As the bidding war for 
Hulu heats up (with Google, reportedly, making a strong push at the end), the impact of networks choosing to delay the online broadcast of episodes is starting to become clear. And it’s not pretty.
Fox recently enacted a policy to wait eight days from the original airdate before putting episodes onto Hulu – unless you had a Hulu Plus or Dishn Network subscription. The immediate result of that appears to be a sharp spike in piracy.
The king of retail is 
launching a new digital service just as it throws in the towel on another.
Wal-Mart has brought its Vudu movie streaming service to the iPad in a move to expand its distribution. But as it dives deeper into video, the company has announce plans to shut down its MP3 download service by the end of the month.
Amazon Prime’s streaming 
catalog isn’t as big as the one at Netflix, but it’s working hard to catch up.
The retail giant has struck a deal with NBCUniversal Domestic TV Distribution that will add select Universal Pictures films to the Prime Instant Video collection. The deal will bring the total number of streamable videos to 9,000.
It took more than 12 years for
Duke Nukem Forever to see the light of day, but the wait for expansion packs may wind up being less than 12 weeks.
Take-Two and Gearbox Software have announced that the first downloadable content for the long-anticipated but critically-derided shooter will be out this fall. And in true Duke style, he’s taking aim at the kings of the FPS hill.
Smart TVs are starting to gain
traction with users – but having a boob tube that can connect to the internet is still not a big selling point.
In-Stat research says over 60 percent of households with a connected TV use a TV app at least once per week. Not surprisingly, Netflix and YouTube are the most popular apps – but interest seems to be growing in the competition.
When it comes to digital game sales, GameStop 
is still an also ran – but the company is making a series of moves that are starting to raise eyebrows among industry observers, who say it seems on track to become a powerful force.
Valve’s Steam service is still far and away the category leader, but GameStop (in a meeting with analysts) said it expects to see digital sales jump from $500 million this year to $1.5 billion by 2014.
Looks like Google’s plans 
to take its movie rental service on the road are about to get rolling.
The Android App marketplace briefly offered a Google-branded movie rental app for a short period last Friday, according to published reports. It was yanked quickly, but that still seemingly indicates an imminent widespread release.
Amazon is ramping up its fight against Netflix.
The online retailer, which lets members of its Amazon Prime service stream over 5,000 films and television shows, has added another 1,000 offerings to the mix – and is prominently letting users know that on its front page today.
EA is digging deeper into
the digital distribution space.
The company has completely revamped its online store, expanding its focus and renaming it ‘Origin’ in the process. The move will put EA in direct competition with Valve Software’s dominant Steam service — and, in some ways, Apple’s GameCenter.
Valve Software’s Steam has been the big dog 
in the PC digital distribution space for a while now, but one of the industry’s biggest publishers is ready to take it on.
Electronic Arts has announced Origin, an updated “direct-to-consumer gaming platform” that will let people buy titles directly from the company, rather than via retail or another service. Given how heavily EA is betting on PC games in the year to come, it’s not an altogether shocking move.
Chris Morris: Journalist 