Captivating Connections.

is content bad for your budget?

There's something about seamlessly buying and downloading content like music, movies, and books that makes you forget you're actually spending (real) money on it. I used to be a major offender of, um, filesharing music, and now I can't stop buying random songs from iTunes. It all seems pretty harmless - a song here, a song there - until I get my bill and I realize just how much I racked up.

For some reason, until I get the bill, I forget I'm actually spending money on the content, and probably don't need all these songs I won't listen to after a week. Part of me thinks "meh, it's less than 1 or 2 dollars," while another part of me thinks "isn't that how people ruin their budgets? By minor purchases here and there?"

I'm not the only one concerned about this. According to AICPA, "more than 40% of Americans download and pay for digital content, and they’re spending more money on them than they ever have."

But do they have this money to spend? Jordin Amin, chair of the AICPA’s national CPA financial literacy, says it best when he says, “one of the concerns we have is that it’s very easy to make these purchases without a budget or an overall financial plan.”

It's true. Do people not 'count' content they download as a real purchase because it's not in tangible DVD, book, or CD form? One could argue that it's cheaper to buy a song vs. an album, or a digital version of a book than a physical paperback, but do we justify more purchases when they are only a tap or swpire away?

What do you think?

warner bros. going to facebook to show movies; should netflix care?

Do you think Netflix should be concerned?

"With its first foray into movie rentals, it's easy to assume that Facebook wants to take over the business. But while the social network is clearly exploring new revenue streams, analysts insist that Netflix and Amazon have little reason to be concerned.  

'This is clearly an experiment,' said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. 'Facebook is exploring many different markets right now, and it's not necessarily going to be successful in all of them.'

Making the experiment possible, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution began offering selected movies for purchase or rental -- using Facebook Credits -- through Warner Bros. Entertainment's Facebook movie pages.

To kick off the partnership, Facebook users can rent 'The Dark Knight' through its official Facebook Page, provided they have "Liked" the blockbuster. To date, nearly 4 million users already have. For 30 Facebook Credits -- equal to $3 -- they are free to stream to movie for up to 48 hours.

Having recently created iPad, iPhone and iPod apps specifically for 'The Dark Knight' and 'Inception,' Warner Bros. is getting creative in its efforts to reach audiences.

Wii & Netflix unite.

"Nintendo is bringing Netflix's online streaming video service to its Wii gaming console, the most popular in the industry, the companies plan to announce Wednesday. The service lets subscribers choose from a catalog of generally older movies and television shows and watch them instantly.

The deal is further evidence of a movement by makers of game consoles to broaden their appeal by positioning them as a bridge between the living room television and a wider world of online multimedia."

introducing: sonic solutions.

"Best Buy Co., the world’s largest electronics retailer, will start an online store for movies and television shows that will compete with Apple Inc.’s iTunes.

The service will use technology licensed from Sonic Solutions Inc., according to a statement today from both companies. Sonic’s Roxio CinemaNow system will be installed on televisions, computers, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes and mobile phones sold by Richfield, Minnesota-based Best Buy. T

he digital video store expands Best Buy’s foray into services, helping the company increase customer loyalty, Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn said in the statement. The content will be stored on servers so people can watch on any device, similar to how Web-based e-mail can be viewed on different computers, said Sonic Chief Executive Officer Dave Habiger.

'What we’re creating is movies in the cloud that play back anywhere,' Habiger said in an interview."

what does the future hold for a post-dvd world?

"While DVD and Blu-ray will remain a huge profit center for years to come, studio executives are finally confronting an uncomfortable reality: little silver discs — for reasons of convenience, price and consumer burnout — may never recover their sales power. To grow, studios need to figure out digital distribution."

So, what are some companies doing?

"Disney announced last week that it had developed a system to track digital ownership, so people won’t have to buy the same movie or television show multiple times for different devices. But that’s just the latest, most likely not the last, approach.

'I expect these guys to try many different ways to figure out an endgame to digital entertainment,' said Doug Creutz, a media analyst at Cowen and Company. 'In the meantime, you will find a lot of false starts.'"

The problem is, "everyone is trying to solve one problem: consumers, the industry believes, will be reluctant to open their wallets for digital movies and TV shows until they get more portability and can watch the same content on several devices. Studios want to make consumers collect digital entertainment the way they would DVDs or books."

However, "standing in the way are technology hurdles — how to let consumers play a video on various devices without letting them share it with 10,000 close friends on a pirate site — and the reluctance of studios to cooperate too closely with rivals for reasons of antitrust scrutiny and sheer competitiveness."

It'll be interesting to see where the market goes over the next few years (or even few months!)

bryant park film fest.

Check out the Summer 2009 schedule here.

Thanks again, Todd(y).

doing it for the kidlets.

Movie studios are quickly learning that, these days, they need to bank on kidlets to fill seats, not grown ups...

"Pricey, star-driven thrillers and dramas will struggle for profitability as the recession intensifies a trend toward youth-dominated movies that can open big...Older demographics may be resisting the recent enthusiasm for moviegoing. Certainly it's been months since anything has caught fire at the art houses.

But it's the ill-fated outings of studios' highest-profile adult fare that has stirred the most concern.

'Not as many adults are going to the movies because of the recession,' a highly placed studio executive lamented. 'More and more, it's the kids who come out and support the pictures over opening weekend, and not as much the older adults.'"

It's interesting, because there was recently an article about how movie ticket sales are up but DVD sales are down. We've also seen plenty of talk about the 'cost per entertainment hour' and how people are staying in and entertaining more at home. Tweens and teens, though, by nature, while they may be more comfortable staying in, still have the 'go out' itch. Movies may be expensive (I seriously spent $34 last weekend for my friend and I all in!), but, in comparison to eating out or going shopping with money they dont have/want to spend, maybe this makes more sense than we initially thought.

merger magic?

Interesting: "Two of Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies, Endeavor and William Morris, have quietly been talking merger" in an attempt to take down Creative Artists Agency, who's had a lock on the industry for years.

Why would two competitors come together? As the entertainment landscape changes, they may be able to actually help each other.

"By many accounts, Endeavor is the No. 1 television agency, packaging shows like '30 Rock' and 'Gossip Girl,' and it has a stable of marquee young movie stars that includes Shia LaBeouf and Amy Adams. William Morris, meanwhile, has a slumping TV department (with the exception of reality programming). And despite some hot names like Josh Brolin, some of William Morris’s best-known movie stars, like Mel Gibson and Richard Gere, are past their prime. Yet William Morris has a blockbuster music unit — Britney Spears and Kanye West are clients — and lucrative corporate clients like Coca-Cola and Hasbro."

Can't wait to see how this develops.

confessions of poor timing.

Talk about bad timing...

"Amid weekly stock-market paroxysms, rising bankruptcies, the continuing mortgage crisis and a surge in irrecoverable credit-card debt, Disney's Touchstone Pictures is readying what's looking to be an ill-timed release of 'Confessions of a Shopaholic.'"

Maybe it will end up being a 'fantasy' movie people 'escape' to to forget how bad the economy is. However, there's a chance people will just plain be turned off, especially by scenes like when "one character secures a massive credit line he doesn't need just to show off how powerful he is."

an indie biz model for indie flicks.

This is a really cool concept (and a great example of bypassing mainstream in order to go mainstream):

John Sloss, "one of the top sales agents for independent films," is looking to find a new way to get indie films out to the public. His new company, Cinetic Rights Management, "will act as sales agents for filmmakers who have been left on the sidelines. And here is the twist: The goal is not exhibition in theaters but rather distribution via the Internet and other growing delivery routes like cable on-demand services."

His goal is to get those films that usually would be over looked (which is actually a pretty high percentage of them) out in the public. How will he do this, you ask?

"'We’re going to make it our business to go to every portal, every mobile provider, every video-on-demand service and make the most aggressive deals we can,' Mr. Sloss said."