Cablevision’s new service packaging on-demand films with DVDs may...
Cablevision’s new service packaging on-demand films with DVDs may be the first in a series of moves to sell products directly to customers, industry analysts said. About 20 films from Universal Studios and Warner Brothers are part of an…
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on-demand and DVD package selling for $19.95 per movie plus a $4.95 shipping fee, said Steve Brenner, CEO of Popcorn Home Entertainment, which is supplying the films. VoDs are viewable for 24 hours after being downloaded. DVDs arrive five to nine days after being ordered on Cablevision’s iO TV channel 500, where Popcorn DVDs on Demand is located, Brenner said. Users sign up for the service with a credit card at www.optimum.net/click, analysts said. Popcorn, which Alliance Entertainment contracted with to ship DVDs to customers, pays Cablevision a split for each movie sold. The main selling point seems to be that Popcorn offers movies 30 to 45 days before cable video-on-demand services typically release them. Popcorn expects to sign content agreements with other studios within three to four weeks, Brenner said. But Popcorn isn’t likely to make deals with other cable operators until the service is established and it raises additional financing, Brenner said. “We need to get some more product and finish up the studio deals,” said Brenner, who with founder Tom Schreiber has funded Popcorn. “We have to prove the concept and as we add more titles we have to show that we can be a profitable business. We will need to raise some money so we can effectively market it.” Popcorn, which has been working with Cablevision about a year, soft- launched the service in late December with e-mail to the MSO’s 2.6 million digital cable customers, Brenner said. “We haven’t been marketing or pushing it yet, so we currently have a limited actual universe -- which is good, because we have been able to handle the requests and make sure the system works,” he said. He declined to say how many customers signed up for the service. Broader marketing of the service will begin as Q1 ends, Brenner said. The Cablevision-Popcorn deal is the first to sell VOD with a DVD for a single price. Comcast tested VOD timed with DVD releases from five major studios starting in late 2006 in Denver and Pittsburgh, a spokesman said. It added the Atlanta market in October, he said. But those on-demand films and DVDs are being sold separately. On-demand movies are $4, he said.