News & Analyst Commentary

� Trojan Horses: the connected living room gains momentum � 25 Aug 09 �
Vudu's deal to deliver its Internet VoD service to LG Internet-enable HDTVs is a reflection of the difficulty companies face getting consumers to buy a dedicated Internet set-top. The fact that Apple's iTunes, Microsoft's Xbox Live and Sony's PSN acc...

� Telcos gaining on Pay TV incumbents � 19 Aug 09 �
Analog TV, now gone from the airwaves, is quickly disappearing from pay TV systems as well. Overall, pay TV services netted 400,000 additional subscribers in Q2 2009, led by telco IPTV services FiOS and Uverse. DBS providers also saw net gains in the...

� Coinstar first-half kiosk DVD rental revenue beats expectations � 12 Aug 09 �
Coinstar financials showed better-than-anticipated growth in the first half of 2009; the company has increased its forecasts of year-end revenue and total kiosk installations. The strength of the kiosk rental sector may fuel a return to growth in to...

� Overall Home Entertainment Down 5% in First Half � 31 Jul 09 �
Despite Studio CEO concerns about declining DVD sales, consumers haven't given up the movie habit. The first half results for packaged video continue to reflect an economy in deep recession, and sales of Blu-ray Discs, while growing, were not enough ...

� Redbox lands first major studio deal � 24 Jul 09 �
Sony has signed a $460m deal with Coinstar's Redbox for an output agreement that will boost Sony titles' presence in Redbox kiosks, in exchange for guaranteed delivery by street date. This is a victory for the kiosk leader, which is battling the atte...

� Cablevision's DVR legal win: the Betamax decision of the digital era? � 17 Jul 09 �
The decision of the US Supreme Court to let stand a lower court's ruling on the remote storage DVR potentially opens the door to a new era in Internet-TV connectivity. Centralizing DVR functionality in the head-end will give Cablevision, and likely ...

� Retail video share: mass-merchants, warehouse clubs and online gain ground � 30 Jun 09 �
In 2008, retailers big enough to effect major discounting on video product took market share from entertainment-focused sellers of video who, sans the current recession, should have been the beneficiaries of a big boost from the launch of hi-def disc...

� Video genres see varying impact from recession, BD transition � 29 Jun 09 �
The most painful hit to the video industry in 2008 was in the new-release feature category. Our take on the situation, though, is that consumers didn't stop buying new movies, they simply waited until the prices came down, which meant that sales shif...

� Internet video: consumer spending closes in on $1bn � 28 Jun 09 �
It has taken a decade since the first million US homes obtained broadband access, but content owners finally have what you could call "a nice little business" on the Internet. Growth rates for movies and TV shows were strong in 2008 as more TVs were ...

� Q1 2009 video results: the good, the bad, and the ugly � 01 Jun 09 �
Shipments of new-release feature films on video to the rental and retail markets were not down nearly as much as consumer spending in the first quarter. Five of the top films shipped in the last week of March so their sales were not fully reflected i...

� Major rental chains lose share to smaller specialists � 31 May 09 �
Traditional video stores continued to give up market share in 2008 to online subscription rentals and $1-a-night kiosks. But the retrenching by major chains, including closing underperforming stores, gave smaller chains and independents a chance to ...

� Subscription network VOD losing share to Internet � 26 May 09 �
Cable, DBS and IPTV subscription TV networks have a huge advantage in offering video-on-demand content - they already have millions of TVs hooked up to their networks. But the download-to-own model produces more revenue per transaction, allowing App...

� NCR set to roll out Blockbuster-branded kiosks � 11 May 09 �
Retail automation leader NCR jump-started its previously-announced drive to roll out Blockbuster-branded kiosks with the April 21 acquisition of the #2 kiosk company, The New� Release Co. The move gives NCR instant market share in what AMR estimates ...

� YouTube Turns Pro, Studios Go Free � 30 Apr 09 �
YouTube now has deals with Disney/ABC/ESPN, Sony, MGM, CBS, Lionsgate, Starz and the BBC for premium film and TV content which it will showcase in a newly-designed pro-only interface. For studios, ad-supported catalog movies on YouTube and Hulu fill...

� iTunes and Xbox jump-start internet video spending � 03 Apr 09 �
Spending on online movies easily outgrew every other media market last year; of course that growth was from a very small base. Internet time seems to be running in slow motion when it comes to movie delivery, but the decision by studios in early 2008...

� DVR: The forerunner to the digital lifestyle � 30 Mar 09 �
The network DVR battle has gone to the Supreme Court, and the U.S. home entertainment industry awaits the decision. At stake: remote playback of video files stored on servers by individuals using their subscription TV service. Content owners have sue...

� Escapist fare fares best in hard times � 17 Mar 09 �
An analysis of the 2008 Titles Database by genre reveals a shift in consumer preference toward fun films. New-release video features in the Family and Adventure (live-action films appropriate for kids), Action, Horror and Romance genres gained mark...

� Slicing a shrinking pie: 2008 home video market share � 27 Feb 09 �
Only two studios-Universal and Lionsgate-managed year-over-year growth in gross video revenue in 2008. Overall, catalog revenue fell less than revenue from new-release DVDs as consumers chose more low-priced library titles over newer DVDs and Blu-ray...

� Discs and downloads: The big picture � 13 Feb 09 �
The latest from AMR's video projection model suggests that combined consumer spending on sales and rentals will continue to slide in 2009, and then stabilize due to BD adoption - albeit with diminished expectations for annual growth. That assumes cur...

� New-release features hit hardest by recession � 06 Feb 09 �
A combination of consumer frugality as the recession deepened and aggressive pricing on DVD catalog titles combined to kick the stuffing out of the new-release feature film market in the fourth quarter of 2008. Given the choice, U.S. shoppers chose t...

� Despite Blu-ray's success, US video sales to decline in 2009 � 30 Jan 09 �
Recession-spooked consumers are embracing the very cheapest ways to satisfy their movie-watching needs, including disc rentals, free video-on-demand on cable and various forms of free streaming over the Internet. That's bad news for studio hopes for ...

� Top Ten Sell-Through Titles Fall Short � 23 Jan 09 �
Strong first-half results led to high expectations for the video market, but the second-half economic meltdown was felt even in home video sales. New-release films were hit particularly hard, although a handful of top titles still performed relative...

� Rental Holds Up Better than Sales in 2008 � 15 Jan 09 �
It may only be a coincidence that 1998-1999--the last incidence of rental growth trends outperforming retail--was the first and second full-year of DVD availability, as 2007-2008 were for BD. Or that 1998-1999 was an era in which the rental market wa...