The extremely popular movie information site IMDb has new ambitions, says founder Col Needham, ones that will eventually see the site offering “free streaming of its entire database of movies and TV shows.” As of typing, there are over 1.3 million movies and shows in IMDb’s database.
IMDb is owned by Amazon and over the past few months the company has been getting into the online video market with the launch of its Amazon VOD service.
Needham added that current IMDb traffic is 57 million unique users per month and is by far the most popular site of its kind. The company purchased Box Office Mojo last year, the most popular movie gross tracking website as well.
IMDb leapt into web video last year, adding 14,000 TV episodes and 2000 movies along with 120,000 trailers, interviews and other “bonus features.”
Needham did note that there could be one problem, “many of the films may not exist anymore and many may not be available for streaming.”
Result for: trailers
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced that they will be creating two classes of DVDs for now on, a “premium” version with extras and digital copies and a “rental” version which removes all extras and will be available for rental only.
Beginning March 31st with the release of Slumdog Millionaire, “wholesalers will be authorized to sell rental accounts only the rental SKUs and to sell retail accounts only the retail SKUs,” said Fox senior VP of sales Don Jeffries.
As an example, the Slumdog rental DVD only has the movie and trailers while the premium disc included special features such as deleted scenes and director and actor commentary.
There will be variations however, as the upcoming Marley and Me DVD will have special features on both the rental and the retail version.
“We have developed product variations to feed different consumer consumption models and behaviors,” read a Fox statement. “For rental customers, we’re delivering a theatrical experience in the home while promoting upcoming releases; for retail [or sell-through] customers, we’re offering a premium product that expands the entertainment experience of that particular property to further enhance ownership.”
Result for: trailers
In an attempt to fight movie piracy the UK Film Council has set up a website aimed at helping consumers find legal content. FindAnyFilm.com has a simple form where you can simply enter a movie’s title and find out what formats it’s available in and where.
This is similar to a plan announced last year by the MPAA, although much broader in scope. Besides searching for titles, you can also use the website to locate movie theaters. There are also trailers available to watch.
Peter Buckingham, Head of Distribution and Exhibition at the UK Film Council who pioneered this new site says “This new site is going to transform how consumers find the films they want to watch - we will soon wonder how we ever coped without it! We have turned what was often an incredibly time-consuming, frustrating process into one that makes it much easier for film fans to see films in the UK. FindAnyFilm.com does exactly what it says on the tin and is the fastest place to find a film to watch in any format, if it’s legally available in the UK.”
