Hannover House Inc (HHSE)

[The Rainmaker]

VOD Part 1: TDGI: Youtube/Google Deal All-in-One DD

Target Division Hannover House Pacts With YouTube for Video Streaming

Feb 8, 2010 12:46:26 (ET)

SPRINGDALE, AR, Feb 08, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Hannover House, the film and video distribution division of Target Development Group, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: TDGI) (Other: www.TargetDevelopmentGroup.com , www.HannoverHouse.com ), has entered into an agreement with Google to establish a video rental and video-on-demand channel for Hannover House movies through YouTube, reports Eric Parkinson, C.E.O of Target and Hannover House. The venture will launch this week and will initially cover more than 100 films in the Hannover House libraries, including titles from Elite Entertainment, FOCUSFilms, Plaza Entertainment and Hannover House.

"YouTube and Google are uniquely positioned to reinvent the entire video-on-demand consumer model," said Parkinson. "Their reach is unsurpassed, and their consumer pricing model is extremely competitive, in many cases beating traditional video rental costs. With more and more consumers moving toward video-on-demand as a convenient way to view movies, the Hannover House movie channel venture with YouTube will prove invaluable to our company."

"We believe that video-on-demand will continue to grow over the next few years into a major revenue source for the company," Parkinson concluded. "The technology has reached the point where films can be quickly and safely streamed directly to consumers, and this creates an immediacy not previously available. Additionally, video-on-demand eliminates the inventory, freight and storage costs associated with hard goods items such as DVDs and Blu-ray units."


TDGI/Hannover is one a very small select few who have been invited to partner with Google and Youtube to launch youtubes new Video on Demand and Video Rental Business.

January 20, 2010 4:15 PM PST YouTube gets rentals, starting with Sundance films by Josh Lowensohn

YouTube on Wednesday announced that it will soon be offering video rentals on its service, beginning first with five films from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance film festivals.

The rental feature, which goes live this Friday, will apply to the five Sundance films until the end of January. YouTube says that other films and programs will be made available for rental in the near future, but has not yet named which partners will be involved outside of mentioning that the health and education industries will be included.

Going forward, YouTube is inviting what it calls a "small group" of partners that will be able to apply the new rental model to videos they have hosted on the service. And similar to what YouTube did with paid video downloads around this same time last year, owners of these videos will be able to set their own pricing, as well as duration of how long that rental can be accessed.

In order to rent videos, users must have a Google Checkout account. The company has not said whether it will allow other payment platforms, such as PayPal, to be used as as a payment option.

YouTube has long been expected to get into the video-on-demand business, especially since Google removed video content purchases from its (now-defunct) Google Video service at the end of 2007. Also, late last year, reports surfaced that YouTube was in talks with a number of film studios in an attempt to warm them to the idea of renting their films on the service. Notably, Sony Pictures went on the record as having talked with Google about such an offering, although at the time it was looking for a way to boost the brand image of its Crackle video streaming site.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10438413-2.html

We talk about it being a Coup for us, look at what a win-win this one is. Google and Youtube launching new pay per view downloads and by doing one deal with Eric and TDGI, now Google/Youtube have 100+ films loaded into their brand new service.

This I hope will hammer home to many, Hannover and TDGI bring a lot to the table that is of value. This value will ultimately be reflected in TDGI's stock price.....Once we finish chewing our way through whatever is left of the overhang.

The venture will launch this week and will initially cover more than 100 films in the Hannover House libraries, including titles from Elite Entertainment, FOCUSFilms, Plaza Entertainment and Hannover House.

Also this year from todays PR....The company plans to release 36 titles during 2010 to supplement the existing catalog of more than 150 titles.

Youtube Debut Movie Rentals

Youtube viewers sick of watching singing goldfish and people eating their own body parts can now rent a movie – Youtube style, as they venture into the lucrative world of pay to view.

The massive but money losing video site owned by Google has debuted online movie rentals on a very limited basis, allowing users of the site to rent five different flicks from the Sundance Film Festival using their Google Checkout accounts. Youtube say that “a small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries, including health and education, will be made available in the weeks ahead.”

Youtube Renting Movies

Movies available to rent until the end of this month include the following:- “Bass Ackwards,” “The Cove,” “One Too Many Mornings,” “Homewrecker” and “Children of Invention.” All were chosen from the 2009 and 2010 film festivals. Besides these films, some other videos will be available in the weeks to come, and YouTube is looking for more independent filmmakers.

During 2009 YouTube was allegedly in talks with movie studios to offer rentals of major films and creating a ‘instant Netflix killer’. Whilst this is not even a Netflix tickler yet, it represents what could become a massively important part of YouTube’s future. The video site is making a raft of changes including HD streams and making its content television broadcastable.

It is all part of the Google plan shown in other changes made to the site like introducing live sports and streaming full length movies which show the kind of direction the video site is heading over the coming months and years.

Let the games begin......Netflix Shares Dive After Youtube Muscle In On Pay Per View

Number one DVD by mail and instant Movie download company, Netflix shares have taken a dive. And the guilty party responsible are Youtube, after planning to offer their own pay to watch movie streams service.

netflixhbo 3 Netflix Shares Dive After Youtube Muscle In On Pay Per ViewNetflix who have enjoyed having little competition in this market saw their shares down 3.57% to $40.29 on September 3rd. YouTube are deep in negotiations for offering Movies on a pay per download/watch basis.

Netflix have been offering an on demand internet movies service to existing subscribers of its DVD by mail rental service for nearly two years. Netflix subscribers pay an additional fee to watch unlimited movies online. This resulted in massive growth for Netflix.

The service has also found its way to Microsoft’s Xbox games machine, TiVo and other set top boxes.

The video giant owned by Google have been making deals with professional content providers for a long time—including Disney, MGM, and Lions Gate amongst others in the last year.

If the deal happens as expected, the competitive edge that Netflix has in the online video rental business would began to diminish.

On July 23, 2009, Netflix reported better than expected profits and even raised its forecast for the year. Netflix iare obviously optimistic about the next couple of quarters, but smart investors are cutting and running.

Of course if the Youtube experiment is a success, there are many other online websites that would happily offer a similar paid service.

Google To Rent Movie Streams Online

Keeping up with the times and trying to stem its losses, YouTube is in discussions with major movie studios about allowing its viewers to stream movies on a rental basis. So says the Wall Street Journal.

Google who have been tinkering with the Youtube model for months trying to wring out some profit are now trying to persuade its millions of users that paying for premium streams could be a good idea.

youtube movies Google To Rent Movie Streams OnlineOn the other side over in Hollywood, this development could help stem the tide of shrinking DVD sales and topping up the loss with online revenue.Currently a few studios are streaming smaller and older movies via YouTube. But now YouTube is in discussions with Lions Gate, Sony and Warner Bros about streaming brand new movies. It has been suggested the streams may be available on the same day as the dvd release.

Details are still scarce on the rental agreements, would users be able to download the movies for instance or just view once? It is believed that the movie streams will be priced around $3.99, the same as Apple iTunes Store charges for new movie rentals.

Other companies that let users stream or download newer movies include Apple, Amazon.com and Netflix, while Sony’s Crackle and Hulu allow users to watch older full-length movies online for free.

In a statement, a YouTube spokesman said the company is always working to expand on “its great relationships with movie studios and on the selection and types of videos we offer our community.”

The talks are a sign of how YouTube is emerging as a competitor to a broad spectrum of entertainment outlets, including Blockbuster and Netflix as well as iTunes and Amazon. The Hulu LLC joint venture and Sony’s Crackle allow users to watch full length movies free, but don’t generally include new releases. Hulu is a joint venture of General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney Co.

YouTube began as a collection of funny and home made videos, but it has become increasingly proactive in making deals to host tv shows and movies as a means of attracting advertisers and viewers. But movie studios and TV networks won’t give up their most popular content for a share of advertising, which they complain isn’t sufficient. The negotiations with the studios are part of an effort to open up new revenue streams by charging users themselves.

Hollywood has also been eager to distribute more of its films online — as long as it can collect a reasonable fee. Though many studios now sell and rent movies online through services such as iTunes and Amazon.com, that has yet to produce meaningful revenue. By cutting a deal with YouTube, which had nearly 428 million global visitors in June, according to comScore, it can potentially reach a much wider audience.

Studios have been pursuing these kinds of deals with renewed urgency, as revenue from DVD sales has eroded more quickly than they had anticipated. Adams Media Research says studio revenue from DVD sales should fall by about $850 million this year to $12.9 billion.

YouTube’s army of watchers are not used to paying a penny to watch videos. Shorts and the currently available full length movies are free and the number of users watching full length has been modest as users are not accustomed to watching 90 minutes plus of solid content from their pc screen.

The parties involved are still negotiating how to split revenues from the new deal, YouTube is thought likely to give partners the majority of the revenue, as it has done with other setups previously. Some deals may also guarantee the studio a minimum fee per title viewed, in some cases just under $3, according to reports.

YouTube also wants users to stream movies on mobile devices, but some of the studios are not playing ball, which is strange as iTunes allows this with rentals. It is reported that 10000 Google employees will use the service as a test over three months.

Of course online tv fans want a collection of good free content. Internet connected tv sales are rising and viewers are prepared to pay for premium streams which Youtube obviously know.

That's the coolest part, it seems TDGI has deals with over a dozen download provders. So no, it's not exclusive for Google getting TDGI's films. But TDGI gets to take full advantage of Google and Youtubes huge reach. Sounds like they also have deals with some who will allow Cable TV downloads as well.

Target and Hannover House Set for Direct Video-On-Demand Access

SPRINGDALE, AR -- (Marketwire) -- 12/30/09 --

Hannover House, the film and video distribution
division of Target Development Group, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: TDGI) (Other: www.TargetDevelopmentGroup.com, www.HannoverHouse.com), has entered into direct access agreements with more than a dozen of the top U.S.A based Video-On-Demand providers and retailers, with titles being offered as soon as February 2010. The new structure will enable Hannover House to deliver new release movies and catalog titles on a direct basis through streaming technologies available over the internet and through cable television providers

"This is a major, structural development for the company," said Eric Parkinson, C.E.O. of Hannover House and Target Development Group, Inc. "We see Video-On-Demand emerging in 2010 as a significant revenue source for Hannover House and other studios with large content libraries. Quality and security issues with the technologies have been resolved, making V.O.D. the easiest way for consumers to access entertainment. As a rights owner and distributor, Hannover saves on the manufacturing and freight costs associated with DVDs and Blu-ray videos, plus benefits from the faster and more direct payment stream. It's a highly-profitable method to deliver entertainment and our new structure should maximize these results," Parkinson concluded

The Hannover House 2008 release of "Hounddog," starring Dakota Fanning, was made available for Video-On-Demand through a variety of cable networks, V.O.D. suppliers and internet retailers. Key accounts included Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox Communications, DISH Network, AT&T, Verizon, Amazon.com and Netflix. Access to these accounts was through a third-party agency, which Hannover felt significantly reduced efficiency, profitability and cash flow timing. Hannover's new structure provides direct access to V.O.D. suppliers and is expected to improve placements, revenues and collections. A complete listing of Hannover House V.O.D. partners will be released in mid-January

Hannover House owns or controls the distribution rights to more than 150 feature film and television properties. Principal offices, warehousing and production facilities are located in Springdale, Arkansas, in close proximity to the world headquarters for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the nation's largest retailer for entertainment products. Other key accounts for Hannover House products include Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Blockbuster, Borders, Christian Book Outlet, Family Christian Stores, Hastings, Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery, Netflix and SAMS Clubs