DISH Network and MGM Sign Video-On-Demand Movie Deal

[Poke]

http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/070529/120420.html


Video-On-Demand and Pay-Per-View Movies Now Available On DISH Network


ENGLEWOOD, Colo. and LOS ANGELES, May 29, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- EchoStar Communications Corporation (NasdaqGSISH - News) and its DISH Network(tm) satellite TV service today announced an agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) to carry the studio's current and catalog movie titles on its Video On Demand platform, DISH On Demand, as well as through its Pay-Per-View services.

``This agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. demonstrates our commitment to meeting our customers' demands to expand programming variety,'' stated Andy Karofsky, vice president of Programming for EchoStar. ``MGM is a great addition to both DISH On Demand and Pay-Per-View.''

``We are delighted to be working with DISH Network and contribute quality MGM titles from our library to the DISH On Demand service,'' said Joseph Patrick, executive vice president, domestic distribution, MGM. ``We look forward to helping make the service a great success by bringing customers popular films such as Casino Royale, Rocky Balboa and Flyboys.''

DISH Network's DISH On Demand service gives customers the power to enjoy movies and other programs whenever they want and is currently available on the DISH Player-DVR 508, DISH Player-DVR 510, DISH Player-DVR 522, DISH Player-DVR 625, and one of the industry's top-rated HD receivers, the ViP622 DVR. Additionally, DISH Network's state-of-the-art DVRs enable subscribers to further customize their viewing experience by taking advantage of popular features such as pause live TV, fast forward including a 30-second skip forward, and rewind.

 

[lakebum431]

``We are delighted to be working with DISH Network and contribute quality MGM titles from our library to the DISH On Demand service,'' said Joseph Patrick, executive vice president, domestic distribution, MGM. ``We look forward to helping make the service a great success by bringing customers popular films such as Casino Royale, Rocky Balboa and Flyboys.''

How is it that this deal was just reached today when each of these movies has been on PPV for the past several weeks? I know that Casino Royale and Rocky Balboa were on Movies and More (Dish on Demand) for this same time frame. Not sure about Flyboys. Something doesn't make sense regarding this announcement.

 

[Poke]

I think its mainly on the VOD side of things.

 

[gadgtfreek]

is there technically VOD yet? Dunno because I have not looked.

 

[mike123abc]

This is probably going to help them when they do the real demand stuff over the internet. They were demoing the ability to rent movies over the internet, and if you had a 3mbit or faster internet you could pretty much start the movie within minutes of the download starting.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Are they planning something like what D* is? Where you hook the 622 to HSI.

 

[james_k_p]

Borrrrinnnggg.

Until they give us VOD like cable does for movies on the stations we subscribe to for FREE, who cares.

I've never used PPV/On Demand anyways. Now if this would giving us selections from the MGM catalog to VOD for free, wellll now we're talking!

 

[NOHDjunkie]

not interested in anything unless it's HD anyway.

Waste of bandwidth and HD space.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I'm to the point that if the news isn't about HD programming, then it isn't news.

 

[ripnbigc]

I'm to the point that if the news isn't about HD programming, then it isn't news.

Totally agree.

 

[kstuart]

I'm to the point that if the news isn't about HD programming, then it isn't news.

Casino Royale and Rocky Balboa are both available on Dish's HD-PPV channel.

In fact, I rented and HD-DVR-ed Casino Royale and it looked great ! ( I think they may be get some tech support calls from people who watch CR for the first time and think the black-and-white is a technical problem... )

 

[sonnyboy11]

I'm to the point that if the news isn't about HD programming, then it isn't news.

Agreed. And truthfully, now that I have an HD DVD player (and soon a Blu Ray) I am back into buying my own movies. I still use the HD movie channels to watch movies I only want to see once. But what I really want is more HD content for stuff like sports. And for certain channels, like Sci Fi, to finally get off their butts and put their primary shows on in HD. VOD= not much interest for me.

 

[sbsi]

How many movies does MGM still make these days? Not too many except Casino Royale, Rocky and Basic Instinct 2.