The new technology allowing consumers who buy entertainment in physical formats to consume it online for no additional cost has gone live and is going global, with launches in the UK this Christmas, Canada in 2012 and elsewhere in 2013.

When Tesco bought 80 percent of online PPV movie vendor Blinkbox in April, paidContent reported how the UK supermarket giant would give buyers of its in-store DVD movies access to the same titles online. Now it is happening…

Lovefilm and even Sky Movies, be afraid. Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is reeling off its second exclusive studio deal as it prepares to launch in the UK and Ireland in early 2012.

Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) has refused to give DVD rentals chain Blockbuster (NSDQ: DISH) its latest films, including The Hangover Part II and the final Harry Potter movie, in a row over the 28-day DVD sales window.

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is on the road to profitability in Canada, but costs for its global roll-out are set to turn the company loss-making next year. So, after its next launches in the new year, Netflix will freeze international expansion.

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), which was already known to be planning a UK launch in its global expansion, has press-released an “early 2012” launch date for the UK and Ireland.

Ahead of the coming connected TV opportunity, availability of movies through UK online services is still poor - and Lovefilm has amongst the poorest of selections, according to research.

Join us for paidContent Entertainment: Everything Everywhere event on November 3rd in West Hollywood, our one-day, fast-paced conference that explores the nexus of digital media and the entertainment industry. This interactive, single-stage event will take an incisive look at the biggest challenges facing in the entertainment world. In this constantly…

In the movie The Matrix, the main character Neo is offered a choice between a blue pill (“the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe”) and a red pill (“you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes”).

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) splitting itself in two for two different media is the wrong strategy at the wrong time.

For CEO Reed Hastings and his team, consumer behavior provided the sign that it was time for Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) to shift from a hybrid strategy to separating streaming and DVD: 75 percent of the new subs in Q2 opted for streaming only despite the option to add DVDs for…

Facebook Credits today got another vote from the media industry as a currency for paid digital content: the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, announced that from this Wednesday it would start to offer episodes of its popular Doctor Who television series on Facebook, some before they have even been released…

If one of the best measures against piracy is to make content more easily available in a legitimate format, then Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) has made a key move in combating the problem in China. It has signed a deal with the country’s first pay-TV service, YOU On Demand (YOD),…

Consumer electronics giant Sony (NYSE: SNE) has finally, formally confirmed what people have long been expecting the company to do for months now: it has announced its entry into the nascent-but-much-hyped “media tablet” market, with the launch of two new Android devices. But will Sony have what it takes to…

Lovefilm eschewed a possible IPO option because Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) gives it a global-scale parent with resources enough to land the rights necessary to profit from the coming online movie explosion, says one of the VCs who has exited in the deal (see earlier story).

Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has finally confirmed it’s buying the 58 percent of Lovefilm it doesn’t already own - its bid to become a major European online movie subscription business. There’s no price disclosed, but someone around the deal had been pumping The Sunday Times with a £200 ($320.31) million price…

Reality check: The prospect of Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) and Lovefilm becoming online-first subscription businesses looks a long way off - they have online rights for just a tenth of their DVD catalogue…

With M&A murmurs still bubbling and the great IPTV opportunity beckoning, DVD and online movie service Lovefilm is one of the more interesting digital operators out there. So how is the company faring? Let’s look at the fundamentals for the “European Netflix”...

LoveFilm, which is often regarded as the “Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) of the Europe,” has struck a major deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios that gives its streaming rental service access to hundreds of classic movies and new home video releases. The deal comes as LoveFilm is trying to be seen as more…