VERIZON AND REDBOX TEAM UP FOR STREAMING SERVICE

On Wednesday we reported on a story that suggested Verizon may be planning to challenge Netflix by launching its own video streaming service. Now, it appears the communications giant is secretly working with RedBox, the popular $1.00 video rental kiosk company, on a streaming service that could launch next year. According to TechCrunch, the plan is currently called “Project Zoetrope” and it will allow users to subscribe, download and stream movies and television shows across a variety of platforms including Roku, web browsers, Xbox, Google TV, Android and iOS.

Like competing services such as Vudu, both HD and SD resolutions will be available for rental. TechCrunch said pricing will be based on a monthly credit allotment. A user, for example, might buy 10 credits for $9.95 per month, which would allow him or her to stream a certain number of shows or movies. Apple, Amazon, Google, Netflix, Vudu and others are already members of the crowded digital movie rental space, so Verizon and RedBox will certainly face stiff competition if they’re looking to enter this market.

VERIZON TAKING ON NETFLIX

According to Reuters, Verizon is getting ready to enter the streaming media market. Reports are that the company is in talks with programming partners to provide content for a Netflix-like video service that it could offer to customers not currently covered by its high-speed FiOS network. Obviously, details are scant, and there's no telling when it might actually launch, but you can bet its competitors will be watching closely

BLOCKBUSTER HIT WITH 28 DAY DELAY BY WARNER BROS

Warner Bros has decided to give Blockbuster the same month long delay the studio loves so much before new movies can be rented out as its competitors, Redbox and Netflix. While Blockbuster has had delays at its kiosks already, being first to get new flicks in stores has been a part of its marketing for a while. The LA Times reports Blockbuster so far is turning to simply buying the copies it needs at retail to rent them out immediately, but we'll see how long that lasts. If you enjoy your discs via kiosk or mail don't think you're out of the woods either, as the paper mentions Warner wants to delay new flicks to those outlets even longer when their deals are renegotiated.

NETFLIX STRIKES DEAL WITH DREAMWORKS

It looks like those rumors of a streaming deal between Netflix and Dreamworks Animation were as good as advertised. Details are still fuzzy at this point, but the New York Times is reporting that the two parties have reached an agreement to stream Dreamworks' movies and TV projects, as part of a deal worth an estimated $30 million. Under the contract, which replaces a similar pay TV pact between Dreamworks and HBO, Netflix will begin offering exclusive access to the studio's new films in 2013, with Antz, Kung Fu Panda and other titles from its library slated to become available for streaming sometime thereafter.

The company won't be confined to selling digital copies of Dreamworks' movies within a specific period, either, drawing a major distinction between itself and HBO, which requires studio partners to halt digital sales outside of an exclusive window. HBO probably isn't too thrilled to see Netflix strike what Dreamworks chief exec Jeffrey Katzenberg called a "game-changing deal."

RUMOR: DISH NETWORK LAUNCHING BLOCKBUSTER STREAMING SERVICE

Dish Network already has its DishOnline streaming service for its own paying customers, but it looks like it's now set to take direct aim at Netflix with a standalone subscription service that will be open to everyone. According to Bloomberg, that will operate under the company's recently acquired Blockbuster brand and, in what's surely a bitter pill for Netflix to swallow, it's said to include titles from Starz (which also handles movies from Disney and Sony). As you'll recall from yesterday, Starz announced that it will be pulling all of its titles from Netflix in February of next year after it failed to reach an agreement with the company. Details on the service otherwise remain a bit light -- including any word of a possible subscription price -- although Bloombergsays it "may" also include on-demand Blockbuster movies that Dish customers will be able to watch on their TVs.

GOGO AND AMERICAN AIRLINES TO OFFER IN-FLIGHT STREAMING MOVIES

Gogo Wireless announced its first foray into wireless movie streaming on Wednesday, signing up American Airlines as its first partner. AA said it plans to roll out the technology across its fifteen Boeing 767-200 aircraft, and what AA is calling its "Entertainment on Demand" service is now available on flights between San Francisco and New York/JFK, as well as the Los Angeles-New York/JFK service.

American will charge an "introductory" price of 99 cents per TV show and $3.99 per movie, the company said. Users will need to own a "select personal Wi-Fi-enabled laptop" that is compatible with the service; support for Apple iPhones and iPads is coming soon, according to the American Entertainment on Demand page.

Once streamed, however, the movies will remain on a user's laptop, and available for 24 hours; TV shows will remain viewable for 72 hours. American will stock more than 100 movies and TV shows from major Hollywood studios, with the option to stream a trailer before making a selection.

NETFLIX RAISES PRICES, INTRODUCES NEW PLANS

Netflix announced two new unlimited DVD plans on Tuesday, including a $7.99 option for one DVD at a time and an $11.99 option that allows users to rent two DVDs at a time. The company also said that it will discontinue its current $9.99 monthly option that provides access to unlimited DVD rentals and unlimited instant streaming each month. Instead, the movie rental service will charge users $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming and a minimum of $7.99 per month for unlimited DVDs (with one rented out at a time at that rate).

Essentially, that means users with the current $9.99 offering will instead have to cough up $15.98 per month in order to maintain their current subscription plan. “Reflecting our confidence that DVDs by mail is a long-term business for us, we are also establishing a separate and distinct management team solely focused on DVDs by mail, led by Andy Rendich, our Chief Service and Operations Officer and an 11 year veteran of Netflix,” the company said in a blog post. Netflix’s current plans will expire in September, and users will need to switch to a new plan by that time.

GOOGLE LAUNCHES MOVIE RENTALS IN ANDROID MARKET

Google just announced movie rentals in the Android Market at its I/O conference. Chris from the Android services team just hit the stage at Moscone and demonstrated renting movies on the Android Market from your phone, tablet or PC with a single click. "Pinning" mirrors the experience with apps and books, you can select it on your PC and download to the device in the background for offline viewing.

Movies are live in the market right now, support on all Android 2.2 or higher devices is expected "in a couple of weeks" and tablets will get support bundled with their upgrade to Android 3.1. On the PC, it ties back to the recently expanded YouTube rental service with the same restrictions (30 days to watch, 24 hour window once you start watching) and pricing, making that per-movie VOD price a bit easier to swallow with its cross-platform support and we even spied a few HD selections for $4.99.

UBISOFT STARTS MOVIE STUDIO TO TURN GAMES INTO MOVIES

Quick show of hands: how many of you like playing video games? And how many of you would like to watch movies based on video games you've played? No doubt slightly more sophisticated market research went into Ubisoft Motion Pictures, the game maker's unique approach to adapting games like Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell for film and TV, meaning we'll finally see movies about assassins. Last year's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time film grossed $335 million worldwide, surely thanks to Jake Gyllenhaal's smoldering yet boyish intensity, and the French game publisher clearly wants a bigger slice of Hollywood pie -- it also recently bought visual effects studio Hybride Technologies.

NINTENDO SELLS NEARLY 400,000 3DS'S IN FIRST WEEK IN US

In an interview with USA Today, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, confirmed that Nintendo sold nearly 400,000 of its 3DS units in the week following its March 27th launch. That’s the same figure Nintendo sold in Japan on its first day of availability when it launched there in February. “We are very satisfied with this start and we look forward to the momentum that we will build on the Nintendo 3DS with the launch of the E-Shop, the launch of the 3-D trailers for Hollywood movies, and the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in mid-June, as well as the launch of Netflix later on in the summer,” Fils-Aime said.

Nintendo sold more than 460,000 units of its previous-generation DS portable gaming consoles, and 290,000 Wii consoles during the month of March.

WARNER BROS. EXPANDING FACEBOOK MOVIE RENTALS WITH FIVE MORE TITLES

Starting tonight Warner Bros. is offering five more movies for streaming on Facebook including Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Inception, Life as We Know It and Yogi Bear. The deal remains the same, with United States viewers able to pay for a 48-hour viewing window instantly in Facebook credits then enjoy the flick with full functionality on the page, and pause/resume tied to their login on the site.

Even with an increasing number of movie titles including recent ones like Yogi Bear that just debuted last week, it's hard to see any VOD service seriously challenging the current video rental incumbents like iTunes and Netflix, especially one that offers only SD rentals viewable on the PC. What it does offer however is a quick way for Warner to monetize the significant Facebook communities around popular movies, which may be enough to keep this program growing for the foreseeable future.

WARNER BROS. TO RENT MOVIES VIA FACEBOOK

If you were looking for something more worthwhile to spend Facebook credits on than virtual trinkets for some game, Warner has an idea: all those movies you said you "liked." Starting today it is testing out a plan to rent movies right on their respective pages for 30 Facebook credits / $3 each. The first one on deck is The Dark Knight (again?) which should be live later today, with more available to rent or purchase in the future. there's no word on resolution or other features, but at the price we're assuming SD only. Full details are in the press release after the break, but the rentals have the standard 48-hour VOD window and can be paused/resumed simply by logging back into Facebook.

ANDROID MARKET ADDS EBOOKS; MOVIES & MUSIC TO COME

Google's Android market has gone live with the URL http://market.android.com/books/. Users can purchase ebooks directly from the Android market and have them delivered to their handset wirelessly.

There are two additional URL's that Google has not gone live with yet...http://market.android.com/movies/ and http://market.android.com/music. This should make those that were disappointed that a music service was not announced at the recent Honeycomb event. No timing on when these additional two services will launch, but we speculate Google is still in negotiations with the content providers. Once agreements have been reached, Google is sure to make them active.

PIRACY NOT AFFECTING BOX OFFICE RECEIPTS

While the industry certainly has its share of piracy problems, they aren't affecting box office receipts. The movie business has—yet again—run up record numbers at the box office. In 2010, theaters around the world reported a combined total revenue of $31.8 billion, up 8 percent from 2009. In the US and Canadian markets, the total number of tickets sold fell by 5 percent last year, but theater owners made up for the decline by raising prices an average of 39¢.

While most of the growth last year came from international movie screens, the US and Canadian market has learned that 3D projection can be lucrative. A full 21 percent of US/Canada revenue in 2010 came from 3D films.

AMAZON STARTS FREE MOVIE & TV STREAMING FOR ITS PRIME CUSTOMERS

This morning Amazon announced a very useful perk for all their Prime subscribers: free video streaming. Users now have have access to about 5000 movies and TV shows which they will be able to stream on-demand, without having to pay anything above their normal Prime subscription rate ($79/year).

Amazon Prime was originally devised as way for frequent Amazon.com customers to get free two-day shipping on all their purchases. Now it’s not just a free shipping service that ties people into Amazon for all their online purchases, but also a Netflix competitor.

Amazon’s selection isn’t up to the same level that Netflix is at (about 20,000 shows/movies), but it’s essentially free so it’s hard to complain. Netflix’s streaming-only account is $96/year so if you don’t mind the smaller selection offered by Amazon, you can get free shipping on all your goods and save $21 a year by going with Prime. [Geek]

GOGO INFLIGHT INTERNET TO EXPAND INTO MOVIES AND POSSIBLY GAMING

There's not a lot of firm details just yet, but the CEO of Gogo's parent company, Aircell, has just confirmed that GoGo is planning to take a few steps beyond it's basic in-flight WiFi business this year. That will apparently start with a library of in-flight movies that customers will have access to "later this year," and could eventually expand to other in-flight content including "live gaming." No word on any content partners involved in any of those plans, but CEO Michael Small says that he believes content has the potential to be a" significant" revenue source for the company. Incidentally, this news coincided with GoGo's announcement of a $35 million boost from its latest round of funding and, as mocoNews reports, the company has apparently already hired "a number of executives from internet companies" to help it with its new content offerings.

AMAZON BUYS UK MOVIE STREAMING/RENTAL SERVICE LOVEFILM

Amazon has just announced it has agreed terms to buy up all the remaining shares of Lovefilm it didn't already own. The British outfit operates a subscription-based movie rental and streaming service in its home market along with Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and should give Amazon a very solid base from which to build its presumably Netflix-besting ambitions. Lovefilm has been just about the closest thing Europe has had to the ridiculously successful North American movie distributor and Amazon is arguably getting in just in time, given Netflix's overtures toward expanding into the UK. Customary closing conditions will need to be met before the final stamp of approval is applied, but the acquisition is expected to complete by the end of Q1 of this year.

NETFLIX CUSTOMERS MAY HAVE TO WAIT LONGER FOR NEW RELEASES

Netflix compromised with the major movie studios to delay new movie releases by 28 days in return for rights to stream those movies. Now Warner might be considering making the delay longer than the current 28 days.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said the other day, "So far the 28-day window has clearly been a success versus no delay." So of course, "the question of whether we ought to go longer is very much under scrutiny. It may well be a good idea." The worst part is that if Warner's thinking this way, so is every other studio. [Gizmodo]

REDBOX ANNOUNCES STREAMING PLANS

Coinstar, the parent company of Redbox, CEO Paul Davis stated on the recent earnings call that Redbox is in "detailed negotiations with a number of highly interested parties" to launch a "Redbox-branded" streaming service sometime next year. While Davis was light on details, his statement leads many to believe Redbox will partner with an already established streaming service rather than trying to roll their own from scratch. Makes sense to us. It will be interesting to see how they fair against the NetFlix juggernaut. [Engadget]

PS3 NETFLIX GOES DISK-FREE, GETS 1080i AND 5.1 SURROUND SOUND

Netlix and Sony have announced that starting November 18th PS3 users will no longer have to use the special disk to stream Netflix content.  In addition Netflix will be streaming their content in 1080i, versus 720p for all other devices, and 5.1 surround sound.

Netflix has partnered with Dolby to offer the 5.1 surround audio, named Dolby Digital Plus.  Netflix did say that 5.1 surround sound would be coming to other devices "over time". [Gizmodo]