--Comcast's Fancast Portal Now Offering Video Downloads
Comcast and MGM Studios have partnered to launch what they claim
is the first VOD channel dedicated exclusively to action programming.
Dubbed Impact, the new channel, which launched last month, features
both action films and TV shows, a number of which are available in
HD. "The Comcast On Demand platform is the perfect environment for
targeted marketable brands and programming," Jim Packer,
co-president of MGM Worldwide Television, said in a prepared
statement. "With more than 1,000 titles in the MGM library that fit our
new brand, I'm confident action fans will find Impact a one-stop
destination for all of their action entertainment needs."
According to Comcast and MGM, during its first year Impact will offer
many of the most successful action films in history, including movies
from the "James Bond" series, "Rocky," "The Magnificent Seven" and
"Robocop." It will also offer special programming themes, based on
action genres such as thrillers, crime, espionage, westerns, war films
and martial arts, the companies say. Impact is part of a Comcast VOD
initiative, called Project Infinity, that aims to exponentially increase the
amount of content the MSO offers on-demand. The company claims
that its VOD service currently offers around 10,000 titles, 500 of which
are available in HD, and that its customers are using the service 300
million times each month.
In other Comcast news: The company's Fancast portal (note: Fancast,
which was launched at CES in January, is a Web portal that features
free-to-view streaming video content from over 100 content providers,
including 4,000 full-length episodes and movies; it allows users to view
programming, search for video content--whether on Fancast itself, on
the Internet in general, on TV, or in movie theaters--and manage their
content choices) has begun offering video downloads for rent or
purchase, via a new Fancast Store service. TV show rentals are priced
from $1.99, movie rentals from $3.99, and movie purchases from
$9.99. At launch, the service offers around 3,100 titles, with its line-up
of around 1,600 movies being provided by such partners as Lionsgate,
Paramount, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox.
