The Live Indian Entertainment Blog

Amazon.com is aiming to expanding its streaming video service, Amazon Instant Video, and may even make it into a standalone subscription service, according to a report in the New York Post. Lending credence to the rumor: even Netflix believes such as service is coming.

Amazon launched Instant Video last February. It can be used a la carte, to rent videos and stream them to your PC, but it is also part of the Amazon Prime service. That $79 a year service offers free two-day shipping, but also allows members access to many (not all) Amazon Instant videos for free, and if the member is a Kindle owner, also gives them access to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

Industry sources told the Post that Amazon.com would beef up its Instant Video service. At the same time, Netflix on Wednesday issued it's Q4 2011 results, and although the numbers there were important, so was the company's comments.

Netflix had earnings of $40.7 million, or $0.73 per share and revenue of $876 million. Wall Street analysts had been expecting $0.54 a share and $857 million in revenue.

Also of note were their subscriber numbers, which showed Q4 Domestic streaming subscribers at 22 million, Q4 Domestic DVD at 11.17 million, and Q4 International at 1.86 million. That's right, now that streaming and DVD have been split, Netflix has twice as many streaming subscribers as DVD subscribers.

Meanwhile, this important comment from the company:

“We expect Amazon to continue to offer their video service as a free extra with Prime domestically but also to brand their video subscription offering as a standalone service at a price less than ours.”

Interesting that they believe the Amazon.com offering will be cheaper than their own, but at least as important as price will be content, meaning how much content Amazon.com has compared to Netflix.

Despite that, investors liked what they saw. Netflix stock (NFLX) was up to $110.12‎, +$15.08‎ or +15.87 percent in after-hours trading.

Last month, Schmidt said that Google was developing an Android tablet "of the highest quality" and that it would arrive within about six months. A report from DigiTimes on Thursday suggests that the tablet will be a Nexus-branded device, will have a seven-inch display and a $199 price point, and may arrive as early as April.

We all know how (un)reliable DigiTime's "industry sources" can be, but does the idea of an Android Nexus tablet even make sense?

Google already owns the online video site that gets the most views overall, so why would it need another? It might, because it wants the content licenses, which could be why the Internet giant is rumored to be taking a look at acquiring Hulu.

Last week, it was revealed Yahoo approached Hulu about a possible acquisition, and now the L.A. Times is reporting that Google is also interested. Also named by "anonymous industry sources," is Microsoft. Previously, other companies that definitely have a stake in streaming video (Amazon.com, Netflix, and Apple) were also named as possible suitors.

Hulu is reportedly the 10th most popular video destination site on the Internet.

Hulu is jointly owned by Comcast, Disney, and News Corp., and reportedly those companies have just renewed streaming agreements with Hulu, all the better to sweeten potential deals, right? News Corp. owns Fox, which provides shows such as "Family Guy" and "Glee" to Hulu; Disney owns ABC, which provides shows like "Modern Family" to the site; and while Comcast owns NBC Universal which supplies shows like "The Office" and "30 Rock" to Hulu.

As part of its acquisition of NBC Universal, however, Comcast was forced to give up its management role in Hulu, which means it won't have a say in any decisions related to a sale.

The content licenses would be sold to the buyer as-is, but there's no word on exactly how long those contracts last. Additionally, the new agreements change the timing for Hulu content, increasing the amount of time between when a show airs on TV and when it is added to Hulu from 24 hours to eight days.

The exception would be if a user is able to prove that he or she is a cable subscriber. Hulu isn't prepared to roll out the verification system yet, however. That could affect viewership.

According to the report, Hulu is seeking a $2 billion price. The talks that Hulu is currently having with suitors are in the preliminary stages.

How much did Amazon.com lose with its two (1, 2) Lady Gaga $0.99 promotional sale days? Maybe a lot, or maybe not much, if the promotion hit its intended target: not to sell Lady Gaga albums, but to promote Cloud Drive and Cloud Player.

According to Billboard, industry sources told them that Amazon.com sold about 440,000 downloads of the Lady Gaga album. Nearly all of them were the $0.99 version.

Doing the math, Billboard owes the music label and distributor about 70 percent of the purchase price. Using iTunes' price of $11.99, Amazon.com would owe $8.39 for each album, minus the $0.99 it received from buyers, so it would lose $7.40 on each sale. Based on that, and using a 430,000 unit total (440,000 minus 10,000 to account for estimated sales of the deluxe edition), Amazon.com lost about $3.18 million.

[Billboard used iTunes' price of $11.99 for its calculations, but Amazon is still selling the same Lady Gaga album for a much lower price than iTunes, $6.99, so using $7.40, Amazon.com could still be losing money on newer sales.]

Still, as we noted earlier, the Lady Gaga sale wasn't about the album so much as it was a way to use a hot artist to promote Amazon.com's Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services. After all, if you purchase an MP3 album at Amazon.com, your Cloud Drive storage is upped to 20GB for 12 months. Considering the upgrade price to 20GB is $20, even $6.99 for the current album price is a bargain.

So, did Amazon.com really lose anything? We'll see if Cloud Drive and Cloud Player remain relevant after iCloud is opened, and then we'll judge. If Cloud Drive remains free, we'd speculate it will still remain in the minds of consumers even with iCloud around, since iCloud is widely expected to be subscription driven.

Motorola's Xoom tablet has won the Best in Show Award at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The 10.1-inch tablet will launch in Q1 2011 with 3G functionality, later upgradeable to LTE 4G, and will launch with a LTE 4G model in Q2.

There's always a chance that, Best in Show Award or not, the device will be a flop, but based on the buzz around it, it doesn't seem likely. At the same time, DigiTimes has already indicated that its industry sources say Motorola has ordered 700,000 - 800,000 Xoom tablets, in four different colors, for Q1. Their sources said that Xoom orders could read 1 million in the quarter.

Xoom pricing hasn't been revealed, but the specs have: 10.1-inch touchscreen, 1280 x 800 resolution, 1GB RAM, NVIDIA's Tegra 2 with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 32GB of on-board storage, SD card slot, 3G, 802.11n wi-fi, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera with 720p video capture, and 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. It will also carry a gyroscope, e-compass, accelerometer, and in a new addition to mobile devices, a barometer.

Interesting to note from the report is that Google gave priority Honeycomb support to Motorola and Samsung. Honeycomb, Android 3.0, is the first tablet-optimized version of Android. LG Electronics and HTC were next in the list, the report added.

Apple has adjusted its Q1 2011 shipment target from 19 million units to 20 - 21 million units, industry sources with Taiwan-based component suppliers tell Digitimes. The site said:

The first-quarter shipment goal for WCDMA iPhones has been adjusted from 13 million units to 14-15 million units, the sources said. The shipment goal for CDMA iPhones, which will be launched in North America and Asia Pacific in the first quarter, is set at 5 - 6 million units, the sources added.

Shipments aren't necessarily the same as sales as we reminded when Microsoft announced 1.5 million Windows Phone devices shipped to OEMs and carriers. That said. Apple sold 14.1 million in Q3 2010, and Digitimes sources estimate that global iPhone shipments in Q4 2010 will be 15.5 million units, resulting in a total of around 47 million units all of 2010.

Interesting, of course, is the 5 - 6 million CDMA unit estimate for Q1 2011. There is still no confirmation of a Verizon iPHone, which would be a CDMA phone. WCDMA, for those not aware, really refers to GSM networks, such as AT&T's network.

The lanky lass Anushka, who once tapped her feet for a song alongside megastar Chiranjeevi in the film Stalin, awaits a further prospect of being paired opposite Chiranjeevi. As the latter reportedly okayed to act in spite of his hectic mobility in politics, the industry sources are speculating about the director, producer as well as the female lead of the film in which he is supposed to act. At this juncture, the probability of Anushka sharing screen space with Chiranjeevi, is being talked about. Answering a question concerning the matter, Anushka said, "I'd be the most fortunate person to act opposite Chiranjeevi. I felt his grandeur within the short span of time I was paired opposite him for a song. Unfortunately, I could not get a chance to act with him."

Much like the Verizon iPhone, speculation over a subscription model for iTunes keeps coming, and going. The latest set of rumors come via the New York Post, citing unnamed industry sources.

One source told the NYP that the service could have tiered pricing ranging from $10 to $15. The report added that record labels are supportive of a subscription service, hoping that it will help digital music sales, which have been flat in terms of singles sales, although sales of album downloads have been rising.

Speculation of a possible cloud-based iTunes has been intensified since Apple acquired LaLa earlier this year. The news that European music service Spotify will be part of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 launch on Oct. 11 has also brought more rumors to the fore.

Spotify is a European music service, yet to launch in the US. Spotify uses a free ad-supported streaming music business model; the record industry prefers a paid subscription model. Spotify does have a subscription component; subscribers can pay to get better bitrates.

It's unclear when and if such as service might launch. Remember how long it took for iTunes to go to tiered pricing?

It is believed that Amitabh Bachchan is being paid Rs 1.5 crore per episode in KBC-4. Shah Rukh Khan on the other hand fetched around Rs 1 crore per episode of Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hai?.
Akshay Kumar who will soon be hosting Master Chef would be getting anything between Rs 1.2 crore and Rs 1.5 crore per episode. Salman Khan too would bag Rs 1.2 crore per episode for Bigg Boss, say industry sources.

No one can doubt the newspaper industry is ailing, and in the last few years, we've seen a number of old and storied papers reach their final edition. The Kindle offers subscriptions to some large newpapers, but what about the iPad? So far, no, but that may be changing soon.

Unnamed industry sources told the Mercury News that a subscription program will be coming "soon." Reportedly, the issue thus far has been subscriber information. Newspapers want the info to sell ads, naturally.

Thus far, Apple has apparently been hesitant to give up that info. However, the report goes on to say that Apple will provide an opt-in function that will allow subscribers to share their information with publishers. Hopefully it will be just that: opt-in, not opt-out, as the problem with opt-out is that frequently it's hidden and discovered only after it's reported, leading to big flaps over privacy.

Analysts believe that newspapers will follow the App Store model, with Apple taking 30% of all app-based subscriptions. In addition, Apple would take a cut of advertising revenue, and that could go as high 40 percent.

If the terms sound rather harsh, the report states that since the iPad is expected to dominate tablet PCs for some time, publishers have little choice. Of course, if Android comes in and takes market share, even surpassing the iPad, as it has done (in some reports) against the iPhone, terms may change.

While the iPad sounds like a savior for the industry, the Kindle was labeled that, too, and that hasn't come to pass. Additionally, analysts say, it could also be a disaster, if people switch from print to electronic too quickly. Roger Fidler, head of digital publishing at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute in Columbia, MO, told the Mercury News, "Most publishers don't want to see a rapid migration to apps without a comparable growth in advertisement revenue from tablet editions. That would be disastrous."