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Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 11:24 pm
by ianungstad
CHATSWORTH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Image Entertainment, Inc. (OTCQB:DISK.PK - News) announced today the licensing of select films from the prestigious Criterion Collection to AT&T U-verse® TV, making these films available to the service’s U-verse Movies lineup. The deal was announced today by John Hyde, Vice Chairman of Image Entertainment.
“Image has a long-standing and successful partnership with the team at Criterion Collection,” commented Hyde. “We are very protective of the wonderful work Criterion does and it is the first time ever we are releasing these titles in this format available on AT&T U-verse.”
“We’re proud to offer this exciting content from The Criterion Collection,” said Richard Wellerstein, vice president of U-verse Movies and Content Acquisition, AT&T. “We’re giving U-verse TV customers access to one of the most significant archives of contemporary filmmaking available through U-verse Movies.”
AT&T U-verse subscribers will be able to choose from a selection of classic and contemporary films from The Criterion Collection including:
* Seven Samurai (Directed by Akira Kurosawa) – 1957 Oscar™ nominee
* The 400 Blows (Directed by Francois Truffaut) – 1960 Oscar nominee
* The Seventh Seal (Directed by Ingmar Berman) – 1957 Cannes Film Festival Jury Special Prize
* Amarcord (Directed by Federico Fellini) – 1975 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film
* House (Directed by Nobuhiko Ojbayashi) – 1978 Blue Ribbon Award for Best New Director
* For All Mankind (Directed by Al Reinert) – 1990 Oscar nominee
* The Great Dictator (Directed by and starring Charles Chaplin) – 1941 Oscar nominee
* Overlord (Directed by Stuart Cooper) – 1975 Berlin Film Festival Winner
All will be available in HD and/or SD as part of AT&T’s U-verse Movie lineup. The premiere titles will be made available to AT&T U-verse subscribers on February 1, 2012.
Each film in The Criterion Collection has been cleaned and restored, enhancing these cinematic treasures to the highest quality standards, allowing optimal on demand TV viewing. The Criterion Collection is also renowned for its special edition Blu-ray™ and DVD packaging, offering rare and unique bonus materials.
Image Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Criterion Collection Blu-rays™ and DVDs.
U-verse Movies continues to grow its content library, offering easy access to the hottest Hollywood hits in HD quality in any room of your home. U-verse TV customers get instant access through U-verse Movies to affordable entertainment without the wait or DVDs to return, anytime they want.
What exactly is U-Verse? I get the impression it's just a netflix/hulu type service but offered by the cable company instead of being web-based?
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:35 am
by yeahimajerk
I checked it out on the AT&T website and it looks maybe as though it's their version of Verizon Fios? I dunno.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 2:42 pm
by Roger Ryan
Being primarily known as a phone company in the past, AT&T needed a name for their internet and TV service (essentially broadband web access and cable TV sent into homes through an upgraded phone-based infrastructure) and "U-verse" became that name. Pricing is comparable to Comcast and other cable TV providers. Recently, Comcast has re-branded their cable TV/broadband web access/phone service as "Xfinity" in reaction to AT&T's "U-verse" campaign.
While the press release isn't completely clear on this, it sounds like the Criterion films will be offered as "pay-per-view" items to AT&T's cable TV subscribers (probably around $4.95 per film). It's possible you might be given unlimited access to this library if you're a subscriber, but the cable companies haven't really embraced that platform yet.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:16 pm
by Jeff
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:45 pm
by knives
With so many grade A companies using them as distributor I wonder how they are losing all that scratch.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:30 am
by matrixschmatrix
They aren't, the article says they showed about three quarters of a million dollars' profit last year.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 1:39 am
by flyonthewall2983
Just bored, I guess.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:24 am
by Tribe
matrixschmatrix wrote:They aren't, the article says they showed about three quarters of a million dollars' profit last year.
$750,000 is not all that big of a profit. Ballplayers make more than that.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 3:06 am
by matrixschmatrix
True, but they're not operating at a loss, either, and it's a relatively small company (employing 75 people.)
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:17 pm
by Buttery Jeb
Looks like the deal is moving forward; plus
Acorn Media is now being folded into the mix.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 6:47 pm
by FilmFanSea
In a 1000+ DVD collection, I have zero Acorn Media titles, and quite a few (maybe 100?) Image titles. Does it surprise anyone else that Acorn is valued nearly 4 times higher than Image ($105M versus $22.6M)? I recognize that Nosferatu will have a much narrower audience than, say, Poirot, but I guess I thought Image was a little better diversified in the titles they offered.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:13 pm
by ianungstad
They bought the rights to the Agatha Christie estate about a year back. (books, film/tv rights etc) They also have other holdings not related to home entertainment that make them valuable.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:33 pm
by Matt
"People of a certain age" still buy DVDs and other physical media, and Acorn's catalog is right up their alley.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:41 pm
by cdnchris
My mother probably owns every single one of their DVDs.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:35 pm
by Jean-Luc Garbo
Yeah, Acorn has gems like the original Tinker Tailor adaptation. Anyone regardless of age should watch that one.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:13 pm
by colinr0380
Plus Acorn Media, at least in the UK, have released the Ken Russell miniseries of Lady Chatterley and the original Traffik mini-series (I revisted Traffik over the Easter weekend and it still holds up really well!)
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:20 pm
by FilmFanSea
Matt wrote:"People of a certain age" still buy DVDs and other physical media, and Acorn's catalog is right up their alley.
I think I've entered that demographic, but I don't see much in their (very extensive) catalog that appeals to me. Except maybe the
Two Fat Ladies box set.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:36 pm
by Matt
That's how it starts. The next thing you know, you're on acornmediaforum.org complaining about the delay in releasing the last season of Doc Martin.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:54 pm
by matrixschmatrix
Oh, hey, they have a deal right now where they throw in a free Smiley's People if you buy their Tinker Tailor blu.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:23 pm
by knives
Criterioncast are reporting that Crit is probably moving distributors based on the released info for this month's announcements not mentioning Image or RLJ anywhere.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:33 pm
by ianungstad
They are probably handling distribution themselves. With most of their sales coming from online retailers; they might as well cut out the middle man and get higher margins on their releases.
If they can't handle their own distribution; the smart decision would be to go with Lionsgate on the condition that they get access to the studio canal catalog.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:42 pm
by dwk
I wonder if this will have any impact on the handful of titles that Criterion has licensed from Image?
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 11:49 pm
by bdsweeney
dwk wrote:I wonder if this will have any impact on the handful of titles that Criterion has licensed from Image?
Which are these?
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 11:53 pm
by FrauBlucher
ianungstad wrote:They are probably handling distribution themselves. With most of their sales coming from online retailers; they might as well cut out the middle man and get higher margins on their releases.
If they can't handle their own distribution; the smart decision would be to go with Lionsgate on the condition that they get access to the studio canal catalog.
I like the way you think. I could definitely see them aligning with a studio in exchange for some kind of catalog rights in the agreement.
Re: Image and Criterion
Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 12:11 am
by Matt
bdsweeney wrote:dwk wrote:I wonder if this will have any impact on the handful of titles that Criterion has licensed from Image?
Which are these?
These, apparently.