Netflix Series Launch Like a Movie Premiere

It takes a 'war room' to launch Netflix's series - MiamiHerald.com: ". . . ."This is Silicon Valley's equivalent of a midnight movie premiere in Hollywood," says Chris Jaffe, Netflix's vice president of product innovation. Netflix made a name for itself as a DVD-by-mail provider and an Internet video streaming business mainly by offering content from other companies. Lately, the company has been releasing its own content as a way to hook new customers on its $8-per-month streaming service. The company promised its 37.6 million worldwide subscribers that they can start watching all 13 episodes of its latest original series at the stroke of midnight, Pacific Time, on July 11. . . . (read more at link above)

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Silicon Valley vs Traditional TV

Silicon Valley vs. the Tyranny of Traditional TV : The New Yorker: " . . . There are signs, though, that the inevitable is starting to happen, albeit slowly. While cable-cutting remains a niche phenomenon, it is becoming more and more common, and, as one might imagine, it is driven largely by younger viewers who are uninterested in traditional cable. Falling prime-time ratings tell the broader story: if networks and studios want to reach viewers, they’ll need to mold the delivery of their content to fit evolving viewing practices. . . . A TV service from Intel, rumored to be named OnCue, is designed to replicate all of the content of a traditional cable package—including live TV—with on-demand programming and a new kind of interface. Google is freshly rumored to be pursuing the same kind of deals in order to “stream traditional TV programming” across the Internet. Google, however, has sought these kinds of deals before and failed, so there’s no guarantee the company will succeed this time. While Google and Intel’s latest efforts appear to involve working directly with the companies that make content, and thus possibly running around the cable companies, Apple and Microsoft seem to have chosen to work with the cable providers . . . " (read more at link above)

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Google out to replace cable TV?

Google, an advertising company at its core and which also owns YouTube,  has begun talks with major media companies about licensing TV channels, according to people with knowledge of the meetings--

Google Said to Weigh Supplying TV Channels - NYTimes.com: " . . . A future Apple service could include a user-friendly interface layered on top of Time Warner Cable or Cablevision’s channel lineup. “Apple’s working within our current ecosystem,” one of the people said. What Google and Intel, and probably others, have in mind is more disruptive and more difficult. One person involved in the talks with Google cautioned that the company might end up just selling a library of TV shows, the way Netflix, Amazon and Hulu already do. But others said that Google has pitched an easy-to-use subscription service that would stream a bundle of live channels as well as on-demand shows, replacing the cable bundles that most households now purchase. . . ."

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IMDb updates Android and iOS apps, buy movie tickets directly

IMDb updates Android and iOS apps, lets US users buy movie tickets directly: "Today, iOS and Android users living in the US can act on those decisions with the addition of in-app movie ticket purchases. Purchases themselves are processed through Fandango, but doing so merely requires navigating to a preferred movie in IMDb, then choosing your preferred theater and time. "

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Horror Movie as App

Your Next Horror Movie Franchise Isn't a Movie - It's an App | The Wrap Movies: " . . . The entire series is has been completed, he said, at a cost of just less than $1 million. A season's pass will set viewers back $6.99 (or $14.99 for HD); individual episodes go for 99 cents (or $1.99 for HD). And viewers who share on social media that they watched the first episode can still watch the second for free. There will be no advertising at all. Edelstein said he will rely on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the viral nature of successful projects on the internet, assured that both the quality of his project and his innovative approach to storytelling would be enough for people to buy it. “I don’t want this to be like XYZ studio is trying to push a new thing,” Edelstein said. “I want people to try and discover this. If it’s going to succeed it’s going to happen that way.” Though some money will come from sales, Edelstein insists that is not the priority. The project was funded, he said, thanks to an angel investor that he could never convince to invest in movies. Though he has no guarantee that he’ll get his money back on this project, his investor is already open to a sequel.  "We are in it to really figure it out. If we didn’t nail it here, we’re going to adjust,” Edelstein said. . . ." (read more at link above)

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Musicians Making Money on YouTube

A New Way for Musicians to Make Money on YouTube - Businessweek: "Audiam is poised to benefit from music consumers’ shifting habits. “The writing is essentially on the wall for the download model,” he says, as fans switch from buying music on iTunes to streaming songs on such sites as Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube. That’s proving to be a lousy way for even successful artists to earn money. Plenty of striving musicians would welcome revenue from YouTube clicks. “There are tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of independent composers and performers whose work does appear on sites like YouTube,” Sinnreich says."

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Google YouTube studio in LA

Google invests in YouTube studio in LA - FT.com: " . . .where will this road take YouTube? Kyncl is tight-lipped about how much money the site is making or where it goes next but Morgan Stanley recently estimated that YouTube could be a $20bn-a-year business within six years. That, of course, assumes that viewers and advertisers using YouTube continue to increase, which explains the company’s ongoing investments in the channels – and in the Space in LA. Liam Collins tells me that one of the inspirations for the facility was a typical coffee shop, where creative people could meet informally and discuss ideas over a latte. “So was CBGB’s, the New York club where punk was born. We like to say the new Debbie Harry will meet the next Ramones here and a great partnership will be born.”. . . ."

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Comcast CEO promises more binge-viewing, faster platforms

Comcast CEO promises more binge-viewing, faster platforms — paidContent: "The cable industry is adapting just fine to the changing habits of TV viewers and to the arrival of ultra-fast competitors like Google Fiber, according to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. Speaking on Tuesday at the Cable Show in Washington, Roberts shared his thoughts on the future of the TV industry and showed off new Comcast kit intended to provide a faster, more-connected experience. The technology included cloud service X2, which allows subscribers to customize their experience to a greater degree than previous services, showing recently watched shows, favorite apps and other types of personalized content. Roberts also showed off a 3-gigabit/sec connection capable of gulping down a movie near-instantly . . . " (read more at link above)

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Where to find video content for kids

Magid: Places to find video content for kids - SiliconValley.com: " . . . Netflix which charges $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming, has a kids channel . . .Amazon's Prime Instant video service will begin streaming children's content from Viacom's cable channels, including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., MTV and Comedy Central. Kids' shows will include "Dora the Explorer," "Blue's Clues" and "SpongeBob SquarePants." . . . There is also content available for free. PBS Kids' website offers a number of videos, including "Clifford the Big Red Dog," "Curious George," "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood," "Cat in the Hat" . . .If you know what to search for, you can find plenty of children's content on YouTube, including shows from a very long time ago. If you search for "YouTube playlist," you can find instructions for setting up a playlist for the kids to watch. . . . (read more at link above)

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2 Easy Video Publishing Tools (video)

Video - Mossberg Reviews Two Easy Video Publishing Tools That Allow Longer Vidoes Than Instagram or Vine - WSJ.com:"Some people want to create longer videos than Instagram or Vine can provide, without taking the time to use a video editor to polish them. Walt Mossberg reviews Animoto and Magisto, two tools that allow you to do this."
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Google Takes Home Half of Worldwide Mobile Internet Ad Revenues

Google Takes Home Half of Worldwide Mobile Internet Ad Revenues - eMarketer: "Combined, three companies—Google, Facebook and Twitter—account for a consolidating share of mobile advertising revenues worldwide, as other players, such as YP, Pandora, Apple and Millennial Media, see their shares decrease, despite maintaining relatively strong businesses growing at rapid rates."

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Retailers Digital Ad Spending Nears $10 Billion

Retailers' Digital Ad Spending Nears $10 Billion: "U.S. retailers, already the heaviest spenders in digital advertising by category, are forecast to increase their spending by another 14% to $9.4 billion this year. By next year, that figure will surpass $10.4 billion, reaching $13.3 billion by 2017. According to estimates from eMarketer, retailers already account for 22.3% of all digital ad spending, the most of any industry. About two-thirds of their investments are in direct response ads (i.e., those designed to lead to a sale, rather than promote a brand). Direct response formats include search, mobile messaging and classifieds. . . ." (read more at link above)

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Massive film industry implosion coming

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas predict ‘massive implosion’ in film industry http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/13/4425486/steven-spielberg-george-lucas-usc-film-industry-massive-implosion Lucas: Movies will become like Broadway, high-end sophisticated, expensive, few theaters, event-driven - Rest will be Internet TV, similar to cable and broadcast, but wider variety, more experimentation, niche - Lucas: "But out of that chaos will come some really amazing things. And right now there's amazing opportunities for young people coming into the industry to say, ‘Hey, I think I'm going to do this and there's nobody to stop me.' It's all because the gatekeepers have been killed." (read more at links above)

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