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AOL launches video on demand service
Earlier today, AOL announced new options within their video.aol.com product. AOL will now offer content distribution from basically all of the major studios in the US:
- 20th Century Fox
- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- Universal Pictures
- Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
A couple of excerpts from the press release:
"Viewing online digital content is no longer an esoteric pastime," said Benjamin S. Feingold, President of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Digital Distribution and Acquisitions. "Online programming services like AOL's video portal have the potential to become a major distribution stream for consumer entertainment and a viable revenue source for Hollywood."
Through AOL Video, popular movie titles will be available for purchase and download with prices ranging from $9.99 to $19.99 per movie. Once downloaded, movies can be viewed offline as well as on other PCs and compatible portable devices.
The release goes on to speak about more popular television content from leading brands. Shows from Fox including 24 and Prison Break, are just a sample of the offerings AOL will serve up. The release does not mention the pricing for these shows, except to note that shows from SONY will be free. I am guessing they will price about the same as on iTunes.
The look of the AOL Video site appears pretty similar to the Netscape ranking site. It will be interesting to see if AOL can capture market share with these new services. There are a lot of services today offering movies and tv shows on digital download and most are significantly less expensive.
Since the price will include ownership, that may help swing the curve. But to most owners, I am guessing they will still want to purchase the DVD rather than download it and then need to archive it to DVD.
Naturally the more competition in the market will be good for consumers. With Amazon working on a product, iTunes already dominant, and the other smaller niche players, it will be interesting to watch the video wars which shall begin shortly. And CenterNetworks will be there in the thick of it.
Tags: aol | video | centernetworks
AOL Video is the worst video site I’ve ever used. Their license server is down 90+% of the time, so you can’t even watch your videos until you are lucky enough to contact the license server. I’ve spent hours with their customer support who are clueless. Their DRM infrastructure is obviously not functional. Stay far away from AOL Video, there are other video sites that will work. When you pay for a video you expect to be able to play it right after the download, not wait forever for their servers to work again.
Recieved E-mail offer of FREE download of one movie to introduce AOL Video Service. Tried to download movie 3 times. First two times it would get to download page and freeze. Third time didn’t get that far before AOL froze and had to restart. Gave up on movies. Three days later I get E-mail stating I was being charged $9.95 X 2 for the movies I downloaded. Sent 3 E-mails and made 6 phone calls to AOL’s various phone numbers. Every one I talked too said they didn’t know how to handle a credit and bumped me on to another who said the same. Finally got to a supervisor who bumped me to someone who supposedly handled the credit issue. That was on 12/12, still haven’t recieved the credit on 12/23. May be if there help personel were in the US rather than Idia or where ever they could handle issue’s like this. I have not given up as it’s now an issue, not the money. Tomorrow I will call yet again.