Hasta La Gadget!

Piracy may run rampant in China, but that hasn’t stopped Warner Bros. from launching the country’s first national Pay-Per-View and Video on Demand service. Under the program, movies like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 will be broadcast on You On Demand’s platform, and distributed to Chinese living rooms in cooperation with China Home Cinema — a branch of CCTV-6. According to You On Demand’s estimates, the service should be available in about three million homes by the end of this summer, and will have the potential to reach a full 200 million cable-equipped households. That’s certainly a huge market, and one that could provide some serious revenue — assuming, of course, that people are actually willing to pay for movies. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Warner brings Pay-Per-View, Video on Demand to China, hopes people will actually pay for it

Warner brings Pay-Per-View, Video on Demand to China, hopes people will actually pay for it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

According to a blog post and press release (after the break) Hulu is bringing Miramax films to its free and paid Hulu Plus services. This is also the same day the Miramax deal kicks in for Netflix, so both just added notable movies including Clerks, Swingers, Basquiat, The Crow and Reservoir Dogs. Miramax movies on Hulu Plus are presented ad-free and in HD, just like on Netflix Watch Instantly, and both appear to have the same selection available, although one negative side effect of parity is that neither has optional closed captions on streaming for any of them. The only difference so far? Soon, Hulu will offer a rotation of 15 Miramax movies per month through Hulu.com for ad-supported viewing. While we’re sure some will wait for Miramax to work through its Blu-ray release backlog (CEO Mike Lang is on it, although we still don’t have a date for Pulp Fiction) it’s good to suddenly see a catalog that had been locked away due to the studio’s pending sale suddenly become available through so many outlets.

Continue reading Hulu, Miramax deal means Netflix, Hulu Plus both add Pulp Fiction and more starting today

Hulu, Miramax deal means Netflix, Hulu Plus both add Pulp Fiction and more starting today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Hulu Blog, Miramax Blog  | Email this | Comments

With only the best interests of its younger customers at heart, Microsoft has a new back-to-school promotion: starting May 22, college students buying a new Windows 7 PC can also get a free Xbox 360 4GB console. That’s right, free — as long as your new computer cost at least $699 and came from Redmond or one of its partners, including HP and Dell. Online ordering will require a .edu email address, which even attendees of the School of Life know how to procure; if you’d rather shop at Best Buy or a Microsoft Store, you’ll need an actual student ID. This isn’t about convincing students they need more than a tablet computer, of course. It’s about about giving them the opportunity to be popular. “Get ready to be the coolest kid on your dorm floor with a killer new Windows 7 PC and an Xbox 360 — all you really need for college,” the company says. Yes, being the coolest kid on your dorm floor: pretty much the definition of Higher Education.

Microsoft offers free Xbox 360 with back-to-school PC, professors shake their gray, uncool heads originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Windows Experience Blog  |  Microsoft  | Email this | Comments

Ah, so it’s all coming together now. Following a report on Warner Music inking a cloud streaming deal with Apple, CNET is back with fresh information that sees three more major record companies jumping on board. Citing “multiple music industry sources,” we’re told that EMI is the latest addition to Apple’s cloud music portfolio, while Universal and Sony are close to sealing the deal to permit this rumored iCloud service. If true, such endorsement will no doubt add pressure on Google and Amazon over their cheeky, license-free cloud streaming offerings — not a bad way to fend off competition, though it’s not clear how much money’s involved. Guess we’ll know more at WWDC next month.

Apple gets cozy with EMI, Universal, and Sony over cloud music licensing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 May 2011 23:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CNET  | Email this | Comments

AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile was a big deal as soon as it was announced, but now Reuters has unearthed some more context to lend it even more cruciality. We already knew that in the event of AT&T&T-Mobile failing to garner regulatory approval, AT&T would owe Deutsche Telekom, the current owner of T-Mo USA, $3 billion in cash, some spare AWS spectrum, and a roaming agreement “on terms favorable to both parties.” Reuters’ sleuths say that the spectrum in question is worth $2 billion and the roaming deal a further $1 billion, bringing the total breakup payout to a hair-raising $6 billion. Given the wording of the two companies’ deal, we don’t expect the roaming part of that settlement would be free for T-Mobile (so $6b looks to be a bit of an over-estimation), but the fact remains that AT&T is staking a whole lot of moolah on this takeover going through. Whether it does or not, Deutsche Telekom’s René Obermann (above left) looks assured to still be laughing this time next year — but will the same be true of AT&T’s Randall Stephenson?

Reuters: a failed takeover of T-Mobile would cost AT&T as much as $6 billion originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 20:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Reuters  | Email this | Comments