Watch Instantly reels in 300 indie titles
Posted on February 2, 2010
Filed Under Netflix | Leave a Comment
Netflix’s streaming video service goes arthouse with the addition of 300 new indie and foreign titles, from the likes of the Criterion Collection and Kino Lorber.
Other distributors announced as part of the Watch Instantly expansion into the indie arena include Gravitas Ventures, Music Box Films, Oscilloscope Laboratories and Regent Releasing.
“We’ve found that a large number of members enjoy the innovative, artist-driven nature of independent film,” press-released Robert Kyncl, vice president of content acquisition for Netflix.
Much of the Watch Instantly fare that’s classified as independent fare is of mixed value, a lot of aging B-movie crap. The new indie film deals are designed to bring in higher-quality films, such as “Au Revoir Les Enfants,” “Departures,” “As It Is in Heaven” and “A Nos Amours.”
Criterion’s online video service began more than a year ago, serving up titles such as “La Strada,” “Grey Gardens,” “Monterey Pop” and “M.” It’s not clear how many of those titles will be available via Netflix, since the Tiffany DVD label charges for those films on its site.
On Criterion’s “Online Cinematheque” site, the movies go for $5, but they’re renting for $3 on Vudu, another online video service that recently cut a deal with the DVD distributor.
Pretty much everything released by the Criterion Collection is worth watching and owning, but so far the streaming movies contain only a few of the label’s greatest films.
Watch and win: YouTube’s cool redesign
Posted on January 25, 2010
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YouTube has gone public with a redesign of its viewing page, a change that puts the focus back on the video being displayed, instead of a lot of ancillary crap.
The re-do includes a dump of the useless 5-star rating system. Instead, it’s thumbs-up, thumbs-down.
Not many people like redesigns at first, but this one should be a crowd pleaser from day 1. The overall look and feel are cleaner, clutter cut as more information is collapsed, including the embed and URL strings for cut and paste.
Check out the YouTube resign — you can revert to the old-school version at the top of any page. Unfortunately, users can’t toggle back and forth yet, or set preferences.
The YouTube blog has this to say about the redesign:
“YouTube is about creating and watching the world’s biggest video collection; therefore, the design should make the video the star. To that end, the new look is more subdued, stripped down and simple than before. … We thought a lot about practicality here, choosing to expose only the most commonly used actions and language for you.”
The top right of the page is key here. It has less going on, with the ugly gray screen banished. There are fewer images in the space, meaning it doesn’t distract from the video, which is now unquestionably the dominant element on the page. (Sometimes it was hard to tell with so much crap on the right.)
The old top-right box is replaced by a collapsible search-results feature, more focused than the traditional Related Videos section, which remains lower right, but now unlabeled. There may or may not be an ad below between the two. Also, the Related Videos’ 1990s-style scroll is gone.
Response videos take a step back, going to a less prominent vertical format with smaller images — again, less distraction.
Facebook and Twitter get space below the video window, in the button bar that includes sharing, rating, saving and flagging options.
Searching while watching a video triggers another improvement. Instead of simply cutting off your current video, a smaller version of the window appears on the resulting page, slid to the far left. The search results are on the right — and you can return to the original watch page by a simple link.
Meanwhile, YouTube has come out with an experimental version of an HTML5-supported player and a Pandora-like music feature called Disco.
Hulu’s days of freedom are numbered
Posted on January 21, 2010
Filed Under Hulu, TV networks | 3 Comments
Hulu may shift to a partial subscription model within six months, meaning the all-free party is almost over.
The big-media online video site is working on a plan that would allow viewers to access the five most recent airings of hit TV series, but older episodes would require a subscription fee of something like $5, the Los Angeles Times said in breaking the paid Hulu story.
Not all series would require paid access, the Times said, speculating that 20 primetime shows would be involved.
Hulu is owned by News Corp., Disney and NBC Universal, an arrangement that has long fueled speculation that the online video site’s days were numbered, at least as a free entity.
Not a shocker. NewsCorp. bigshot Chase Carey signaled the bad news about Hulu last fall:
“I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content,” Carey told a conference put on by Broadcasting & Cable. “I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.”
Comcast’s takeover of NBC Uni probably figured into the subscription-model thinking, as the cabler seeks to wall off network programming on the Internet, a fear of consumer groups.
ESPN team in talks for Xbox 360 video
Posted on January 19, 2010
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Microsoft reportedly has been having “in-depth talks” that would bring ESPN sporting events onto the Xbox Live platform.
The Walt Disney Co.-Microsoft negotiations could lead to live streams that would be similar to ESPN 360, which offers major and minor events via some high-speed broadband providers, the New York Times reported today.
The content is similar to what’s offered as premium packages on DirecTV, including ESPN Game Plan (college football) and ESPN Full Court (college basketball). Tennis, cricket and soccer are available on ESPN 360’s schedule as well.
The deal could lead to ESPN interactive games, the Times speculated.
The Xbox 360, with its Xbox Live marketplace, has been the leader in streaming video among the three major “living room” consoles, but Sony’s PS3 and even Wii are busy playing catch-up. Xbox Live now has an audience about the size of a minor cable network.
Microsoft has been reported in talks with most major major entertainment creators — studios and TV networks — regarding broad content deals for the Xbox 360, envisioned as a home media center.
Wii waves in Netflix streaming videos
Posted on January 13, 2010
Filed Under Streaming | 1 Comment
Netflix now has a presence on all three major game consoles, with news that the rental giant’s streaming video service is coming to the Nintendo Wii.
The Watch Instantly programming begins this spring, the companies said. (The New York Times broke the story and gives the big picture.)
As with the Sony PlayStation 3, Wii owners can’t stream video until they get their hands on a software disc made available by Netflix. (Reserve a Wii Netflix disc.) Only Xbox 360 owners can skip that step.
The Wii
Xbox360, which does offers HD video, is light years ahead in the video game. PS3 added Netflix’s streams in November and has a built-in Blu-ray player.
“Our research shows that 86 percent of all U.S. Wii consoles are located in the living room,” Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said in the Netflix-Wii press release. “The Wii console is the social hub around which friends and family members gather to play games and have fun.”
Watch Instantly plays catalog movies and TV shows, but not many current Hollywood hits. Video and audio quality are just OK. Netflix continues to integrate more content into the service — customers have the option of renting or streaming these titles — while rival Blockbuster plans to compete with streams of current films.
Netflix customers have access to the service without additional charge. Some titles are offered directly on the console. Beyond that, users use their computers to place videos eligible for streaming into a queue, then call up that content via the game console. The process is horsey, but it works.
The so-so Watch Instantly won’t bring Wii many new customers, but at least it’ll give big-box salesmen an affirmative answer to the “Does it play video?” questions.
Netflix chieftain Reed Hastings told CES last week: “Pretty soon we are going to be a streaming business with some DVDs.” He reported that in the last quarter, half of the rental giant’s subscribers had streamed at least 15 minutes of video each month.
Netflix announced a handful of video hardware partners for Watch Instantly during the Consumer Electronics Show. They include Panasonic, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba and Funai, which distributes the Philips, Magnavox, Sylvania and Emerson brands in the United States.
