Catching Up with the News

Whew! This week has been a bear. I haven’t been getting enough sleep so I haven’t been able to write posts for this blog. Did you miss me?

Horror Genre Gets Its Own Video on Demand Network
Comcast and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced recently that they plan to launch a video-on-demand (VOD) network featuring horror movies and thrillers.

“Our horror channel will have lots of horror movies for VOD and streaming, but no linear channel,” Steve Burke, chief operating officer of Comcast, recently said during a panel discussion at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s National Show.

The new network, which is as yet unnamed, is scheduled to launch this Halloween. It will be paired with a broadband channel that offers multimedia applications such as music downloads and video outtakes. Both the VOD network and website will be supported by advertising.

There should be plenty of content to offer. 18 months ago, Comcast joined a Sony-led investment group that bought out MGM. Part if the deal gave them access to a large library of titles from both studios.

“This is the first channel of its kind devoted solely to serving this expanding audience,” said Diane Robina, Comcast’s president of emerging networks.”

According to Comcast, horror films are one of the fasted growing genres. In addition, they are “wildly popular” among views aged 18 to 34, and attractive audience for advertisers.

Video Advertising at the Pump
If you’ve seen Blade Runner or Minority Report, then you’ve seen what some science fiction writers have predicted of the future: advertising everywhere you go. Well, the transition has already begun.

The NBC Universal Television Stations group and VST Media Network have concocted a plan to distribute “customized local news, weather, sports and entertainment video and headlines to on-pump screens at gas stations in markets with NBC owned-and-operated stations,” according to Broadcasting & Cable.

Since the average time a person spends filling their tank is three minutes, that’s how long the program will last. Updated twice daily, the content will come from local NBC stations. Local adverts will be included. State Farm Insurance and Tropicana have already signed up to be advertisers.

VST has video screens set up at 17 Shell gas stations in Los Angeles, as well as plans to expand this year to 500 stations in L.A., San Francisco and San Diego. In addition, VST plans to add screens to gas stations across the U.S. in markets with NBC owned-and-operated stations.

Just what I wanted, more reasons to dislike going to the pump.