Starting on December 8, Sony plans to make the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs available for streaming, at 720p, a month ahead of the retail release, to those who have broadband-enabled Sony TVs and Blu-ray players. The catch? It will cost users $24.95 for a 24 hour rental, or the same price as buying it on Blu-ray.

While some studios have been experimenting with the idea of "day-and-date" release, this offering by Sony isn't even that. While one could argue that you're streaming the movie a full month before you can even buy it on DVD or Blu-ray, charging $24.95 for a rental simply means that Sony is setting themselves up for failure. It's ironic that for all the noise some studios make about offerings like this, they are never willing to go on-record and give out any details on how many movies were sold. I wonder why.

How Sony can think this is a value to any consumer is beyond me, except for the fact that the studios have been treating customers like this forever. Two years ago, many of the major studios talked about doing day-and-date releases, which is the act of releasing a movie on DVD, VOD and on digital services like iTunes all on the same day. Consumers got excited with the idea, but according to Rentrak, only 30 movies were released last year day-and date on DVD and VOD, not including iTunes. Sadly, none of this comes as any surprise though since according to Rentrak, cable and telco VOD transactions are up 14% year over year. The studios, with their short-sighted vision, are still worried about digital distribution eating into their VOD and DVD profits and would rather fight it, even though consumers are demanding it.

Updated: As if this should surprise anyone, Sony's CEO was quoted in the NYTimes in reference to the $24.95 price saying. "We don’t need a war with Wal-Mart or any other organization, and I don’t think they’re hostile to this." More proof that the studios only care about their DVD revenue.

Related posts:

– MPAA Whines About Piracy And BitTorrent On 60 Minutes, When Will They Learn

– This Is Just Stupid: Digital HD Downloads Still Cost More Than DVDs

Last week, Netflix started mailing out the discs that PS3 users must insert in their console each time they want to stream a movie. While the disc is a temporary measure until there is a dedicated Netflix app for the PS3, the solution is very slow and painful. The disc takes about 20 seconds to load and once a movie is selected, it takes almost 30 seconds before the movie starts streaming. While the quality of the stream is good and looks the same to me when compared to streaming on the Xbox 360, Roku or TiVo, the controls that allow you to do things like fast-forward the video are also very slow.

For those PS3 users who have never streamed Netflix to any other
device, they may not even notice or care. But for anyone like myself
who has used one of the many other Netflix enabled devices for streaming, the
PS3 experience really suffers when it comes to the user experience. I still find it odd that Netflix raised their guidance for the fourth quarter due to the deal with Sony because if you use some assumptions and run the numbers, it's not that much additional revenue. Lets over-estimate and say Netflix ships 500,000 discs to PS3 users in November alone. And lets say that 50% of those users are all new for Netflix and sign up for the $8.99 a month package. That's only an additional $4.4 million in revenue for Netflix in the fourth quarter. So unless Sony is paying Netflix, or there is some other revenue changing hands between the companies, I don't see the reason for Netflix to raise their guidance for this quarter.

Today at 2pm ET I’ll be moderating and participating in a unique open forum Q & A web event sponsored by CDNetworks. Please join us and bring any technical or business-related questions you have about your content delivery needs. Joining me during the webinar will be Rich Day, VP of Product Strategy at CDNetworks, and former founder of Speedera Networks. The webinar is free and you can register here.

Most of the webinar is going to be spent answer your questions and discussing topics you want to hear about. If you have any questions or topics you want us to cover, you can send them in early in the comments section.

Sorenson Media, a sponsor of this blog, just released version 6 of their popular Squeeze encoding software. Jan Ozer over at StreamingMedia.com just did a write up on some of the new features which you can read about here. Sorenson is providing readers of my blog with a special 30-day evaluation serial number so you can get hands-on with the software and try it out for yourself. Just download the Mac or Windows version and use this serial number: 884TQC-GBVG44-UY9Y67-BFADQ5-MSF58D. UPDATED: Where it asks for a company name, type in Rayburn. The serial number is good for the first 100 activations, so you better be quick if you want to make sure you can use it. Thanks to Sorenson for making the code available to readers.

If the code did not work for you the first time, please enter the name Rayburn where it asks for a company name.

With the number of new broadband-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players expected to be sold, along with devices such as the Xbox 360, Roku, TiVo, and PS3, consumers now have many ways to get their video fix. So what are the new business models that will be created from these devices? What hurdles need to be overcome so that content can be monetized for multiple platforms?

At this year's Streaming Media West Show, executives from Xbox, Roku, Sling Media, Motorola, TiVo, FLO TV, Vizio, Verizon, ZillionTV, Cisco, MobiTV, and Boxee will discuss the role of current consumer entertainment devices in this new convergent world and how these devices will play together to offer a superior video experience.

It's not too late to get a pass to the show and readers of my blog can register using my own personal discount code of DRF1, which gets you $200 off the ticket price. You can attend all three days of the SM West show for only $695.

On Monday, November 16th, the night before the Streaming Media West show begins, Brightcove is throwing an exclusive executive networking event designed for online video managers, producers, and leaders. Complimentary cocktails, food and a live discussion with Brightcove's CEO Jeremy Allaire will take place at the St. Claire Hotel in San Jose, CA from 7:00pm – 10:00pm PT.

Brightcove says that attendance is limited and that registrations will not be taken at the door. You must be pre-registered to attend so hit up the website and get your RSVP in now.

In addition to this event, we have three other networking events taking place during the week of the West show. On Tuesday November 17th, we've got the show opening reception taking place from 5-7pm on the exhibit floor and after that ends, have a big networking mixer taking place starting at 7pm which you can register for here.

While the entertainment industry still seems to get most of the media's attention around the use of streaming, the enterprise and retail verticals are using and deploying online video every day, with real success. At the Streaming Media West show in two weeks, we've got a great lineup of speakers from Fortune 500 corporations and leading online retailers including: Zappos.com, Home Shopping Network, Hot Topic, American Sporting Goods, Bank Of America, Lockheed Martin, Wachovia, BP America, Flowserve Corporation, Charles Schwab & Co., Accenture, Franklin Templeton Investments, Intuit, Safeway and Amgen.

It's not too late to get a pass and readers of my blog can register using my own personal discount code of DRF1, which gets you $200 off the ticket price. You can attend all three days of the SM West show for only $695.