We have witnessed several changes over the last decade. First ascendecy of wireless cellular over land line phones. Then it was Pay-per-View over B&M rentals. –

The Dallas-based company has been warning for almost two years that it might need bankruptcy court protection to reorganize its nearly $1 billion in debt, as it struggles with dwindling cash and a shrinking business hurt by competition and its own store closings.

A “pre-planned” bankruptcy filing in mid-September is now considered the most likely scenario for Blockbuster, according to unnamed sources quoted by the Los Angeles Times. That would require agreement from the company’s biggest creditors and suppliers, among others.

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes recently visited all the major Hollywood movie studios with an entourage of senior secured-debt holders and restructuring consultants, the Times reported.

Source

So yes I am leading up to what I suspect is the ‘Next Middling Thing’. Its this –

vs this –

At first glance you might say ‘How’? The theater might have seem to have all the cards. Big screen experience with a professional sound system, night out plumage, food on demand, all the trappings of being part of a night out on the town. But hold on you also get to experience teenagers yacking through the whole movie. Several people not have the conviction to turn their cell phones off. Then to top it off be prepared to pay about $40 for a couple to see the viewing with ticket, drinks and popcorn. Its that cost vs say no more than $3 to do the same in the comfort of your home.

But here is the kicker, I don’t think any of the other tech blogs has caught on to the nature of this coming issue. LCD TVs have not been gaga tech for quite some time. Same with Pay-per-View. So this has been slipping by under the radar. But you can be assured that the Suits running the theaters certainly are considering it. Its not tech but a tipping point issue that is quietly giving the nod to In-Home viewing.

The tipping point is cost. You can walk into any Best Buy today an purchase a 50″ or larger LCD panel for around a $1000. Add a DVD player or Roku NetFlix box for another $100. That is a pricing level that is affordable to every middle income family in the nation. Home Theater is no longer the providence of well heeled households. Then just roll the numbers. If you figure that the average unit will last 5 years or more then consider many may go to the movies twice a month. It does not take long for the system to pay for itself in deferred expense. Its substitution. Another entertainment deflation.

The second tipping point is scale. Large screen LCD’s are now selling briskly even in this down economy. When a large segment of the population can do their viewing at home the theaters are toast. We are not even close yet, but give it 5 years as the conversion continues and theaters will be gone or greatly reduced in number.

Its no great shucks but it is something you can take to the bank from a business perspective.

RightHaven LLC, the swarmy, scurrilous legal troll is generating heat. Folks are organizing to prepare to fight their tactics. –

If you are a mom and pop blogger, getting hit with a Federal lawsuit out of the blue has got to be terrifying. Many of those being sued by RightHaven LLC do not have deep pockets and are afraid that they will lose everything. Clayton Cramer reported that some of those being sued will probably have to declare bankruptcy.

Fortunately, its seems that the victims and those opposed to RightHaven’s tactics have started to organize. Realizing that information is key, a new website has been established called RightHavenLawsuits.com. They say their mission “is dedicated to gathering together and posting for the public information about Righthaven LLC.” They have links to some of the lawsuits as well as articles on RightHaven LLC.

Another website called RightHaven Victims lists every individual, business, and blog that has been sued by RightHaven LLC for copyright violations. It encourages those sued to work together to share information and to unite to form a collective front against RightHaven LLC. They realize that one of the keys to RightHaven’s success will be the use of a “divide and conquer” strategy. This website is also sharing defense strategies being used by the defendants.

Source
My hat off to those preparing to make a stand. A first logical move is that every defendant request a change of venue to their locale. Make the actual charging as expensive as possible. If it becomes economic to file the charges RightHaven will fold and the suits will go away.

Good luck to you all.

RedBox is fast becoming THE phys disk video distributor in the retail sector –

Redbox makes a big move this morning in its effort to dominate the home video business. The company says it will install its $1-a-night DVD rental kiosks in 700 CVS pharmacy stores by year end, with more to come in 2011.

CVS is the USA’s No. 2 pharmacy chain, with more than 7,000 stores. Although the release from Redbox is short on details about its new arrangement with CVS, it’s easy to imagine what can happen if the drug store executives like what they see.

Redbox — which has 23,000 kiosks in stores, malls, and supermarkets – has already rattled Hollywood. The fear is that the $1-a-night rental price will lead lots of consumers to forego paying $15 or so to buy a DVD — and may also undercut the ability to keep charging $3 or more for cable or online video-on-demand.

Dare we say it? RedBox IS the number one distributor of DVD rentals in the US. At this point not even BlockBuster the legacy player comes close in total volume of disks per week. RedBox is also trialing Blu-Ray in certain markets to ascertain price points vs its $1/night DVD deal.

The world, it be a changing.

As the saying goes, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. The bubblegum Europop of long disbanded group Abba has inspired a number of tribute bands that are attracting large numbers fans to shows. Since the original does not release new material or tour, what better way could Universal find to sell more copies of the old original recordings than to support the tribute bands that keep the music alive. But Universal seems to be determined to self destruct by hassling the very performers that are attracting new fans to Abba.

“We’ve had complaints from all over the world where fans feel they’ve been misled and we feel it’s our duty to protect the Abba brand from misuse,” explained an official spokesman for Universal.

The legal action could signal the end for the likes of Abba Queens, Abba Mania, AbbaDabbaDoo and Swede Dreamz Abba Tribute. However, Bjorn Again, perhaps Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid’s most famous imitators, are not reported to be under threat.

Anneli Stockwell, singer in Abba Queens, admitted they had been left stunned by the news: “We’ve been established for four years with the band name, working our way up from playing in pubs to theatres. If we have to change the name we’ll lose all that business and reputation. We’ve also spent a lot of money on backdrops and publicity already,” she explained. (Yahoo)

I find it very doubtful that anyone with a correctly functioning mind can’t distinguish between a copy act the has Abba in its name vs just “Abba”. Then again it escaped me why anyone wanted to listen to this stuff when the original band was active. Universal hasn’t just looked, but hit a gift horse in the mouth. Plus it’s made loyal fans of an old act appear to be very stupid from it’s statements about them being misled. While there’s no accounting for taste or rational thinking, I’m even more mystified by Universal’s counterproductive behavior than the devotion of Abba fans.

If you are a well known music artist, conventional wisdom as told by the labels is that you make tons of money from the sales of recordings. But, the reality is the majority of artists make very little from the sale of recordings. That’s because the labels “expense” most of the revenue before the artist is compensated. The big labels have been blaming piracy and music sharing as the reason why artists make so little for decades. Before file sharing, the “culprit” was tape.

It’s also true that the real money for musicians in is live shows. No matter is you can sing or not, a great many of the top acts lip sycn to studio sweetened recordings and connect with fans. While promoters can take a big share, savvy artists have almost always fared better with than with the labels.

A very current example is A list artists Lady Gaga. Love her or hate her, she understands the realities of the music market, and has used it to her advantage. Free downloads and engaging fans seems to have served her well. I don’t think all of the big label support in the world could have helped more.

in a wide-ranging (and really quite fascinating) interview that Lady Gaga did with the Times Online in the UK (check it out before they put up the paywall), Lady Gaga admits she’s fine with people downloading her music in unauthorized forms because she makes it up in touring revenue:

She explains she doesn’t mind about people downloading her music for free, “because you know how much you can earn off touring, right? Big artists can make anywhere from $40 million [£28 million] for one cycle of two years’ touring. Giant artists make upwards of $100 million. Make music — then tour. It’s just the way it is today.” (Techdirt)

While the big labels continue to focus on monetizing their archives, the real industry has moved on. Artists who get it will do just fine, with or without a label.

YouTube, the place where the 10min vid is king. Not much prime time going on there of course. But if you count views, well then program directors at ABC, NBC, CBS better listen up –

America’s Funniest Home Videos may have pioneered the YouTube concept, but as the site reaches the five-year mark, its audience size is no laughing matter. YouTube’s viewership now exceeds that of all three networks combined during their “primetime” evening time slot, with more than 2 billion views per day, Google announced Sunday.

Granted, YouTube’s numbers come from worldwide views, while ABC, CBS and NBC broadcast their primetime channels within the United States. But this is a significant milestone nonetheless, and hints at an eventual tipping point when the internet could become the world’s dominant video-delivery system, Mark Cuban’s predictions aside.

Google also trumpeted some other key stats: People upload over a day’s worth of video to YouTube every minute; the average user spends only 15 minutes a day on the site, which YouTube would like to increase in part by renting full-length films; and YouTube has broadcast live sports to more than 200 countries.

To celebrate its fifth birthday, YouTube asks the site’s users to upload videos of how the site has affected their lives, some of which will appear on a specially curated channel. In addition, celebrities including Conan O’Brien — whose best next career move might be to become official curator of YouTube — marked the occasion by posting a playlist consisting of their favorite videos (view his above).

Should the networks really be worried about being overtaken by YouTube? Yes and no. They own their content, YouTube has professed a wish to lengthen viewing times. Licensing currently-airing full-length network television shows (in addition to the older shows they currently license) would be a great way to do that. And the networks are in a more favorable negotiating position than the record labels were when they made similar deals, due to Hulu (ABC and NBC) and CBS.com already attracting large audiences for that content.

Perhaps a more serious threat to the networks is that YouTube is changing our viewing behavior, and that our viewing habits on the computer will soon migrate to the living room.

That last bit about changing viewing habits has already happened in our household. We have not had cable for almost a year and to tell you the truth, we don’t miss it.

Linky.

The parent company, Washington Post Co., posted a $45m profit for the quarter balanced against a $13M loss for the newspaper. –

The Washington Post Co. reported a first-quarter 2010 profit of $45.4 million ($4.91 per share) compared with a net loss of $19.2 million ($2.04) in the first quarter of 2009.

First-quarter revenue was $1.17 billion, up 11 percent from the same period last year, when revenue was $1.05 billion.

The revenue increase came from gains in The Post Co.’s Kaplan education division, its CableOne cable company and its six television stations, which offset losses at its newspaper and magazine divisions.

Kaplan reported a 20 percent gain in first-quarter revenue to $711.4 million, compared with the first quarter of 2009. Kaplan’s first-quarter operating income surged to $57.9 million, compared with $11.1 million in the first quarter of 2009.

The Post Co.’s newspaper division, which is dominated by the flagship newspaper, lost $13.8 million in the first quarter of 2010, compared with a loss of $53.8 million in the same period last year. This comes after a fourth quarter of 2009 when the newspaper moved into the black on the strength of cost cutting and holiday ad spending.

Clearly if a newspaper can’t make a go of it in the largest rumor mill in the country then what is the hope for any dead tree paper anywhere else? Nil to non-existent is what.

I lament their ultimate demise but Journalism killed the brand. Yes I distinguish between Journalism and Reporting. They are poles apart. We have not seen objective reporting in this country in probably a decade.

The paper is dead, long live the paper.

Linky.

We hear constantly of the peril if the entertainment industry is not protected from miscreants and thieves. Now we don’t condone theft here at ThirdPipe. Never will. But we never hear of the fair use argument. Till now —

The IT industry’s US lobby group has released a report calculating the size of the “fair use economy” in the US — all the businesses that rely on fair use, including web hosting companies, private schools, search engines and many others. The total for 2007 (the last year for which stats are available) is a whopping $4.7 trillion — one sixth of US GDP — with over 17 million people employed.

The report is a counterpoint to those crazy Hollywood stats that show that every job in America will disappear unless copyright is extended to infinity, all network connections are surveilled, and every infringer is fined her entire net worth and stuck in jail.

Fair Use provisions are inherently useful in whole industries. Teaching for example would be extremely difficult if it were not for fair use. Same with certain entertainment venues like stand up comedy.

Read the whole piece at BoingBoing.

Linky.

MGM has been in a protracted battle to stay alive and keep the creditors at bay. But is this PR release from EON Productions is any indication things might be more woeful than expected –

LONDON, April 19, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — 007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions, today announced they have suspended development on the next James Bond film previously scheduled for release 2011/2012.

“Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development on BOND 23 indefinitely. We do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release of BOND 23,” stated Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli jointly.

EON Productions have produced twenty two James Bond films since 1962. In 1995, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli took over the 007 franchise from Albert R ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and are responsible for producing some of the most successful James Bond films ever, including CASINO ROYALE and more recently QUANTUM OF SOLACE. The James Bond franchise is the longest running in film history. EON Productions and Danjaq LLC are affiliate companies and control all worldwide merchandising for James Bond.

The time must be neigh for this venerable studio if production companies are hedging their bets as to whether MGM shutters doors or not. You see, once you commit to certain contractual obligations then you are tied to the studio, and ultimately tied to any bankruptcy settlement that results. EON like others would rather avoid that altogether, hence the halt in production of the latest Bond film.

Samuel B. is probably spinning in his grave.

Has Art Brodsky lost his grip? His posting over at Public Knowledge has to be one of the lamest lines of defense ever offered as a basis for over turning the Rule of Law. Kindness of Strangers be damned!

Mr Brodsky starts with using the Ides of March reversal technique –

Of course, the story isn’t all that simple, is it? Because the hidden story of Comcast’s glorious victory is that if Comcast were smart, it wouldn’t in the first place have brought the case, which challenged the FCC’s authority over the company’s high-speed Internet service. Some in the telecommunications industry, perhaps even huge companies with three letters in its name, urged (begged?) Comcast not to take the FCC’s ruling to court, because of the possibility that Comcast could actually win and, potentially, win big —which is what happened.

The reason that the Telcos like the arrangement Art is that it extended their LATA boundary relationships into the non regulated digital environment without so much as a legal skirmish. And what’s this dismissive alluding but not naming? Its AT&T, VZ, Sprint. Don’t be so damn coy.

But where is the standing on damages to the industry that Mr. Brodsky intones? He offers two — Depend on the Kindness of Strangers, and Waiting for Godot. In the former case he charges that depending on the big firms for telecommunications advancement has led us on a downward spiral in terms of global competitiveness. There is some truth to that but not the whole truth. For who is the hand maiden leading the spiraling down the drain but the FCC itself. Then in the latter case we have this –

We can’t depend on unelected bureaucrats to deal with topics as essential as broadband, because the result could be “excessive and burdensome regulation” on those humble, hard-working telephone and cable companies who unfairly change the rules without any reason at all.

And to you I say, NO we cannot trust bureaucrats with damn near anything including telecommunications. If for no other reason that the concept of the Lack of Sufficient Knowledge on a continuing basis.

But thru all of Mr. Brodsky’s missive is this gem –

… Practically speaking (even if there is a very slim legal opening), broadband is free from regulation – a nirvana that the telecoms industry might once upon a time have gratefully accepted as its due, but now looks upon it with some trepidation because now the door has swung wide open to a full-scale discussion of bringing Internet broadband access services back under reasonable regulation.

Two counts here. Brodsky’s ox has been gored by this ruling yet now the door has been swung open for reasonable regulation? By what variant of a pharmaceutical does he come to this conclusion? Its an election year fella. The chances of a Democratic Congress taking this up is slim to none. Plus if the tea leaves are right the Republican Congress next year won’t have the cycle time to touch it either. The second is under proper procedure, the FCC being a creature of Congress should make the necessary request for an expansion of its authority by the proper means, not some gerrymandered legal trick with a wink and a nod. But Mr. Brodsky the FCC DOES NOT possess the authority to overstate its intended alloted powers. Or do I assume you are willing to abrogate the rule of law to achieve your statist aims under the color of consumer protection. How Stalinist.
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