TIME WARNER MUST TURN OVER INFO ON ACCUSED ILLEGAL DOWNLOADERS

Time Warner has been ordered by a U.S. District Court judge in Washington to identify hundreds of people accused of illegally downloading movies over its broadband network. The ISP had previously argued that identifying the accused parties would be “unfairly expensive and time-consuming,” and it asked that the judge reject the subpoenas for subscriber information.

Of the three pending cases where subpoenas for subscriber data were issued, the judge agreed to quash one, as the plaintiff, Maverick Entertainment Group, failed to properly serve the subpoena in compliance with the law. The other two stand, however, and Time Warner will have to identify approximately 250 subscribers. Maverick, one of three movie companies currently seeking the identities of anonymous Internet users who are accused of illegally downloading their copyrighted materials, has 10 days to re-issue the subpoena or it may lose access to the identities of over 700 users.

NETFLIX NUMBER ONE SERVICE FOR DOWNLOADABLE AND STREAMING VIDEO

According to the latest findings of the NPD Group, Netflix is the number one player in the digital streaming and downloadable video market. In fact, more than six out of ten (61%) digital movies watched in the United States are done so via Netflix.

Comcast in second place only has 8% of the market with iTunes, DirecTV and Time Warner all tied for third place at 4%.

According to the NPD Group’s survey, consumers know that services like iTunes have more current releases, But the convenience of Netflix ranked highest in terms of “overall shopping experience” and “value for price paid.”

Overall, digital video accounts for a quarter of all home video-watching volume, but DVDs and Blu-Rays aren’t out of the picture yet.

“Overwhelmingly digital movie buyers do not believe physical discs are out of fashion,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. “But their digital transactions were motivated by the immediate access and ease of acquisition provided by streaming and downloading digital video files.”

TIME WARNER, DISNEY AND NEWS CORP CHIME IN ON COMCAST/NBC MERGER

As Comcast, NBC and the FCC attempt to work out stipulations over Comcast's proposed 51 percent buyout of NBC Universal, a smattering of major media companies are paying close attention to the play-by-play. Naturally, the precedents that are set from this deal will affect future agreements of this caliber, and lobbyists for both Disney and News Corp. (as well as Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes) aren't standing over on the sidelines any longer. All three outfits have reportedly been "voicing their concerns this week with the FCC, worried that such conditions could undermine their own efforts to profit from the nascent online video industry."

We're told that the media mega-corps are worried that the rules -- if hammered down -- could interfere with ongoing negotiations with online video providers, and in turn, give them less leverage to monetize and control their content on the world wide web. In other words, if NBC Universal is forced to provide content fluidly to all ISPs (and not just Comcast), what's to say other content makers and internet providers wouldn't also be forced into similar deals, regardless of whether or not they're involved in takeover negotiations? Needless to say, we're nowhere near the end of this journey, and while the nuts and bolts are pretty dry to think about, the outcomes could have a serious impact on our future viewing habits.

RUMOR: GOOGLE TO UNITE PUBLISHERS AROUND ANDROID

The Wall Street Journal is reporting Google has approached Time Warner, Condé Nast and Hearst -- three of the biggest publishers of periodicals in the US -- with a view to offering their content through a Google-operated "digital newsstand" for Android devices. The appeal for media companies will be an easier route to monetizing their content, apparently, including the possibility that Google could take a smaller slice of revenues than the 30 percent charged by Apple and Amazon. There's also word of developments behind the scenes at Cupertino, where "several changes in iTunes" are expected to improve the publisher's experience of using the service, including making it easier to offer long-term subscriptions and related discounts.

OOPS: TIME WARNER CEO COMPARES NETFLIX TO ALBANIAN ARMY

The relationship between Netflix and cable/content providers has always been a bit tenuous at best, but it has gotten down right nasty lately. The issue is streaming, in particular the deals Netflix is making with third party providers like Starz. The Starz deal gives Netflix the rights to stream Disney and Sony content for an estimated $25 million. This is a far cry from the traditional licensing fees charged to cable operators. The Starz deal will expire in 2011 and the fee may jump up to $250 million per year.

Time Warner's CEO, Jeff Bewkes, recently made a statement and thinks Netflix days at the top are numbered. He thinks the rise of Netflix was due to an era of experimentation which is now over.

"It's a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world? I don't think so."

According to the New York Times, the comments were made last week as UBS sponsored a media conference in New York that it says turned into a "platform for executives to express their grievances and emphasize that they will now aggressively try to tilt the economic balance between Netflix and content creators back toward the media conglomerates." [Engadget]