- ‘It’s All about Location’
- Control of Video Rights Management & Distribution
Think Facebook is the next Netflix and you want to rent your movies, TV shows and videos on it just as Warner Bros is doing? Then the company to talk to is VMIX.
VMIX has a platform called VMIX Social that lets content owners and distributors rent videos on social networking sites like Facebook where they can be played immediately or later on a tablet, smartphone, smart TV or PC.
The six-year-old San Diego company says it’s the first to offer a turnkey solution for live and on-demand video rentals plus promotional videos on social networks.
VMIX Social will initially be available on smartphones, tablets and PCs. In the future, it’ll be available on smart TVs. The company would not say what studios or distributors it’s working with but expects to make several announcements in April.
Warner Bros added five movies to Facebook this week in addition to the one that it posted a few weeks back. Warner Bros is listed as a VMIX customer, but VMIX does not say whether it’s for VMIX Social.
Warner Bros Films Now Available on Facebook
- The Dark Knight
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Inception
- Life as We Know It
- Yogi Bear
Renting shows on Facebook has several advantages over renting on Netflix:
- Facebook has a worldwide audience of 600 million and more users than Netflix’ 20 million who pay at least $8 per month.
- The studio/distributor is in complete control.
- No complex contract is needed upfront.
- Prices, terms and geographies can be changed when needed.
- Facebook lets shows and prices be posted however the studio or distributor sees fit.
- Movies rented on Facebook give viewers a way to immediately post their reviews.
On the other hand, there’s no up-front payment with Facebook as there would be with Netflix.
Watching Movies on Facebook
There are a couple of negative elements that come with renting movies on Facebook:
- The offer isn’t valid in all states or outside the States, at least not currently.
- To rent the movie, the user has to allow the studio to access their account just like any other app. That includes a person’s demographics, list of friends and shared information.
Location, Location, Location
Content owners and distributors are faced with a number of choices when it comes to renting content online, each with their own terms and conditions:
- A third-party site such as Apple’s iTunes, Amazon on Demand, LoveFilm, Vudu, CinemaNow and others.
- A subscription service such as Netflix and Hulu Plus.
- A studio or distributor’s own Web site such as Sony’s free, ad-supported Crackle.
- A pay-TV service such as the TV Everywhere service that Time Warner Cable and others are developing.
- Social TV is the “in thing” these days: “Let’s text while we watch!”
What’s needed now on Facebook is a recommendation engine like the one The Filter is offering, a better way to pay than only with Facebook credits and a better search. Facebook has a search that allows users to find a movie by name but not by actor, producer, studio and the like.
VMIX president and CEO Pat Burns said, “Studios can now transform Facebook fan pages into destination sites for browsing, renting and sharing premium video. They are sites that deliver full-length features and TV series capable of turning your Facebook fans into paying customers and valuable viral promoters.”
He said the company believes Facebook is ready for renting movies and TV shows, and Facebook users are beginning “to demand content they can love instead of like.”
VMIX co-founder and CTO Greg Kostello said VMIX Social is a win for media companies. “It’s all about location. Facebook is the number one destination on the Web, with more than 600 million consumers connecting to brands and products by the minute. Over 700,000 businesses have pages on Facebook, with top companies supporting a network of over 64 million Facebook fans and growing.”
When Warner Bros announced its first movie on Facebook, Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros Digital Distribution, said, “Facebook has become a daily destination for hundreds of millions of people.”
Key Components
VMIX listed the key components of VMIX Social as:
- Integration with social network engines to keep transactions and consumers in Facebook, encouraging easy and wide social distribution
- Live and on-demand video streaming direct to Facebook fan pages and any Internet-connected device
- Fine control of video rights management and distribution
- Interactive video templates and galleries for promoting content in Facebook
Searching on Facebook
With $26 million in venture funding, VMIX has provided its platform to media partners, including newspapers such as McClatchey, broadcast media companies such as ESPN, NASA, Penguin Books and products like Toyota’s Scion.
Kostello said VMIX has enabled “10 million consumers over the past five years to watch more than 50 million videos per year on their computers, phones and other devices.”
He said VMIX knows the industry is ready for this Facebook implementation.
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