AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

LA Times “Web Scout” blog
Enter a cineplex this summer and you’re basically wandering into a giant circus. Each tent pole — the biz term for a colossally expensive movie — is sure to include at least one outlandish, or even freakish, main character. Step right up. On your left, watch an old man — incredibly! [...]

[Read more →]

Getting up to speed on digital downloads - The Los Angeles Times
Rather than visiting a rental store, many are getting movies from online services.
If you’re like most Americans, renting a movie involves driving somewhere or, if you’re a determined couch potato, reaching into your mailbox.
Then you fire up the DVD player and that’s that.
Hollywood would [...]

[Read more →]

From the DGA Website…

[Read more →]

Bit Player/LA Times Blog
Here’s an unusual first. Paramount Pictures announced a deal Wednesday to let MusicGiants, an online music store that caters to audiophiles, sell collections of movies loaded onto hard drives. Buyers will be able to transfer the contents of those drives onto personal computers or, more likely, home media servers. The deal [...]

[Read more →]

WSJ
Barry Diller could be heading back to the movie business. Well, in a manner of speaking.
On-again, off-again talks between IAC/InterActiveCorp., which Diller (left) runs, and Flixster, a social-networking site for movie fans, have heated up again and a deal could be near, according to people familiar with the situation. An announcement could come as early [...]

[Read more →]

His magic has not extended to visual entertainment. Hollywood and cable companies aim to keep it that way — Business Week

[Read more →]

LA Times
Apple Inc. settled a patent suit with online movie distributor Intertainer Inc. of Santa Monica.
Apple and Intertainer asked a federal judge in Marshall, Texas, to throw out the dispute over Intertainer’s patented video-distribution technology. Terms of the accord weren’t disclosed.
“They came to us with an offer and we thought it was acceptable,” Intertainer Chief [...]

[Read more →]

Seeking Alpha blog
As a new Netflix (NFLX) user I could not be more happy with the DVD delivery service. I’m using the 3 disc at a time plan and have seen some amazing films and television series over the past few months. I like Netflix so much that I’ve even considered scraping my DirecTV (DTV) [...]

[Read more →]

NY Times
Nearly a year ago, Wal-Mart Stores grandly announced plans to enter the movie download business. It has exited with much less fanfare.
Wal-Mart posted a short message on the Web site of its movie download service saying that operation had closed as of Dec. 21. The move went largely unnoticed for a week, an unmistakable [...]

[Read more →]

Digital media won’t be a sideshow in the future - The Los Angeles Times
Downloading and other Internet-based modes are likely to account for a much larger share of the industry’s revenue.
Today’s puny sales of movie and TV downloads makes one wonder: Why are striking members of the Writers Guild of America so intent on getting [...]

[Read more →]