CinemaNow

CinemaNow, LLC
Industry Video on demand
Founded 1999
Founder Curt Marvis and Bruce Eisen
Headquarters Los Angeles, California, USA
Area served
 US, Canada and United Kingdom
Services Video content delivery
Number of employees
 120
Website www.cinemanow.com

CinemaNow is an international over-the-top (OTT) provider of on-demand Internet streaming media available to viewers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.[1]

The CinemaNow platform is available on the web, on mobile devices running iOS and Android, the Xbox and PlayStation game consoles and CE devices including Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Toshiba.[2][3]

Videos from CinemaNow are available for electronic sell-through via Download To Own, in the home video release window, DVD burning, as well as rental time-limited viewing in the pay-per-view window.[4]

The CinemaNow library contains approximately 35,000 feature-length films, shorts, music concerts, and television programs from major licensors, 20th Century Fox, ABC News, Endemol, Entertainment One, Lions Gate Entertainment, MGM, Miramax, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Sundance Channel, Warner Bros., and The Walt Disney Company ("Disney").

History

CinemaNow was founded in 1999 as one of the first on-demand Internet streaming media platforms. The Company was backed by Menlo Ventures, Index Holdings, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Lionsgate and EchoStar.[5][6]

In November 2008, Sonic Solutions acquired CinemaNow.[7] In January 2009, Sonic and Blockbuster, Inc. announced a strategic alliance to provide digital content delivery under the Blockbuster brand, essentially merging the digital storefronts of CinemaNow and its erstwhile competitor in 2007.

In November 2008, Sonic Solutions and Best Buy announced a strategic alliance which resulted in Best Buy acquiring the CinemaNow brand.[8][9] Sonic Solutions rebranded the CinemaNow movie technology as RoxioNow which became a white label movie store business.[10]

Sonic Solutions was acquired by Rovi Corporation for $775 million in December 2010 [11] and continued to operate the white label movie store business which was renamed the Rovi Entertainment Store.[12][13]

In July 2013 Rovi announced that the Rovi Entertainment Store was acquired by Reliance Majestic Holdings LLC a new media company backed by Austin, Texas-based private equity firm Proveho Capital.[14][15][16] In July 2014, Best Buy sold the CinemaNow business to Reliance Majestic Holdings LLC and its private equity owners.

Competitors

Competitors include Vudu, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Redbox, Netflix, Hulu and Blinkbox.

Codecs and DRMs

CinemaNow video is generally encoded in VC-1 at 700 to 2500 kbit/s. H.264 and MPEG-2 encoding is also used for certain playback devices. CinemaNow primarily employs Windows Media DRM to control access to downloaded movies. In August 2008, CinemaNow added Widevine Technologies DRM for streaming to Internet-connected consumer electronics devices.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Bloomberg Company Overview of CinemaNow, Inc.".
  2. ↑ "CinemaNow app comes to Xbox Live". May 16, 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "Cinema Now movies-on-demand service to be built into Best Buy's web-connected gadgets". VentureBeat. November 3, 2009.
  4. ↑ "Best Buy's CinemaNow opens home disc-to-digital program, makes cloud copies of DVDs for a fee". Dec 20, 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "CinemaNow lands $20 million, to keep up with everyone else". Venture Beat. July 12, 2006. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  6. ↑ "CinemaNow Secures $20.3 Million Investment". http://www.vfinance.com''.
  7. ↑ "Sonic Solutions to Buy CinemaNow". Nov 19, 2008.
  8. ↑ "Best option: Best Buy acquires CinemaNow name for its digital video offering". May 18, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Best Buy breaking into movie downloads?". April 17, 2009.
  10. ↑ "Sonic Solutions to launch richer version of CinemaNow movie service". January 4, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Rovi to Buy Sonic Solutions for $775 Million to Add Streaming to Listings". Dec 23, 2010.
  12. ↑ "Target Opens Digital Video Store, Designed to Shield Kids from R-Rated Content".
  13. ↑ "Rovi Announces Intent to Pursue Sale of Rovi Entertainment Store Business and Narrows Estimates Range for Fiscal 2012".
  14. ↑ "Rovi Corporation Reports Second Quarter 2013 Financial Performance Announces Agreements to Sell Rovi Entertainment Store and Consumer Website Businesses".
  15. ↑ "DivX likely to draw interest from strategics".
  16. ↑ "Proveho Capital Portfolio Company List". www.provehocapital.com.

Sources

External links