Archive for March, 2009

Money talks: Netflix beats Hulu, Joost to secure "South Park" episodes

It was only last week that I questioned whether Netflix had a large enough online video library to justify offering a streaming-only subscription plan, but with today’s news that the service has bagged itself a boat load of “South Park” content, they’re certainly putting their money where their mouth is.

The New York Times reports that Netflix beat competitors Hulu and Joost to a deal by offering a guaranteed cash payment rather than a share of future advertising revenue, the latter being a far less enticing proposition during this ad-shy economic downturn.

“There was no talk of ad splits or guarantees or advances, just a payment for a show Netflix seemed really happy to have,” Matt Stone, co-creator of South Park, tells NYT. “We’ve never given the show to anybody else to stream, but we like Netflix as a service. We use it.”

See also: Forget about getting any work done, every episode of “South Park” now available online

Revenue generated from Netflix, who have licensed the first nine seasons of South Park, will be shared 50/50 with the show’s production partner Comedy Central.

Roku rolls out Amazon Video-On-Demand support

No longer limited to Netflix support-only, today Roku announced that its $99 set-top box, following a software update, can now be used to rent and purchase movies and TV shows from Amazon’s Video-On-Demand (VOD) service.

Amazon VOD (US-only) has a library of over 40,000 movie and TV titles, with new releases offered on the same day they are released on DVD, something that Netflix is currently unable to match, instead focusing more on back catalog material offered as part of a fixed monthly subscription that also includes traditional DVD rentals by post. In this sense, the two services both compete and complement each other, depending on how much and what kind of content customers want to consume.

See also: No more downloads, Amazon moves its online video store to the cloud

The Amazon tie-in also takes advantage of the e-tailers’ expertise in ‘cloud’ computing. Since the Roku digital video player is only capable of streaming not downloads, purchases are stored on Amazon’s own servers, making it possible, for example, to begin viewing a movie on the PC and then continue on the TV via a Roku set-top box.

Video demo courtesy of NewTeeVee after the jump…

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How I replaced Apple's MobileMe at half the price

After years of pledging to do so, I’ve finally dumped Apple’s MobileMe web service in favor of a more cost effective and flexible solution, and one that is better suited to my own particular needs. MobileMe (formally dot Mac) is a great service (when it works) for those whose digital lifestyles almost entirely rely on Apple devices – iPhone, iPods, Macbooks etc. But step out of Apple’s ecosystem and it starts to look far less appealing and very overpriced. After a bit of research, and advice from friends and Twitter followers, moving forward, here’s how I intend to manage email, contact and calendar synchronization across devices, along with automatic backups of other critical data.

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Weekly wrapup: Chumby Internet-connected TVs, Vudu HD downloads, Nokia and Skype, Nintendo DSi

Here’s a summary of the last week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.

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Internet TV

Chumby bets on Internet-connected TVs

Hoping to move beyond being a geek’s favorite boutique gadget to something more mainstream, Chumby is partnering with chip maker Broadcom to make it easy for consumer electronics companies to embed its widget platform into Internet-connected TVs, Blue-ray players and set-top boxes.

Would you bet your HD movie collection on a startup staying in business?

Set-top box movie service Vudu claimed a first today, offering download to-own movies in HD, albeit with a very limited catalog and high prices.

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