JULY 19, 2006
Technology
By Ronald Grover
Coming Soon to a TV Near You?
Movie download site CinemaNow says it will be the first to provide downloadable movies to DVD. But the picture's not yet rosy
It's the Holy Grail of the movie download business. Movies straight from the Internet to your TV, none of that watching the flick in your straight-back chair while peering at your computer monitor. Now, for those who want to watch movies the way they should be enjoyed—that is, while curled up on your couch—comes the first downloadable movie that can be burned onto a DVD. On July 19, CinemaNow, a movie download site backed by independent film studio Lionsgate Entertainment (LGF ), Microsoft (MSN ), Blockbuster (BBI ), and others, announced it will be the first to provide that service.
But don't warm up your Barcalounger just yet. CinemaNow is starting by offering 100 or so flicks for download, with such headliners as MGM's Barbershop, Sony's (SNE ) Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and others. Newer films aren't yet available, despite software provided by German digital-rights management company ACE GmbH that CinemaNow says is secure. The German software was secure enough to win over some of Hollywood's leading studios, including Disney (DIS ), Universal, and Sony, but not others like Warner Brothers, Fox, and Paramount. And even those who signed on seemed leery of tempting pirates with their newer—and more lucrative—DVDs for what is essentially a beta test. One studio, Universal (GE ), yanked its film King Kong at the last minute.
MORE AT LINK
http://www.businessweek.com/print/te...718_930278.htm
http://www.cinemanow.com/?affid=830
EDIT: I HATE MSN!
You must use Internet Explorer Version 6 or higher on a PC running Windows 2000 or later in order to use the CinemaNow service.
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