Add This to the New Media Logpile

Netflix shows profits as more budget-conscious Americans are embracing low-cost movie rentals over higher-priced theater tickets, a trend that helped Netflix to again deliver better-than-expected earnings.

The company says its download service, which it offers free to higher-tier subscribers, is gaining traction. Earlier this month, it announced deals to stream back episodes of Comedy Central's popular "South Park" animated series, and Nickelodeon shows such as "SpongeBob SquarePants."

But the company also noted the growing competition from cheap DVD rental kiosks.

"We're seeing a major shifting in the landscape between the content providers, different distribution models and the competitive environment," Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible said.

Analysts asked about plans for a new pricing tier of streaming-only service, without the discs. Netflix said Thursday it's not a top priority at the moment.

Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, said the transition away from DVDs will take years, but added that Netflix is smart to start weaning its customers off the plastic discs.

D2N (Direct-to-Netflix) on the horizon?

Even if the Pay Isn't Great Now....

The internet is opportunity.

From Today's Video Business:

"U.S. consumer spending on direct-to-TV Internet video content will jump fivefold within the next five years as customers find more ways to connect their TVs to the Web with videogame consoles, video-on-demand set-top boxes and other components.

TV-related Internet-video revenue will surge to almost $5 billion annually by 2013, from less than $1 billion this year, and will account for 75% of all Internet-video revenue, research firm Parks Associates said in a report released last week. The trend is likely to benefit studios with large back catalogs, but cable companies looking to boost revenue from video-on-demand services could feel the brunt, the company said.

The forecast exceeds those of studios such as Lionsgate, which said in June that sales from digitally delivered content would more than double to almost $3.6 billion in 2013, from about $1.5 billion this year, despite U.S. home entertainment sales rising just 7% to $26.8 billion."

-----------------------------------------
Get in on the ground floor...

Digital Comics Now

Daily Bits has compiled a list of links for 17 completely free graphic novels you can read or download.

(Hat tip to The Beat and Wired for the referral)

But the cool thing is this:

What if every week you received an email reminder that said your comics were waiting for you to download... for free. These are new comic stories by the pro creators you've come to know and loathe in the fan press (oh come on! You know you flame the fanboys turned pros!) , but whose books you buy anyway.

The books would be a PDF or similar format book with ads with links. It would be big - about 48 pages a week with several different characters in each issue... and yes, it was free.
If you wanted a print version it would be available in different editions separating the characters and stories into separate books. Yes, I said books. Not trades. Not magazines.

Books. Collections. Each containing extra material and available exclusively in comic book shops and finer bookstores.

How do you feel about that?