The high-speed Internet access provider, a unit of SBC Communications, has teamed with Movielink to create a co-branded Web site of video downloads for subscribers to SBC Yahoo DSL, the companies said Monday. New members will receive $10 in movie rentals from the service, which is powered by Movielink. The online video company, a joint venture of five major Hollywood film studios, lets people rent, download and watch movies on a PC for roughly $4 a title.
The partnership is a trial, and terms were not disclosed.
"By working with Movielink, SBC Yahoo DSL members receive a more robust choice in true broadband content," Tyler Wallis, executive director of SBC Consumer Marketing, said in a statement.
For Movielink, the deal promises greater exposure among its target market: broadband subscribers. The company has long faced difficulties in winning moviegoers over to rent films online. But as increasing numbers of people sign up for high-speed Net service, it has more opportunities to sell its movie downloads, which are less likely to result in a shaky picture on a PC, or on a TV set fed by a PC, if a broadband connection is used.
The partnership should also help Movielink and its studio backers to fight Internet-based piracy. Movielink--owned in part by MGM, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures--is bent on gaining awareness of its legal film rental service among the very Web surfers who are most apt to download new release films via peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa without the permission of copyright holders.
For SBC, the agreement meets part of the need for
The co-branded SBC Yahoo-Movielink service is similar to Movielink's own plan, with rental costs ranging from $2.95 to $4.99. Subscribers can download movies and watch them as often as they like within a 24-hour period. The downloaded movie expires after 30 days, if it has not been watched.
In October, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Movielink struck a deal with Time Warner Cable's Road Runner to offer a co-branded video-on-demand service to its broadband customers. It has similar deals with Lycos, BellSouth, Hollywood.com and The Feed Room.
