Post by dkennedy on Mar 15, 2005 6:03:10 GMT -5
Press Release Source: RealNetworks, Inc.
STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies Doubles Feature Film Content
Monday March 14, 8:00 am ET
- Nation's Premier Online Movie Subscription Service Provides Consumers With Unlimited Access to More Than 300 Movies at a TimeSuperior Value at $12.95 Per Month Compared to Rental Alternatives, No Limit on Number of Titles Customers Can Download and Watch
SEATTLE and ENGLEWOOD, Colo., March 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RealNetworks®, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK - News) and Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG), today announced the launch of the next generation of their PC-based movie subscription service -- doubling the selection of available movies at anytime to 300 and unveiling a variety of newly enhanced features.
Introduced last summer, the price of STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies remains unchanged at only $12.95 per month. For the equivalent of three rentals from a typical video store, customers can download and watch all the movies they want, as often as they like, from the nation's premier online movie subscription service. Consumers can access the service by logging into www.starzticket.com.
"Today's digital consumers are looking for convenience, simplicity, and value," said Karim Meghji, vice president of Video Services at RealNetworks, Inc. "STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies gives customers around-the-clock access to the most popular movies and provides travelers the ability to playback movies at convenient times via their laptop. Our latest update to STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies leverages Real's industry-leading experience in creating popular online subscription services, combined with valuable customer feedback, to offer consumers a compelling and easy way to discover and enjoy movies."
"STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies is a superior value proposition to services that have to mail the DVD and then limit the number you can have at any one time," said Bob Greene, senior vice president, Advanced Services at Starz Entertainment Group. "Movie-lovers, and particularly business and leisure travelers, get the benefit of price certainty at only $12.95. Subscribers now also have unlimited access to at least 300 titles at any time and may download as many of those titles as they wish in one sitting. Why be encumbered with having to lug around DVD's and be limited in your selection when you can speedily and securely have them stored on up to three of your PC's? We expect current and prospective customers to be delighted with this latest evolution of the service."
To create a friendly and easy-to-use user experience, STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies service has added and enhanced the following features:
-- Expanded Movie Selection -- Subscription content has been expanded to 300 titles at all times. New titles rotate into the service each week as older titles rotate off to ensure consumers have a continuous fresh and compelling movie selection list.
-- Previewing & Searching Movies -- Customers can now explore and find movies using new category and genre search functionality, to view the ever- evolving and expanding movie list.
-- Movie Recommendations -- Movie recommendations give customers additional suggested movie picks based on shared movie characteristics, such as a genre. Movie recommendations, include:
-- Movie Mixes -- Updated each week, this collection of hit movies showcased on the service homepage, have been selected based on themes such as actor, location, director, genre and plot -- often with an entertaining twist.
-- Top 5 Movie Downloads -- Customers can see which movies are the most popular movie downloads being enjoyed by other movie fans.
-- Expanded Movie Categories -- New movie categories and genres including Widescreen, Bonus Material, Anime, Art Cinema, Documentaries, Drive-In, En espanol, Horror/Sci-Fi, International, Thriller, Urban, and Movie Mixes. Examples of Movie Mixes include spotlight showcases of Quentin Tarantino and Eddie Murphy.
-- Plus, consumers can enjoy new bonus programming such as celebrity interviews and 'behind the scenes' (the making of hit movies) as well as widescreen and director's cut editions of select titles.
Other valuable features of the STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies service include:
-- Progressive Downloads -- This advanced RealPlayer® feature enables customers to watch a movie while it is still being delivered over broadband to their PC. Most movies require approximately 20 minutes to download to the PC(1) over standard broadband connection speeds.
-- STARZ! Channel -- A live web stream of the STARZ! East linear pay TV movie channel is available to subscribers of STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies to watch live TV movies and to catch movie extras, such as celebrity interviews and movie outtakes.
-- Scheduling Downloads -- For customers who do not have time to download movies during the day, the easy and intuitive 'Download Later' feature enables customers to maximize bandwidth usage by choosing times that work best to download their movies.
Currently, motion pictures available on STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies include:
-- Major hit motion pictures:
"Kill Bill: Vol. 2," "Hidalgo," "Hellboy," "Miracle," "Cold Mountain," and "13 Going on 30."
-- Upcoming new titles:
"Dawn of the Dead," "Jersey Girl," "The Ladykillers," "The Alamo," and "Van Helsing."
-- Classic films:
"Taxi Driver," "Tommy," and "Scarface."
STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies feature film content is drawn from the vast film inventory that SEG maintains and which includes more than 4000 licensed movies. Starz Entertainment Group licenses exclusive first-run and library theatrical movies from Hollywood's biggest studios and independent companies including: Walt Disney, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Miramax Films, Sony Pictures Classics, Revolution Studios, Universal Studios, New Line Cinema, Fine Line Features, USA Films, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Screen Gems.
STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies uses the award-winning RealPlayer to ensure consumers enjoy the best movie viewing experience available. Movies delivered via the service are content-protected using Real's Helix(TM) Digital Rights Management (Helix DRM), which delivers a seamless access experience while protecting the copyrights of content owners.
About Starz Entertainment Group
Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG) is the largest provider of premium movie services in the United States with approximately 167 million subscription units. SEG offerings include the Starz Encore Movie Pack, with up to 13 digital movie channels and more than 750 movies per month, STARZ! HD, Starz On Demand®, and STARZ! Ticket®, the first and only on-demand premium TV subscription service available on the broadband platform. Starz Entertainment Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: L - News, LMCb - News), www.starz.com.
About RealNetworks, Inc.
RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading creator of digital media services and software including the award-winning Rhapsody® Internet jukebox service and RealPlayer, the first digital media player to integrate finding, organizing, buying, playing and managing digital audio and video in a single product. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer software at www.real.com. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks' products and services to create and deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. RealNetworks' systems and corporate information is located at www.realnetworks.com.
NOTE: RealNetworks, Helix, RealPlayer, RealVideo, and Rhapsody are trademarks or registered trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
(1) 20 minute download time based on a minimum Broadband connection speed of 600 Kbps.
STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies Doubles Feature Film Content
Monday March 14, 8:00 am ET
- Nation's Premier Online Movie Subscription Service Provides Consumers With Unlimited Access to More Than 300 Movies at a TimeSuperior Value at $12.95 Per Month Compared to Rental Alternatives, No Limit on Number of Titles Customers Can Download and Watch
SEATTLE and ENGLEWOOD, Colo., March 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RealNetworks®, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK - News) and Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG), today announced the launch of the next generation of their PC-based movie subscription service -- doubling the selection of available movies at anytime to 300 and unveiling a variety of newly enhanced features.
Introduced last summer, the price of STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies remains unchanged at only $12.95 per month. For the equivalent of three rentals from a typical video store, customers can download and watch all the movies they want, as often as they like, from the nation's premier online movie subscription service. Consumers can access the service by logging into www.starzticket.com.
"Today's digital consumers are looking for convenience, simplicity, and value," said Karim Meghji, vice president of Video Services at RealNetworks, Inc. "STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies gives customers around-the-clock access to the most popular movies and provides travelers the ability to playback movies at convenient times via their laptop. Our latest update to STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies leverages Real's industry-leading experience in creating popular online subscription services, combined with valuable customer feedback, to offer consumers a compelling and easy way to discover and enjoy movies."
"STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies is a superior value proposition to services that have to mail the DVD and then limit the number you can have at any one time," said Bob Greene, senior vice president, Advanced Services at Starz Entertainment Group. "Movie-lovers, and particularly business and leisure travelers, get the benefit of price certainty at only $12.95. Subscribers now also have unlimited access to at least 300 titles at any time and may download as many of those titles as they wish in one sitting. Why be encumbered with having to lug around DVD's and be limited in your selection when you can speedily and securely have them stored on up to three of your PC's? We expect current and prospective customers to be delighted with this latest evolution of the service."
To create a friendly and easy-to-use user experience, STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies service has added and enhanced the following features:
-- Expanded Movie Selection -- Subscription content has been expanded to 300 titles at all times. New titles rotate into the service each week as older titles rotate off to ensure consumers have a continuous fresh and compelling movie selection list.
-- Previewing & Searching Movies -- Customers can now explore and find movies using new category and genre search functionality, to view the ever- evolving and expanding movie list.
-- Movie Recommendations -- Movie recommendations give customers additional suggested movie picks based on shared movie characteristics, such as a genre. Movie recommendations, include:
-- Movie Mixes -- Updated each week, this collection of hit movies showcased on the service homepage, have been selected based on themes such as actor, location, director, genre and plot -- often with an entertaining twist.
-- Top 5 Movie Downloads -- Customers can see which movies are the most popular movie downloads being enjoyed by other movie fans.
-- Expanded Movie Categories -- New movie categories and genres including Widescreen, Bonus Material, Anime, Art Cinema, Documentaries, Drive-In, En espanol, Horror/Sci-Fi, International, Thriller, Urban, and Movie Mixes. Examples of Movie Mixes include spotlight showcases of Quentin Tarantino and Eddie Murphy.
-- Plus, consumers can enjoy new bonus programming such as celebrity interviews and 'behind the scenes' (the making of hit movies) as well as widescreen and director's cut editions of select titles.
Other valuable features of the STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies service include:
-- Progressive Downloads -- This advanced RealPlayer® feature enables customers to watch a movie while it is still being delivered over broadband to their PC. Most movies require approximately 20 minutes to download to the PC(1) over standard broadband connection speeds.
-- STARZ! Channel -- A live web stream of the STARZ! East linear pay TV movie channel is available to subscribers of STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies to watch live TV movies and to catch movie extras, such as celebrity interviews and movie outtakes.
-- Scheduling Downloads -- For customers who do not have time to download movies during the day, the easy and intuitive 'Download Later' feature enables customers to maximize bandwidth usage by choosing times that work best to download their movies.
Currently, motion pictures available on STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies include:
-- Major hit motion pictures:
"Kill Bill: Vol. 2," "Hidalgo," "Hellboy," "Miracle," "Cold Mountain," and "13 Going on 30."
-- Upcoming new titles:
"Dawn of the Dead," "Jersey Girl," "The Ladykillers," "The Alamo," and "Van Helsing."
-- Classic films:
"Taxi Driver," "Tommy," and "Scarface."
STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies feature film content is drawn from the vast film inventory that SEG maintains and which includes more than 4000 licensed movies. Starz Entertainment Group licenses exclusive first-run and library theatrical movies from Hollywood's biggest studios and independent companies including: Walt Disney, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Miramax Films, Sony Pictures Classics, Revolution Studios, Universal Studios, New Line Cinema, Fine Line Features, USA Films, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Screen Gems.
STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies uses the award-winning RealPlayer to ensure consumers enjoy the best movie viewing experience available. Movies delivered via the service are content-protected using Real's Helix(TM) Digital Rights Management (Helix DRM), which delivers a seamless access experience while protecting the copyrights of content owners.
About Starz Entertainment Group
Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG) is the largest provider of premium movie services in the United States with approximately 167 million subscription units. SEG offerings include the Starz Encore Movie Pack, with up to 13 digital movie channels and more than 750 movies per month, STARZ! HD, Starz On Demand®, and STARZ! Ticket®, the first and only on-demand premium TV subscription service available on the broadband platform. Starz Entertainment Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: L - News, LMCb - News), www.starz.com.
About RealNetworks, Inc.
RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading creator of digital media services and software including the award-winning Rhapsody® Internet jukebox service and RealPlayer, the first digital media player to integrate finding, organizing, buying, playing and managing digital audio and video in a single product. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer software at www.real.com. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks' products and services to create and deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. RealNetworks' systems and corporate information is located at www.realnetworks.com.
NOTE: RealNetworks, Helix, RealPlayer, RealVideo, and Rhapsody are trademarks or registered trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
(1) 20 minute download time based on a minimum Broadband connection speed of 600 Kbps.