CinemaNow was an international over-the-top (OTT) provider of on-demand, Internet streaming media available to viewers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1999 and was headquartered in Los Angeles, California.[1] CinemaNow changed hands several times over the years and was eventually shut down on August 1, 2017.[2]
CinemaNow was founded in 1999 as one of the first on-demand Internet streaming media platforms. The Company was backed by EchoStar, Cisco Systems, Index Holdings, Menlo Ventures, Lionsgate, and Microsoft.[3][4]
In November 2008, Sonic Solutions acquired CinemaNow.[5] In January 2009, Sonic and Blockbuster, Inc. announced a strategic alliance to provide digital content delivery under the Blockbuster brand, essentially merging the digital storefronts of CinemaNow and its erstwhile competitor.
In 2010, Sonic Solutions and Best Buy announced a strategic alliance which resulted in Best Buy's acquiring the CinemaNow brand.[6][7] Sonic Solutions rebranded the CinemaNow movie technology as RoxioNow, which became a white label movie store business.[8] Sonic Solutions was acquired by Rovi Corporation for $775 million in December 2010[9] and continued to operate the white label movie store business, which was renamed the Rovi Entertainment Store.[10][11]
In July 2013, Rovi announced that the Rovi Entertainment Store had been acquired by Reliance Majestic Holdings LLC, a new media company backed by Proveho Capital, a private equity firm based in Austin, Texas.[12][13] In July 2014, Best Buy sold the CinemaNow business to the private equity firmRegent Equity Partners.
The company changed hands again in January 2016, when Regent Equity Partners sold CinemaNow to the UK-based company FilmOn.[14] Reports surfaced in August 2017 that the site had become inaccessible, and it was later confirmed that CinemaNow had been removed from Ultraviolet's list of providers.[2][15]
The CinemaNow platform was available on the web, on mobile devices running Android and iOS, on PlayStation and Xbox game consoles, and on CE devices including LG, Panasonic, Samsung, and Toshiba.[16][17] Videos from CinemaNow are available for electronic sell-through via Download To Own, in the home video release window, DVD burning, as well as rental time-limited viewing in the pay-per-view window.[18] As of 2016, the company had 55,000 movies and TV episodes in its library.[14]
