Epix Links Troops, Families via Movie Streams

20 Jan, 2010 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Epix, the high-definition pay-TV and online streaming channel co-owned by Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount Studios, through Jan. 26 is testing a program with the United Service Organization (USO) that allows military personnel to watch movies and repurposed TV programming online with their families in other parts of the country.

The first-of-its-kind online screening room offering more than 150 movies is being tested on four military bases, including Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Ft. Drum in Watertown, N.Y.; Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas; and the USO service center in the Dallas Fort Worth airport.

Titles include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail, The Pink Panther 2, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, among others.

Special codes to military families are distributed through a dedicated Web page for online viewing and promoted via promotional material on each base.

“Our military service men and women … are making so many sacrifices, and giving them this opportunity to watch a movie for a few hours with their families and friends is a special thing that we are excited to be able to do for them,” said Mark Greenberg, president of Epix.

Epix, which launched Oct. 1, earlier this month inked its third carriage deal with Mediacom Communications, the nation’s seventh largest cable television provider. Verizon’s FiOS TV service and Cox Communications also carry the service.

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