Netflix to Stream FilmDistrict Films Earlier than Premium Cable Gets Them

Netflix and FilmDistrict have signed a deal allowing first-run, theatrically-released films distributed by FilmDistrict to be streamed by Netflix in the 'pay TV window' a few months after their release on DVD.

Under the deal, major motion pictures that traditionally would have been licensed to premium cable channels will flow instead from FilmDistrict to Netflix for streaming to its members, beginning in 2011.

The deal is another example of gradually-evolving distribution channels in the movie and TV business, with the key trend being the loosening of online viewing restrictions.

Netflix and FilmDistrict Announce Agreement to Stream First-Run Theatrical Films

CounterPath Unveils Hosted "One Number" Service Supporting Text Messaging Using Landlines

CounterPath Corporation says the next release of the "Messaging Convergence Gateway (MCG) 2.0," a hosted solution, will give wireline operators the ability to extend their VoIP and messaging services over the top of mobile networks.

Paradoxically, though over-the-top voice services have mostly cannibalized fixed-line voice services, over-the-top is one way fixed-line services can be made more relevant in a world where much voice activity (not to mention text messaging and instant messaging) occurs on mobile devices.

CounterPath says the solution will be the industry’s first platform to provide single-number reachability for voice, Instant Messaging, and SMS across an operator’s existing wireline VoIP network and on feature phones, smartphones or tablets from any mobile operator.

CounterPath’s wireline mobility services solution will give Internet Service Providers and wireline operators a cost-effective way to provide SMS services to their VoIP subscribers. The gateway also allows fixed-line service providers to provide "one number" services for voice or text messaging, whether a user is on the fixed or mobile networks.

In addition to handling inbound communications, wireline mobility services lets users initiate conversations with their contacts using their new “single” number. Users can initiate voice, Instant Messaging, and SMS conversations using their feature phone, smartphone or SIP-enabled applications on their PC.

Mobile workers and other business users now can use their main number to receive and send SMS messages, making them more accessible to customers – such as younger demographics – who prefer texting over e-mailing or calling.

When consumers are using their smartphone or PC at home or in a Wi-Fi hotspot, calls to their wireline VoIP number ring their VoIP client. By doing so, users preserve monthly buckets of minutes and SMS messages.

Wireline mobility services works with any mobile phone on any wireless network. No client software is required on the handset, allowing it to work even with entry-level feature phones and any mobile operating system.

ITSPs and wireline VoIP operators can quickly and cost-effectively add wireline mobility services without replacing existing network equipment. Operators also can roll out service quickly because they don’t need to first establish a relationship with a mobile operator.

Symbian Devices Lead Mobile Web Usage in Africa, Asia, Latin America

Symbian always has been more popular elsewhere than in the United States. That remains true for related metrics such as share of mobile Web activity as well, according to Statcounter.

Six iPhones Sold for Every Nokia N8

A Morgan Stanley survey of 150 handset retailers in five countries in Europe shows N8 sell-through of one for every six Apple (AAPL) iPhones that are sold, notes Morgan Stanley analyst Patrick Standaert.

Surprisingly, perhaps, Standaert thinks that is a "win" for Nokia. That is more a measure of low expectations for Nokia than anything else, one might argue.

Nokia: Buy, Says Morgan Stanley; N8’s A Hit! - Tech Trader Daily - Barrons.com

Twitter's Major Publishing Dilemma

Twitter has the potential to be much more, and everyone there knows it. It has millions of dedicated users, but it also has tens of millions who can't quite figure out what the value is.

The problem, of course, is that while Twitter makes it nearly effortless for folks to publish their own thoughts, it has done far too little to help those same folks glean value from the thoughts of others.

At its core, publishing is about determining signal from noise. And that might be among Twitter's greatest opportunities. Traditionally, publishing has been able aggregating the "good stuff," the "stuff you need to know," from all the rest. Even online, even in the context of social networking, that mission remains. Twitter already is part of the "media" ecosystem. The issue is whether it can become a bigger part of that ecosystem.

Twitter's Major Publishing Dilemma

U.S. Smartphone Battle Heats Up:Apple and Android are "Most Desired" Platforms

When mobile users who planned to upgrade to a smartphone in the next year were asked about their next phone, Apple’s iOS and Android were tied for “most desired” operating system.

Click image for a larger view.

Among users planning to get a new smartphone, current smartphone owners showed a preference for the Apple iPhone (35 percent), while 28 percent of both smartphone and featurephone planned smartphone upgraders indicated they wanted a device with an Android operating system as their next mobile phone.

Featurephone owners planning to get a smartphone are less likely to have made up their mind about the OS they will choose: 25 percent were “not sure” what their next desired OS might be compared to 13 percent of smartphone owners. Those over 55 were markedly less certain than younger mobile users, with 27.8 saying they weren’t sure what kind of device they wanted next, compared to 12.2 percent of those 18 to 24.

Apple’s iPhone and devices with the Android operating system were the “most desired” among likely smartphone upgraders, with Apple showing a slight lead among those age 55 , 18 to 24, and 25 to 34.

U.S. Smartphone Battle Heats Up: Which is the “Most Desired” Operating System? | Nielsen Wire

U.S. Smartphone Battle Heats Up: Which is the “Most Desired” Operating System? | Nielsen Wire

According to October 2010 data from The Nielsen Company, 29.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers now own smartphones that run full operating systems.

The most popular smartphones are the Apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry, which are caught in a statistical dead heat with 27 percent of smartphone market share in the U.S. Twenty-two percent of smartphone owners have devices with the Android operating system.

U.S. Smartphone Battle Heats Up: Which is the “Most Desired” Operating System? | Nielsen Wire

F.C.C. Chairman Has Plan to Regulate Internet Broadband Providers

"Thwarted by the courts, by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and by some of his fellow commissioners, the Federal Communications Commission chairman will try again on Wednesday to devise a new strategy for regulating broadband Internet service providers," the New York Times reports.

But think about the statement: "Thwarted by the courts, the Congress and even fellow FCC commissioners." The FCC's authority is delegated to it by the Congress, which has not expressly done so. The courts supposedly only "interpret" the laws passed by Congress, and do not "make" law. Many would say the courts overstep their bounds, but for the moment just consider that the courts have ruled that the FCC has no authority to regulate broadband access.

Beyond those issues, which one might argue represent an unconstitutional overstepping of delegated authority, 37 Senators and 171 members of the House of Representatives already have sent the FCC a letter saying that the decision rests with Congress, not the agency.

Some would argue the key issue here is not disagreement over the specific proposals; it is that the FCC has no authority to act, administratively, to make law that is the province of the Congress.

F.C.C. Chairman Has Plan to Regulate Internet Broadband Providers - NYTimes.com

Vodafone and T-Mobile Germany Plans:Alot Like Clearwire

In some ways, Vodafone and T-Mobile are planning on attacking the 4G consumer in much the same way Clearwire did in the United States. Both firms will start in rural areas before tackling metro markets, and both are focusing on dongle sales for connecting PCs, rather than voice services.

Vodafone plans to offer a Samsung dongle with tiered monthly plans costing between 42.50 and 72.50 EUR. The top rate provides users with up to 30 GBytes of data and peak download speeds of up to 50 Mbps. That’s starting with the small city of Rammenau, east of Dresden, where Vodafone hopes to get subscribers who still can’t get fast broadband access at home.

Moreover, the plan is to initially cover several hundred towns in rural areas and then expand the network to 1,500 locations by next spring.

T-Mobile has a similar strategy. It is aiming at rural users first and then expand to cities. The T-Mobile offer will be called Call & Surf via Funk and will start selling from next April. For 39.95 EUR per month, users get a fixed-line access alongside the LTE connection.

In all three cases--Clearwire, Vodafone and T-Mobile--4G is seen as a product competing with fixed-line broadband for PCs, not a product competing for mobile or smartphone customers.

Germany: Vodafone and T-Mobile unveil LTE pricing

Shai Berger Pitches Fonolo to Investors

http://www.shaiberger.com/2010/11/video-pitching-fonolo-on-the-pitch/ You have less than 10 minutes to convince three potential investment groups your idea is among those they should fund. This is how Shai Berger, Fonolo founder, handles the task.

In-Game Micro-Payments To Fuel Mobile Gaming Revenues To $11B In 2015

Juniper Research estimates mobile gaming revenue will grow to $11 billion in 2015 on the strength of in-game micro-payments and Apple’s in-app billing mechanism.

Juniper also estimates in-game purchases will overtake the traditional pay-per-download model as the primary source of monetizing mobile games by 2013.

In-Game Micro-Payments To Fuel Mobile Gaming Revenues To $11B In 2015

Mobile Payments Will Move Inside Apps

Peering Dispute Between Comcast and Level 3 is Not Unusual

Despite the colorful nature of the Level 3 Communications dispute with Comcast over interconnection arrangements, the dispute is a rather typical commercial dispute between interconnection partners.

In the past, when traffic exchanged between the Comcast network and Level 3 was roughly equal, it made sense to peer the networks on a "settlement-free" basis. Now that traffic flows are about to become quite unbalanced, that won't work.

With the massive new Netflix CDN deal where Netflix is currently the largest source of traffic in North America, Level 3 will likely start sending five times more traffic to Comcast than it receives.

When that happens, a "settlement-free" peering arrangement often becomes a "for-fee" transit agreement, where the network imposing an unequal traffic load pays the other network.

That's the situation here, where a business relationship that worked well when traffic exchange was equal becomes untenable as traffic flows become highly unequal. Settlement-free peering works for the former, not the latter. So Comcast wants a transit style agreement where it gets paid for carrying the excess traffic.

Level 3 would prefer not to pay, and it is not alone in that desire. Unequal traffic flows do not lend themselves to settlement-free peering agreements.

Digital Society Level 3 outbid Akamai on Netflix

For-Fee Online Video Demand Still Nascent

A new study by Ipsos finds that some viewers are willing to pay for online video, though much depends on the payment model and the actual type of content.

In a survey of 18-to-34-year olds, Ipsos found that 51 percent of respondents were interested in fee-based models from Hulu, Netflix or iTunes.

Ipsos OTX MediaCT created a scenario where free alternatives were not available and TV was available from Netflix at $9 a month, iTunes at $1 a download with no ads, and Hulu at $1 with ads.

While 17 percent of the younger demo was interested in a pay-per-episode Hulu model, only 11 percent of those 35 and older wanted to buy that way. Overall 49 percent of youth had no interest in pay models while 70 percent of the 35+ group suggested they were not interested in such fee-based offerings.

Eagerness to use the Web to catch up on or re-experience TV content varies a bit from genre to genre and even more from show to show. People are more likely to want to re-watch comedies than other genres, but a subscription service like Netflix was more appealing for its run of dramas since viewers wanted access to whole season.

MediaPost Publications Young Video Viewers Will Pay for Their Online TV 11/30/2010

Google Wants Groupon Because Social Ads Are the Future: Tech News «

http://gigaom.com/2010/11/30/google-wants-groupon-because-social-ads-are-the-future/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OmMalik+%28GigaOM%3A+Tech%29&utm_content=Google+Reader