CinemaNow

Because the [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, we are covering stories in this edition of the newsletter in round-up format:

Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that in 2008 acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service/platform, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced Monday that it has signed an electronic sell-through (EST) deal with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution that will see it digitally distributing commercial-free standard- and high-definition TV episodes the day after their network broadcast. The company, which says that the deal will "further expand the broad content library" available through Roxio CinemaNow-powered devices and services, has already begun offering a selection of episodes covered by the deal, priced from $1.99.

Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that in 2008 acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service/platform, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced Monday that it is launching version 2.0 of Roxio CinemaNow at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. According to the company, the new version, which it will be demo'ing by invitation in the Renaissance Hotel's Chairman Room, offers new HD and 3D capabilities and various interactive capabilities.

Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that last year acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced a deal last week to incorporate verve-media's interactive commerce functionality into the Roxio CinemaNow platform.

Verismo Networks, a Silicon Valley-based company that offers an over-the-top-TV platform called VuNow (note: the platform has traditionally been offered in conjunction with a small set-top box device called the PoD; however, back in February, Verismo announced the launch of a global OEM initiative targeting consumer OEM's, content aggregators and ISP's--see the article posted on itvt.com, May 8th), will today announce a deal with Sonic Solutions to offer the latter's Roxio CinemaNow broadband VOD service on the VuNow platform.

Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that last year acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced Tuesday that it is embarking on a 3D initiative, which it says will see it leveraging its various digital media applications, technologies and services, including Roxio CinemaNow, to provide consumers with a convenient way to access 3D movies at home.

Sonic Solutions announced Thursday that it is partnering with Fujisoft to deliver content from its Roxio CinemaNow broadband video-on-demand service to the Nintendo Wii game console (note: Sonic acquired the CinemaNow service last November and subsequently added the name "Roxio" to its branding). The content--initially comprised of new releases and library titles from Paramount Pictures--will be offered under the auspices of Minna no Theater Wii ("Everyone's Theater Wii"), a Fujisoft VOD service for the Japanese Wii market. Sonic and Fujisoft say that they will continue to work together to expand the line-up of content available for the service, which they claim provides "virtually instant" streaming to the television set.