Broadband Movies Streaming Ahead

As reported previously, the movement to advance Internet video toward broader consumer acceptance is gaining strength as compression technology has advanced enough to make the Internet a viable distribution medium. A number of new startup companies have introduced Web sites to establish the Web as a full-fledged distribution method for video entertainment.Among the new startups are AtomFilms, Film.com, @Home, ifilm.net, Digital Entertainment Network, Pseudo, and The Sync. Content aggregator Broadcast.com, which Yahoo recently announced it intends to acquire (see Todayís News April 1, 1999), has been the leader in the field.AtomFilms launched in March as a distributor of short films, animations, and other media over the Internet with a catalog of more than 50 shorts, including the OscarÆ-nominated Holiday Romance. Among other projected sources of revenue, AtomFilms hopes to sell videos to consumers.Ifilm.net is envisioned as a portal for independent filmmakers and film enthusiasts. The site currently lets a filmmaker post his or her film along with supplemental information such as a synopsis and personal biography. Visitors can rate the film and post comments. Ultimately ifilm expects to create a digital distribution network for supplying movies to theatres, known as electronic cinema, and financing the production of original digital films.The stumbling block to delivering video over the Net still is and has been slow dial-up connections that prevent stellar delivery of Internet video. This barrier is not expected to disappear to until after 2002 Then too, there will be the challenge associated with getting consumers to turn to the Internet for movies as a replacement for watching movies on television sets. No Hollywood studio, except for Trimark, which has licensed its film library to Broadcast.com for redistribution on the Internet, has created a movie streaming Web site. That is not expected to happen until an infrastructure develops to protect intellectual property rights. Until such time, the going will be tough to get major studios to partner with the Web movie distribution companies. And when the time is right, it is almost certain that the major studios will step up to deliver their content to consumers directly from their own Web sites.