The Walt Disney Company launched its “MovieBeam” on-demand movie rental service using over-the-air datacasting transmission medium and PVR-style set-top boxes. The service, which is being launched initially in three U.S. market (Jacksonville, Florida; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Spokane, Washington), provides access to 100 movies stored in digital format on the set-top hard disk drive. Each week, about 10 new movies are transmitted via a digital wireless signal to the MovieBeam receiver’s small indoor antenna, replacing 10 titles. The data transmissions take the form of secure data streams and are sent through the broadcast spectrum of television stations owned by ABC and National Datacast’s network of PBS stations. MovieBeam will work whether or not a consumer has a cable or satellite television subscription. A telephone line is used to provide the uplink for movie rentals. There is no up-front equipment cost. There is a $6.99 per month equipment service fee and a per movie viewing fee of $3.99 for new releases or $2.49 for popular favorites.
The MovieBeam receiver is provided by Samsung Electronics. Retail channels supporting the launch include Best Buy, Circuit City, Sears, Huppin’s Hi-Fi, Magnolia Audio Video, RC Willey, Sound Advice and Ultimate Electronics.
MovieBeam provides Disney with a relatively inexpensive way of controlling its own VOD service, comparing to buying or building its own wireline network. An article in The Wall Street Journal estimates it will cost $250,000 per market to equip a local TV station for datacasting. Future plans might include other forms of on-demand content.www.MovieBeam.com
- Disney’s MovieBeam receiver, which is provided by Samsung, uses over-the-air datacasting to download content and a telephone link for the upstream connections. It also features a USB expansion port.
- In July 2003, Walt Disney Internet Group expanded the use of its proprietary DIG Motion video technology to the Movies.com and ABC.com sites. After a one-time activation process, DIG Motion technology automatically launches full-motion video clips, typically lasting one to three minutes, when a consumer visits a participating site. Video is pre-downloaded directly to users’ computers so there is no buffering, streaming or waiting. The technology first debuted on ESPN.com in February 2003.
- Walt Disney Internet Group’s DIG Motion video technology pushes Windows Media Encoder 9 Series content down to a viewer’s PC several times daily. The video will play automatically when logging on to ABC.com, ESPN.com, or Movies.com.