CinemaNow was an international over-the-top (OTT) provider of

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

and

streaming media Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a Computer network, network for playback using a Media player (disambiguation), media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of Network packet, packets from a Server (computing), ...

. It was available to viewers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1999 and was headquartered in Los Angeles, California. CinemaNow was sold several times and was eventually shut down on August 1, 2017. The CinemaNow platform was available on the web, on mobile devices running Android and iOS, on PlayStation and Xbox game consoles, and on CE devices including LG, Panasonic, Samsung, and Toshiba. Videos from CinemaNow were available for

electronic sell-through Electronic sell-through (EST) is a method of media distribution whereby consumers pay a one-time fee to download a media file for storage on a hard drive. Although EST is often described as a transaction that grants content "ownership" to the consum ...

via Download To Own, in the home video release window, DVD burning, as well as rental time-limited viewing in the pay-per-view window. As of 2016, the company had 55,000 movies and TV episodes in its library.

History

CinemaNow was founded in 1999 as one of the first

Internet

platforms. In July 2004, it raised an $11 million Series D round from

Menlo Ventures Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with an additional office in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded as one of the earliest venture capital firms in Silicon Valley in 1976 and provides technology ...

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...

and

Lions Gate Entertainment Starz Entertainment Corp, formerly known officially as Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation and commonly as Lions Gate and/or Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment industry, entertainment company currently headquartered in Santa Monica ...

. In July 2006, it raised a $20.3 million Series E round from

EchoStar EchoStar Corporation is an American telecommunications company, specializing in satellite communication, wireless telecommunications, and internet services. Echostar also provides multichannel video programming and mobile services through its ...

, Index Holdings,

, and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. In November 2008,

Sonic Solutions Sonic Solutions was an American computer software company headquartered in Novato, California. In addition to having a number of offices in the U.S., the company also maintained offices in Europe and Asia. It was acquired by Rovi Corporation in 2 ...

acquired CinemaNow. In January 2009, Sonic and Blockbuster announced a strategic alliance to provide digital content delivery under the Blockbuster brand, essentially merging the digital storefronts of CinemaNow and Blockbuster. In 2010, Sonic Solutions and

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

announced a strategic alliance which resulted in Best Buy's acquiring the CinemaNow brand. Sonic Solutions rebranded the CinemaNow movie technology as RoxioNow, which became a white label movie store business. Sonic Solutions was acquired by

Rovi Corporation TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company headquartered in San Jose, California. Now operating as Xperi, the company is primarily involved in licensing ...

for $775 million in December 2010 and continued to operate the white label movie store business, which was renamed the Rovi Entertainment Store. In July 2013, Rovi announced that the Rovi Entertainment Store had been acquired by Reliance Majestic Holdings LLC, a new media company backed by Proveho Capital, a private equity firm based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. In July 2014, Best Buy sold the CinemaNow business to the

private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

Regent Equity Partners. The company changed hands again in January 2016, when Regent Equity Partners sold CinemaNow to the UK-based company FilmOn. Reports surfaced in August 2017 that the site had become inaccessible, and it was later confirmed that CinemaNow had been removed from

Ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

's list of providers.

References

External links

CinemaNow.com
( archived on June 3, 2017) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cinemanow Best Buy Defunct video on demand services Film distributors of the United States

History

See also

References

External links