Nielsen has gone into public beta with its Hey! Nielsen network, an online social network site for movie, tv and music fans who want the media conglomerates to hear what they think. WOM specialists Affinitive helped develop the concept. (more…)

DVD rental and movie download company Lovefilm claims that its deal with Volkswagen is the world’s first movie download service sponsored with advertising.

In return for watching the ads whilst the film is downloading, members of the UK club can view one of a select number of £2.99 titles for free. The deal restricts the total number of downloads to 100,000 copies over a four month period.

Chris Bird, Head of Marketing Services for Lovefilm, tells us:

“The model allows brands to deliver campaigns that combine the impact of cinema and TV advertising, but through the accountability of the web.”

In early December we mentioned that US supermarket giant Walmart is getting into the movie download business. Now Walmart has announced that they have done deals with six major Hollywood studios to offer movies for download. That’s pretty much all the major studios, with downloads starting at US$ 7.50. Television programmes will also be on offer, starting at $1.96 per episode. Like Apple’s iTunes video download service, Paramount and Disney are on the list. Joining them are Warner Brothers, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal. There is no advertising on the service, which is purely subscription based. But it does herald a new era of media delivery to the mass market, which is the sort of stuff MediaSoon is always going to get excited about. (more…)