EchoStar Invests In CinemaNow

[Sean Mota]

EchoStar Invests In CinemaNow
The satcaster continues a series of investments in new media ventures.
By Phillip Swann

Washington, D.C. (July 13, 2006) -- EchoStar, the nation's second largest satellite TV service, has become an investor in the online movie service CinemaNow.

The satcaster joins other media heavyweights such as Microsoft and Cisco who had previously invested in CinemaNow.

CinemaNow CEO Curt Mavis told Reuters that EchoStar will eventually launch new Net-connected receivers that will offer his service directly on the TV.

CinemaNow's online lineup of new video releases (Cinemanow.com) can now be watched on PCs and laptops.

 

[mdonnelly]

EchoStar Invests In CinemaNow

...
CinemaNow CEO Curt Mavis told Reuters that EchoStar will eventually launch new Net-connected receivers that will offer his service directly on the TV.
...

VIP series? Or Homezone, the one they showed at Team Summit?

 

[korsjs]

i guess their answer for video on demand.

 

[MikeD-C05]

IT better be for the existing VIP series of receivers or I am going to be very pissed. Why else do we have the ethernet connections? I do not intend to do any more upgrading to anymore recievers for quite some time. I am all tapped out buying two 622s after the 942 last year and the 921 the year before. NOt to mention the dish 1000 that I don't need now since I am using the dish 500 peaked for 61.5. Dish needs to settle on this series of dvrs and not come out with anymore new ones for a while.

Now a whole house server that has the capacity for up to 4 or 6 sat tuners, two ota connections and the ability to do hd wirelessly to other tvs in the house would be nice .:

 

[Jolard]

I agree, lets hope that it is the 622's, as I would love to finally use that ethernet connection for something!

This could be really good news. Their current VOD offering is absolutely stunningly bad. Why would I purchase a standard definition movie on my DVR for a $1 more than I can buy it on pay per view? It makes no sense. If they integrated CinemaNow's offerings into the VOD functionality, now all of a sudden things get interesting.

Here is another quote on the issue (linked)

"The link with EchoStar also means CinemaNow can access 12 million subscribers on the Dish Network television service as EchoStar launches new set-top boxes that are connected to the Web and allow for downloading or streaming movies straight to TV sets, Marvis said."

I am hoping that them saying "as" the new set top boxes are launched, rather than "when" the new set top boxes are launched, means that it is the current receivers. It should really just be a software change.