Films and TV shows such as the first series of 24 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are to be offered for download.
CinemaNow Inc., an online provider of on-demand movies, said it has inked a deal to offer select television and film content on a download-to-own basis from Fox Entertainment Group (FEG), including the TV shows 24 and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
The deal allows CinemaNow users to access, on a download-to-own basis, movies from Twentieth Century Fox and TV series from FOX, FX, FUEL TV, SPEED, as well as content from the Twentieth Century Fox television library. The Fox content is available from CinemaNow’s website at www.cinemanow.com. Fox’s movie content is already on the site, while the television shows will be added next month.
Movies initially offered on a download-to-own basis will include recent titles such as “The Ringer and Cheaper By The Dozen 2.” Television content initially offered will include the first season of 24, as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Lost in Space. In addition, the deal will include FX’s It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, FUEL TV’S First Hand, and SPEED’s Pinks. Fox recently made a deal for all of those titles to be available on the iTunes Music Store.
Our goal is to accommodate our customers wherever they are, and CinemaNow is helping us to do just that, said Peter Levinsohn, president, Fox Digital Media. "Making our content available across a variety of platforms ensures that we will engage new audiences as well."
This partnership marks the first time CinemaNow will offer content from multiple television networks on its service. Television product will be available beginning in July. The company already has movie deals with Sony, MGM and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.
We are thrilled to have the Fox family of movies and TV shows available on CinemaNow for download-to-own, said Bruce Eisen, president of CinemaNow. The addition of Fox to our roster of content partners is an important step for us, adding depth and strength to our customer offering.
Eisen said that offering TV shows from Fox Broadcasting as well as from Fox-owned cable TV networks FX, Fuel TV and Speed was a big win for CinemaNow.
We are getting content from Fox’s four networks in one fell swoop, and that really boosts our TV offering, Eisen said.
Twentieth Century Fox, the maker of current hit film "X-Men: The Last Stand," joins Warner Bros., Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as the major film studios now offering content for sale via CinemaNow.
Until late 2005, Hollywood’s studios had not offered TV shows on a download-to-own basis, but that changed as software to protect digital files improved. This past April, most of the major studios began selling movies on a download-to-own basis.
Previous to April, CinemaNow and rival site Movielink would offer films on a "rental" basis in which users could download the movie but it would be automatically erased from a computer hard-drive after a certain length of time.
Eisen said that since April’s studio announcements for download-to-own movies, user visits to CinemaNow have increased 10 percent month-over-month. "Electronic sell through is doing exactly what we anticipated," he said, adding "rental is holding strong."
Digital films and TV shows can be downloaded and copied onto at least three devices, but they cannot be burned onto a DVD which is an option consumers’ want but Hollywood’s studios are reluctant to offer fearing piracy.
Movies will be priced from $9.95 to $19.95, while television shows will be available for purchase at $1.99 per episode.
Customers can purchase and download a legal, permanent copy of a Twentieth Century Fox movie or Fox television show for unlimited playback on up to three Microsoft Windows Media-compatible devices, using Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management technology. Once downloaded, they can be viewed on computers or on portable players.