CinemaNow was an international over-the-top (OTT) provider of on-demand, Internet

streaming media Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

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 changed hands several times over the years and was eventually shut down on August 1, 2017.

History

CinemaNow was founded in 1999 as one of the first on-demand Internet

platforms. The Company was backed by EchoStar, Cisco Systems, Index Holdings, Menlo Ventures, Lionsgate, and Microsoft. 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 201 ...

acquired CinemaNow. In January 2009, Sonic and

Blockbuster, Inc. Blockbuster LLC, formerly known as Blockbuster Video, was an American-based provider of home video and video game rental services. Services were offered primarily at video rental shops, but later alternatives included DVD-by-mail, streaming med ...

announced a strategic alliance to provide digital content delivery under the Blockbuster brand, essentially merging the digital storefronts of CinemaNow and its erstwhile competitor. 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 rebra ...

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, the company is primarily involved in licensing its intellectual property ...

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 capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

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

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leve ...

Regent Equity Partners Regent, L.P. is a multi-sector private equity firm based in Beverly Hills, California. Many of Regent's investments have been in the software, technology, consumer products, retail and media space. Its founder and chairman is Michael Reinstein ...

. The company changed hands again in January 2016, when Regent Equity Partners sold CinemaNow to the UK-based company

FilmOn FilmOn is an Internet-based television provider owned by FilmOn.TV Networks Inc. FilmOn.TV Networks is owned by Alki David, who founded the company in 2006. Programming FilmOn is a subscription-based Internet-based television service allowin ...

. Reports surfaced in August 2017 that the site had become inaccessible, and it was later confirmed that CinemaNow had been removed from

Ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...

's list of providers.

Products and services

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 are 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.Raugust, Karen. "Turning Digital into Dollars." Book Reviews, Bestselling Books & Publishing Bu ...

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.

References

External links

CinemaNow.com
(

archived An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

on June 3, 2017) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cinemanow Best Buy Film distributors of the United States

History

Products and services

See also

References

External links