All posts by MESA News
Warner Pacts For Paramount Vid Titles (Variety)
The studios announced a three-year pact on Thursday that will have WB handle the distribution of 600 catalog titles on all homevid formats for Par in return for the rights to offer... More
Blockbuster Hits Rewind on Plan to Return as Netflix Killer (Bloomberg)
Billionaire Charlie Ergen is giving up on his plan to turn the once-mighty Blockbuster LLC video- store chain into a Netflix (NFLX) Inc. competitor and gadget retailer ... More
Zynga’s Financial Troubles Worsen, Company Falling Faster than Before (Ars Technica)
Weeks ahead of its official Q3 earnings report, the social media games company Zynga has released a "preliminary financial results" report, rarely a positive sign on Wall Street...... More
Cozying Up to OTT (Light Reading)
Cable operators and other pay-TV service providers are starting to embrace over-the-top (OTT) video, but let's not kid ourselves here -- there's still plenty of tension between the... More
OTT To Drive Growth of Global Connected Television Services (Fierce)
Smart TVs and their ability to connect to the Internet will provide a "lifeline" to TV manufacturers, rescuing them from a stagnant market and possibly stemming billions of dollars... More
Presidential Debate Drew More Than 70 Million Viewers (NY Times)
Nielsen, a television measurement company, said 67.2 million viewers watched on television at home — the highest number for a first debate since 1980. But that did not count any... More
Here Comes ‘The Fold,’ A Daily News Program Made for Cord Cutters (GigaOM)
“The target consumer is a cord cutter.” The Washington Post’s SVP and Chief Digital Officer Vijay Ravindran doesn’t beat around the bush when he is talking about The Fold,... More
L’Oreal Goes Looking For Ladies on the Xbox (AllThingsD)
The cosmetics giant is launching an app for the Xbox 360 Platform, where users can get fashion tips, watch video tutorials and buy product...... More
Toys R Us Launches VOD Service (Variety)
New entrants continue to crowd the video streaming biz with Toys R Us launching its own digital entertainment service for kids on Thursday...... More
UltraViolet Heads to Canada, Ireland, Australia (Home Media Magazine)
The service is live in the United States and United Kingdom, with a Canadian launch planned by the end of the year, and during the first quarter of 2013, UltraViolet will start pop... More
Gaming Faces Its Archenemy: Financial Reality (NY Times)
An analysis on the Web site Gamasutra this year said it was possible that 2012 would be the worst year for retail video game software and hardware sales since 2005 ... More
DVR Changing Landscape of Small Screen Success (Variety)
The big question raised by the growing influence of DVR numbers is how the increase in delayed viewing may shake up industry practices -- in everything from how a show's performanc... More
Bootleg Music Downloading a Thing of the Past? Not So, Study Says (LA Times)
Americans downloaded nearly 760 million songs using the BitTorrent file-sharing network in the first six months of this year -- surpassing the number of digital tracks purchased ov... More
YouTube Improves Content ID, Introduces New Appeals Process (The Next Web)
After launching Content ID nearly five years ago, Youtube has today announced a number of updates to the program, including a new appeals process for challenging copyright cl... More
Viacom Joins Comcast, HBO as Zeebox Strategic Partner (TechCruch)
Viacom is making a strategic investment in the fledgling companion app company, just like Comcast and NBCU did. As part of the deal, Zeebox will get some quality exclusive content ... More
DreamWorks Animation Ups Wallen to CTO (Variety)
As DreamWorks Animation ramps up to release three toons a year, the company has promoted Lincoln Wallen to serve as its new chief technology officer...... More
Breaking Down Apple’s Retail Distribution Strategy (AllThingsD)
In the U.S., Apple’s retail stores, along with the company’s online storefront, sold 47 percent of the Macs and 40 percent of the iPads purchased by the survey sample during De... More
Best Buy Hires E-Commerce President (Wall Street Journal)
Best Buy Co. named former Expedia President Scott Durchslag as president of its online and global e-commerce business, a move the consumer-electronics chain said will boost its... More
Viacom Reaches Into Zeebox (MultiChannel News)
Viacom has signed on as a strategic partner with British startup Zeebox, joining Comcast, NBCUniversal and HBO in tapping the second-screen app to deliver enhanced content and ads ... More