File this under Disturbing, Deeply: The Guardian reports that Disney has paid British Telecom for a three-month sponsorship of its famous talking clock - the one that launched in 1936, the one that stays in sync with Coordinated Universal Time - in order to have the clock's usual dulcet tones replaced by the high-pitched glee of Tinker Bell. (It's to coincide with the DVD release of "Tinker Bell," in case you didn't presume.)  The message is: "Hi! It's Tinker Bell! At the third bell, the time will be..." To hear it for yourself, click here. [The Guardian]

Warner Bros. has moved to block any promotional screening of an interview with Sen. John McCain tied to the Nov. 11 DVD release of Lionel Chetwynd's 1987 drama "The Hanoi Hilton." Chetwynd recorded the conversation with McCain in May as a DVD extra in which the senator speaks of his time in the North Vietnamese prison Hoa Lo. According to Michael Cieply, "The studio is concerned that any pre-election showing might embroil the project in electoral politics." Chetwynd had planned to promote the DVD and was preparing to screen the film at the CAA, where he is represented, until Warners called a halt. Says Warners' home entertainment rep Ronnee Sass, "It's just us trying to be cautious and not affect the election one way or the other." [New York Times]

Nascent Netflix competitor Redbox has filed a federal lawsuit against Universal Studios. According to the complaint, the studio is demanding distribution terms that prohibit Redbox from renting Universal DVDs for 45 days after public release, limit how many Universal DVDs each Redbox kiosk can contain and would require Redbox to destroy previously viewed DVDs rather than sell them at a discount. Redbox, which claims that Universal's actions violate antitrust laws and constitute copyright misuse, has more than 10,000 automated kiosks nationwide and charges $1 per night for its DVD rentals. In May, the company announced its intention to file an IPO. [BusinessWire]

>> RELATED: Judge dismisses suit claiming price fixing of digital music [Courthouse News Service]

Letters are going out now to Netflix subscribers, advising that the company "is going to start charging $1 a month (plus applicable taxes), in addition to your monthly membership charge, for unlimited access to Blu-ray movies." You can also opt out of Blu-ray access and keep your subscription at its current rate. The charge isn't unexpected, as Blu-rays are more expensive but, says Peter Sciretta, "I believed the cost would be a lot more. Bravo to Netflix for keeping it affordable." [Slashfilm]

By the end of September, Netflix had signed up fewer people than expected and the company has also lowered projections for the fourth quarter, Meg Tirrell writes. The third-quarter shortfall wasn't that bad -- Netflix had 8.672 million subscribers, off a projected 8.675 million to 8.875 million -- but the economy along with competition from Blockbuster, Apple and Amazon, among others, suggests an uphill road. The company still hopes to see its subscriber base increase to 9.55 million by the end of the year. [Bloomberg]

Yesterday, Dell Computer's deal with Paramount  -- pay an extra $20 and you'll get "Iron Man" on your new computer --- seemed a little silly. The wisdom of that arrangement appears even more questionable given the lavish and varied DVD extras that Paramount has assembled for eight different outlets. Peter Sciretta assembles a gallery of the products, each an exclusive to a specific retailer (Target, Costco, Wal-Mart) and the lavish presentations include mask-shaped packaging and (my favorite) "Iron Man" bobbleheads. (Dell promses nonspecific "bonus content" and the systems' pricing starts at $649 -- "Iron Man" not included.) [slashfilm]

Here's something else to blame on the economy. Although Sony's Blu-ray won the war, Toshiba's HD DVD format is going down fighting thanks to aggressive price cuts, Matthew Garrahan writes. The players, which also play standard DVDs, can be found for less than $60; the HD DVDs cost as little as $10 and the thousands of available titles included relatively recent ones like "American Gangster." Says Jeff Wisot, VP marketing at Buy.com, "We expected to see a huge increase in Blu-ray sales and HD DVD dying (when Blu-ray won the format war), but it just hasn't happened." [Financial Times]

Is this available as its own DVD? And if not, why? Rick Burin praises "The Warner Bros. Breakdowns," a collection of blooper reels that include flubs from the likes of Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, James Cagney and Carole Lombard. Writes Burin, "They were compiled annually by the studio's social club, open to all Warner employees, and from 1935 to 1949 formed the centrepiece of the group's Christmas party, held at LA's Biltmore Hotel. The reels are now surfacing on DVD." Unfortunately, they're parsed out as the extras on the U.K. versions of  the "Warner Gangsters, Vol. 2" and "Humphrey Bogart Signature Collection Vol. 2" box sets and on "Adventures of Robin Hood." Warners Home Video senior VP George Feltenstein describes the footage as "a very insightful view into the overall spirit of Warner Bros in its formative years. No other studio could let their hair down and have a little fun at their own expense the way this company did." [The Guardian]

"One reason that you can't find movies like the James Bond series, 'The Godfather,' and 'The Lion King' is likely that they haven't yet been released on Blu-ray disc yet, and the studios are sure they'll make more money on selling high-def discs than they can with $9.99 iTunes downloads," writes Scott Kirsner. Jim Flynn, who runs the download sites EZTakes and iArthouse, puts it another way: "The pirates in general have a download exclusive," he says. "These movies are available as downloads -- just not legal ones." Full list of the 50 films here. [Variety, CinemaTech]

CNN
The problems began Tuesday and affect all 55 of its shipping centers, but so far they are otherwise unspecified. Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the company was able to send out some discs on Wednesday, but shipped none on Tuesday and, by Thursday morning, had not shipped any.