Sorta, as in right now its register, then get an invite. Its not a bad strategy either. Run a test case with a small body of users to get the kinks out. A method I would heartily support.

But the question I have is it it worth $10? For the money you get –

• Access to more shows from the major networks.
• Access to the past seasons archives.
• It will be viewable on more devices (iPod, iPhone, Samsung devices, Sony PS3, Xbox, your PC)
• All of it available in HD.
• Oh, and you still have to watch all the ads. The price of entry does not spare one from this.

Now ole Fuddy-Duddy here says maybe its worth $10. Fact if they would ditch the ads I would give a serious thumbs up. I would also suggest they consider bringing in other partners like USA Network as well. Finally I could really care less that HuluPlus runs on an Xbox or PS3. I don’t game.

But with a little jiggering of the content. Dropping of the ads. Then getting some of the channel partners like HBO on board in an ala carte fashion this could fly. There is only one problem. HD already exists over the air and that ole trusty Tivo is still there with the FF button. So questions boils down to does access to the archive of shows worth the $10.

My last Ah-Ha. Does HuluPlus set the new price model for broadband content? Personally I think it does. Not because I think the content is competitive as what $40/mo cable provides. No, its a market perception thing. Once the public gets it in their mind that $10 is the value proposition the cable Cos won’t be able to shake it. Serious downward pressure waits in the wings.

Now, do the networks have the guts to pull content off the cable providers?

Linky

The bugler that is; to play taps over BlockBuster. The former darling of Wall Street is $900m in the hole, savaged by bad management, RedBox, home theater and a bad economy. –

Blockbuster is in discussions with bondholders to get up to $150 million in so-called debtor-in-possession financing, said people familiar with the matter. Such loans, which typically carry high interest rates, are used to help companies operate while under Chapter 11 protection. The senior bondholders, owed about $630 million, would provide the financing to protect their original investment should Blockbuster enter bankruptcy court.

The talks don’t necessarily mean Blockbuster will file for bankruptcy. Blockbuster is pursuing other options, and troubled companies often negotiate bankruptcy loans as a precautionary measure and still reach deals with creditors to restructure debts outside of court.

On a separate front, Blockbuster is talking with possible strategic partners about a new cash infusion, a person familiar with the matter said. Under that scenario, a group of lower-ranking bondholders owed $300 million would likely convert their debt to equity, this person said.

One potential investor could be NCR Corp., which provides the company with Blockbuster Express-branded vending machines, this person said. It remained unclear what other possible investors Blockbuster had sounded out. Blockbuster and NCR declined to comment.The movie-rental chain faces possible bankruptcy as its debt has mounted amid stiff competition.

Moves of a company that is looking for operating capital through the bankruptcy proceedings hoping for a white knight buyout. That will only work if there is a desirable level for a pennies on the dollar deal. The problem for BB is that its floor rent is tied to a cost structure of 2-3 years ago in a commercial real estate market that is selling square footage at 50% discount.

The other problem for BB is that the nature of the competition matrix has not changed and will increase over time. Home theater systems are getting cheaper all the time. RedBox is expanding at a furious pace and will be offering Blu Ray rentals shortly. Even the Pay-per-View market is holding up well as the customer seems satisfied with the pricing. Add it all up and the BB market is not looking good for a B&M model.

Another loser in the Whack-the-MIddleman sweepstakes.

Linky.

Theaters and studios are complaining about flat revenues at the box office. –

Movie Tickets Reach the $20 Mark

For the first time, a major Hollywood film will hit the $20 threshold at the box office, as movie-theater owners test the public’s ability to absorb ever higher ticket prices.

Several theaters will charge $20 per adult ticket to IMAX showings of the animated 3-D family film “Shrek Forever After,” the fourth “Shrek” installment from DreamWorks Animation. The theaters include the AMC theater in Manhattan’s Kips Bay neighborhood, AMC Loews 34, AMC Loews Lincoln Square and AMC Empire 42nd Street.

The increases weren’t officially announced, but were reflected in prices posted Wednesday on movie-ticketing Web sites such as Fandango.com and tracked by BTIG LLC media analyst Richard Greenfield.

Source

$20 for a ticket. Are they out of their minds?? I will grant that IMAX if done right is worth a reasonable premium but no $20 worth. I can go down to BestBuy 6 months after the fact and buy that movie in Blu-Ray for $24.99. So I spend a marginal overhead for the film vs a single ticket experience. But I just acquired the right to view the thing as many times as I want.

The Suits wonder why the movie going public does not show up any more. Why should they? The prices are too high. Beside with many going to personalized home theatre the rationale for going to a movie house is gone. Buy the flick, or rent, at view at your schedule. But the math is pretty simple — $80 for a family of 4 vs waiting a little and spending merely a $1 from RedBox. Pretty dang clear to me.

How about you?

Update: It appears that the source article was in error. Or should I say that several AMC theaters were in error in how they reported pricing for Shrek. We pass along this as a corrective action.

Did you know that data comm billing can ruin your love life?

A Toronto woman says the billing practices of Rogers Wireless Inc. led to her husband discovering her extramarital affair.

Now the woman, whose husband walked out, is suing the communications giant for $600,000 for alleged invasion of privacy and breach of contract, the results of which she says have ruined her life.

In 2007, Gabriella Nagy had a cellphone account with Rogers which sent the monthly bill to her home address in her maiden name. Her husband was the account holder for the family’s cable TV service at the same address. Around June 4, 2007, he called Rogers to add internet and home phone.

The following month, Rogers mailed a “global” invoice for all of its services to the matrimonial home that included an itemized bill for Nagy’s cellular service, according to the statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

When Nagy’s husband opened the Rogers invoice, he saw several hour-long phone calls to a single phone number.

“Nobody does business this way and he’s not stupid,” says Nagy, who is in her 30s. He called the number, spoke to the “third party” who confirmed the affair, which had lasted only a few weeks, Nagy told the Star.

“My husband didn’t tell me that’s how he found out, he just left.”

Moral of the story — Don’t cheat AND if you are going to, then at least have the smarts to order a separate phone AND carrier!

Heh.

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.

As in the traditional reverie of the fallen. This time it is Movie Gallery and its two subs Game Crazy and Hollywood Video will be closing down operations. –

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said that the company, which operates the Hollywood Video chain, will liquidate all of its stores over the next couple of months.

The company employed about 19,100 people when it filed for bankruptcy. According to the online edition of the newspaper, Movie Gallery notified employees on Friday of the added closures.

It is the second largest movie rental chain behind Blockbuster. This is the second bankruptcy filing for the company.

Is this any relief for BlockBuster? Some. But the Hollywood Video chain was not across the street from every BB store like McDonalds vs Burger King. The fact is the B&M video rental industry is on the way out. BB can only hold out so long before office costs exceed income.

Linky.

From Consumerist –

Sprint lost 148,000 customers after contract-subscriber defections more than offset prepaid gains. Sprint introduced new phones last year, including an exclusive deal to sell the Palm Pre, to keep more customers.

The company said it expects subscriber losses to slow this year. Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse said he will roll out more fourth-generation devices this year, which give customers high-speed wireless Internet access.

Consumerist is even running a poll to figure out why. I’ll save them some trouble. Its the contract. Sprint’s contract has not kept up with the times. Tho they have MTM plans, their post paid contracts are probably the least consumer friendly of any of the major carriers.

I would also suspect that the network is part of the problem as well. Being in the DFW area, its one of Sprints oldest territories. Yet all these years later they still have dead spots around the DFW airport area as well as other areas of the metroplex.

If you are a Sprint customer, follow the link and take their poll.

Linky.

WalMart and BestBuy entered the used game market via supplier ePlay. Well ePlay ceased operations this week. So GameStop ends up being the only player in the field.

So what’s the problem? First I don’t think the market in used games was as large as people thought. My observation is most people keep their games and typically trade only when they switch console platforms offering the games as an inducement to buy the whole package. The other is presence. GameStop has mind share among the gamers so if you are going to do a trade do it with the store you frequent. Last game trade does not have the velocity of transactions that say a DVD movie does. You might watch a DVD you bought 2-3 times. If significant enough you might keep it. But most likely you will trade it within a month. A game on the other hand may take a month just to get thru all the levels. And those with online linkages will encourage holding onto that game even longer. It could be a good 6 months before someone considers trading it.

Chalk it up to a business paradigm that thought it was X but was not like X at all.

Linky.

… In Hungary? Yeah I know, Ole Tux is just an OS. That is what I thought too. Still do by the way. But in Hungary a political party — Jobbik — has sprung up.:

We are going to implement open standards in the public sector and will promote the spread of open source solutions among the general public and among businesses. Under these directives, government and public sector documents can be stored only, in open document formats, on systems running open standards applications.

We are going to develop open standard interfaces, in order to encourage municipalities, the tax department, the banking sector and public offices to use open source solutions.

We are going to supply government funded and developed applications for municipalities, nation wide, to eliminate parallel and wasteful developments.

When both proprietary and open source software will be available with the equal functionality to accomplish a particular task, we will make the use of open source solutions, mandatory.

We are going to implement open standards in the school system and will introduce open source computing as a subject in schools, under the discipline of computer sciences.

That ladies and gentlemen is the Jobbik party platform. Sound wild? Well I will just direct you to Sweden where the Pirate Party has a foothold in Parliment after raising petitions and funds on the Pirate Bay file sharing suit. They now have over a dozen affiliated Pirate parties in the world. So it would not be far fetched at all.

Linky.

FastCompany has the latest developments on BB’s effort to make itself relevant. Personally I think they miss the mark. –

Perhaps conceived as a one-up response to the unexpectedly popular RedBox movie kiosks, the SD-card rental stations are meant to address some of the age-old problems with DVD rentals–namely that they’re easily damaged, and must be returned. With an SD rental, the user keeps the SD card, though the content contains DRM which sets a date of expiration. (Above, the taxonomy of SD cards; below, a Blockbuster SD kiosk.)

Here be the problem. Do I need to go to a BB store to get the SD of the movie? If I do then that is not an improvement over DVD’s in the convenience factor. I still have to get in my car. The other is, deploy in retail sites? That’s fine but at the rate the RedBox is deploying, BB may not have any opportunities left by the time they get the program rolling. All in all a very slow response to a serious threat to their long term prospects.

My take? BB is toast. Pass the butter and jam.

Linky.