Google TV's PrimeTime app update welcomes Amazon Prime content

An update to the PrimeTime Android app for Google TV has been released, bringing with it some bug fixes, as well as a "subscription selector" which means Netflix, HBO Go and Amazon Prime content now shows up as free if you're paying for any of those services. Wait, Amazon Prime content, you say? Well yes, we did, as the Amazon Prime Instant Video catalogue has been worked into the new version of the guide and recommendation app. Yet more ways to make sure we're up to date with The Good Wife? Sounds fine to us.

Source: Google Play store

Tags: amazon, amazonprime, AmazonPrimeInstantVideo, androidapp, GoogleAndroid, googletv, hbogo, hdpostcross, netflix, primetime

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By: Unknown On 8:32 PM

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CBS tries multi-stage syndication for The Good Wife on Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus and TV

CBS CORPORATION ANNOUNCES MULTI-PLATFORM SYNDICATION ROLLOUT FOR "THE GOOD WIFE"

Amazon Prime Instant Video Will Lead the Off-Network Launch With Previous-Season Episodes Available for Streaming March 14

Hulu Plus to Roll Out Previous Seasons of "The Good Wife" in September 2013

Hallmark Channel to Launch the Award-Winning Series on Cable Beginning in January 2014

Weekend Syndication Run Sold to Stations Representing 85% of the Country for September 2014

STUDIO CITY, CALIF. (March 13, 2013) – CBS Corporation announced today a unique multi-platform syndication model for its award-winning drama THE GOOD WIFE, windowing the off-network rights for the series with distribution partners across subscription-video-on-demand services, a basic cable network and broadcast television stations.

"This is an off-network model for a unique serialized show in today's television ecosystem," said Leslie Moonves, President and CEO, CBS Corporation. "It uses creative windowing to serve the content needs of best-in-class partners while realizing the full syndication value for a high-quality series. In addition, the potential for catch-up viewing across multiple platforms can provide incremental value to future broadcasts on the CBS Television Network."

As part of an agreement with Amazon.com, the first three seasons of THE GOOD WIFE will be available on Amazon Prime Instant Video beginning March 14, with season four coming to Prime Instant Video later this year. All Prime Instant Videos are commercial-free and can be viewed at no additional cost by Prime members on Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Roku, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Wii U, among other devices.

"THE GOOD WIFE has consistently been one of the strongest sellers on Amazon Instant Video, so we know our customers love the show. We are excited to be the first to offer seasons one through three of this great CBS series to Prime members and then later this year, Prime members can enjoy season four," said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon.

As part of an expanded agreement with Hulu, previous seasons of THE GOOD WIFE will be available to Hulu Plus subscribers in September 2013. This builds on previously announced licensing agreements between CBS and Hulu for library content and for CBS- produced programming that airs on The CW. Hulu Plus is available to TV fans on more than 320 million connected tablets, phones, and living room devices for $7.99 per month.

"THE GOOD WIFE is one of the best dramas on network TV and we are thrilled to bring this show – as well as thousands of episodes from 20 other shows in the CBS library – to our Hulu Plus subscribers," said Andy Forssell, Senior Vice President of Content for Hulu. "CBS has been an important partner to us, and we are proud that our agreement continues to create accretive revenue streams for their premium programming."

The Hallmark Channel, a brand long recognized for high-quality entertainment, has acquired the off-network rights to present THE GOOD WIFE, the most decorated broadcast television drama, on basic cable. Since its premiere in 2009, the unique drama, which combines a sophisticated legal franchise with family drama, has earned numerous awards including the AFI Award (2012) and the Peabody Award (2011), as well as Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Awards for lead actress Julianna Margulies. The series has also received numerous WGA nominations for its writing. The Hallmark Channel will begin running THE GOOD WIFE on weekdays beginning January 2014.

"With 80 Emmy Awards and dozens of Golden Globes, Hallmark's contributions to television are unparalleled," said Bill Abbott, President and CEO, Crown Media Family Networks, Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel. "Hallmark Channel's audience is very reflective of CBS's, and as our network enters the arena of creating original, primetime scripted fare, we look to TV programs like THE GOOD WIFE as the type of award-winning, quality series we value and want to emulate," Abbott concluded.

In addition, THE GOOD WIFE will be available to local television stations for a weekend broadcast syndication window beginning in September 2014. CBS Television Distribution has sold these rights to the CBS Television Stations as the flagship broadcast group and to stations of all affiliations, currently covering 85% of the country.

"This is a syndication rollout that's a great match of program with partners," said Scott Koondel, Chief Content Licensing Officer, CBS Corporation. "THE GOOD WIFE episodes have been popular on Amazon's electronic-sell-through (EST) service, and addictive serialized dramas like this perform very well on Hulu Plus. Meanwhile, the Hallmark brand has always been associated with quality and prestige, and THE GOOD WIFE is one of the most honored, critically acclaimed and talked-about shows on television – and, of course, it's a series that has always performed well on the CBS-owned stations."

THE GOOD WIFE, currently in its fourth season, is produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Scott Free Productions. Executive producers are Ridley Scott, Robert King, Michelle King, David Zucker, Brooke Kennedy, Ted Humphrey, Keith Eisner and Leonard Dick. Robert King and Michelle King are the creators.

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By: Unknown On 10:31 PM

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Amazon corrals FX's Justified to exclusive Prime Instant Video deal

Amazon's Prime Instant Video Named the Exclusive Online Subscription Home of FX Series Justified

Fan-favorite series The Shield will also join the Prime Instant Video catalog for Amazon Prime members to instantly stream at no additional cost

Amazon recently announced that PBS favorite series Downton Abbey and the anticipated summer series Under the Dome from CBS will soon be available exclusively on Prime Instant Video

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 2013-- (NASDAQ:AMZN) – Amazon.com, Inc. today announced a content licensing agreement with Sony Pictures Television, making Prime Instant Video the exclusive online subscription home to the FX Network western crime drama Justified. The award-winning and gritty series has been one of the most watched shows on Amazon Instant Video, where customers can purchase and download episodes for $1.99 each, and will now be available to Prime members at no additional cost. In addition, Prime Instant Video will add the critically-acclaimed inner-city Los Angeles crime drama The Shield to its catalog.

"Justified and The Shield are two fan-favorites on Amazon," said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon. "We're consistently looking for ways to make Prime even better – and one of the ways we're doing that is adding shows like these that we know customers love. Prime members have tens of thousands of episodes of their favorite series like Downton Abbey, Falling Skies, and now Justified and The Shield, to enjoy on hundreds of devices, at no additional cost."

"We have a great relationship with Amazon and we're excited to give fans more opportunities to view these two great dramas," said John Weiser, President of US Distribution for Sony Pictures Television. "We know Amazon's Prime Instant Video service is the ideal platform for viewers to see their favorite episodes of these critically acclaimed series and to also open the show up to new audiences who we know will quickly get hooked on them."

Earlier this month, Amazon and CBS announced an extension of their non-exclusive licensing agreement, including the subscription debuts of The Amazing Race and Undercover Boss, as well as a deal that will make Prime Instant Video the exclusive subscription home for the anticipated series Under the Dome this summer. Amazon also recently announced that Prime Instant Video will soon become the exclusive online subscription home for PBS hit Downton Abbey. Prime Instant Video offers more than 37,000 movies and TV episodes for Amazon Prime members to stream, commercial free, at no additional cost on Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Roku, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Wii U, among other devices. To sign up for Amazon Prime, visit www.amazon.com/primeinstantvideo.

About Amazon Instant Video

Amazon Instant Video is a digital video streaming and download service that offers Amazon customers the ability to rent, purchase or subscribe to a huge catalog of videos. Customers can choose from more than 150,000 titles to purchase or rent and content ranges from new release movies to classic favorites, major television shows, entire seasons, or even day after air TV. Prime Instant Video is Amazon's video subscription offer-it includes more than 37,000 movies and TV episodes selected from the full assortment available at Amazon Instant Video. This subscription offer allows US Prime customers to stream as many titles from Prime Instant Video as they like, at no additional cost.

About Prime

Amazon Prime is an annual membership program for $79 a year that offers customers unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items including books, home and garden products, electronics, video games, clothing, and much more. Amazon Prime members also get access to unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes and access to hundreds of thousands of books to borrow for free, as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates from a Kindle device. Customers who receive free Prime shipping benefits through our Amazon Student or Amazon Mom programs can upgrade to an annual paid membership to receive Amazon Prime's digital benefits.

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By: Unknown On 6:01 PM

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Alt-week 2.9.13: Seismic invisibility, bacterial gold and really, really big prime numbers

Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

The lure of gold, the unpredictable weather and the power of invisibility. What do these three things have in common? We'd argue their almost universal appeal to the human race. Science makes headway in all three of these areas in this edition. On top of that there's a really, incredibly, massive prime number. This is alt-week.

The hunt for gold's spun many a tale of rags to riches and even woven its way into our folklore. We bet, however, that (like us) many didn't know that gold production can take place at a microbial level, with much more than just the family farm at stake. Delftia acidovorans is a bacteria that lives in the biofilm environment found atop gold deposits. But, its luxurious choice of habitat also presents a real danger -- as gold ions are also fatally toxic to the bug. No biggie though, as the clever bacteria has turned alchemist, by creating a chemical -- a protein called delftibactin -- that converts the ions into gold nanoparticles. We know what you're thinking, and we're right ahead of you. So are the people behind the team that discovered this activity, with Nathan Magarvey from McMaster University suggesting that this could, indeed, have uses for the discovery and extraction of gold in natural sources. Given the tiny amounts that are being talked about, there'll be no worries about a modern gold rush, but, if harnessed correctly, it's thought the critters could play a role in recovery of, or as a biosensor for the shiny stuff in the future.

What's the biggest prime number you can think of? If like us, it's no bigger than 131 (okay, we even had to wiki that), then don't worry, you're not alone. There are, however, mathmatical minds that dedicate themselves to this very pursuit -- albeit with the use of technology. The largest known such number is 257885161 - 1, is 17 million digits long, and was recently discovered by a bunch of computers in Missouri taking part in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). Not sure how big a number like that is? Well, it reportedly took the computer array that discovered it 39 days to double check that it was actually prime. Our heads are hurting just thinking about that. The previous largest prime was apparently "just" 13 million digits long -- still some 12,999,997 longer than our best effort.

Invisibility is possibly the holiest of holy grails for many young (or once young) fertile minds. Sadly, it still seems like the cloak of our dreams is still some way out. Much of the current work in invisibility is concentrating on the visual aspect -- directing photons etc. Recently announced work at the Institut Fresnel in Marseille, France, however, has used a similar idea to create a "seismic invisibility cloak" that could help protect structures against earthquakes and more. The team drilled an array of 200 meter-deep boreholes, filled them with clay silt, and then set up acoustic monitoring of the area. To test their theory, 50 Hz waves with a 14mm displacement were emitted from one side, allowing them to measure what was received on the other. The result? According to the researchers, the waves were diverted away well, with almost nothing making its way past the second round of boreholes. The experiment is only designed to work with waves at a certain frequency, and there is the issue of dealing with where the reflections actually go (potentially other nearby structures?), but, for now, this represents a promising stretch in the right direction.

Dutch researchers at Wageningen UR have published results of their work that repurposed mobile network infrastructure to provide detailed, real-time rainfall maps. By monitoring the water-induced attenuation between mobile transmitters and receivers a surprisingly accurate gauge of rainfall intensity was recorded. The work could benefit the measurement of surface precipitation in areas where radar is either not present, or not viable (assuming a mobile network exists there also). This could help the management of water resources, climate research and, of course, weather prediction. The team's example used just one Dutch national network to demonstrate the method, but are keen to stress that due to the proliferation of these Tx / Rx network links around civilised areas generally, there's a wealth of resource sat there untapped.

[Image credits: BlurbfromtheBurbs]

Seen any other far-out articles that you'd like considered for Alt-week? Working on a project or research that's too cool to keep to yourself? Drop us a line at alt [at] engadget [dot] com.

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By: Unknown On 10:32 AM

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Amazon greenlights 6 original comedy pilots for Prime users

That smiling Amazon logo will soon be laughing, as six original comedy pilots were announced today for its Prime Instant Video service in the U.S. and Lovefilm in the U.K.

The online store touted its open-door development process in picking the six comedies, having crowdsourced 12,000 movie scripts and 2,000 series pilots over a two-year period.

"Since launching our original series development effort, we have received more than 2,000 series ideas from creators around the world with all different backgrounds," said Director of Amazon Studios, Roy Price, in a press release.

"We are extremely excited to begin production on our very first set of pilots."

Most of the crowdsourced creators with "different backgrounds" have one thing in common - you've probably seen their work before.

Alpha House was written by Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau and follows four senators living together in a rented Washington, D.C. house. This political satire's pilot may or may not end in a fiscal cliffhanger.

Big Bang Theory co-stars Kevin Sussman and John Ross Bowie also successfully submitted a pilot, the animated Dark Minions. It's being produced by Reno 911's Principato-Young Entertainment.

The Daily Show's Kristen Schaal will join Butter scriptwriter Jason Micallef in producing a second animated pilot for Amazon, Supernatural. It's about two mall-working divas defending humanity against - what else - the supernatural.

Another Daily Show writer, 12-time Emmy-winner David Javerbaum, is penning Browsers, a musical comedy set at a news site and directed by 30 Rock's Don Scardino.

The Onion, the satirical news source (and sometimes "official" news source dubiously picked up by Iran and North Korea), will create The Onion Presents: The News. It's supposed to be a smart, fast-paced scripted comedy that goes behind the scenes of the network and its "journalists."

Pilot Those Who Can't and writers Andrew Orvedahl, Adam Cayton-Holland and Benjamin Roy are the biggest beneficiary of Amazon's open-door process.

Their original comedy is described as being about "three juvenile, misfit teachers who are just as immature, if not more so, than the students they teach."

When the free comedy pilots appear on Amazon Instant Video, the site's customers will be able to provide feedback to determine which series the studio will produce in full.

Adding to the Amazon Prime perks, completed seasons will be exclusive to paying members of the expedited shipping and Instant Video service.

The online retailer said that the six original comedy pilots announced today are in addition to 14 projects that were submitted to Amazon Studios and have already optioned for development.

"Amazon has been so innovative and successful in so many realms," said Doonesbury and Alpha House creator Garry Trudeau. "It's impossible not to get excited about its new venture into online programming."

So, unlike Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, it appears as if Trudeau doesn't think Amazon's online video service is a confusing mess and wasting money on streaming.

View the original article here

By: Dilusha On 10:18 AM

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