Samsung Partnering with FandangoNow to Rent, Sell Movies, TV Shows
27 Dec, 2016 By: Erik Gruenwedel
Selling and renting digital movies can be a challenge in market inundated with electronic sellthrough and transactional VOD platforms.
Thus, Samsung Electronics Dec. 27 announced it has partnered with FandangoNow, the upstart digital movie service from online ticket service Fandango.com, to offer Internet-enabled smart-TV owners direct access to new-release movies and TV shows.
Users will have access to more than 40,000 titles, including new-release movies in 4K Ultra HD with high dynamic range and compatible with the UltraViolet digital storage platform. Content in the United States is licensed through Fandango, which bought digital movie brands Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes from Warner Bros.
FandangoNow, which launched in March after Fandango acquired digital video service M-Go from Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation, is part of a series of new app-based smart-TV services Samsung will unveil at CES Jan. 5-9 in Las Vegas.
Other smart-TV platforms include “sports,” “music” and ‘TV Plus,” and allow viewers to access apps from NBC Sports and UFC, in addition to searching for songs on TV shows, and listening to apps (with separate subscription) from Spotify, iHeartRadio, Napster, Deezer, Sirius XM, Vevo, Melon and Bugs.
“At Samsung, one of our top priorities is ensuring that we are closely in tune with what consumers want and need from their smart devices and electronics,” Won Jin Lee, EVP of the visual display business at Samsung, said in a statement. “With that in mind, we continue to innovate our Smart TV offering in order to provide the content experiences that our customers have come to know and expect from Samsung.”