Disney unveils VOD that's almost a PVR

« Roku, from founders of ReplayTV | Main | Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 »

Disney unveils VOD that's almost a PVR

moviebeam interface

Disney announced a new service called MovieBeam today. While it's video-on-demand using a Samsung setop box, it looks like a combo aimed squarely at services like Netflix and TiVo.

Basically you've got a box with 100 movies on it at all times, with 10 new ones available each week from Disney's stable of movie studios. They charge $6.99 a month, plus $2.50-$4 for each movie you watch, which could be quite lucrative to them, especially since they are selling direct to consumers and cutting out middlemen like Blockbuster video.

The setop box does do digital audio out and s-video, but I wonder what sort of copy protection is in place on delivered movies. Also they mention all transmission is over-the-air, using a small antenna, but I haven't seen any details of the technical specs on that.

by Matt Haughey September 29, 2003 in News

Comments

$6.99 a month, plus $2.50-$4 for each movie you watch

On the low-end you get 6 movies before you're over Netflix's price. On the high-end the fourth movie takes you over Netflix's price.

And on top of it you're limited to their selected 100 movies.

No thanks.

Posted by: gb at Sep 29, 2003 12:39:16 PM

Yeah, it seems weird that they followed that business model. I'd figure it would be either subscription or pay-per-view, but not both. So the box will cost you money whether or not you are watching stuff, and the price is right around what a video store rental is, plus there's no way to try and make it like netflix where you save money if you watch more. It doesn't look like it's compelling enough to overcome all those costs, in my opinion.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Sep 29, 2003 3:27:58 PM

I'm smelling a bomb. I'll just buy the DVD. The resale value on a Disney DVD is not that bad. Once Makayla gets board with Nemo it will be off to half.com.

Posted by: Brad Murphy at Sep 29, 2003 5:18:02 PM

Are other studios planning on "partnering" with Disney? Are only Disney films going to be available on this machine?

Posted by: Cohen Technology, LLC at Sep 30, 2003 6:40:05 AM

Actually I was wrong in my original writeup, they have partnered with a list of studios, so there are lots of non-Disney owned studio films available.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Sep 30, 2003 6:46:52 AM

Disney Moviebeam utilizes technology from a company called Dotcast. An ABC station can install equipment and "datacast" the titles to the MovieBeam box which are stored on its hard drive in an encrypted manner. What's interesting about Dotcast is that they supposedly can datacast over DTV or NTSC television signals, a considerable plus considering the current limitations of DTV signals across the US DMAs (television markets). Presumably, ABC will license more content than just movies from the various studios, probably branch out into "best of cable" types of offerings so as to make the obnoxious $6.99 per month fee more palatable.

It will be fun to see how long it takes some college kid to break the MovieBeam encryption and figure out how to watch all the movies for free. The studios are going to JUST LOVE Disney after that happens.

I guess we'll see...

Posted by: J King at Oct 23, 2003 3:34:27 PM

Have any of you heard ruomrs of Netflix partnering with TiVO? If so, what does the model look like?

Posted by: MT at Mar 12, 2004 1:29:43 PM

Google linked me to this page, nice reading

Posted by: Jonathan at Nov 4, 2004 12:46:23 AM

What about someone who signs up for MovieBeam but the box can't pick up a clear enough signal containing the "dotcast" updates, so never receives new movies? This totally sounds expensive, and stupid. You only have 24 hours to watch the movie you buy, instead of 3+ days most video stores give you. Netflix, traditional rentals, or buying DVDs outright, any of these options make far more sense. I'm predicting MovieBeam will go the way of the original DIVX system.

Posted by: Joba Moe at Nov 10, 2004 12:39:10 AM

Nice

Posted by: cialis canada at Sep 19, 2005 9:16:29 AM

I'm still waiting to see how this all shakes out. Todd Lokken.

Posted by: Todd Lokken at Sep 26, 2005 1:30:29 PM

I'm still waiting to see how this all shakes out. Todd Lokken.

Posted by: Todd Lokken at Sep 26, 2005 1:33:17 PM

Guys you are wrong. MovieBeam DOES NOT charge you $6.99 per month. There is NO SUBSCRIPTION charge. All you pay is $200 for the box (completely ridiculous idea IMO), $30 for the activation fee and $2 - $5 (HD) for the movies.

Posted by: Alex at Mar 10, 2006 11:11:24 PM

Anyone actually try this out, now that they have resurrected the business somewhat?

Todd Lokken

Posted by: Todd Lokken at Apr 4, 2006 11:45:11 AM