media

Amazon.com on Thursday announced it is buying Lovefilm, a European home-video distributor that some have called the Netflix of Europe. The deal will give the world's largest online retailer a stronger foothold in digital-video distribution. Will it buy Netflix next?

Netflix angered customers this week by removing the option to order DVDs via videostreaming consoles and mobile devices. The news that it was eliminating the "Add to DVD Queue" button in order to focus more on streaming videos has drawn thousands of comments, many critical of the company.

The federal government on Tuesday gave Comcast Corp., the country's largest cable company, the green light to take over NBC Universal, home of the NBC television network. Comcast is buying a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co. for $13.8 billion in cash and assets. The...

News Corp. (NWS) will launch its much-anticipated digital newspaper for tablet computers on January 19. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., and Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs will both attend the launch, Reuters reported without naming its sources. News Corp. is betting that tablet computers...

Google is considering a plan to expand its Android newsstand -- and heat rivalry with Apple's iTunes -- by charging publishers a lower price to sell news to Android users than the 30% fee that Apple typically charges to sell apps on iTunes. Will that be enough to attract more news?

Three days into January 2011 and some Apple (AAPL) iPhone users are still struggling with a glitch in the phone's alarm function. For a third consecutive day, iPhone alarms failed to go off, leading to users missing flights and arriving late at work in Asia and Europe, Reuters reported. "My...

With the launch of the Apple iPad, the retirement of Larry King and the ascension of WikiLeaks, 2010 was a year for the media history books. Here's columnist Jonathan Berr's list of the top media stories of the year.

At least one analyst is predicting that fourth-quarter box-office sales are set to fall 12% as most 3-D movies have failed to attract big audiences this year. Even worse: The trend extends beyond movie theaters to the living room.

Here's a nice surprise for television advertisers: Digital video recorders are actually increasing, not decreasing, the number of viewers who are watching the commercials. Nearly half of the DVR owners in the critical 18- to 49-year-old age group watch the commercials, which boosts ratings, Nielsen says.

Soon, the Internet won't be the only medium to offer advertisers the ability to closely target specific types of customers. Starting in August or September, DirecTV plans to launch a new personalized advertising service for television. Can it bring the scope of TV to highly targeted ads?