All Things Digital

Here’s a video I did on the panel I moderated focused on online video at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, called “Webolution!–Hollywood Adapts to the Web.”

Tech is getting a lot of attention in Hollywood, so talking about online video is a key area for the independent filmmakers who are here this year.

Topics on the panel were wide-ranging, including: social networking, politics, the writers’ strike and the need for more broadband.

Better yet, here’s the description of the panel:

“The writing is on the wall–the industry must adapt to new media or face extinction. Today’s studios and independents are finally embracing the challenge of porting content and revenue to new distribution strategies. Join Hollywood power brokers and new media superstars to discuss their strategies for the Web.”

The panelists included Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Dmitry Shapiro (founder and CEO of Veoh.com), Dan Glickman (MPAA), Jason Kilar (CEO of Hulu.com), Mike Volpi (CEO of Joost.com), Erik Flanagan (EVP Digital Media MTV Networks/Comedy Central/South Park Studios) and tech strategy adviser Phil Lelyveld.

In other words, me and seven guys, which is about par for the course in Silicon Valley!

Here’s the video:

And here is my video touring the festival.

I just got to Park City, Utah, for my annual visit (well, this will be my third year here) to the famous film festival that takes place in this lovely mountain resort.

While I like a good movie as much as the next person, I am no film aficionado, nor do I have a screenplay stuffed in a drawer, nor do I hope someday to direct. I do like celebrity sightings, of course.

I am here because the Sundance Film Festival has understood early and often that technology is becoming increasingly important to the future of the film industry.

Because of that, they’ve been expanding additional offerings in the digital arena with panels throughout the festival.

The panel I will moderate is a great one about online video, called “Webolution!–Hollywood Adapts to the Web.” It will take place tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at the New Frontier on Main here.

Here’s the description:

“The writing is on the wall–the industry must adapt to new media or face extinction. Today’s studios and independents are finally embracing the challenge of porting content and revenue to new distribution strategies. Join Hollywood power brokers and new media superstars to discuss their strategies for the Web.”

The panelists include Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Dmitry Shapiro (founder and CEO of Veoh.com), Dan Glickman (MPAA), Jason Kilar (CEO of Hulu.com), Mike Volpi (CEO of Joost.com), Erik Flanagan (EVP Digital Media MTV Networks/Comedy Central/South Park Studios) and tech strategy adviser Phil Lelyveld.

Videos, of course, to come, along with visits with various tech players here, who are increasing in number annually. And, maybe, a Hollywood celeb or two.

Yesterday, a source told me that Flixster, the fast-growing social network for movie lovers, was back in talks to be bought by Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp.

Those IAC-Flixster rumors flew about a month ago and were entirely true.

But no deal, it seems. IAC has apparently found the price too high, according to other sources. But, said these sources, others are still in the game.

So if an acquisition deal does happen, two intelligent guesses to the possible winner for the company with 39.5 million user home pages, more than 1 billion user-generated movie ratings and a sassy motto of “Stop Watching Bad Movies”?

Blockbuster or News Corp.

(Sources said Viacom’s MTV unit gave Flixster a look too, but also thought the price too high.)

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Sure, they can copy all they want from online video-rental upstart Netflix, but the purchase of video-download service Movielink by video-rental retail giant Blockbuster feels to me like a sad, little move, signifying nothing.

Getting a reported price of under $20 million, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, will hardly cover costs of upward of $100 million–even “Ishtar” didn’t do that badly.

The compromised Movielink, the bastard child created five years ago by movie studios (Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros.) with too-onerous digital rights management claws, lackluster marketing and high prices, has been widely mocked even by execs at the studios themselves.

When I recently brought it up during a visit to one studio, in fact, an executive there did a most excellent rolling of his eyes that needed no further explanation.

But now it is Blockbuster’s problem to correct, which is mainly how to battle online rivals like Netflix and others chipping away at its business either via mail-order rentals or video-on-demand services.

The merger fever in the Internet might feel like it is 1999, but, let’s be honest, we are a whole lot older and wiser than before.

OK, maybe not, judging from the mini-frenzy that resulted from wispy whiffs of rumors that online DVD renting and downloading service Netflix was in talks to be acquired by online retail giant Amazon. Netflix’s stock popped, of course, on the idea that the company–worth about $1.6 billion–could fetch more than $2 billion in an Amazon bid.

If it were to happen, that is (which my sources said is premature). More to the point, it is part of an endless cycle about what will eventually happen to the sassy Netflix, which can’t possibly survive alone, although it has so far, mostly besting competitors and even making a tidy profit.

But in this buy-or-be-sold mindset, the practice run of such an offer was nicely deconstructed by a most excellent report by Dana Cimilluca of the The Wall Street Journal’s online Deal Journal.

Amazon might make a decent buyer for Netflix (it certainly has had trouble competing with it) and its stock has been up by double in the last year (market cap: $30 billion), giving it a stronger currency to make purchases. On the other hand, Netflix’s stock is down over investors’ concern about increased competition and lackluster recent results.

But one vampire of a merger rumor just won’t die–the sale of social-networking site Facebook–even with a million stakes through its heart, such as my post here. This week, we’re back to Yahoo coming around again to look over the suddenly-hotter-than-ever company and upping the ante to closer to $2 billion.

Hey, rumormongers out there, listen up: This is just not going to happen, as Facebook has just launched a new and possibly promising initiative to broaden its scope by bringing in third-party developers to offer widgets and services to its 22 million users.

So, let me reiterate when you hear this one again–Just say no.