This Internet Thing is Starting to Seem Important Somehow

There's been a lot of interesting news this week, so I wanted to share a few links and reactions.

- YouTube is apparently working on a deal with the William Morris Agency to bring more professionally-produced content to the site. I do think celebs will attract a big audience on the site if they can figure out how to make short, funny, sexy stuff on a really tight budget. That tight budget thing is gonna be the issue...(And what about William Morris' 10% cut of all this action?)

- Netflix is successfully creating the perception that they will win the race to deliver movies over the Net to televisions. CEO Reed Hastings said this week that "streaming is energizing our growth." Netflix's fourth quarter results this week beat Wall Street's estimates, with revenues of $359 million.

- Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM hope to launch a new subscription TV channel for movies, to compete with HBO, Starz, and Showtime. No cable or satellite or telco provider has agreed to carry the channel yet, so it will appear first on the Web, this May. It'll be called Epix. Ummm, didn't Starz already try its own Web-based movie service...called Vongo? That didn't work so well. Of course, Epix might have some radically innovative new take on how to build and Internet movie service...

Let's hope.

U2's 3-D Concert Film Has a Release Date ... Hulu, Almost

- I'm looking forward to the release of U2's 3-D concert movie, just set for late January, according to Variety. National Geographic is handling the distribution. No word yet on the number of screens.

- This Wall Street Journal piece makes it sound like Hulu.com, the NBC/Fox joint venture, just launched. But the site is very obviously still in a limited beta. Rebecca Dana and Kevin Delaney write:

Late Friday, Hulu closed deals with Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Television and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. to distribute some of their content as well. The venture's flagship site, Hulu, will initially be open only to users who request an early glimpse of the site.

Some of these shows had been available already on network Web sites or via video-download services. Neither of NBC and Fox's two main network rivals, CBS Corp.'s CBS and Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, has gone as far in making their content available online. That could change, however, as CBS has held talks with Hulu about providing the network's TV shows to the venture, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

Monday News: Slow Going for Biggest Digital Cinema Group ... United Artists Reborn ... YouTube's Second Silent Era ... More

- The organization responsible for deploying digital cinema equipment to the biggest group of US theaters -- those owned by Regal Entertainment, AMC, and Cinemark -- has adopted a new name and announced a timeframe for conversion. The new name is Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, according to Variety, and thep plan is to start converting theaters in 2008. Ben Fritz writes, "That will put it two years behind competitors Christie/AIX and Technicolor, which already have started deploying d-cinema systems, primarily in smaller and independent exhib chains."

DCIP is now independent from National CineMedia, the public company that it was once part of. It's jointly owned by Regal, AMC, and Cinemark. Seems like a big focus for DCIP will be finding a way to allow studios to deliver movies to a theater via a number of different channels: hard drive, satellite, secure land-line, etc.

The AP also has coverage.

- MGM clearly has a PR person working overtime. The LA Times has a profile of CEO Harry Sloan, and the NY Times had a story yesterday about Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise's efforts to revive United Artists, part of MGM.

- The Wall Street Journal has a piece about silent movies getting new life on YouTube. Camille Rickets writes:

On YouTube, one user has rescored the 1902 French film "Le Voyage Dans la Lune" by Georges Méliès -- considered by many to be the first science-fiction film -- with an electronica soundtrack. A synthesized, thumping beat and keyboards accompany the story of a fantastical trip to the moon. The contemporary techno music -- which seems particularly well suited for a century-old film that imagines the future -- gives the work the feel of an abstract art piece or music video.

"Nosferatu," the 1922 Muranu vampire classic, is one of the most frequently re-scored by professionals and amateurs alike. The most interesting amateur "Nosferatu" rescoring on YouTube is a series that adds sound effects -- footfalls, a creaking coffin lid -- and a modern-classical score that includes synthesizers and the occasional electric-guitar chord. The result prompts viewers to watch the clips as they would a modern horror movie.

Here's a rescored 'A Trip to the Moon' and 'Nosferatu'.

- The LA Times calls iFilm an edited YouTube, and offers a look at how the Viacom-owned site operates.