CABL Forum - Starz & Real Now

Starz and RealNetworks Launch First Subscription Premium Movie Service for Broadband ( Available for High-Speed Customers, STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies Offers 100 + Movie Slate Including Blockbusters 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' and 'Finding Nemo' )
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. and SEATTLE, Jun 14, 2004 (PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX) -- RealNetworks(R), Inc. and Starz Encore Group LLC (Starz) today announced the immediate availability of the first premium subscription movie service delivered over high-speed broadband connections to PCs. Offering major, recently released motion pictures, the service, called STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies, is available at http://movies.real.com/ or http://www.starz.com/.
STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies gives subscribers unlimited access to a rotating library of premium, major motion pictures for only $12.95 per month. Unlike pay-per-view services, STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies does not charge a separate fee each time a movie is downloaded. Offered in RealVideo(R) 10 and through RealPlayer(R), movies will take as little as 20 minutes to download depending on the speed of the subscriber's broadband service. Additionally subscribers will have access to a streamed version of the STARZ! linear service, marking the first time a premium movie channel has been delivered simultaneously over broadband.

"Starting today, Starz and Real are delivering a breakthrough service that gives broadband consumers a new way to watch movies whenever and wherever they want," said Rob Glaser, founder and CEO, RealNetworks. "As the leader in consumer media subscription services delivered over the Internet, we're proud to be partnering with Starz to deliver yet another first to consumers. Our Rhapsody service has already given hundreds of thousands of broadband consumers the ability to listen to what they want, whenever they want it, for one simple monthly price. STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies now offers the same great benefits to broadband consumers who love movies."

"In the cable and satellite world the 'all you can eat' subscription business model has proven to be much more popular than the transactional pay-per-view model," said Starz chairman, founder and CEO, John J. Sie. "We are pleased to bring consumers STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies, which we believe will fit well with subscribers' viewing habits and drive deployment of high-speed broadband services. We are also confident that the quality of the broadband-delivered product will live up to the high standards consumers have come to expect from Starz services."

With Real's Helix(TM) DRM, STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies is a secure service that is both flexible for consumers yet offers solid protection for content owners. "We have long been opposed to piracy, having seen the havoc it has caused in the music industry. Offering a legal, high-quality,

convenient service at a great value is the best way to prevent illegal file sharing and put the movie industry on the right path," Sie noted.

INSTALLATION

CONSTRUCTION / TECH

OFFICE / OTHER

Starz & Real Now