Petteri Pyyny
29 Sep 2003 14:03
Disney has launched through its subsdiary, Buena Vista Datacasting, a new pay-per-view (or video-on-demand, whatever you wish to call it) service in the U.S. The new service targets heavy DVD renters by offering ability to download movies to a set-top box and watch them any number of times during the 24 hour rental period.
Unlike movie studios' joint venture MovieLink (that Disney didn't participate at first, but now offers movies to), MovieBeam doesn't use PC at all, but uses its own custom-made set-top box instead.
Service costs $6.99 a month for the device rental fee and each movie costs between $2.49 and $3.99, depending on the movie. At any time, system promises, there will be 100 movies available and out of those 100, at least 10 will be new releases (how new -- that they don't disclose). Basically the service aims to offer somewhat hybrid of a traditional cableTV pay-per-view and DVD rental service by offering more chances to watch the movie (as many times as user wants to, during the 24hr period), without pre-defined timeslots, but with no need to worry about late rental fees or picking up and returning the movie to your local Blockbuster.
Service will launch in three U.S. cities in this week: Jacksonville, Salt Lake City and Spokane. Disney expects to carry out a nationwide launch sometime next year. In addition to Disney's selection, the service offers movies also from other major movie studios, including Sony, MGM and New Line Cinema. So far Disney doesn't have any plans to offer other services other than movies through the MovieBeam.
Source: News.com