Continue reading Redbox sues Warner Home Video over DVD availability

Redbox sues Warner Home Video over DVD availability originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MySpace to offer James Blunt's new CD originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Bear Stearns upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) to Outperform from Peer Perform, with a $36 target, after the quarterly results as they believe revenue growth is sustainable and diversified. Bear expects Cisco to benefit from significant new product cycles over the next two years and believes investments in emerging markets are beginning to pay off.
  

• Merriman upgraded Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR) to Buy from Neutral to reflect the improved outlook at their top customer, Cisco.

• Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Stifel, as the firm expects shares to remain range bound.

• Pali Capital raised shares of Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to Buy from Neutral with a $55 target on valuation as they believe the bad news is already priced in.

• Cascade (NYSE: CAE) was upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Rodman & Renshaw on valuation.

• Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) was upgraded to Buy from Sell with a $13 target at Citigroup.

• Citigroup also upgraded shares of Copa Holdings (NYSE: CPA) to Buy from Hold with a $71 target.

• Baird upgraded shares of Parkway Properties (NYSE: PKY) to Outperform from Neutral on valuation.

• Computer Sciences (NYSE: CSC) was raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies on valuation and improvement in bookings.

• Morgan Stanley upgraded ABB Ltd (NYSE: ABB) to Overweight from Equal Weight.

Analyst upgrades 8-08-07: BBY, CSCO, THC and WMG originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• HSBC upgraded shares of Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) to Overweight from Neutral to reflect the company's new drug pipeline investments.

• ThinkEquity raised Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) to buy from Sell based on expectations for a better-than-expected July quarter due to strong consumer business demand.

• Pali Research upgraded Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) to Neutral from Sell on valuation with the stock down 40% year-to-date.

• Merrill upgraded KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) to Neutral from Sell following better-than-expected Q2 results.

• JP Morgan upgraded SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) to Overweight from Neutral citing increased demand for NAND applications and supply constraints...

• Bernstein upgraded Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) to Outperform from Market Perform.

• Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) was raised to Hold from Underweight at Keefe Bruyette.

• Matrix upgraded Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI) to Strong Buy from Buy.

• Bernstein raised Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) to Market Perform from Underperform.

Analyst upgrades 7-18-07: DELL, SNDK, SNY and WMG originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

USA Today's

Continue reading The future of television - online?

The future of television - online? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Warner Music continues to pursue EMI originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Superman returns super-positive receipts for Imax originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Jul 2006 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The announcement that Warner will sell not only TV but film content via BitTorrent is really quite remarkable.  BitTorrent technology is currently the number one way that Hollywood content is pirated online, which makes it both an obvious threat but also a long-term opportunity. 

It's a different strategy than the other current Hollywood efforts, Movielink and CinemaNow, which initially looked like a somewhat half-hearted effort to say "See, we offer legal downloading, so do the right thing."  Both sites have improved their technology and usability this year, but still involve changing the habits of an audience that's already downloading feature-length content someplace else.  Working with BitTorrent is a gutsy but logical step: go where the potential customers already are.  While some commentators contend that Warner has still set its pricing and DRM restrictions too high, I think that's inevitable: lowering prices and reducing restrictions, once you have your feet wet, is much easier than trying to go the other direction.  (Just ask the print world how well they're doing charging for newspaper and magazine content on the Web.)

What's in it for Hollywood?  First, they've learned from the recording industry: if you don't get in front of illegal downloading, you'll face a really, really tough catchup game.  Legal music downloads are growing fast, but they're still nowhere near the volume of the illegal file-sharing that had years to gain momentum before legal alternatives appeared. 

But past that, selling direct to the consumer could ultimately cut out all the other folks who take a slice of the profits in film distribution: theater owners, Blockbuster, Netflix, cable, satellite.  The metric to watch here is the theatrical window: what's the time period before movies appear on DVD, pay-per-view and soon, the Internet?  The window is getting shorter and shorter, and some producers suggest it will ultimately become no more than thirty days, even for the biggest titles. 

None of this will happen overnight, of course, but fitting nicely into this pattern is the fact that older moviegoers are increasingly building their own theaters at home.  I've spent time recently with some of the mass-market homebuilders--the people who build more than a thousand homes a year--and many feel that the media room will soon become a standard expectation in new homes.  It will be years before the Internet can easily deliver a top-quality home theater experience, but it's none too soon for Hollywood to explore the best and cheapest way to reach that audience. 

Warner Bros. Embraces BitTorrent originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 09 May 2006 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

That's right, yesterday, the Board of Directors of Time Warner declared that owners of Common Stock will receive $0.05 a share, in cash, on June 15, 2006.

Huzzah!

So, the big question is, how many shares of stock would I have to own (which I don't---I don't own any TWX) in order to take advantage of the following Warner entertainment options:

Continue reading Divvied up: TWX announces quarterly dividend

Divvied up: TWX announces quarterly dividend originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Skype jumps on the music download bandwagon originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.