Los Angeles — Warner Bros., the major US film producer that earlier this month introduced a video renting service straight from a movie’s Facebook fanpage, which obviously turned out to be very promising enough to prompt the movie mogul to expand its trial of offering with digital movie distribution by releasing five more movies for rent on the social media network Facebook, starting with the blockbuster hit “The Dark Knight”.
Quick to lure the vast audience, as video outlets are vanishing off and consumers feel more convenient to watching digital movies, Warner Bros. and other studios are tempted to capitalize on digital revenues through trendy models such as the deal with social media network Facebook. The social network movie rentals are also a way to avoid services such as Netflix, which is perceived as being increasingly powerful in digital movie distribution.
The company late Sunday announced the inclusion of five additional titles — “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” “Inception,” “Life as We Know It” and “Yogi Bear” — available through each film’s official Facebook Page for rental using Facebook Credits.
“We are pleased to broaden our test with a variety of titles that will appeal to a wider audience,” said Thomas Gewecke, President of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. “These titles have substantial followings on Facebook. The Fan Pages for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Inception’ alone are two of the most popular and active communities on the site.”
Furthermore, users in the U.S. will be able to rent films by clicking on the “watch now” icon and reimburse with Facebook Credits, which is the social media network’s new virtual currency. In addition, Warner Bros. also said it was offering “The Dark Knight” to Facebook users for 30 Facebook credits, or $3, for a 48-hour rental. For now, the present rental charges are $3 for library titles like the Harry Potter” movies and $4 for “Inception,” “Life” and “Yogi Bear,” which WB qualifies as new releases.
Interestingly, the company at the time said it would likely broaden the trial. It has moved quickly.
As with Dark Knight, users will have full command over the film while watching it; they can choose to watch it in full screen, pause the movie, and resume playing it when they log back into Facebook. Besides, users will also have full Facebook functionality including the ability to post comments on the movie, interact with friends and update their status.
This is not the social media Facebook’s first attempt into the VOD world. In addition to clips and trailers that populate the site, Facebook also hosted the PBS documentary Earth Days last year, where it was available to users before it aired on TV. Moreover, WB’s adoption of Facebook as a distribution mechanism is seen as a way for the studio to harness the social network giant’s formidable user base. It has also a means of countering the fast rise of Netflix as the dominant player in subscription-based movie and TV web streaming.
Meanwhile, Amazon and Redbox also recently unfurled their streaming initiatives to challenge Netflix, which with 20 million subscribers is, at the moment, in the catbird seat for the segment.