Motion Picture Distribution -
Online Channels
          | As online delivery of motion pictures morphs into new territory, what were adjunct websites to larger companies have now become a major force in distribution of cinema content. The entries included here are companies that are not a direct part of any movie studio or media conglomerate, but provide users with free or for-fee content directly delivered online, or using 'set-top box' devices: instant downloads, streaming video, live channels, and such. |
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Aereo launched in June 2012 to deliver broadcast TV signals to internet-based devices (Aereo is quasi-internet since the service requires a leased antenna).
The service streams to Windows PC and Mac and other iOS devices; it delivers 28 channels in New York City and announced expansion plans for 2013
that include 22 major markets. Since March 2012, several broadcast neworks have been battling Aereo in the courts on copyright infringement issues.
Aereo is owned by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp and is headquartered in New York City.
official website entry at Wikipedia
Amazon Prime offers discounted priority shipping rates, for a flat annual fee; it was launched in the United States in 2005;
in Japan, the United Kingdom & Germany in 2007; and as 'Amazon Premium' in France in 2008. The Amazon Prime service
began offering 'unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows' in February 2011.
Amazon Prime's landing page
Amazon's Instant Video {formerly Video On Demand} Store
Spirit of America Bookstore's Amazon, Inc. Page
Products of the Apple TV division of Apple, Inc. [est. 1975] include a set-top box device for home use or a free app for use on iPod, iPhone & iPad devices. Services include movie rentals and HD TV shows & podcasts (from Netflix, YouTube, MobileMe, Flickr & others), and content (such as iTunes music or video) stored on your home PC. The original hardware was unveiled {as iTV} in September 2006, with devices shipped beginning in March 2007.
In September 2010, Apple announced a smaller device for a third the price ($99).
official website entry at Wikipedia
BLIP was founded in May 2005 to distribute 'the best in original web series' and is based in New York City;
Blip divides any revenue 50/50 with each producer. In July 2012, the company announced a Blip Studios subsite
(based in Santa Monica, California) to actively seek & then develop new content.
official website entry at Wikipedia
not to be confused with Blip Studio Design in Asheville, NC
or Blip Studios Design in Italy & Washington, DC
BOXEE began as a cross-platform freeware 'Home Theater PC' software application for Linux, Mac OS X, and
Windows operating systems; the first public alpha version launched in June 2008, and the beta version launched in
January 2010. The Boxee Box by D-Link began shipping in October 2010, at list price $200; a partnership has
been set up to use Ooyala's Backlot for direct online distribution of content. Boxee counts about 1.4 million
PC & Mac users (in late 2010), with offices in New York City, Tel Aviv, and San Francisco.
official website entry at Wikipedia
    
       
       
China Movie Channel is a government-run broadcast and cable movies channel founded in 1994 that also operates the Chinese-language-only M1905 movie-streaming website. They are launching an online service like Netflix inside China later in 2012; partners include Jiaflix (Hollywood mogul Sid Ganis); in 2012, they signed their first content agreement with a major Hollywood studio (Paramount) to provide movies and TV shows. |
China Movie Channel: official website
entry at Wikipedia
M1905: official website no entry at Wikipedia
Jiaflix: official website {parked} no entry at Wikipedia
       
Video distribution company CinemaNow was founded in 1999, and purchased in November 2008 by California computer software company Sonic Solutions. In January 2009, Sonic & Blockbuster announced what is effectively a merger of Blockbuster's Movielink service and Sonic's CinemaNow service. In May 2010, electronics retailer Best Buy announced a deal for pre-installation of CinemaNow software on LG brand devices sold at its stores, such as TV sets and Blu-ray/DVD players, with more manufacturers to be added later in the year. (The CinemaNow website will continue to be available.) And in June 2010, Sonic Solutions announced a similar deal with Sears for a RoxioNow service pre-installed on hardware sold at Sears and at Kmart. Best Buy sold the CinemaNow business in July 2014 to a private equity firm and it was sold again in January 2016 to UK-based FilmOn; the website became inaccessible in August 2017 and was removed from Ultraviolet's list of providers. |
CinemaNow: official website gone entry at Wikipedia
Sonic Solutions: official website gone entry at Wikipedia
RoxioNow: official website entry at Wikipedia
The Cinify website describes what is essentially a one-person content marketing operation, based in Woodland Hills, California; the founder & principal figure is Alexander Sordia. The site offers a range of services to get your film or video content prepared and uploaded and marketed, based on an initial telephone call to devise a custom program (thus no prices appear on the website). Specified services include: preparation & distribution around the world (online & offline); active marketing; pro-active protection against piracy; media management; and online financial reporting. |
official website no entry at Wikipedia
Crackle was launched as Grouper in 2007 as a free (but ad-supported) movies & TV & videos download site. Apps are available for IoS and Android and the internet, plus service is available pre-installed on Sony Bravia TVs. At end of 2012, the homepage displayed 315 feature films, 77 TV shows, and 44 straight-to-video 'originals'. |
official website entry at Wikipedia
The Dailymotion website is the world's #2 video-sharing website, after YouTube; the company was founded in 2005 and is a division of Orange, which is a division of France Telecom. Company headquarters is in Paris, France with offices in London, U.K. & New York City & San Francisco; they maintain 34 'localized versions in 16 languages'. At end of 2011, Dailymotion launched OpenVOD, a service that lets content owners price & sell their videos online and via Dailymotion's mobile and connected TV apps; features include the ability to sell content via a transactional- or subscription-based model as well as promote a video by offering a portion of it for free. |
official website entry at Wikipedia
The Documentary Guide website is made for film makers, researchers, filmgoers, students & educators.
They have catalogued tens of thousands of documentaries, websites, schools, festivals, and other socially-
relevant resources and content to an extensive online and searchable library that is available for free.
official website no entry at Wikipedia
The Economist Film Project is a joint effort by The Economist Magazine of U.K. and P.B.S in the U.S.A. Announced in December 2010, the program will accept applications thru December 2011; winning short- & feature-length documentaries will be broadcast on the P.B.S. News Hour and then be available on the Film Project website. The first four films were selected on April 13 and began airing on P.B.S. from April 28. |
official website no entry at Wikipedia
Digital distribution platform Epix was launched in October 2009 as a 'premium TV' joint venture of
Viacom/Paramount, Lionsgate, and M.G.M. In April 2011, they announced a Google TV app; in June 2011,
they rolled out apps for a slew of tablet computers, mobile phones & other devices, with more to come.
official website entry at Wikipedia
 
Fandor is a San Francisco-based online channel for lovers of historic & contemporary independent & international
cinema. Subscription is $10 per month, with free first month 'trial' if you sign up from your Facebook account.
Fandor supports viewing on Macs, PCs and Boxee, but due to licensing issues the 2,500 films in its library are
available only in the U.S.A.
official website no entry at Wikipedia
FlickLaunch - based in Berkeley, California and launched in May 2011 - is billing itself as 'the first independent
film distribution platform built on top of Facebook'. Filmmakers pay a minimum $250 fee to set up 'Likeable' fan
pages that will stream movies for free for the first 1,000 users who hit the 'Like' button; after that, they expect thousands
of new viewers to be willing to pay $1 or $2 for each 7-day rental; the films can be viewed (streamed in whittled-down
720p quality) on PC, mobile phone, or tablet hardware. The filmmaker keeps 70% of revenue and FlickLaunch
keeps the now-standard 30%.
official website entry at Wikipedia {empty}
       
The aggressive social networking platform Flixster bills itself as 'The World's Largest Online Movie Community';
it was launched in June 2005 and bought by Time Warner in May 2011. Flixster owns the Rotten Tomatoes
movie-review site and also runs a streaming video service.
Flixster official website
entry at Wikipedia
Rotten Tomatoes official website
entry at Wikipedia
 
GoDigital Media Group announced its on-demand movie service in January 2012.
The company is based in Santa Monica, California – not much else is known at this time.
official website {still parked 11/2012} no entry yet at Wikipedia
Google TV is a digital content platform based on the Android operating system and co-developed by Google, Intel,
Sony & Logitech, for set-top boxes and HDTVs. First announced in May 2010, the hardware was rolled out in
October. Initial content partners include NBC-Universal, T.B.S., H.B.O., Vevo, Netflix, and the N.B.A.
official website entry at Wikipedia
Harpodeon was launched in 2008 to sell silent films online and as downloads; the company appears to be
located in California. {The name is Greek for 'silent theatre', after Harpocrates, the Greco-Egyptian god
of silence - featured in their logo.}
official website no entry at Wikipedia
Hulu.com launched in March 2008, and has a virtual monopoly on free television streaming; it is owned by NBCUniversal (32%), Fox (31%), Disney-ABC (27%) & Providence Equity Partners (10%). Hulu added music videos in November 2009. The monthly-fee subscription service Hulu Plus launched in June 2010, providing access to additional content such as streaming of full-season TV shows. Besides the owner-companies, Hulu delivers content of A&E, Big Ten Network, Bravo, Current TV, E!, Fuel TV, FX, G4, MTV Networks, NFL Network, Oxygen, P.B.S., Speed, Style, Sundance, Syfy, USA Network & Versus. In March 2011, Hulu added the Criterion library of classic & recent foreign & independent films, starting with 150 titles and adding more each month. In August 2011, Hulu changed the terms to viewing TV programs next day for subscribers only, all others wait eight days. The company put itself up for sale in June 2011, with the price expected to be anywhere from one half billion dollars to $2 billion; that did not pan out and the sale was cancelled in October. In April 2012, Fox & Disney bought out Providence's 10% share for $200M, giving Providence a 100% profit; the IPO may still happen sometime in 2012. Announced 12/2012: Privately-held Hulu's CEO Jason Kilar revealed some year-end figures in a blog post: Hulu generated $100 million in revenue in 2009, more than $400 million in 2011, and revenue surged 65 percent in 2012 to $695 million. {COMMENT: This is prep for the IPO.} |
official website entry at Wikipedia
The I Love Docs streaming site for documentary films launched in March 2012; location unknown. Submissions must have been shown on national broadcast or cable television or at a dozen specific film festivals. Many pages on the website appear with English & (duplicate) German text. |
official website no entry at Wikipedia
IndiePix Unlimited launched in May 2011 and describes itself as an 'online subscription-based video-on-demand store' and as a 'digital subscription streaming platform'. Early sponsors & partners include the Los Angeles Times, FilmMaker Magazine, and Filmsnobbery. Member plans start at $5.95 a month. |
official website entry at Wikipedia
IndiePix Films blog [est. 12/2005]
The Inmoo digital distribution platform launched in August 2010 with over 3,000 titles, and bills itself as "the web's largest independent film theater". Co-founded by Mike Wittlin, Sergio Radovcic & actor David Arquette, the site has Facebook connectivity and iPhone support. The business model is similar to that of Hulu & YouTube, placing commercial breaks at regular intervals; the site splits ad revenues 50/50 with content owners. |
official website no entry at Wikipedia
Online distributor iThentic is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and was founded in June 2006.
official website entry at Wikipedia
www.iTunes.com
Joost was started by the former owners of Skype {sold to eBay in 2005} as an ad-based distributor
of filmed entertainment via the internet; launched in May 2007, deals have been made for content
from MTV Networks, B.E.T. Network, Paramount Pictures, Facebook & Warner Music;
membership is free, but distribution is restricted to U.S. users due to copyright legalities.
official website entry at Wikipedia
For a small fee, you can upload your video/s to MaxCast and set up a channel
for others to watch them; company based in Provo, Utah.
official website no entry at Wikipedia
German-language 'video on demand' service MaxDome has amassed an online library of some 45,000 film and
TV titles (as-of March 2012) by making rights deals with Sony, Fox, and Warner Bros. Maxdome is owned by
German broadcasting group ProSiebenSat.1; both are headquartered near Munich/Mόnchen in Germany.
official website no entry at Wikipedia
       
Fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. announced in October 2011 that it is launching a TV network in its restaurants with local news, sports, movie & TV show previews, entertainment features, and human interest stories; already-signed content partners include B.B.C. America, KABC-TV Eyewitness News, and Mark Burnetts Vimby, a digital production company that uses a network of filmmakers in 40 cities to create original web programming. The initial rollout of the network is to 800 locations in Southern and Central California, with content tailored to audiences based on location. |
official website no network entry at Wikipedia
M-GO Entertainment is a joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Technicolor that launched in late 2012 with content from DreamWorks Animation and Relativity Media, among others. The multi-platform app allows the user to access his/her rented or purchased movies & TV shows via operating systems such as Android, iOS, and Windows, and is also being pre-loaded on Samsung Smart TVs, Blu-ray players & wi-fi tablets, as well as those of Vizio and Intel. |
official website no entry at Wikipedia
The MoPix online & smartphone distribution service was founded in March 2011; the website is 'still in beta' [March 2012]; meanwhile filmmakers and film viewers can sign up for email notice when MoPix Beta goes live. The website will provide filmakers their own personalized distribution platform, allowing upload of the movie together with trailers, photos, 'extras', and such; MoPix then makes the material available worldwide across a variety of media, including tablets, Facebook, Vimeo, etc. Principle figure is Ryan Stoner; headquartered in West Los Angeles. |
official website no entry at Wikipedia
Mousetrap Films, LLC is a new film acquisition & distribution company for independent films that have been winnowed by the film festival process. Their Film Festival Flix division will be releasing selected films to 25-plus theaters in 15 major markets on a monthly basis, with gradual expansion to 200-plus venues; each one-night program will consist of red-carpet press hoopla, a documentary, a Signature Feature, cast/crew Q&A, and a late-night genre feature. The roll-out then proceeds to 'day and date VOD/DVD' and options for purchase on DVD, download to own, and streaming rental. Other films will be available only on the F.F.F. website; company is based in Los Angeles-Burbank. |
Mousetrap Films official website
entry at Wikipedia (empty)
Film Festival Flix official website
no separate entry on Wikipedia
Moviebeam was founded in 2002 by Disney for distribution of movies to settop boxes in major markets;
purchased by Movie Gallery in January 2007, who introduced digital delivery by broadband internet; acquired by
Valuable Technologies, Ltd. in May 2008 to expand into the small & mid-size hotel in-room video market.
official website entry at Wikipedia
Movies Anywhere was first founded in 2014 by Disney for client storage of purchased movies (and digital rights) on the cloud, intended as competition
to Ultraviolet. Disney rebranded the service in October 2017, dropping the Disney name and adding Fox, Warner, Universal & Sony content.
The tagline is 'Your Movies, Together At Last'; the internal system is called KeyChest.
official website entry at Wikipedia
Movies-Direct.net was founded in 2012 and is based in Roubaix, France; English-language site displays many obscure and major
films & TV shows for download or to watch using Adobe Flash, including new 3-D films.
official website no entry at Wikipedia
Production company Prospect Park (based in the former ABC-TV studios in that Los Angeles neighborhood) was founded in 2008, and announced
in July 2011 that The OnLine Network would produce & podcast reincarnations of the national TV soap opera shows "All My Children" and
"One Life To Live"; the two shows finally began airing in late April 2013. Viewers can sign up via Hulu or iTunes or YouTube.
official website entry at Wikipedia
OpenFilm was started in November 2007 by filmmakers Dmitry Kozko & Alan Melikdjanian; current Advisory
Board members include actor James Caan, his son Scott Caan, actor Robert Duvall, and director Mark Rydell.
The online service launched in June 2008; company is based in Miami, Florida. Filmmakers submit short films; users
{free registration} vote on the top six; a panel picks the top candidate, who receives a feature production deal.
official website entry at Wikipedia
Ooyala was founded in early 2007 by three former employees of Google {the name means 'cradle' in a dialect of India}. Ooyala's Backlot interface
is designed to manage, syndicate, analyze & monetize online video content by making streaming video available anytime, anywhere to viewers
around the globe. Ooyala is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and London, U.K.
official website no entry at Wikipedia
Pandora Internet Radio was founded in 2000 as part of the Music Genome Project, 'the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken'. Members can request a favorite song or artist or musical genre, which Pandora will then match from its database going back 100 years. Each member can create & modify up to 100 unique 'radio stations' to be played on their smartphones, home or office computers, in the car, or even as background music at commercial businesses. Free, but available only in the United States (due to licensing issues). |
official website entry at Wikipedia
SatelliteDirect is software for PC & Apple/Mac computers; they offer 3,500 broadcast televison channels, pre-recorded shows, live local channels, and some webcam live feeds, along with hundreds of radio channels – from all around the world. The recent discount price on the main website is a one-time fee of $29.95. The company markets thru overly-aggressive affiliates who often set up websites with spurious reviews that are interspersed with links to download. The software is made by a company called E.T.V. Corp. {whereabouts unknown}. NOTE: This reviewer is not an affiliate and sees no actual danger in purchasing the software. |
official website no entry at Wikipedia
Seed and Spark launched in October 2012, and is headed by Emily Best. Services to filmmakers include cloudfunding, promotion, and distribution (80 percent to the film's producer); supporters can join and do the funding as well as promote thru their social media; viewers of the finished films pay a small rental fee. Certains actions earn 'sparks' which can be used to pay for film viewing, etc. |
official website {beta} no entry at Wikipedia
SnagFilms was founded in July 2008, and is based in Washington, DC. The site offers a library of around 3,000 documentary films, which can be streamed from their website. Divisons include indieWire, an online publication covering the independent film industry, and SnagLearning, which categorizes educational content from the SnagFilms library by grade level and subject area. SnagFilms is also available on 110,000 affilated sites, including Comcast, Verizon, Starbucks, smart phones, Roku, Boxee, IMDb, VUDU & YouTube. In late 2012, SnagFilms launched a free, on-demand film-viewing app in the Xbox LIVE marketplace that started with about 200 indie features & documentaries, with plans for adding new titles every two weeks. |
official website entry at Wikipedia
The Starbucks Digital Network began operation in July 2010, delivering free and paid-for content through its existing in-store wi-fi service.
Announced 8/2013: Starbucks claims that its wi-fi network will operate ten times faster as it switches from provider AT&T to Google.
Starbucks Network official webpage Starbucks Corp. [est. 1971] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore
TumTiki began operation in November 2011, having contracted for 700,000 movies and TV episodes from Hulu and Amazon and other major outlets. The parent company is Frontier Communications, one of the countrys largest providers of high-speed internet, voice services & satellite video. What the TumTiki site is designed to offer is an end to checking multiple sites, with TumTiki as the one-stop source for mainstream movies, TV shows past and present, web shows, video clips, and local television. (Frontier & TumTiki's geographical coverage allows clicking on a U.S. map and getting options for local programming, even local high-school or college sports.) |
official website no entry at Wikipedia
A consortium of 60 companies are involved in Ultraviolet, a new 'backend' digital distribution platform created by Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem LLC. The project & website were announced in July 2010, with launch finally arriving October 2011. Companies featured on the website include Adobe, Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Flixster, Fox, Microsoft, NBC-Universal, Netflix, Paramount, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, & Warner Bros. |
official website entry at Wikipedia
Sony's VideON Network [est. 2010] digital distribution platform
       
GetGlue is an entertainment-based social networking site that allows users of mobile devices to meet and text/chat with others watching the same TV/cable program; the company launched in October 2008 and is based in New York City's Flatiron District. As many as 100,000 GetGlue users 'check in' to major TV specials, and each one is entitled to a sticker, which can be mailed to the user free (in sets of 20). Viggle launched in June 2010 and offers a free 'loyalty service' app that gives real-world rewards for watching sponsor TV programs; they operate offices in New York City and in Santa Monica & San Francisco, California. In November 2012, Viggle purchased GetGlue for $25M and 48M shares; all GetGlue employees are 'migrating' to Viggle. |
Viggle: official website no entry at Wikipedia
GetGlue: official website
entry at Wikipedia
       
Vimeo - 'the home for high quality videos and the people who love them' - was founded in November 2004 as a site for non-commercial videos to be shared with the world, though it is often used by professional musicians and other artists. As-of March 2010, there were 3 million members uploading an average of 16,000 videos each day. In December 2012, Vimeo launched its new Movies on Vimeo 'pay-to-view' service, which will be widely available in early 2013. The first six full-length feature films are a hand-picked preview set, costing from $5 to $9; once purchased, each movie can be accessed and watched on any device that Vimeo is available on, which includes an array of smartphones, tablets, game consoles, connected TVs, and 'other alien technologies'. |
Vimeo Video School launched in December 2010 and has many free instructional videos online for potential filmmakers.
official website no entry at Wikipedia
VUDU was founded in 2004; developed their set-top box which was launched in April 2007; sold online only until May 2008, when Best Buy began offering them in stores. Announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010 that the boxes/software were integrated into hardware manufactured by LG, Magnavox, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba & Vizio. Retail giant Wal-Mart agreed to purchase the company for $100 million in February 2010, and in July 2011 announced that it is integrating the VUDU streaming service into the Wal-Mart website. |
official website entry at Wikipedia
Yideo is a 'video aggregator' service that launched in June 2008; it offers content from Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Crackle, Crunchyroll, and others – the benefit is
that over one million movies & TV shows are offered from one website/app. Yideo itself is free, they make money from a commission when users click
on a selected film (which works for members and non-members of each connected site). Headquarters is in San Francisco, California.
official website entry at Wikipedia
Youtoo TV launched in late September 2011 and is the first television channel to give access to social networkers.
Viewers will be able to create 15-second videos called 'Fame Spots' and then, within minutes, see themselves on television
– with an audience of 15 million subscribers!; Youtoo will start by putting 500 people on TV each day.
official website entry at Wikipedia
YouTube, LLC was founded by three former PayPal employees in February 2005; Google Inc. paid
$1.65 billion for the company in November 2006; based in San Bruno, California.
"YouTube ... is a kind of Special Olympics for show-offs." — critic James Woods
official website entry at Wikipedia
YouTube opened offices in Beverly Hills, California in late 2011, and a production facility in Playa Vista, CA in November 2012.
YouTube Movies began streaming movies online in 2009 for North America (due to copyright considerations). The film rental service announced a deal in May 2011 that added 3,000 feature films from major studios to the already 3,000-strong library. Those major studios included NBC-Universal, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Lionsgate Films, and The Weinstein Company, along with many smaller independents. Disney signed on later, then Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer added their library in April 2012. |
official website no separate entry at Wikipedia
YouTube announced in January 2012 the creation of a free video & film competition called 'Your Film Festival', in partnership with Emirates. Filmmakers around the world are invited to submit a 15-minute, story-driven video of any format, style or genre between February 2 and March 31. Fifty semi-finalists will be chosen by Scott Free; those 50 will then compete for the YouTube audience vote, which will determine 10 finalists; the ten finalists will attend and screen their work at the Venice Film Festival in September; the top winner will also get a $500,000 YouTube original grant for their next production (with Ridley Scott's Scott Free). |
Your Film Festival official website watch promo video [1:12] on YouTube
 
In February 2013, YouTube launched the Asian Pop {A-pop} channel, which is subdivided into K-pop (Korean), J-pop (Japanese), and C-pop (Chinese) subchannels; users can subscribe to each of the four channels, which appear with English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indonesian language options. |
W.T.V. Systems, LLC began the online film rental service Zediva in 2009; the rollout of the full site was announced in March 2011 with current
DVD titles available for $1.99 or less; Zediva was based in Santa Clara, California. Warner Bros. Studios filed a copyright infringement lawsuit and a
Federal court injunction was issued in August 2011, effectively shutting Zediva & W.T.V. down.
       
ZEFR is the larger organization, self-described as offering 'movies, music, television, sports, and originals' thru their channel/s on YouTube.
Main offering is MovieClips, a gigantic database of feature film & TV excerpts, each of which has been tagged for content by a human employee.
Film libraries on contract include Columbia Pictures, Lionsgate, Magnolia Pictures, M.G.M., Miramax, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures,
Warner Bros., and The Weinstein Company. Both companies are based in Venice, California.
ZEFR: official website no entry at Wikipedia
MovieClips: official website entry at Wikipedia
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