Movie Gallery picks up the pieces of MovieBeam
MovieBeam's short, sordid history hasn't exactly come to a close, but it's certainly a far cry from the service's once lofty goals. First it was spun off from Disney, with Intel and Cisco investing an extra $50 million in the newly separated company to further develop the service, now that company has been sold to Movie Gallery for a fraction of the amount that's been spent on the service over the past few years. According to paidContent.org, Movie Gallery plans to spend less $10 million on the service in 2007, including all acquisition costs and development expenses. In the short term, it appears that Movie Gallery plans to continue to operate the MovieBeam service in the 31 metropolitan areas in the U.S. it's currently available in, and it'll also begin to market the service in its Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery stores, as well as on its website. The company also appears to have some longer-term plans for the service, including downloading or streaming movies over the Internet, although it's not providing any more specific details just yet.
Read - Movie Gallery Press Release
Read - paidContent.org
[Via Techdirt]
