Google is preparing to launch a new cloud storage service that will compete directly with popular start up Dropbox and similar services. The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday evening reported that Google is almost ready to announce the new service, which will be called Google Drive. Similar to Dropbox, which creates a virtual drive containing files that are mirrored on a user’s local hard drive and on cloud servers, Google Drive will allow users to store photos, videos, documents and other files in the cloud, and it will be accessible from computers as well as Android tablets and smartphones. The service will launch in the coming weeks according to the report, and it will be free to most users, though the report does not elaborate on the amount of free storage Google will provide or which customers might be charged.

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The recent federal takedown of notorious file-sharing service Megaupload was initially seen as a huge victory for owners of copyrighted music and movies, but new research shows this may not be the case. Federal prosecutors successfully shuttered the service last month and arrested seven men associated with Megaupload including site founder Kim Dotcom, who is said to have earned $42 million from the site in 2010 alone. What was initially thought to be a victory for movie studios and record labels is turning out to be an empty win, however, as Megaupload’s closure has had almost no impact on file-sharing. Read on for more.

Internet consulting firm DeepField Networks analyzed Web traffic from six companies that provide the storage facilities responsible for roughly 80% of all file-sharing traffic. According to the firm, Megaupload’s files accounted for a huge portion of that traffic before a series of raids took the service offline last month; between 30% and 40% of all file-sharing downloads came from Megaupload.

The service moved so much data that global Internet traffic immediately decreased by between 2% and 3% when Megaupload’s services were taken offline on January 18th.

As big as Megaupload was, however, the service’s closure has not had the effect on file-sharing that copyright owners might have hoped. According to DeepField, Web traffic related to file-sharing recovered almost immediately as users simply utilized other services such as Rapidshare and Mediafire.

To compound matters, it looks like Internet Service Providers in the United States will likely take the biggest hit following Megaupload’s closure. ”Instead of terabytes of North America Megaupload traffic going to U.S. servers, most file sharing traffic now comes from Europe over far more expensive transatlantic links,” DeepField noted.

The debut season of Netflix’s first original series “Lilyhammer” is now available on demand to all Netflix “Watch Instantly” subscribers. All eight episodes of the series’ first season can be streamed beginning Tuesday, and the show is available in high definition. Lilyhammer is the first in a string of original content Netflix is working on in an effort to create an all-inclusive online-only network that will truly pose a real threat to traditional pay TV networks. The show features Steven Van Zandt of “The Sopranos” fame, who stars as a relocated New York City gangster trying to make a new life for himself in a small town in Norway. Netflix is working on more original content that will launch this year, including a new season of “Arrested Development” and “House of Cards,” starring Kevin Spacey.

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Sling Media has been the go-to provider for video placeshifting solutions for nearly seven years now. The California-based company launched its first Slingbox in 2005, enabling users to watch live television exactly as it was being broadcast to their homes on any Internet-connected PC. The company rolled out its first SlingPlayer Mobile application the following year and it hasn’t looked back, continuing to expand its mobile offering to support a wide range of popular platforms and devices. Sling Media will launch the latest addition to its mobile app lineup on Tuesday when it releases SlingPlayer Mobile for Amazon’s popular tablet, and we spent much of our weekend enjoying placeshifted live television on our Kindle Fire to test the new app. Check out a small gallery of screenshots below and hit the break for our early impressions of SlingPlayer Mobile for the Amazon Kindle Fire.

We have been using various versions of the SlingPlayer Mobile application here at BGR for years, but it wasn’t until Apple initiated the tablet boom that SlingPlayer Mobile was really able to shine. Having the ability to watch live television or even on-demand and DVR-recorded content on a mobile phone is fantastic, but the relatively small size of cell phone displays makes the experience a mixed blessing. Not missing a moment of the NFC divisional playoffs while being dragged around a mall is fantastic, but viewing a game with wide camera angles on a screen that only measures about 4-inches diagonally is less than ideal.

Tablets changed things for SlingPlayer, however. While these slim devices are typically much larger than smartphones — though the line continues to be blurred — they’re far more portable than laptops and much lighter as well. More importantly where Sling is concerned, tablets also feature more substantial screen sizes that are far better-suited for displaying video.

With an iPad-optimized build and support for a number of Android tablets out of the way, Sling Media’s collective eyes turned to Amazon’s Kindle Fire when the tablet launched late last year. The retail giant’s first slate was expected to be a huge success before it was even announced and once it finally hit virtual store shelves, that expectation became a reality. The Kindle Fire has been Amazon’s best-selling electronics device since mid-November.

“Amazon has created a wonderful device and experience for people looking to consume media — and at a good price point, Sling Media’s marketing VP Jay Tannenbaum said in a statement. “Now anyone with a Slingbox Solo or PRO-HD can turn their Kindle Fire into a TV with our latest version of SlingPlayer, available on Tuesday in the Amazon App Store. We are very proud of the video quality and performance of our app and believe the combination of a Kindle Fire and a Slingbox provides a great value.”

Sling’s Kindle Fire app launches on January 31st, but we spent some time testing a preview version this weekend and it absolutely impressed us. For those unaware of Sling’s solutions, the company takes a complicated problem and makes the solution relatively simple considering how capable it is. Sling’s TV placeshifting solution involves two components, the Slingbox that connects to the set-top box provided by a cable or satellite TV provider and the SlingPlayer software, which can be installed on a desktop PC, a notebook PC or a variety of tablets and smartphones.

With Sling Media’s solution, SlingPlayer becomes a window into the user’s living room. The software features integrated remote control functions that allow the user to send commands over the Web and through the infrared transmitter running from the Slingbox to a cable box, meaning SlingPlayer can do nearly anything a standard remote can do. Users can therefore change channels, view guides, navigate to and watch DVR content, purchase and watch on-demand content, schedule DVR recordings and more.

On the Kindle Fire, Sling’s app performs as expected. Connections to the Slingbox are made quickly and when video first begins streaming, quality is a bit low until enough content has been buffered. Provided the Fire is connected to a network with decent Wi-Fi speeds, quality improves within about 30 seconds and remains quite clear and impressive as long as the connection is not interrupted. There is also a low-quality setting in the event bandwidth is not up to snuff.

The low-quality setting is important on the Kindle Fire, since it is a Wi-Fi only device with no embedded 3G or 4G connectivity. This means that plenty of bandwidth is available when the tablet is connected to a home network or in an office, but those who connect on the go will likely be tethered to a smartphone or MiFi. While Wi-Fi tethering is becoming more reliable thanks to 4G, fast and reliable LTE service is still relatively scarce in the U.S. so most users make do with 3G data connections.

Whether in high quality or low quality mode, however, SlingPlayer for the Kindle Fire performed as advertised. Operation using the on-screen controls was straight forward and commands were received by the Slingbox quickly. I did manage to trip up the connection once or twice by sending multiple commands too quickly, but seasoned SlingPlayer users know not to overload the controller and beyond that, performance was very impressive.

The gravity of being able to reproduce the living room experience — access on-demand content, DVR content, programming guides and everything else that one is able to access while at home in front of a TV — while on the go is something that cannot be fully appreciated until it is experienced. There are a variety of streaming video solutions for mobile devices but none of them come close to providing the same wide range of live TV and varied content that home cable or satellite services provide.

SlingPlayer Mobile for the Amazon Kindle Fire launches on January 31st for a one-time fee of $29.99, and it can be purchased directly on the tablet through the Amazon Appstore. As with all of Sling’s solutions, there are no monthly subscription fees for the service.

Federal prosecutors in Virginia have shut down notorious file-sharing site Megaupload.com and charged the service’s founders with violating piracy laws. The Associated Press broke the story on Thursday, reporting that the indictment accuses Megaupload.com’s owner with costing copyright holders including record labels and movie studios more than $500 million in lost revenue. Seven people tied to Megaupload.com have been charged and four are already in custody, including the site’s founder Kim Dotcom. Dotcom earned $42 million from the the site in 2010 according to the indictment. Megaupload.com allowed users to upload and share content without any measures in place to ensure files being hosted on the site’s servers were not protected by copyright. The company claims that it responded to copyright complaints as they were received. According to court documents made available on Thursday, Megaupload.com was at one point the 13th most trafficked website in the world.

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Piracy is still a huge problem according to the music industry and Hollywood, and it’s hard to dispute the notion that downloading a paid digital product without actually paying for it is theft. Now, as TorrentFreak releases its list of the 10 most pirated movies of 2011, we can see a possible correlation between illegal downloads and movie revenue continue to take shape. Read on for more.

Fast Five — the fifth film in Universal’s Fast & Furious franchise — was the most pirated movie this year according to TorrentFreak, having been downloaded 9.26 million times. The Hangover II followed with 8.84 million downloads, and Thor was the third most pirated film with 8.33 million illegal downloads. Source Code followed with 7.91 million downloads and I Am Number Four rounded out the top-5 with 7.67 million downloads.

At the same time, movie ticket sales and box office revenue declined for the second straight year in 2011 according to The Numbers. Moviegoers purchased 1.24 billion tickets in 2011 compared to 1.33 billion last year, and revenue from ticket sales sank to $9.9 billion this year from $10.46 billion 2010.

Perhaps even more telling are DVD sales figures in 2011 compared to 2010. While legal digital downloads certainly gained popularity in 2011 and likely had a more significant impact on DVD sales, the disparity between DVD revenue in 2010 compared to this year is much more pronounced than it has been in the past. Seven movies saw DVD sales that exceeded $100 million in 2010, lead by Avatar, which pulled in more than $183 million. In 2011, no DVD did $100 million in sales; Disney’s Tangled was the highest-grossing DVD of the year with just $96 million in sales.

A complete list of the top 10 most pirated movies of 2011 along with torrent download totals and worldwide gross revenue totals follows below.

Read [top 10 torrents] Read [ticket sales, revenue] Read [DVD sales]

Until recently, iTunes users were able to purchase episodes of television shows a-la-carte or buy a whole season outright. The problem was, however, a user still had to pay full price for a television season even if he or she already owned a few individual episodes. Apple has reportedly fixed that problem by adding a “Complete my season” button that functions just like the “Complete my album” button in the iTunes Music Store. That means, for example, if you’ve purchased nine episodes of Family Guy and want to own the entire first season, you can buy it at a discounted rate that takes your previous purchases into consideration. The feature should be live now, according to MacRumors.

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Amazon has been a leader in the eBook reader space since it first introduced the Kindle eReader in November 2007. At that point in time, the Kindle had a 6-inch E Ink display that supported just four shades of gray, it included 250MB of storage that could accommodate about 200 eBooks, and it retailed for $399. For the first six months or so, Amazon couldn’t keep the device in stock — it was a smash hit.

Since then, Kindles have gotten thinner and lighter, and the current-generation model features a dramatically improved E Ink Pearl display and 2GB of storage. Amazon’s Kindle can now be had for as little as $79. A second model with a touchscreen display and twice the memory starts at just $99, and its battery lasts for up to two months on a single charge. Amazon doesn’t share sales volumes of its Kindle devices but the company is widely believed to be among the top eReader vendors in the world as it teeters between the No.1 and No.2 spots alongside Barnes & Noble.

But eReaders will only take Amazon so far.

Amazon has been a leader in the online retail space for quite some time, and its line of Kindle eReaders represents its first foray into the hardware game. EBooks are big business for Amazon, but its more recent service additions have also been gaining traction. With new options for purchasing and streaming music and movies, customers had to rely on third party devices — computers, connected TVs, set top boxes and smartphones — to consume this new wave of Amazon content. But why not make it all available on a single Amazon-branded device that picks up where the Kindle left off?

The tablet market posed an amazing opportunity for Amazon. I can’t even recall the last time a market segment saw so much hype and so few success stories, and Amazon identified an opportunity to succeed where others were failing. Instead of building hardware that merely acted as a platter on which to serve the same software countless other vendors were unsuccessfully banking on, Amazon would build an end-to-end experience that covered hardware, software and content. After all, the only other vendor whose tablet offering addresses all three of these crucial areas of the user experience seems to be doing pretty well in the tablet space it redefined in early 2010.

Instead of setting out to build an iPad killer, Amazon set out to build a Kindle Fire.

The term “iPad killer” seems to describe any tablet launched by a popular vendor that cannot draw traffic to a news site unless said site includes a mention of Apple’s iPad in the headlines of stories written about said tablet. That’s really the only discernable link I’ve found between all of the slates that have been deemed iPad killers thus far. Another attribute most of them share, unfortunate though it may be, is that they don’t sell particularly well. There have been a few notable exceptions but in general, it seems these tablets are not well received by consumers or by enterprise customers.

If an iPad killer is a tablet that doesn’t grab people’s attention and often doesn’t sell particularly well, then the Kindle Fire is most certainly not an iPad killer.

Leading up to Amazon’s Kindle Fire, media tablets had for the most part been ill-conceived devices that were seemingly rushed out the door in an effort to capitalize on the hype surrounding the iPad. This strategy is not uncommon in business but in this particular case, companies forgot a key ingredient that drives competition: differentiation. With high price points, similar hardware and lackluster first-generation software (Honeycomb was Google’s first attempt at a tablet OS), the bulk of the iPad’s competition had very little to offer the common consumer that might distinguish it from the iPad in a positive way.

The Kindle Fire is a different beast.

Amazon attacked the tablet market on two fronts. First, it offered differentiation. Google’s Android operating system powers the Fire, but one wouldn’t know it to look at the device. Amazon used the open source Android OS as the framework on which it built its own unique user experience. It will continue its own development of the platform independent of Google’s future builds, and it maintains its own ecosystem outside of Google’s. Amazon has its own app store and its own suite of services.

The other piece to the Kindle Fire puzzle is pricing. At $199, Amazon’s tablet is $300 cheaper than the entry-level iPad and $630 less expensive than the 64GB model with embedded 3G. This was a very smart move by Amazon. The company will release more expensive models in the future — BGR exclusively reported preliminary details surrounding a 10-inch model due to be released next year — but Amazon’s first effort hits an amazing price point that creates a new space in the tablet market. It doesn’t compete with the iPad any more than a 32-inch flat panel Vizio TV competes with a 60-inch Samsung model. It’s a completely different animal.

I have read a number of Kindle Fire reviews — and there were plenty to choose from — that went to great lengths to compare Amazon’s tablet to the iPad. While these comparisons sometimes made for compelling reads and even more compelling headlines, they were not very useful. These devices are both tablets, yes, but to liken one to the other is as useful as likening a Mercedes S Class to a Hyundai Sonata. Both vehicles will get you from A to B, but in reality they serve very different purposes.

The S Class is designed to attract a certain type of customer. It offers utility, luxury and a driving experience that is the result of decades of evolution and many tens of millions of dollars in research and development. The S Class is designed to be seen. It outclasses and outperforms much of the competition, but it is about form as much as it is function. It is also assembled from high-end parts and materials, and it carries a relatively steep price tag to match. You see hundreds of them everywhere you go in metropolitan areas, but unless you have expendable income to throw around, you probably won’t buy one yourself.

The Sonata is designed to make a well-styled, capable sedan accessible to the masses. It looks more refined and performs better than other cars in its price range, and it also offers standard features that competing models do not. Even still, it doesn’t pretend to be an S Class and it most certainly doesn’t set out to kill the S Class.

The Sonata’s body isn’t quite as sleek and sophisticated as the Mercedes sedan, and it doesn’t come with nearly as many standard features. Its interior is also much more modest, forgoing supple leather and expensive woods in favor of more pedestrian materials. It won’t accelerate as quickly, it won’t corner as surely and it probably won’t turn any heads. It is a phenomenal value, however, and it touts a build quality and features that are anything but common on such an affordable car.

After using the device for about a week and a half now, I believe Amazon’s Kindle Fire will succeed where others have failed. The hardware is good but not great. The soft-touch materials are comfortable in the hand but the 4,400 mAh battery that hides within the device makes it a bit too heavy for prolonged reading without resting the tablet on a table or leg. The software is good but not great. It has a nice, simple interface that a wide range of users will be able to navigate easily, but it is not refined. The performance is good but not great. Many functions are fluid, as is game play and video playback, but there are often of hiccups and stutters while opening certain apps and performing other functions.

What did you expect? It’s a Sonata.

At $200, the Kindle Fire is a fantastic buy. It is intuitive and capable, and the integration with Amazon services is well-done. The home screen is divided into four sections: first is a status pane across the top that displays notifications, the time, Wi-Fi status and battery charge, and it provides access to settings. A menu section follows beneath, allowing users to navigation between different core features such as the book reader, music player, apps menu and video player. Next is a large area that lists all recent apps and books in a cover flow-like stream. Finally, there is a favorites section near the bottom where users can pin their most frequently accessed apps and books.

Each integrated app — Books, Music, Video and so on — is split into two sections that can be toggled at the top of the screen. The first is “Cloud,” which displays a list of icons on the shelves beneath it that represent all of the user’s content stored on Amazon’s servers. The second is “Device,” which lists locally stored content. There is also a link to Amazon’s store in the top right corner of each page. While it is all too easy to spend money on the Kindle Fire, I love how well Amazon’s services are integrated into each app.

While on the front page of the Books app, a single tap on an icon opens the book of my choice while a tap on the always-visible store link lets me search, browse and purchase books with ease. The Music app lists all of my content available for playback, and then another Store link takes me to Amazon’s music shop where I can purchase albums or individual tracks. The Video app offers a similar experience, but it also offers integration with Amazon Prime video streaming, Amazon’s Netflix-like service that provides unlimited access to streaming movies and TV shows. Don’t expect to find many new blockbuster movies in there, but the catalog is deep enough to provide a decent range of content.

Amazon’s apps page adheres to the same intuitive format. Apps are organized across wood shelves and a link to the Amazon Appstore can be found in the top right corner. Users won’t have access to all of the content found in Google’s Android Marketplace, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Like Apple’s iOS App Store, the Marketplace is packed with garbage. Amazon’s curated approach is appreciated and there is more than enough great content available. I also love that Amazon offers one new paid app for free each day. It makes checking the app store on a daily basis habitual, thus encouraging browsing and ultimately benefiting developers.

The web browser is another bright spot for the Kindle Fire. Amazon’s Silk browser is impressively quick thanks to technology that offloads much of the grunt work to remote servers. Heavy pages seem to take a moment to begin loading as a result, but once the cloud-based portion begins pushing content to the tablet, I find pages load faster than they do on other comparable devices.

The Kindle Fire is not an iPad killer. It doesn’t kill anything, in fact. What it does, however, is offer users a solid experience and a comprehensive catalog of services that make it easy to access existing content and to find new content. It is very, very easy to use, which is something that cannot be said of some other tablets. A young child will be flying around the UI in no time, and his or her grandparents likely won’t take long to figure it out either. Operation is relatively smooth for the most part, but prospective buyers should expect the occasional hiccup from first-generation software running on $200 hardware. Every computer, smartphone and tablet on the planet stutters from time to time, so this is hardly a big deal.

Amazon took its time with the Kindle Fire and it shows. There is plenty of room for improvement, but this first-generation tablet is an intuitive, functional tablet that is as cohesive as it is affordable. It was built as a gateway into the many web-based services Amazon now offers and it succeeds in its mission. It might not kill any Apple products on its way to your door, but I’m sure the media will find plenty more Apple killers in the new year to draw your clicks. In the meantime, the Kindle Fire is a clear winner that will likely find itself atop Amazon’s list of best-sellers for quite some time.

Following parent company Coinstar’s third-quarter earnings report, Redbox announced that daily DVD rental fees have increased to $1.20 from $1. “The price change is based on an increase in operating costs, including higher debit card fees that went into effect October 1,” Redbox said in a statement on its website. “This is the first time in eight years Redbox has raised our daily DVD rental price.” Redbox will continue to charge $1 for the first day of each DVD rental during a promotional period from October 31st through November 30th, though additional days will be charged at the new rate of $1.20 per night. Rates for Blu-ray ($1.50 per day) rentals and video game rentals ($2 per day) are not affected by this change.

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Netflix subscribers can finally stream movies to their Android tablets without worrying about installing third-party .apks files or attempting annoying work-arounds. The company announced on Wednesday that its application now supports tablets running Android 3.x (Honeycomb). In addition, the Netflix app supports users in Canada and Latin America now. Netflix for Honeycomb is free, provided you already subscribe to the company’s “Watch Instantly” streaming service, and it is available in the Android Market now.

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Apple is reportedly close to inking deals with major movie studios that would allow the Cupertino-based company to stream movies to its iOS devices and PCs via iCloud. Los Angeles Times on Wednesday reported that Apple has been meeting with movie studios and is currently closing licensing deals that will allow its customers to purchase movies through iTunes and then stream them from iCloud to mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad, or even to Mac computers or Apple TV. The service would be similar to Hollywood’s just-launched UltraViolet product, though it would remove the requirement that customers purchase physical media before streaming content to their devices. The LA Times report states that Apple is expected to launch the service in late 2011 or early 2012.

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Netflix on Monday announced that it will abandon its plan to spin off the company’s DVD rentals-by-mail service. The home entertainment giant announced last month that it would break off its DVDs-by-mail service into a separate company called “Qwikster,” allowing it to focus on the Web-based content that represented the future of its business. “It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote on the company’s blog. “This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.” Shares of Netflix stock jumped more than 11% in pre-market trading on the news. Netflix lost more than 30% of its market value since the company first announced its Qwikster spin-off.

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Microsoft on Wednesday announced a number of new content partners that will deliver movies, television shows and other content to its popular Xbox 360 video game and home entertainment console. New partners include Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS, BBC and Syfy, and the content will be available in the U.S. and a number of additional countries. ”Today’s announcement is a major step toward realizing our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,” reads a statement from Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Combining the world’s leading TV and entertainment providers with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360 and the intelligence of Bing voice search will make TV and entertainment more personal, social and effortless.” Microsoft’s Xbox is quickly expanding beyond the gaming genre that made it popular, into new areas that could make it a go-to home entertainment hub for entire families rather than just gamers. Microsoft’s full press release follows below.

Xbox 360 Teams Up With Entertainment Leaders to Transform TV

AT&T, BBC, Comcast, HBO, Rogers, Telefónica, Televisa and Verizon are among providers rolling out new TV entertainment services on Xbox LIVE.

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2011 — A new era in television begins this holiday where your entertainment becomes instantly searchable, easily discoverable and enjoyable in extraordinary new ways from a single device — Xbox 360. Today, Microsoft Corp. announced plans to roll out the next generation of TV entertainment on Xbox LIVE, the online entertainment service for Xbox 360. Nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS and Syfy in the U.S.; BBC in the U.K., Telefónica in Spain; Rogers On Demand in Canada; Televisa in Mexico; ZDF in Germany; and MediaSet in Italy, will begin rolling out entertainment services to the console this holiday, in more than 20 countries.

“Today’s announcement is a major step toward realizing our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Combining the world’s leading TV and entertainment providers with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360* and the intelligence of Bing voice search will make TV and entertainment more personal, social and effortless.”

“We are continually evolving the television experience to bring Xfinity TV subscribers more personalized ways to search, find and watch the content they love,” said Sam Schwartz, president of Comcast Converged Products. “Our recently launched next-generation Xfinity TV platform is enabling us to bring Xfinity On Demand to a gaming console for the first time, and Kinect’s voice and gesture controls will offer our customers an innovative way to discover and enjoy Xfinity On Demand’s huge library of top shows and movies.”

Live and On-Demand TV, Movies, Games, Sports, Music and More

Xbox 360 brings all your entertainment, friends and family together in one place. Now, easily switch from playing your favorite game with a friend out of state or even across the world to watching your favorite TV show with your family members on the same couch, all through Xbox LIVE. Ready to mix things up? Effortlessly switch from games to music to live TV and more, simply by telling your Xbox what you want to experience.

“Microsoft and Verizon share a common vision to transform the ways people enjoy and interact with the entertainment they want — what Verizon calls the borderless lifestyle,” said Eric Bruno, vice president of consumer and mass business product management for Verizon. “FiOS TV on the Xbox 360 is an excellent example of how we’re working with market leaders to erase old technology borders to expand the FiOS TV experience and taking advantage of unique new features including voice- and gesture-control of live TV entertainment via Kinect.  This holiday, Verizon will bring a selection of popular live TV channels to Xbox 360 and will be a leader in delivering live, multichannel streaming HD TV, integrated with Kinect, via Xbox.”

Xbox 360 is the first console to offer access to the world’s greatest TV properties, including BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and LOVEFiLM in the U.K.; Antena 3, RTVE and Telefónica in Spain; Televisa in Mexico; and Bravo, Comcast’s Xfinity On Demand service, Crackle, EPIX, Syfy, TMZ, “The Today Show,” UFC, Verizon FiOS and HBO GO in the United States.

“We have been thrilled with the success of HBO GO. Our ongoing goal is to deliver HBO’s acclaimed programming to our subscribers wherever and whenever they want it, and this relationship with Microsoft is another huge step in accomplishing just that,” said Bernadette Aulestia, senior vice president, Domestic Network Distribution & Marketing, HBO. “HBO GO on Xbox is also a marriage of two pre-eminent brands — both with a reputation for delivering the highest quality of entertainment.”

These new TV and video providers announced today join our existing lineup of great TV and video entertainment partners already on Xbox 360 — AT&T, Netflix and Hulu+ in the U.S., TELUS in Canada, BSkyB in the U.K., Canal+ in France, Vodafone Portugal, VimpelCom in Russia, and FOXTEL in Australia.

“Nearly a year ago, AT&T U-verse became the first TV provider in the U.S. to launch live TV on Xbox 360. Now we look forward to working with Microsoft to deliver even more innovative features that will allow U-verse TV customers to use voice and gesture controls to manage their TV experience,” said Jeff Weber, vice president of video services, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “Through our Microsoft partnership, AT&T U-verse TV has been a leader in delivering a multiscreen and interactive TV experience that offers customers more personalization, more control and more integration across devices, all on the industry’s only 100 percent IPTV platform.”

Sports aren’t just a game on Xbox 360. With live and on-demand content from ESPN in the U.S., UFC in the U.S. and Canada, GolTV in Spain and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment/Real Sports in Canada, Xbox 360 completely changes how sports fans experience and interact with their favorite pastimes. The all-new ESPN on Xbox LIVE features thousands of live events and video highlights with enhanced personalization features, split-screen viewing and an updated interface content guide that makes it easy for fans to find the highlights from the teams and sports they care most about. UFC on Xbox LIVE gives fans access to live pre-event videos, a catalog of on-demand video, an Interactive Fight Card and pay-per-view events in stunning HD all together in one place. The energy of the Octagon is coming right into the living room.

In addition to adding the world’s largest TV providers and the best names in sports, the biggest names in Web video, news and music are also coming to Xbox 360, including AlloCiné, Dailymotion, iHeartRadio, MSN with MSNBC.com, “The Today Show,” TMZ, VEVO and YouTube. Whether catching up on the Web’s latest viral videos, watching breaking news, sports and weather, listening to your favorite music, or sitting down to enjoy your favorite games, movies or TV shows — no other entertainment device brings it all together in one place like Xbox 360.

Xbox Entertainment — Personal, Effortless, Social

With Kinect for Xbox 360, there are no remotes, no buttons, no worries. Consumers will prefer to experience entertainment on Xbox 360 because it allows them to easily search and discover content across multiple entertainment providers within Xbox LIVE and interact and enjoy that content in extraordinary new ways. Gone are the days of managing a handful of remote controls, trying to remember what movies are available from what service, and hunting back and forth across television inputs. Using voice search with Bing on Xbox, easily look across a variety of branded services and play the programming you want without ever raising a finger. Having trouble finding last night’s episode of “The Office”? It’s now only a voice command away. Just say “Xbox, Bing, ‘The Office,’ ” and Xbox finds it.

Not only is entertainment effortless on Xbox 360, it is more social and personal. Everything in Xbox has been designed to share with friends. Share recommendations, and show the Xbox LIVE community what games you’re playing, movies you’re watching and music you’re listening to, as well as invite them to join in — even post your game achievements and info about your favorite movies directly to your Facebook wall from Xbox LIVE. It’s simple: With your social network along for the ride, the world’s leading content providers and the magic of Kinect, entertainment experiences are better on Xbox LIVE.

Entertainment Partners on Xbox 360 (Existing and New)

•	ABC iView – Australia
•	AlloCiné – France, Germany, Spain, U.K.
•	Antena 3 – Spain
•	Astral Media’s Disney XD – Canada
•	AT&T** – U.S.
•	BBC – U.K.
•	blinkbox – U.K.
•	Bravo – U.S.
•	BSkyB** – U.K.
•	Canal+* – France, Spain
•	Channel 4 – U.K.
•	Channel 5 – U.K.
•	CinemaNow (Best Buy) – U.S.
•	Comcast – U.S.
•	Crackle – Australia, Canada, U.K., U.S.
•	Dailymotion – Available in 32 markets
•	EPIX – U.S.
•	ESPN** – U.S.
•	Facebook** – Available in all 35 Xbox LIVE markets
•	FOXTEL** – Australia
•	GolTV – Spain
•	HBO GO – U.S.
•	Hulu – Japan
•	Hulu +**– U.S.
•	iHeartRadio (Clear Channel) – U.S.
•	Last.fm**– U.K., U.S.
•	LOVEFiLM – Germany, U.K.
•	Manga Entertainment – U.S.
•	Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment/Real Sports – Canada
•	MediaSet – Italy
•	MSN with MSNBC.com – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, U.K.
•	MUZU.TV – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K.
•	Netflix**– Canada, U.S.
•	Rogers On Demand Online (RODO) – Canada
•	RTVE – Spain
•	SBS On Demand – Australia
•	Syfy – U.S.
•	Telefonica – Spain
•	Televisa – Mexico
•	“The Today Show” – U.S.
•	TELUS** – Canada
•	TMZ – U.S.
•	Twitter** – Available in all 35 Xbox LIVE markets
•	UFC – Canada, U.S.
•	Verizon – U.S.
•	VEVO – Canada, U.K., U.S.
•	VimpelCom** – Russia
•	Vodafone Portugal** – Portugal
•	YouTube – Available in 22 markets
•	ZDF – Germany
•	Zune**– Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, U.K., U.S.

Dish Network on Friday announced the upcoming availability of Blockbuster Movie Pass, an unlimited video streaming service akin to Netflix’s “Watch Instantly.” Beginning October 1st, Dish subscribers will have unlimited access to a small library of digital content that they can stream to a PC or to a TV using a standard Dish set-top box. While Netflix is moving in a completely different direction, having just spun off its DVD rental service to focus on streaming, Dish is sticking with the multi-pronged approach as Blockbuster’s best bet. “We’ve created a package that combines the best assets of the movie entertainment and video gaming industries with the convenience and integration provided by a multichannel video provider,” said Blockbuster president Michael Kelly in a statement. “Blockbuster Movie Pass is the ultimate programming package for every movie buff. The combination of DVDs by mail and unlimited in-store exchanges provides more than 100 million people living near Blockbuster stores, which are open 7 days a week, immediate satisfaction and unmatched choice.” Dish’s full press release follows below.

DISH Network Introduces Blockbuster Movie Pass, Featuring First Subscription Streaming Movie Service Bundle in Pay TV Industry

First Year of Blockbuster Movie Pass Included with DISH Network Subscription
One Company, One Bill, One Connection

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Sept. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – DISH Network L.L.C. and Blockbuster L.L.C. announced today Blockbuster Movie Pass, the most comprehensive TV entertainment programming package ever delivered by a multichannel pay TV provider.

Beginning Oct. 1, 2011, Blockbuster Movie Pass is available for DISH Network customers, starting at $10 per month, combining the best of TV with the best of movies and games. It features a pay TV industry first: a subscription streaming movie service bundle available on the TV or PC. This programming package is unmatched by any other cable, satellite, telco or online streaming movie service.

Blockbuster Movie Pass includes the following:

• Mail It! — More than 100,000 DVD movies, TV shows and games available by mail. No additional charge for high definition Blu-ray™ movies. One, two or three disc plans available. Queue management made conveniently from a link at www.dish.com.
• Stream it! — Stream more than 3,000 movies to the TV. Stream more than 4,000 movies to the PC. Watch hundreds of on-demand TV shows.
• Play it! — More than 3,000 video games by mail for XBOX®, XBOX 360®, Playstation2™, Playstation3™, and Nintendo Wii™.
• Exchange it! — Unlimited exchanges of DVDs and video games at participating Blockbuster stores.
• Watch it! — More than 20 premium entertainment movie channels from studios like MGM, Epix, Sony Movie Channel, PixL and more.

“With millions of Internet-enabled DISH Network set-top boxes deployed in U.S. homes and our ability to offer services from the iconic Blockbuster brand, we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the myriad of ways consumers seek access to their favorite movies, TV shows or games,” said Joe Clayton, CEO of DISH Network. “When you combine Blockbuster Movie Pass with a DISH Network subscription, you get endless entertainment options and convenient access to the content you want, when you want it. And unlike other companies, we offer the simplicity of one company, one bill and one connection.”

From Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, 2012, DISH Network is offering new customers Blockbuster Movie Pass included with their DISH Network subscription for one year when they subscribe to DISH Network’s America’s Top 200 programming package or greater and commit to 24 months of DISH Network service. This is up to $360 in savings.

Blockbuster Movie Pass is also included for three months for new DISH Network customers who subscribe to America’s Top 120 programming package. After the promotional period, Blockbuster Movie Pass starts at just $10 per month. Access to the subscription streaming movie service requires a DISH Network HD DVR.

“We’ve created a package that combines the best assets of the movie entertainment and video gaming industries with the convenience and integration provided by a multichannel video provider,” said Michael Kelly, president of Blockbuster. “Blockbuster Movie Pass is the ultimate programming package for every movie buff. The combination of DVDs by mail and unlimited in-store exchanges provides more than 100 million people living near Blockbuster stores, which are open 7 days a week, immediate satisfaction and unmatched choice.”

Former home entertainment heavyweight Blockbuster is preparing to unveil a new streaming media service later today that will aim to take a bite out of Netflix’s future. While the company has made no official announcements at this point, invitations to a 1:00 p.m. Eastern press conference refer to a new service that is a “stream come true.” This is not the first time Blockbuster has chased Netflix in an effort to save its faltering business. The company introduced its “Total Access” service years ago — a spitting image of the DVD rentals-by-mail service that made Netflix the giant it is today — but the lack of a compelling argument and a string of terrible policy changes takes us to where we are today: Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy and was subsequently bought at auction by Dish Network. The firm’s Total Access service remains operational, though Netflix is doing everything it can to bury its DVD service, and now Blockbuster will take the next step in its attempted comeback.