1. Top Indies in iTunes: There are lots of new titles making the list this week, including “The Way, Way
Back,” “Blackfish,” “A Case of You,” “How I Live Now,” “Free Samples”
and “Motel Life.” Meanwhile, “Parkland,” “Girl Most Likely,” “The Last
Days on Mars” and “Stuck in Love” continue to do well. See the full list here.
2. Is VOD The Future for Indies?: Ted Sarandos’ recent keynote speech in which he called for studios and theaters to allow for day-and-date releases of “big movies,” prompted a discussion of VOD — and whether or not it’s good or bad for independent films. Of course, indie distributors and consumers have a very different take on things than theater owners. Read our full report on the issue here.
3. Maker Studios: Erin McPherson, who has headed up Yahoo’s video efforts, is going to Maker Studios, one of YouTube’s biggest network operators, Maker Studios announced. “Erin is one of the most respected executives in original online video
content and has a track record of developing popular programming across a
variety of categories; she understands large-scale online video
production,” said Maker Studios executive chairman Ynon Kreiz, to whom McPherson will report, said in a statement. “This is a key position for
Maker as we plan to break the mold on traditional programming concepts
and produce and distribute a large slate of original video content
across our vertical hubs.”
4. Netflix Rules: Netflix leads all other streaming services when it comes to broadband internet traffic in North America during primetime, according to a new study from Sandvine. Netflix uses nearly 20 times more primetime bandwith than Amazon video and 24 times more than Hulu. The report, “Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H2013,” based on data from a
selection of Sandvine’s 250-plus service provider customers around the globe, is published twice a year. Interestingly, peer-to-peer file-sharing apps such as BitTorrent are dwindling in popularity in North America, accounting for less than 10% of total daily traffic in North America, compared to over 31% five years ago.
“For the first time ever, peer-to-peer filesharing has fallen below
10% of total traffic in North America, which is a stark difference from
the 60% share it consumed 11 years ago,” said Dave Caputo, CEO,
Sandvine in a statement. “Since 2009 on-demand entertainment has consumed more
bandwidth than “experience later” applications like peer-to-peer
filesharing and we had projected it would inevitably dip below 10% of
total traffic by 2015. It’s happened much faster.” Read more about the report and its findings here.
5. Kickstarter: Director, actor Jon Gries
(“Napoleon Dynamite“), has launched a
Kickstarter campaign for his next film; “Another Man’s Gun,” for which he is trying to raise $300,000. “We share and incredible vision for where this film is and where this film can go and that’s why we decided to go to
Kickstarter. You can do almost anything in this country if someone is
willing to be your angel and willing to help you, because we all do this
together, we are a fabric. It’s not one thread, it’s a fabric. And
that’s what this is all about and why we love Kickstarter,” said Gries, who is collaborating with writer/producer Derek M. Walker on the project.
See his Kickstarter campaign video below:
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