Gawker: valleywag, vudu

Vudu CEO to spend more time with his lovely wife

Paul Boutin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:20:00 EST

Vudu, which makes a nifty little set-top box that no one is buying, beat the rush by laying off employees in August. Today, an alert tipster notes that CEO Mark Jung has disappeared from the company's management page. Jung's LinkedIn profile has also been updated, putting Vudu in past tense. San Francisco's 7x7 magazine scored this shot of Jung with Mrs. Jung at a fundraiser in May. The boss wants me to draw some big conclusion here. I think it's: Go to the party. You can always work yourself to death when Web 3.0 comes around.

Vudu layoffs further signal death by a thousand pin pricks

Jackson West — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EDT

Movie download service Vudu, which seems to be having trouble convincing customers to first buy a $299 set-top box, is laying off 16 to 18 of the company's 100 employees, and has hired a new CFO, Chris Watts, according to PaidContent. Seems to be a clear case of trying to reduce the company's burn rate as the $21 million from venture investors begins to dry up. And it's another indication that the startup's desperate descent is accelerating.

Months ago, the company slashed the price on its hardware. More recently, it began offering porn and shortly thereafter introduced a sale on 99 movie titles for only $0.99 each. All of which makes it sound more and more like Akimbo.(Photo by Juha-Matti Herrala)

Vudu gives away 99 perfectly good movies

Paul Boutin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EDT

Cloverfield. Chinatown. Starship Troopers — don't laugh, it's underrated. Vudu, makers of a $300 set-top box that downloads movies and TV shows, are offering nearly 100 movies for rent at just under a dollar each. The surprise is that these aren't the usual bargain-bin fillers. They're cult classics like The Big Lebowski and techie favorites like Serenity — in short, a great starter library for Vudu's target demographic. I'm worried, though. Giving away your prized possessions? Please tell me Vudu isn't on suicide watch.

Vudu sexes up its set-top box, but is it too late?

Jackson West — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:20:00 EDT

Vudu, a startup which sells a set-top box for downloading HD movies over the Internet, has finally added adult content to the mix through a partnership with AVN. Neither Netflix nor Apple will let you watch folks bump uglies — in stunning 1080p resolution, no less. Vudu rival FyreTV won't let you download anything but porn, so it's certainly a differentiator. But is it enough to save Vudu's business model? Unlikely. At $299 (marked down from $399), the box is pricey, the selection of videos still limited, and the premise that viewers will spend up to $20 to virtually "own" Ashlynn Goes to College 3 questionable. And of course, the real competition isn't other paid services — it's the millions of hours of free porn available on the Internet.

Blockbuster wants to clutter your set-top

Jackson West — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:00:00 EDT

When not bawdlerizing movies or trying, and failing, to kill Netflix, Blockbuster has been busy planning to develop and ship a set-top box that will allow customers to download movies at home. The company purchased online movie download service Movielink for $6.6 million last August. But it still hasn't integrated Movielink into Blockbuster.com after seven months. The chances they can come out with an inexpensive, easy-to-use hardware device in the foreseeable future seems slim — look for the company to partner with or acquire an existing manufacturer, such as struggling startup Vudu. (Photo by AP/Ron Heflin)

Vudu, the set-top movie rental box just cut...

Mary Jane Irwin — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:29:57 EST

Vudu, the set-top movie rental box just cut the price of its entry-level model to $295, following Apple's price cut on its revamped Apple TV to $229. If they want to compete in the current streaming frenzy, they probably want to seek distribution beyond Tweeter and other third-rate electronics stores. If the well-stocked kiosk in one San Francisco mall is any indication, Vudu's boxes are not flying off the shelves. [last100]

ITunes to offer movie rentals?

Mary Jane Irwin — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:16:18 EST

Apple fanatics have uncovered some code in an iTunes software update hinting at a video rental service. Now every blogger on the planet is running around like decapitated chickens. Why the fuss? We all know iTunes video sales aren't rocking. This is an inevitable move on Apple's part as rivals move in. Rental is the business model of choice for Vudu, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and most likely Sony's PlayStation 3. For some reason, content producers feel it's more piracy-proof than direct sales. Don't cancel your Netflix memebership just yet, though. Building the code into iTunes is one thing. Striking agreements with balky Hollywood studios is quite another.

Netflix doesn't need to fear Vudu's magic

Mary Jane Irwin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:17:52 EDT

Vudu, the set-top box rumored to single-handedly topple both Netflix and digital video recorders, has, in reality, failed to impress. Katie Boehret, the Wall Street Journal's Walt-Mossberg-in-training, reviews the movie-downloading box which aspires to win over those too lazy to traipse over to the video store. The only problem is that Vudu has its own set of not-inconsiderable inconveniences. One needs a hard-wired Ethernet connection — no built-in Wi-Fi — to make it work. The service charges above market rate for movies. And the selection, tragically, is poor. Except for its on-screen ease of use, little separates it from Microsoft's Xbox 360 downloads or Sony's planned Playstation 3 store. Until Netflix puts its own box on the TV console, stick to mail-order DVDs, we say.

TiVo's turf becomes the latest Sony-Microsoft battleground

Mary Jane Irwin — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:40:30 EDT

Sony's recent announcement that its PlayStation 3 console will soon act as a digital video recorder in Europe is little surprise to anyone following the industry. It's long been believed that the PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 could act as DVRs. The real question is how this move will affect a soon-to-be crowded DVR marketplace. TiVo, the best-known DVR brand, has struggled financially as cable and satellite distributors released their own recorders. Although its future may be a bit brighter thanks to a recent licensing deal with Comcast and the potential of a renewed DirecTV contract, there's more competition for TiVo than ever — and from the unlikeliest of places.

Services like iTunes, working with the Apple TV set-top box, and Xbox 360's Marketplace, offer a limited but growing library of TV shows and movies. Netflix, the DVD rent-by-mail service, is hiring hardware engineers. Amazon, currently a TiVo partner, is rumored to be working on a media-playing device of its own. And more networks are beefing up Web-enabled viewing like ABC's HD-like experience and ESPN 360. To top it off, there's the enigma that is Vudu, a set-top box that's built to replicate Netflix's level of service by offering a host of first-run, DVD-quality movies.

What TiVo has going for it is its ability to record live broadcasts, much of which never turns up on DVD or online video libraries. It also has mainstream appeal compared to Web-video downloads or multitasking game consoles and personal computers. But increasingly, it's going to be hard to convince consumers to buy a separate gadget and make room for it in their living room, when the devices they already have — PCs, game consoles, and even portable media players — can provide the same basic service of delivering video.

Microsoft, in particular, is trying to market the Xbox as a set-top box replacement, especially for phone companies trying to deliver video over Internet connections, a technology known as IPTV. That, more than anything, is what's likely spurring Sony's DVR move — and with Sony, Apple, and Microsoft sparring over the living room, there's going to be little room left for TiVo.