ShowBizData is reporting that Universal and Warner Bros. are working with a company called Digital Cinema Implementation Partners to deliver films to theaters via satellite and the Internet, the Associated Press reported over the weekend.
The DCIP system would allow theater owners with digital projection systems to use additional screens at their multiplexes to show movies that would otherwise have sold out. It would also allow theaters in smaller markets to schedule art films over short runs.
DCIP, which is owned by the three largest exhibitors, Regal, AMC and Cinemark, said that it expects to begin testing the system by the latter part of this year.
Wow, when I first heard of the concept of “beamed” distribution it was ’94-’95 or so. I’d wondered if they’d given up on it. But here it is…
in unrelated news, an increase in high quality pirated movies have been hitting the internet since hackers have learned how to leach of off the satellite streams used for broadcasting movies to the theaters.