Three Hollywood studios bring movies to Internet

Paramount, MGM and Lions Gate are working together on a new movie video website and cable channel that will offer full-length movies over the Internet, with the epixHD.com web site expected to launch soon.

The trio also will share content on a premium movie channel and a video-on-demand site, but epixHD.com will offer the highest amount of full-length movies and other content, according to epixHD.

“Let’s give something to the fans that gets them really excited,” Epix Chief Digital Officer Emil Rensing said in an interview with Reuters.  “We’re asking (the studios) for some of the weird stuff.  We’d like to go to sets on tear down days, talk to the teamsters about the crazy stuff that happened.”

In addition to simply providing content, epixHD will also offer additional features currently unavailable for most viewers watching TV in the living room.  For example if a person is watching “Iron Man,” easy access to the movie’s trailer, plot synopsis, cast list, movie facts, and other information will be offered.

There is a growing effort in the movie industry to take content away from TV and offer it over the Internet, as viewers look for new ways to watch TV episodes and movies.  For example, online content site Hulu continues to be a popular portal, but is now facing increased pressure from CBS, ABC, and several movie studios that are adding content online.

EpixHD is currently in private beta, and is expected to launch soon — the Epix cable channel should launch in October.

It’s expected epixHD will pull the good things from Hulu, YouTube, and other video sharing sites, but will learn from prior mistakes made by other sites.  Since the site should launch with a decent catalog of content, I’m very anxious to give the site a try.