Amazon/Lovefilm/Netflix cont…
We previously reported on Amazon’s attempt to break into the movie streaming and download market in Europe before U.S. giant Netflix could get in on the action. Amazon now has a controlling interest in Lovefilm, the European download operation and has confirmed it will offer its content to its Amazon Prime customers. Now we have a few more numbers available to check out the situation.
Amazon’s only problem is its competition with Netflix if the U.S. company does decide to head to Europe. Netflix has some 12,000 titles available out or 100,000 at any one time while Lovefilm’s ratio is 5000 out of 90,000. However the Prime service is very popular, currently 2 million globally but increasing by 24% per year so Amazon will be hoping to increase this quickly before Netflix makes any European moves.
Google Also on the Download Bandwagon
In distinctly related news it also appears that Google may be looking to offer their own download service based around the Google-owned Youtube website. Details are a bit hard to come by at the moment but it would clearly be a direct competitor to Amazon and Netflix. The New York Post also suggest that Google has set aside around $100 million for content licensing and distribution deals.
MySpace For Sale (Again)
Everyone knows by now, the war is effectively over and there’s only one man left standing – for the moment anyway. The winner by unanimous decision is Facebook and the loser is MySpace in the world of social networking. It’s hard to stifle a smile when you remember that Murdoch spent $850 million on buying the site in 2005, just as it was heading downhill.
The site has now been redesigned as an ‘entertainment’ hub and job losses have been numerous, 50% has been reported. It’s still actually a decent, new music venue but it needs to shed its image of being a social network also-ran. It’s also unlikely Murdoch will get back anything like the amount he paid for it.