Entertainment

Warner Music Group and EMI have shelved discussion of a potential merger of the two music labels in the wake of a European court ruling on an earlier wave of music industry consolidation. The companies announced they had ceased talks on Thursday, citing a decision that essentially set aside regulato...

Regulators from the European Union are examining the licensing strategies behind the two competing next-generation DVD formats in an attempt to determine whether antitrust issues need to be addressed. The European Commission reportedly has requested information from manufacturers of players that sup...

Amazon.com is remaining tight-lipped about published reports stating that the company plans to launch a digital video download service in August. However, as the public waits for Amazon to reveal details, analysts muse that Apple remains the company with the most potential to succeed in the space. R...

As personal technology goes, Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) are more than just a replacement for tape-based VCRs: They're a boon to TV watchers and the enemy of the traditional 30-second television advertising spot, for decades the single most powerful and lucrative form of brand advertising. Device...

Netflix on Wednesday announced a partnership with NBC in which the broadcast company will offer the online movie rental service's subscribers an advanced screening of the premiere episodes of its upcoming drama series, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Kidnapped." The shows will be made available...

In a move that could help unlock the potential for selling feature-length movies over the Internet, Movielink Monday said it had reached an agreement to license technology allowing downloaded movies to be burned onto DVDs by users. Movielink said it had licensed the technology to allow DVD burning b...

The European Union's second-highest court has struck down the regulatory approval of the merger of Sony Music and the music business of Bertelsmann nearly two years after the deal was completed. While the decision could force the undoing of the earlier merger, which created Sony BMG, it may also und...

Though well-intentioned, services that scrub potentially offensive material from DVDs and then resell them as family-friendly versions are violating copyright laws, a court has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch ruled in favor of major Hollywood studios by saying that a number of compan...

One in five Americans age 12 or older own a digital music player, according to a study released last week by a global market research firm. The study, which is prepared quarterly by Ipsos Insight of New York City, noted that younger music listeners are driving growth in the DMP market, with some 54 ...

A new study by ABI Research indicates that an array of semiconductor developers have designed US$10 chipsets for receiving and displaying TV on mobile phones -- a price point that marks the first important benchmark for the growth of mobile phone-based TV and video applications. "This ramp-up in mar...

Driven by technology, access to content is TiVo's primary need. To a large degree, however, access to content is precisely what traditional TV and cable broadcasters, as well as film studios, still control. This crucial point has long been recognized, as well as debated, by TiVo management. The co...

With floor space at large retailers at a premium these days, you'd think the allure of reducing all the aisles occupied by DVD movies to the footprint of a kiosk would be compelling, but that's not the case. According to a studio executive who agreed to talk to the E-Commerce Times on terms of anony...

Cable television consumers across the nation are halfway to their goal of getting lower prices and better service, thanks to the passage of a cable reform bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. The COPE Act will make it easier for new companies to enter the cable market and compete for consumers...

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006 by 321-101. If it becomes law, the bill will open the cable television market to further competition, allowing phone companies such as Verizon to offer subscription video programming.

Adding a new twist in the music industry's search for the right way to sell digital tunes and prevent piracy, EMI Music said Tuesday it has agreed to become the first label to make its catalog available on an ad-supported peer-to-peer network. EMI said it would make music from its catalog available ...