ZDNet’s Tech Bits is declaring Blu-Ray dead: Blu-ray is in a death spiral. 12 months from now Blu-ray will be a videophile niche, not a mass market product. With only a 4% share of US movie disc sales and HD download capability arriving, the Blu-ray disc Association (BDA) is still smoking dope. Even $150 Blu-ray [...]

Apple today announced that all four of the major networks are offering primetime programs in high definition on the iTunes Store. Apple still provides no ad-supported streaming offering, which has opened the door for Hulu and others to target the huge audience for free streaming Internet television. The list of HD programs now available on the iTunes [...]

PBS has announced that it will launch a broad selection of full-length PBS television shows for download on Xbox LIVE, the online games and entertainment network for the Xbox 360. Included on Xbox LIVE are: WIRED SCIENCE CARRIER SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS NOVA Ken Burns’ Jazz Ken Burns’ America Ken Burns’ American Lives “Our commitment is [...]

Michael Moore appears to be using bootlegging to ensure distribution of his latest film, Slacker Uprising, outside the US and Canada.  Torrentfreak reports that the film is actively being shared on bitTorrent around the world, despite only being freely available from the official source to people in the US and Canada. “What do you think I’m up to? [...]

Want to know why Steve Jobs is still calling Apple TV his “hobby”? New research by The NPD Group offers an explanation: 41 percent of dollars budgeted for movies and video is spent on DVD movie purchases; 11 percent for purchases of TV programs on DVD; 29 percent on DVD rentals including Netflix and other [...]

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it is killing off HD DVD. “We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, [...]

NBC’s and Apple’s negotiations over terms for digital video download sales has turned into a PR war. Apple announced earlier in the week that it would no longer be carrying NBC shows for download, because of failure to reach an agreement over terms. According to Apple, NBC wanted to double its wholesale pricing for shows. [...]

The New York Times reports that Wal-Mart is partnering with all of the six major Hollywood studios — Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal — to sell digital movies and television shows on its Web site, becoming the first traditional retailer to do so. The move plunges Wal-Mart into competition [...]

The audience for Internet video has reached a critical mass, offering advertisers and television programmers lucrative opportunities, according to Nielsen Analytics. Highlights of the the company’s research: There has been no measurable negative impact on traditional television viewing. Video on PCs and iPods is expanding the audience of traditional TV programs. Viewers prefer short web-served [...]

Online sales of TV shows, movies and other prerecorded video will become a billion-dollar business in 2007, according to a new report from technology research firm Strategy Analytics. The report predicts that, by the end of 2007, the market will grow to $1.5 billion. By 2010, global revenue from online video sales, rentals and subscriptions [...]