We may be entering the next age of entertainment. Entertainment began as live shows. Then came radio, then motion pictures, then television, and now the Internet. Until recently, the Internet has been a place for micro-entertainment. Short articles, single pictures, short video clips; it was a place for people to escape one minute, or 140 characters at a time. People flock to the Internet because, besides your monthly bill, virtually all of the fun to be had can be free. If numbers indicate anything, it seems that people are staying home from the theaters, and ignoring primetime TV, so that they can be entertained on their own time, and from their own choosing. However, the Internet is not for micro-entertainment anymore.

The biggest challengers to the seemingly undeniable world of television have emerged in the past couple years as Hulu and Netflix. Not too long ago, no one could have imagined anything challenging TV as the primary form of home entertainment. Executives have ignored the Internet too long though, and the battle has begun. Ever since the institution of instant watch, Netflix has grown into a household name. The ability to stream TV shows and movies over the Internet, on your own time, has led many people to fall in love with convenience. Television and movie production were not intimidated though, because all of the content had to come from them first. But they may not be standing on such solid ground anymore; original content is here.

At the beginning of February, Netflix launched their first original show, ‘Lilyhammer’. ‘Lilyhammer’ is a comedy-drama starring Steven Van Zandt of ‘Sopranos’, as a New York gangster trying to start a new life in Lilyhammer, Norway. All eight episodes of ‘Lilyhammer’ were made available from the start, appealing to the new DVR culture, which prefers to watch entire seasons at once. Many have called ‘Lilyhammer’ a great move for Netflix, while others say the show isn’t TV quality. Either way, it is a step in a new direction of programming that skips TV all together.

Netflix is not free however; you have to subscribe to be able to view their new show. Hulu, on the other hand, is completely free and they have also stepped into the ‘original programming’ arena. On February 14, Hulu launched ‘Battleground’, a political drama-comedy in the fake documentary style of ‘The Office’. Hulu took a different approach than Netflix though; they are releasing a new episode every Tuesday, which is more in line with traditional TV. ‘Battleground’ has received mixed reviews as well, but seems to be gathering a bigger fan base than ‘Lilyhammer’. Technically, ‘Battleground’ is not Hulu’s first original series; they have been airing the documentary show ‘A Day in the Life’, which is approaching its second season, but ‘Battleground’ does stand as their first scripted series.

The emergence and apparent success of these original programs can only make people curious of what will happen next. Youtube is beginning to feature channels that will presumably be putting out original content, and most networks stream their shows on their websites after the TV airdate. Will networks start having streaming only shows? Will Netflix and Hulu start producing more shows? With the lightning speed growth of technology, these steps can only make you wonder; what’s next?

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LOVEFiLM, an Amazon company, and Sony Pictures Television have signed a major multi-year content deal giving LOVEFiLM members exclusive streaming access to new and forthcoming Sony Pictures titles during the second subscription pay TV window, as well as catalogue titles and TV series, from June 2012.

The milestone agreement with Sony Pictures Television is the latest in a line of exclusive content deals announced by Amazon’s LOVEFiLM in the UK in recent months, including deals with Warner Bros., Entertainment One, STUDIOCANAL, Disney, Momentum and Lionsgate.

LOVEFiLM members will be able to exclusively stream Sony Pictures titles including the Academy Award winning ‘The Social Network,’ action-thriller ‘Salt,’ starring Angelina Jolie, and sci-fi action blockbuster ‘2012’ via LOVEFiLM Instant at no extra cost and as part of their existing subscription.

The deal will also further bolster LOVEFiLM’s extensive range of kids TV-titles with modern cult, animation favourites like ‘Transformers,’ ‘Spectacular Spider-Man’ and ‘The Karate Kid’ – adding a raft of series to existing LOVEFiLM catalogue titles such as ‘Pingu,’ ‘Wallace & Gromit’ and ‘Fireman Sam.’

In addition, LOVEFiLM members will have exclusive streaming access during this pay window to a host of future releases from Sony Pictures including the No.1 box office hit ‘Arthur Christmas.’

The deal will see Sony Pictures’ recent and forthcoming releases, catalogue titles and TV series added to the LOVEFiLM Instant service – available on the PC or via Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Apple iPad and a growing number of Internet-connected TV sets and Blu-ray players.

Amazon’s LOVEFiLM will continue to rent Sony Pictures titles on DVD and Blu-ray via its LOVEFiLM By Post service.

Simon Calver, Chief Executive of Amazon’s LOVEFiLM, said:

“Our latest major content agreement means we’ll be able to exclusively offer our members world-class content from Sony Pictures. The number of recent high-profile deals we have secured means we are able to keep expanding the service, offering our members high quality films and TV and the ability to watch as much as they want for one low, monthly price.”

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The movie streaming and rental site Netflix has recently raised its prices with up to 60% more than it currently costs. This means that 24 million subscriber will have to pay $15,98 a month instead of $9,99 dollars. The low pricing scheme has split into two separate plans: $7,99 for unlimited streaming (no DVDs) and $7.99 for unlimited DVDs, one disc at a time (no streaming).

The consequence, as many bloggers have pointed out, is that lot of Netflix users are pretty upset with this decision. Netflix users are not just angry at what they perceive to be the company’s unjust greed; they are stung that one of their favorite companies could ever do something like this, and without any warning at all. Some of the thousands of comments on Netflix’s Facebook page read: “Cancel your subscription, bring down the Netflix stock. Then they will listen to us!”, “They’re getting the same services they got before, but now Netflix is charging much more money for them”, and “Dear Netflix your price increase is a slap in the face in such a horrid economy. I’m cancelling my subscription as we speak.”

In addition, Tony Wible, an analyst with Janney Capital Markets, estimated that 80% of Netflix’s U.S. subscribers currently use a DVD/streaming combination plan and will be affected by the price hike.

Despite the negative consumer reactions, according to PCWorld.com users won´t have better alternatives than Netflix. After making a comparison among the main online rental or streaming services on the market such as; Blockbuster, HuluPlus, Redbox, and Amazon Prime, the online media stated that Netflix prices are cheaper than many of the alternatives while they offer more selection.

Netflix advertised the change as a new choice for consumers. For Netflix, the adjustment is “the latest step in a long-term transition toward becoming a next-generation premium television business,” said Arash Amel, a research director for IHS Screen Digest, noting that the company has made streaming, not DVDs by mail, the core of its business.

Mr. Amel also said further changes to Netflix’s monthly prices should be expected in the next couple of years as the company’s growth rate slows and as it pays hundreds of millions of dollars more to license streams of movies and TV shows.

Some experts think that one reason for the price hike is that Netflix has to buy its content from Hollywood studios who demand a higher price for streaming rights. In June, Netflix stopped streaming Sony movies through its relationship with Starz because of a “temporary contract issue between Sony and Starz.” The issue has not yet been resolved.

However, Netflix swears that higher costs of doing business have nothing to do with the price hike. Netflix´s blog offers this instead: “Why the changes? Last November, when we launched our $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, DVDs by mail was treated as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan. At the time, we didn’t anticipate offering DVD only plans. Since then we have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs both from our existing members as well as non-members. Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs. Creating an unlimited DVDs by mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs by mail offering.”

Will this affect the future of the company? A Netflix spokesman said executives would elaborate on the reasons for the price change when reporting the company’s financial results on July 25. However, those results will not be able to give a realistic picture of how Netflix will do financially in the coming year because, unlike new customers, the current Netflix users will not experience the new prices before September.

Image provided by hapa boy

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Facebook keeps surprising us, and it is incredible all the comforts and facilities that it keeps providing to its users. People have the chance to interact by diverse ways such as sending messages, posting walls, chatting, showing photos, tagging, linking videos, creating groups, events, and much more. But the company is always thinking one step ahead, and now, “the users will be able to stream and share music through the social network” (Matthew Perpetua, Rolling Stone Magazine).

“Listening to music is something that people do with their friends,” Mark Zuckerberg stated. “Music, TV, news, books — those types of things I think people just naturally do with their friends. I hope we can play a part in enabling those new companies to get built, and companies that are out there producing this great content to become more social.” Facebook wants to bring its users all kind of applications they can imagine. And it is thinking of how to make it possible for its users to share their favorite multimedia, such as songs, albums, series, news etc.

The New York Times says: “Facebook, which has nearly 700 million users, would not comment on its plans. But analysts and media executives said the company’s move into media was part of its ambition to become a hub for all types of activities on the Internet. And as the company sees it, people increasingly define themselves through the media they consume, they said”.

All the procedures and developments are confidential information, and Facebook is not providing too much details, they only stated that: “We’re always looking for better ways to help people discover the most relevant content on Facebook but have nothing to announce.”

On the other hand, a Spotify spokesman said:” We’re continuously working together to make the social experience on Spotify the best it can be and welcome relationships with any company looking to innovate by building more social value into the user experience.”

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