Best Buy partnering with CinemaNow to stream first-run DVDs to 'all web-connected devices sold'
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Nov 3rd 2009 4:11AM
posted Nov 3rd 2009 4:11AM
Can you live without physical media? Are you ready to buy into owning a license without any physical property to show for your purchase? We hope so 'cause that's the future. Today Best Buy will announce confirmation of its rumored partnership with CinemaNow in a deal that will stream first-run DVDs directly to consumers. Better yet, according to an AP report, the software required to access CinemaNow's video library "will be included on all the Web-connected devices sold in Best Buy's more than 1,000 U.S. stores." If taken literally then wow, just wow... that's a lot of devices. However, since Best Buy sells Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, and there's no way that Apple's going to let a retailer tamper with its devices, we think the AP's wording is a bit ambitious.The idea here is simple: pay once for a DVD then eventually be able to play it on any device be it a television, Blu-ray player, PC, smartphone or some other connected device. The new Best Buy-branded service will launch "early next year" according to Chris Homeister (yes, that's his real surname), as Best Buy gets "into this business in a big way." Remember, Best Buy already announced a streaming Netflix deal and partnerships with TiVo and Napster that will be launching early next year as well. And we've already seen Sonic Solutions, CinemaNow's owner since last year, bunging its 1080p-capable CinemaNow service into every connected-device imaginable -- even 3D content for 3D Vision-ready displays. The whole concept sounds very much like Disney's Keychest which already sounded very much like the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (or DECE) consortium. Hopefully Best Buy will clear up the details later today when this gets really official. The future is now -- too bad US broadband is so yesterday.
Update: It's official. The agreement will allow customers to "buy or rent" from CinemaNow's library of content on "connected consumer electronics" sold through Best Buy retail stores or BestBuy.com. New titles will "often" (note the qualification) be made available day and date of the DVD release. The service will also leverage digital copies to bridge the physical and digital stream worlds. See the full press release for all the detail.
Best Buy Co., Inc (NYSE:BBY) and Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ:SNIC) today announced a strategic relationship that will result in a new Best Buy customer offering in its growing line-up of digital entertainment products. The new on-demand movie and entertainment service will be powered by Sonic's Roxio CinemaNow™ and will allow consumers to have access to buy or rent a vast library of premium content.
To power this offering, Best Buy has entered into a multi-year agreement in which Best Buy plans to license and deploy Sonic's Roxio CinemaNow™ technology and services platform to make on-demand digital content delivery a standard feature on connected consumer electronics devices sold throughout U.S. Best Buy retail stores and BestBuy.com. Under the terms of the agreement, Best Buy acquired warrants enabling it to purchase shares of Sonic Solutions common stock.
Best Buy, one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in the world, has a strong track record of bringing innovative technologies to a broad audience through its consumer-focused marketing, education, and Geek Squad services. To foster the consumer appetite for obtaining on-demand premium content electronically, Best Buy intends to embed the Roxio CinemaNow technology on a wide array of devices - web-connected television sets, portable media players, PCs, Blu-ray Disc players, set-top boxes, and mobile phones - from a variety of manufacturers. Best Buy expects to undertake a marketing program to educate consumers about the increased convenience, flexibility, and choice digital content delivery affords.
With the new Best Buy service, consumers will have access to buy or rent an extensive library of premium content including new movies, TV shows, independent films, and older catalog movies, which they will be able to access on devices in the broad ecosystem. It is anticipated that new titles will often be available on the same day they become available on DVDs in retail outlets. Together with their Studio partners, Best Buy and Sonic plan to also collaborate on new service and content offerings, including those that leverage digital copies to bridge physical disc sales and electronic sell through.
"Best Buy is in a great position to expand the market for on-demand home entertainment," said Thomas Gewecke, president, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. "The combination of Sonic's platform with Best Buy's expertise in selling consumer electronics, video content and technical services creates an opportunity for a wide variety of exciting new consumer offerings."
"Our relationship with Sonic Solutions allows Best Buy to quickly establish a strong position in the digital delivery of video entertainment," said Brian Dunn, CEO of Best Buy. "It also enables us to make deeper and more meaningful connections with our customers and expand our relationships with content owners and hardware vendors to create compelling new home entertainment solutions."
"With Best Buy's ability to drive in-store promotion and education, consumers will come to quickly understand and appreciate the convenience, flexibility, and control that digitally-delivered video entertainment affords them," said Dave Habiger, president and CEO, Sonic Solutions. "With Best Buy's focus, we expect on-demand entertainment to quickly grow into a mass market activity, with digital sell-through and rental becoming a significant new revenue stream for content owners."
Roxio CinemaNow includes Hollywood-approved digital rights management, encoding and adaptive delivery technologies, and secure device-optimized playback of premium entertainment. Roxio CinemaNow's cloud-based media services power devices which consumers can use to seamlessly enjoy video entertainment anytime and anywhere across the broadest range of devices. The Roxio CinemaNow ecosystem includes PCs, connected TVs, set top DVRs, Blu-ray Disc and mobile media players from leading manufacturers such as Archos, Dell, HP, LG, Microsoft, Nintendo, Pioneer and TiVo and is powering internet movie delivery for Blockbuster.
To power this offering, Best Buy has entered into a multi-year agreement in which Best Buy plans to license and deploy Sonic's Roxio CinemaNow™ technology and services platform to make on-demand digital content delivery a standard feature on connected consumer electronics devices sold throughout U.S. Best Buy retail stores and BestBuy.com. Under the terms of the agreement, Best Buy acquired warrants enabling it to purchase shares of Sonic Solutions common stock.
Best Buy, one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in the world, has a strong track record of bringing innovative technologies to a broad audience through its consumer-focused marketing, education, and Geek Squad services. To foster the consumer appetite for obtaining on-demand premium content electronically, Best Buy intends to embed the Roxio CinemaNow technology on a wide array of devices - web-connected television sets, portable media players, PCs, Blu-ray Disc players, set-top boxes, and mobile phones - from a variety of manufacturers. Best Buy expects to undertake a marketing program to educate consumers about the increased convenience, flexibility, and choice digital content delivery affords.
With the new Best Buy service, consumers will have access to buy or rent an extensive library of premium content including new movies, TV shows, independent films, and older catalog movies, which they will be able to access on devices in the broad ecosystem. It is anticipated that new titles will often be available on the same day they become available on DVDs in retail outlets. Together with their Studio partners, Best Buy and Sonic plan to also collaborate on new service and content offerings, including those that leverage digital copies to bridge physical disc sales and electronic sell through.
"Best Buy is in a great position to expand the market for on-demand home entertainment," said Thomas Gewecke, president, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. "The combination of Sonic's platform with Best Buy's expertise in selling consumer electronics, video content and technical services creates an opportunity for a wide variety of exciting new consumer offerings."
"Our relationship with Sonic Solutions allows Best Buy to quickly establish a strong position in the digital delivery of video entertainment," said Brian Dunn, CEO of Best Buy. "It also enables us to make deeper and more meaningful connections with our customers and expand our relationships with content owners and hardware vendors to create compelling new home entertainment solutions."
"With Best Buy's ability to drive in-store promotion and education, consumers will come to quickly understand and appreciate the convenience, flexibility, and control that digitally-delivered video entertainment affords them," said Dave Habiger, president and CEO, Sonic Solutions. "With Best Buy's focus, we expect on-demand entertainment to quickly grow into a mass market activity, with digital sell-through and rental becoming a significant new revenue stream for content owners."
Roxio CinemaNow includes Hollywood-approved digital rights management, encoding and adaptive delivery technologies, and secure device-optimized playback of premium entertainment. Roxio CinemaNow's cloud-based media services power devices which consumers can use to seamlessly enjoy video entertainment anytime and anywhere across the broadest range of devices. The Roxio CinemaNow ecosystem includes PCs, connected TVs, set top DVRs, Blu-ray Disc and mobile media players from leading manufacturers such as Archos, Dell, HP, LG, Microsoft, Nintendo, Pioneer and TiVo and is powering internet movie delivery for Blockbuster.
I would rather just have the physical DVD instead of having to use this software every time I want to watch a movie.
Oh top of that, you have to update the software once in a while in order to play it. it could get very annoying when you just want to watch a movie.
DIVX is to CC as CN is to BB?
Or how bout you just buy the DVD and copy/stream it as you wish, with no DRM involved?
God, the future is so full of fail. I weep for my kids who will never get the enjoyment of actually owning a physical product
I disagree, how many people do you know that buys a dvd and actually watches all of them repeatedly through their life. There's new movies all the time and the old ones collect dust, and I welcome the future where I can rent a movie for 1-3 dollar(s) from anywhere on a whim. I also believe some software companies like Poser has it right where i buy an item and then I can request a physical copy and then they send it to me and owning a digital copy or license is only a hassle when they fail to provide a service to you which then we won't buy into that service.
So what you're saying is you enjoy repurchasing the White Album with each format change?
Digital content has the possibility of making repaying for format changes a thing of the past. That is, if the content industries don't f*ck it up, and that's a BIG if...
Personally, I'll continue buying physical media until it's impossible to buy. The idea of spending $30+ on digital media just bothers me.
FTA >> "Are you ready to buy into owning a license without any physical property to show for your purchase?"
No... lemme just pay $2 to "rent" the new movie on my web-connected device. I just wanna see the movie... I don't need to own the movie.
Look at RedBox. It's $1. Even if I could buy a DVD for $10... I'd have to watch that movie 10 times before it paid for itself. With new movies coming out every week... who has that much time to re-watch old movies?
Even CinemaNow's current prices are crazy... $5 to rent, $20 to own. Look... I wanna see Pelham 1 2 3. But I'm not paying $5 to see it once... when I can get the same rental experience from the little red vending machine at my grocery store... for a dollar.
I'm ready for digital distribution... for a replacement for rentals... not purchases.
my thoughts exactly - Apple understood this with video rentals vs purchases - Apple has notoriously been a purchase-oriented company, shying away from rentals/subscriptions until they started distributing videos via iTS, but even then it wasn't implemented at first.
The old model, go to blockbuster and rent a movie for $4 for a few days, or possibly pick up the same dvd in the discount bin at walmart for $8 makes purchasing seem a lot more reasonable (only have to watch the movie twice to make the purchase pay for itself).
But redbox has definitely changed things (same with the weekly $.99 iTunes movie rentals) - I would now have to watch the movie EIGHT times before a purchase was justified. I have literally only seen 2 or 3 movies that many times (and even then, only because friends were watching, etc - not out of pure desire to see it).
Redbox and iTunes and even netflix to some degree, have set a new pricing model that no longer favors purchasing.
re: I'm ready for digital distribution... for a replacement for rentals... not purchases.
Ditto... I'm almost there with Netflix on my Roku and Tivo HD, but the library is still limited. I have zero desire to "purchase" digital downloads.
Yup. First, there are very few movies that I need to see more than once. So most of my interest is in RENTALs not purchases. Second, I don't consider "owning" a DRM-infested file to be owning anything. I have paid to "own" TV shows on my Apple TV, but only because it was cheap enough that I was willing to pay it then delete them.
If this in fact delivers RENTALS at same date as DVD release, then its interesting. If it doesn't it isn't. If its only for a few movies, its not interesting. It has to be for the vast majority of DVD rentals or I don't care. I'm not going to BUY a digital media streamer for something that works once in a while.
I *suspect* that they'll want to charge more for the rentals when they are closer to DVD release dates. I'll pay a little more to get the convenience of a digital download, but anything over $5 forget it.
I think Best Buy is right to see streaming as the future of watching media, but I'm sure they have no immediate plans to close down the business around DVDs - which people will still be using for some time to come.
Best Buy wouldn't need to modify iPhone/iPod touch. They'd just need to write a web app which their users could login in to access their DVDs on demand.
To quote:
“QuickTime X takes Internet video streaming to new levels with support for HTTP live streaming. Unlike other streaming technologies, HTTP live streaming uses the HTTP protocol — the same network technology that powers the web. That means QuickTime X streams audio and video from almost any web server instead of special streaming servers, and it works reliably with common firewall and wireless router settings. HTTP live streaming is designed for mobility and can dynamically adjust movie playback quality to match the available speed of wired or wireless networks, perfect whether thevideo is watched on a computer or on a mobile device like iPhone or iPod touch.”
"However, since Best Buy sells Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, and there's no way that Apple's going to let a retailer tamper with its devices"
For an article that's not even about Apple, I can't believe they were even mentioned like they would have a say on what Best Buy can do with the other web connected devices that are sold by Best Buy. If Apple doesn't want to play, then screw them. Best Buy's target devices are more like Blu-ray players, set-top media streamer, etc... something that would be placed in the home theater not the iPhone or iPod.
Cinemanow needs to seriously look at their retail model if they want my money. I've "bought" a couple of movies from them using a coupon.
* The movies were not cheap - comparable to DVD prices.
* The DRM is very strict, with only 3 computers that can be authorized and no way to de-authorize a computer. So after a few years and new laptops / desktops later you may have nothing to play the content on. I emailed their customer support and they offered to sell me the movie *again* to allow playing it on more devices.
* The movies all had stereo sound - no Dolby Digital. This is the studio's licensing agreement, so I can't hold it against CinemaNow, but it stops me from buying the movie.
I'll stick with Netflix for renting and buy my own BluRay discs for the ones I'd like to own.
People, you really need to think, a lot more... this is not about convenience or inconvenience...it's all about control.
The guys with money are not jacking off in the corner, they spend their days and nights trying to figure out how to get every last cent from your pocket into theirs... and they are working diligilently towards their goal... The inexorable push towards serfdom, indenture, perpetual slavery... they want everything you have and they want to feed it to you when they feel like it. Really, they just want to own you... in time they will.
The first part of that plan was convincing you to despise each other... dis-organized labor... then they sold you everything they could including the idea of women's liberation - 2 effects of which are to split up the family and double the labor market - worked perfectly... they now sell you gadgets with limited lifespans - planned obsolesence - but that's not enough... they want to have you pay for software that you cannot keep - why? whose bright idea was this?... they'll keep it on their servers, for good measure, they'll liberate you of your right to ownership...leasing the home, leasing the car, leasing the appliances, lease on life... the concepts are in place for exploitation... it's all becoming cloudy like computing... no media, no ownership, no privacy, I rent everything... everything. Forever. I pay someone everything for the conveniene of now owning it.
Thank the lord for this fantastic innovation.
They win. I better own the damn thing and it better be on my media, and I better be able to replace it at will, and I better be able to move it from place to place as I decide. Or no deal. Capiche?
Now wake the *uck up and project these trajectories a bit further than the right hand that's pleasing you...
I would argue with you but it would take a lifetime to convince you of anything.
You're probably right... and I acknowledge that not all matter has to be owned... :)
Yeah dude, you're the only one who's figured this out. Thanks for the little speech.
Fanfoot, you're absolutely right... my apologies. I didn't really mean to say that others haven't figured it out, but I am disappointed that it never seems to come up as part of the discussion.
I always hear about convenience, but i'd like to hear more about consequence from others...
Think of the children! How will they watch their Disney DVDs in the SUV? Or in their beds with a portable DVD player when they have the H1N1? The horror.....
I think you mean be able to play it on any device subject to validation by thumbprint and application in triplicate - as long as you haven't played it within 24 hours previously or within 2 days if it was within a 10 mile radius and you have validated documentation by local authorities that you have not broken the copyright holders license by ever, ever, ever, ever having anyone else present while viewing - as those viewers would no doubt be deemed to be breaking the copyright covenant and rendering you a pirate.
Yeah... I'm sure their won't be any hassles at all with just owning a license and not actual media and trusting that their won't be any hassles with my actual use of what I have purchased - particularly from the easygoing movie studios.
Maybe we could make some progress if they realized that their declining sales are mostly due to the endless line-up of dross and crap that they are producing.
Please Forgive Me is right... it's a question of control.
As for the films themselves, those who favour quantity over quality would be pleased with these kinds of schemes... they can go on watching "Transformers", "Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" and every Vin Diesel/Jennifer Lopez flick ever made on their DRM-infested equipment, and bleed a few dollars everytime they do so.
Those of us who want to have what's called a library, with the likes of "Casablanca", "Citizen Kane", "Lawrence of Arabia", and every Tarkovsky, Kubrick, Kurosawa or Polanski film, will continue to amass and carefully guard shiny )physical) digital discs.
And then, one day, the servers go down, the ISPs collapse, the payment is late, and suddenly the Pay-for-Play system shows its real, ugly face.
Like Divx, this is a wet dream for the industry... and it's sad to see that some people are too gullible or lazy to think it properly, in the long run, and allow themselves to get duped like this.
These schemes will work in the US. Luckily, they'd never catch on in places like Europe. We know what happens when someone else can dictate the terms. We've seen what happened in Communism, when the state controlled all the media, and restricted our access to it. We've seen how this worked under the Fascists as well. It won't get any better under the new Corporatism, even if the overlords give you the illusion of choice. Whoever invented leasing was the benefactor, patron saint and god of technocapitalism.
I already forsee a sort of Fahrenheit 451 future where "owning" your own copy of a movie is considered strange, deviant, bad or just plain illegal. Not only will the personal proliferation of "book media" be actively discouraged but the same will be true of movies and music. One good flood or earthquake might destroy access to wide swaths of useful or even useless information.
Your copy of Fight Club in both book and movie form will be thrown on the same pile to be burned by the firemen.
re: Jedi
Sadly, we're already there with connected Blu-ray players.
Interesting point. Since they can invalidate older keys, and in fact have implemented the infrastructure to do it, by hooking up your Blu-Ray player to the internet (or even playing new Blu-Ray disks, since they can update the keys this way as well), you are risking having your old disks become no longer playable. Interesting how nobody talks about this... (not suggesting its going to happen, but if there were that moment that was the equivalent of the Amazon Kindle/1984 take back it should would be interesting to see how people react).
Agreed with you guys... glad you agree Anita... I like what you had to say as well. Although I prefer socialism to capitalism in the big scheme.
I'm afraid that we've already reached an apex, where the monied class has already inflicted enough damage on the middle and lower classes, that we're losing more and more power / validity every day.
The economic collapse was when we lost a lot of strength. The fact that the monied class not only recouped their losses but even made gains from that fiasco is a sign that we are now on the downard slope and from here on out, we have to be much more diligent or we risk literally returning to a feudal or pre feudal societal structure where we don't own even our own freedom, let alone property.
It may seem like we're talking about movies, but the subtext is about our rights and what rights corporations think they can get away with stealing from us... ironically, no one really seems to talk about a corporation or financial interest as an organism with it's own unique character... it's always presented as mostly innocuous because it's comprised of people obviously... yes, obviously so is a Mob or Gang... but corporations manifest a sinister form of autonomy where the end result is malevolence towards the people it's meant to serve. The entire hierarchy is twisted. We serve corporations... why exactly?
It really is that important...
Ironically, I think our true salvation relies on disawoval of private property and private ownership. But that's a bigger battle for another century... right now, we just need to maintain or regain relevance. :o
I already can pay for a DVD and then play it in any location I want. And I could do it legally if it weren't for the big media interests.