In the early days of DivX, it was a very popular freeware MPEG4 product which could compress a DVD to the size of a CD, while retaining a fairly high quality picture. Now that DivX Networks have commercialised and offers various solutions such as streaming and DRM, Bollywood have partnered with them to offer Cinema on Web (COW). Cinema on Web plans on using DivX to provide pay-per-view movies and sport events over various delivery methods including wireless, dial-up, mobile phone and broadband networks.
As Bollywood's movies are often illegally made available on the Internet the day or day before the theatrical release, they aim to secure their content with the help of DivX Networks. DivX offers both high quality compression and secure DRM features as well as has an estimated 20 million DivX Certified consumer electronics equipment incorporating DRM on the market.
Between this year and 2007, Cinema on Web expects to deliver over 500 million Pay-Per-View sales with content priced at $5 per release movie and between 90c and $1.99 for older classic movies.
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Powered by the DivX Open Video System, the new service from Cinema on Web is amongst the first to deliver and broadcast cinema quality, licensed Bollywood film content to Internet users. All content available through the system is duly encrypted & licensed, protected from piracy and available at the highest level of visual quality. Titles include pay-per-view sports, feature films, first run and simultaneous release Bollywood & independent films available to global audiences through COW's worldwide content delivery networks with a choice of wireless, dial up, mobile and broadband capability. A sneak preview of the most popular Bollywood songs in high-quality DivX Film justifies the same. "Each new Bollywood film is released on the public Internet a day before or on the same day of its theatrical release, through piracy on multiple illegal movie download web sites," said Al Mason, CEO of Cinema on Web. "Our partnership with DivXNetworks represents the future of entertainment on the Internet. Soon virtually all new major Bollywood and Hollywood movies, including entertainment will be distributed digitally with secure VOD solutions like the one created by DivXNetworks, simultaneously defeating piracy and generating additional revenue for film studios and producers." The Bollywood film, music and entertainment industry is also expected to be one of the major beneficiaries of cinema on web. Read the full article here. |
As Bollywood plans on releasing their theatrical releases on the Internet as pay-per-view showings simultaneously with the cinema, all one needs is the big screen, a surround sound system and a decent broadband connection and they have their own private home cinema. However unlike a real cinema, even if Bollywood does manage to virtually 'pirate-proof' its content, there is nothing stopping one from inviting all their friends over to watch the movie on the one screen. In a cinema, every one must have a ticket to enter.
While they claim to offer services to dial-up and mobile users, I could not imagine enjoying a movie streaming over a very low bandwidth connection. Then again, these two delivery methods may be more intended for audio-only streams where bandwidth is not as important.
With the increase in pay-per-view movie channels (on satellite) as well as over the Internet, it looks like DVD will start facing competition, particularly in areas with fast broadband connections. However, due to the bandwidth requirements of HDTV, it looks like the next generation of DVD such as Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will have some time to take off first.
Feel free to discuss and find out more about home cinema and high definition displays in our Satellite, HD-TV, Blu-ray and HD-DVD Forum.
Source: Yahoo! Financial News
