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Disney's video-on-demand service put on hold

29 April 2005 12:03 by James "Dela" Delahunty

Disney has put its video-on-demand service, MovieBeam, on hold for technical upgrades and the possibility of more corporate partners. The service which operates in just three U.S. cities sends movies to it's customers HDD's via television airwaves that can be played for a small fee. A spokeswoman said the service will be interrupted while upgrades take place and the company cannot predict when the service will be available for its customers again.

"In order to provide our consumers with even better entertainment experiences, MovieBeam is planning an upgrade of its technology, network and infrastructure," the company said in a statement. "We are having discussions regarding platform and rollout strategy with several potential partners and upon successful completion of those conversations will introduce the next phase of the service." The company has been exploring alternate directions for movie distribution for the past few months.

"They had it up and running, showing that it works," InStat/MDR analyst Gerry Kaufold said. "But there is a much larger, broader opportunity than the specific MovieBeam service they trialled in those three cites." Customers using the MovieBeam service rent their receivers for $8.99 a month and occasionally the receiver's HDD would be filled with about another 100 movies.

Source:
News.com

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