Full Text of WB/Digeplayer release
From LawyerLong
PostID 336533 On Monday, June 07, 2004 (EST) at 12:10:01 PM
Response To: LawyerLong PostID 336532
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Airline VOD signs up WB
Frog joins Fox, BV to provide content for Digeplayer
By BEN FRITZ
HOLLYWOOD -- Fledgling airline entertainment company APS has signed Warner Bros. as the newest content provider for its Digeplayer, the first in-flight video-on-demand system.
WB joins Fox and Buena Vista, which already provide film and TV content for the Digeplayer, currently available only on Alaska Air.
Company, founded by an Alaska Air employee, is in discussions to expand to several other major airlines.
Device stores up to 30 films and a variety of TV episodes, musicvids and songs. Users can select, pause and watch the copy-protected content on their own schedules, a featurefeature APS and Alaska Air tout as a significant advantage over satellite TV and in-flight movies that run at uniform times.
APS chief execexec and founder Bill Boyer said signing on studios has been a challenge as the company's distribution model is new. Digeplayer licensing pays significantly less per movie, but more overall, than the studios typically receive from airlines. Company also had to demonstrate a copy-protection system that piracy-wary Hollywood would accept.
Available content now ranges from ''Miracle'' to ''Speed'' to ''Friends.'' Company gains access to films at the same time they're available for airplane viewing, and has rights to some library titles and skeins in syndication.
''When Alaska Airlines said it wouldn't pay for an embedded entertainment system on its planes, I saw the opportunity to try something different,'' Boyer said of his company's origins. ''But it was a real challenge to get the studios to sign on for this new way of doing things.''
Deal with WB comes as Alaska Air is launching its first cross-country flights out of Los Angeles, giving the Digeplayer significantly broader exposure. Service is free in first class, $10 in coach.
"Whatever time I've got left now belongs to the Big Fella Upstairs"
