April 18 - 10:35am EDT   NBC's Hulu TV streaming service is likely to expand beyond its web-only presence of today, the service's CEO Jason Kilar said this week at the NAB video production expo. While not committing to any one format, the company head explains that cellphones and "anything connected to the Internet" would be an ideal platform for the feature, which allows users to stream (but not download) episodes of NBC and Fox shows. [full story]

March 20 - 2:00pm EDT   The latest effort at blocking unofficial copying of Blu-ray movies has been undone, the developers of a cracking utility claim. AnyDVD 6.4.0.0 adds the ability to bypass BD+ encoding, used on a number of discs to prevent either direct copying, or ripping to a hard drive. This change is said to particularly affect releases from 20th Century Fox, who have led the adoption of BD+, while other companies continue with variants of AACS. AnyDVD is now also better compatible with regular DVDs using Arccos protection. [full story]

March 14 - 4:15pm EDT   Google-owned YouTube accounted for the majority of the more than one-third of all 9.8 billion videos watched online in January, as measured by comScore Video Metrix service and reported on Friday. More accurately, the 3.36 billion video views amounted to 34.3 percent of the total, far outpacing the next-highest, Fox Interactive Media’s MySpace, at 6.0 percent. This marks a 1.7 percent improvement over December 2007 results, where a record 10.1 billion videos were viewed. [full story]

March 11 - 9:50am EDT   The Fox and NBC-Universal joint project Hulu will leave its private beta stage tomorrow, the companies revealed on Tuesday. The web-based service will soon allow all US residents with high-speed Internet access to stream TV shows and movies over Flash for free through dynamic ads that appear at key segments; in a new version, users can even pick which ads they see, Hulu's operators note. On its official debut, the service will also add TV shows produced by Warner Bros. and will have both NBA and NHL highlight reels as well as full-length historical NCAA basketball games. [full story]

February 26 - 8:00pm EST   During a conference discussing the company's quarterly results, CBS Corporation CEO Leslie Moonves pointed out that her firm's Showtime division currently has six shows in the iTunes top sellers group according to setteB. The Showtime shows at in the top sellers group include "Weeds," "Dexter", "David Chapelle," "The Tudors", "This American life" and "Californication". The top standing shows from all channels are, in order,: "Terminator: the chronicles Sarah Connor (WB production and broadcast by Fox) followed by" Lost "(ABC)," Wildfire "(ABC Family)," Family guy: blue harvest "(Fox) , "Breaking bad" (Sony production for AMC), "Family guy" (Fox), "Terminator: the chronicles ... [full story]

February 18 - 1:20pm EST   News Corporation is planning a musical equivalent of its Hulu video venture with NBC, a new report claims. News is allegedly after a deal with the four major music labels -- EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony BMG -- who would each provide equity for a new opeartion. It would be carried and controlled by News' MySpace division, but the intent is to create a shared portal, where people would be able to listen to DRM-free music in exchange for subjecting themselves to advertising. [full story]

February 18 - 9:55am EST   Apple has announced a new iTunes deal with Fox, permitting quick turnaround sales of American Idol content. The company says that starting with this week's top 24 semi-finalists on show, people will be able to buy individual music performances from the iTunes Store for 99 cents each, on the day immediately following each new episode. Additionally, March 11th will see the debut of a video covering the top 12 finalists, costing $1.99. American Idol will be given its own section in iTunes (iTunes link), to which links on americanidol.com will point from free streaming videos. [full story]

February 13 - 2:55pm EST   A recent Danish court decision against an ISP violates EU law, a Swedish judge has declared. Cecilia Renfors, a government investigator being asked to propose new file-sharing legislation, says that Denmark was in error when it told Tele2 to prevent customers from reaching The Pirate Bay, a site well-known for aiding piracy through hosting BitTorrent trackers. The site's owners are in fact facing copyright infringement accusations from a group including Fox, EMI, Sony BMG and Universal. [full story]

January 31 - 11:30am EST   Well-known pirated material site The Pirate Bay has been charged with its first clear copyright infringement case, according to reports. A combination of major movie labels and music studios, including EMI, Fox, Sony BMG, and Universal, accuse the Swedish-run site of profiting from linking to BitTorrents from pages with advertising; as much as $4 million US a year is generated through normal traffic, according to the Swedish prosecutor in the case, Hakan Roswall. Labels involved with the suit are demanding as much as a $188,000 fine for each of the four principal site operators and that computers they own be confiscated. [full story]

January 11 - 10:05am EST   A new version of the Apple TV will help spearhead an Apple video offensive, a new report claims. BusinessWeek writes that it has learned of the new set-top with certainty, although it cannot say what particular features it will bring. Other reports have indicated that users may be able to buy or rent videos directly from the device, which would address one of its long-standing complaints and put it into competition with the video-on-demand services provided by cable and satellite companies. [full story]

January 8 - 3:25pm EST   Apple's previously rumored DVD/iPod movie combo discs have been confirmed, thanks to a contributor providing a tip to TUAW. After receiving a copy of the Fox-produced Family Guy spoof of Star Wars a week ahead of its January 15th release, one customer noted that the box backing makes reference to an iPod-resolution file included on the disc, described by the packaging as a Fox Digital Copy. Inserting the disc tells the viewer that transferring the file requires the as-yet unreleased iTunes 7.6 or later, according to the report. A serial number from the case is needed to authenicate the movie. [full story]

January 7 - 8:35am EST   Apple is close to scoring deals with most Hollywood studios but may have had to make significant concessions to get a large catalog of titles for an anticipated launch at Macworld San Francisco, sources have told BusinessWeek. While the movie houses have reportedly dropped attempts to protect DVD sales by insisting on month-long delays between physical and digital releases, Apple has had to raise the prices of new-release features at or near the $17 mark common for many DVDs to receive broader support. Which companies have asked for the tradeoff is unclear, though negotiations are purportedly close to extend or add movie sales and rentals from Lionsgate, Paramount, ... [full story]

December 31 - 10:40am EST   More details of the highly-anticipated iTunes rental service have been leaked, according to Variety. The movie trade magazine cites "studio sources" as saying that Fox and Disney are indeed confirmed as partners, and will make some sort of appearance during the January 14th Macworld keynote by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The two may also be joined by other distributors, such as MGM, Lionsgate and Paramount, which like Fox and Disney already sell permanent downloads on the iTunes Store. [full story]

December 28 - 12:55pm EST   Apple's unconfirmed video rental service will debut with several companies onboard, not just one, according to the New York Times. The Financial Times recently uncovered a deal with 20th Century Fox, which should see new releases come straight to iTunes, and iPod-sized, FairPlay-encoded files carried on DVD titles. The New York Times now cites "several people familiar with the negotiations" as saying that when Fox appears on stage at Macworld January 14th, it will be joined by several other companies whose names are not being leaked. [full story]

December 27 - 11:45pm EST   Wal-Mart has shut down its fledgling movie service with virtually no announcement, according to user reports. Visitors to the official site are greeted with a message that the site has shut down as of December 21st and redirects users to information about the closure. Videos and other content remain playable but will still include the copy restrictions of before, which prevent the videos from transferring to non-purchasing computers but allow their use on as many as three portable media players that support guarded Windows Media content. No refunds are available and customers will have to visit a Wal-Mart store to buy more videos, the retailer warns. [full story]