Hollywood Plans Movie Streaming Service

Dropping the term “luddite” generally tends to conjure up images of weavers destroying the machines that threaten to replace them and leave them destitute. More often than not, however, true luddites are generally industrial fixtures and mainstays, fighting tooth-and-nail to prevent new technologies or trends from altering the market or expanding to threatening proportions.

Such has been the state of things for TV and motion picture studios.



Films and TV content haven’t changed much, but the means by which people access and consume them are proving problematic for advertisers and others who, essentially, pay for most of the production costs of TV.

Yet, after years of creating obstacles to prevent TV content and films from being streamed or broadcast on the internet, studios have finally stopped waiting for the calendar to roll back to 1990 and are beginning to take steps towards using the internet, as opposed to resisting it.

Case in point: Studio 3 Networks, a joint venture between Paramount Pictures, MGM Studios, United Artists and Lionsgate Films, will soon launch a premium video-streaming web service, potentially under the Epix namesake that Studio 3 Networks initially had planned for a premium cable television channel with the studios’ collective content. In addition to 15,000 films and Viacom television content, the Studio 3 Networks web service will also provide “exclusive” access to bonus footage, commentary tracks and other outtakes.

Though companies like Netflix have already beaten Studio 3 Networks to the full streaming punch, given the amount of people leaving television behind for the internet, even late-comers like Studio 3 Networks are likely to find success.

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