iTunes Movie Rentals

iTunes rentals from the following studios represents 84% of the movie market:

Sony - 21.1
News Corporation - 17
Disney - 16.7
Time-Warner - 14.9
CBS Viacom - 11
Lions Gate - 3.6

These guys are not in, and represent the rest of the market:

NBC Universal
Bertelsmann
Weinstein
Dimension


But OH - big lose here... rentals on iTunes only come out 30 days after DVD release. That is just ridiculous; because now I'll never rent anything on iTunes, I'll just go to Netflix and wait for it to come in the mail or walk down the street to the video store... because it'll take LESS THAN 30 DAYS to get my content. Apple is shooting themselves in the foot on that, but maybe it was worth it just to get the studios to agree to SOMETHING.

Speculation Redux

Seeing as how my baseless speculation earlier has been countered... I will revise it to the following baseless theory:

Apple and Google will at some point in the next year or two enter into an extremely close partnership - if not a complete merger.

Everything they're doing seems to be converging. iPhone and maps using Google... YouTube partnerships. And now Google is going to release that YouTube plasma TV thing - since when is Google in the hardware business? Well if they're going into it, why not go into it all the way and just buy Apple? That would be the ultimate win, and would trample Microsoft into the ground. Apple is committing to another product cycle of AppleTV; it would be smart to tie that in well with Google's TV.

The Best Comedy Value In New York

Last night I went to the Ace of Clubs, a venue below the ACME restaurant on 9 Great Jones Street. For ten bucks I was able to watch a 2 hour plus comedy and talk show hosted by Lizz Winstead (of The Daily Show and Air America fame) that lampoons morning shows and 24 hour news networks: Shoot The Messenger. I got to sit in a live audience, in an intimate setting, laugh at jokes and videos about the latest in political crap and "infonewsment" and I didn't have to pay through the nose for any kind of two drink minimum or cover charge.

The first half of the show was an ensemble send-up of morning shows - Wake Up World, With Hope and Davis... the only six hour morning broadcast about everything! "A quarter of your day, spent the right way." IT WAS AWESOME. Lots of satire on a low production budget, but still very professionally done. And then the second half of the show is actually a serious talk show; Lizz interviewed political humorist Kate Clinton and they just chatted about the world and the primaries and all kinds of funny topics. Kate's closing answer to Lizz's question of "what would you ask the next president to do?" was: "Tax the church."

A-FUCKING-MEN!!