I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 123rd edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for Mar. 2, 2012. This week's podcast has a different format; instead of discussing one topic in depth, we touch on three areas - the new lawsuit against Aereo, Netflix's deal with Starz ending (and whether the "flix" is coming out of Netflix) and UltraViolet's strategy of using discs to drive adoption.

WIth respect to Aereo, the lawsuit alleging copyright infringement was fully expected. But how it's ruled upon is now the key question. Colin maintains that the Cablevision DVR decision should extend to Aereo. However, as I pointed out in our podcast two weeks ago, for Aereo to expect to charge for broadcast signals without deals in place, in this age of retransmission consent, feels like a stretch. One interesting sidenote about the suit, filed by WNET, FOX, WPIX and Univision, is the absence of ABC, CBS and NBC. Are they planning their own actions? Or maybe trying to cut a deal with Aereo? We'll see. (Update: ABC, CBS and NBC have indeed filed their own complaint against Aereo).

Separate, Netflix's streaming service passed a milestone this week, losing Starz's movies with the termination of their deal. Colin and I agree that Starz was a "keystone" to launching Netflix's streaming service. However, as both of us agree, movies have become less important to Netflix over time, so the impact may not be that significant. This past week I posted a video interview with Netflix content head Ted Sarandos in which he described how the quality of TV series has improved so much that they now fully compete with movies for viewers' attention.

Last up, Colin explains the trend of how Hollywood is using discs to promote the usage of UltraViolet, an ironic twist given that UltraViolet is meant to drive digital sell-through. This week Warner Bros. discussed a new partnership with retailers to allow individuals to bring their DVDs into stores in order to upload them to the UltraViolet cloud, as well as train them to do this from home, once again proving that DVDs still have real value in the digital era.

Listen in to learn more!

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