced that Sweden‘s largest cable television operator, Com Hem, has selected the SeaChange AdrenalinTMvideo platform for its new TiVo service. Due for rollout later this year, Com Hem‘s new offering will include broadcast TV channels, VOD (video-on-demand), catch-up TV and start-over for DVB-based (Digital Video Broadcasting) TiVo set-tops, LAN set-tops, smartphones and tablets.

Com Hem is the fastest growing TV distributor in Sweden. About 40 percent, or 1.75 million, of Sweden‘s households are connected to Com Hem‘s network. This gives them access to Sweden‘s widest range of TV channels, HDTV, and TV on Demand, as well as high speed broadband and fixed line services. Com Hem is the latest European operator to choose SeaChange’s next generation Adrenalin as a foundation for its VOD services. Adrenalin is based on an open service-oriented architecture which delivers a television experience that scales to serve millions of assets to any video device across multiple network types, either deployed in a network or in a hosted model. SeaChange’s customers across Europe serve an estimated 36 million subscribers on televisions, PCs, tablets and mobile phones.

Com Hem will use the Adrenalin video platform to integrate and manage a wide range of third-party components. These include TiVo’s client solution and other third-party vendors in the ecosystem. SeaChange will provide its Professional Services to handle integration, customization and deployment.

“Com Hem aims to offer subscribers the latest services in compelling bundles. With SeaChange’s technology and services we can do that. The open Adrenalin architecture means we can integrate our existing equipment and systems effortlessly. And because it’s easy to expand, the back office can grow as quickly as we do,” said Jens Persson, Manager R&D, Com Hem.

“We are delighted to support Com Hem in its rapid growth,” said Andrei Noppe, Senior Vice President and General Manager, EMEA and APAC, SeaChange. “Throughout Europe, customers come to SeaChange for our deep experience and expertise in on-demand service development. Our agreement with Com Hem marks continued expansion of SeaChange’s strong presence in the Nordic and Baltic region, with customers from Denmark to Estonia.”

About Com Hem

Com Hem is the leading supplier of pay television, high-speed broadband and fixed telephony in Sweden. Approximately 40%, 1.75 million, of …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Call for Verizon Wireless Consolidation Grows Louder

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By 24/7 Wall St.

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In this morning’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades from 24/7 Wall St. (released each morning), one of the top upgrades was in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ). It was an upgrade from Citigroup that caught our eye but the other side of the coin is that Citi also raised Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) to Neutral from Sell.

The driving force behind today’s upgrade is not exactly a slate of new phones and it is not that Verizon will out-yield the higher dividend offered by AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). Today’s upgrade was based upon the hope that Verizon will move to make a leveraged buyout of the rest of the Verizon Wireless division that is partly owned (at 45%) by Vodafone. Even with the added debt, the team expects that a deal would immediately add to earnings and cash flow.

This would be a very complicated deal and it would not be easy to accomplish. The problem is that the value of the unit as a whole might be worth more than $100 billion and Citi feels that this might require a whopping $70 billion or more in debt to be taken upon by Verizon without consideration of other swaps.

We would note that Vodafone recently said that it was open to considerations, and Verizon’s management has also said that they would love to own all of the stake. Our issue is the size of the deal and we think that Citi’s suggestion will add enough leverage that it could jeopardize the dividend. That being said, if Verizon wants to do this deal it better go ahead and do it while interest rates are dirt cheap for corporate borrowing costs. The telecom giant also better try to go out as far on the curve as it can with a long string of laddered maturities so that it can pay that debt off in time.

If you will recall, AT&T recently committed a lot of effort to debt to help fund its expansion and capital spending plans. With rates so low and with the market willing to lend serious money to creditworthy businesses, Verizon might seriously want to consider doing this sooner rather than later if it wants to do it at low borrowing rates.

AT&T now yields about 4.9% versus about a 4.3% dividend yield for Verizon. The difference between these two telecom giants today is that Verizon is literally a couple of cents away from a 52-week high while AT&T is about 6% shy of its 52-week high.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls, Dividends & Buybacks, Telecom, Telecom & Wireless Tagged: T, VOD, VZ

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

The 'Veronica Mars' Kickstarter Win Won't Revolutionize The Movie Business

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By Dorothy Pomerantz, Forbes Staff

Yesterday was a huge win for a very specific group of people: Veronica Mars fans. In just a few hours they raised enough money to finance a movie version of their beloved TV show which went off the air in 2007 after only 3 seasons. According to Kickstarter, 44,651 people contributed $2.7 million. That’s $700,000 more than the film makers needed and it’s the strong show of support Warner Bros. was looking for. The studio will now kick in the money to market and distribute the film in a few theaters and on VOD. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Verizon, Vodafone Talking Business

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By 24/7 Wall St.

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While the relationship has not been a particularly stormy one, the Verizon Wireless joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone Group plc (NASDAQ: VOD) has been the subject of lots of conjecture over the past couple of years. Now Bloomberg is reporting that the two have been talking about ways to end the relationship either through a buyout by Verizon or a merger between the two companies.

Citing “people familiar with the situation,” Bloomberg reports that talks were held as recently as last December regarding a full merger, but the discussion dissolved when the two companies could not agree on management or a location for the corporate headquarters. That leaves a Verizon buyout as a likely alternative, provided of course that the U.S. telecom giant can finance the $115 billion price tag that Vodafone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless is said to be worth.

Vodafone has said that it would like to sell stakes in businesses that it does not fully own. Last year it sold its stake in a French mobile-phone operator and it sold a minority stake in China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL) in 2010.

Shares of Vodafone are up nearly 4% at $26.34 in a 52-week range of $24.42 to $30.07. Verizon’s shares are up about 1% at $47.54 in a 52-week range of $36.80 to $48.77.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Mergers and Buy Outs, Telecom & Wireless Tagged: CHL, VOD, VZ

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Video Gaming

GDC: Nintendo to Show 'Efforts to Expand Range of Developers'

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Seemingly in response to weakened third party support, Nintendo is looking at a variety of solutions to boost content on its portable and home consoles. In addition to partnering with other developers, as it is with Atlus for Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, Nintendo will be seeking to “expand the range of software developers.”

“At GDC (Game Developers Conference) to be held in March, we will show you some of our efforts to expand the range of software developers,” said Iwata. “They will include the development environment used for ‘Wii Street U’ and some VOD services, where you can develop the Wii U software using web technologies like HTML5 and JavaScript and Unity, a cross-platform video game engine used by many users.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

Movies & TV

Dredd 3D Tops the Home Video Market

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Although Peter Travis’ Dredd 3D failed to deliver at the box office, the 2012 comic book remake has been killing it in the home video market lately, earning the number one spot on the DVD sell-through and Blu-ray charts with 650,000 units sold. The acclaimed action thriller was also the top film download of the week, dominating all other titles in digital sales.

“Dredd’s chart topping performance demonstrates the breadth of the home entertainment audience for this exciting, high caliber film as well as underscoring our ability to monetize theatrical titles across all home entertainment platforms through the highest packaged, VOD and digital conversion rates in the industry,” said Ron Schwartz , Lionsgate Executive VP and General Manager of Home Entertainment. “We’re also pleased that a film released on 3D Blu-ray was able to top the sales charts, a clear reflection of how quality films in this up and coming format can find their audience.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Movies

News, Politics, Government

The 2012 state of internet VOD

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By Tristan Louis, Contributor Can Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 be legally streamed? What about other hits? Find out. (Image credit: Getty Images for Lionsgate via @daylife) Earlier this week, I took a look at how services like Netflix and Amazon prime were performing when it came to blockbusters. Today, let’s explore how Internet video […]
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest