Viacom's president and CEO agrees with Hulu: Measurements of online video audiences are off. By a lot. Noting that "you get paid on measurement," Philippe Dauman charged that streaming-video tracking done by online ratings services are "extremely inaccurate." "What we see internally is very different than what the measuring services have," … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2009
Watch Instantly, on Windows Media Center
Those TV shoppers who just can't bring themselves to pay good money for Apple's good products will be pleased to know that Netflix's streaming videos are coming to the Windows Media Center. Only catch is, users have to be running Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. You basic Vista won't cut it ... another reason to regret that operating … [Read more...]
‘Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ on DVD
Imagine you're a studio executive and it's 1961. The pitch comes in: How about a western directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. Sound pretty good? Nah. Incredibly, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" was a black-sheep project, made only because of Wayne's clout. Paramount declined to green-light the movie, even with its … [Read more...]
Hulu steamed over Nielsen’s numbers
Hulu lost 1.5 million viewers in April, but streamed 25 million more videos than it did in March. Total video streams increased a whopping 490% year over year. Or ... maybe not. In email messages obtained by the New York Times, Hulu executives have been busy this week complaining to Nielsen about April's reported loss of unique viewers, down … [Read more...]
‘Man Hunt’: On the run with Fritz Lang
The filmmaker Fritz Lang found his way to Hollywood in the mid-1930s, having just fled Nazi Germany. After helming a few crime movies and westerns for Fox and MGM, he struck back at the Nazis with "Man Hunt," a 1941 thriller/film noir that opens with Adolph Hitler in the crosshairs of a rifle. "Man Hunt" flirted with violations of the U.S. … [Read more...]