Audio Video News

As part of its mission "to provide home entertainment however consumers want to receive it," <A HREF="http://www.blockbuster.com">Blockbuster</A> announced last week that it has taken a "significant first step" in the development of a national program to deliver movies and games to the home. Under a home-delivery agreement with Food.com, Blockbuster says that its videos will be delivered by Food.com through Takeout Taxi, a restaurant delivery service. Blockbuster has also <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?623">recently announced</A> a deal with MGM to develop digital streaming technologies for movie delivery.

According to the results of the DVD Owners Study, released last week by the <A HREF="http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA), "consumers have overwhelmingly voiced their satisfaction with DVD." The CEA has reported that 1999 was a tremendous year for the DVD player, which became the "fastest-selling consumer electronics product in history," achieving a household penetration level of approximately 5% after only three years in the market.

The <A HREF="http://www.nbc.com/">National Broadcasting Company</A> has announced its withdrawal from the <A HREF="http://www.nab.org/">National Association of Broadcasters</A>. The network is departing the industry's most powerful trade group in protest of the NAB's refusal to support the network's effort to raise the federally mandated cap on the number of stations that can be owned by a single company. A majority of NAB members support the current limits on ownership.

What looks on the surface to be an announcement for a new video-game platform may turn into an attempt to control the implementation of interactive services in the digital home. Last week, Bill Gates announced at the annual Game Developers Conference that <A HREF="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft</A> is entering the world of video games with the introduction of a "future-generation" dedicated video game console, currently code-named X-Box, designed to deliver "action-packed" games.

Back in the good old days of video rentals, you just popped the tape in the player and started watching the movie. Then film studios figured out that they could add "trailers"&mdash;short ads for other movies&mdash;to the beginning of tapes in the hope of getting a little more exposure for their products&mdash;just like in the theater.

Net loss: Video vendor Hollywood Entertainment Corporation would be doing well if it weren't for its publicly traded online operation <A HREF="http://www.reel.com/">Reel.com</A>, which just can't make a profit no matter how hard it tries. The nation's second-largest video rental chain, <A HREF="http://www.hollywoodvideo.com/">Hollywood Video</A> enjoyed strong growth last year but was driven into the red by losses incurred by the Internet business, which reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $21.7 million.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.tivo.com">TiVo</A> and Britain's <A HREF="http://www.sky.com">Sky Broadcasting Group</A> (BSkyB) announced an alliance that the companies claim marks the introduction of personal television to the United Kingdom. According to TiVo, "state-of-the-art personal video recorders similar in size and shape to VCRs and digital set-top boxes will deliver the personal television service, which will be co-branded by TiVo and Sky." The companies say that products and services are expected to be available in retail outlets this fall, with pricing and distribution to be announced shortly.