U.S. Military replaced YouTube with TroopTube
Last year the U.S. Military moved to block access to YouTube from troops and government employees, citing bandwidth usage problems with the services. Now, in co-operation with Seattle startup Delve Networks, it has launched a video sharing website for troops, their families and supporters. Members of the branches of the armed forces, their families, civilian Defense Department employees and supporters can join the service and upload videos.
TroopTube is tightly monitored however, with all video submissions being reviewed by Pentagon employees before they are added to filter out everything from threats to national security to copyright infringing content. Delve developed the technology to approve and sort incoming videos, as well as technology that makes several different video sizes and streams whichever is best suited for the users’ Internet connection.
Delve Chief Executive Alex Castro called TroopTube a “retention tool” which is aimed at a new generation of soldiers who bring laptops and other portable gadgets to the front line with them. “A lot of people are excited in the company to be doing something for the people who make sacrifices,” said Castro. “We’re proud of this.”
Last year the Pentagon opted to block YouTube and other video sharing sites, as well as social networking sites such as MySpace, citing security fears and bandwidth problems.
Game sales grow regardless of economic problems
While the sale of video games dropped 21 percent in the third quarter in Japan, sales reported in the UK and the United States continued to grow despite the very visible economic woes. NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Ltd. and Enterbrain Inc. all reported that video game sales grew by 15 percent in the third quarter and 8 percent in the United States. Overall, the sales of the three combined markets rose just 1 percent with Japan keeping the figure down.
“2007 was a banner year for the Japanese software market with the titles released in the third quarter of 2008 not being as highly anticipated as those released during the same time period in 2007,” said Ricky Tanimoto, a global marketing analyst at Enterbrain. “Also, software titles generally have stronger launch sales in Japan, which represent a large percentage of the total sales in Japan compared to the US and Britain.”
He said that overall video games sales in Japan will be largely unaffected by economic problems during the holiday season. “New portable hardware systems like Sony’s PSP-3000 and Nintendo’s DSi will prove to be driving market forces in Japan throughout the 2008 holiday season,” he said. The UK market is gearing up for its best-ever fourth quarter performance.
The top title in the U.S. during the quarter was Madden NFL 09 with 2.96 million unit sales, followed closely by Nintendo’s Wii Fit at 1.28 million units. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed came in at third place with 1.42 million sales.
Fears revealed over economic impact on Blu-ray during the holidays
In a panel discussion Tuesday at the HD3 conference in Century City, industry figures with a stake in the Blu-ray Disc format raised concerns over how the economy will hit the Blu-ray format over the holidays. Now that the format war is over and a lot of money has been put into promoting Blu-ray through retailers, the format’s backers had hoped for a strong performance this holiday season.
“The economy is the biggest challenge, because there are just so many pieces to the Blu-ray puzzle that consumers face,” said Lori MacPherson, GM of domestic home-entertainment at Disney. “You need the high-definition television set, you need the player, you need the cables, you need the software…” MacPherson still believes Disney’s seasonal slew of new releases and catalog titles in the Blu-ray format will help move consumers towards the format.
“The economy is hitting everybody,” said Danny Kaye, executive vp research and tech strategy at Fox. “But we still look forward to a great fourth quarter.” There is good news on the horizon however for high-definition video equipment. “I know the economy is tough right now, but the manufacturers are really bringing down the price of their HDTV sets,” Paramount vp marketing Chris Saito said.
Blu-ray player prices are falling but not as fast as many consumers would like. The disc sales themselves also present a problem, since new DVDs retail for around $15, whereas Blu-ray releases go for around $25. “We’re all constantly looking at (disc) pricing,” Sony vp business development Rich Marty said. “What it amounts to is that we’ll wait until after the fourth quarter and see how it goes.”
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Warner pulls DVD operations in South Korea
Warner Bros. has pulled its DVD marketing and distribution operation in South Korea and is handing over the business to a local licensee. The move seems to be in response to rampant Internet piracy in South Korea where 94 percent of homes have high-speed broadband connections. The company made the announcement in a statement on Tuesday.
The company said it would make the transition in the coming weeks. This news comes just two months after Warner announced it would provide pre-release low-cost movie rentals on the Internet up to two weeks before they are released on DVD. The VOD service is meant to compete with piracy.
The company said its commitment to the South Korean market remains as strong as ever. However, it’s latest move shows the struggle Hollywood studios have in countries like South Korea. An industry source said that the rampant piracy “creates a more challenging marketplace” than in other countries.
Circuit City filed for chapter 11 protection
Circuit City Stores, Inc. announced on Monday that it had received approval for its first day motions from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond. The motions filed on the 10th by Circuit City as part of voluntary filing for reorganization relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Circuit City received court approval for a $1.1 billion debtor-in-possession (”DIP”) revolving credit facility to supplement its working capital and provide additional liquidity while it works to reorganize the business.
This financing is being provided by the lenders of Circuit City’s current asset-based credit facility and enables the company to pay vendors and other business partners in the ordinary course for goods and services received after the filing. Circuit City received authority to continue to make wage and salary payments and continue various benefits for
associates as well as honor customer programs, such as returns, exchanges and gift cards, and other pre-petition customer obligations.
“We are pleased to have obtained court approval for our first day motions, a critical first step in Circuit City’s reorganization process,” said James A. Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and chief executive officer of Circuit City Stores, Inc. “These approvals will help position us for a more successful holiday selling season and allow us to operate our business and serve our valued guests without interruption as we work to emerge from Chapter 11 as quickly as possible.”
Sony adds ‘Pineapple Express’ iTunes digital download to DVD, Blu-ray
Marking the first time they have ever done so, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that the two-disc DVD and Blu-ray offerings of the comedy Pineapple Express will include a free digital copy of the film downloadable from iTunes in addition to the digital copy that can playback on PCs and the Sony handheld PSP.
Previous Sony digital copies had not been compatible with Apple devices such as the iPod or iPhone nor on Mac computers.
Sony says it will offer iTunes downloads on a “select basis” for now on.
“SPHE is thrilled to expand the value and convenience of our digital copy program to the iTunes community,” said Lexine Wong, senior VP of worldwide marketing at Sony. “Consumers can enjoy Pineapple Express where and how they like—whether with the full home entertainment experience of Blu-ray high def or DVD or on the go with their laptop, PSP or iPod.”
Guns N’ Roses uploader pleads guilty
On August 26th, 27-year-old Kevin Cogill was arrested on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws. FBI agents say Coghill had nine unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs on his site in June.
The blogger allegedly had been streaming songs from the still unreleased new Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” on his site for some time.
Despite saying he would plead not guilty last month, it appears Cogill has changed his mind and will now plead guilty to one federal count of copyright infringement. Because the case was being treated as a misdemeanor and not a felony, Cogill faced up to one year in prison as well as a fine.
Due to his clean criminal record and the plea bargain, Cogill will likely face only 1 month of jail time. More importantly will be whether Cogill will be forced to reveal the source of the nine tracks he uploaded.
Warner to ship 1 million Blu-ray ‘Dark Knight’ copies
According to Video Business, the box office smash hit The Dark Knight can add another milestone to its list, highest selling HD title of all time.
Although the movie isn’t set for release until December 9th, Warner is believed to be shipping 1.1 million units of the film for its launch date, the first time a Blu-ray film has ever hit the 1 million milestone.
Although accurate figures for Blu-ray sales are hard to come by, ‘The Dark Knight’ is expected to be the highest seller in the format’s short history, surpassing previous trend setters Casino Royale, Transformers and Iron Man.
Casino Royale was the first HD title to sell 100,000 units (back in March 2007), and Transformers was supposedly the first HD title to ever hit 500,000, also in 2007. More recently, Iron Man smashed any previous Blu-ray record by selling an estimated 782,000 units in its first week.
We have largest HD library in the world, says VUDU
VUDU has announced today via a press release that they now offer the largest HD library on the planet, 1150 titles.
The company noted they reached the milestone by adding 600 new titles in October, both in regular HD and the company’s high-end HDX format.
Overall, VUDU offers over 10,000 titles, with 1150 of those being available in HD or HDX.
“This is only the beginning of our effort,” said Edward Lichty, Executive Vice President of Content at VUDU. “We plan to maintain a leadership position in offering the best picture quality experience and the deepest library anywhere when it comes to HD.”
VUDU is in direct competition with the crowded HD streaming marketplace which includes major players Apple, Netflix and more.
European Xbox 360s to see price cut?
Although it is not officially confirmed yet, industry sources have indicated that there are upcoming price cuts coming for all Microsoft Xbox 360 models in Europe.
The rumors suggest that there are “non-disclosure agreements in place with leading retailers” preventing them to reveal the upcoming price drop but that it is coming a week or so ahead of the Easter sales period. The expected price drop is EUR 50 for each available model.
Interestingly, the latest cuts will drop the price of the Arcade Xbox 360 model to a price cheaper than the rival Nintendo Wii. The Wii has dominated the “casual gamer” and family markets since its launch but Microsoft has said they hope to have the Arcade model steal some of the Wii’s thunder. A price drop of this magnitude would certainly put some pressure on Nintendo.
