Don't worry about Showtime, the network insists the threat of a Viacom-MGM-Paramount-Lionsgate premium movie channel is not going to hurt it, and in fact it's "in a better position as a free agent", according to VP Stu Zakim. Multichannel News has word from the corporate PR exec that only two movies ranked among the 20 top rated programs on the network in 2007, and considering the license fees the studios asked, it was better served investing in series development and marketing. We can expect fresh movies on Showtime through 2010-11, but after that it'll be up to remaining partner CBS Films to keep serving up the flicks, but for lovers of Weeds, Californication and Dexter there should be plenty more where that came from.

Hope you like your movies served fresh on-demand, as Viacom, Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM have just announced plans for a new "premium" channel launching fall 2009. Other than having access to Paramount and Paramount Vintage titles released to theaters on or after January 1, 2008, and MGM, United Artist and Lionsgate flicks released after January 1, 2009, the service plans a "robust" VOD component. According to Variety, the big loser here is Showtime, which loses access to several theaters it's depended on for content, and also faces competition for shows like Weeds and Dexter. We're sure no premium movie channel would launch in this day and age without an HD offering, so tell your provider to keep a slot open for this latest addition.

Anyone enjoying the iTunes Digital Copy included on some Fox DVD / Blu-ray releases will be happy to hear Lionsgate is jumping on the bandwagon as well, starting with its releases of Rambo and The Eye. The usual requirements of an iTunes account apply, and the file should work on authorized computers, iPods, iPhones and Apple TVs. We haven't grabbed one of these discs ourselves just yet, anyone want to let us know how well your rights are being managed by Apple (and whatever happened to Managed Copy)?

As support continues to just fall in the lap of the Blu-ray camp, Lionsgate president and co-COO has been quoted as saying that his company "expects the industry to unite behind Blu-ray by the summer." This was uttered yesterday during a spirited investor call, and was followed up by his suggestion that this so-called unification could "drive the current HD market to triple in size from $300 million in 2007 to more than $1 billion this year." He also noted that 2008 would mark the first year in which it would see "meaningful revenue in digital delivery," and mentioned that "Blu-ray revenue in January [2008] was about seven times higher than last year." Of course, all of this probably speaks more about industry trends than anything else, but it's seems safe to say that at least one bigwig at Lionsgate isn't scared to pronounce his admiration for BD.

[Via Blu-ray, thanks Kiwi616]

Nah, BD-Live isn't even close to where it should be, but hopefully the impending stream of BD-Live-enabled films will push the hardware vendors to get with the program. Apparently, both Lionsgate and Sony are readying web-enabled titles for January, even though "hardware that can fully playback BD-Live interactivity has not yet been confirmed." War and Saw IV should both be hitting shelves before February dawns, and while Miguel Casillas didn't elaborate on the former's interactivity, he did note that Saw IV would enable users to "share content through their Blu-ray players' web connections." Furthermore, Sony executive VP of advanced technologies Don Eklund proclaimed that internet-enabled features would "represent a major theme in the studio's 2008 Blu-ray slate." Of course, we're not going to get too riled up until we see this stuff in action, but hopefully a lot more details will be spilled at CES.

Microsoft scored another debut of animated content moving to HD for the Xbox Live Marketplace, as it recently announced the anime classic Akira will headline the rollout of anime from distributors FUNimation and Geneon. Despite initial growing pains with slow downloads and that too-small hard drive that's so expensive to upgrade, Lions Gate recently revealed that its movies have been rented 150,000 times on the service and called it a "promising sign" for their library and digital delivery. Along with the anime, expect content from Logo and CMT to also hit the service starting Monday, although no word on what, if any, of that will be in HD.

Read - More Content Coming on Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace US [Via Joystiq]
Read - Xbox Live boosts Lions Gate revenues

Sure, manufacturers have been cramming vanilla DVD content onto high-definition discs for some time, but aside from a few nifty features, they haven't gone out of their way to truly take advantage of all that space. Lionsgate and Marvel Enterprises are looking to change all that, as the duo plans to loose Ultimate Avengers: The Movie and Ultimate Avengers 2 on a single 50GB Blu-ray disc. Each film will reside on its own separate side, but neither will purportedly include DVD versions for use in standard players. Additionally, the flick will contain "two featurettes, a gag reel, a trivia track, and a first look at upcoming movie Dr. Strange," and should hit store shelves on April 24th for $39.99. Now, how long before we start seeing full-fledged trilogies on a single disc?

[Via TGDaily]

We've seen various slates of HD DVD / Blu-ray titles come out today, and heading up the rear of the release lists is none other than Lionsgate. While a Lionsgate film (The Descent) has caused quite a bit of fuss lately, the studio is hoping to create some positive PR noise by announcing that 40 BD titles should be hitting shelves with its name on it during this year, starting with Crank. It also highlighted the Golden Globe-winning TV series Weeds would be making its way to Blu-ray disc, as well as Ultimate Avengers I and II on the animation side. If you're anxious to get a few more Lionsgate productions in your collection, Employee of the Month is landing on January 16th, while the sure-to-be-successful Saw III hits on the 23rd. Overall, Lionsgate's 2007 list is far from spectacular, but it's got a bit of everything mixed in, including one of our personal favorites: Reservoir Dogs on February 6th. Click on through to see the first 21 titles to be released from Lionsgate on Blu-ray disc this year.

Lionsgate wouldn't be representing Blu-ray properly if it didn't delay at least some of their up-coming titles. Look at the whole history of the format, with all the delays of players, pushed back movies, bumped release dates and now Lionsgate is getting in on the action by delaying their titles that was suppose to hit October 17 but instead have been pushed back till 'early 2007.' Hopefully this means the studio is ditching the MPEG-2 codec and instead retrofitting these discs with VC-1 encoding. We don't know for sure why but let's just say we are more then a little disappointed that we can't peep Sylvester Stallone in First Blood as soon as we thought we could.

This is an odd pick for the format considering the treatment of the character Mr. Blue, but Reservoir Dogs will be making the jump to Blu-ray at the same time the 15th anniversary edition is released October 24th. Director Quentin Tarantino's 1991 Sundance hit and cult favorite will be released by Lionsgate on standard DVD in the Gas Can Edition with loads of extras including 6.1 DTS-ES and 5.1 Dolby Surround audio tracks plus loads of featurettes, other than the soundtracks and requisite 1080p transfer the details of the Blu-ray release are unknown.

Petitions can be a very powerful tool. If enough of the target audience signs one, things can happen. That is exactly what some people are trying to do with these following petitions. They are designed to show studios that they want to view their libraries of titles on HD DVDs. If these reach enough people, they might just do the trick. We do have to note that HDBeat is not taking any specific side on this war though (I have however), but if this is your kind of thing, you might want to go sign your John Hancock - digitally that is.

Studio Petitions

• Lions Gate
• Fox
• Disney
• MGM Pictures

Lionsgate isn't done with Blu-ray yet. The studio have already announced two waves of their titles and now they have just announced that on October 17, we are going to see some of the studios top titles. American Psycho, First Blood, Saw II and Young Guns are all coming out on 1080p discs with Dolby Digital Surround EX and DTS-HD surround tracks. We have to be honest though, we had no idea that First Blood could be a top title. Maybe a bit of 1080p and great surround sound will make it watchable. The titles are going to retail for $29.99.

The number of Blu-ray titles and quality of those titles have left some Blu-ray fanboys disappointed. It's Lionsgate's turn to announce more titles which will be available August 22nd. The latest additions will have special features which were absent in Lionsgate's first batch, but still no HD features. They will be single layer discs and have multiple audio formats including Dolby Digital EX Surround and DTS HD High Resolution ES.

No ground breaking titles here, but definitely some classics like Total Recall.

The titles include

• Total Recall
• Stir of Echoes
• Stargate
• The Devil's Rejects

Just as our own Ben was lauding the release of top tier titles like Best Picture winner Crash on Blu-ray, Lionsgate turns around and delays all of it's Blu-ray releases. The movies were scheduled to be released on May 23 along with the offerings from Sony Pictures, but instead will be on hold until June when Samsung is releasing their first Blu-ray player.

Confirmed Lionsgate Blu-ray titles: Lord of War, The Punisher, Devil's Rejects, Saw, T2: Judgment Day, Reservoir Dogs, Total Recall, Dune, Rambo: First Blood, See No Evil

The second wave of titles they had previously announced for June are now on hold indefinitely. This is probably to be expected after the Samsung delay became official, but it doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

We told you there would be more titles to follow! We didn't expect it to be this soon, but we sure are glad it did and I am sure the next few days there will many more. Lionsgate is bringing some great titles to the party including: Lord Of War  and The Punisher. In the months to follow they will release more including: Reservoir Dogs, Total Recall, and Stargate. The newer movies will have a suggested price of $40 and $30 for older titles.

I am a little disappointed to see the suggested retail price, I had hoped they wouldn't cost that much more than DVDs, but I suppose that was just wishful thinking. I can see I will have to wait some time before I start to replace my DVD collection. I wonder when Netflix will start to let me add them to my queue?

[via Zatz Not Funny]