Mumbai: Sonic Solutions has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CinemaNow, a privately held online entertainment provider based in Marina Del Rey, California. CinemaNow is at the forefront of digital video distribution, offering over 6,000 high-quality Hollywood movies, TV shows and music videos to users across multiple platforms.
The company has relationships with more than 250 content providers, including all major Hollywood studios, and supplies premium entertainment services to a host of PC and consumer electronics device manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Samsung, TiVo, DivX, and ARCHOS.
Sonic and CinemaNow recently announced a collaboration to enable the download and burn of DVD movies by integrating CinemaNow’s content delivery system into new Qflix DVD drives. Qflix drives have recently become available from a number of companies including Dell, Pioneer and Plextor. CinemaNow will combine with Sonic’s Qflix team to form a new Premium Content Group under the direction of Mark Ely, Sonic’s EVP of Strategy. The group will focus on increasing the placement of CinemaNow’s storefront on PCs and consumer electronics devices, and expanding the adoption of the Qflix technology platform.
"With broadband-connected consumer electronics hitting the market in ever greater numbers, there is a growing need for a service that gives consumers one-click access to premium entertainment on any device in the digital home," said CinemaNow president and COO David Cook. "The combination of CinemaNow’s content and embedded device strategy with Sonic’s technical prowess and broad PC and CE distribution promises to fulfill CinemaNow’s original mission — giving consumers easy access to the best of Hollywood from their PCs, TVs, mobile phones, or anywhere in their digital ecosystems."
"The digital delivery of premium content is at a tipping point," said Sonic Solutions president and CEO Dave Habiger. "By providing consumers and OEMs user-friendly content services and software that works across multiple platforms, we will make it possible for any device or PC manufacturer to add an online movie store of Hollywood hits to its products. With CinemaNow, we look forward to expanding and deepening our relationship with OEM and retail partners as well as with the millions of consumers that we touch today through our Roxio-branded digital media applications and online services."
