Avail-TVN Expands Content Line-Up of its Annual "Fright Fest" VOD Promotion

Avail-TVN--the company formed in July from the merger of VOD distribution services provider, TVN Entertainment, and Avail Media, a provider of managed content-aggregation services for smaller IPTV operators (see the article published on itvt.com, July 15th)--will once again hold its annual horror/Halloween-themed VOD promotion, "Fright Fest," starting October 1st. This year, the company says, the promotion will offer significantly more content than before.

According to the company, the promotion will be available throughout the month of October to just under 10 million households, through service providers such as Charter, Insight and WOW. Within a "Fright Fest" menu category created by Avail-TVN, the company says, viewers will have access to up to 144 new-release and "cult classic" movies. Viewers will be able to use Avail-TVN's menu mapping system to locate titles in such sub-categories as "Vampires," "Haunted Houses," "Zombies," "Hitchcock," "Possessed," "Psycho Killers," "Scary Funny," and "Trick or Treat Kids." "Avail-TVN has long supported the horror genre through its annual 'Fright Fest' promotion," Amy Kan, Avail-TVN's VP of marketing and communications, said in a prepared statement. "This year, however, with the increased interest brought on by the 'Twilight' series and other vampire-themed programming, we decided to greatly expand it. With all its sub-categories, 'Fright Fest' is a great example of how Avail-TVN has made menu mapping a prominent marketing tactic for VOD and highlights the creative programming services we offer. It is our biggest and most ambitious promotional menu category to date."

More information on the VOD titles that will be offered as part of the "Fright Fest" promotion is available here.

In other VOD news:

• Clearcast, a UK company that provides broadcasters with pre-transmission clearance of TV ads in order to ensure that they are in compliance with their licensing agreements with UK media regulator, Ofcom (note: the company is owned and funded by eight commercial broadcasters), is set to provide compliance advice to VOD providers whose offerings carry advertising, according to an article in the UK trade publication, Media Week. The service is being launched in response to the European Union's new Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which requires that "TV-like" VOD services should be regulated as of December 19th, 2009 (note: for more on the directive and on Ofcom's efforts to implement it, see the article published on itvt.com, September 14th).
• Warner Home Video recently conducted a test in Atlanta, in which it offered the titles "Observe and Report" and "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" on Comcast's VOD platform, prior to releasing them on DVD, according to an article in the home video trade publication, Video Business. Although Warner has been releasing films on DVD and VOD simultaneously since 2007, the Atlanta test represents the first time a major studio has released a film on VOD before DVD. According to Video Business, Warner's moves to release titles on-demand in advance of or simultaneously with their DVD release are "attempts to boost revenue on VOD (for which the studio gets a bigger cut of rental revenue than with DVD) without hurting DVD sales, which are already in decline as the format matures."