Metue.com

On Wednesday, video rental companies Netflix and Blockbuster announced a settlement was reached in their ongoing patent suit.

In the case,  filed in April 2006, Netflix had claimed  Blockbuster’s Total Access video rental service violated Netflix’ patents for its business method.  Blockbuster had counter-sued with charges of fraud and anti-trust violations.  Blockbuster had  also claimed that the Netflix patents were too broad to be enforceable.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed but a Blockbuster spokeswoman said the settlement would not have “any material effect on [the Company’s] financial performance.”  Further, Blockbuster will not change either its website or business models. 

Click to Read More

Want to create your own game to play on the Nintendo Wii? Now those capably skilled can do just that.

Today, Nintendo announced it is opening the popular Wii platform to independent developers.  From the weekend-warrior computer geek to professional studios,  people will be able to put together their own efforts, and sell the results, using tools called WiiWare and a Nintendo retail channel called Wii Shop. The retail channel will open after the holiday season in early 2008.

Click to Read More

Since January 24, 2006,  when Disney acquired Pixar,  Pixar executives have been in charge of the joint animation group.  Change has been in the works.  Animation head Ed Catmull and fellow former Pixar executive John Lasseter have been slowly introducing their Pixar based management culture (with the added support of Disney shareholder and Board of Directors member, Steve Jobs).

Pixar has always had its own way of doing business.  Movies and creative staff are given the time and space they need to create.    There isn’t a rush to market.  While bottom line revenue is important, there is a separation of powers when it comes to development.  Pixar doesn’t want their story tellers thinking about how to make money or their money makers thinking about how to tell stories.  Executives don’t go to story meetings.  It’s all part of its management practices.  Similarly, Pixar also strives to stay original and avoids copying its successes.  Toy Story is the only movie it’s made a sequel of.

Yesterday, in a clear sign of Disney’s “Pixarization,” changes were announced.  Principal among them, Disney will cease issuing direct-to-video sequels of some its franchises.  The sequels, which Steve Jobs has called “embarrassing,” were money makers but their quality level, both in story and execution was second rate.  

Click to Read More

It’s the week of the iPhone and that means, for carrier AT&T, it is top billing and headlines galore.  Likely lost amidst all the hype, likely below the radar, reports are that competitor T-Mobile is today rolling out a unique launch of its own.

As of today, T-Mobile will be the first major U.S. carrier to launch a national UMA  (Unlicensed Mobile Access) service.  UMA, though it sounds like just another acronym for buzz-word bingo, is a technology already widely used in Europe and worth noting.  Bypassing technical detail, UMA is a wireless telephony technology that works over wireless (WiFi) Internet networks.  That means in areas of weak signals a UMA equipped cell phone can act like a cordless wire-line phone using a local internet connection instead of a cellular tower.  Distinct from other Internet telephony technologies like Voice-over-IP,  UMA phones can hand-off between a wireless internet connection (on a private network or a public Hotspot) and a cellular connection depending on which signal is stronger; and they can do so almost seamlessly. (Dropped calls are reported to be no more likely do to the handoff, than they are in every day usage of cell phone network).

Click to Read More

Last January comScore reported 70% of the total U.S. Internet audience watched at least one Internet video stream that month. It’s been reported that there are more than 12 million hours of video programming currently hosted online.  YouTube has been reported to have more than 5.1m hours of content.  With such an enormous, and rapidly increasing, pool of content one of the bigger challenges is how to effectively index and search the data.  Without organization, it is too easy as the old saying goes “to be swimming in information but thirsting for knowledge.”

A host of video search companies are lining up to try and address the problem. The approaches vary. Some are focusing on text-to speech technology, others are looking elsewhere. It’s a new market, but one with such potential, that advertisers, eager for contextual delivery, are salivating over the potential.

One of the primary cataloging and search standard used so far has been keywords and meta-tags.  They are user controlled.  To work someone has to manually identify the content and title it appropriately.  Social networking sites allow a wide range of people to share that responsibility (by adding unique “tags” as identifiers) but the trouble with user defined search is that it’s only effective when users use the same vocabulary.  If I say tom-ay-to and you say to –mah-to we could get different results.     Click to Read More

The world is sitting in wait for the impending iPhone release.  Gadget lust is running full throttle.  I’ve got it (gadget lust that is, not the iphone).  I won’t be waiting in line, and I won’t be switching my cell phone service – but I wouldn’t mind having the phone to play with.  That’s not going to happen, not unless someone with better connections is feeling generous, but it’s nice to dream.

Of similar dreams, I’ve speculated as far back as early May about a possible roll out of the Beatles music alongside the iPhone launch.  The most coveted online music catalog released alongside the most anticipated consumer product of the decade is just the kind of three-ring circus marketing Steve Jobs and his Apple cohorts love to put together.  Click to Read More

Last week PriceWaterhouse Coopers released its global entertainment and media outlook report. The sweeping, broad survey was filled with data, statistics and projections on the state of the media and entertainment industries. Some of the data was previously highlighted. Additionally, the survey predicts that the global entertainment and media business will grow at an average annual rate of 4.9% over the next several years, rising from $81.2 billion in 2006 to $103.3 billion in 2011.

Here is a sampling of related data taken from a variety of sources:

    The average US home has 2.5 people and 2.8 TV sets. 84 percent of US households have a DVD player. (source: Nielsen)

    37% of U.S. adults who go online own a video game console and 16% own a portable gaming device. (source: Nielsen/net ratings)

Click to Read More