Arthouse distributor the Weinstein Company and Netflix have signed a streaming media deal that includes Oscar favorite "The Artist." The packaged deal has at least some elements of exclusivity: The companies said Weinstein would make "foreign language, documentary and certain other movies ... exclusively available for Netflix members." Bob … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2012
‘Lilyhammer’: Northern exposure for a hood in hiding
"Lilyhammer" snuck onto the Netflix streaming video service like a crook in the night. No rah-rah, no in-your-face promos, not even a listing as "new on TV." Subscribers who haven't read about the Steven Van Zandt fish-out-of-water series probably still don't know it's there. Those who sought out the show often did so by doing an onscreen text … [Read more...]
Viacom reruns to Amazon
Amazon's Prime members soon now be able to stream TV fare from Viacom's massive cable network catalog. The deal, which had been expected, includes older programming from Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land and MTV. Amazon spun the news as more content for its Kindle Fire -- "the Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, magazines, apps, books, … [Read more...]
Redbox vs. red envelope
Verizon and Redbox say they've combined to create a new "digital and physical" home video service that will rival Netflix. The "national multiplatform product" will combine DVD/Blu-ray rentals with a streaming video component, as Netflix has done since 2008. The partnership's announcement was short on detail, however. No content deals were … [Read more...]
Crackle pops up on Xbox
Sony's free Crackle movie and TV service has surfaced on Xbox Live. Two days into its move into the Xbox home-video suburb, however, Crackle was still grappling with bugs. A few movie/TV categories remained barren, the connection proved unstable and the ad server didn't seem to be working reliably. On the plus side, Crackle's menus improve … [Read more...]