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

RUMOR: SONY PREPARING INTERNET TV ALTERNATIVE

The Wall Street Journal reports Sony has approached "several big media companies" about distributing their channels over the internet. This comes on the heels of its report on comments by CEO Howard Stringer about significant R&D efforts going into a "different kind of TV", and the four screen strategy Sony would like to implement. According to the report, Sony's idea is to offer small bundles of channels over the internet to its TVs, Blu-ray players, and the PS3.

Cutting deals with companies like CBS, that doesn't want to jeopardize its cable and satellite TV-based revenue, could be difficult. As for the competition, similar rumors about Microsoft turned into an effort that mostly works with partners like Comcast, U-verse, and FiOS, while Google is also pursuing a route of adding to, but not necessarily replacing, cable TV.

Sony has positioned itself well, adding IPTV services including sports to the PS3 and live TV tuning capability, and its tested the waters of going over the top before, but so far whether it will actually pursue this new plan is unknown.

RUMOR: iTUNES CREATOR LEADING APPLE TV EFFORTS

Jeff Robbin, who helped create the iPod in addition to the iTunes media store, is now guiding Apple’s internal development of the new TV effort, said the people, who declined to be identified because his role isn’t public. Robbin’s involvement is a sign of Apple’s commitment to extending its leadership in smartphones and tablets into the living room. Before his Oct. 5 death, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked” how to build an integrated TV with a simple user interface that would wirelessly synchronize content with Apple’s other devices.

“It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine,” Jobs told Isaacson in the biography “Steve Jobs,” released yesterday by CBS Corp. (CBS)’s Simon & Schuster. Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment.

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.

APPLE STOPS RENTING TV SHOWS THROUGH iTUNES, POSSIBLE NEW VIDEO SERVICE COMING

Apple has pulled the plug on TV episode rentals via iTunes, abruptly leaving customers with only the option of purchasing per episode -- good thing you can watch those on your Apple TV streamed from the cloud -- or a Season Pass where available. AllThingsD has a quote from spokesman Tom Neumayr indicating this was in response to customers that "overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows." Making the timing of the move particularly curious are once-again renewed rumors of an Apple HDTV and a WSJ profile of new CEO Tim Cook that indicates the company is "working on new technology to deliver video to televisions, and has been discussing whether to try to launch a subscription TV service." Like Google, any move depends on its success in negotiating a new delivery model from the networks, who so far have been averse to anything that threatens their existing relationship with pay-TV providers.

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.

RUMOR: RIM CREATING APPLE TV COMPETITOR

Research In Motion is currently working on a media box codenamed “BlackBerry Cyclone” that will launch later this fall, BlackBerry news site NerdBerry.net reports. The rumored media hub is said to be similar to Apple’s iOS-based Apple TV box, which connects to a television and plays streaming video content from iTunes. The BlackBerry Cyclone’s purported capabilities include Netflix streaming, YouTube streaming and streaming from media devices connected to the same Wi-Fi network. The unit will also reportedly feature an HDMI-out port.

The move would be a peculiar one from RIM, as it does not have an iTunes competitor to speak of and even with the extremely popular multimedia market, the Apple TV has not been an overly successful device for Apple. The Cupertino-based company announced the million-unit milestone for its refreshed Apple TV late last year, but we haven’t heard much about it since that time. RIM is also in the midst of prepping its first QNX-powered smartphone for release in 2012, not to mention seven BlackBerry handsets due to launch later this year,

HUGE RARE EARTH MINERAL DEPOSITS FOUND IN PACIFIC OCEAN

Every time someone goes out and buys a new TV, laptop, iPad, Android smartphone, or any such device they are using up some of our rare earth minerals which these gadgets require to work. They are called rare not because there is only a small amount on earth, but because the deposists are small and therefore require a lot of mining to recover very little.

Another problem exists in the fact China holds about 97% of the rare earth mineral market, and it decides how much exits the country. This pushes up prices and makes it more difficult for companies outside of China to not only manufacture enough devices, but also to keep the costs of those gadgets competitive.

It will come with great relief then, to hear that Japanese researchers have found very rich deposits of rare earth minerals as well as the metal yttrium. In total around 26 sites located in the international waters of the Pacific Ocean have been found to have high concentrations buried between 3,500 and 6,000 meters beneath the sea bed.

The deposits are so rich they are thought to increase our reserves by 1000x. Current reserves are estimated at 110 million tonnes, but this new discovery adds another 100 billion tons.

Not only does this take the pressure off in terms of finding alternatives in the near future, the locations of the deposits near Hawaii and Tahiti means the reliance on Chinese exports will be removed. Prices should fall and competition will not be influenced by a lack of supply.

HULU STRIKES CONTENT DEAL WITH FOX AND DISNEY, NBC IN TALKS

Now that Hulu's owners have apparently decided the best thing to do is sell it to someone else, long arrangements for content are needed to bring the highest price. Bloomberg is reporting that after cutting a deal with Fox a few days ago Hulu has now tentatively reached a deal with another of its owners, Disney. While both arrangements could keep the TV shows flowing, they also reportedly include provisions to increase the number of ads shown on the service. That would also put it in position to reach a similar agreement with Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, because of the media giant's FCC promise to reach similar agreements as its competitors for online content.

RUMOR: APPLE PLANNING iOS POWERED TV COMING IN FALL

Apple may have an iOS powered TV in the works. According to Daily Tech, one former Apple executive recently said that customers will soon be able to “go into an Apple retail store and be able to walk out with a TV. It’s perfect.” Apple won’t build the televisions itself, though. Instead a manufacturer like Samsung may be behind the product. The former exec also said that the Cupertino-based firm will “blow Netflix and all those other guys away,” so we presume there’s a connected aspect that will allow users to access iTunes content in a manner similar to the current Apple TV product. Apple has been rumored to be working on a connected television numerous times in the past, though obviously nothing has materialized to date.

RUMOR: YAHOO LOOKING TO ACQUIRE HULU

According to the LA Times, Yahoo Inc. recently approached Hulu to discuss a possible acquisition of the popular online video service, citing a source with knowledge of the matter. Hulu, whose owners include media giants News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp., has been struggling to find a balance between the desires of consumers to watch shows free online and its owners' interest in protecting the value of their programming. Late last year, it launched a paid subscription service to complement its free offerings.

Although there has been interest in the company, it remains unclear whether its owners have any desire to sell. Hulu has not taken any traditional steps associated with a sale such as retaining an investment bank to field offers. However, it is currently undergoing a restructuring that would give Chief Executive Jason Kilar and his executive team greater autonomy while imposing new rules on the availability of television content.

On Tuesday afternoon, word of the unsolicited offer spread and was subsequently confirmed by people close to the company. It is not known whether the offer came from Yahoo or another entity. Spokespersons for Yahoo, Hulu, News Corp. and Comcast declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FRANCE BANS MENTION OF FACEBOOK AND TWITTER ON TV TO HELP MARKET COMPETITION

The words "Facebook" and "Twitter" are now verboten on French TV, because France thought it'd be a good idea to follow its own laws. Last week, the country's Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) ruled that TV networks and radio stations will no longer be able to explicitly mention Facebook or Twitter during on-air broadcasts, except when discussing a story in which either company is directly involved. The move comes in response to a 1992 governmental decree that prohibits media organizations from promoting brands during newscasts, for fear of diluting competition. Instead of inviting viewers to follow their programs or stories on Twitter, then, broadcast journalists will have to couch their promotions in slightly more generic terms -- e.g. "Follow us on your social network of choice." CSA spokeswoman Christine Kelly explains:

Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are many other social networks that are struggling for recognition? This would be a distortion of competition. If we allow Facebook and Twitter to be cited on air, it's opening a Pandora's Box - other social networks will complain to us saying, 'why not us?

Fueling competition via aggressive regulation may strike some free-marketeers as economically depraved, but it certainly won't kill social media-based commerce. Facebook and Twitter have already become more or less synonymous with "social networks" anyway, so it's hard to envision such a minor linguistic tweak having any major effect on online engagement.

RUMOR: MICROSOFT TO LAUNCH PREMIUM TV SERVICE

Multiple reports have Microsoft unveiling a premium subscription television service at this years E3 and that seems to support the claims Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s vice president for corporate communications expressed on his company’s blog earlier this week. Shaw stated that 40 percent of all Xbox activity didn’t involve gaming at all and that the average gamer watches 30 hours of video on their Xbox each month. While gaming might be the main activity for the majority of 360 owners right now, Shaw expects that to soon change. His claim may warrant merit if adding more content to the already plethora available on Xbox Live (Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN, Last.FM, etc) in the form of a television service is true.

The premium TV service has been reported on in the past and isn’t actually a secret but it seems that Microsoft may actually pull the cloth from over it and unveil it at this years Electronic Entertainment Expo. With Microsoft focusing to market it’s Xbox platform as an entertainment brand much like Sony markets it’s Playstation 3; Project Orapa is a bit more ambitious than anything Microsoft’s competitors are showing. Project Orapa is the codename used by Microsoft that would combine Xbox Live and Microsoft’s Mediaroom IPTV. Theoretically it could allow Microsoft to offer TV to Xbox Live customers and possibly even Windows Phone owners through use of an application.

PHILIPS SELLS HDTV BUSINESS TO TDV TECHNOLOGY

Philips has been making TVs for over 80 years, but today its new CEO has announced that this storied history is coming to an end. Unable to generate a profit from its HDTV division, it lost the company €87 million in the first quarter.

Philips will soon sell the majority stake in it to Hong Kong manufacturer TPV Technology, while retaining a 30 percent ownership share and agreeing guaranteed royalty payments of €50 million per year from 2013 onwards. It's not a bad deal for the Dutch consumer electronics maker, whose bottom line for the first quarter was €137 million in the black, but would have been double that had the new arrangement been in place.

All 4,000 Philips employees working under the HDTV umbrella will be transferred over to TPV, though the company says it doesn't want the "market to misread that [it] intend to lay-off a lot of employees." Which is not to say that it won't.

SHARP HALTS PRODUCTION AT TWO LCD PLANTS IN JAPAN

Toshiba, Hitachi, and Panasonic already said they would shutter their liquid crystal display plants for a month following the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck the country on March 11. Now, Japan's largest exporter of LCD TVs, Sharp, has suspended production at its two biggest factories, thanks to a shortage of a gas used in the manufacturing process. The Osaka and Mie plants, which have a combined capacity of 172,000 sets per month, won't reopen until May 6, at the earliest. Until then, the company claims it has enough TVs in its inventory to last about a month. One JP Morgan Chase analyst estimates that the company stands to lose 50 billion yen ($590 million) this fiscal year due to the freeze.

CABLEVISION LAUNCHES iPAD APP, OUTDOES TIME WARNER

We knew that Cablevision was involved in creating an iPad app that enables the viewing of TV content, but we didn’t know that the app would offer iPad owners a better experience than FIOS’ and Time Warner Cable’s offerings. Cablevision’s Optimum app lets you, from behind your own network at home, view your entire channel lineup directly from up to two iPads simultaneously, complete with program guide information, access to the company’s more than 2,000 VOD offerings with the rest coming this summer, while also letting you record and control your DVR directly from the app.

After entering their Optimum account username and password, users can immediately access every Optimum channel that subscribed to from the iPad. It doesn’t look like you’re able to currently watch any recorded video from your DVR, but that’s not such a big deal in my book. Cablevision told says their app doesn’t use the internet to deliver video to your iPad, nor is the content streamed, rather it’s sent over the company’s network just as it works with your set-top box. If you are an Optimum customer that doesn’t have a cable modem, Optimum will provide an internet-blocked cable modem for free that will enable you to use the iPad app with a user-provider secure wireless router. Cablevision also said that they plan to deploy the same experience to other devices, so we anticipate an iPhone and Android app in the future.

CBS TO REMOVE SOME SHOWTIME SHOWS FROM NETFLIX

CBS confirmed today with Dow Jones that it will pull some of its Showtime television shows from Netflix, and apparently Netflix is pretty shocked by the news. A Showtime spokesperson said that it will remove the episodes of shows that are currently still airing on television from Netflix’s portfolio when the current partnership deal between the CBS and Netflix ends this summer.

“We’re perplexed by this,” Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesperson told Dow Jones. “We have great Showtime shows available on our service, and we expect to continue with those shows. We have a very good relationship with CBS and all its channels.” Two popular shows that are currently offered by Netflix and are still airing are “Californication” and “Dexter.”

SAMSUNG SAYS GLASS-LESS 3D TV AT LEAST 10 YEARS OFF

Despite Toshiba having glasses-less 3DTVs on the market already, Samsung's spoken out about the future of 3DTV by saying "attempts to put glasses-free 3DTV to market within the next 10 years will be difficult." Uh-oh.

Samsung elaborated by explaining that they have the means and know-how to make glasses-less 3DTV, "however it can only be viewed from a few viewing spots." Preferring instead to launch glasses-less 3DTV that works like the current range of 3DTVs, sans glasses of course, Samsung had said they'd prefer to wait until they can "deliver 3D to at least 32 viewing spots." One of their prototypes they showed off recently had just nine spots.

"We believe that creating a prototype for lab-grade glasses-free 3D TV, broadcasting system and display will take about five years. For mass commercialization to become possible, manufacturing costs must come down and TV broadcasters will have to upgrade infrastructure, which includes securing transmission bandwidth."

Toshiba's foray into glasses-less 3DTV hasn't gone so well so far. Setting themselves a target of selling 1,000 units in the first month, they fell short by more than half. This could be down to the size of the sets, which were a comical 12 and 20-inches.