DVD news stories on Newser

Netflix Stock Tumbles 35%

Matt Cantor — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:56:46 CDT

Amazon’s plunging profits may have Jeff Bezos worried, but he can take solace in the misery of a competitor: Netflix stock dropped a whopping 35% to $77.37 yesterday following some bleak announcements the day before. On Monday, the company said its US subscribers had plummeted and that it expected...

Netflix Split: Insanity or Genius?

Kevin Spak — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:13:05 CDT

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings certainly sent tongues wagging when he announced last night that Netflix was spinning off its DVD business into something called "Qwikster." Was the move visionary or boneheaded? Here’s what people are saying: Hastings’ post “feels like yet another failure to communicate,” complains Austin Carr of Fast...

Netflix Spins Off 'Qwikster,' CEO Admits 'I Messed Up'

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 07:27:30 CDT

Netflix’s recent price hike caused rampant backlash , cost the movie rental service one million subscribers , and sent the company’s stock tumbling. Last night, CEO Reed Hastings admitted in a blog post , “I messed up.” But he’s not offering a reversal on the price hike, simply an explanation that, he admits,...

New DVD Designed to Last 1,000 Years

Neal Colgrass — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:43:23 CDT

Are you hoping that future generations will watch fine modern fare like Mars Needs Moms a thousand years from now, on DVDs that can endure 932 degrees Fahrenheit? You're in luck, thanks to Millenniata, a company that has created the M-Disk—a DVD that stores data on synthetic material that...

iPad Catching On Faster Than the DVD Player

Kevin Spak — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:23:16 CDT

Apple sold 3 million iPads in the first 80 days of its shelf life, and is currently selling about 4.5 million a quarter, making it by far the fastest-adopted piece of technology in history, CNBC reports. Its nearest competitor is the iPhone, and that sold a mere million units...

Avatar Busts Another Record

Kate Schwartz — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 07:41:52 CDT

Add another record to the books: It took Avatar a whopping four days to sell as many Blu-ray discs as previous record holder The Dark Knight has sold in the past 16 months. But wait, there's more: In addition to the 2.7 million such discs 20th Century Fox has...

Danish Man Turns Himself In for Copying DVDs

Nick McMaster — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:25:02 CST

A Danish man has reported himself to police for copying his DVD collection to his computer. Henrik Anderson is looking to test two contradictory Danish laws—one that allows the creation of "personal use" backup copies and another that prohibits the breaking of DRM, or digital rights management, to make...

DVD Box Sets of TV Shows Are Pure Evil

Nick McMaster — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:37:03 CST

This holiday season, have some pity on your friends and relatives—spare them the DVD box sets of their favorite TV shows. "The DVD box set is the newest and most terrifying form of ritualistic abuse we inflict on one another," writes Grady Hendrix. Not only are we compelling our...

Oscar Winners Giving Away Movie for Free

Kevin Spak — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:58:13 CDT

The makers of one Oscar-winning documentary is trying an unusual marketing tactic: they’re giving away the movie for free. Ads will appear in 125 major papers tomorrow urging readers to request their copy of Smile Pinki, winner of the Best Short Documentary prize at this year’s Oscars. What gives? The...