Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Did anybody else get an e-mail from MG about something called Reel Cash. It sounds like their free promotions have started. Get ready for the big bang this week...
Ant
You guys should watch the movie Con Man now on ReelTime. Parts of the movie takes place at the Cannes Film Festival.
As some of you know, I was my credit card was charged twice this weekend when I tried to re-new my subscription. I sent an e-mail over to customer support and then gave MG a call. Well he told that he would make sure that everything was resolved as soon as possible. Anyways I got this e-mail from the company last night and I thought you guys should take a look at it:
Hello Anthony-
I've just heard from Sean Lamont that he is working on a fix that will not allow the payment page to be refreshed by the user until the initial request is completed. Apparently if the page is taking too long to load (for whatever reason, could be the internet connection for example) and the user clicks refresh to get it moving, it may re-send the charge request. Your refunded charge should show up on your next statement as we will refund that this week.
Best regards,
Ben Floresca
ReelTime Customer Support
And this is what I wrote back to the company:
Thanks for the fast response time. I told Mr. Gersh this last night that I really don't care about the $20. You guys could keep it for all I care. The only reason I brought it up because I don't want future customers to have any problems with the service at all. I have been invested in Reeltime for over two years now and this is the time that I think things are going to get exciting. Anyways, thanks in advance and if you guys ever need anything, I will do anything that I am capable and I'm sure my friends over at the I-hub board will be willing to help as well.
Anthony
My account was not on automatic renewal. I turned that off so I didn't get charged when I didn't expect it. There was actually like 2 weeks between the time my subscription ended and the time I re-newed it. Anyways, I don't really care, it's only 20 bucks but I just want management to know because we don't want any kind of bad press out there just when we start to get rolling.
Ant
I re-newed my subscription over the weekend and noticed yesterday that my credit card was charged twice. I put an e-mail into support yesterday with no response. I figured that I give a call over to the office and was actually surprised to hear from MG. I could only imagine what time he must get there in the morning but at almost 6 p.m. over there on the west coast he was still there chomping away at his keyboard.
To my surprise he actually knew who I was. I've only submitted one personal e-mail to him (granted it was two weeks ago) but he still remembered... Now here is a guy who must be at that office about 12 hours a day, answer countless e-mails, phone calls, and other messages and he said, "I know you. You are an owner of this company".
Anyways, I'm not really worried about my $20 because god knows I have spent more money than that on a lot stupider things. But I'm more concerned about future customers getting charged that extra $20 and getting upset about it. I know we are all complaining about the fact that we are not getting enough press, but that is certainly one thing that we don't want. BAD PRESS.
Just figured that some of you would like to know about how they really are working to get all the kinks out before they get going for REEL.
Ant
I did a transfer from an external account which Etrade claims to be instant. At this rate my money won't be available till Monday and I don't want to miss the wave.
If anybody here has Etrade please let me know if you can help. I made a deposit in my account yesterday and its saying it wont be available for 6 business days. I'm trying to get some funds available for this week before the boom we are all expecting... Any help will be greatly appreciated.
The top portion is the e-mail that I sent over to Michael and the bottom was his response. I had to break out the dictionary to look up some of the words he wrote in his reply, so if you feel stupid after reading his e-mail don't feel bad. Also I wrote the e-mail on March 22 and received a reply on March 29.
Dear Mr. Gersh,
My name is Anthony Coster. I have been with Reeltime for a couple of years now. I remember following the company from the very beginning starting with Alex Stanczyk as CEO, to Scream Networks helping develop the Scream Player, to the hiring of Beverly and yourself. I thought I knew the direction that the company was heading, to be a replacement of Netflix and the more traditional brick and mortar stores such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.
My question is with all the news lately including News Corp & NBC partnering up to battle YouTube and offer their own online video service, Google buying YouTube and teaming up with Viacom to distribute their content, etc, Where does this leave Reeltime?
I realize that we recently partnered up with Lionsgate and CHUM (which I don't see as an important acquisition, maybe you can inform me more about the details) but is it too little too late. I remember back in August you guys were planning on a full service launch. Here it is in March and we still have the BETA tag on the website. I know that marketing campaign was supposed to start in February according to Barry in a recent press release. Again it is the end of March and I scour the net looking for a banner or some type of advertisement to let people know that we are out there.
I know you guys have been very busy behind the scenes doing a lot that most of use do not see everyday. Can you please try to inform me to the best of your knowledge that everybody over there, including yourself is trying to get us rolling in the right direction.
Sincerely,
Anthony Coster
Anthony;
I don't know how I missed this email from you last week. It is not my
practice to make the owners of the company wait. Anyway, here is my
belated answer.
First of all, there is very little time left for the present quiet
period. We have been waiting, perhaps erroneously, but it was our
decision, for some outside events to transpire before we went ahead
with
our marketing plan. You see, with a limited budget, we believe that
we
need free media to reinforce our online marketing efforts. Experience
tells us that our conversion rates will be much higher if our ads are
backed up with free media. Promised free media has not appeared, but we
keep being told that it is just around the corner. The latest promise
is
a week to ten days into April. That is the last wait we will stand for,
but at the present time, we are holding to our plan, and waiting.
Your second concern has also been ours, i.e. another strong player will
arise to cover our space. Marketing 101 is that you can not beat the
market leader at his own game. You must garner strength at a part of
his
market that he does not want. Once strength is gathered, the market
leader will turn on you, but by that time, hopefully, you will have
become strong enough to take him on in his own space.
The good news is that none of the strong actors has appeared in our
space. We are the point click and watch, DVD quality streaming
provider.
Who else is in that space? Downloads and little windows are the game
today. Streaming players are all fielded by smaller companies, and/or
require bandwidth twice what our player does.
That's not to say that we do not feel the heat of Apple's breath on our
necks. Netflix may have bungled his streaming effort, but we can not
expect him to never get it right. Time is of the essence. But we have
still used the extra time to good effect. We are miles ahead from where
we were in website search functionality, and we have a bunch more
content up, and more coming on at a faster and faster rate.
Not to be sanguine about it, but all we need to do is establish
ourselves, and acquire subscribers at an ever increasing rate. Our
second quarter filings had better show strong subscriber growth. These
are serious concerns, and we are addressing them. But we are a long
long
way from anything approaching rolling in the wrong direction. Maybe
things are not coming at your preferred schedule, or maybe even ours.
But we are looking healthy, and nothing bad has happened. The Chum
acquisition, which you minimize, is so much bigger than Lionsgate that
it's not even funny. "Too little, too late?" Nothing could be further
from the truth. "to be a replacement of Netflix and the more
traditional
brick and mortar stores such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video?" Not
until we have our ducks in a row. It's a nice thought, and is a part of
the plan, but we are not ready to take those big boys on. Yet.
Michael
I spoke to MG last week. Would anybody have any objections if I were to post his e-mail on this site. Not sure if that is allowed at all?
Ant
Turnkey Web Video Publisher Finds Way to Deliver DVD-Quality Video (January 2007)
One Content Supplier Claims It’s Using the Technology to Delivery HD over High-Tier Broadband
By Peter Lambert
Delivery of Web-based content has crossed an important threshold with the introduction of full-screen DVD-quality video streaming based on technology supplied by turnkey video publisher and distributor GridNetworks.
Long-tail video aggregator ReelTime Rental and game-related movie developer GW Channel are the first programmer clients for GridNetworks' platform, which overcomes bandwidth barriers to very high-quality video streaming by breaking video files into thousands of segments and distributing them across a hybrid peer-to-peer/content delivery network. While ReelTime claims only to achieve full-screen DVD-quality for standard definition video, GW Channel claims it is delivering files in HD over the network to a game-player audience typically outfitted with faster than average broadband connections.
Availability of HD content over the broadband Internet tops industry research firm In-Stat's "featured predictions" in its recently released "In-Stat Predictions 2007."
However, real-time streaming of even standard-definition video in full-screen, DVD quality (720 x 480 resolution at 30 frames per second over a typical 1.5 mbps connection) itself would mark a breakthrough for living-room quality video streaming as an instant-viewing alternative to waiting several hours per video file download before viewing.
"Whether you blow up to 42-inch or 120-inch display, we achieve the quality people already expect from DVD or cable TV on their TVs," says ReelTime Rental founder and CEO Barry Henthorn.
GridNetwork's formatting process breaks video files into six-second segments, as many as 10,000 per video. The company's GridCast streaming video delivery service also combines the best of traditional content delivery network (CDN) and peer-to-peer (P2P) media distribution architectures, says CEO Jeff Payne.
Rather than requiring deployment of expensive local edge proxy servers, the GridNetworks CDN extends edge capacity through its GridCast Core software and GridCast Player client software residing on subscriber PCs. "All subscribers hold onto many segments in an encrypted area on the hard drive, spreading the load across many, many nodes, and they can share with friends across a broadband neighborhood," Payne says. As it receives a video stream, the client player acquires each sequential movie segment by seeking the topologically closest source, looking across as many as 16 sources, including the encrypted areas on peer subscriber hard drives.
Through edge server savings, Payne estimates that the cost of "GridCasting" full-screen, instant-on, DVD quality video is about half as much as traditional CDNs, which lowers the barriers to market entry for content owners seeking to compete with big players on the Web. "In terms of marketplace opportunity, GW channel is a perfect example of putting a small company on a level playing field with large media companies as it seeks worldwide exposure to millions of consumers," he says.
Those economics were also key to ReelTime's September video rental and subscription service launch over GridNetworks, says ReelTime's Henthorn.
"With a server-based CDN, you have to pay for bandwidth every time something is watched, so with popular titles and multiple concurrent streams, you get a centralized bandwidth glut, and your quality is more challenged," he says. By contrast, with the P2P/CDN hybrid and segmented file system, "bandwidth costs are shared by users themselves, so it's far less costly than over a traditional CDN. Your costing can come down to where you can afford to offer subscription TV and assume a very long tail content role."
Citing "a fair amount of development" behind the Grid technology, Henthorn says competitors won't match the quality results overnight. "To our knowledge, there's not a better end-to-end delivery system available. In this game, if you don't have some type of distributed network, you're at a disadvantage. As congestion happens, it will be increasingly a game of efficiency."
Payne says other video vendors have signed on to the GridNetworks service, and the company is in discussions with major media companies who "say they are getting killed by standard CDN costs."
The GridCast client software, which is both a viewer with VCR functionality and a source of intelligence for sharing content with peers, "all works within Windows Media and with Macromedia Flash" he says. "Underneath is the player taking care of the sharing, which is lightweight, so it does not press on the end user's bandwidth or step on VoIP calls or online gaming," or other concurrent applications.
Serving more than five million viewers through third-party video distributors, GW Channel previously had provided only downloads of its feature-length films including ClanWars and Militia 2 and other original programming, which it produces to promote specific videogames and related products.
However, even for those who had paid a subscription fee to get first in line for new releases, "you had to wait several hours for the download," says GW Channel founder Daniel Frome. "It makes much more sense to stream."
As of November, GW Channel is satisfied it has a way to stream even HD content over limited bandwidth. With in-house expertise in encoding and other production skills, GW is producing files at 720 x 1280 resolution, "where HD starts," Payne says, for targeted customers with connections who tend to have faster than 2 mbps connections.
By the end of 2006, Frome says members also will be able to upload and distribute their own DVD and HD video files on GW Channel.
"Our Web site is for the ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder] generation who wants to see things right away," he says. "It's not just about hosting on our own site, but delivering at top quality. We have about a hundred titles in the pipeline and develop a lot of the content, so we care about pixels."
Frome says the streaming capability also alters the revenue landscape for GW. "In 2005, ClanWars had over 100,000 downloads in the first 48 hours after release, but the company that distributed the film for us retained most of the advertising and subscription revenues," he says. "By cutting out the middle man and contracting with GridNetworks, GW Channel can stream its own films and directly collect advertising and subscription revenues. We also get to brand GW Channel, not a third party, as the premier online destination for gamer films and programming."
However, for programmers who want it, syndication also figures into GridNetworks' offering. The service abstracts the publishing process from distribution by providing an interface to its Media Vault that captures all business rules and metadata for multiple languages, so GW and other programmers can export some sets of their catalogs, establishing business rules via an XML capture by authorized syndication sites.
Payne suggests that advances in cable, DSL and other broadband operator access speeds will make it yet easier for programmers like GW Channel to deliver HD in 2007. Further, he anticipates announcing deals with consumer electronics makers in early 2007 to bring GridNetwork content to the TV as well as the PC.
"This is enabled by broadband, so we are able to deliver with central command and control all sorts of content to broadband-connected devices," he says. "The vast majority are terminating on PCs, but set-tops and game consoles are important going forward for this high-quality, long-form entertainment content. We're working with two manufacturers. Early in 2007, you'll see deals where we compile on set-tops. The same with game consoles. We need to be on those devices, including TiVo, as well."
Anybody getting any hints from somebody inside the company that we will be hearing news soon. This silent treatment is killing me. I don't know how everybody else feels but I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning over here...
Ant
Did Barry actually give a time-line for the uplist to a bigger board. I recall him saying that the audited financial reports are done but did he actually say when we would be moving up???
Ant
I found this on the Money 101 board. Seems very similar to what we have seen in RLTR the past two days.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=7489
Manipulation:
This is a device used more by Market Makers (MMs) than others, but by no means, limited to them alone.
MMs rank right behind bankers, lawyers, politicians, and many CEOs.
They have the ability to create what appears to be volume and increase in pps (price per share), giving the false impression that a stock is going up in value. What is to be closely watched for is whether it is a sustained increase in pps, or only temporary.
They have the ability to 'over accentuate' a 'run' giving the impression the issue is going up quickly. Often, they will naked short shares at the HOD (high of day) only to buy them back (from you) on the retrace. They understand terms like 'weak hands', 'panic', 'fear', and have no qualms of using their skills to make themselves more money at your expense.
No one makes more money in the stock market, than MMs. Usually, it's YOUR money, they make!
MMs have an arsenal of tricks they use, of which would be impossible to outline them all. Other common ones are signals. Often, they will use 100 share trades to take a pps up or down, depending on what their desire is. If they have shares they want to sell, they will try to 'take it up', giving the appearance of a pps going up in value. Conversely, when they need shares, they 'take the pps down', on 100 share trades, hoping to 'shake weak hands' loose of their shares with the fear of a plumetting pps.
Another form of manipulation is performed by unscrupulous investors or investment bankers, usually by 'bidwhacking' a pps down, so as to buy more shares at lower prices, whether on the open market or thru private placements. (A private placement is when a company sells shares directly to an investor, as opposed to the open market).
Short Selling, Naked Short Selling (NSS):
Short selling is done with actual shares that legally exist in certificate. This practise is usually done when a stock is considered overvalued, and a 'short' expects the pps (price per share) to decline. The short is borrowing someone's shares (possibly even yours) at whatever price, from a broker who has such shares, sells them to the market, and after the price has declined, the shorter buys them back (cover's), pays the broker back, and keeps the excess, as profit.
Naked Short Selling (NSS) is done with shares that do NOT exist, in no form whatsoever, and is done only by Market Makers (MMs). This is very comparable to counterfeiting, except without the need to even have printers. Because naked shorted shares do not exist in any form whatsoever, they cannot even be traced by the SEC. It is also a form of dilution, and in the broadest sense, compounded dilution at it's worst, and furthermore, not even on anyone's books.
Naked short selling was created (by the SEC, no less) to allow MMs to 'maintain an orderly market', though it's intention has been ridiculously abused (by MMs) to the point of criminality. Worse yet, due to 'loopholes' in the laws that MMs are able to circumvent, rarely does prosecution/penalties ever occur.
Any thoughts, please feel free to comment.
Ant
I hope we get some news sometime this week so we can get some action. I think I fell asleep today watching todays trading...
Ant
Anybody ever think that the person who has been selling so much at these levels could be the former CEO Alex Stanczyk. I'm sure he is sitting on millions of shares that he could easily sell. I remember reading somewhere a while back that he had as many as 8 million shares.
Ant
Just found this website surfing through the business section:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0702/gallery.nextnet.biz2/index.html
Everybody should send an e-mail to its writers and tell them about Reeltime. We would get some serious exposure if CNN were to do a story about us. They also have Joost on their and they claim that they are going to make a wave in 2007. That's if they don't drown in our wake before hand.
Anthony
ICTN just jumped up to .06...
Broke through a million...
Ant
Lionsgate stock is up .16 or 2%. Somebody must have noticed something.
I wonder how the Lionsgate Stock will do today now that the news is out. 80% of LGF stock is held by institutions, so when they see this news maybe some of those institutions will buy up some of RLTR. That should shoot us straight up...
Ant
Anybody want to take any wagers on who the other major content provider will be. My money is one Time Warner. I think if we get TW then all the other major studios must follow suite. If I'm not mistaken TW is the market leader in entertainment.
Ant
Anybody want to take any wagers on who the other major content provider will be. My money is one Time Warner. I think if we get TW then all the other major studios must follow suite. If I'm not mistaken TW is the market leader in entertainment.
Ant
There is no nway I can see any sane person selling here for $0.13. This is the MM's not putting any trades through for an hour and a half trying to discourage traders and getting sellers to drop their ask. Anybody else tired of these MM games. How do we sell 1 million in the first 3 hours of trading and then only 10,000 in the hour after that.
-Ant
Are all the traders out to lunch for the past hour or so. Or is this just the MM's trying to play their games again to try and discourage investors...
Ant
That means that Barry is going to have a very busy day tomorrow making us rich. He has two interviews, one with MN1.com and the other with WallSt.net, after that he has the Conference call. How many times does he have to say that Reeltime will be the best thing going on the internet...
Anthony
I put a bid in for .13 and it got filled in about 10 seconds. I really didn't have time to sit and wait around by my computer to see if they would fill me at .12...
Anthony
I just started using E-trade. Not quite sure really how to use it yet but do their bid and ask reflect the true B&A. Thanks...
Anthony
For anybody who has been following this stock and board for a while does this name from the Reeltime Blog sound familiar. "Gonzalo Leon [Visitor]"
Didn't we have a visitor Gleon a while back who all he did was bash the stock on every post. If I remember correctly he couldn't get Grid to play right cause he had an outdated system.
Universal Studios (sometimes called Universal Pictures or, officially, Universal City Studios), a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the major American film studios that has production studios and offices located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County between Los Angeles and Burbank. Distribution and other corporate, administrative offices are based in New York City. Universal is the second longest-lived studio in Hollywood (Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Universal's ownership partner of United International Pictures -- which distributes films by Paramount and Universal worldwide -- is the oldest).
Has anybody noticed any new content on the site lately?
Has anybody here signed up for an account on Gridnetworks Website. Just curious what that is all about.
What's with the no action today? How is the L2 looking?
Ant
I don't think Reeltime putting up a super-bowl commericial is that far off. Doing some googling and look what I found. Grid-Networks is sponsoring this website of super-bowl commercial previews. How would that affect the PPS if the biggest watched television spot of the year had RLTR posted all over it.
http://www.superbowl-ads.com/2007/index.html
Does anybody have the spread this morning?
Anthony
Does anybody have any insight on the L2's. I'm curious to see what the spread is?
Ant
Anybody have any insight on L2's. Just curious why we don't have any volume today. What is the spread also?
Anthony
Has anybody seen this yet?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReelTime_Rentals
Somebody has noticed us, somewhere...
Ant
I think we are ready for news tomorrow because if you look in the past the day before any big news comes out, the volume has always spiked. As of right now we the volume has been doubled the previous days and we still have 3 hours left of the trading day.
It's probably the MM's swapping shares so they are ready for whatever is coming our way. The whole game is rigged so they make as much money as they can. It's like who cares about the little guy. What I would pay to get some inside information...
Ant
What's up with the no volume today. Anybody have any insight on L2's...?
Has anybody ever noticed that usually right before close or right after (Today there was a buy right at 4 and one just after 4, see below), there is always a buy that brings the price down. I don't think most people see it because it is after the close so it doesn't register on some sites. Today, the closing price was at .16 but there were two buys right here after 4
0.15 7700 OTO 16:01:40
0.145 2500 OTO 16:00:04
Is that just the MM buying some cheap shares for each other to unload in the morning at the closing price today so they can make a quick buck?
I'm just curious because it happens a couple of times during the week?
Ant