Paramount has announced this week that it will begin releasing 10 feature films with Silverlight-enhanced features for Windows Phone 7 devices, starting with the launch of ‘School of Rock.’
The other 9 movies will be available in the U.S, Canada and some international markets by the end of the year.
Each movie “app” will have the full film, a menu, bonus features and Web-connected content.
The next Paramount Silverlight Enhanced Movies for Windows Phone are ‘Zoolander,’ ‘Waiting for Superman’ and ‘GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.’
“Through our relationship with Microsoft, we’re able to provide consumers new, enhanced ways to enjoy movies from anywhere on Windows Phone 7,” adde Geremie Camara, Vice President Product Development for Paramount Digital Entertainment, in the press release. “Using Silverlight technology and adding interactive and social networking features, our enhanced movie apps transform the movie viewing experience into a true entertainment experience.”
Enhanced movie apps will have ‘Scene It?’ pop-up trivia, the ability to cut custom clips, and “Movie Info,” giving consumers a chance to identify actors, music, places and objects in the movie.
Result for: paramount
Sony has launched their own challenge to Apple’s iTunes this week, dubbed Qriocity, which will be an unlimited, cloud-based music service available via the PlayStation 3 and other Internet-connected devices such as HDTVs and Blu-ray players.
The service will go live by the end of the year, giving users a chance to stream millions of songs in the cloud.
Besides the PS3, the service will be available on Sony portable media devices, Sony Blu-ray players, Sony home-theater systems, 2010 Web-enabled Bravia HDTVs and Windows PCs.
“We are excited to offer our customers high quality, cloud-based entertainment experiences across many of Sony’s network-enabled devices,” says Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony’s networked products and services group. “Services ‘powered by Qriocity’ will revolutionize the way that users play, listen, watch, share, communicate, learn, discover and create their digital entertainment content.”
Sony has said it will expand the Qriocity “Video on Demand” service which launched in April in the U.S. to France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. in the fall.
The video service has content from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, MGM, NBC Universal, Paramount, Sony, The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros.
Result for: paramount
In early 2007, media giant Viacom demanded that Google take down copyrighted content from YouTube.
Afterwards, Viacom sued the site and its search giant owners for $1.2 billion USD, claiming Google facilitated the uploading the copyrighted videos through YouTube while doing little to deter it.
This week, Google has won the landmark case over the media companies, with a federal judge throwing out the lawsuit.
“Mere knowledge of prevalence of such activity in general is not enough,” writes Judge Louis Stanton. “The provider need not monitor or seek out facts indicating such activity.”
Viacom said it plans to appeal, calling the Judge’s ruling “fundamentally flawed,” as it does not reflect recent Supreme Court decisions.
The media giant is behind such hit channels like MTV and Comedy Central, and also owns the Paramount movie studio. A few of the shows that Viacom alleged were readily available on YouTube, in their entirety, were “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” “South Park,” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
Google had argued they were entitled to “safe harbor” protection under the DMCA, and it appears that Judge Stanton agreed.
