South Park along with hit Nickelodeon shows like iCarly and SpongeBob SquarePants have joined the thousands of movies and TV episodes that Netflix subscribers can watch instantly on their computers and TVs. The agreement was announced by Netflix, Inc., MTV Networks (MTVN), and South Park Digital Studios LLC.

The deal marks an expansion of the relationship between Netflix and MTVN. Netflix currently offers a wide range of MTVN properties on DVD and obtained its first digital license from the company last year through an agreement that allowed Netflix to stream movies, documentaries and original programming from MTVN’s LGBT-oriented Logo network.

Originally posted on April 7, 2009 @ 10:53 am

Major League Baseball’s official website MLB.com will cap the public beta of its new high definition media player with a two-day free preview of MLB.TV Premium today and tomorrow. The preview will feature five Spring Training games, including the first games at the world’s and New York City’s two newest ballparks – Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.

Beginning with Opening Day, this new MLB.TV Premium media player with enhanced interactive features and delivered in a convenient, cutting-edge Adobe Flash format will be available for every out-of-market regular season game. MLB.TV is now in its seventh season streaming live baseball games online.

Originally posted on April 3, 2009 @ 11:05 am

EQAL, the social entertainment company founded by Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, creators of wildly successful Internet social dramas, announced a licensing agreement with entertainment company Shinto Tsushin to distribute lonelygirl15 and KateModern throughout Japan and to create original content under the LG15 franchise.

Under the terms of the partnership, Shinto Tsushin will distribute Japanese dubbed versions of lonelygirl15 and KateModern throughout Japan. Additionally they will produce and distribute an original LG15 social show that will take place in Japan.

Shinto Tsushin will work with a local production company to create a new social show to extend the LG15 franchise. The show will fit into the general LG15 mythology and Shinto Tsushin will be responsible for localizing the story and characters to Japanese culture and norms.

EQAL has a similar licensing agreement with Polish producers Agora and A2 Multimedia for the n1ckola social show, which is distributed in Poland and also part of the LG15 franchise.

Originally posted on March 31, 2009 @ 10:14 am

Brightcove Inc. announced a series of major customer acquisitions in Japan, including Tokyo Broadcasting System, Inc., Sony Music Network Inc., Asahi Breweries Group, Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd., and Orange Page Inc. The adoption of the company’s platform in Japan continues to accelerate Brightcove’s global expansion and build on a customer base that includes leading media companies and marketers across North America and Europe.

Brightcove established its majority-owned subsidiary in Japan in 2008 with $4.9 million in new investment from Brightcove Inc. and four market-leading Japanese strategic partners: Dentsu, Inc., J-Stream, Inc., transcosmos, Inc. (transcosmos), and Cyber Communications, Inc. (CCI). Last year, Web TV distribution giant, Presentcast, selected Brightcove for gorin.jp, the exclusive online video portal in Japan for coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. gorin.jp is backed by all of Japan’s commercial television broadcasters. Since then, Brightcove has continued to help Presentcast launch a number of online video properties, including the World Snowboarding Championship’s X-Trail JAM and the Inter-High School Football Championship.

Originally posted on March 22, 2009 @ 8:33 pm