High Tech Lounge » Paramount

On-demand movies available 30 days after theaters

adina — Sat, 29 May 2010 14:31:17 +0000

There is a possibility in the near future that movies reach video on demand much faster. A proposal of Time Warner made at the Cable Show refers to movies reaching video on demand within thirty days in exchange of a premium price of $20 to $30. It seems that Disney, Paramount, Fox, Universal, Sony and Warner are intending to sign onboard. If the fast service is agreed, it would go live not later than this fall or the beginning of 2011. Fox and Paramount may not sign immediately to offer this service.

This approach will certainly generate controversies, as it potentially could jeopardize traditional business. It would reduce the incentive to visit instead of simply watching from home. Theater owners have objected to this policy and have even threatened to refuse movies released under such policies. The refusal might last for three-month periods.

Digital releases may also be hurt. Services like Netflix and iTunes are regularly given a delay between the movie’s release on DVD and the rental option, in order to steer customers back towards traditional video on demand and physical copies. The time when movies are made available online could be potentially shortened, but an artificial, longer buffer time between video on demand and purely digital could also be created.

Sony has made experiments in the past with pre-DVD releases by renting directly to televisions for a premium, but no studio has agreed to implement this model.

Sony claims PS3 being first with high definition movies of major studios

adina — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:53:34 +0000

Sony recently claimed its PSN video service being the first to get high definition movies from all six major studios. Apart from its own Sony Pictures, the company has deals that allow buying and renting high definition movies on the PlayStation 3 from Fox, Paramount, Disney, Warner and Universal. There was no mention of price changes as part of these additions and the agreement is a non-exclusive one. The new added content is for now available in the United States and other countries like Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom will receive new studio content very soon.

For Sony the win is symbolic. Its console sales trail those of Microsoft and Nintendo, but the PS3 continues to be one of the most popular media players for living rooms and has become a default Blu-ray player, although its Internet movie service is less popular than iTunes or the Zune Video Marketplace on the Xbox 360. The console recently added Netflix streaming and has benefited from price cuts, becoming more competitive with Apple TV, Xbox 360 and other devices that had lower prices.

The expansion opens new opportunities to similar deals at other locations and potentially promises other movie services. Studios have been reluctant to agree high definition movie sales and rentals as they potentially generate cut into Blu-ray sales that are still expected to take over from DVDs in a near future. Many studios have extended deals with a series of movie retailers potentially threatened by online-only users. Sony has a partial conflict of interest as it has been the creator and supporter of Blu-Ray.

Unusual Deal – Movies on Flash Memory

adina — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:45:05 +0000

Movies available on SD cards or USB flash drives may sound strange enough but this is the subject of a most recent deal concluded between Kingston and Paramount. The latter’s movies could be sold on such media in the near future. The two partners didn’t provide any details on the formats but it’s certain that the movies will come both in bundles and individually.

Providing movies on other storage than optical could contribute to a wider spreading of video productions to systems not provided with DVD or Blu-ray drives, such as handhelds or netbooks. In order to fit into 2GB of memory or even less, movies will be in standard definition.

The two companies didn’t mention the release date yet.