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Other companies, like the startup Screening Room founded by Sean Parker (of Napster and Justin Timberlake fame), have tried and so far failed to help this model take off. Even if Netflix, Hulu and others haven't publicly disclosed any plans, executives — like James Murdoch of the Fox empire and the studio chief at Warn...
I can't wait until you can watch all new release movies at home on demand. I would pay more $ per ticket for the chance.
Even though companies haven't yet taken major steps toward an at-home release model and consumers feel like they don't have the option, the idea has been kicking around for a while. Indie movies that have trouble attracting big theatrical audiences have been released simultaneously on iTunes or on on-demand services fr...
Those movies have generally cost around $15. The movie studios and tech companies are thinking bigger, with price tags around $50 for studio blockbusters that would be available two weeks after their release dates.
"The classic release windows have been collapsing anyway"
The idea is more attractive now, with ticket sales down at theaters and movies slowly heading toward other platforms anyway.
"The classic release windows have been collapsing anyway, and this is one way to turn that into a positive by making more money than the studios historically would have done from the home video market," Jan Dawson, an analyst at the tech research firm Jackdaw, said.
As for Apple, it's anxious to make some headway in the movie business beyond its basic iTunes presence.
"For Apple to do that effectively, it's got to 'think different,' if you remember the slogan," Csathy said. "Apple has to do something big. Shrinking of the theatrical release windows seems to be the thing."
There are still a lot of questions surrounding both sides of a deal. For one thing, media executives who haven't quite forgiven Apple for destroying the music business might be reluctant to take the same risk on movies.
"Studios are talking to all of these services," Csathy said. "They're talking to everybody about shrinking theatrical windows. I'm skeptical Apple will be the first to win that prize. The media business in general is still reeling about how Apple over a decade ago disrupted the music industry."
If not Apple, there's Amazon, DirecTV, Comcast and the other services that let customers pay per movie. Then there are the bigger-name subscription options — a.k.a. Netflix — which could deviate from the subscription-only model for something as major as brand-new movies.
Csathy thinks the most likely contender is Hulu, because it's not as scary to media traditionalists as Apple and media companies are investors in the service.
Even if Apple is the one to win the ultimate prize, its competitors would follow.
"Apple might be the pioneer in this, but others would emulate it," Dawson said. "Amazon, Google and others would follow suit."
New research shows that the last time the volcano erupted was after two large influxes of magma filled the reservoir under the caldera—and that process may take less time than previously thought.
Researchers find it may take only decades for the reservoir under Yellowstone to fill wit magma and cause a mega-explosion.
About 630,000 years ago, a powerful eruption took place in what is now Wyoming. This explosion spewed 240 cubic miles of rock and ash, creating the Yellowstone caldera—a volcanic depression spanning most of the national park.
The supervolcano under Yellowstone has been mostly dormant for tens of thousands of years—the last large eruption filled the caldera with ash and lava around 70,000 years ago, well before people had migrated to the continent.
New research from Arizona State University shows that the last time the volcano erupted was after two large influxes of magma filled the reservoir under the caldera—and that process may take less time than previously thought.
The current theory has its origins in a 2013 study that concluded the reservoir is 2.5 times larger than previous estimates, and since it drains after every massive explosion, geologists thought it would take a long time to refill.
But when scientists analyzed the minerals in fossilized ash from the most recent mega-eruption, they found that critical changes in temperature and composition happened in a matter of decades, not centuries.
But almost everyone who studies Yellowstone’s slumbering supervolcano says that right now, we have no way of knowing when the next big blast will happen. For its part, the U.S. Geological Survey puts the rough yearly odds of another massive Yellowstone blast at 1 in 730,000—about the same chance as a catastrophic aster...
Yellowstone is one of the most closely watched volcanoes in the world. There is a whole suite of sensors and satellites that track any and all detectable changes. For now, at least, geologists aren’t terribly concerned.
Watch a preview for NOVA’s “Killer Volcanoes,” airing October 25, 2017 at 9 pm on PBS.
Oil refiners in Europe will shut 10% of their plants this decade as fuel demand falls to a 19-year low.
Of the region’s 104 facilities, 10 will shut permanently by 2020 from France to Italy to the Czech Republic, a Bloomberg survey of six European refinery executives showed. Oil consumption is headed for a fifth year of declines to the lowest level since 1994, the International Energy Agency estimates. Two-thirds of Euro...
A 50% jump in three years in U.S. diesel exports coupled with waning demand for imports of European fuels, as well as two recessions in five years in the euro region, have curbed profit from oil products at companies from Italy’s Eni SpA to Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Refining margins dropped to $7 this month, from a peak o...
The losses are being compounded by the configuration of Europe’s refineries. Most of the plants, more than 50% of which were constructed in the wake of World War II, are geared toward gasoline production, though diesel now accounts for 75% of the region’s motor fuel needs.
At the same time, newer facilities in the Middle East and Asia are refining cheaper crude grades into high-value fuels. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, is building three refineries each the size of Shell’s Pernis plant in the Netherlands, Europe’s largest facility with a capacity of 400,000 barrels a da...
“Brand new Middle Eastern and Indian refineries are just shiny, beautiful, latest technology,” said Volker Schultz, chief executive officer of Essar Oil U.K., the British unit of Essar Energy that runs the Stanlow plant near Liverpool, England. They are “world class, world scale, you name it,” he said.
Refiners in Europe are also falling behind because U.S. competitors have access to cheaper crudes and natural gas, while Russian companies benefit from a more favorable export-tax regime, according to Schultz. European fuel demand is on course to drop to 13.6 million barrels a day this year, from 15.4 million in 2008, ...
“Not many companies have money to invest as the refining market has collapsed,” said Tomasz Kasowicz, a Warsaw-based analyst at Bank Zachodni Wbk SA who has sell recommendations on Polish refiners Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen SA and Grupa Lotos SA. “I don’t think current owners of European refineries will make decision...
Hellenic Petroleum spent 1.4 billion euros upgrading its Elefsina refinery, a multi-year project started before the recession.
Since 2008, refining capacity in northwest Europe has fallen in line with shrinking fuel demand, while a decline in consumption in the Mediterranean region outpaced a slide in capacity by 1.1 million barrels a day, according to Facts Global Energy’s Annual World Refining Outlook for 2013. This is five times the size of...
Petroplus was among independent refiners that bought plants from major international oil companies including BP and Shell that were reducing their exposure to Europe’s refining industry.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls about 40 percent of the world’s oil supply, also acknowledges the continent’s weakness.
Italy, where diesel demand dropped in February to the lowest level in almost 10 years, will probably see refinery closures, according to analysts and refiners surveyed by Bloomberg. There are no signs of recovery this year in the country’s fuel consumption, which may still decline by a further 10 percent, said Marco Sc...
Petroplus’s Petit Couronne facility in France is struggling to find a buyer and remains closed for now. Other French refineries face a high risk of shutting permanently, according to the poll of refinery executives and analysts including Gemma Parker at Facts Global Energy.
Total SA’s Feyzin and La Mede plants, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Fos facility or the Lavera refinery part-owned by Ineos Group Holdings SA are all potentially at risk since they compete in the same market amid low demand for gasoline, Parker said.
An Exxon media official, who declined to be identified citing company policy, said the company had no comment. An Ineos official in Lavera didn’t return a phonecall seeking comment.
Total will honor its pledge, made when it decided to shut the Dunkirk plant in 2010, not to close any other refineries until 2015, Victoria Chanial, a Paris-based spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “In the European market, our strategy is to adapt capacities to demand evolution and optimize the industrial system by focusi...
Eastern Europe also has a substantial surplus of refining capacity, with several plants there already operating at low utilization rates, according to JBC Energy’s Wech. Ceska Rafinerska AS’s Litvinov plant in the Czech Republic is among those at risk of closure, Kasowicz said.
“This refinery should change the production mix, and a major shareholder may not do it this year,” Kasowicz said.
A Ceska Rafinerska official said the company isn’t authorized to comment on the refinery itself, saying questions should be posed to its shareholders. Unipetrol AS is the majority shareholder, and an official at the company in Prague said Unipetrol had no immediate comment, when called yesterday.
Essar Energy’s Schultz said he was struck by the differing fortunes of cash-strapped European refiners versus their competitors elsewhere when he attended a conference in New York earlier this year. At that event, small U.S. refineries discussed multi-billion-dollar cash reserves and how they should invest, “and you ju...
Tha Ruairidh MacIlleathain air ais le Litir Bheag na seachdain sa. Litir àireamh 721.
Bha mi ag innse dhuibh mu Uilleam Speirs Brus. Bha e os cionn triall nàiseanta Albannach don Antartaig ann an naoi ceud deug ʼs a dhà (1902). Ràinig a shoitheach, an Scotia, deigh timcheall na h-Antartaig. Thill i do dh’Arcaibh a Deas. Chuir Brus ionad-rannsachaidh air chois an sin – a tha a’ dol fhathast.
Chaidh an Scotia gu Buenos Aires airson tuilleadh bathair. Aig toiseach naoi ceud deug ʼs a ceithir (1904), chaidh i gu deas a-rithist airson dà mhìos.
Rinn Brus agus a chompanaich tòrr rannsachaidh – air an aimsir, air a’ mhuir agus air fiadh-bheatha. Tha feadhainn dhen bheachd gun do chruthaich iad bunait airson rannsachadh air atharrachadh anns a’ ghnàth-thìde.
Ceithir bliadhna an dèidh sin, chuir Brus plana air adhart airson triall mòr Albannach don Antartaig. Bha e ag iarraidh buidheann a chur tarsainn na mòr-thìr, thairis air a’ Phòla a Deas. Fhuair e taic bho Chomann Rìoghail Cruinn-eòlais na h-Alba agus bho Chomann Rìoghail Dhùn Èideann. Ach cha d’ fhuair e taic sam bith...
Ged a rugadh is thogadh e ann an Sasainn, bha Brus na nàiseantach Albannach. Dh’fhaodadh a theanga a bhith biorach nam biodh daoine a’ dèanamh dì-meas air Alba. Agus bha teanga bhiorach aige co-dhiù!
Fhuair a h-uile ball a chaidh don Antartaig fo bhratach an Aonaidh Bonn Pòlach. Ach cha d’ fhuair buill dhen triall Albannach sgath. Fhuair Brus tòrr dhuaisean ann an Alba fhèin, agus bonn bho Chomann Cruinn-eòlais Ameireagaidh.
Bha Brus ann an Spitsbergen – no Svalbard – aig toiseach an linn. Lorg e gual is iarainn an sin. Chuir e companaidh air dòigh – The Scottish Spitsbergen Syndicate – airson mèinneadh a leasachadh. Ach chuir a’ Chiad Chogadh stad air sin.
Chaochail Brus ann an Dùn Èideann ann an naoi ceud deug ʼs aon air fhichead (1921). Chaidh a luaithre a sgaoileadh anns a’ mhuir far costa South Georgia.
Tha mòran air dìochuimhneachadh mu Uilleam Speirs Brus an-diugh. Ma tha ìomhaigh ann dheth ann an àite poblach ann an Alba, chan aithne dhòmhs’ e.
I was telling you about William Speirs Bruce. He was in charge of a national Scottish expedition to the Antarctic in 1902. His vessel, the Scotia, reached ice around the Antarctic. She returned to South Orkney. Bruce established a research institute there – which is still going.
The Scotia went to Buenos Aires for more goods. At the beginning of 1904, she went south again for two months.
Bruce and his companions did a lot of research – on weather, sea and wildlife. Some people reckon they created a basis for researching climate change.
Four years after that, Bruce put forward a plan for a large Scottish expedition to the Antarctic. He wanted to put a group across the continent, via the South Pole. He received help from The Royal Scottish Geographical Society and from the Royal Society of Edinburgh. But he didn’t receive any help from the Royal Societ...
Although he was born and raised in England, Bruce was a Scottish nationalist. His tongue could be sharp if people were showing disrespect to Scotland. And he had a sharp tongue anyway!
Every member that went to Antarctica under the Union Flag received a Polar Medal. But the members of the Scottish expedition didn’t receive anything. Bruce received many awards in Scotland, and a medal from the American Geographical Society.
Bruce was in Spitzbergen – or Svalbard – at the beginning of the century. He discovered coal and iron there. He established a company – The Scottish Spitsbergen Syndicate – to develop mining. But the First [World] War put a stop to that.
Bruce died in Edinburgh in 1921. His ashes were scattered in the sea off the coast of South Georgia.
Many people have forgotten about William Speirs Bruce today. If there is a statue of him in a public place in Scotland, I don’t know [of] it.
Tha gach Litir Bheag an seo / All the Little Letters are here.
The first season of The Handmaid’s Tale has been a home run for Hulu — the series has been embraced by awards voters, and it was one of the streaming service’s most-watched dramas last year.
This weekend, Hulu has been working to build up anticipation for the 13-episode second season, with the release of the first images and the announcement that the show will return sometime in April. Now there’s a “first look” trailer, as well as an actual premiere date: April 25, when Hulu will air two episodes, followe...
The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted by television writer Bruce Miller from the novel by Margaret Atwood, and it stars Elisabeth Moss as Offred, a woman trying survive in an oppressive society called Gilead.
Here’s that new trailer, which leans on the increasingly familiar “classic pop song, but slow and sad” formula — but the imagery is grim enough that it still works.
Hulu’s announcements at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour weren’t just about its big show. The service also announced that it’s picking up a six-episode adaption of Joseph Heller’s classic novel Catch-22, with George Clooney starring, directing and executive producing.
And this isn’t about a Hulu Original, but still: If you’re an ER fan, you’ll be glad to know that all 331 episodes are now streaming.
How Paranoid Should Studios & Exhibitors Be About The Disney-Fox Merger In 2019?
No one accumulates power without using it.
So, as the Disney-Fox merger officially comes together in 2019, how concerned should studios and theater chains be about the new company’s combined 37% domestic box office share power?
The 1983 comedy Mr. Mom starring Michael Keaton is set to get the digital series treatment. MGM is partnering with Walmart’s streaming service Vudu to bring the classic into 2018.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders filed a bill today targeting Amazon, Walmart and other big companies whose workers rely on public assistance programs.
Walmart is collaborating with veteran television executive Mark Greenberg on a new video streaming service that would challenge the dominance of Netflix and Amazon by targeting Middle American tastes in programming.
Continuing the film-centric ad campaign it introduced on last year’s Oscar broadcast, Walmart has lined up three directors who will turn out a trio of 60-second branded shorts: Nancy Meyers, Dee Rees and Melissa McCarthy.
It’s down to one day and counting.
With the US economy mostly recovered from the Great Recession, arguments about monetary policy have died down a bit. But the lessons of the slow recovery are still percolating through the economics profession.
The years 2008 through 2014 saw some monetary experiments that were unprecedented in the US - a long period of zero interest rates, several versions of quantitative easing, new types of forward guidance and the payment of interest on excess reserves. Although these experiments give us a lot of new information, the less...
One of the most interesting debaters is Mr Narayana Kocherlakota, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He became famous for switching his outlook on macroeconomic policy; once among the most hawkish of the inflation hawks, he now wants to use easy monetary policy to boost employment. Mr Kocherla...
His main argument is that the US central bank's policy, with rates at 0.50 per cent, is too tight right now. Not only does he fear that this is keeping people out of work, but he also worries that the Fed is sacrificing its credibility.
It is raising interest rates even though inflation expectations are well below its official 2 per cent target. That could convince the public that the Fed is being disingenuous about its inflation target - that it regards 2 per cent as a ceiling on the acceptable rate of inflation, rather than the target to aim for.
Credibility is very important for the Fed; if the public stops believing that the Fed means what it says, then future efforts to combat deflation, or even inflation, might be much harder.
Credibility is very important for the Fed; if the public stops believing that it means what it says, then future efforts to combat deflation, or even inflation, might be much harder.
That should be fairly uncontroversial. Even if you believe - as a few macroeconomists still do - that the Fed can't really affect unemployment, you probably still want it to be transparent and maintain its credibility as a stabiliser of prices. However, Mr Kocherlakota's case rests on a big hidden assumption - monetary...
Most macroeconomists think that lowering interest rates - or promising to keep them lower for longer - raises the rate of inflation. Everyone - from Milton Friedman to the New Keynesians - believes in this basic idea. But recently, the notion has come under fire from a group of economists called Neo-Fisherians (a term ...
Mr Steve Williamson, one of the original Neo-Fisherians, uses this idea to criticise Mr Kocherlakota. If we really want to hit a 2 per cent inflation target, Mr Williamson and his fellow-travellers say, we shouldn't cut the nominal interest rate - we should raise it to 2 per cent and keep it there. Although Mr Kocherla...
This debate is interesting, because the two sides should really be agreeing on policy. Neo-Fisherians like Mr Williamson are generally inflation hawks, and would probably not mind if inflation stayed around 1 per cent forever, or even lower - and they believe that keeping interest rates low will accomplish this.
Monetarists like Mr Kocherlakota would rather try to boost employment, and keep inflation around 2 per cent; they believe that keeping interest rates low will accomplish this! So although they disagree over theory, they should agree on keeping rates low.
The more important point, though, is that no one really knows what is going on with monetary policy right now. No one knows what the Fed is really trying to accomplish, or what it can accomplish, or how to go about accomplishing it. Is it still set on raising interest rates in order to avoid the semblance of abnormalit...
Is it trying to raise inflation and failing? And if it did want to raise inflation to 2 per cent, would it do so by keeping interest rates low, or by raising them?
It's becoming clearer that the Fed's experiments during the Great Recession, dramatic as they were, taught us little about how monetary policy works.
London 2012 opening ceremony clip released Jump to media player Organisers of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics have released a 30 second clip from a dress rehearsal for the event.
Olympic flame' s relay highlights Jump to media player It has been carried on an abseil rope, a cable car and a punt. Here is a look back at the journey of the Olympic flame to over a thousand different neighbourhoods across the UK.
Organisers of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics have released a 30 second clip from a dress rehearsal for the event.
Jason Bailey, with the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, said, “The two weeks that they eliminated dental and vision coverage is a glimpse of what will happen” if the Bevin administration is successful in eventually getting a federal Medicaid waiver to implement its program.
“The governor and his administration were wrong to blame this cruel action on the federal court ruling that blocked this waiver, but I’m glad they appear to be back on the right track,” said House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook. Adkins was one of several Democratic legislators who spoke out against the cuts...

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