NetflixPlayer Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Netflix and IFC Team Up for Streaming Indies
Filed under: Deals », IFC », Tech Stuff », Distribution », Movie Marketing »
Netflix knows where it's at when it comes to the rental biz; more and more, folks want to stay at home and watch movies instantly. We don't even want to wait for those happy little red envelopes any more. Nope, if it's not on our Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or computer, we get all squirrelly. (Okay, maybe that last part is just me.) And IFC is also on the cutting edge of home entertainment in its steadily growing on-demand offerings, including their IFC Festival Direct program, where you can watch a selection of movies that have played during recent festivals, and the In Theaters + On Demand program, which offers at-home viewers the chance to see indie flicks the same day they premiere in what's usually limited release.Now Netflix and IFC have sealed the deal for a partnership that gives Netflix access to 53 IFC releases to be streamed online to whichever platform you like, starting today.
I would guess that if this experiment takes off, we'll be seeing more IFC goodies on Netflix, but for now, you can see docs like The Thing Blue Line and Gates of Heaven; international films from Catherine Breillat, Christophe Honoré, and Alfonso Cuaron; and Joe Swanberg; and plenty of other flicks like The Brother from Another Planet, Nights and Weekends, and more. Check back later for the full list and more details on the launch of this new project.
Have you watched any of the IFC On Demand offerings, especially if they're for releases not otherwise available in your area? Do you think this is another death knell for the indie video store, or a really, really good idea to help spread the word about otherwise underseen independent films in a struggling market? Or both?
YouTube and MGM Team Up for Free Movies
Filed under: Deals », MGM », Distribution », Newsstand », Home Entertainment »
Who doesn't love watching full length movies, free, from the warmth of your laptop? It sounds lame, but I live for the weekends when I can curl up under my down comforter (I live in a climate akin to Moscow) and watch Magnum Force at 2am. (1970s Clint Eastwood and I are still going very strong, thank you.)Well, thanks to a new deal struck between MGM and YouTube, free movie junkies will have another outlet to get their fix. According to The Hollywood Reporter, YouTube will begin showing full length television shows and films from MGM archives. The partnership kicks off with old American Gladiator episodes (yawn), but will soon step it up to include such brilliance as The Magnificent Seven. (For some reason, Bulletproof Monk is cited right alongside it -- which, arguably, is fine for 2am viewing but shouldn't be mentioned anywhere near The Magnificent Seven.)
The downside? There will be advertisements running right alongside the video. And while ad banners are so rampant as to be easily tuned out, nothing can gunk up a streaming video like those wonderful badly coded advertisements. So while it will be very nice to be able to access The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly at any time of the day or night, it might be too, well, bad and ugly to watch. If you're dying to watch free movies, take it from Scott Weinberg and I -- just invest in a Netflix subscription and stick with the Watch Instantly feature for now. Hopefully, MGM will soon realize its movies deserve a similarly luxurious treatment, and make their film archives available to subscribers.
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