This is a joint venture from Viacom, Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate.
On the surface it doesn't look like a big deal, but if you scratch the surface it's actually quite innovative and has potential. Consider this:
- It's launched by 3 major movie studios which gives it huge legitimacy. Consider Hulu which was launched by NBC, Fox etc. and see where it's now.
- It will show movies before they are out on the DVD, when they go on Pay-per-view.
- It will be a TV Network as well as online streaming, via Adobe Flash which for ~99% people means no additional software to download.
- The Epix TV channel would be bundled into cable package and not available for separate subscription.
- EpixHD would be free and advertising-free for subscribers of Epix TV (i.e. is included in their cable package) if the subscriber also have internet service from the same TV service provider [remember this, we'll come back to it later].
- Streaming will be upto HD, i.e. 720p (not 1080p unfortunately), if your bandwidth can support it, else the quality would be automatically reduced
- Since they're not currently planning on letting users subscribe directly to the EpixHD.com, I believe they are leaving money on the table and also are at the mercy of cable providers. They should open it up to everyone.
- Since Epix TV will eat into the Pay-per-view revenue stream, it's not clear how many cable providers will be interested. It seems Comcast is already having second thoughts, most likely due to this very reason.
- Also it's not clear what happens to DirecTV and Dish Network customers since they don't provide internet service.
Still kudos to them for thinking out of the box, it gives me hope that the big media companies are finally beginning to treat internet as a friend rather a foe.
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